Africa - Blog 2.0 - Gangsters Inc. - www.gangstersinc.org
2024-03-29T10:26:23Z
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/Africa
Italian police crack down on Nigerian Mafia in nationwide busts
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/italian-police-crack-down-on-nigerian-mafia-in-nationwide-busts
2021-04-29T08:30:00.000Z
2021-04-29T08:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/italian-police-crack-down-on-nigerian-mafia-in-nationwide-busts" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237156086,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237156086?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>The Nigerian Mafia in Italy has been on the rise in recent years. Italian authorities took notice and on Monday made 30 arrests throughout Italy targeting the Black Axe, a Nigerian crime group viewed as one of the most powerful of those that make up the Nigerian Mafia.</p>
<p>The investigation began in L'Aquila, the capital of the Abruzzo region, and quickly expanded into other parts of Italy showing the wide area of operations of the Black Axe. Among those arrested is the alleged leader of the group. Those busted face a variety of charges, including drug trafficking, human smuggling, prostitution, fraud, and using Bitcoin cryptocurrency to launder money and carry out transactions on the dark web, in one such purchase they bought cloned credit cards and used them for shopping sprees.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nigerian-mafia-in-italy-now-on-the-same-level-as-the-camorra-poli" target="_blank">Nigerian Mafia in Italy now “on the same level” as the Camorra</a>, police say</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The Black Axe originated in Nigeria in the 1970s as a student movement, a fraternity that is part of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, a registered non-partisan, non-religious and non-tribal organization that seeks to revive, retain and modify where necessary those aspects of African culture that would provide vehicles of progress for Africa and her peoples. The Neo Black Movement of Africa was formed at the University of Benin City, Nigeria.</p>
<p>The various groups that make up the Nigerian Mafia use various rituals, symbols, and secret language to bond members to the organization and protect the group’s secrecy.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime">Black Organized Crime section</a> or the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/italian-organized-crime" target="_blank">Italian organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
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Drug trafficker who used messaging apps to arrange drug parcels gets 11 years in prison
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/drug-trafficker-who-used-messaging-apps-to-arrange-drug-parcels-g
2021-03-10T06:18:25.000Z
2021-03-10T06:18:25.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-trafficker-who-used-messaging-apps-to-arrange-drug-parcels-g" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237162463,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237162463?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>A man who went on the run after he became wanted for his part in a drug smuggling ring was sentenced to 11 years in prison. 42-year-old Ajah Onuchukwu and his associates became a target of Britain’s National Crime Agency in 2013 when cocaine was found in a parcel that had been sent from St Martens in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Caribbean" target="_blank">Caribbean</a> to an address in North London, England.</p>
<p>NCA investigators were able to link Onuchukwu and his group to at least 77 drug parcels that had been intercepted by Border Force, across 14 different addresses, between June 2008 and August 2014.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Drugs via Skype, WhatsApp, iMessage</strong></span></p>
<p>They organized the transport of at least 4.8 kilos of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> and 210 kilos of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">cannabis</a> over the time they were operating – worth an estimated £1.8 million if sold on the streets of the United Kingdom. The group utilized messaging services such as Skype, Yahoo Messenger, iMessage and WhatsApp to communicate with drug distributors in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Africa" target="_blank">Africa</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Asia" target="_blank">Asia</a> and South America, advising them where to send the parcels.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: From the Caribbean to Dubai and Europe:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/from-the-caribbean-to-dubai-and-europe-profile-of-international-d" target="_blank"><strong>Profile of international drug boss Shurendy “Tyson” Quant</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>After his initial arrest Onuchukwu fled the United Kingdom in 2015 while on bail and was listed as wanted by the NCA. He was captured on a European Arrest Warrant in the Netherlands in 2018 and extradited to Britain a year later. He appeared before Isleworth Crown Court in December [2020] where he was found guilty of three charges relating to attempting to import both Class A and B drugs.</p>
<p>He was sentenced at the same court on Friday, March 5, 2021.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Boss and others</strong></span></p>
<p>Two other men were convicted in 2015 for their part in the conspiracy. 39-year-old Patrick Udensi was believed to be the leader of the group and was sentenced to 14 years for conspiracy to import class A and B drugs.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-untouchables-how-britain-s-top-gangsters-rich-off-armed-robbe" target="_blank">The Untouchables</a>: How Britain’s top gangsters got rich off armed robberies and smuggling tons of drugs</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>47-year-old John Arinze Nwosu was found guilty of importing class B drugs but absconded before trial. He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison in his absence and remains wanted by the NCA.</p>
<p>“The seizures we identified probably only cover a fraction of what this group managed to bring into the country,” Ian Truby, from the NCA’s Heathrow border investigation team, said. “Organized crime groups have been known to exploit infrastructure like the post and fast parcel system to bring illicit commodities into the UK, and cause further exploitation and harm to communities."</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
Nigerian Mafia in Italy now “on the same level” as the Camorra, police say
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/nigerian-mafia-in-italy-now-on-the-same-level-as-the-camorra-poli
2020-07-31T07:55:25.000Z
2020-07-31T07:55:25.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nigerian-mafia-in-italy-now-on-the-same-level-as-the-camorra-poli" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237148459,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237148459?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Police in Italy last week arrested over 40 people connected to the Nigerian Mafia in Italy and charged them with Mafia association, human trafficking, drug trafficking and distribution, and running a prostitution ring. According to police, the Nigerian crime groups are now “on the same level” as the notorious Camorra.</p>
<p>Earlier police reports indicated that the Nigerian Mafia had established its European headquarters in Castel Volturno, a village in the province of Caserta between Rome and Naples comprised of between 25,000 and 50,000 inhabitants – two thirds immigrated there from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Africa" target="_blank">Africa</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237148863,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237148863?profile=original" /></a><em>Photo: Nigerian Mafia member <a href="https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2020/07/21/47-nigerian-mafia-arrests_99c22269-8b4c-4654-959d-29d89d134620.html" target="_blank">arrested last week</a> by Italian police.</em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Power struggle with the Casalesi Clan</strong></span></p>
<p>As their numbers grew, so did their influence. Their growing power led to conflicts with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/camorra-overview" target="_blank">Camorra groups</a>. In 2008, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-casalesi-clan-of-the" target="_blank">Casalesi Clan</a> shot to death 7 people outside the Ob Ob Exotic Fashion tailor shop on the Via Domitiana, a scene that was later reenacted in hit television show <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gomorra" target="_blank">Gomorra</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>IN PICTURES:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/in-pictures-scampia-neighborhood-made-famous-by-tv-series-gomorra" target="_blank"><strong>Scampia neighborhood made famous by TV series Gomorra to be demolished</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>After this massacre, the Nigerians and the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/camorra-overview" target="_blank">Camorra</a> agreed to a new partnership. They would pay a percentage to the Camorra to operate the area freely without any interference from the Italian clans.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Prostitution, coke, and heroin</strong></span></p>
<p>That they did. The Nigerian Mafia runs large-scale prostitution networks – bringing in women from Africa and other continents and putting them to work. These same smuggling routes are used to traffic <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drugs</a>: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> from South America and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a> from Asia, according to various reports.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/thief-who-sold-two-van-gogh-paintings-to-camorra-mafia-says-he-hi" target="_blank"><strong>Thief tells how he sold two stolen Van Gogh paintings to Camorra</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Nigerian groups now have a presence in cities and villages throughout Italy – and even <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Sicily" target="_blank">Sicily</a>. At first, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/italian-organized-crime" target="_blank">Italian Mafia groups</a> mainly profited off immigration by infiltrating various organizations tasked with housing or assisting immigrants.</p>
<p>Mafia groups across Italy still routinely take advantage of migrants by putting them to work for meager pay in agriculture. “During non-harvest periods, an African worker usually receives €2-3 [euros] per hour, compared to Italy’s agricultural minimum wage, agreed by the industry, of €7.13 [euros],” newspaper <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/09/african-migrants-italy-hard-right-authorities" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Vikings and MAPHITE</strong></span></p>
<p>But as more and more Africans poured into Italy, they were able to form groups and organizations to take their own piece of the Italian land. The Nigerian Mafia has emerged as the most dominant force. Groups known as the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Vikings" target="_blank">Vikings</a> or the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=MAPHITE" target="_blank">MAPHITE Cult</a>, which stands for Maximum Academic Performance Highly Intellectuals Train Executioner, have been around for decades, but have rapidly increased their influence in Italy.</p>
