Russian Organized Crime in the United States

Russian organized crime (ROC) is an umbrella phrase that captures a variety of crime groups and criminal activities. Our focus in this report is on the groups and the activities present in the United States. In some instances, the crimes and the forms of criminal organization here differ from those of ROC in Russia or elsewhere in the world. This may be a result of differing external environments and criminal opportunities, but is nevertheless something to be kept in mind. Because of the proliferation of groups, there is not a specific organizational structure that can be delineated as if it described one criminal organization. Even the characterization "Russian" is used generically to refer to a variety of Eurasian crime groups many of which are not Russian. Among the active criminals in the U.S. are Armenians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and persons from the Caucasus region of the former Soviet Union (Chechens, Dagestanis, and Georgians). The media and law enforcement call these groups various names Russian mafia, Russian mob, Organizatsya, Bor, Bratva, etc. Some of the group names refer to geographical locations in Russia Izmailovskaya, Dagestantsy, Kazanskaya, and Solntsenskaya. The latter are indicative of the local geographically defined roots of some Russian crime groups.