Operated in the cities of the East Coast of the United States in the 1990s. 70-year-old Boris Nayfeld, known under the nickname "Biba", was sentenced again - for extortion. During his life, he served several terms, but each time he managed to get off with a minimum punishment, writes The CrimeRussia. And this time he will be released before the end of the year.
Behind the boss
A native of Belarusian Gomel (according to some sources, he worked as a painter) emigrated to the United States back in the 1970s. Upon arrival at Brighton Beach, Boris Nayfeld found himself in the inner circle of the criminal "authority", who was in the "thieves" environment, Yevsey Agron (Yevsey Leningradsky). Last lived on Brighton Beach in New York and was the founder of the "Russian mafia" in the United States. Biba becomes his driver and later his bodyguard.
The group was engaged in racketeering, extortion, robberies, murders and terrified not only the local population, but also law enforcement agencies. Having finally settled in, Nayfeld began to understand that in the USA one could earn much more, but Agron did not support the idea of expanding spheres of influence. Then Biba began to develop his scheme of heroin trafficking behind the back of his boss. On May 4, 1985, a man dressed in sport suit, fired point-blank at Agron, hitting twice in the right temple. Everything happened in Yevsey's house at the elevator, when he was about to go to the bathhouse. Boris Nayfeld, who was waiting for the boss downstairs in a car, was the first on the list of suspected customers of the murder, but the police could not prove this. Until now, the case is officially considered unsolved.
Agron's place was taken by Marat Balagula, known for major fraud in the gasoline sector and connections with the Italian mafia. Boris Nayfeld became his bodyguard. Enlisting the support and connections of Balagula, Nayfeld began wholesale heroin to Italians. A year later, during one of business meetings on issues of cooperation in the gasoline sector, Vadik Reznikov, a well-known killer on Brighton Beach, now deceased, entered the office of Marat Balagula.
What happened next is still a mystery. Someone from the audience took out an Uzi machine gun and began to shoot everyone around. Accidentally or not, one of the bodyguards of Marat Balagula Alex Zeltzer received 8 bullets in the chest, 2 in the head and died on the spot. Marat's competitor Mikhail Voks, the manager of the MVB Energy Company gas station, was wounded in the arm and chest, but survived. Boris Nayfeld was wounded only in thumb right hand. The rest were not hurt. Interestingly, Reznikov and Vox were friends and even business partners. The bodyguards, as one, answered that they did not have time to return fire, because they did not understand who was shooting. The police were never able to figure this out. According to one version, it was Reznikov who opened the automatic burst, but a month after those events, Balagula "ordered" him to the Italians from the Colombo clan, who shot him at the Odessa restaurant.
At the head of the "Russian mafia"
After some time, the police arrested Balagula because of a petty scam with credit cards, and Boris Nayfeld finally stands at the helm of the "Russian mafia". Truth, Italian mafia, which had previously supported Bibe, refused to cooperate with him.
Then he set up a scheme for the supply of heroin from Thailand. The drug was first transported to Singapore, where it was soldered into TV tubes and sent to Poland. This was done so skillfully that the customs officers in Europe could not suspect anything.
From Poland, Russian couriers with US passports smuggled heroin into the United States via New York under the guise of flour for Brooklyn bakeries. Poland was not a suspicious point for the transfer of drugs, so no inspection of the cargo was carried out. Over time, heroin began to be transported to Boston, Chicago and other cities. But the problem was, as Biba later recalled, he couldn't sell heroin in bulk. It was possible to sell batches of no more than a kilogram to Sicilian gangsters from a cheap hangout on Coney Island, or very small doses directly to customers, mostly Spaniards living in Manhattan. These were the years when Boris Nayfeld managed to unwind to the fullest.
He managed to take part in a showdown with the well-known criminal "authority" Yefim Laskin on September 27, 1991 in Munich. The latter was then killed, but the crime was not solved. The negotiations escalated into a quarrel, during which, according to some reports, the Belarusian thief in law (now deceased) Alexander Bor (Tymoshenko), known as Timokha, stabbed Laskin. Nayfeld was suspected of the murder, but in 2003 Alexander Bor in Germany was sentenced to life in prison, just on charges of murdering Fima Laskin. True, later the sentence was appealed and the term was reduced to 13 years, and in 2004 the crime boss was deported to Russia.
