The Russian Mafia's 65 Greatest Hits - Village Voice
Stefan Lemieszewski
03-04-97
65 GREAT RUSSIAN MOB HITS
By Jennifer Gould
Here is a hit and almost-hit list involving Russian mob
killers--a compilation of 65 Russian emigre homicides and
attempted homicides from 1981 to 1995. In some cases
investigators' records were incomplete.
January 1, 1981
Rachmel Dementev shot to death by
Dementev called Reznikov an informant.
March 3, 1981
Sheila and Slavi Shaknis, mother and son,
shot to death, allegedly because their husband/father failed
to repay money owed to other criminals.
December 5, 1982
Yuri Brokhin shot to death in his New York
City apartment. Sometime earlier, his wife was found dead
in their bathtub.
Undated, 1982
David Eligolashavili murdered, allegedly because
he was involved in loan-sharking and the sale of stolen
Torah scrolls.
February 6, 1983
Victor Malinsky found shot to death in Manhattan.
August 21, 1983
Zurab Minakhi stabbed to death in the Sadke Restaurant in
Brighton Beach, allegedly by Benjamin Nayfeld during a fight.
December 15, 1983
Attempted murder of Ilya Goldstein, shot five times
in Manhattan.
January 24, 1984
Evsei Agron shot in the neck as he exited the garage
by his apartment building in Brooklyn. New York's first Russian
godfather, Agron was killed a year later (see below)
February 28, 1984
Mikhail Tolstonog found shot to death in a boiler room.
May 4, 1985
Evsei Agron shot to death, 10 years after he arrived in
America and built his Brighton Beach criminal empire. An assassin
fired two bullets into his head.
February 3, 1986
Ilya Zeltzer shot to death during a gun battle inside a
gas-distribution office in Brooklyn.
He was a allegedly shot by Vladimir
Reznikov in a dispute over bootleg gas.
March 3, 1986
Shaya Kalikman shot to death in a Brighton Beach
social club, allegedly by Garik Verbitsky.
April 26, 1986
April 26, 1986: Oleg Vaksman shot to death inside a friend's
Brighton Beach apartment.
He was allegedly a midlevel cocaine dealer.
June 13, 1986
Vladimir Reznikov shot to death
while getting into his car in front of the
Odessa Restaurant in Brooklyn.
He was allegedly killed by La Cosa Nostra.
July 25, 1986
The body of Anatoly Rubashkin
found in a lot in Sheepshead Bay,
Brooklyn. He had been shot to death.
April 21, 1987
Garik Verbitsky shot to death
in a Brighton Beach social club.
Also known as "Jerry Razor," he was suspected
of murdering Shaya Kalikman (see above).
September 13, 1987
Rosala Elyurina stabbed to death.
November 18, 1987
Boris Rubinov shot to death in his car. He was believed
to have been a low-level criminal killed over a drug debt.
November 18, 1987
In an attempted murder, Lev Persits paralyzed after
being shot in the back.
He was allegedly involved in bootleg gas scams.
December 5, 1987
Philip Moskowitz found dead in
North Brunswick, New Jersey. Moskowitz
was a friend of Michael Markowitz (see below)
and was also involved in the bootleg gas scams.
October 18, 1988
Gregory Yampolsky allegedly killed by Felix Furman (see below).
December 10, 1988
Felix Furman shot to death in Brighton
Beach by Valery Zlotnikov, from
whom Furman was extorting money.
May 2, 1989
Michael Markowitz shot to death.
Arrested in connection with the
bootleg gas scams, he was allegedly
killed by LCN in order to prevent him from
cooperating with police.
May 23, 1990
Abram Khaskin found shot to death inside a burning car.
January 14, 1991
An unexploded bomb found under Boris Nayfeld's car. Monya
Elson is now charged with this attempted murder.
February 19, 1991
Jerome Slobotkin shot to death near his Philadelphia home
by Antuan Bronshtein. In 1988,
Slobotkin testified against Nicodemo Scarfo and
his associates.
February 28, 1991
Vladimir Vaynerchuk bludgeoned to death in an elevator.
March 3, 1991
Vyacheslav Lyubarsky shot in the
buttocks by an unknown assailant in
the hall outside his apartment.
He was allegedly a member of a Soviet narcotics trafficking
group that imported heroin into the United States.
He was later killed, along with his son
Vadim, in January 1992.
March 20, 1991
David Shuster shot, but survives. He was allegedly involved in the
bootleg gas scams.
