Also this issue:

Wheels To Go
A planned auto-share program would help save money and the environment.
-Daniel Brook

The Bell Curve
City Paper's weekly gauge of Philly's Quality of Life

Onward Christian St. Soldiers
The Y fights on for independence.
-Daryl Gale

New Trial for Dying Con
A judge rules that Fred Thomas' rights were violated.
-Jenn Carbin

Disorganized Dems
Ward battles rage long after Rendell claims primary.
-Pete Mazzaccaro

June 6-12, 2002

city beat

The New Russian Front?

Russian mobsters -- possibly in cahoots with Israeli organized crime -- are getting a bigger piece of the action.

by Brendan McGarvey

No summer parties this year at Delaware Avenue nightclubs for 10 alleged members of a Russian organized crime ring operating out of Northeast Philly.

Last month, a U.S. attorney hit the gang with a 48-count indictment alleging kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking, robbery and fraud. One of the charges: The gang supposedly organized raves at a Delaware Avenue nightclub they rented and then sold drugs to the partygoers.

The group of young emigres from the former Soviet Union called themselves the KGB, although they have no connections whatsoever to the infamous former Russian intelligence agency.

The reputed leader of the local "KGB" allegedly used some students at George Washington High School, on Bustleton Avenue near Red Lion Road, to sell drugs for him. For the last 10 years, according to former students, the high school has been a breeding ground for various Russian-American junior mafias.

"They bragged that they were Russian gangsters," one former George Washington student told City Paper earlier this week. "But I thought of them as wanna-be mobsters. They couldn't wait to grow up and join the real Russian mob. They dealt drugs, took bets and were involved in a lot of fake auto accidents for the insurance money."

The Philadelphia School District said it had no credible evidence that Russian mobsters ever used George Washington High School to recruit gang members.

The KGB gang is just one of many Russian criminal organizations operating in the area. While the Northeast Philly KGB had some loose connections to Russian crime networks in New York, the feds and local police are busy trying to keep track of much more sophisticated Russian gangs taking root in our area.

The international Russian mobs first came to the attention of local law enforcement four years ago. In 1998, the feds targeted a Bucks County businessman who ran an international corporation with alleged ties to a Russian mob boss living in Israel.

Around the same time, a second Russian businessman was busy negotiating to buy several million-dollar homes in Bucks County with Russian mob money. He was a fixture at various nightclubs and an upscale strip joint on Delaware Avenue.

But when Russian President Vladimir V. Putin came to power, the businessman left Bucks County and returned to Moscow, where today, as a high-level government official, he serves as one of Putin's closest advisers.

Earlier this year, federal law enforcement agents began investigating a reputed Israeli mob member who runs a business in Old City. The feds are convinced that, in some cases, Russian and Israeli criminals are often two branches of the same crime family.

Several local law enforcement sources told City Paper that police in this area are on a heightened state of alert after reports surfaced that Israeli gangsters in the other parts of the U.S. have recently begun posing as door-to-door "art dealers" to gain access to the homes of drug enforcement agents.

Local law enforcement isn't sure why the "art students" want a sneak peek at the agents' homes, but they're concerned enough to quietly warn each other to be on the watch. Local Drug Enforcement Administration officials referred calls to the Washington, D.C., headquarters. DEA spokesman Will Glaspy said that generally the agency takes seriously any threat to its personnel or property. He could not comment specifically about Philadelphia.

Last year, a police investigation in Los Angeles focused on a high-level Israeli gangster, allegedly involved in drug dealing, who was using the door-to-door art scam to try to get inside the homes and offices of law enforcement.

And a DEA report now circulating through law enforcement circles and on the Internet documents hundreds of suspicious incidents involving Israelis posing as art dealers in the U.S. They also attempted to gain access to federal facilities and the homes of DEA agents.

But two law enforcement sources familiar with the DEA report told City Paper that there is a third alternative theory behind the so-called art sellers. The sources point out that there are thousands of 20-something Israelis now living illegally in the U.S. who have turned to selling art door-to-door simply for under-the-table work.