Blood enemy
In the early 1990s, Nayfeld managed to make himself and an enemy in the person of the “authority” Monya Elson. He crossed Bibe's path by making connections with the Italian mafia to supply heroin in bulk to the Italians. Boris Nayfeld offered 100 thousand dollars for Elson's life, thus initiating brutal war between them. They mined cars and set up ambushes, killing several dozen guards on both sides. The war ended when Elson had to urgently leave the United States in 1993 due to close attention special services.
And in 1994, Biba himself was arrested at the New York airport for drug smuggling. His drug supply scheme was uncovered by the well-known criminal-informer Iosif Royzis (Grisha the Cannibal).
Nayfeld, on the basis of the totality of the charges brought, could be imprisoned for several life terms. However, the dodgy Biba decided to use the same methods as Royzis. He pleaded partially guilty, made a deal with the investigation and became a witness for the prosecution. In May 1998, the court sentenced him to 4 years and 4 months in prison - exactly as much as he had already served, and he was immediately released. It turned out that, while assisting the authorities, Nayfeld handed over his natural enemy Monya Elson, who was subsequently convicted in the United States for 7 years.
After his release, Biba continued his criminal business, however, he did things more carefully. Only in 2008, Boris Nayfeld was again detained on charges of smuggling cigarettes. He received a term, and on February 8, 2014, Boris Nayfeld was released.
In 2009, a series was filmed for the National Geographic Channel documentaries about banditry in America, one of which was called "Brooklyn's Russian Gangsters" (Brooklyn's Russian Gangsters), where Biba told about his adventures. Monya Elson then from prison spoke about it this way: “Biba boasts in the program that he was not more important. You can't even put it on your ears. Everyone with whom he hawal is exactly the same as him.”
The latest scam of the "Russian mafia" boss
During the time that Biba spent behind bars, he completely squandered his acquired property and, finding himself in a difficult situation, 67-year-old Biba decided on a dubious extortion scam. He, together with 68-year-old Boris Kotlyarsky, who emigrated to the United States from Kyiv and is almost unknown in criminal circles, learned about the family conflict of a businessman from Chisinau Anatoly Potik. At one time, he gave his daughter Ronit to an emigrant from former USSR, owner of the TRT trucking company International Oleg Mitnick. Since 2014, they have been divorcing, dividing property, which is estimated at several tens of millions of dollars, and seeking the right to custody of children.
In the fall of 2015, Mitnick turned to the FBI with a statement that his father-in-law wanted to kill him and thereby decide the case in favor of his daughter. This is what Nayfeld and Kotlyarsky took advantage of. The latter called Mitnick and said that Bibe was ordered to execute his murder for 100 thousand dollars. But if he pays 25 thousand more, then the killer will abandon his plans. All further negotiations were supervised law enforcement.
Whether a real order for Oleg Mitnik was received from Anatoly Potik is unknown. His lawyer stated that "as a result of the hard work and evidence presented, and the investigation conducted by the federal authorities, they realized that the charge should be dropped." That is, either Oleg Mitnik came up with everything, or someone tried to trick him into getting a check for 125 thousand dollars.
In January, Mitnick and the aged "thunderstorm of the Russian mafia" Beeba met several times in a Brooklyn restaurant, where the businessman agreed to write advance check$50,000 to cancel an order to kill him. As a guarantee, Nayfeld even defiantly called the "customer" and demanded that he leave his plans, otherwise it would be worse for him. At the exit from the restaurant on January 14, 2016, Nayfeld and Kotlyarsky were arrested. During the arrest, according to law enforcement agencies, Biba swore obscenely and tore the check. A week after that, Anatoly Potik, who was about to leave the United States, was also detained at the airport. He was later released on bail of $20 million in real estate, and was soon cleared of charges of ordering the murder.