<p>Police arrested 19 leaders and members of MAPHITE, which is also known as the Green Circuit Association, in July of 2019, carrying out arrests and raids in nine cities spread across Italy. MAPHITE has a distinct hierarchy and bosses each had a different role – one decided on making new members, one ran <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Prostitution" target="_blank">prostitution rackets</a>, another ran drug trafficking in city squares, and someone was tasked with enforcement and making sure rival gangs were dealt with.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-sound-of-silence-how-the-mafia-in-sicily-communicates" target="_blank"><strong>The Sound of Silence: How the Mafia in Sicily Communicates</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Similarly to the Italian groups, the Nigerians also use various codes and rituals to initiate members and keep them in line. MAPHITE, which was founded in the 1980s, compiled these rules in what they call the “Green bible,” which is held by the organization’s boss.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Black Axe in Palermo</strong></span></p>
<p>Another prominent Nigerian Mafia group is known as <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=BlackAxe" target="_blank">Black Axe</a>, which was founded in the 1970s as a fraternity that is part of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, a registered non-partisan, non-religious and non-tribal organization that seeks to revive, retain and modify where necessary those aspects of African culture that would provide vehicles of progress for Africa and her peoples. The Neo Black Movement of Africa was formed at the University of Benin City, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Nigeria" target="_blank">Nigeria</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237149280,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237149280?profile=original" /></a>In Sicily, Black Axe now controls the Ballarò neighborhood in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Palermo" target="_blank">Palermo</a>, Sicily. From there it runs drug trafficking and its massive prostitution racket – a business the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sicilian-cosa-nostra-overview" target="_blank">Sicilian Mafia</a> decided not to get involved in, leaving an opening for the Nigerians. Police estimate that an astonishing 90 percent of prostitutes in Palermo come from Nigeria.</p>
<p>Just as in Campania, the Nigerians came to an agreement with the local Italians, agreeing to pay a percentage to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sicilian-cosa-nostra-overview" target="_blank">Cosa Nostra</a> to be allowed to operate and also to buy narcotics from Sicilian suppliers.</p>
<p>The Nigerian Mafia splashed onto the front pages of Italian newspapers in 2016, when Black Axe boss Austin “John Bull” Ewosa <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jun/11/mafia-palermo-nigerian-gangsters-hit-sicily-shores" target="_blank">stood trial</a> on charges of assault, intimidation, Mafia association, and attempted murder. As he sought to establish his dominance on the streets of Ballarò, Ewosa allegedly went after dozens of people. On the night of 27 January, 2014, he committed an act for which he would face justice in court. That night, Ewosa and several associates dragged a 27-year-old man called Don Emeka down the street where they attacked him with axe and machete blows.</p>
<p>Ewosa was found guilty of these crimes.</p>
<p>Arrests like these show that Italian police are finally taking notice of the Nigerian Mafia’s rise. Seeing the partnerships the Nigerians made with the Mafiosi and Camorristi, the big question is: are they too late?</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">Street Gangs section</a> or <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime" target="_blank">Black organized crime</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
The 18 Gangster museum in South Africa run by ex-convicts tells cautionary tales of life of crime and violence
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-18-gangster-museum-in-south-africa-run-by-ex-convicts-tells-c
2020-02-08T17:30:00.000Z
2020-02-08T17:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-18-gangster-museum-in-south-africa-run-by-ex-convicts-tells-c" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237129498,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237129498?profile=original" /></a>By Niko Vorobyov for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Clouds sweep across the flat roof of Table Mountain like a giant swirling tablecloth. Cape Town is a beautiful city. But east of Table Mountain and its trendy suburbs lie the Cape Flats, where the First World meets the Third World: slums and shantytowns as deprived as anywhere in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Africa" target="_blank">Africa</a>. Originally built during apartheid, Khayelitsha grew as a squatter site and is now home to a very unique and unusual <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Museum" target="_blank">museum</a>.</p>
<p>Siya Daweti knows a lot about <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gangs" target="_blank">gangs</a>. He rolled in one himself as a kid, and at one point had two <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Guns" target="_blank">guns</a>. Once a rival gang ransacked his house, looking for him.</p>
<p>“They broke everything; my mother’s laptop,” he said. “And once I got hit over the head with a hammer. You see this scar?”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Apartheid</strong></span></p>
<p>The 1950 Group Areas Act marked the start of apartheid. From the 1950s through to the 1980s, the government tore down historic black, Colored (mixed-race) and Asian neighborhoods like District Six. The forced removals literally tore apart communities and uprooted whole families to the Cape Flats and townships like Khayelitsha, which means “New Home” in Xhosa. Cut off from their family support network – before, aunts, uncles and members of the community watched over kids (“It takes a village…”, etc.) — there was no sense of social bonds or working-class identity: a vacuum filled by gangs. Now children bring pangas (machetes) for <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gangs" target="_blank">gang</a> fights at school.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237130656,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237130656?profile=original" /></a><em>Photo: Khayelitsha township (© Niko Vorobyov)</em></p>
<p>“It’s so easy for the kids to join gangs here because there’s nothing to do,” Siya explained. “Their parents are working from seven in the morning to seven at night. Their brothers and sisters end up looking after them; sometimes only a few years older.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/unsung-heroes-the-fixers-who-help-tell-the-stories-of-the-violent" target="_blank">Unsung Heroes</a>: The fixers who help tell the stories of the violent drug underworld</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Together with his business partner Wandisile Nqeketho, Siya founded the <a href="http://www.18gm.co.za/" target="_blank">18 Gangster museum</a> in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township. The museum consists of a shipping container fitted out to look like a prison cell where the museum’s curators, ex-convicts and gang members themselves, tell you of their life of crime and sitting behind bars. The museum doesn’t glamourize thug life, instead telling a cautionary tale and helping outsiders understand the reality of crime and punishment. But why’s it called the 18 Gangster museum, you ask?</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Zulu mythology and the Numbers Gangs</strong></span></p>
<p>South Africa’s mafioso culture revolves around three gangs – the 26s, 27s and 28s, aka the Numbers, and their <a href="http://www.csvr.org.za/docs/correctional/nongolozaschildren.pdf" target="_blank">bizarre</a> pseudo-Zulu mythology. The Numbers began as bandits led by the Zulu warrior Nongoloza in the 1910s. Legend goes that back in 19th century, Nongoloza found a wise old man named Po, who told him working in the mines is for suckers. Under the tutelage of wise master Po, his Obi-Wan Kenobi, Nongoloza hung out in a disused mineshaft, gathering a band of followers including another outlaw named Kilikijan. That’s when things started getting weird.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/elusive-drug-boss-frank-matthews-to-hit-the-big-screen-from-narco" target="_blank">Elusive drug boss Frank Matthews to hit the big screen</a>: From narco billionaire at 28 to mysterious phantom</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Kilikijan and Nongoloza killed a white farmer, stole his cow, slaughtered it… then drunk it’s blood.</p>
<p>One night when Kilikijan got back from a hard day’s robbing he found Nongoloza getting freaky with one of his men. Nongoloza said Po told him women were poison and he must wife his own soldiers, Kilikijan called bullshit, and they had a fight. To settle their squabble, Po told them to go down to the mines and see if the miners kept themselves company on lonely nights. They did, but the significance of the miners taking shaft (as opposed to digging shaft) was lost because when they got back, Po was dead. If you’re confused about the moral of the story, don’t worry, you’re not the only one.</p>
<p>Nongoloza and Kilikijan went off to form their own bands, only to get captured and meet in jail where a third gang, the 26s, was formed. The 26s were tricksters and conmen, so they looked after the money; the 28s (Nongoloza’s faction) were fighters, while the 27s were to keep the peace between the two. The others hate the 28s for supposedly being homo thugs, but according to Jonny Steinberg’s book The Number, low-key man-on-man action goes down in the 26s as well.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: “I shook up the world!” - <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-shook-up-the-world-how-muhammad-ali-took-the-heavyweight-boxing" target="_blank">How Muhammad Ali took the heavyweight boxing championship</a> belt from the Mafia</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>“I joined the 28 gangsters because had some friends who were in it already,” said Thando, one of the museum guides. “It is the biggest; the first gang you will find in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Prison" target="_blank">prison</a>.”</p>
<p>“As a kid growing up, my father was in the Christian apostolic church, but he died of kidney failure. Then I found out my mother wasn’t my real mother and she died too, and I began asking myself so many questions. I’d start smoking ganja, Mandrax (a sedative) and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Meth" target="_blank">meth</a>, and I’d drink too much. Police looked for me for six months for a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murder</a> case while I hid in friends’ houses. But I handed myself in after getting tired of running, because if you keep running you’ll miss your whole life.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Standing up to apartheid</strong></span></p>