May 11, 1991
Emil Puzyretsky shot to death inside
the National Restaurant in Brighton
Beach. A gunman shot him twice at close range.
May 14, 1991
Monya Elson shot in Brighton Beach,
but survives. The reputed leader
of a crime group involved in counterfeiting,
drug trafficking, and other criminal activities,
he was allegedly involved in the murders of
Elorous Evdoev and the Lubarskys (see below).
May 22, 1991
Gintis Digry shot to death in a car in Brooklyn.
A second man, Richardas
Vasiliavitchous, was wounded during the attack.
June 11, 1991
Moisy Zusim and Leonid Khazanovich both
die when Zusim, the owner of
a West Philadelphia jewelry store,
and Khazanovich, his employee, are shot with semiautomatic
weapons during a robbery at the store.
June 27, 1991
Fima Miller murdered inside a Brooklyn
jewelry store. He was alleged
to be an associate of Namik
Karafov and Fima Laskin (see below).
July 30, 1991
Namik Karafov shot to death inside his apartment.
Several guns were
found at the scene, but not the murder weapon.
August 27, 1991
The body of Yevgeni Michailov found in
a lot near New York's Kennedy
Airport after he was abducted in Brooklyn on
July 8, 1991. Allegedly involved in jewelry theft
and fraud, he had been shot four times in the head.
September 27, 1991
Fima Laskin stabbed to death in Munich.
November 6, 1991
The body of Roman Kegueles found
floating in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
He had been stabbed numerous times.
December 15, 1991
Robert Sason shot in the hand.
January 12, 1992
Vyacheslav and Vadim Lyubarsky--father
and son--shot to death in the
hallway outside their Brighton Beach apartment.
In 1995, Monya Elson and other were charged
in a federal indictment for these and other murders.
January 21, 1992
Efrim Ostrovsky shot to death while
exiting his limousine in Queens. The
hit was allegedly arranged by Alexander Slepinin (see below).
May 8, 1992
Said Amin Moussostov shot to death
by two unknown gunmen in the hallway
of his home in Palisades Park, New Jersey.
June 5, 1992
Elbrous Evdoev shot in the jaw and back
in New York City. Alleged to be
involved in prostitution, Evdoev survived this
attack but was killed in early 1993 (see below).
June 23, 1992
Alexander Slepinin shot to death in his car.
Allegedly responsible for
the death of Efrim Ostrovsky (see above),
Slepinin was shot numerous time in the head and
back, in 1995, Monya Elson and others were
charged in a federal indictment for this and
other murders.
July 4, 1992
Elbrous Evdoev shot in the shoulder and hand,
in New York City. Evdoev
told police the shooting had been ordered by Monya Elson.
August 26, 1992
Boris Roitman shot to death.
November 6, 1992
Monya Elson shot in the forearm by unknown assailant in Los
Angeles. Elson was driven by Leonyard Kanterkantetes
to a hospital where he was
treated and released.
November 20, 1992
Vladimir Zilberstayn hit by shotgun pellets
fired from another vehicle while
driving in Manhattan. The shooting was allegedly
caused by a dispute with Italian mobsters.
January 1, 1993
The body of Vanya Sargsyan found
in an industrial area of Lynbrook, Long
Island. A Brighton resident, Sargsyan had been shot three times.
March 6, 1993
The fully dressed body of Elbrous Evdoev
found frozen solid in a snow bank
in Pine Brook, New Jersey. Evdoev had been
the target of two previous shootings (see below).
March 23, 1993
Lev Gendler found dead in his apartment,
shot numerous times. He had a
criminal record in the United States and Israel.
June 10, 1993
Michael Libkin shot inside his
Manhattan antique store by Peter Gripaldi,
a California hit man who had arrived in
New York a few days earlier.
July 26, 1993
Monya Elson shot with his wife and
his bodyguard Oleg Zapinakmine. All
three were treated and released at a
local hospital. The attempts on Elson's life resulted from
a dispute between Elson and other criminal
factions within the Brighton Beach community.
September 24, 1993
Oleg Zapinakmine, shot once in the back and killed by an unknown
assailant, two months after the failed attempt on Monya Elson.
October 20, 1993
Georgiy Sidropulo shot three times in
the jaw, chest, and shoulder while
sitting in front of a Brighton Beach cafe.
Sidropulo was believed to be part of a Russian and
Hispanic narcotics group known as "T.F." (Together Forever).
