Russian Organised Crime in Catalonia and Its Prevalence

Russian organized crime is active at the transnational level, where crimes could be committed on the territories of different countries. Spain, due to it specific features, is a rather attractive ground for illegal activities of many criminal organizations, including groups formed by citizens of the ex-USSR states. Organized crime in Spain is not distributed evenly throughout its territory, but is rather concentrated in most socially and economically developed areas, and the autonomous community of Catalonia is now holding the second place by the number of officially registered crimes. Its developed infrastructure makes it possible for organized crime, including Russian organized crime, to increase its activities in this autonomous community. The author notes that Spanish criminology faces certain difficulties, some of them methodological in nature, when studying the activities of Russian organized crime in Spain. This circumstance does not make it possible to fully implement research findings regarding its criminal nature. The author presents general characteristics of Russian criminal groups. They are shown to have a high degree of organization, and specific types of criminal activities connected with their antisocial orientation are described. It is rather often that Russian criminal organizations attract a great deal of mass media attention, which creates the impression that they are wide-spread. In Spain, any criminal organization created by citizens of the ex-USSR states is defined as «Russian mafia». However, in spite of considerable media coverage, the degree of Russian organized crime’s presence on the territory of Catalonia should not be overstated. Using the analysis of official data from the Catalan Department of the Interior, the author concludes that Russian organized crime does not hold a dominant position in the overall structure of organized crime in the region as its specific weight does not exceed 2 %.