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.
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