After his arrest, Boris Nayfeld admitted that he could not even pay for the services of a lawyer, so he was provided with a public defender. After that, he again made a deal with the investigators. The criminal case was divided into two, and Biba became a witness in the Kotlyarsky case.
According to some reports, Nayfeld said that Kotlyarsky suggested that he collect debts from a certain businessman. And for this, such a complex scheme was invented. Kotlyarsky was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Boris Nayfeld was sentenced on July 27, 2017 in the Manhattan federal courtroom. On the table, the judge already had a letter from the prosecutor, in which he asked for a sharp reduction in the term of the accused for fruitful cooperation with the investigation.
The lawyer and the prosecutor emphasized that Nayfeld is almost 70 years old - he is already old, and also noted that, having learned about his cooperation with the investigation, other criminals are unlikely to want to deal with him, and therefore continue criminal activity he can no longer.
"Obviously, he's very Difficult person", - said the prosecutor and told the judge that his wife Angela was divorcing him. Biba, according to him, went to the crime, "because he did not know any other way out of lack of money." He noted that the accused lacked not only money, but also "spirit and hope."
In his last word Biba, in Russian, asked for forgiveness for what he had done and said that he "would like to die at home."
The judge, announcing the verdict, stated that, despite his age, he was very a dangerous person, and sentenced him to 23 months in prison, of which he had already served 18. This means that he will be released before the end of the year. Time will tell what the 70-year-old last boss of the "Russian mafia" will do.
Yevsey Agron arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York on October 8, 1975. Agron was one of 5,200 Soviet Jews who moved to the United States that year. Many of them were well-known criminals in Russia who were deported by the KGB. By the time he arrived in America, Agron's record already included seven years in prison, which he received for murder. Yevsey came out of prison as a hardened criminal. Before emigrating to the USA, Agron had already been abroad and tasted the freedom of the West.
For the first time he left Russia in 1971, he lived in Hamburg, where he was engaged in pimping and fraud. When he arrived at Brighton Beach, everyone knew who he was. His reputation and belonging to the thieves' "brotherhood" made Agron a fearsome person, and if someone did not believe in his power, he made him believe in it.
At first, Agron did not attract much attention. He had his office in the El Caribe Country Club, from where he ran a large group of extortionists. By 1980, members of his group had extorted tens of thousands of dollars from the pockets of Russian émigrés. All immigrants from Russia suffered at the hands of Agron's extortionists, from doctors and lawyers to small shopkeepers. Somehow Agron threatened one man that if he did not immediately pay 15 thousand dollars, he would kill his daughter right on the day of the wedding. Everyone paid because they knew what would happen to them if they refused. If someone did not pay, the people of Agron came to this person, having the same reputation as himself.
Boris Nayfeld - one of the bodyguards and driver of Yevsey Agron
Among his team were the Neufield brothers. They emigrated to the USA from Gomel. One of the brothers, Benjamin, was previously a member of the USSR weightlifting team. He once killed a Jewish guy in front of a mob in a Brighton Beach car park. He grabbed the poor fellow with one hand and lifted him up, and with the other he plunged a knife into his heart. They say that the victim insulted his girlfriend. At the trial, 18 people confirmed that the murdered man attacked Benjamin first, and he was acquitted. His brother Boris was even more scary person. Many Russian emigrants said that his eyes were completely white, which is a sign of devil worship. But of the three, Agron was most feared and hated. He carried a stun gun with him, which was intended for cattle. Agron tortured his victims with it. Unlike other thieves in the law of Agron, people were more afraid than respected.
One night in 1980, Agron was walking around Coney Island when he was attacked. The bullet hit the stomach. He was taken to the hospital, where he was guarded by a member of the Italian Genovese crime family, a former police officer. AT recent times Agron had close ties to this clan. When the police visited him in the hospital and questioned him, he stated that he knew who shot him. But he refused to name the attacker, saying that he would take care of it himself. Many dreamed of the death of Agron. Maybe one of those whom he robbed tried to kill him, maybe someone from his group decided to change the leader.