<p>Thando ended up doing four years inside before beating the murder rap (he wasn’t involved). But while he was there, he had to join the 28s for protection. Inmates are divided into ndotas (OGs) and frans (non-gangsters), and the franses get treated like dirt. South African jails are a brutal place, and if you’re not careful you might end up as somebody’s Fleshlight.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237131458,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237131458?profile=original" /></a>“In prison you’re living like an animal,” added Rocky, another ex-con and a 27. “If you don’t exist in a gang you can’t sleep on the bed, only on the floor, sometimes with 30-40 people in a room. Maybe something bad will happen to you like you’ll get raped. The guards can take you, discipline you, torture you, beat you, pour water over your head and shock you. Joining a gang’s the only option.”</p>
<p>In the old days the Numbers saw themselves as standing up to apartheid and white colonial rule. They even had their own, secret language. There’s some parallels with the Russian mafia – the vory v zakone formed in Stalin’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gulag" target="_blank">gulags</a> were fiercely anti-communist. The Numbers still see themselves as standing up for prisoners’ rights: if any warder threw his weight around too much he’d quickly get acquainted with the stabby end of a shank. If a member commits an infraction, the Numbers have their own courts with a jury of twelve to hand out punishments, which can range from beatings, stabbings to gang rape.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/american-gangster-myth" target="_blank">American Gangster Myth</a>: The True Story Behind Frank Lucas</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>“The most important rule is not to share the things of the gang with those who are not part of the gang,” Thando said. “Once in prison I got beaten with a lock because I broke the law of the gang.”</p>
<p>“What law did you break?” I asked.</p>
<p>“I can’t say,” he smiled.</p>
<p>Crime waves follow major upheavals in society – the unification of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Italy" target="_blank">Italy</a>, or the gunslingers riding in the Old West after the Civil War. On May 1st, 1994, apartheid ended and Nelson Mandela was elected president. Mandela kept the nation together, holding it back from a Congo-style bloodbath between Boers, Zulus and Xhosa. But for many in the Cape townships it seemed little had changed.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-two-russian-mobsters-got-caught-up-in-the-iraqi-civil-war" target="_blank"><strong>How two Russian mobsters got caught up in the Iraqi civil war</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>A culture of violence evolved shaped by brutal memories of both apartheid and the struggle against it. Police opened fire on anyone who tried to protest, most infamously in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Sharpeville-massacre" target="_blank">Sharpeville massacre</a>, while ANC guerrillas used the practice of “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/13/world/party-led-by-mandela-now-owns-up-to-atrocities.html" target="_blank">necklacing</a>”; throwing a rubber tire filled with gasoline over an informer and setting it on fire. Throw a load of guns in the mix – either left over from the conflict or looted from private collections. Firearms also had a way of wandering from police armories.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Capitalism and crime</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237131686,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237131686?profile=original" /></a>After apartheid ended South Africa embraced neoliberal capitalism. While already a free market economy, most of its wealth was in the hands of whites, with a deepening divide between the haves and the have-nots (who remained largely black and Colored). Crime, already rising under apartheid, spun wildly out-of-control. <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/south-africa-johannesburg-carjacking" target="_blank">Carjacking</a> became an industry: criminals shopped for custom orders for a particular make at gunpoint, the cars then shipped off and sold in other African countries.</p>
<p>One crime in particular’s haunted South Africa — home invasions of white farmers. White South Africans feel they’re under attack as payback for apartheid, understandable given what happened elsewhere in Africa. While it’s not clear <a href="https://africacheck.org/2017/05/08/analysis-calculating-farm-murder-rate-sa-near-impossible/" target="_blank">whites</a> are targeted more than everyone else (would you really be safer in a township than a rich guy’s ranch? I don’t think so), at least one of those attacks, the savage murders at Nieuwoudtville in 1996, was a symbolic act to take control of the 27s. Four men beat or stabbed all but one members of a household to death, including a two-year-old girl, then raided the fridge and took their meat. By killing the white family in such a horrific way and taking their meat, the head bandit was <a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Coded+narratives+of+Nongoloza%2C+Doggy+Dog%3A+narrating+the+self+and...-a0244951484" target="_blank">declaring</a> himself, in the Number’s twisted mythology, the heir of Kilikijan.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/czech-mob-boss-threatens-judge-gets-35-years-for-torture-and-murd" target="_blank">Czech mob boss threatens judge</a>, gets 35 years for torture & murder</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The police shake-up left them powerless to do anything. Under apartheid, officers were given powers outside the law – to break up meetings, even to make sure someone was never heard from again. The cops got used to <a href="https://www.sajs.co.za/index.php/sacq/article/view/1059" target="_blank">beating out</a> confessions, which they couldn’t do anymore. Undermanned and underfunded, it’s not surprising they cut corners. Gang leaders like Jackie Lonte were allowed free reign in return for “dealing with” anti-apartheid activists. After apartheid, a mass recruitment drive (partly to hire more black officers, partly to get a lid on the crime problem) left too many rookies in the field. Bribery and corruption were common. Those who could afford it moved to gated communities patrolled by private security firms.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>International Mafia syndicates</strong></span></p>
<p>That wasn’t all. The opening of the borders and unchecked corruption in the 90s left South Africa home to international crime syndicates, including the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview" target="_blank">Russian</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/triads-overview" target="_blank">Chinese</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Serbia" target="_blank">Serbian</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=India" target="_blank">Indian</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Nigeria" target="_blank">Nigerian</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Czech" target="_blank">Czech</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/italian-organized-crime" target="_blank">Italian mobs</a>. But the local gangs were too fearsome for them to muscle in on the Cape Flats. Instead, they focused more on the <a href="https://oldsite.issafrica.org/uploads/Paper263.pdf" target="_blank">supply side</a>: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a>, Mandrax as well as <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Meth" target="_blank">crystal meth</a> (locally known as ‘tik’).</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chinese-organised-crime-and-africa" target="_blank"><strong>Chinese Organised Crime And Africa</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Meanwhile, drug dealer Jackie Lonte finally went to the big house and came out a 26. His crew, the Americans, allied with the 26s, while his arch-nemesis Colin Stansfield cozied up to the 28s. Street thugs took to calling themselves ndotas as they adopted the Numbers’ mythos. It was a quid-pro-quo: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels" target="_blank">drug lords</a> could buy the Numbers’ status in prison, and in turn the Numbers could get steady ‘employment’ on their release. Turf wars raged across the Cape Flats which continue today. Lonte <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/1998-11-13-gangsters-fast-life-hard-death" target="_blank">went down</a> in a hail of bullets outside his house. By the mid-90s, Cape Town had one of the highest murder rates in the world. Last year, the situation got so bad the army got <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/20/dispatch-south-african-army-struggle-contain-gang-war-driven/" target="_blank">called in</a>. Street life mixed with jailhouse culture and the drug business created the perfect storm in the townships.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Location is everything</strong></span></p>
<p>The museum’s location in Khayelitsha, where the army’s been deployed to fight gangs, grounds it with a sense of here-and-now (unlike, say, the <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/st-valentines-day-massacre-wall" target="_blank">Mob Museum</a> in Las Vegas, which looks at a bygone era). But visitors needn’t be afraid: Khayelitsha is one of the safer townships, with one of its nightspots, Rands, drawing crowds from all over the city.</p>
<p>So why’s it called the 18 Gangster museum, you ask? If you add the three Numbers together, 26+27+28=81. By hiring ex-convicts Siya wants to help them make a fresh start; flip 81 around and you get 18.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/music-label-or-violent-gang-original-block-hustlaz-provided-sound" target="_blank">Music label or violent gang?</a> Original Block Hustlaz provided soundtrack while it flooded Philadelphia with drugs</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>“Being a gang member and criminal activity didn’t achieve anything for me or my kids,” Thando said as I bid him goodbye. “The 18 Gangster museum gave me chance to work on myself and change my life.”</p>
<p>“I don’t want to be in the gang any more, I only want to bond with my son,” Rocky added. “I want to teach him the truth, not to follow in my footsteps and make the same mistakes his father did.”</p>
<p><em>You can book a visit to the 18 Gangster museum through their website: <a href="http://www.18gm.co.za/" target="_blank">http://www.18gm.co.za/</a><br /> </em></p>
<p><em>With thanks to Brian and Nomaphelo.</em></p>
<p><em>Niko Vorobyov is a government-certified (convicted) drug dealer turned writer and author of the book <a href="https://www.hodder.co.uk/titles/niko-vorobyov/dopeworld/9781529378047/" target="_blank">Dopeworld</a>, about the international drug trade. You can follow him <a href="https://twitter.com/Lemmiwinks_III" target="_blank">@Lemmiwinks_III</a><br /> </em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">Street Gangs section</a> or <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime" target="_blank">Black organized crime</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
Cocaine and guns? Nah, the real money is in stealing hair weaves and vanilla
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/cocaine-and-guns-nah-the-real-money-is-in-stealing-hair-weaves-an
