MIAMI, June 1 (UPI) -- Eastern European gangsters are extorting thousands of dollars from Miami Beach tourists by having young women get them drunk, the FBI says.
"Eurasian organized crime is our No. 1 priority," replacing the Italian Mafia, Rick Brodsky, head of the bureau's Miami office, told The Miami Herald.
In April, six reputed members of an ex-Soviet ring and 10 "bar girls" from Latvia and Estonia were charged with luring tourists into private South Beach clubs where they ran up huge bills and were threatened if they refused to pay up.
Two of the women plan to plead guilty Thursday in Miami federal court.
Brett Daniels, a professional magician, told the Herald two attractive women led him to a club where he got drunk and was slapped with a $1,368 credit card bill. "Pay your bill or you're going to jail," the bouncer told him.
Prosecutors say the ring ran up hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent bills from about 90 men targeted because they seemed rich. The "b-girls" got 20 percent commissions.
The alleged leader, Alec Simchuk of Hallandale, Fla., is now a fugitive.
In a separate case in February, 13 South Florida members of an alleged Armenian syndicate were charged with extortion and other crimes.
