It’s not your dad’s Cosa Nostra in Las Vegas anymore

The next time someone asks you if the mob is alive and well in Las Vegas, your answer should be: Absolutely.

But based on recent joint federal and local investigations, mob figures operating here today are linked to organized crime groups in Israel and Bulgaria.

The Israeli mob allegedly has been muscling kiosk operators selling women’s beauty products in Las Vegas. And not just in a gentle pat on the hand and rub in the cream fashion.

A prosecutor alleged that Moshe Barmuha told Israeli-born Las Vegas businessman Moshe Ozana that if he and his partner Moshe Karmi didn’t cooperate and repay a third partner (Las Vegan Yakov Cohen), Barmuha was going to “kill him (Karmi), chop him up, cut him up like wood and take his fingers out.” Now that’s not nice.

Barmuha, considered a member of Israeli organized crime by law enforcement, was one of four men charged in the federal conspiracy, extortion and racketeering case in April. Cohen was charged, along with two Russian brothers who are charged with assaulting Karmi.

A few days ago, charges were filed against people allegedly linked to the Bulgarian mob. The indictment contends they were defrauding car dealers in Las Vegas and Phoenix and stealing from bank ATMs. The dollar amounts are big — $1.6 million in stolen cars and $700,000 from ATMs.

In three indictments, 11 people were charged, but the top guy, Dimitar Dimitrov, 58, supposedly was captured on FBI wiretaps boasting that he could keep a witness in line by tying him to a tree, dousing him with gasoline and standing next to him with a lighter. Wiretaps overheard him saying in Bulgarian: “I’m going to turn him into barbecue.”

Not a nice thought to ponder as Memorial Day nears.

These are not nice people, presuming the allegations are true. If it takes threats such as barbecuing or chopping someone up like wood, then the Israeli and Bulgarian mobs are no different than the old Italian mobs.

Special Agent Tracy Dockery, supervisor of the organized crime squad in the Las Vegas FBI, briefed the local Citizens’ Academy folks on April 27 about mob activities in Las Vegas. She said mobsters from the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries have been active with ATM skimming, bank fraud, credit card fraud, and hiding and laundering money.

She didn’t mention that a sealed indictment had been returned that day. The woman knows how to keep a secret.

She shared some vaguely good news about organized crime. There are not as many meth labs in Las Vegas as there once were. That’s because the Mexican drug traffickers are doing it on their own side of the border.

Dockery said Asian mobs are involved with home invasions, but they target the Asian community. They identify homes that have valuables by relying on tips from workers who enter the houses for things such as carpet cleaning and maintenance.

So what about the Italian mob? Dockery told the class that the traditional Cosa Nostra in Las Vegas “has gotten smarter and is not drawing as much attention.” Money laundering, loan sharking and extortion are the favored activities of today’s LCN.

Now we’re talking mobs from around the globe, which operate wherever they can get a foothold and make money. Israelis. Bulgarians. Russians. Asians. Mexicans.

It’s easy to believe stolen cars worth millions might spark threats of violence in the mob world.

But it almost sounds like a joke to hear that women’s creams and cosmetics sold at a kiosk are really lucrative enough to cause one man to threaten another with death and dismemberment.

Can’t help but remember that the next time someone from a kiosk wants to rub cream on my hands.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.