2018-09-09T09:44:11.000Z
2018-09-09T09:44:11.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/cocaine-and-guns-nah-the-real-money-is-in-stealing-hair-weaves-an" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237108268,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237108268?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Crime is a flexible business. It can go from dealing in cars to trafficking cigarettes in the blink of an eye. Hell, it can do both at the same time. It can take bets and break skulls in the same inning. But crime usually revolves around a certain number of products and vices. Well, prepare to have your mind blown.</p>
<p>You see, though we tend to associate crime with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drugs</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Guns" target="_blank">guns</a> or <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Prostitution" target="_blank">prostitution</a> it isn’t centered around any of these things. Crime is based on a product’s worth and availability to criminals. Apple is worth billions, but most if not all criminal masterminds are not in a position to steal or manipulate it.</p>
<p>They can steal Apple’s products though, you can get an iPhone or iPad at some very shady street corners around the world. Drugs and guns just offer a higher profit margin to gangsters, so they tend to stick with that product line. Sometimes, however, the market seduces them to take on a new product.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Crime is a hairy business</strong></span></p>
<p>Hair for instance. Human hair. Used for making hair weaves. With economies in Asian, African, and South American countries growing stronger, demand for hair weaves has rocketed. Rich and middle-class women in these countries want hair weaves made from the finest quality, creating a booming market in the process.</p>
<p>It is estimated that the hair weave business in South Africa alone is worth $200 million U.S. dollars annually. Not surprisingly, criminals have latched onto the trend. One South African man who proudly wears long dreadlocks recalled how he was almost robbed of his hair on the streets.</p>
<p>“I was lucky that some passersby were able to free me,” he tells Dutch newspaper <a href="http://www.trouw.nl" target="_blank">Trouw</a>. “These kind of robberies are occurring more and more. It’s dangerous. If you resist, they will violently pull the dreadlocks from your head.”</p>
<p>With his dreadlocks going for $1700 U.S. dollars, it’s not surprising these thieves are willing to go the extra mile. Wigs and weaves at a South African hair salon sell for $350 U.S. dollars. If you want them custom-made they sell for even more.</p>
<p>The owner of this hair salon gets ‘her’ hair from Hindus in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=India" target="_blank">India</a> who shave their heads and donate it to their temples. The religious leaders then sell the hair to be used in weaves and wigs. The price of hair online is around $300 U.S. dollars per kilogram. A profitable business for those seeking to make a quick, easy, and illegal buck.</p>
<p>This has resulted in an increase in violent “hair jackings” in the African country, as well as in other nations such as India, where many women are targeted by gangs who shave their heads and make off with their hair. Indian hair is highly valued as many of these women live in poverty and have not subjected their hair to chemical products for care or coloring.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Vanilla violence</strong></span></p>
<p>Ah, that sweet powder. White and brown. The good stuff. No, we’re not talking about <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> or <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a>. We’re talking about vanilla. That stuff you taste in your ice cream, cookies, cake, and so many other delicious products.</p>
<p>The country of Madagascar is the world’s main supplier of vanilla and as the price of the most-wanted flavor went up, so did <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Robbery" target="_blank">robberies</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murders</a>. Locals tell <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/31/madagascars-vanilla-wars-prized-spice-drives-death-and-deforestation" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> newspaper they can sell a kilogram for $460 U.S. dollars, more than ten times the price of a few years ago.</p>
<p>Farmers now find themselves having to form vigilante squads to ward of groups of robbers. Villagers told the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/madagascar_vanillla" target="_blank">BBC</a> that in “a nearby village, a machete-wielding crowd descended on five suspected gangsters - hacking and stabbing them to death.”</p>
<p>Death by machete is not a thing that pops into one’s mind when eating a vanilla ice cream. But it is all too real. The constant disbalance between demand and supply continues to create unrest in various parts of the world. If the price for whatever product goes high enough, criminals will seek to make a profit by force.</p>
<p>In this world nothing is free.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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British career criminal shot in head and left for dead in Amsterdam
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/british-career-criminal-shot-in-head-and-left-for-dead-in-amsterd
2018-05-21T16:00:00.000Z
2018-05-21T16:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/british-career-criminal-shot-in-head-and-left-for-dead-in-amsterd" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237106478,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237106478?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>A British career criminal was shot in the head and left for dead on the streets of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Amsterdam" target="_blank">Amsterdam</a>, the Netherlands, on Saturday night. 55-year-old Allan P. (his last name has not been released by Dutch authorities) was seriously injured and is currently in the hospital.</p>
<p>The attempted hit occurred around 23:30 p.m. While P. was walking on the Stromarkt, an unknown assassin wearing a dark sweater with a hoody <a href="https://www.parool.nl/amsterdam/slachtoffer-schietpartij-stromarkt-is-brits-amsterdamse-crimineel~a4598609/" target="_blank">aimed a gun</a> at his head and fired one bullet. P. then crumpled to the ground where he was found in a pool of his own blood by passersby.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangster-turned-cage-fighter-lee-murray" target="_blank"><strong>Profile of Gangster-turned-MMA fighter Lee Murray</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Though a British citizen, P. has resided in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Netherlands" target="_blank">the Netherlands</a> since 1979 and has had frequent run ins with law enforcement. He was convicted of several drug and gun offenses and spent two months in prison after showing a fake South African passport to a Dutch police officer.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/british-secret-agents-have-a-license-to-commit-crime" target="_blank"><strong>British secret agents have a license to commit crime</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>In 2015, he was charged in the notorious case targeting One2Spy, a shop in Amsterdam where one could buy hidden cameras, bugs, GPS-tracers, encrypted mobile phones and the like. In this case “the like” also meant guns. P. was charged with showing a firearm to two British undercover agents who were investigating the spy shop. He was acquitted in court after prosecutors were unable to prove the gun functioned properly.</p>
<p>It is unknown why he was the target of a hit and police are still searching for the gunman.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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From Morocco to Spain in 30 minutes: How a crime group smuggled migrants and cannabis on jet skis
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/from-morocco-to-spain-in-30-minutes-how-a-crime-group-smuggled-mi
2018-04-28T06:30:00.000Z
2018-04-28T06:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/from-morocco-to-spain-in-30-minutes-how-a-crime-group-smuggled-mi" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237112084,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237112084?profile=original" width="449" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>An organized crime group from Morocco used jet skis to smuggle migrants and cannabis across the Mediterranean Sea to Spain. The group was dismantled this week in a joint action day by the Spanish National Police and the Civil Guard.</p>
<p>They arrested and detained a total of 19 people of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Morocco" target="_blank">Moroccan</a> origin. Police officers carried out 7 houses searches in Almeria, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Spain" target="_blank">Spain</a>, where they seized 11.6 kilograms of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drugs</a> and over €15,000 euros in cash. Digital devices were examined and 16 gigabytes of data submitted to the Spanish law enforcement agencies by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Europol" target="_blank">Europol</a>.</p>
<p>The organized crime group was made up of Moroccan citizens who were residing in various European countries, mainly <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=France" target="_blank">France</a>, Italy and Spain. They contacted and sheltered migrants who had been smuggled with falsified documents from the Spanish autonomous city of Ceuta, located on the north coast of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Africa" target="_blank">Africa</a>, to mainland Spain, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar which separates Europe and Africa by only 14.3 kilometers.</p>
<p>The criminals charged the migrants €4,000 and an additional €500 if they wanted to be housed in Spain. Once trafficked to the Spanish mainland, the next leg of the trip sent them to their relatives in France, Italy and Spain.</p>
<p>The criminal organization used the same modus operandi for trafficking drugs, specifically cannabis, from Morocco to Spain. According to an intelligence report issued by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), smuggling migrants on jet skis is a modus operandi specific to the Strait of Gibraltar and used exclusively by Moroccans.</p>
<p>Young Moroccan males mainly use this mode of transport to reach the Spanish coast, most of them with relatives in the European Union, who pay for their transfer. Although in terms of migratory impact the number of migrants being transferred with this type of asset is relatively low (1-3 migrants, plus one skipper per jet ski), the number of incidents involving jet skis has sharply increased in the past few years.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Czech mob boss threatens judge, gets 35 years for torture and murder
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/czech-mob-boss-threatens-judge-gets-35-years-for-torture-and-murd
2016-02-25T13:38:20.000Z