December 2, 1993
Vladimir Beigelman shot to death by
two unknown males who fired four
shots into his head, neck, and back as he
exited a van in Queens. Witnesses told police that the
shooters appeared to be Hispanic.
Beigelman was reputed to be a major cocaine trafficker.
January 11, 1994
Alexander Gutman shot to death execution
style by Northeast Philadelphia
resident and Soviet emigre Antuan Bronshtein
(see above) at Gutman's Philadelphia jewelry store.
January 12, 1994
Oleg Korataev shot to death near the
Arbat Restaurant in Brighton Beach.
A former Soviet boxer who was known to be a brutal mob enforcer.
January 17, 1994
Alexander "Sasha Pinya" Levichitz shot three
times in the head near the
Arbat Restaurant, but survived.
He was allegedly a close of friend of Monya Elson.
January 21, 1994
Vladimir Karak shot to death.
March 23, 1994
The body of Yanik Megasaev found in
a pile of garbage in a wooded area
near Shore Parkway in Brooklyn.
Megasaev had been shot four times in the face and chest.
June 16, 1994
Alexander Graber shot along with two
other men in Moscow by unknown
assailants in a car. Graber had lived in Brighton
Beach for over a year and allegedly had ties
to local organized crime.
July 11, 1994
Naum Raichel shot three times
in the chest and stomach near the
Winter Garden Restaurant in Brighton Beach.
That same day, his brother Simeon was severely
beaten in Berlin, Germany. Both men survived the attacks.
January 18, 1995
Arkady Shvartsman shot and killed by
two gunmen as he sat in his vehicle
during the evening rush hour just a
few blocks away from the Philadelphia Police
Department headquarters. Shvartsman's briefcase,
which contained over $10,000, was
left untouched by the gunmen on the seat next to Shvartsman.
April 20, 1995
Heinrich Barel shot in the face, but he survived.
Source: The Tri-State Joint Soviet Emigre
Organized Crime Project (composed of the New York
State Organized Crime Task Force,
the New York State Commission of
Investigations, the New Jersey
Commission of Investigation, and
the Pennsylvania Crime Commission)
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Brighton Beach's first Russian Godfather,
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Marat Balagula: billion-dollar scams
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Vyacheslav Ivankov: sent from Moscow
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): James DiPietro, Monya Elson's lawyer
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Barry Slotnick, Ivankov's lawyer
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jennifer Gould
Research: DAN COHEN AND DANNY SINOPOLI
AV
>
> Village Voice
> 03-04-97
>
> 65 GREAT RUSSIAN MOB HITS
> By Jennifer Gould
I didn't notice any Russians there ..
Stefan Lemieszewski
AV wrote:
> Village Voice
> 03-04-97
> 65 GREAT RUSSIAN MOB HITS
> By Jennifer GouldI didn't notice any Russians there ..
American Studies International
Feb2000, Vol. 38 Issue 1, p26, 16p
AMERICAN JEWS AND CRIME: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
By Robert Rockaway
Throughout American history, criminal activity often provided the means
by which the poor, the uneducated, and the outsider could achieve
material success and power. Prior to World War II, some Jews, like
members of other immigrant and ethnic groups before and after them,
used crime as a ladder to rapid social ascent and influence.(n1) The
Jewish community was aware of the problem, but because of concern
about what their Gentile neighbors would say and because of fears of
anti-Semitism, the Jewish leadership downplayed the subject and
discouraged any public discussion of it.(n2) Instead, the low percentage
of Jews in prisons was offered as evidence of negligible Jewish
criminality.(n3) But this presented a distorted picture of Jewish crime,
because clever criminals rarely get caught. Only in 1951, with the
sensational televised hearings of the U.S. Senate's investigation of
organized crime (the Kefauver Committee), did the larger American
and Jewish public become aware of the extent of Jewish involvement
in criminal enterprises.(n4) Nevertheless, the hearings failed to generate
any serious historical research on Jewish criminality.
Writing in 1974, David Singer deplored the existing state of affairs.
