One night in 2003, Albanian gang leader Alex Rudaj showed up at famed Italian eatery and mob hotspot Rao's in East Harlem. It was one year after the death of Gambino crime leader John Gotti, and Rudaj demanded the Italian's old table.

When he was refused, he came back with dozens of cronies, who hovered menacingly as Rudaj had a one-on-one with the restaurant's owner.

After a short conversation, the table had a new regular.

The show of force was a signal to the Italians that the Albanians deserved -- and demanded -- respect within the organized crime community, said a source.

"They went there with regularity after that," he said.

Rudaj, who headed a crew of tough guys who dubbed themselves "The Corporation," fancied himself head of the "sixth family," a brother to the Cosa Nostra's fabled Five Families. The Corporation made some headway against the Italians -- taking over Greek gambling halls in Astoria from the weakened Luchese family and fending off the Gambino family when they tried to start a high-stakes dice game at an Astoria club called Soccer Fever.

"Gentlemen, this place is closed," Rudaj told the dice players one night after strong-arming his way into the Gambino-run joint.

"I don't want to see nobody here," he said. "If I see one more time, I swear to God, I say, I beat you f - - - ing one by one. I eat you up. It's closed."

Then his thugs knocked a player unconscious.

The Gambinos left, but a few weeks later, the family's acting boss, Arnold Squitieri, arranged a meeting.

The two gangs met at a gas station in New Jersey. The Gambinos had bats and guns; the Albanians had Uzis. When Squitieri pointed a gun at Rudaj, one of the Albanians pointed his shotgun at the gas pump, threatening to blow the whole place up. The Italians dropped their guns, and left Soccer Fever to the Albanians.

While the FBI has succeeded in vastly weakening the Italian mafia in recent years, it's brutal up-and-comers like Alex Rudaj that have changed the face of New York's mobs -- and shifted law-enforcement's focus. Tough guys from Albania, Russia and Asia have become especially entrenched in the five boroughs, and in October, the bureau formed a Middle Eastern organized crime task force to ensure Arab and Israeli thugs dedicated to criminal activity don't have any luck.

Despite their weakened state, the Five Families of the Cosa Nostra still form the largest and most organized crime syndicate in the country. But the Russians have a keen sense for finance fraud; the Albanians are exceptionally violent; and the Chinese keep local businesses under their thumb. The Feds have had success combating these newer groups: Rudaj and his crew were convicted of racketeering and illegal gambling last year in Manhattan federal court. But new Albanian crews are suspected of filling in the vacuum since then, one source said.

And although the new Middle Eastern unit hasn't had any major take downs yet, the head of the task force, George Khouzami, says it won't be long. So far his agents have seen document fraud pertaining to illegal aliens and bank fraud, money laundering and drug dealing.

These newer ethic gangsters have learned from the Italians' successes and mistakes -- they tend to form loose alliances without structured hierarchies because they've seen prosecutors target the leadership of the Five Families. They've also watched the Italians muscle their way into whole industries, like construction, and have attempted to emulate that where possible.

A Russian crew, for example, made a killing in massive mortgage fraud scam before getting busted last year.

Russian Garri Zhigun pleaded guilty last October to masterminding a $200 million mortgage fraud scheme, which the Feds say likely played a part in the current financial crisis.

Zhigun and his cronies worked out of a Brooklyn-based mortgage house to fake documents, steal identities, and find straw buyers to obtain more than 1,000 subprime mortgages. They targeted two since-fallen lenders, Washington Mutual and Countrywide, and cleared a cool $10 million before getting caught.

"The Russian Organized Crime in the city is strategic and resourceful," said Mark Galeotti, head of New York University's Global Affairs program. "They are consummate entrepreneurs, and tend to be gangsters in suits with business degrees, not street gangsters."

A favorite fraud is the false car accident health insurance claim -- in which the thugs stage a car crash to collect on fabricated medical expenses. Everyone gets a cut, from the doctors to the pharmacies to the acupuncture clinics, said Dave Shafer, head of New York's organized crime branch.

"It's astronomical amounts of cash, and its completely vertically integrated," he said.

The Russians know that the insurance companies won't bother to fight them for a relatively small claim, but the cost to consumers adds up -- premiums must cover the millions paid in fake claims annually.

Last week, meanwhile, a Russian cabbie from Brooklyn was picked up for running a fake hedge fund that raised $20 million from investors and then funneled the money into Ukranian banks, where it disappeared.

While Chinatown's criminal heyday declined after the 1993 prosecution of Sister Ping, the so-called snakehead who brought thousands of illegal Fujianese immigrants into the country on boats, loosely affiliated gangs still wreak havoc.

Last year a driver for a Chinatown bus company was attacked by five machete-wielding gang members because he wasn't following orders, said Tim Flannelly, head of the Asian Organized Crime Task Force.

"It was pretty nasty," said Flannelly. "If the bus company isn't compliant with certain conditions, people will get hurt."

Bus routes, prices, and conditions are all determined by organized crime crews, said Flannelly.

His task force recently had three separate take downs of ketamine and ecstasy smuggling rings. The drugs originate out of Canada and are driven over the border, then distributed in Massachusetts and New York, he said.

"The Chinese form a significant crime threat," said FBI agent Bill McMurry, who worked the Sister Ping case. "They're just more hidden now."

The Chinese gangsters take advantage of people in their own communities, infiltrating the job-placement services and extorting local massage parlors and gambling halls, sources said.

