Jan 31 2007
446 ORGANIZED CRIMINAL GROUPS OPERATE IN RUSSIA
MOSCOW - As of now, there are 446 organized gangs in Russia, Deputy Interior Minister Oleg Safonov said in an interview with the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper published on Wednesday.
“If we were to answer the question several years ago, we’d use such terms as “approximately,” “according to some reports,” but now we don’t permit even the slightest margins of error,” Safonov said, “there are 446 organized criminal groups with a complex internal structure operating in Russia.”
The police official underlined that police closely watch all these groups. “Nine of them, which have international ties, are tracked by the Department for combating organized crime and terrorism under the Russian Interior Ministry. The operations and search bureaus in provinces track another 50 gangs with regional ties, and organized crime units in regions combat the remaining groups,” Safonov said.
Answering a question about criminal leaders who control gangs, he said “just 184 people have the so-called status of “thief-in-law” /criminal boss/, while another several hundred criminals, though they allege to belong to this elite group, are in fact impostors.”
“Criminal leaders continue to coordinate criminal activities, deriving profits from it, and settling conflicts between rival groups. Curiously, criminal bosses easily adapt to circumstances and tend to lose their patriarchal character. They like worldly fame, work on their image and don’t mind cameras; many call themselves “authoritative entrepreneurs.”
As present, 40 criminal leaders are in prison. “We detained another 44 for committing crimes last year. Of those, 33 were arrested and two were expelled from Russia,” according to the deputy interior minister.
“It is noteworthy that about half of the “crowned,” or authentic criminal leaders are natives or residents of the North Caucasus,” he said.
ITAR-TASS 2007 January 31 http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11204689&PageNum=0
