Mobsters
tend to evolve out of inner city poverty. The young look around and
notice the people in the neighborhood with flashy lifestyles, who
don't go hungry, who lord it over ordinary citizens. They resemble
the intimidating bullies in their own circles who ham-fistedly
appropriate their lunch money and humiliate them in other ways. The
limited options visible on their horizon tempt the young and some
inevitably are drawn into criminal apprenticeship.
Adult
gangsters of whatever ethnic persuasion traditionally provide
“protection” to small businesses, run numbers, hijack trucks, mug
citizens, commit armed robbery, murder for hire, burgle, organize
prostitution, trafficking, gambling, kidnapping, home invasions, drug
dealing and other illegal contraband and counterfeiting at all kinds
of levels. Eventually the most successful expand into legal
businesses, often as fronts for laundering illegal gains. They also
tend to spend time in prison, an extreme form of networking, where
they advance their education and
are further desensitized, distanced from any natural ability to
empathize they might possess. Like their counterparts chasing money
and power along legal corridors, they seem to become addicted,
seeking ever more profits, even after accumulating more wealth than
they can possibly spend, even considering their often extravagant
life styles.
The
United States has suffered various waves of criminal immigrants,
always a minority of any group but a significant one. Irish, Jewish,
Italian, Latino, Black, Chinese, Vietnamese... mobsters of all
stripes have variously dominated neighborhoods, cities, regions in an
ebb and flow paralleling periods of immigration. They sort themselves
out by the merging, warring or jittery co-existence. Of course there
are home-grown criminals also and rural bandits all over the world.
The white collar and political thieves, tycoons and corporate
malfeasors we will set aside for now except where they interact, as
underworld victims or collaborators. Robert Friedman, in his book Red
Mafiya,
comments, “The Russian Mafiya is
made up of multipurpose, entrepreneurial master criminals, flush with
billions in cash doing every shape, manner and form of global crime.”
When
in the 80s it became evident that the Soviet Union was falling apart
the leadership there met and concluded there were two possible
courses: a first strike nuclear attack on the U.S. (!) or, loot the
country. Gorbachev wanted to create a Scandinavian-type socialist
nation but he was soon got rid of, with U.S. support of course, and
the looting began. The enormity of the job soon became evident and
high-ranking government officials, KGB etc; turned for help to the
criminal element... which of course soon more or less took over,
conducting the largest exodus of national treasure in history. Russia
was in effect lawless so, to safely stache the spoils, accounts were
set up in the west. Though our civilization was fortunate the nuclear
option was foregone, this monumental theft has perilous repercussions
that will not be easily reversed. It is said that Putin consolidated
his power by selecting one of the oligarchs of this exodus, putting
them in a cage, on very public trial. The other oligarchs approached
Putin asking what it is he wanted. 50% was the answer. This deal made
him the wealthiest man on the planet, estimated at $ 200 billion.
Friedman is quite persuasive in his claim that dealing with Russia is
dealing with Mafiya.
A
U.S. center for the Russian mob is in the Brooklyn, New York
neighborhood of Brighton Beach, densely populated with Russian
immigrants. There criminals prey on small business and the local
citizenry. They enter into collaborative projects with already
existing gangs though their comfort with violence intimidates even
hardened veterans of the streets. This partially is accounted for by
the move Russian mobsters made to rid themselves of a particularly
psychopathic criminal named Ivankov, who they talked into “invading”
the U.S. Taking along a cadre of his most hardened lieutenants, he
soon took over the Brighton Beach neighborhood, ratcheting up
violence to a level the competition couldn't match. To him other
criminals were no different than small businesses – pay up or die.
Defy us? We'll murder your whole family. That's what works in Russia,
why wouldn't it work here? Brighton Beach police are out-gunned and
out-funded, if not corrupted themselves. One couple declining his
proposal to buy their antique shop, at a bargain basement price,
simply disappeared. Another couple, in Miami, accepted the
ridiculously meager buyout of their Deli and fled terrified to
Canada. The new owner had little interest in antiques or deli food
but an acute need for money laundering. Brighton Beach, Denver and
Miami, cities with dense Russian immigrants, were beach heads for
Ivankov's “invasion”. Like billionaires in general, these
criminals are not going to rest until they have it all. Israel's
policy of accepting Jews from Russia (or those who claim to
be Jewish) has affected the country severely. Officials estimate that
as much as 12% of their 500,000 Russian immigrants are criminals.
From Israel they have easy access to Western Europe, Canada and the
U.S.
Drug
running is a highly lucrative endeavor, usually thought of as the
domain of mobsters. But terrorists have realized drugs can be a means
to fund their operations. And states such as North Korea engage in
international criminality to supplement their annual budget, not to
mention gold bathroom fixtures. Another state not usually associated
with criminality, in fact usually seen as one of the more enlightened
states in terms of rule of law, not flawless of course but all is
relative: as one Russian gangster said, “I love the United States.
It is so easy to steal here.” And this is one of their safe havens
as far as safely banking ill-gotten proceeds. Friedman's description
of a Russian invasion of the U.S. by absolutely vicious criminals, is
disturbing enough at just the street crime level. Add to that their
branching out into sophisticated Wall Street, Banking and internet
cons, and the investigation of Russian meddling in U.S. elections, the
firing of FBI Director Comer, the apparent manuvoring to fire
investigative head Robert Meuller, and the knowledge that the modus
operandi of these criminals stops at nothing, freely and
imaginatively employing violence and extortion – luring victims
into situations where they are either hopelessly indebted or they and
their families are terrorized into corruption, or both. Israel's
government, Friedman claims, is the most compromised nation
by Mafiya outside
of Russia, that whether it can be considered a democracy (aside from
its suppression of Palestinians and theft of their land) is seriously
in question. When many of these mobsters own condos in Trump Tower
and rumors persist of ominous relations between the Trump
Administration and Russian figures, there is the danger that the time
is not far off where the same can be said of the United States.
I
draw on three books for these ruminations: Red Mafiya by
Robert Friedman; Organized
Crime by
Michael Lyman et al. (an actual text book); Angels,
Mobsters and Narco-Terrorists by
Antonio Nicaso et al.