It doesn't matter who and why tried to remove Agron: he continued to live as before. Agron's people again took to the streets and began to rob the people. by the most popular view robberies were attacks on trucks. Agron bought the Russian newspaper from which the residents of Brighton Beach learned all the news. Now the newspaper published only what Agron wanted. By this time, Agron was already a big man: his authority in the group was not questioned, and power extended to six major cities USA.
Agron had two major allies: the Genovese clan and Ronald Greenwald. The Italians were friends with the Russian bandits and collaborated with them, which allowed them to "work" in the Russian quarters. Friendship with the Italians was of great importance to Agron, as they had huge army fighters. And the close ties of Italians with political world he needed to solve various problems. But despite the fact that together they made a lot of money, disagreements arose between immigrants from Italy and Russia. Most Italians led a modest lifestyle and tried not to draw attention to themselves, while the Russians liked to overspend. In addition, the Russians did not have such tough internal rules like the Italians. The Italians did not kill people who surrendered to the authorities. Agron's other ally was Rabbi Ronald Greenwald, who was active in political life.
By the mid-80s, Agron was at the height of his fame. His power was growing. Everyone was afraid of him. Now he did more money, than ever. Agron was a kind godfather and worked with career criminals. The bandits from his quarter were still rampant and out of control. And although Agron became the personification of power in Brighton Beach, he could be killed at any moment, since he did not have a clear structure that he could control.
In January 1984 Agron was shot again. It happened as he approached the front door of his house. The attacker fired at close range: one bullet hit the face, the other hit the neck. Agron survived a second time, but was left with a scar from the shot. There was a strange smile on his face. Once again, he refused to cooperate with the police and decided to resolve the matter himself. Agron suspected several people. The first on his list was Boris Goldberg, a native of the USSR, who had previously emigrated to Israel and served in the Israeli army. Goldberg led a criminal gang along with spiritual leader David Schuster, nicknamed Napoleon. Goldberg's group owned huge reserves firearms which was well hidden. Their arsenal included pistols with silencers, grenades, plastic explosives and detonators. In addition, Goldberg's people were drug dealers. Goldberg himself lived with the daughter of Penthouse magazine publisher, businessman Bob Guccione.
Having big interests in the criminal world, Agron and Goldberg were bound to clash. One of the reasons for the enmity between them was the territory. Several times they met and discussed the issue of dividing the territory, and each time the negotiations ended in nothing. After an unsuccessful attack in May 1984, Agron himself invited Goldberg to meet at his club. When Goldberg and his bodyguard arrived at the club, they were greeted by 50 silent, heavily armed Russians seated at a table. After Agron asked Goldberg if he organized the attack, a scandal erupted. Agron did not believe Goldberg and wanted to kill him. Goldberg replied that if he wants problems, he will get them right now. Agron sent one of his men outside to see if Goldberg was bluffing. Turns out he wasn't bluffing. The parking lot in front of Agron's club was filled with armed men. Then Agron decided to stop the dispute, and the meeting ended without bloodshed. Agron decided that he had figured out his enemy, and calmed down, because he believed that now he was unlikely to try again. But Agron forgot that not only Goldberg wanted him dead.
On May 4, 1985, Agron was going to visit the Turkish bath in Manhattan and discuss some business issues there. He got dressed and left the apartment. At 8:35 am, he pressed the elevator button. Suddenly, a man wearing black glasses appeared out of nowhere and shot him at close range. Two bullets hit in the head. Agron fell to the floor and died on the spot. He was 53 years old. He was the first - and certainly not the last - Russian godfather to establish a crime family in the United States.
2 comments
I don’t live in the Russian Federation now, otherwise I would definitely go to the archives of the court on the Griboyedov Canal.