He
accused the American Jewish establishment -- the defense agencies,
the scholars, and the historical societies -- of "censoring the American
Jewish past to eliminate any mention of Jewish crime." Fearful of an
anti-Semitic reaction and desiring to project a "nice Jewish boy image
of the Jew," they "turned a blind eye to a fascinating and important
facet
of the history of American Jewry." Unfortunately, he added, "the practice
of Jewish self-censorship continues unabated today." The subject is
part
of American Jewish history, insisted Singer, "and, as such, deserves
scholarly attention." The continuing refusal of the Jewish establishment
to examine dispassionately the record of American Jewish crime,
declared Singer, "reveals a fundamental lack of security and self
respect."(n5)
[ . . . ]
Amigocabal
AV <A...@nospam.ru> wrote:
> Stefan Lemieszewski wrote:
> >
> > Village Voice
> > 03-04-97
> >
> > 65 GREAT RUSSIAN MOB HITS
> > By Jennifer Gould
>
> I didn't notice any Russians there ..
How the heck do you know that you are a Russian, or a Pole or Chechen?
Did you hold a candle while your momma was having sex to make you?
Somewhere along the line every Russian is a Tatar, Turk, Slav, Swede and
who knows what else!
--
From the Land Of The Free, and the Home of The Brave!
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
Vlad
> >
> > Village Voice
> > 03-04-97
> >
> > 65 GREAT RUSSIAN MOB HITS
> > By Jennifer Gould
>
> I didn't notice any Russians there ..
...
> > The body of Anatoly Rubashkin
> > found in a lot in Sheepshead Bay,
> > Brooklyn. He had been shot to death.
How do you know that Tolya Rubashkin was not Russian? Did he tell you
that while you were throwing his body into the water? :-)
Amigocabal
the gasoline taxes from the State of New York, and selling dope to the
impoverished South side residents!
--
From the Land Of The Free, and the Home of The Brave!
Stefan Lemieszewski
Amigocabal wrote:
They have to finance the "promised land" somehow. One way is to steal
the gasoline taxes from the State of New York, and selling dope to the
impoverished South side residents!
One gangster-turned-philanthropist was Rachmiel Brandwain.
The Independent had additional information on Rachmiel Brandwain,
who was born in Ukraine and raised in Israel, where his family emigrated
in 1959. After serving in the Israeli merchant navy, he decided to
come
to Europe to start a business, and Antwerp was an obvious choice.
The city, in the heart of Europe, has a well-established Russian
community and a thriving port, where 3,500 containers are unloaded
each day. In his office, behind his desk was a picture of Brandwain
offering a donation to the Lubavitcher Rabbi in New York.
Brandwain also had ties to the Brighton Beach mafia in New York.
Stefan Lemieszewski
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Independent (London)
25Jul98
Heroin trail that led to the heart of London's Jewish community
By Paul Lashmar
THE ORTHODOX Jewish community has been shocked by a series of arrests
of its members for
alleged heroin smuggling.Police and Customs inquiries are centring
on a drugs link between Israel,
Antwerp and London.
One man is serving an 11-year prison sentence for smuggling heroin into
Britain and two other Jewish
men are to appear before British courts on smuggling charges.
Evidence of the new drugs link follows the professional execution on
an Antwerp street last week of a
Jewish jeweller and leading figure in the Russian mafia. A Talmudic
scholar was also accused in Tel
Aviv this month of laundering drugs money.
The north London Orthodox community is remaining tight-lipped about
the arrests although it is
thought to be severely embarrassed. Several people in the community,
who did not want to be
named, said that the arrests were causing anger and deep concern.
The involvement of Orthodox Jews in hard drugs has echoes of the recent
case in New York State
where the puritanical Amish sect was torn by the arrest of several
younger members for drug dealing.
The Orthodox and ultra-orthodox communities of Stamford Hill and Golders
Green in north London
have a reputation for being largely crime-free. While some members
of the Orthodox community have
been jailed in the past for large-scale VAT frauds and other white
collar crime, it has never been
associated with drugs or violent crime. The fact the arrests involve
allegations of involvement with
heroin has proved even more shocking.
Police in several European countries began to suspect that the diamond
area of Antwerp was
becoming an international centre for drug smuggling two years ago when
an Orthodox Jewish man
from Antwerp was arrested at Ramsgate.
Dror Hazenfratz, then 34, from Antwerp, was jailed for 11 years for
trying to smuggle heroin. He was
arrested by British Customs officers with his wife and child in the
family Peugeot 405. Underneath
the child seat in the back Customs officers found15kg of heroin worth
pounds 750,000.
Hazenfratz, who was born in Haifa and holds an Israeli passport as well
as a Belgian identity card,
appeared in Canterbury court wearing traditional dress and carrying
the Talmud. He had made other
one-day trips to England.
