Czech police arrest internationally wanted mafia boss

Karlovy Vary, West Bohemia, March 7 (CTK) - The Czech police arrested a 45-year-old man, suspected internationally wanted boss of Russian-language mafia, in Karlovy Vary yesterday, TV Nova has reported.

The suspect was arrested in the Czech Republic once before, during the police intervention against Russian mafia in Prague's U Holubu restaurant in 1995.

The man has lived alternately in the Czech Republic and Hungary, using fake personal documents.

His gang collected racketeering money, mainly in Hungarian entertainment clubs. That is why Hungarian authorities issued an international warrant for his arrest, the police say.

In the U Holubu restaurant, representatives of two Russian-language criminal gangs met in May 1995. The police raided the meeting after they received an anonymous report that the head of one of the groups, Seva Mogilevich, was to be murdered there.

The police detained almost 200 persons within the raid, but gradually released all without accusing anyone of crime. Nevertheless, it labelled a few people personae non gratae and banned them from staying in the Czech Republic.