Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 13, 1993                   TAG: 9308130063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

FBI TO HELP FIGHT CRIME - IN RUSSIA

"The Russian criminals are networking and developing much faster than any group I've seen in the United States," Jim Moody, the FBI's chief for organized crime, said at a Moscow news conference Thursday.

"They're often highly educated, and now that they can get to the U.S. more easily, they've hit the ground running."

Moody said the FBI plans to put a permanent investigator in Moscow to help Russian authorities.

Moody met in Moscow this week with his counterparts from Germany's Federal Crime Office and Russia's Interior Ministry to discuss ways to fight organized crime inside and outside Russia.

Russian organized crime is a small player in the United States compared to the longer-established Italian and U.S. mafias, Asian gangs and Latin American drug cartels, Moody said. But he said the Russians are establishing ties with those groups quickly.

They cited a rising tide of international fraud, extortion, car theft and other cross-border crime. - Associated Press