Hazenfratz said he had been told to meet a Georgian Orthodox Jew at
a north London hotel. The
ultimate destination of the drugs was reputedly David Santini, a Glaswegian
who, at the time, was
Scotland's leading heroin dealer.
In an unrelated raid, Santini was arrested while repacking a pounds
1.1m consignment of heroin. He
was jailed for 13 years. A senior officer in the case said: "He had
massive connections with Britain's
underworld and leads to European drug cartels."
After the arrest of Hazenfratz, drugs officers began to suspect a new
drugs route. The last stopping
point for most drugs coming into Britain is the Netherlands, but European
police forces are making it
more difficult to use that country as a transhipment point.
The collapse of Communism has also opened up new smuggling routes through
Eastern Europe into
London and Antwerp is ideally suited as a drugs centre.
At the end of June, British Customs in Dover arrested a young man from
Antwerp with 10kg of heroin
allegedly concealed in his hire-car. He is awaiting trial. Shortly
before, an older man had been
arrested at Coquelles at the French entrance to the Channel Tunnel.
British Customs allegedly found
quantities of heroin and cocaine. The man was an American Orthodox
Jew living in Stamford Hill.
British drugs officers suspect they are seeing the beginning of a new
drug operation involving
Antwerp's Orthodox Jews and the Russian mafia. The Orthodox community
has been a major player
in the diamond and precious metal market. Antwerp has the largest diamond
centre in the world.
Other centres of the diamond business are Tel Aviv and Hatton Garden,
London.
Antwerp's Orthodox community is close-knit but cosmopolitan, with close
links with similar
communities in Israel, London, New York and Eastern Europe. It is an
Ashkenazi community.
Over the past two years small traders have seen a downturn in the diamond
business and the trade
has moved mainly into the hands of big corporations such as DeBeers.
In addition, last year, police
made a series of raids on diamond businesses suspected of tax evasion
and money laundering.
According to one Customs source, smuggling diamonds from Antwerp to
Hatton Garden has been
happening for many years. This expertise in smuggling has now been
turned to a more sinister trade.
The Russian mafia has made Antwerp a centre of its operations and has
been able to use the
expertise of a community that has fallen on hard times.
Last week, evidence of the violence associated with drug crime surfaced
again in Antwerp. A Jewish
trader in precious metals in the city, Rachmeil "Mike" Brandwain, also
reputed to be a leading figure
in the Russian mafia, was shot dead. Underworld gossip has it that
he had informed on another
leading figure in the Russian mafia who had been arrested in New York.
In the 1980s Brandwain had sold gold that was smuggled into Britain
for a VAT fraud being run in
Hatton Garden. A Customs operation codenamed "Operation Fiddler" arrested
a number of men in
London. Brantwain was also suspected to be a cocaine dealer.
Earlier this month in Tel Aviv, three British drugs officers were in
court to see an Israeli man charged
with laundering money from an international drugs ring.
According to local police, the British officers were from MI6 - the
remit of the overseas arm of British
intelligence was extended to cover international drug smuggling.
Israel Aron Albam, a 38-year-old Talmudic scholar, married with eight
children, was released on a
bail of 8m shekels (around pounds 1.3m).
The Tel Aviv court was told that British authorities had been involved
with the seizure of two boatloads
of drugs, the first in 1992 with two tonnes of cocaine and one tonne
of cocaine.
The shipments originated from Columbia and were heading for Holland.
The second boat was seized
in Portugal and a British citizen known only as "John" was arrested.
He claimed that Albam had given him pounds 48,000 to pay for the yacht.
The court was told that a
number of men are held by the British authorities in connection with
the smuggling ring.
Albam is an Ashkenazi of the large Vishmitz sect. Police inquiries revealed
that Albam was on a
Israeli government grant for poor scholars to study the Talmud at the
yeshiva (theology college). He
had travelled to New York and London, apparently collecting money for
charity.
However, Israeli police found 400m shekels in his bank account. The
account was in the Israeli
religious bank which is tax exempt.
Albam admitted that he ran "a private bank" but claims that he did the
laundering only for the
charedim (the Orthodox). He has denied any connection with drugs dealings.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Village Voice
03/11/97
RUEFUL RUSSIAN'S JAIL TALE
ON BRIGHTON, COCAINE, AND GULAGS
By Jennifer Gould
Researched by Danny Sinopoli and Dan Cohen
LEWISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA--
He takes my hand in greeting with a wide, warm smile. He is a small
man, with
salt-and-pepper hair, the ingratiating ease of the eager-to-please,
and mischievous,
dancing eyes.
