Rome: "the promised land for foreign mafias"

The UK has a very serious crime problem. Where do all these criminals come from?

The crime hotspot map where Britian's most hardened criminals live. (click to enlarge)

In Farnworth, near Bolton, Greater Manchester (the upper red zone on the map):

A wealthy businesswoman was forced to watch her nine-year-old son being threatened at knifepoint by travellers during a vicious raid. Clare Topcu, 46, was tied up and her young son Demir beaten when the two yobs burst into their luxury farmhouse in the dead of night whilst stealing roof slates....At Bolton Crown Court, one of the attackers Romanian traveller Visinel Andrei who claimed to be 16, was allowed to be named and given six years youth custody after he admitted robbery and false imprisonment....He told officers he had been pressured into taking part in the robbery by older Romanian men and that he had gone into the house with another man who has not been caught. (Mail on Sunday)

 "Romanian traveller?" There must be someone at every newspaper whose job is to make up euphemisms.

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In December 2009, the Telegraph UK reported on organized mafias in Rome. The organized crime syndicates have decided to cooperate with each other, as it's better for business if they don't go stepping on each others' toes.

The impoverished south of Italy has been the traditional power base for the country's four mafia groups – Sicily's Cosa Nostra, the Camorra from Campania, the 'Ndragheta of Calabria and the lesser known Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia....In moving north, mafia gangsters have developed a new, less overt modus operandi. Rather than collecting protection money from restaurants, shops and businesses, as they do in southern cities like Naples and Palermo, they are laundering the proceeds of crime by buying into legitimate enterprises [restaurants, etc. - ed.].  ...The city's international airport at Fiumicino, and the sea port of Civitavecchia just to the north, have become key points for drug trafficking. Criminal activity in Rome was now on a par with southern Italy, Libera Informazione claimed.

And to make matters worse, the organized crime families in Italy have joined forces with organized crime rings from other countries.

Mafiosi had become much more powerful and sophisticated in recent years, expanding into prostitution, drug trafficking, the counterfeiting of consumer goods and illegal building. In a disturbing trend, godfathers have struck up alliances with Chinese, Russian, Albanian and Romanian organised criminals operating in Rome, with the capital now "the promised land for foreign mafias".

In July last year, police arrested seven alleged mafia members suspected of attempting to buy into the Lazio soccer team [to launder money - ed.]. ... After the offer was turned down, the Casalesi allegedly tried purchasing shares in the club through front companies based in Switzerland or Hungary. Police said the attempt to acquire a soccer club was "a new phenomenon".


The mafia has no shortage of cash to invest. An Italian think tank, Eurispes, estimated earlier this year that criminal syndicates earned 130 billion euros, or nine per cent of Italy's GDP, in 2008. Drugs made up nearly half the revenue, followed by the illegal dumping of environmental waste.

 Rome

I believe it. And you know who else keeps popping up? Spain. You know when you don't see someone for months on end and then all of a sudden you bump into them five times in one week? It's like that. Ever since I started looking into the Sabbateans, I see Spain every time I turn around.

But look how they work together. If you focus on Russians or Romanians or Spanish or British, you lose the picture. They work together.


Traces of drugs found on 99% of British bank notes... Cocaine hidden in frozen fruit, requiring labs to separate and prepare for sale... Seven tons of cocaine seized in multinational operation, some dissolved in tubs of molasses, requiring labs to separate and prepare for sale...I guess the drug traffickers know people with nice big laboratories to reconstitute their drugs. How convenient is that?

In 2002, Spanish police decided that a guy committed suicide by slitting his own throat, presumably in fear of the Romanian mafia which controls business on the Canary island of Tenerife.

Investigators in Tenerife have decided that Scott Miller took his own life by ramming a dagger into his throat - despite continuing claims that he was murdered by gangsters. ....A Tenerife journalist, who has investigated the case, believes Miller’s business interests may have been a front for laundering money raised through drugs and arms dealing.

The Romanian Mafia are suspected of controlling much of the south of the island and have previously demonstrated their ruthlessness in dealing with anyone who threatens their operation.

The journalist, who asked not to be named for reasons of personal safety, said: "It is possible Miller failed to cover up his tracks properly and that meant the police started asking awkward questions. "I believe a contract killing was arranged to stop their inquiries getting any further." The journalist alleges Spanish police recorded Miller’s death as suicide because they are running scared of the mafia, and to close down damaging publicity about the presence of criminal gangs in the holiday island.

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In December 2009, aangirfan wrote about the Romanian election, revealing longstanding ties to the CIA and the KGB.

"According to CIA officials, cited by the New York Times, 'one jail (secret CIA prison) was a renovated building on a busy street in Bucharest, Romania'. (European Commission Demands Investigations Regarding CIA Secret ... / Report details CIA prisons in Europe)

Romania, which is in NATO, has troops in Iraq and in Afghanistan. The 1989 revolt in Romania led to the fall of Ceausescu.