2016-02-25T13:38:20.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/czech-mob-boss-threatens-judge-gets-35-years-for-torture-and-murd"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237063062,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237063062?profile=original" width="400" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>A Czech businessman who settled in South Africa and started a criminal empire there has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for attempted murder and kidnapping. Radovan Krejcir kept a smile on his face after the proceedings, which went down in spectacular fashion. He even threatened the judge in full view of reporters, telling him he knew where he lived.</p>
<p>Krejcir’s criminal career and time behind bars has been filled with drama and violence. The 47-year-old crime boss was convicted in South Africa last year of torturing and attempting to murder drug trafficker Bheki Lukhele, who he suspected of having stolen 25 kilograms of methamphetamines.</p>
<p>Lukhele’s brother had allegedly made off with the meth and, as a result, Lukhele was taken off the streets by Krejcir and his people to extract information. Krejcir tried his best to make his victim talk by pouring boiling water over the man’s head.</p>
<p>With the guilty verdict in place, there was not much left for Krejcir to do. That didn’t stop him from trying though. He tried to escape from prison and custody several times and when all those attempts failed he decided to take it to the extreme by, allegedly, hiring a European hitman who would fly into South Africa to murder the judge and a forensic investigator connected to Krejcir’s case.</p>
<p>The South African press reported that the hitman visited Krejcir at Kokstad prison, claiming to be the Czech mob boss' brother. That sounded plausible if it weren’t for the fact that Krejcir is an only child.</p>
<p>With authorities aware of a possible assassination plot, they upped security in and around the courthouse. Still, the drama did not end. This past Monday there was a bomb threat as well, causing the courthouse to be evacuated.</p>
<p>Regardless of the threats, the presiding judge refused to budge. Yesterday, he laid down his sentence. But before he could do so, in court, Krejcir told him: “You are biased, unfair, dishonest, proven untruthful from record.” Then, he said, “I believe you live in Bedfordview.”</p>
<p>A threat if there ever was one. In full view of reporters, police, and the court.</p>
<p>In turn, the judge knows where Krejcir lives as well. In prison. For the next 35 years. Upon sentencing he told Krejcir and the public that, “I must also remind myself that the purpose of punishment is to punish.”</p>
<p>The Czech gangster still faces other charges, including one for murder. Czech authorities are also keen to put Krejcir in a cell as they convicted him in absentia in 2014 of tax fraud.</p>
<p>Several of Krejcir’s codefendants have been given hefty sentences as well. One, Desai Luphondo, was also sentenced to 35 years, while four others, including three who had been members of an elite police unit, were given sentences of 15 years each.</p>
<p>It is doubtful we’ve heard the last from Krejcir. Even from behind bars he manages to attract the world media. Recently, he made headlines when he befriended disgraced Paralympian Oscar Pistorius while both were doing time.</p>
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Chinese Organised Crime And Africa
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/chinese-organised-crime-and-africa
2014-07-30T09:01:12.000Z
2014-07-30T09:01:12.000Z
Gary K. Busch
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GaryKBusch
<div><p align="center"><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chinese-organised-crime-and-africa"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237033058,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237033058?profile=original" width="425" /></a>Chinese Organised Crime And Africa</p>
<p align="center">The Globalisation Of The Chinese Triads and Gangs</p>
<p align="center"><strong>Dr. Gary K. Busch</strong></p>
<p>There is a very important dimension to the Chinese interaction with Africa which is often overlooked; the interaction of Chinese organised criminal structures with African states and their symbiotic relationship with the forces of the Chinese state and the military-industrial combines. Chinese organised criminal entities operate in virtually every African state, especially where there is a sea coast and a mining/extractive industry The Chinese are not the exclusive organised criminal structures in Africa but they have some unique niche markets. Chinese gangs control the export of wildlife-protected abalone (‘perlemoen’) which is a delicacy and an aphrodisiac in the internal Chinese market. The Chinese gangs are the major buyers and traders in illegal ivory, sharks’ fins and rhino tusks for the same market. They are major buyers of illegally-mined gold and diamonds through ‘artisanal miners’ whom they control and also through suborned miners working in legal mines.</p>
<p>Markets like abalone may seem small but, in South Africa alone, the Chinese annually take over 525 tons at an average street value of US $75 per kilo. That is almost US $40 million a year. What makes it far more worrying is that the payment to local suppliers of this abalone is made in deliveries of ‘tik’ (methamphetamine); a highly addictive crystallised form of ‘speed’. These are sold throughout the African townships, along with ‘mandrax’ (methaqualone). While the Chinese have the virtual monopoly on ’tik’ they must compete with Pakistanis and Indians in the mandrax business, Africa is a fertile ground for promoting drug addiction. The West Indian “Yardies” and the Nigerian ‘clans’ dominate the West and Central African heroin markets. The Colombians have a lock on the cocaine business across Africa and onwards through Africa to Europe. In Southern and Eastern Africa the Chinese have direct line to the Golden Triangle factories of the Mekong and control the heroin and morphine base business. The Italian Mafia families use the cash resources generated by all this business as a giant money laundry for their illicit wealth. All of these groups are active in the lottery. casino and shylocking businesses as well as in prostitution which inevitably accompanies drug addiction. However it is mainly the Chinese who are active in the illegal smuggling of their citizens abroad where they work as virtual slaves to the Snake Head trafficker who brought them.</p>
<p>These Chinese criminals aren’t private sector entrepreneurs seeking to earn a quick, if dishonest, buck. They are part of ancient and well organised criminal groups with a fierce internal discipline. There are two distinct types of Chinese organised criminal gangs. The most ancient and well-established are the Triads. Their origins stretch back to the fight against the Qing Dynasty in the 1760s when the Han Chinese fought against the reigning Manchus. They developed a set of rituals and practices top preserve their anonymity and to bind each member to the society; a lot like the Freemasons. They set up a triangle of power which reflected the Heavens, the Earth and Man. Things were explained as variations on the triangular theme. However, power was vertical as in a pyramid;. “the Shan Chu (Mountain Master) was the overall leader responsible for making the final decision on all matters. The Fu Shan Chu (Deputy Mountain Master), when appointed, was the deputy leader and directly assisted the leader. The Heung Chu (Incense Master) was responsible for all ceremonies of initiation and promotion. The Sin Fung (Vanguard) was responsible for recruitment, and organising and assisting in ceremonies. The Hung Kwan (Red Pole) was the ‘fighter’ rank of the society. The Pak Tsz Sin (White Paper Fan) was responsible for the general administration of the society. The Cho Hai (Straw Sandal) was the liaison officer for the society. The ‘49 Chai’ was the ordinary member usually recruited to follow a particular office-bearer.”<a title="" href="#_edn1">[i]</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Triads also use numeric codes to distinguish between ranks and positions within the gang. For example, "426" refers to "fighter" while "49" denotes a rank-and-file member. "489" refers to the "mountain master" while 438 is used for the "deputy mountain master", 415 for "white paper fan" and 432 for the "straw sandal". "25" refers to an undercover law enforcement agent or spy from another triad, and has become popularly used in Hong Kong as a slang for "traitor".<a title="" href="#_edn2">[ii]</a></p>
<p>These triads (as well as local city-wide gangs) flourished across China. However, they were not immune from the conflicts and struggles which changed China’s political structure. The triads functioned well under Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang (KMT) and supported Chiang in his battle with the Chinese communists after 1945. Indeed, it was Chiang’s alliance with Shanghai’s notorious Green Gang which helped finance the KMT. The Green Gang controlled organised crime in Shanghai and, under Du Yuesheng, specialised in opium (which was supported by local warlords), gambling, and prostitution. Shanghai was the vice capital of the world at that time. “The Green Gang was often hired to break up union meetings and labour strikes, and was also involved in the Chinese Civil War. Carrying the name of the Society for Common Progress, it was responsible for the White Terror massacre of approximately 5,000 pro-Communist strikers in the City of Shanghai in April 1927, which was ordered by Nationalist leader General Chiang Kai-Shek, who granted Du Yuesheng the rank of General in the Nationalist army as a reward for conducting the massacre.”<a title="" href="#_edn3">[iii]</a></p>
<p>When the KMT was driven south by the communists, many fled to Taiwan. Others were trapped in South China. Among them was the 997th Brigade of the KMT which settled in northern Burma. There they promoted the production of opium and began its export to the rest of the world, including the use of US aircraft sent in to deliver supplies to the 997th and with nothing to take back. This became a thriving business. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and into the 1980s, notable warlords with fuzzy motivations arose in the Shan State. It was often unclear whether they were ethno-nationalists or communists, drug lords, cronies of Rangoon, or a combination of these. The most predominant such leaders were: General Li of the KMT (commanding groups in Burma from Thailand), Li Hsing Ho of the Rangoon-supported “home guard,” also known as the Ka Kwe Ye (KKY), Kyi Myint (Zhang Zhiming) of the CBP, and the infamous Khun Sa of the Shan United Army (SUA).<a title="" href="#_edn4">[iv]</a> The refining of this morphine base was undertaken by the Union Corse (the Corsican Mafia) operating in French Indo-China as ‘anti-communist’ allies of the French Colonial Government up until Dien Bien Phu. When the French and the Corsicans were driven out of Indo-China the drug business reverted to the triads and gangs who had stayed loyal to the KMT and who had taken up residence in Taiwan, along with local nationalist Burmese and Vietnamese. For a long time the drug business was dominated by the Taiwanese gangs (United Bamboo, Four Seas, Hung Mun , Hip Shing, Hop Shing, On Leong, Three Mountains, Tsung Tsin, Ying Ong, Suey Sing). However, by 1954 power had passed from Taiwan to the relocated Triads on Hong Kong (including the KMT drug trade). This was largely because the KMT Government in Taipei was becoming increasingly concerned with the rise of Communist China and its attempts to impose a “One China” policy, especially in the UN.</p>
