criminals as patriots
Ukraine war disrupts mafia connections
6/3/2023 7:43 am
Organized crime doesn’t care about state structures. However, in Russia’s war against Ukraine, even the criminals show patriotic feelings. This affects drug, arms and human trafficking.
“The vast majority of Ukrainian criminals have sided with Ukraine,” says Kirim. The 59-year-old, whose real name is different, sits in a café in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa and smokes while he talks about the effects of the war on the Russian-Ukrainian mafia. Kirim is familiar with the criminal milieu, he is a smuggler himself.
“But there are also those who continue to work with Russia,” he says – but only when the waiter is out of earshot. The cross-border drug, arms and human trafficking network that developed after the collapse of the Soviet Union was considered one of the strongest in the world. Even after 15 months of war, it has not yet been destroyed.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the hundreds of kilometers of smugglers’ route from the Russian border to Europe was also cut off. Not only fighting and checkpoints stopped the illegal trade, but also outrage at the brutal attack. “The feeling of ‘us against them’ was so strong in Ukraine that even criminals became patriots,” says Tuesday Reitano of the non-governmental organization Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
No business with Russians
Kirim also describes himself as a patriot and claims to no longer do business with Russians. Others in the milieu would have donated money to the war or to charity. According to reports, some criminals became soldiers. But criminals could also use the war to regroup or be rewarded with clemency by the authorities for their support.
A 40-year-old man who calls himself Aleksandr is a debt collector in the Odessa underworld. He also no longer wants to have anything to do with Russians – but just as little with the state, which he considers corrupt. “I don’t want to fight for the army, but I will fight for my city,” he says while drinking his second beer of the morning.
At the beginning of the war, the Ukrainian secret service asked criminals to shut down their businesses and asked for information, both Kirim and Aleksandr report. Apparently not everyone followed this request. In the spring of 2022, a powerful criminal group was “neutralized” in Odessa, collaborating with the enemy and “terrorizing and intimidating the locals,” says an intelligence official.
“There is never just one route”
With the invasion, key figures in international organized crime left Russia and Ukraine for Central Asia, the Gulf States, and other countries. “We know that the Russian and Ukrainian underworld outside of Ukraine are still working closely together,” says Reitano.
The European police organization Europol also considers it very likely that gangsters from both countries will continue to work together. There is never just one route for smuggling. “At the moment we don’t see any splits between the Russian and Ukrainian mafia,” says Europol boss Catherine De Bolle. “They look at the profits, even in war.”
With or without Russians, the Odessa underworld is still active. “Everything goes on, Odessa is just Odessa,” says Kirim, the smuggler, and shrugs his shoulders.