At about 86, after studying at a branch of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he went to work in the OBKhSS of the Oktyabrsky district of Leningrad. How young opera immediately slipped crusts, 5 years ago on the deputy. Director of AChH of the Sheikhet Beauty Institute. The crusts were clearly rotten, since in a couple of months all the deadlines for the case expired. On a personal investigation, eager to catch him, he poked his head into Sheikhet's biography and discovered that he had been convicted almost 6 times, almost under Stalin, for participating in divorces - searches of shop workers in Leningrad. Fortunately, the archive of the city court was in the area nearby, for a chocolate bar, the watchman received permission from her to look at Sheikhet's old files on these crackdowns. Did you find a pattern? the sheikhet was driving the victory everywhere, and Yevsey Agron was doing the searches. : searches, Sheikhet is always essentially a gunner, Agron confiscated valuables. Further, even funnier: Shcheikhet, sitting in the prison by a court verdict, manages to enter and successfully graduate from the Leningrad Institute of Soviet Trade. At the same time, the branch was opened a year later than Sheikhet received his diploma. The funny thing is that at this time, sitting Agron, is photographed with Sheikhet in a restaurant. Celebrated higher education. After a reasonable report to the boss, and an extension of the deadlines, the big boss disappeared in the direction of the Oktyabrsky State Security Service, which, after a couple of hours, seized the table, the safe, and all the documents from my office. In the evening, the first learned what outdoor advertising is. In the future, in private conversations with operas, it turned out .. both Sheikhet and Agron, both were holders of the thieves' common fund of the USSR, and as it was clear, they received tips on the shop workers from the office. If you look at the verdicts of the court, then Yevsey Agron freely left for Germany in 71 .... It is impossible not to assume that it was the dispatch of an agent from the office. Intelligence has always needed money to bribe American police. So my opinion, the American mafia is a product of office development.
If you ask an ordinary American what associations Russian-speaking emigrants evoke in him, he will most likely say: vodka and the mafia. This stereotype is so firmly rooted in the minds ordinary people that Russian-speakers are really wary there. And I must say that the "Russian mafia" in the United States is not some horror story from the news, it has actually existed for several decades. In this article, we talk about how it all began.
It is generally accepted that the first representatives of the criminal world of the USSR, who in the future will become the same "Russian mafia", arrived in the United States in the mid-1970s. Congress then passed a law to facilitate the entry of political emigrants from Soviet Union and under this view, literally everyone and sundry rushed to America. And first of all, of course, enterprising Jews.
All I had to do was write beautiful story about how the totalitarian red regime oppresses you and that’s it, the “cradle of democracy” has already met you with open arms. And the Jews didn’t even need to invent anything. It's enough just to say that Soviet authorities persecute you only for the inscription in the column "nationality".
The Soviet Chekists, don't be fools, quickly realized that this outflow of people and the new American law could be used to their advantage. It was then that the guys from the KGB began to actively export from the United States all sorts of bandits and criminals of the middle class, thereby freeing prisons from freeloaders. And it was from these export dregs that the very first gangs were formed, which terrified the whole of Brighton.
Moreover, as the Americans noted, when collecting debts, the Russians acted with particular cruelty. Unlike the Italians, who traditionally went for murder only as a last resort, our compatriots, brought up by an atheistic society that went through a bloody war and Stalin's camps, maimed and killed their victims indiscriminately.
The first boss of the Russian mafia in Brighton Beach was the Soviet kingpin Yevsey Agron. By the time he arrived in the United States in 1975, Agron already had 7 years behind him for murder in a Soviet prison. Yevsey Agron was direct, extremely stubborn and very cruel man, the classic bandit. He did not know how to think big and quickly adapt to changing conditions. environment. He was more feared than respected. And this fear, which he instilled in all the inhabitants of the quarter for many years, allowed his group to have an income of about one hundred million dollars a year.
Quite quickly, the more savvy people from Agron's inner circle realized that it was possible to quite successfully turn profitable business behind the boss's back. This is how the famous multi-billion dollar gasoline scam was invented, the main ideological inspirer of which was David Bogatin, who offered profitable cooperation to the Colombo family. When Agron found out about what was happening under his nose, he naturally wanted to pocket this financial flow, taking it under his own control. But it was not there, too many very powerful people were involved in this business, so very soon the obstinate Agron was simply stuffed with lead.
