Ukrainian mafia
| Founding location | Ukraine |
|---|---|
| Territory | Active in many parts of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, United States (mostly Brighton Beach), Israel and Western Europe. |
| Ethnicity | Predominantly Ukrainian Jews and Ukrainians |
| Criminal activities | Racketeering, drug trafficking, entryism, extortion, loan sharking, murder, human trafficking, construction management, money laundering, robbery, bootlegging, arms trafficking, gambling, bribery, fencing, prostitution, theft, skimming, pornography and fraud |
| Allies | American, Russian mafia, Armenian Power, Chinese, 'Ndrangheta, Camorra, Serbian mafia, Israeli mafia |
Ukrainian mafia is a type of criminal organization with origins in Ukraine. Such organizations are regarded as one of the most influential types of organized crime coming out of the former USSR next to the established Russian mafia, Georgian mafia, Chechen mafia, Armenian mafia and Azerbaijani mafia. Ukrainian criminal organizations are involved in a vast amount of illegitimate enterprises. Although Ukrainian criminal organizations are for the most part independently operating enterprises they are most closely connected with Russian mafia organizations, as is the case with Semyon Mogilevich.
Following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, there were large stockpiles of arms left in Ukraine. The first prominence of the Ukrainian mafia came through their participation in the illicit international trafficking in these arms. Between 1992 and 1998, some $32 billion in military material disappeared from military depots in Ukraine and ended up primarily in West Africa and Central Asia. Allegedly, Ukrainian criminal organizations were also behind trafficking weapons to war-torn places such as Afghanistan at the time.
From trafficking in arms, Ukrainian crime syndicates entered into the international trade in illegal drugs, becoming a major player in the narcotics traffic from Central Asia to Central Europe. The reach of Ukrainian gangs has become extended, having been reported from Central European countries such as the Czech Republic and Hungary, where they're involved in prostitution, to North American countries and Israel, where they founded a significant power base following the mass immigration of Ukrainian Jews which among the many law-abiding people had also criminal elements profiting from the open borders.
The most infamous form of Ukrainian organized crime, and the one which became the most famous, is the so-called Odessa Mafia named after the Black Sea port city of Odessa. Odessa is an infamous smugglers’ haven and a key hub in post-Soviet global trafficking networks, not least moving Europe-bound Afghan heroin arriving from the Caucasus. Even in Ukraine’s west, gangs are often closely involved in the lucrative trafficking of heroin, people, and counterfeit cigarettes into Europe, often in cooperation with Russian mafia gangs.
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