ARMENIAN POWER IS “LIKE A MARRIAGE OF THE OLD ITALIAN MAFIA AND STREET GANGS”
Edik Baghdasaryan
hetq
12:14, May 31, 2012
Interview with Martin Estrada, from the Criminal Division of the
Office of the U.S. Attorney General (U.S. Department of Justice)
-In particular, what kind of offences are Armenians involved in?
-Obviously I am not an expert in all things, crime involving people
of Armenian descent. I can only talk about the experiences that
I had with investigations involving people of Armenian descent. I
can talk about the experiences that I had. I just want to be clear
that we investigate people commit crimes of every ethnicity. I have
Afro-American defendants, I have Hispanic defendants, Caucasian
defendants, we have Armenian defendants. So I don’t want it to appear
that for some reason the Armenian community has more criminals than
other communities. All I know is crimes and investigating criminals,
that’s what I see. So I don’t want you to misunderstand my comments
to mean that people of Armenian descent are more or less inclined
to commit crimes. I don’t know that. I just know the crimes that I
am investigating.
So in terms of what we have investigated, we basically investigated
organized crime in the Los Angeles, Orange Country and the southern
California area. And obviously as you are aware by now there is
a large concentration of people of Armenian descent in Glendale,
Burbank, North L.A. County.
And terms of the sorts of crimes that we investigated it’s been
everything under the sun from murders to bank fraud, to kidnapping,
to credit card fraud, to identity theft, to gambling – basically
everything under the sun.
And it seems from the investigations that we’ve done that people
with links to Armenia or the former Soviet Union or even just Eastern
Europe, they have special abilities to commit identity theft. That’s
because they have access to technology and they have access to tourists
or others who come to the country. They can obtain their information,
their names, social security number, and dates of birth, buy those
from the tourists, or get involved criminally with them and then use
that information to commit identity theft or fraud of some sort.
-During the past year the Armenian Power group has been repeatedly
covered and talked about in media. What is this organization? How
would you describe or characterize this organization?
-Based on our investigation, what we have learnt is that it’s an
enterprise. And an enterprise is a legal term that refers to a group
that’s committing crimes of all sorts. The types of enterprises that
the government investigates range from street gangs. Los Angeles
has many-many street gangs. Some are very large and they have been
investigated like MS13 and they are enterprises. But also more
sophisticated organized crime groups like Cosa Nostra, Asian groups
like the Triads and those are also enterprises.
Based on our investigation, we found Armenian Power to be a very
sophisticated enterprise because it has both street gang aspects and
higher organized crime aspects. So it’s almost like a marriage of
the old Italian Mafia and street gangs. They have power on the street
based on young individuals, who pose as gangsters, and they are people
who carry fire arms and do sort of the violent dirty work. But then,
they have other associates who don’t get involved in the street gang,
but they have expertise in fraud, money laundering, and things of
that sort. And then there is a small group of people who sort of vie
for control of these different aspects.
And the other interesting aspect (this is also discussed in the
indictment) is that Armenian Power here has become more powerful than
the traditional thieves-in-law. So the leadership of Armenian Power
will deal directly on a level playing field with the thieves-in-law who
come to Los Angeles. But they have a power (I mean leaders in Armenian
Power) beyond the thieves-in-law because of their ties to the street,
they have the soldiers and they have links to an incredibly powerful
prison gang known as the Mexican Mafia. It is essentially a Hispanic
street gang that controls the prisons both federal and state in
California and throughout the country. So because the Armenian Power
leadership has those connections, they have power on the street and
they have protection in the jail.
-As far as I understood, based on your description, they are the
strongest collection of criminals.
-And we consider them to be one of the biggest threats in Los Angeles.
-When information came to light publicly, there were references or
talk that these folks also have connections to Armenia. Was anything
proven to show that these folks have ties or contacts to officials
in Armenia or the criminal world in Armenia?