The stubborn and short-sighted Agron was replaced by a new boss of the Russian mafia, Marat Balagula, who had very close ties to the Colombo family. Balagula was distinguished by incredible charisma and artistry. He easily managed to solve the most difficult cases through diplomatic channels and extremely successfully maneuver between compatriots, Italians and the American police.
It was Balagula who brought the Russian mafia in America to new heights. Now these were no longer militant gangs, hunting for robberies and extortion. The time has come for grandiose scams of unprecedented proportions. The sphere of interests of the "red" mafia, as it was called in the States, now covered almost everything - oil products, gold, jewelry, antiques, insurance and financial companies. New boss managed to bring the group even to the international level, establishing cooperation with colleagues in the criminal business on other continents.
The Italians could not understand this strange Russian, who turned out huge deals, had crazy incomes, could easily afford to spend several million dollars in a casino in one evening, but at the same time did not shun small dubious deals for several hundred thousand dollars. As a result, the police still managed to get close to Balagula through one of the partners, who leaked the whole alignment to the cops. Without waiting for the trial, the already former boss fled the country and disappeared somewhere in the wilds of Africa. However, he couldn’t sit quietly even there, Balagula took up smuggling precious stones. In 1989, he was detained at Frankfurt Airport. Balagula was deported to the United States and sentenced to eight years for fraud. And in November 1993, he was given a sentence of up to 24 years for non-payment of taxes on income from gasoline transactions. However, he was released in 2004. And in 2008 he was shot by an unknown killer.
After that, the entire Russian mafia in the United States plunged into turmoil and civil strife for a long time. At first, the former security guard and driver of Agron and Balagula, Boris Nayfeld, decided to take the place of the boss. But the gasoline business leaked from him to the Italians, and it was not possible to establish a good sale of drugs. And then the rest of the small bandits began to put together their gangs, breaking through to the tops of the criminal hierarchy.
The main headache for Nayfeld was Monya Elson, who managed to rally all the other competitors of Boris around him and win back almost all of Balagula's former spheres of influence. The competition between Nayfeld and Elson was fierce - blood flowed like water, bombs exploded one after another. At one time, a group of Chechens who were employed by Nayfeld even arrived in Brighton. And this would have continued for a long time if the FBI had not put an end to all this by arresting these two bitter rivals.
For only a few months, the long-awaited peace reigned in the Russian quarter. And then everyone learned the name Jap. But that's a completely different story.
Evsey Borisovich Agron(January 25, 1932, Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR - May 4, 1985, Brooklyn, New York, USA) - a crime boss, a well-known Soviet thief in law nicknamed "Evsey Leningradsky", unofficially considered the first Russian boss of an organized criminal group known as "Russian mafia in the USA".
Biography
Yevsey Agron was born on January 25, 1932 in Leningrad in a family Jewish origin. During the Great Patriotic War survived the siege with his family. He began his criminal career in the late 1940s.
Criminal career
AT Soviet years He was repeatedly tried for robbery, theft of other people's property and fraud. In 1965 he served deadline after which he never returned to jail. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he created a gang that was engaged in robbery attacks on the apartments of high-ranking officials. In 1975, in accordance with the Jackson-Vanik amendment, together with the first wave of Soviet Jews, he emigrated to the United States. In October 1975, Agron flew to New York, where he stopped in the south of Brooklyn in the Brighton Beach area, where at that time a diaspora of Soviet emigrants, mostly of Jewish origin, formed. In 1977, Agron formed an organized criminal group engaged in extortion from entrepreneurs, among the members of his gang were such future criminal authorities as Marat Balagula and Boris Nayfeld. Such a criminal gang from among Soviet emigrants was the first in the United States. Agron soon switched to drug dealing. In 1983, together with some families of the Italian mafia, he began to conduct fraud with prices on the fuel market. The organized crime group Agron began to receive 25% of the fraud, which was a serious recognition of the potential strength and power of Soviet crime bosses. Despite this, Agron was popular among representatives of the beau monde, in 1979 Vladimir Vysotsky turned to his services, trying to resolve the financial issue with the organizers of the concert. Among his friends in emigration were Mikhail Shufutinsky and Shabtai Kalmanovich, he was engaged in publishing, with his direct participation the second Russian newspaper was opened in the United States.