An article apparently written by former Securitate officers ('Was This Your Revolution? This is How It Was!' Democratia, No. 36, 24-30 Sept. 1990) describes how the CIA and KGB organised the fall of Ceausescu.

Reportedly, key figures in the revolt were working for the CIA and KGB, including Militaru (allegedly a KGB-CIA double agent) and the former Securitate officer and adviser to Ceausescu, Dumitru Mazilu (allegedly a CIA agent), and Silviu Brucan (allegedly both a CIA and KGB agent).

Reportedly, just before the revolt, there were 'massive arrivals of so-called Hungarian tourists in Timisoara and Soviet tourists in Cluj'.

Aha, like "Hungarian travelers?" The foreign travelers arrive and all hell breaks loose? That sort of thing?

aangirfan: Do Jews run the security services?

In 2006, The Sun reported on the expected UK crime surge when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU.

In a Sun exclusive yesterday we told how a leaked Cabinet memo shows Britain faces a leap in crime when Romania and Bulgaria join the EU on New Year’s Day. ...There are fears that, from next January 1, along with the legitimate workers and holiday-makers coming to our shores there will be many people from the criminal underbelly of the two nations. Immigration Minister Liam Byrne and EU minister Geoff Hoon compiled the leaked report that has been forwarded to Tony Blair and the heads of MI5 and Scotland Yard.

...The mafia gained their toehold in the two Balkan nations at the end of the Eighties as the Berlin Wall fell and they cut loose from the Soviet Bloc. As soon as the communists moved out, the gangsters took control of much of the free enterprise that seemed likely to succeed. Soon they were dealing in drugs, people trafficking and fraud.

That's funny. You know, the oligarchs -- Russian Jews -- made a bloody fortune at the same time.

The oligarchs’ rise to prominence dates back to the late 1980s and the first meetings of a group of egghead economists known as the "young reformers". When communism was toppled in 1991, these ambitious young men persuaded Yeltsin to let them kickstart Russia by smashing the centralised economy, liberalising prices and selling off state assets.

Gee Wally, do you really think there's a connection?

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The Romanian mafia seems to specialize in human trafficking, human slaves.


2005: Sex trade's reliance on forced labor... and 2010: Czech Mafia Ruthlessly Exploits Bulgarians, Romanians...

A report published by local Czech non-governmental organizations and specialist Czech police departments has revealed mafia exploitation of Bulgarians and Romanians. The documents, announced on Thursday, claims that a significant increase in human trafficking from Bulgaria and Romania for cheap labor has been observed, with the citizens of both countries being turned into true slaves. After the accession of both countries to the European Union in 2007, "the importation of a work force from Romania and Bulgaria" increased dramatically due to the lack of a required work permit in the Czech Republic for the those citizens. "This criminal business turned out to be very profitable for the local mafia, which makes millions of Euros a year", said the report.

Many of the trafficked women end up in Spain.

“Police say that around one third of the women they have rescued from prostitution rackets over the last two years are Romanian. They also believe that Romanian mafias have virtually complete control over prostitution networks in Catalonia, Valencia and Murcia, as well as a significant share of the sex industry in Andalusia and the Balearic Islands.”

And now, March 2010, the so-called Russian Mafia abroad includes up to 300,000 people and dominates organized crime throughout the world (this article is well worth reading in full):

In today’s “Versia,” Ruslan Gorevoy says that law enforcement personnel in many countries -- including Spain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, France, Mexico, “and even the US” -- have been surprised by how “confidently” criminal groups consisting of people from the former USSR now dominate their national criminal worlds (versia.ru/articles/2010/mar/01/russkaja_mafija).

Indeed, the “Versiya” reporter continues, the Russian groups, which include “up to 300,000 of our compatriots,” have succeeded in pushing aside local groups and establishing their own “spheres of influence” to the point that they no longer need to “clarify relations with the help of arms.”

Of course, the "Russian mafia" is another euphemism, since the top people carry Israeli passports.

The state of Israel is a major factor in the rise in power of the Jewish Mafia, Jewish drug dealers, child porn pushers and slave traders. The CIA has commented that there is no major "Russian" Mob figure that does not carry an Israeli passport but the Israeli state refuses to take any action against the gangsters. The power of the Jewish gangs is wielded more ruthlessly than any other criminal gang. All of whom are free from prosecution in Israel. Israel does not consider these to be crimes so long as the victims are non-Jews and the Israeli state will not extradite its citizens to non-Jewish countries.

So why are they all meeting in ROME? Well for one thing, because it's convenient, and for another thing, because the Sabbateans are also in Rome. So we're good, see?

Church of the Gesu (Jesuit headquarters), Rome

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In closing, here's a 2004 story from The Sun, found on this message board.

