Boris 'Biba' Nayfeld (Russian: Борис 'Биба' Найфельд, Belarusian: Барыс 'Біба' Нейфелд; born
1947
It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Events
January
* January– February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the count ...
in
Gomel
Gomel (russian: Гомель, ) or Homiel ( be, Гомель, ) is the administrative centre of Gomel Region and the second-largest city in Belarus with 526,872 inhabitants (2015 census).
Etymology
There are at least six narratives of the or ...
) is a former
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
ian/
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
mob boss
A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, Don, gang lord, gang boss, mob boss, kingpin, godfather, crime mentor or criminal mastermind, is a person in charge of a criminal organization.
Description
A crime boss typically has absolute or nearl ...
and
heroin trafficker, who operated out of
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to the ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
.
Arrival in America and rise to power
Boris Nayfeld arrived in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
in the late 1970s as a
Soviet Jewish refugee under the
Jackson-Vanik Amendment. He became a small-time criminal and was arrested in
Nassau County for
grand larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Engl ...
, pleaded guilty to petty larceny and was placed on probation. He later became a bodyguard and chauffeur to
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to the ...
mob boss
A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, Don, gang lord, gang boss, mob boss, kingpin, godfather, crime mentor or criminal mastermind, is a person in charge of a criminal organization.
Description
A crime boss typically has absolute or nearl ...
Evsei Agron
Evsei Borisovich Agron ( rus, Евсей Борисович Агрон, r=Yevsei Borisovich Agron; 25 January 1932 – 4 May 1985) was boss of New York City's Russian mafia during the 1970s and 1980s. Known for his cruelty, he was called the "God ...
. According to the
NYPD
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
, Nayfeld remains the prime suspect in the 1983 murder of
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnist ...
n writer turned gangster Yuri Brokhin.
After Agron's murder in 1985, Nayfeld became an enforcer for
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* Som ...
mob boss
A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, Don, gang lord, gang boss, mob boss, kingpin, godfather, crime mentor or criminal mastermind, is a person in charge of a criminal organization.
Description
A crime boss typically has absolute or nearl ...
Marat Balagula who ruled the neighborhood rackets before being convicted of gasoline bootlegging in 1991. In the aftermath, Nayfeld took over the remnants of Balagula's organization and began to branch out on his own.
Heroin ring
Together with
Italo–
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
gangster Ricardo Fanchini, Nayfeld ran a successful heroin-smuggling operation that transported
China White from
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
to the United States.
The New York Review of Books. November 16, 2000. The Russians Are Coming! By Raymond Bonner's review of Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America by Robert I. Friedman
/ref> After being smuggled into Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
, the drug was hidden in television picture tubes and shipped to Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
via a Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
-based import-export company. From there, couriers flew it via plane to Brighton Beach.[Friedman, Robert I. ''Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America''. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2000] Upon arrival the heroin was sold partly to the Five Families
The Five Families refers to five major New York City organized crime families of the Italian American Mafia formed in 1931 by Salvatore Maranzano following his victory in the Castellammarese War.
Maranzano reorganized the Italian American gangs ...
and partly to Latino street gangs. Things were going well for Nayfeld and he spent his time in either a luxury apartment in Antwerp with his mistress and his family home on Staten Island
Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...
opposite a nature reserve.
Gangland war and arrest
In January 1994 he was arrested by federal agents for drug trafficking. Later, he and his co-defendants, the Dozortsev brothers, pleaded guilty to laundering the drug money which belonged to themselves and Ricardo Fanchini.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nayfeld, Boris
Jewish American gangsters
American drug traffickers
American crime bosses
Russian crime bosses
People from Gomel
American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
21st-century American Jews