<p>This development in the conflict between the Chinese was one of the most important developments in the history of African politics. In the immediate post-war construction of the United Nations there was a provision for the Big Five nations to take a special seat at the UN Security Council. These Great Powers had a veto. They included the US, the UK, France, Russia and China. The Chinese place was taken by the Republic of China (the KMT state). Mainland, or Communist China, was denied a seat because it was filled by the ROC. By around 1954 the Peoples Republic of China (PRC)under Mao Tse Tung, decided it wanted to oust the ROC in the UN Security Council Under the sponsorship of the PRC the nations formed themselves into the ‘Non-Aligned’ Movement; a pressure group to get the other Great Powers not to veto the accession of the PRC to the UN. This was the scene every year for horse-trading. Each nation bartered its vote on China for aid, trade, concessions or just plain cash. Africa was particularly good at selling its vote. August or every year was the auction season, before the opening of the General Assembly in September, to barter for things they thought their country needed. It was a mutually-satisfactory ritual.</p>
<p>As it happens I was attending the American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa in February 1967 as a delegate from the United Auto Workers and as a Board Member of the African-American Committee. At that time the US aircraft carrier, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was returning from Vietnam and pulled into Simons Town, South Africa for some repair/refuelling. The conference was indignant... They were upset that black U.S. servicemen would be subject to the indignities of <u>apartheid</u> if they visited South Africa. They formed a delegation to go to the Pentagon to complain. We were met by the Admiral in charge. I made my little speech about sending the wrong message to the world and of the risk of U.S. servicemen being victimised because of the colour of their skin. I asked how this visit would be seen in the rest of Africa. The Admiral looked me up and down, took note of his distinguished visitors and said”Listen kid. Those bastards have already had the vote on Red China this year. We don’t need them anymore. They need us; so screw them” That is what I reported to the meeting when I returned.</p>
<p>The Admiral was right. With the admission of Red China to the United Nations in 1971, no one needed Africa any more. Africa went on the back burner. The US passed the Korry Report which limited US activities to nine African nations. The Russians did the same, concentrating on six countries. The Chinese, who had had some success in Burundi threw its lot in with the black Rhodesians of ZANU in Mozambique, after being forced out of Angola and Congo-Brazzaville. The rest of Africa was left to the depredations of the French and the Portuguese. It took a lot of oil discoveries before Africa appeared on Western radar again.</p>
<p>In the mid-1950s the triads established themselves permanently in Hong Kong. There were several smaller triad organisations but they were overshadowed by the big four groups: the Chiu-Chow/Hoklo Group (including subgroups Sun Yee On, Fuk Yee Hing, King Yee, Yee Kwan and Tai Ho Choi); the 14-K Group (including subgroups Hau, Tak, Ngai, Yee, 14K Tai, Huen, Baai Lo Wo and Lee Kwan); the House of Wo (including subgroups Wo Shing Wo, Wo Hop To, Wo On Lok, Wo Shing Tong, Wo Yee Tong, Wo Shing Yee; and the Luen Group (including subgroups Luen Ying Sh'e, Luen Lok Tong, Luen Fei Ying, Luen To Ying).<a title="" href="#_edn5">[v]</a></p>
<p>These four groups, and two of the larger Tongs from Taiwan, spread across the globe. They became involved in illegal immigration in North America and Europe; drugs and prostitution in Europe and Africa; and shylocking and extortion from overseas Chinese everywhere. Most importantly, as Red China began to expand its influence and operations around the globe, the Chinese triads were ready, willing and able to assist. They had ways of bringing people in to work on Chinese installations like railroads or ports. They could access cheap gold and cheap resources. That made them very attractive to the Chinese military companies spreading their wings across Africa’s resources.</p>
<p>This also made them valuable to the two major Chinese intelligence centres. There are several intelligence agencies in China. The official, government run intelligence agency is the Ministry of State Security (MSS) ‘Guojia Anquan Bu’ [Guoanbu]. The MSS is primarily created to perform economic espionage. The MSS' methods for economic espionage follow three models. The first is the recruitment of agents, especially scholars and scientists, in the PRC before they are sent abroad to purchase information. The second model uses Chinese firms to purchase overseas companies which own or have access to the desired technology. The third method is the direct purchase of technology through Chinese front companies. This third model was the most commonly used. The ability of the triads to extort money and extract information from the local communities made their efforts very valuable to the Guanbu.</p>
<p>The main thrust of Chinese intelligence is contained within the structure of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The intelligence agencies inside the Army are directly tied to the military-industrial corporations. These corporations at=re the economic backbone of China’s overseas investments.</p>
<p>After Mao's death in 1976, the new leadership encouraged the military plants to begin exploring civilian uses for their products and to engage in the broader liberalizing economy. The most nimble managers were free to exploit new markets for their goods. During the early 1980s, the PLA's share of the national budget declined, spurring it to look to other sources for cash, especially hard currency. The higher organizational levels of the PLA created trading companies like China Xinxing, China Poly and China Songhai to take advantage of the opening of China's economy to the international market.<br /> <br /> They formed banks, holding companies and international trading companies like Everbright to market these goods worldwide. Now the PLA runs farms, factories, mines, hotels, brothels, paging and telephone companies and airlines, as well as major trading companies.<br /> <br /> The number of military-run business exploded during the boom of the late 1980s. The "third line" factories opened branches in the coastal areas, earning increasingly high profits from the manufacture of civilian goods. Even the lowest levels of the PLA set up production units. In fact the PLA had a largely captive audience of Chinese who had never really had the chance to acquire personal goods produced in China before. In addition to their international arms sales, their production of consumer goods for the domestic market soared.<br /> <br /> Many of the PLA companies have become firmly enmeshed in the global economy. Hong Kong is the PLA's favoured stock exchange because of its loose disclosure guidelines. China Poly Group has two listed companies: Continental Mariner Company Ltd. and Poly Investments Holdings Ltd. Both Continental Mariner and Poly Investments have a large number of subsidiary companies in mainland China, Hong Kong and tax havens like Liberia, the British Virgin Islands and Panama. China Carrie's listed company in Hong Kong is Hongkong Macau Holdings Ltd. China Carrie also owns HMH China Investments Ltd. on the Toronto Stock Exchange and HMH Gold Mining on the Australian Stock Exchange. 999 Enterprise Group, another company controlled by the PLA General Logistics Department, operates Sanjiu Pharmaceuticals Group, the largest pharmaceuticals manufacturer in China. 999 recently announced its plan to list soon on the Hong Kong exchange.<br /> <br /> Smaller military enterprises, like the Songliao Automobile Company owned by the PLA Shenyang Military Region, have also listed in the domestic Chinese markets.<br /> China Poly Group is a commercial arm of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Staff Department. The PLA General Logistics Department operates China Xinxing. The PLA General Political Department owns and operates China Carrie. And the PLA Navy runs China Songhai.“</p>
<p>Military partners get the added security of knowing that the top "management" of many of the PLA companies are from the ranks of the "princelings," the children and relatives of senior Chinese Communist Party officials. These influential princelings assure that the business operations of the PLA will have the government connections that are so important in China's corrupt system. In the case of China Poly, chair Wang Jun and president He Ping act as brokers between the government and the military. Wang Jun is the eldest son of the late Vice-President Wang Zhen. He Ping is the son-in-law of the late Deng Xiaoping. Wang Jun's brother, Wang Bing, is the chair of the PLA Navy Helicopter Company. China Carrie's president is Ye Xuanning, the second son of late PLA Marshal Ye Jianying.</p>
<p>The co-operation between the triads and the Chinese military companies make it easier to disguise the political aspects of Chinese investment by masking it behind a front of intermediaries with no military connections. The triad structure allows for secrecy to prevail. The triads can, and do, make a lot of money on their own and are not financially dependent on the corporations which broaden their face in any transactions. Many of the triad ‘Dai-los’ have moved from Hong Kong to Beijing which emphasises their political clout.</p>
<p>The situation of the involvement of Chinese organised crime in Africa is becoming very serious. The world and his cousin are about to go to South Africa for the World Cup. They will be met by people engaged in many forms of organised crime. It appears that the South African police are not fully prepared for such an onslaught. Equally as important, the rise of Al-Qaida in West Africa and Central Africa is intimately involved with the drugs business and the smuggling of diamonds and gold. The expansion of the role of the triads serves to mask the expansion of Al-Qaida and the corruption of civil servants and the authorities by the triads makes it much easier for Al-Qaida to function as beneficiaries of this corruption.</p>
<p>It is hard to see a way in which Africa, and especially South Africa, can avoid serious problems in the immediate future.</p>
<div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div>
<p><a title="" href="#_ednref1">[i]</a> Peter Gastrow, <em>Triad Societies and Chinese Organised Crime in South Africa</em>, ISS No.48, 2001</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="" href="#_ednref2">[ii]</a>Yiu Kong Chu<em>,: The Triads as Business</em>., Routledge 2000</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="" href="#_ednref3">[iii]</a> Brian G. Martin<em>, The Shanghai Green Gang: Politics and Organized Crime, 1919-1937</em> </p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="" href="#_ednref4">[iv]</a> Andrew A. Merz, <em>Coercian, Cash Crops and Culture</em>, US Naval Academy 6/08</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="" href="#_ednref5">[v]</a> HK Police</p>
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<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/triads-overview">Triads section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Polish-American Arms Trafficker is Feeling the Heat
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/polish-american-arms-trafficker-is-feeling-the-heat
