RUSSIAN MOB, DRUG CARTELS JOINING FORCES
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/09/29/russian-mob-drug-cartels-joining-forces/b838dca0-5717-4c91-9d07-b798a435544d/
By Douglas Farah
September 29, 1997
Russian organized crime groups, flush with dollars, are forming alliances with Colombian drug traffickers in the Caribbean, acquiring cocaine for delivery to Europe and providing weapons to Latin American mafias, according to U.S., European and Latin American law enforcement officials. The Russian groups, operating out of Miami, New York and Puerto Rico, also are opening banks and front companies across the Caribbean, largely used to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from drug sales and other criminal activities, the sources said.
In interviews in Miami, New York, Puerto Rico and Colombia, law enforcement officials and experts on Russian crime cautioned that the growing number of alliances between Russian and Colombian criminal organizations is the most dangerous trend in drug smuggling in the hemisphere. Barry R. McCaffrey, the Clinton administration's national drug-control policy director, said, "the Russians, along with the Nigerians, are the most threatening criminal organizations based in the United States."
This is because, according to McCaffrey and others, the Russian organizations offer drug cartels access to sophisticated weapons that previously were beyond their reach. The Russians also provide access to new drug markets in Russia and other former Soviet republics at a time when consumption is falling in the United States.
In particular, the sources said, recent undercover operations have detected attempts by Russian groups to sell Colombian drug traffickers a submarine, helicopters and surface-to-air missiles. Officials said that at least two Russian combat helicopters, along with small arms, have been sold to Colombian organizations.
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