The sparkling beachfront towers and flashy streets of South Beach in Miami could not be more different from the cold, grey streets of the old Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, US intelligence officials say Russian gangsters are making themselves quite at home.

The Russian mafia, they say, are heading for Miami because it is the North American headquarters of the Columbian drug cartels and only a short hop from the money-laundering havens of the Carribbean.

"They hit the ground running," said Federal Bureau of Investigation's Special Agent Drick Crawford.

Life in Miami is in stark contrast to the former USSR

"They are very intelligent, they are very well organised and they are very computer literate. That alone would make them very dangerous and potentially the most dangerous crime group operating in the country."

A burgeoning industry

The term "Russian" mafia refers to all gansters from the former Soviet Union, including a pair from Lithuania who were recently apprehended by local authorities.

The men allegedly offered to sell anti-aircraft missiles to the highest bidder.

US customs officials say that undercover agents posed as members of drug organisations in need of weapons.

The two men said they had access to tactical nuclear weapons and could obtain official Lithuanian government papers to conceal the true nature of the transaction.

US intelligent agencies step up their offensive against crime gangs

The evidence against the men was strong enough to persuade a US Grand Jury to bring the two men to trial. The Lithuanians maintain that they are the victims of an elaborate conspiracy.

A BBC Miami Correspondent says that if anyone can afford the missiles, it is the Columbian drug cartels, whose activities have brought them tremendous financial clout.

Good guys, bad guys and a yellow submarine

So what better way to avoid detection than to transport drugs under water in a submarine?

US authorities also claim to have unearthed a Colombian drug cartel plan to buy a Soviet Tango submarine for _3m out of a seedy sex club in Miami.

Soviet sub the Columbians tried to buy

The Drug Enforcement Agency spent three years tracking the deal. DEA Special Agent Pam Brown says the US government has enough evidence to convict.

The man, known locally as Tarzan, says he is innocent.

US officials say they have uncovered a number of other plots including arms sales, drug running and money laundering.

The FBI estimates that there are 200 to 300 Russian gangs operating in the United States. They suspect that many of them are former KGB agents who, at the end of the Cold War, emigrated to the United States to wage a new - more profitable - war against the West.

The FBI's Special Agent, Drick Crawford, says that if left unaddressed the Russian organised crime problem could be as troublesome as the gang wars of the 1920s and 30s, when bank robbers ran wild in the United States.

At this point, he is just hoping that their efforts are not too little too late.
 

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