When Victims Rule (pdf)

DRUGS AND DRUG MONEY LAUNDERING WITHIN JEWISH NETWORKS: THE ‘RUSSIAN MAFIA,’ ‘ULTRA-ORTHODOX’
then send[ing] the money to Spain.” Just between February and March 6, 2001,
Lyons laundered two million pounds. [KAYE, J., 11-26-01]
In 1997, Agence France Presse noted a now common pattern of Jews, diamonds,
and drugs in Belgium:
“The Flemish city of Antwerp has lost some of its sparkle as the
world’s diamond capital after a series of financial scandals linked the
trade here with the murky underworld of drugs and mafia. The scandal
came to light after one of the diamond merchants’ most reputed banks,
the Max Fischer, went bust last January … amid allegations of fraud and
laundering of drug money.” [PINON]
Others caught in the scams included three executives at United Diamonds,
four directors of a company called EetH, and a “Lebanese” diamond dealer.
“The spate of scandals,” noted the Presse, “fueled persistent rumors that the
Russian mafia had infiltrated Antwerp.” [PINON] “The rumors are mixing up
unrelated events in a way that could be damaging to the diamond sector,” insisted
an Antwerp lawyer (who requested anonymity), “… If this climate persists
[diamond dealers] could be tempted by the advantage offered by the Tel
Aviv market [and leave Belgium].” [PINON]
As Guy Dunn, a scholar on organized crime, notes:
“Antwerp’s port has a reputation for being a major smuggling base.
The city’s diamond dealers, many of them Russian Jews, have links to
many Russian gangs and are allegedly among the world’s most experienced
in the art of laundering money and dodging taxes. Several Russian
groups have been uncovered recently, among them a group head by
Boris N. [Nayfield?], a leading mafia boss, who was charged with racketeering,
drug trafficking, conspiracy to murder, and association with
Russian Jewish criminal groups. In 1989-93 N’s group was centered on
companies owned by Antwerp Russians, as well as affiliates in Moscow,
Berlin, Odessa, and Warsaw. He was heavily involved in laundering
money illegally obtained through drugs and arms smuggling.” [DUNN,
G., 1996, p. 81]
In 1998, the (London) Independent, noting that the year before “police
made a series of raids on diamond businesses suspected of tax evasion and
money laundering,” announced that
“the Orthodox Jewish community [in London] has been shocked by a
series of arrests of its members for alleged heroin smuggling. Police and
customs inquiries are centering on a drugs link between Israel, Antwerp,
and London … Evidence of the new drugs link follows the professional
execution on an Antwerp street last week of a Jewish jeweler and leading
figure in the Russian mafia. A Talmudic scholar was also accused in Tel
Aviv this month of laundering drug money.” [LASHMAR, p. 3]
Dror Hazenfratz – carrying both an Israeli passport and a Belgian identity
card – was arrested with 15 kilograms of heroin worth well over a million dollars.
He appeared in British court “wearing traditional dress and carrying the
Talmud … The ultimate destination of the drugs was reputedly David Santini,
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