RUSSIAN MOBSTERS ACTIVE IN FLORIDA AND CARIBBEAN

MIAMI, (Reuters) - Ruthless and sophisticated Russian gangsters have
followed Colombian drug lords and international financiers to the Caribbean
islands, long a haven for ill-gotten gains, U.S. agents and money
laundering experts said Thursday.

Russian mobs, often run by ex-KGB and special services agents with broad
knowledge of covert operations and high finance, are involved in a vast
array of crimes including prostitution, fraud and narcotics trafficking,
experts said.

Russians have moved into Caribbean offshore havens like Antigua, Curacao,
St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Maarten and others, where they build cozy
relationships with bankers and politicians much as the Colombian cocaine
cowboys did in the 1970s and `80s, say officials and experts in the field.

"We see a significant (Russian) influence in the area of money laundering,"
said Brent Eaton, spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in
Miami. "They are busy in the Bahamas particularly. They've had a lot of
meetings recently in Puerto Rico. There's a growing community in south
Florida."

The far-flung Caribbean islands have long been havens for narcotics smugglers.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Colombian drug barons corrupted local officials
with bags of cash and used the remote islands to transship cocaine. Plagued
by weak economies, many islands started banking industries that became tax
havens and prime turf for crooks looking to cleanse their loot.

This month, John Mathewson, a U.S. citizen who owned the now-defunct
Guardian Bank & Trust Ltd in the Cayman Islands, said at a sentencing
hearing after being convicted for money laundering that the government of
the British colony knowingly abets tax evasion. The Cayman government
denied the allegation.

Russian mobs gained international strength in the early 1990s following the
collapse of the Soviet Union, and have been operating in south Florida and
the Caribbean for years, law enforcement sources said.

"Their strength in the Caribbean hasn't waned," said Charles Intriago, a
former U.S. Justice Department official who publishes the Miami-based
newsletter Money Laundering Alert.

The New York Times reported Thursday that billions of dollars have been
channeled through the Bank of New York in the last year in what was
believed to be a major money laundering operation by Russian organized crime.

Intriago said the use of the Bank of New York, which comes under the
sophisticated regulation of U.S. authorities, may be a sign of growing
audacity of the Russians.

"These guys are savages, almost on par with the violent side of the
Colombian cartels," Intriago said. "I think their sophistication will grow
with a few more laps around the track. They've really only been in business
for ten years."

Wealthy Russian mobsters, their bodyguards and flashy girlfriends, are a
common sight in the hotels of Miami Beach, experts said. Miami is a
transportation hub for the Caribbean.

In one audacious case, federal prosecutors accused a Miami strip club
operator, Russian-born Ludwig Fainberg, of cutting a deal with Russian
military officers to buy a submarine for a cartel.

Law enforcement officials say some Caribbean islands have moved recently to
clean up their banking industries. But the Russians, like others before,
have found the islands to be safe refuges, experts said.

"They are buying economic passports in five or six (Caribbean)
jurisdictions," said Kenneth Rijock, a Miami financial crimes consultant
who spent two years in jail for money laundering. "Under some circumstances
you can adopt a new name in these countries."

Rijock said that Russian mobs were formed by ex-KGB and special services
agents who looted Russia during the collapse of communism and became
well-funded gangsters with language skills and expertise in international
finance and covert operations.

"Miami Beach is a meeting place and R & R center," he added. "People
involved in drug homicides in Russia come here until the heat cools down."

REUTERS