By Ellen Cans
A small group of Eastern European criminals in Brooklyn is trying to make it to the big leagues.
Of late, the ragtag group managed to steal the limelight from the more “sophisticated” gangs, managing a bold jail break from Rikers Island, as per law-enforcement experts.
As reported by the NY Post, for close to a decade, the “minor-leaguers,” known as the “KavKaz Nation,” have been creating havoc in the criminal underworld in southern Brooklyn by stealing from drug dealers, extortion and trafficking cocaine and marijuana.
The crew’s name comes from their region of origin in Eurasia, which includes Armenia, Uzbekistan, Russia, and Azerbaijan. Some members have tattoos of the Caucasus Mountains to indicate their allegiance. Their turf is Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, are the crew is considered to be below the high-level ex-Soviet organized crime gangs, whose top leaders are referred to as “Thieves-in-Law,” according to a former Brooklyn federal prosecutor specializing in Eastern European rackets. “KavKaz Nation gangsters are absolutely violent and dangerous. But most of them are minor-leaguers compared to the more sophisticated Eastern European organized criminals linked to Thieves-in-Law,” said Matt Jacobs, a former assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Authorities say the KavKaz kicked it up a notch, making it to headline news, with a daring jail break. Brooklyn federal prosecutors allege that a top-ranking KavKaz member, named Roman Nikoghosyan, helped a fellow group member after he escaped the Vernon C. Bain Correction Center, on July 10. David Mordukhaev climbed out of a window and down a rope from his fifth-floor cell at the jail complex in the city’s floating prison at Rikers Island. He had jumped into the East River and swam to shore, and allegedly hid inside an empty apartment at 79 Brighton 11th St. The 30-year-old had been awaiting trial for an alleged armed robbery in August 2020 when he busted out as per the Post. The escape led to a five-borough manhunt.
On Friday, August 13th, the United States Attorney’s office of the Eastern District of New York posted a statement on their web site that said: “A five-count indictment was filed yesterday in federal court in Brooklyn charging Roman Nikoghosyan, a member of a violent, Brooklyn-based Eurasian organized crime syndicate that operated primarily in the Manhattan Beach and Brighton Beach neighborhoods, with two counts of Hobbs Act extortion conspiracy, one count of Hobbs Act extortion, interstate transportation of stolen property and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Nikoghosyan was arrested in Los Angeles, California on July 20, 2021 and ordered detained pending trial. He will be arraigned in the Eastern District of New York at a later date.”