2014-05-07T17:00:00.000Z
2014-05-07T17:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/polish-american-arms-trafficker-is-feeling-the-heat"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237016659,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237016659?profile=original" width="500" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>When the Soviet Union crumbled there were plenty of men who used the absence of a strong government to enrich themselves. The fall of the Iron Curtain ushered in the rise of the powerful oligarchs and introduced the world to Eastern European gangsters with access to the best and most advanced weaponry money can buy. One of those men currently is under a lot of scrutiny in Poland. Our very own Ron Fino was onto him while working with the FBI and CIA in rounding up bad guys in Europe.</p>
<p>“There is a lot that I cannot mention,” <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-mafia-and-labor-racketeering">Ron Fino</a> begins. The former FBI and CIA operative-turned <a href="http://amzn.to/19cjPLa" target="_blank">author</a> is cautious not to hinder any ongoing investigation, but knows all the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/from-mobbed-up-unions-to-cold-war-spying">details</a>. Working as an undercover he infiltrated the network of one of the world’s largest weapons dealers.</p>
<p>“Around 1998, I was informed that a dual citizen (Poland-USA) named Wieslaw “Wesley” Michalczyk was involved in getting large shipments of military equipment to Iran, Syria, and numerous African nations. While in Belarus, I learned that Michalczyk was a partner of Vladimir Peftiev, who ran a large arms trading company based in Belarus called “Beltechexport”. Both men were utilizing a myriad of corporations to cloak many of their transactions.”</p>
<p>“In order to maintain an appearance of legitimacy,” Fino explains, “[Michalczyk] purchased a Chicago restaurant that was featured in the 1989 movie ‘Roadhouse’ with Patrick Swayze. However, the limited business proceeds could not cloak his vast sums of illicit cash. After consulting with his associates in the U.S., Poland, and Eastern Europe He opened up off shelf corporations and off-shore bank accounts in Cyprus, Switzerland, Bahamas, Barbados, Virgin Islands, and in the United Kingdom. This answered part of the problem.”</p>
<p>During this period, Fino found out that Michalczyk was playing all ends. “In 1994 Beltechexport sold a Russian SA 300 (Sam 10) anti-missile defense system to the US -Canadian firm Athos for 500 million dollars. ATHOS was run by Emmanuel Weigensberg, an Iran-Contra figure and a close associate of former United States General Richard Sicord, who was also President of Trans World Arms. Eventually the deal was canceled by Russian authorities. The Russians were upset over Belarus selling secrets. I was informed by a Belarusian citizen named Anatoly Neverov that the technology of the SA 300 specs and design had in fact already been transferred to North America.”</p>
<p>Neverov moved around in a dangerous <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/investigating-the-russian-mafia-on-its-home-turf">world</a>, but that didn’t stop him from openly berating Michalczyk. “I expressed my worry,” Fino says. “I told him that these guys are heavyweights and that he might get killed unless he stops publically demeaning them. Burley, unshaven, and constantly drunk Neverov became a constant companion and would introduce me to his friends including former KGB agents. At a drinking session in the basement of KGB headquarters there is the KGB Club where we would go to have a few pops. One evening he went into a tirade about Michalczyk and his being an American spy and that he had a penis implant and a hand pump that would bring stiffness to his penis. One of the former KGB agents told him to shut up and that he didn’t know the full story.”</p>
<p>On September 11, 2001, gunmen visited the home of Neverov and murdered him in front of his wife and children. His killing has never been solved. “I was in Belarus early that fateful morning and was watching the tragic events that were taking place in the United States. The Neverov killing never made it into the media, at least then, and I did not learn of it until I returned back to America. When I did return to Belarus, I renewed my efforts to unravel the mystery surrounding Michalczyk. Eventually utilizing a business deal, we got together at first in Warsaw, Poland, then Minsk, as well as at his business locations in the United States, in the Chicago area.”</p>
<p>Vladimir Peftiev and Wieslaw Michalczyk were doing great for themselves. Around 2002, Michalczyk purchased a large yacht that was parked in one of the rivers running through Moscow. He moved around while constantly surrounded by bodyguards. When Fino met him at a party Michalczyk had twenty bodyguards making sure he would not be harmed.</p>
<p>“They were selling so much equipment to Syria, Iran, and Iraq that some of their equipment was ending up in Chechnya and used to kill Russian soldiers and its loyalists. In a conversation I had with Gennady Troshev at a party in Moscow, the former Commander of the Russian Army in Chechnya just after he was relieved by Putin, he said to me, “How do I fight an enemy that is constantly being supplied with technology and weapons by my own country?”</p>
<p>In the summer of 2000, Peftiev was spotted in Minsk with Austrian national Norbert Furst, a weapons dealer and president of the Redway Holding Corporation, which was registered in 2003 in Road Town, British Virgin Islands. Peftiev also met with some Middle-Eastern men in Geneva, Switzerland. Fino later met a source who confirmed that Peftiev and Michalczyk were supplying terrorist organizations. <a href="http://amzn.to/19cjPLa" target="_blank">Fino</a>: “There is a lot more, a lot, that I can’t get into.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Polish media is turning up the heat on Michalczyk. A new documentary (see below) investigates Wieslaw Michalczyk and his vast empire in Poland and Eastern Europe. Ron Fino was interviewed by the journalists involved in this project as well and can be seen in the opening minutes. “There have been and continue to be investigations taking place in Poland, and Interpol is looking into Michalczyk as well. I can tell from the documentary that they have uncovered quite a lot about his operations there. I have documentation as well as names, corporation records, associates, and methods these war merchants use to filter the illegal funds received from weapon sales.”</p>
<p>Bringing down Michalczyk won’t be easy. He’s a shrewd man, as Ron Fino quickly learned during those years. “When I had brought it to the attention of the FBI, the CIA of course was interested, and then all of a sudden they didn’t let me go in and investigate anymore. It was shutdown. Now that tells me that he, Michalczyk, was playing both ends. I believe Wesley was what you may call a triple agent, he’s worked for Belarus, Russia, and the United States. I say the U.S. because he was beneficial in obtaining SA-3 technology and shipping it to the United States.”</p>
<p>Men like that usually find a way to continue playing all ends in order to survive. And as long as most of the parties involved find he is worthy to their cause, he will live in freedom yet another day.</p>
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Investigating the Russian Mafia on its home turf
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/investigating-the-russian-mafia-on-its-home-turf
2013-11-03T20:27:17.000Z
2013-11-03T20:27:17.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/investigating-the-russian-mafia-on-its-home-turf"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237035688,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237035688?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By Ronald Fino</p>
<p>The following is a report I made around 2003 regarding Russian Mafia activity. The threat from Russian organized crime (ROC) in the United States has been a major concern for some time. Most of us in the know agree that increased organized crime activity is widespread and rapidly growing. Its ability to change methods of operations creates a difficult challenge for law enforcement and society as a whole.</p>
<p>Russian organized crime is an area that is increasingly difficult and quite complicated to scrutinize. The crimes they commit after careful planning involve several Russian criminal groups, networks and include some people who are forced to support their immoral goings-on via threats. They have no limitations or boundaries and you will find Russian organized crime benefiting from just about everything.</p>
<p>I cover quite a bit of my time as an undercover agent in Russia in my book <a href="http://amzn.to/19cjPLa" target="_blank">The Triangle Exit</a>, but not enough and I had to leave the following piece of information out. Until recently, this was a confidential report and luckily I am now allowed to make it public at Gangsters Inc. Some names and places were omitted to protect people still in harm’s way.</p>
<p>Attn: Greg ________</p>
<p><a href="http://amzn.to/19cjPLa" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237036074,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237036074?profile=original" width="300" /></a>While in Moscow, I (Ron Fino, photo right) was met by Igor Maistrenko, __________ who at that time was a _________for the Kremlin _________ and now is a senior FSB Agent. He is also a close associate of Putin assistant __________ and who is well connected to many <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview">Russian Mafia</a> families there as well as in St. Petersburg, Kiev, Ukraine, Latvia, the former Soviet empire, as well as in Israel and North America. We stayed at the home of Oleg Yakuta (dealer in African precious and semi-precious gems and gold as well as counterfeit DVDs and CDs) and are a close friend of Masitrenko.</p>
<p>Yakuta arranged for us to meet 2 close friends of his who are high ranking Russian mafia leaders (Andrei (LNU) 30-35 years old, 5’11’’) (Mikhail (LNU) 38-40 years old 6’2’’) who have substantial input with the Putin administration as well as in the arms, precious gems, seafood and liquor industry. We went to the office of Rosspiritprom (Russian government organization that controls most of the production of liquor). We waited outside and Mikhail arrived escorted by two military bodyguards.</p>
<p>Igor and I were introduced to him by Yakuta and were told that Andrei would be along shortly. While waiting the two military bodyguards checked all the nearby cars as well the area. Andrei arrived with 3-4 bodyguards. After our introduction, Andrei already aware of our needs escorted us into the offices of Rosspiritprom where we were introduced to a young man (23-28) (I do not remember his name and have not been able to locate his business card, I could see that he answered to Andrei) (later I learned from Igor that he is the son of a high ranking Russian mafia member) the young man informed us that he could assist us with the vodka we were interested in and would arrange for a meeting at the __________. After about 1 hour of conversation we talked further with Andrei and Mikhail (who waited outside during the meeting) outside the building about the seafood business and Andrei informed us that he could assist us, that he owned six ships located in Magadan, Siberia and that Oleg Yakuta “is a good friend and business associate”. We were then invited to dinner.</p>
