The scale of the Russian mafia’s activity in Europe was dramatically exposed on Monday when police forces in six EU countries arrested scores of suspects allegedly involved in drug smuggling, money laundering, arms-dealing and contract killing.
Hundreds of police officers in Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Germany swooped on dozens of sites, arresting 69 people, most of them Russians and ethnic Georgians. The biggest group was apprehended in Spain, where 24 suspects were detained in Barcelona and Bilbao, and the province of Valencia.
The head of the gang was named as Kakhaber Shushanasvili, a known crime boss in Georgia. He was held in Barcelona.
“These people were prepared to kill if necessary and accepted tasks of that nature,” an anonymous Spanish police source told El Pais newspaper.
The investigation started last April, requiring tight police and legal coordination across half a dozen countries. It targeted “people of an eastern European origin, notably Georgian and Russian citizens,” a member of the Swiss public prosecutor’s office said.
Most of those arrested were thought to be foot soldiers in an extensive network stretching from Turkey across central Europe to Ireland and even Britain, but headquartered in Spain.
“This was a group that operated in various countries,” the El Pais police source said, adding that the mafia was involved in money-laundering operations in Spain’s property sector.
The cash was laundered through small businesses set up in Spain.
Spanish police have carried out a series of major operations against the Russian mafia during the past four years. Among those who have been detained is Zakhar Kalashov, accused of being a senior mafia boss.
He is on bail, awaiting sentence after a money-laundering trial that was carried out under tight security and ended in December.
Spanish investigators complain that the courts have been too ready to grant bail to the numerous alleged Russian mafia members they have detained.
“We had gained a lot of prestige in Europe for our operations against the Russian mafia and these decisions have thrown part of that work into the dustbin,” the El Pais source said.
The raids were the latest stage of an ongoing investigation into the Russian mafia in Spain, which began in 2005 with the arrest of 28 suspects.
The former head of Russia’s Interpol bureau said Spain was a particularly strong magnet for the organized crime groups that mushroomed following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“At the beginning of the 1990s there was crazy money. The mafia started investing heavily in Spanish property. Very soon a whole mafia colony had sprung up in Marbella, including corrupt bureaucrats,” Vladimir Ovchinksky said.
He said the gangsters had also settled in Nice and Miami and were active in Britain.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the