Death
Yevsey Agron was shot dead on May 4, 1985 at the entrance of his apartment building. Prior to this, Agron had already survived assassination attempts twice. The real customers and performers were not found.
Personal life
In the Soviet years, Yevsey Agron was married; he met his wife at an early age in the early 1950s. After emigrating in 1982, the former Soviet singer-chansonnier Maya Rozova became Agron's common-law wife, who in 1984 gave birth to his son.
In popular culture
The life story of Yevsey Agron was partially reflected in the book of the American journalist Robert Friedman "Red Mafia". After Agron's death, his ex civil wife Maya Rozova denied most of the facts about life crime boss described in the book.
The Jewish mafioso Yevsey Agron received his nickname at the place of birth - in the city on the Neva he was born, survived the blockade with his family. Before coming to America, Yevsey Leningradsky in the USSR was repeatedly convicted of serious crimes.
extortionist from his
Yevsey Leningradsky moved to the West in the early 70s. Engaged in pimping and fraud in Hamburg, in 1975 Agron moved to New York. Russian-speaking emigrants in Brighton knew what kind of business this Jew was doing and were afraid of the thieves' authority. Compared to other criminal tycoons, Agron was more feared than respected. Those who did not believe in the power of Yevsey Leningradsky, he convinced of the opposite by force.
In one of the New York country clubs, Agron set up an office for himself, where meetings of his racketeer organized crime group took place. Yevsey Leningradsky imposed a tribute on immigrants from Russia who were engaged in small business or any private practice. Emigrants preferred to pay, as rumors about the harsh nature of the crime boss spread quickly. Agron walked around with a stun gun intended for cattle, Yevsey tortured his victims with this device.
Strengthening influence
Agron forged ties with the Italian Genovese crime family and Rabbi Ronald Greenwald, who sought to participate in the active political activity. Numerous Italian mafia, whose structure was more organized than Yevsey Leningradsky's organized criminal group, got the opportunity to "bomb" the Russian quarters of New York.
In 1980, the first attempt was made on Agron. He had enough enemies. The authority received a gunshot wound to the stomach. The bandit was guarded by representatives of a friendly Italian criminal group. Yevsey Leningradsky did not betray the customers and executors of the police, saying that he would deal with them himself. After recovering from the assassination attempt, Agron continued to strengthen his influence in the criminal environment of New York. His wards most often attacked cargo vans and robbed them. Gradually, in addition to New York, the Russian mafia penetrated several more American large cities.
Four years after the first assassination attempt, Agron was shot again. This time, the bullets hit his face and neck, leaving scars for his whole, as it turned out later, very short life. Yevsey Leningradsky again did not hand over his enemies to the police. Agron's main suspect was Boris Goldberg, a former Soviet immigrant who lived in Israel for some time and served in the army there. Goldberg headed a rival organized crime group, armed to the teeth, among other criminal cases, his gang was also involved in drug trafficking.
The Goldberg and Agron gangs divided the territory of influence, each had its own claims on this score. The negotiations came to nothing. After the assassination attempt, Agron and Goldberg met again to dot the i's. About 50 armed militants of Yevsey Leningradsky were waiting at Goldberg's club. The enraged Agron, who made no secret of the fact that he suspected Goldberg of ordering the assassination, wanted to shoot the competitor on the spot. But Goldberg was also well prepared for the meeting: on the street in front of the club, a whole armed crowd of members of his organized crime group was waiting for the boss. Not wanting to aggravate the situation, Agron and Goldberg parted ways peacefully.
Third and final attempt
A year later, the assassin's bullets still got Yevsey Leningradsky - 53-year-old Agron was shot dead in the elevator of his house in Manhattan when he left his apartment. Death came instantly. Thus ended the life of the first known Russian-speaking mafioso operating in America.
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