Years active 1970s-present | Membership 5,000 | |
Founding location Solntsevo Moscow, Russia, former Soviet Union Territory Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic, United States, Israel, United Kingdom, France, Spain, South Africa, Canada and other parts of Europe, Africa and Australia. Ethnicity Predominantly Russian and Ukrainians Criminal activities Racketeering, extortion, illegal gambling, arms trafficking, human trafficking, prostitution, drug trafficking, robbery, arson, bribery, money laundering, fraud, larceny, murder, Fence (criminal) | ||
The Solntsevskaya Bratva (Russian: Солнцевская братва), also known as the Solntsevskaya Brotherhood or Solntsevskaya gang, is the biggest and most powerful crime syndicate of the Russian mafia.
Contents
Rise to power
The Solntsevskaya gang was founded in the late 1980s by Sergei Mikhailov, a former waiter who had served a prison term for fraud. Based out of the Solntsevo District of Moscow, the gang recruited local unemployed, aggressive young men as foot soldiers and also made use of thief in law Dzhemal Khachidze to enhance their reputation amongst established criminals. The Solntsevo District was also strategically located near the M-KAT highway leading to Ukraine, as well as the Vnukovo International Airport. Controlling these transport hubs allowed the Solntsevo group to muscle in on the car import business. But by the early 1990s, the Solntsevo's dominance was challenged by the Chechen mafia. Together with the Orekhovskaya gang and other Slavic mobs, the Solntsevo made an alliance to drive the Chechens out. The gang war claimed many casualties, and in a gun battle at the Kazakhstan Cinema six Chechens and four Russians were killed.
The gang was at one point linked to criminal mastermind Semion Mogilevich, through whom they laundered money. But a 1995 party at a Prague hotel, attended by Mikhailov as well as Uzbek drug trafficker Gafur Rakhimov, was raided by Czech police who received information that they were planning to kill Mogilevich there following a dispute. Mogilevich himself was nowhere to be found, having received advance information about both group's intentions.
By the end of the 1990s, the Solntsevskaya gang started moving into the banking sector, a move which enabled them to launder their money as well as get closer to the oligarchs.
Activity overseas
In the 1990s, the Solntsevskaya dispatched Vyacheslav Ivankov to Brighton Beach, New York City, and Mikhail Odenussa to Atlanta, Georgia, to take control of the Russian mob activities there. The FBI was alerted to Ivankov's presence, however, and after a long investigation he was arrested and convicted of extortion, becoming the first thief-in-law to be convicted in the United States. While Ivankov was not as successful as his counterpart Odenussa who has been controlling the Russian mob in Atlanta for over 20 years. Odenussa has had a firm grip on the city with an army of stone cold killers to back him up. Although not as large as the drug cartels of Mexico that have sent men to try and set up shop, unsuccessfully, in the Dixie Capital he and his cohorts have out gunned the Mexican drug cartels and the African American gangs in Atlanta. The Solntsevskaya have also been active in Israel, primarily using it as a base for money laundering. But attempts to infiltrate Israeli politics were countered by vigilant law enforcement.
The organisation is also involved in the international cocaine trade, with its links to Colombian drug cartels brokered by the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan. And operate all over United States to the tropical islands of the Caribbean.
Current status and recent activity
According to the US, as published during the 2010 Wikileaks scandal, the Solntsevo gang continues racketeering operations under the protection of the FSB.