He plays the role of gracious host, I am, in a sense, his guest.
For a moment, I forget where I am.
But his slightly pudgy frame is stuffed into a standard-issue jumpsuit,
worn only
for visitors and after a strip search, replacing the usual khaki fatigues.
We're in
a small glass room and there's a scowling, slightly bored-looking guard
outside.
I have a glow-under-a-special-light stamp on my hand, instant photo
ID, three
security checkpoints behind me, and a funny feeling about the men perched
in eight towers above me. Something about automatic rifles. Thought
the
building is 1930s Italian Renaissance style, in charming Pennsylvania
Amish
country, I'm in Lewisburg, at a maximum-security federal penitentiary.
My host, David "Dmitri" Podlog, looks like your friendly neighborhood
deli
owner, which, for a time, he was. That was in Brighton Beach in the
1970s.
Some of his patrons and partners--he says he also had a stake in everything
from furniture to car importing/exporting companies--went on to become
some of the biggest names in emigre biznes. And crime. One of his
car-exporting companies is linked to Belgium, where an alleged associates,
Rachmiel Brandwain--one of the reputed top godfathers of Russian
Organized
Crime (ROC) in Belgium--is based.
Podlog is now serving a 27-year sentence for conspiracy to possess and
distribute controlled substance. He was convicted in 1993 after an
extensive
undercover investigation--America's biggest ROC drug bust to date--which
led to the future indictment of two of America's top ROC bosses, Brighton
Beach locals Boris "Beeba" Nayfeld and Monya Elson.
The investigation revealed a massive heroin-smuggling operation that
marked ROC's move from local, Brighton Beach-based extortion, money
laundering, and billion-dollar gasoline and medical frauds to international
drug trafficking. One of the investigation's original informants is
also alleged
to have tipped off probers of the Russian mob's submarine smuggling
scheme, which was reported in the Voice last week.
Through the investigation, probers discovered that drugs from Southeast
and central Asia were smuggled to Moscow and then Eastern Europe.
From there, the narcotics would arrive in New York, Boston, and Chicago--on
planes carried by human "mules" or by mail. ROC was responsible for
getting the drugs into the country. The Italian Mafia then distributed
the
narcotics along the preestablished distribution paths. Sixteen people--of
Sicilian and ex-Soviet origin--were convicted, including Podlog.
In the recent four-and-a half-hour Voice interview, Podlog swore he
was
innocent. Nevertheless, it is Podlog's voice in a taped telephone
conversation that links Elson to Nayfeld--and, say federal prosecutors,
to drug trafficking. While Podlog admits to knowing the big players
involved, he says that the tape-recorded conversations are open to
interpretation.
"We're small, closed community. Everybody knows each other," he says.
"We all arrived [in Brighton Beach] at the same time." Although Podlog
was convicted, Nayfeld and Elson are still awaiting trial. While there
is
no word yet on Nayfeld, Elson's trial is scheduled for next October,
said James DiPietro, his lawyer.
Podlog agreed to the interview in part because he's embroiled in a
battle of his own against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
which, he says, stole his credit cards and racked up $13,000 in
expenses before returning them. "That's the basis for a mistrial,"
he says.
In 1992, the DEA arrested Podlog, searched his Brooklyn residence,
and seized items including a beeper, a roll of small plastic bags,
address
books, and credit cards. Some items were later returned while others
were kept as evidence. When Podlog first raised the stolen credit card
complaint, a Manhattan court conceded that the DEA agent, Louis Cardinali,
had "inadvertently" seized six credit cards during the search that
were not
reported on the itemized list of what was seized. Those cards were
returned
on April 21, 1992--six days after the search. Last July, U.S. Southern
District
judge John F. Keenan ruled that he was "satisfied" with an internal
government investigation that found Podlog's allegations to be "baseless."
During the interview, Podlog told his own life story. It parallels the
story
of many Russian-crime-linked emigres and provides insight into the
emigre
crime network, which is extensive. But most of the community is hard-working,
law-abiding, and, some say, suffers from being tarred by the criminal
element.
Although Podlog is Jewish--he began the interview in Yiddish and Russian--he
did not suffer anti-Semitism in his native Ukraine. But he's an outsider
wherever
he goes. "Here I'm a Russian, there I'm a yid (the Russian equivalent
of kike),"
he said.
