UNDERWORLD AROUND THE WORLD

Mobsters Form International Cartels: Cops

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany -- From Russian gangs to the Sicilian
mafia, the world's organized crime networks are increasingly working
together in alliances that transcend borders and ethnic ties, law
enforcement leaders said yesterday.

At a conference on organized crime in this Alpine resort town, law
enforcement experts have come from 22 countries to talk about ways to
combat mobs worldwide.

"(The gangs) don't discriminate against groups. They only have one issue
and that's how much profit they can make," said Tom Pickard, assistant
director of the FBI.

Conventional drug supply routes are meaningless now, Pickard said.

Police are seeing narcotics moving freely around the world, from South
America to Europe and from Europe to the United States.

Thomas Fuentes, section chief for organized crime at the FBI, said cases he
sees now can transcend as many as 25 different jurisdictions.

And it's not just conventional street crime such as prostitution or drugs
that the mafia groups are involved in, he said.

Groups such as Russian organized crime "are able to operate at the highest
levels to threaten our banking systems, our governments," Fuentes said.

The Russian delegation proposed annual meetings of police and security
officials from around the world to assess common problems.