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Nov 03, 2018 4:51:56 PM EDT
Q !!mG7VJxZNCI ID: 000000 No. 389
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Mexicans, Russian mob new partners in crime
Monday, May 28, 2001
The recent seizure of 20 tons of cocaine from two “fishing boats” manned by Russian and Ukrainian crewmen has raised concerns that Mexican drug smugglers are doing business with the Russian mafia.
U.S. intelligence sources believe drug cartels in Mexico, considered among the worlds most ruthless, have followed the lead of Colombian cocaine smugglers to form alliances with the Russian mob and other Eastern European crime organizations. Led by the Arellano-Felix cartel in Tijuana, the sources said those alliances have been firmly established and involve the shipment of both cocaine and heroin.
Colombian drug cartels discovered the Russian mafia as early as 1992. The Russians, who operated from New York, Florida and Puerto Rico, moved quickly to help the Colombians import drugs into Europe through Italy. The Russian mobsters, many of them former KGB agents, controlled numerous banks in Moscow and established others in Panama and the Caribbean to launder hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit drug profits — for themselves and the Colombians.
The partnership gave the Colombians a new market for their cocaine and heroin, nearly all of which previously had been destined for the United States, and opened up for Russian organized crime what one U.S. intelligence official described as a “a bank vault.”
It also provided the Colombians with access to sophisticated weapons, intelligence-gathering equipment and other military hardware, including as many as a dozen airplanes now being used to ferry drugs out of the country. At one point, the Cali drug cartel in Colombia planned to buy a Russian submarine for drug smuggling, a scheme that was foiled by U.S. undercover agents.
The Mexican connection, according to the sources, has followed the same path: Russian weapons and other equipment for drugs, along with a split of the profits.
Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, New York Republican and member of the House International Relations Committee, said new global cartels ultimately could be capable of “buying entire governments, commercial trade zones in emerging democracies and eventually undermine established Western markets and the stable world financial commercial trading system.”
The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish acronym FARC, has looked to the Russians for arms to equip its ever-growing army. The FARC is believed to have paid with cocaine for thousands of AK-47 assault rifles. U.S. intelligence sources have estimated that more than half of the 700 tons of cocaine produced in Colombia every year comes from areas under FARC control.
The Russian mafia, known as the “Red Mafiya,” has been a top priority of both the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the FBI.
Last week, a fishing boat carrying more than 13 tons of cocaine was towed to San Diego after it was intercepted on the high seas in the countrys largest-ever maritime drug seizure. The 152-foot Belize-flagged ship Svesda Maru and its crew of 10 Russians and Ukrainians were taken into custody after U.S. Coast Guard officials discovered cocaine in a secret compartment beneath the ships holds.
In March, an indictment was filed against 10 crew members of the vessel Forever My Friends, also registered in Belize. That case also is pending in U.S. District Court in San Diego. Federal authorities said agents seized seven tons of cocaine hidden on that ship, manned by a crew of eight Russians and Ukrainians.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2001/may/28/2001
Back to the Cold War: Russia uses Mexico as a hub for spying on the U.S.
Russia has a long history of spying on the U.S. from the relative safety of Mexico City, dating back to the 1980s. Decades before that, Stalin had his chief rival assassinated there.
Russian intelligence services are building up their presence in Mexico for spy operations targeting the United States, a return to Cold War tactics by an increasingly aggressive regime, according to U.S. officials and former intelligence officers.
Russia has added dozens of personnel to its embassy staff in Mexico City in the past few years, even though Moscow has only limited trade ties with the country. U.S. officials say the trend is concerning and believe the extensive buildup is aimed at bolstering the Kremlin’s intelligence operations targeting the U.S., as well as its propaganda efforts aimed at undermining Washington and Ukraine.
https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/cold-war-russia-uses-mexico-hub-spying-us-rcna171819
RUSSIAN MOB, DRUG CARTELS JOINING FORCES
MONEY-LAUNDERING, ARMS SALES SPREADING ACROSS CARIBBEAN
September 29, 1997
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/09/29/russian-mob-drug-cartels-joining-forces
i can't do everything!