Justice Dept. Sees Surge In Global Crime Networks

At least three times this year, from a computer station in Romania, a hacker nicknamed Vladuz posed as an eBay customer service representative in a bid to steal sensitive information from Americans who visited the popular auction Web site.

The man, part of a fraud ring controlled by a foreign criminal syndicate, was captured by Romanian police last week with the help of agents from the FBI and the Secret Service. Justice Department officials cited the case of Vladuz, also known as Vlad Duiculescu, to sound an alarm yesterday about a resurgence in organized crime that recognizes no national borders.

Speaking to an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey offered praise for the successful efforts by Robert F. Kennedy decades ago to break the back of the Italian American mafia but told listeners that the current threat from international syndicates poses even greater challenges.

The new breed of criminals is "more sophisticated, they are richer, they have greater influence over government and political institutions worldwide, and they are savvier about using the latest technology, first to perpetrate and then to cover up their crimes," Mukasey said.

Justice Department officials said yesterday that criminal elements were attempting to penetrate the energy sector, furnish weapons to terrorists and wreak havoc on the U.S. economy by using computers and shell companies to launder money and peddle phony goods. They said that judgment stemmed from a classified threat assessment and data from criminal investigations.

In response, the Justice Department's Organized Crime Council has held regular briefings for the first time in 15 years to forge a new strategy. At present, 120 prosecutors and FBI agents and analysts are working on organized crime issues. Department officials say they want to leverage those resources and work more closely with foreign counterparts and their own colleagues in the ranks of such departments as Treasury, State and Labor.

Alice S. Fisher, chief of the Justice Department's criminal division, said prosecutors also plan to use existing legal tools, including racketeering statutes and intellectual property laws. She said the government might seek more visa denials and economic sanctions against particular members of crime groups.

Officials said they worry that suspects motivated by greed could team up with more ideologically minded terrorists. Last month, arms trafficker Viktor Bout, the "merchant of death," was arrested in Thailand for allegedly conspiring to sell weapons to Colombian rebels.

But FBI Deputy Director John S. Pistole said the bureau has not identified any links between core al-Qaeda members and organized crime rings, which he called "mobsters without borders."