<p>Yakuta drove us to a restaurant located in the center of the city (not directly). After parking the car we were escorted by a plain closed security guard to a private area where we met up with Andrei and Mikhail and 7-9 associates. After we sat down a conversation commenced about the UAE and the needs of the Royal Family as well as their close ties in that area. One of the men possibly (<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-boss-viktor-bout">Victor Bout</a>) sitting across from Maistrenko together with a man of Muslim descent (I do not recall if they stood up thus I do not remember their size) stated to Maistrenko that the UAE Royal family was looking to move 30 billion dollars that was in U.S. Currency out of the Mitsubishi bank in Japan into Euros without the U.S. Government knowing and that they would pay 1 percent for having this done.</p>
<p>Upon hearing this I asked Igor to restate what they needed because I missed part of the communication. The Muslim man overhearing my remarks spoke in English and restated the UAE matter as well as stating that the proposal was very new and that he would have more info latter in the week. I told them that it possibly could be done. Because these people are normally quite secret about their operations, I think that they thought I was an associate of Andrei.</p>
<p>After dinner we were then invited to a private club (located off of Tverskaya near the Statue of Youri Dolgourki) that was owned by Andrei. We were met there by Mikhail and the young man from Rosspiritprom and a number of Andrei’s associates. Oleg Yakuta, the Muslim man and the guy that looked like Bout were not there and we stayed until 4:00AM and were driven back to Oleg’s apartment.</p>
<p>The next day, I talked to Igor about the meeting, about Andrei and Mikhail and if he knew their last name. He told me that he did not but that Oleg told him that Andrei was the boss of the largest Russian mafia family and that even Putin has to listen to him. He also explained that he learned that Andrei spent a number of years in France as well as help Oleg with his precious stone and gold business in Africa. Igor explained to me that Oleg wanted to know about the American marketplace for the stones and gold and if we had the means to move any for him. He further stated that Oleg was doing business with a Swiss bank but it was ending because of too many questions about the origin of the gold and gems. I told him I would look into it. He also explained that these guys (referring to Andrei, Mikhail and Oleg have more money than I could possibly imagine and that their main objective was to create legal businesses as fronts (words to that effect). He went on about how even though they all work together they all have their own legal operations and nonprofit charities.</p>
<p>Later in the day, or possibly the next, a Belarusian who worked for ___________ came to Oleg’s apartment to spend the night before he traveled home to Minsk. He had just returned from Africa and was in the precious gems business. He stated that he was aware of me and my closeness to __________ and the ___________. He stated that Tspekalo was now very high in the government and when was would I be traveling back to Minsk.</p>
<p>A few hours later, Mikhail called Igor and stated that he was going to come over to Oleg’s Apartment to chat with us. When Mikhail arrived he stated that Andrei likes us very much and can help with our endeavors. He also wanted us to meet with Vera Shevshenko, who together with her husband handles all protocol affairs for <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-dark-knight-of-mother">Vladimir Putin</a> and his Wife Ludmillia. We eventually met with her at the Monolith Club as well as a number of Mikhail’s associates. My conversation with her was of a legal nature and her interest in helping a charity called (For the Health and Spirit of the Nation). During the meeting the Director of a Distillery that Mikhail owns located in The Ukraine sat with us and wanted to know about the liquor industry in America and that they had sent liquor to the USA (eventually Atlanta) but only small amounts. Mikhail also stated that he was going to Canada with Agriculture Minister Gordeev and while there he would also be visiting his Sister and Brother in-law Sergei Bourdin, who needs help finding a job in Montreal. He explained that his brother in-law does not desire to return to Europe and wants to stay in the Montreal area and if I could help him. I told him that I did not know many people in the Montreal area but I would look into it.</p>
<p>Later in the week, Andrei invited us to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Surrounded by a number of bodyguards and a number of Andrei associates including a Doctor by the name of Andrey S. Peshkov (have business card) who is the Director of the All- Russian Research Institute for Nature Protection and is also with the UN Habitat Organization who provide shelter assistance to people around the world. Igor later informed me that he works for Andrei. At this meeting Igor had a private chat with Andrei.</p>
<p>When the meeting had concluded, I asked Igor if Andrei discussed the UAE deal and he responded that it did not come up but again he repeated that Andrei is looking to establish legal businesses around the world and wants to use a nonprofit organization as well. Igor stated that “we have to show them, including Mikhail, that we have the ability in the USA and Canada”. I asked Igor if he learned the last name of Andrei. If he did, he didn’t tell me. He also explained that he was a partner with Oleg and has been for some time and that these are the very people that run Russia and decide who gets appointed to government positions.</p>
<p>I brought up Wesley Michalczyk, Rafael Farid, and Vladimir Peftiev and if Andrei had any control over him. Igor said that he didn’t know if he knew him but because of Wesley’s arms business that he would have to be approved by Andrei. I stated that Wesley was with Lukashenko who doesn’t answer to Moscow. Igor went on about that most weapons sold by Wesley are made in Russia and that even Borodin has to answer to Andrei.</p>
<p>I asked him about Timofey _______ who use to work at the Russian Embassy in DC. He said no, Pavel _______, who is working with the Belarusian-Russian unity program. Igor further stated: “Ronnie, we need a nonprofit organization not only to show good faith (words to that effect) to Andrei and Mikhail but for power and for you to make money. My friend has started a nonprofit organization in the USA and he now has a lot of power here and he’s also making a lot of money. You told me that you need a source of income to carry you until the Stoli or fish business start to show a profit. This is the way. My friend gets free paint, used cars and a number of supplies in the USA and ships them here and only a small portion are given away for free, and the rest are sold. (Later I learned the name of the non-profit is called North Star which is based out of Framingham, MA. I have only 10 million left in the USA from 20 million I made and I have to find a legal avenue as well”.</p>
<p>I asked him about the money he was making with Oleg and he said “that it does not go to the USA outside of a few watches and rings I myself wear and if you can help Oleg find a way it helps me as well as you”. I responded that “Igor you told me that right now people are trying to get money out of the USA and offering 15 percent if they can.” He replied “That’s true Ronnie for some but people that live there permanently, like Suran Santurian, have to show an income otherwise the IRS will question their lifestyle.”</p>
<p>We met with Andrei again who took us to his health spa. Afterwards we went to the office of Iren Fedorov whose late husband was Svyatoslav Fedorov, a famous Russian physician who died in a plane crash and with Andrei’s help established a non-profit organization to supply medical supplies to needy children in Russia, Africa and elsewhere. She did most of the talking and discussed building a treatment center in Moscow and to fly in children from around the world for treatment. Andrei stated this was very important and if I could assist with things in the USA. Since that time I have been in e-mail contact with Iren but have not finalized a 501-c3 and I firmly believe as I did at the time that this together with the UN sponsored program of Dr. Andrey S. Peshkov are only fronts for the illegal arms and precious gems trade. There are numerous conversations besides the ones mentioned with Igor, Oleg that further bolsters this conclusion.</p>
<p>Andrei is supposed to be related via his sister or cousin to the Royal family in the UK. He has very close ties to the FSB. He has banking ties in the UK as well as in Cyprus. According to ____________, Andrei is one of the most powerful figures in Russia today. Igor told me at the October 16th 2003 meeting that Andrei used someone else with the UAE deal but that we can still gain his confidence if we show him our ability and connections. Igor also stated that Wesley has temporarily stopped arms shipments.</p>
<p>These people are very secretive and I will have to do something in order to win their confidence and I am sure that eventually _____ will appear. I may never learn of his exact home addresses in Moscow and elsewhere but I believe I can learn of the places he goes and his other connections besides the players mentioned as well as substantial information regarding the business deals of all involved I also believe that if ______ gets jammed up he will cooperate. Moscow will resist any assistance with the USA and the other countries in turning over _____ unless substantial pressure is brought to bear and then only after he is located.</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-4">Additional information:</span></strong></p>
<p>The most oft-used monikers for the two groups involved are The Family and the St. Petersburgers.</p>
<p><em>Siloviki and businessmen</em></p>
<p>Siloviki (hard. men), Putin's secret-service cronies, also known as the "siloviki."</p>
<p><em>Alexander Voloshin</em><br /> Voloshin, who rose to power during the era of former President Boris Yeltsin, in more recent times has served as a kind of one-man bridge between the Yeltsin-era oligarchs and the new security-service elite surrounding Vladimir Putin. Observers speculate his departure could set off a feud between the two groups that could prove severely destabilizing to the Putin government. Voloshin is said to have orchestrated the 1999 ouster of Prime Minister Yevgenii Primakov, who was unpopular with the oligarchs.</p>
<p><em>Mikhail Khodorkovsky</em><br /> Khodorkovsky's attempts to garner support from the West (as Vladimir Gusinsky tried to do before him)</p>
<p><em>Yukos</em></p>
<p><em>Anatoly Chubais</em>, a leader of the Union of Right Forces Anatoly Chubais, whose many hats include being a leader of SPS Unified Energy Systems CEO</p>
<p><em>Stanislav Belkovsky</em>, seen as one of the ideologues behind the siloviki, Colonel-General Gennady Troshev has been appointed as commander of the operational federal grouping in Chechnya</p>
<p><em>GORKY – The codename used by Ronald Fino while working in Russia.</em></p>
<p><strong>Visit Ron Fino's website at <a href="http://ronaldfino.com/" target="_blank">RonaldFino.com</a> and follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/rd615333" target="_blank">@rd615333</a><br /> </strong></p>
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