This is organized crime, trafficking poor little girls into sex slavery in the UK and elsewhere, and please note, dumping them into the ocean if that seems more convenient.

From OLIVER HARVEY in Vlora, Albania
THE Sun today exposes a sex slave scandal in which 1,400 innocent young girls a year are smuggled to Britain to work as prostitutes. The racket is run by the Albanian Mafia and I tracked down one of its key figures in an undercover operation. I posed as a pimp from London and within minutes of us meeting he offered to ship children to the UK for me - for only £527 each. And - with sickening callousness - he boasted he would transport ten for the price of nine. We reveal the sordid trade only 48 hours after police smashed an African child-slavery gang importing kids to London.

I travelled to Albania to infiltrate the sex-slave trafficking mobs. The investigation led me to hear accounts from a string of girls who had been raped, beaten and forced to work in brothels abroad. Some were sold like animals by their families for £1,000. The underworld - in Albania and Britain - is reaping huge profits from the booming business.

Our rendezvous with the Albanian mobster was at the isolated Kalaja restaurant on cliffs towering above the Ionian Sea. A contact in the Albanian criminal fraternity in London had put us in touch with a middleman in the smuggler's paradise of Vlora, southern Albania. After a flurry of mobile phone calls we were told to meet the hoodlum at 3pm. I arrived ten minutes early with a bodyguard and an interpreter. Meanwhile, Sun photographer Dan Charity hid in a room 100 metres from our table.

Call ... Gyjmi and minder A beige saloon car pulled up at the restaurant soon after and two thick-set men in their 40s got out. One, wearing slacks, Italian loafers and sporting a chunky signet ring, was introduced to us as Nasi Gyjmi. The other, clad more casually, was his henchman. I told cigar-puffing Gyjmi through the interpreter I needed girls smuggled to the UK. He replied: "No problem. We can take them by boat to Italy." Then he added: "If you pay for nine you get number ten free."

I asked how much it would cost and he replied: "One thousand euros (£700) for an adult." "I can take children across but they must be with an adult. "They're cheaper. I'll do it for 750 euros (£527)." He explained: "We have to wait for good weather and dodge the patrols." I tried to haggle but he said through gritted teeth: "This is my last price." I said I would would have to check with my boss in London then we shook hands and parted. The ease with which I could have struck a deal then and there shocked me. It proved the people smugglers were undeterred by an Albanian government clampdown ordered in the wake of international pressure.

There was evidence of that blitz by the authorities on the outskirts of Vlora where several rubber speedboats had been confiscated. Such craft are used to carry men, women and children the 100 miles to Italy. The treacherous night crossings last around three hours. Sometimes they end in tragedy, with the human cargo hurled overboard to their deaths to make it easier to evade intercepting Italian vessels.

Clifftop ... restaurant where meeting was held But, for the smugglers, the risks are worth it. Some of the speedboats can carry 40 people - raking in up to £28,000 a trip. Albania's poverty and ancient clan system have allowed organised crime to flourish since its Communist regime fell in 1991. Even the manhole covers on the streets of capital Tirana have been stolen and sold for scrap. Gang bosses can be seen in top- of-the-range Mercedes - stolen to order in Germany - weaving past horse-drawn carts

Some mobsters have made fortunes from drug empires stretching to New York. But, increasingly, they are turning to the lucrative sex industry. In Rome and Milan they have eased out the Italian Mafia to take over prostitution and vice rackets. And in Britain they are operating in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Hull. They are also believed to have made inroads in Telford, Shropshire. As many as 33,000 Albanian women are believed to be working as call girls in the West. Many girls are snared by pimps who pose as caring lovers. A third of those trafficked are simply abducted.

Seized ... cops on a confiscated smugglers' boat One aid worker told The Sun how a 14-year-old was snatched from the streets of Tirana recently as she went to school. She was beaten and forced to work as a prostitute in the city's top hotels before fleeing to a safe house. She is now too terrified to return to her classes.

Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service has said: "The use of kidnap by traffickers appears to be on the increase in the ex-Soviet and Balkan region, in particular with organised criminals in Kosovo and Albania." Albania, with a population of 3,544,841, has also become the clearing house for the illegal movement of people from eastern Europe, thanks to its location. Thousands of girls from countries including Moldova, Russia, Romania and the Ukraine are wooed by promises of a new life in the West. They arrive via Albania's neighbours Montenegro and Macedonia. Pimps take them either by boat to Italy or walk them over the mountains into Greece, to the south. They are then given false documents and travel on to work in brothels and saunas in Britain.

The United Nations Children's' Fund- UNICEF - confirmed yesterday that child trafficking to Britain was soaring. Spokeswoman Soraya Bermejo said: "We welcome efforts by The Sun to highlight this awful practice. The life of a child has become cheap."