Azerbaijani mafia

The Azerbaijani mafia is a general term for organized criminal gangs, mostly based in Moscow and other major Russian cities, that consist of ethnic Azeris. Outside of Russia they are active in most former Soviet states such as Ukraine, Baltic States such as Estonia and Latvia as well as in Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
History
The Azerbajani mafia is one of the oldest crime groups in Russia. Outside of a large ethnic Azerbaijani community in Dagestan, Russian cities have always been known destinations for Azerbaijani immigrants. Following the formation of important and powerful organized crime groups among Russians, Chechens, Armenians and Georgians in Moscow, Azerbaijani criminal gangs quickly developed in the early 1980s. In the 1990s the Azerbaijani groups quickly began their rise to power following the conflicts between the Russian and the Chechen groups. Large-scale immigration of Azerbaijanis to Moscow followed. As well...