-Yes, a large majority were born in the former Soviet Union and still
have family or connections there. And the significance of that is that
they have the connection to the tourists as we said from Russia and
from Armenia. They also, on occasion, have fled America to go there to
avoid prosecution. But probably more importantly is their connection
with thieves-in-law. The leadership of Armenian Power is dealing
directly with the Moscow and Armenian thieves in law, not just here.
And the inference would be, although we haven’t gotten into this,
is that there’s a reason they’re doing this; there must be some
reciprocation in Armenia and Moscow.
-Does this mean you haven’t definitely established any proof of a
connection? Is it just an assumption that you have?
-No, there is concrete proof of connection. What we don’t know is what
the thieves-in-law of Russia do for these guys in Russia and Armenia,
if anything. Maybe it’s just a respect thing.
-Haven’t law enforcement agencies of Armenia cooperated with you?
-We haven’t requested any sort of cooperation because it’s
not necessarily relevant to our investigations. In other related
investigations we have requested assistance from the Russian government
and we have been able to cooperate there.
-Is it possible that the names of criminals, or say Russian or Armenian
officials, are ever mentioned during court trials here?
-It’s always possible.
-And they also were talking about amounts that were being transferred
to Armenia or Russia. Have they been incidents where you have been able
to ascertain that such transfers of financial assets have occurred?
-That is probably an area I shouldn’t talk about because it’s not
public.
-Why is it possible that in Los Angeles these groups are able to
mushroom and evolve? How is it that this Armenian group has grown
and prospered so?
-Los Angeles is one of the largest economies, there is a lot of
commerce, there are ports, and there is proximity to Mexico which is
the center of drug-trafficking. So there is a great deal of criminal
activity in Los Angeles and these particular people we investigate have
the ability to both deal with street elements like the Mexican mafia
and also the more sophisticated elements like the thieves-in-law in
Russia and Armenia. And they’re able to understand technology to commit
identity theft and bank fraud. Those are the sorts of sophisticated
crimes that normally aren’t committed by people involved in violent
crime. But this group can do both.
-Also very prominently covered was the involvement of Armenians
in this Medicare fraud, the one involving Pzo and these people. To
what extent is that connected in any way with Armenia, the country,
but specifically people in government or public service, or in the
criminal underworld of Armenia?
-I don’t know any connection. There may be but I am not aware of. The
Medicare fraud that we come across is largely a fraud that can generate
millions of dollars of criminal proceeds. That doesn’t necessarily
mean it goes anywhere else except in the pockets of the criminals. And
it’s a very unfortunately common crime because there is a lot of paper
work and a sort of trust involved in a paper work. So it’s not hard
for someone who wants to commit a crime to commit Medicare fraud.
-The connections between Armenian Power and the Russian mafia are
constantly talked about. Are there any links that Armenian Power
seems to have with Eastern European countries?
-That information is not public.
-In general, are there Armenians employed in public law enforcement,
the police, etc., in this region?
-There are many and I should stress that as I was saying we
investigate people who commit crimes. And it just so happens that
we’re investigating people of Armenian descent. So I don’t want there
be a misunderstanding that we believe that people of Armenian descent
are more likely to commit crime. And in fact, what I can say is that
this group commits a great deal of crime, including violent crimes.
And unfortunately the majority of their violent crimes and even a
small percentage of their fraud crimes, target their own community,
so they target other Armenians.
-That’s seems to be another unique trait of Armenian Power.
-Yes, although in many mafias we see them often targeting people from
their own countries or areas. And it appears it’s one of the reasons
because they feel like more easily intimidate them and put them in
fear of going to the police.
-Who, from Armenian Power, has received the longest court sentence? If
it is public knowledge, can you give their name and the sentence
they got?
-No one has yet been sentenced to a high sentence. The most recent
convictions were a trial in Santa Ana, where the lead defendant, whose
name is Arman SharO…petrosian, and he was the leader and organizer
of bank fraud conspiracy which he was committing from prison and he
has a long history of violent crime and that individual is looking
at a very lengthy sentence in the range of 20 to 30 years.
From: A. Papazian