Law enforcement sources said its unlikely any group will become as successful or entrenched as the Cosa Nostra did, since the FBI learned by prosecuting Italian gangsters how to combat organized crime effectively. They used racketeering laws to put people away for long stretches and to encourage members to cooperate against each other.

"These groups are more about particular scams than taking over huge pieces of territory or whole industries," said one law enforcement source.

"But they're very good at it, and they're very hard to infiltrate."





Russians Vyacheslav Ivankov (above), founder of the "Thieves in law" group, is serving time in Moscow, but his legacy lives on in Brighton Beach. Recent arrests by the Russian organized crime task force include Artur Solomonyan, charged with weapons...


trafficking and Garri Zhigun (above) with subprime mortgage fraud.

Nice article i think Marat Balagula is the most powerful boss in Brighton Beach.

alex rudaj pulled a gun on a gambino underboss? that should be a death sentence right there no matter what times we live in. I give these albainians 15 years max then there gone they are no cosa nostra.

I saw this elsewhere on the net regarding the meet in the gas station, and it allegedly reiterates the memoirs of a highly respected FBI agent's wiretapes of the event.....

[The Rudaj Gang's meet with the Gambinos at the NJTP Rest Stop (From 'Making Jack Falcone' the FBI undercover agent in the Gambinos Jack Garcia (the fat Cuban guy) I'm paraphrasing: The Gambinos were all strapped and the Albanians were too.

Squitieri: You took what you took and you ain't takin no more. Or there's going to be a problem . . . understand?

Rudaj: If they start shooting aim at the gas tanks and we'll all go.

Garcia narrative: It could have went either way but the Gambino's had 20 guys and the Albanians 6. The Albanians worked with the Gambino's long enough to respect LCN and in the gas station THE ALBANIANS BLINKED FIRST. THE ALBANIANS WERE SPANKED AND NEVER EVOLVED TO THE 6TH FAMILY.

Greg DePalma Gambino 70 year old Capo of Westchester and the Bronx and the Albanians in the Bronx according to Jack Garcia Federal Undercover Agent and Greg's partner: Greg went to see the Albanians who were moving in on LCN territory for a sitdown at Cafe Dion the Albanians club. Garcia asked Greg if he should go with him as back-up and Greg said: 'I can do it myself'. Garcia: Greg has balls and had no fear. Greg resolved all the issues on his own and in the enemies camp. No more issues with the Albanians.]

........The Italians called their bluff and it worked, i mean its clear the Albianians are like the Italians in it for the long term, blowing up gas stations would be counter productive, even the Albianians have learned that OC groups have to work together, theater like the gas station situation does not work!.



broggman

thanks for that broggman, is there any word as to how many members the albanians have in there gang in nyc?

Cheers mate, but i dont know how many they have.


broggman

Most ethnic gangs, probably just about all, don't compete with American Mafia, they start own rackets. Also they operate in many groups, often unconnected to each other, making it tougher to trace them.

Balagula is dead.

With all those LCN guys coming back onto the scene, I'm almost wetting myself at what may happen! Welcome the Class of 2009!!

I've read he was shot to death last year, but i thought it was a wikipedia hoax are you sure??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marat_Balagula

The Rudaj group consisted not only out of Albanians, but also a lot of Italians. When they were arrested, hardly anything was left. I think you can compare that group to the Westies. A feared group when they were all outside. But after a few busts, too little were left to pose any threat.

I think the media are too eager to assign certain "mob family" features to these new crime groups. Features like structure, codes, and longevity. The Chinese Tongs are the only group that can live up to those points. The Russians and Albanians have all shown to have had powerful gangsters and groups, but not all Russians fell under the Vory Zakone, nor did all enjoy a very long run. The Albanians were a tough crew without any ancient code that disappeared soon after one big bust. The same happened to an Israeli crew back in the 1980/1990s.

The mob sells, but is weakened, and the media need a successor. These other groups are just as foreign, but lack the structure, code, longevity, and legend of LCN. Law enforcement and the media should stop the infatuation, and start focusing on which crew poses a criminal threat. Whether they be Asian, white, black into gambling, fraud, or drugs.

David do you have any idea why Italian americans would want to join a albanian group? the only reason I can think of is that the italians might have a chance of staying low key with an albanian crew and stay out of the fbi spotlight but that didnt last to long.

Big bust in New York today, credit card theft ring. It took me several hours of on and off news listening to find out it was Nigerians. Again. Africans have been biggest in credit card fraud since 1980's, everyone knows it, except the politically correct, and FBI statistic nuts. Chinese are biggest in counterfitting of brand name goods.

Hi, sorry to answer qustion you asked david!
I think the Italians were members of the Lucchesi family, who had been weakened by lots of arrests, what was left was therefore forced to boost there ranks with Albianians but i could be totaly wrong.





Broggman. :)

John Alite is Albanian.

This 2004 file photo released by the Brazil's Federal Police, shows John Alite, in Rio de Janeiro.

A lot of Albanians, Italians, or whatever, like Alite, are born here, and many are mixed---Irish-Italian, or German-Irish-English, and are here for three or more generations. They are American, in other words. The gangs that are more ethnicly formed are new immigrant (Usullay illegals) like South Americans, Russians, Albanians, Yugoslovians, Chinese, Korean, Mexican......


Most "Italians" in New York under age 30 are fourth generation, few are all Italian, and most are extremely Americanized. If inclined to be criminals, they are more likley to hook up with loosly run mixed gangs.