In Ukraine, he became a successful factory sales director, which introduced
him into the Communist Party elite and black market network. Under
Communism,
anyone who could participated in that network. (In fact, one Brighton
Beach
godfather who is currently in jail, Marat Balagula--mastermind of the
billion-dollar
gasoline tax scam--even boasts that he and Mikhail Gorbachev were tight.
One of his most prized possessions, legend has it, is a photograph
with
Gorbachev.)
By the time Podlog arrived in Brighton Beach, he had "enough" money
to
open up businesses, including a Coney Island deli. He won't say how
much,
or where the money came from. However, more money flowed following
the collapse of the Soviet empire.
"When I arrived, I was not a poor man," Podlog said, explaining that
many
Soviets, especially those who operated factories, got rich on the black
market.
While in the United States, Podlog was also arrested in California,
in 1991,
for forging a check for nearly $100,000. America's biggest ROC drug
bust
began with the random arrest of two Russian emigres at JFK International
Airport in 1991. They arrived from Warsaw with bags of heroin taped
to their
chests. The investigation led to the arrest of Nayfeld, and presumably
through
him, the arrest of Elson, who was extradited from Italy, where he spent
18
months in jail on suspicion of money laundering. His wife, Marya--who
was
shot in the face in Brooklyn during the third attempt on Elson's life--was
also
arrested and spent at least four months in an Italian jail cell when
she
traveled to Italy to visit Elson, his lawyer said.
Nayfeld and Elson once worked together, although Elson now faces charges
including drug trafficking, three murder counts, and the attempted
murder of
Nayfeld. But Nayfeld was arrested on drug-trafficking charges first,
DiPietro
said. He added that Nayfeld is a "rat" who told "lies" that led to
Elson's
subsequent indictment.
Both Nayfeld and Elson were big-time ROC operators before the collapse
of Communism in 1991--and Russian godfather Vyacheslav Ivankov's arrival
in the United States, Ivankov, a notorious Brighton Beach operative,
was
sentenced to almost 10 years in jail for extortion conspiracy charges
last
month in Brooklyn.
International drug smuggling expanded with the collapse of the Soviet
Union--and ROC wanted in. Poppy field cultivation exploded in the Fergana
Valley, where Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan meet. By 1993,
acreage under cultivation increased at least 10 times in three years
in
Uzbekistan alone, according to Russian estimates, and wild marijuana
covered 1000 square miles of the former Soviet Union (FSU)--25 times
more than in any other country.
In the past, drugs from this area and neighboring Afghanistan were used
by Islamic fundamentalists to buy U.S. weapons in their fight against
the
Soviet-installed government. Today, drug profits are still used to
buy arms,
now often Soviet, to fund terrorist groups and the ethnic wars that
have
exploded across the FSU.
Podlog is cited as a link between Nayfeld and Elson. His voice is heard
in a tape-recorded conversation in which Nayfeld asks Podlog to ask
Elson--then in Germany--for $30,000 owed to a friend, according to
federal prosecutors.
"I can assure you, that was anything but a narcotics-related conversation,"
said DiPietro, Elson's lawyer. He adds that while Nayfeld is "an international
drug trafficker of the first order" and that "maybe" Podlog is also
involved,
his client is innocent.
Podlog has the kind of pleasant demeanor that reminds me of other gangsters.
I have known, on both sides of the Atlantic. Many have ended up in
jail, or
dead. Podlog's manner is, well, sweet. It seems to stem from an ability
to
get along with all sorts of people. But like the others, Podlog tends
to switch
from smiles and good-natured humor to red-in-the-face, banging-on-the-table
anger. In the midst of such uncontrolled explosions, he'd break into
a smile
and wave at children visiting a neighboring inmate. The children even
brought
him some iced tea. Podlog swears that he would be treated better if
he
cooperated. "But I'm not a rat. I will never confirm their lies," he
said.
For now, Podlog says he is working in the prison library and devoting
his time
to fighting the DEA. Indeed, he has all the time in the world.
"These people are a lot worse than the KGB," he said. "This is the real
gulag.
I have the Communists, but there was 100 per cent more justice in that
country."
Podlog, who is pushing 50, refers to his 27-year sentence as life. He
believes
he may die behind these walls.
"A man is supposed to be a man," he said. "They took my life. For what?"
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Facing the rest of his life in prison, former
Brighton resident says he prefers Communist justice.
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