Reported by: Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of New York

Viktor Zelinger, also known as “Vitya” and “Vityok,” the alleged leader of an Eastern European organized crime syndicate that operated in the Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay and Coney Island neighborhoods of Brooklyn and was linked to high-level Russian mafia members known as “Thieves in Law” or “Thieves,” was extradited today from Switzerland to the United States on a nine-count superseding indictment. Zelinger is charged with racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, arson, arson conspiracy, illegal gambling, illegal gambling conspiracy, extortionate collection of credit and two counts of extortionate collection of credit conspiracy. Zelinger, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen with dual Ukrainian citizenship, is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in federal court in Brooklyn before United States Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo.

As alleged in a superseding indictment, the defendant was the leader of a sophisticated criminal organization that engaged in a wide range of activities traditionally associated with organized crime, including extortion, arson, assault, drug trafficking, illegal gambling, loansharking and wire fraud.

From approximately 2011 to May 2017, members of Zelinger’s syndicate carried out numerous crimes, including arson and extortion, operated high stakes gambling establishments, trafficked in narcotics, assaulted victims, and facilitated loansharking.  Zelinger ordered the arson of an apartment building at 2220 Voorhies Avenue in Sheepshead Bay because it housed a rival high-stakes poker game on the ground floor that competed with the defendant’s illegal gambling spot at 2663 Coney Island Avenue.  Specifically, Zelinger directed members of the syndicate to break into the Voorhies Avenue building in the early morning hours of May 2, 2016 and set a fire.  The second and third floors of the building contained occupied apartments.  As a result of the fire, two building residents and five firefighters were injured, with one firefighter suffering career-ending burns, and the building was destroyed.

The defendant’s Coney Island Avenue gambling spot provided poker players with complimentary food and alcohol and “massage girls,” who gave players back and shoulder rubs during the games.  Poker players used narcotics, including cocaine and marijuana supplied by members and associates of the syndicate during the games.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars were wagered, with individual players sometimes winning or losing tens of thousands of dollars in a single night.

The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) worked with Swiss law enforcement partners to secure Zelinger’s apprehension and extradition, the latter of which was carried out by the United States Marshals Service.

Read full report: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/leader-brooklyn-based-eastern-european-organized-crime-syndicate-extradited-switzerland