BRIGHTON BEACH'S MOST NOTORIOUS RUSSIAN BACK

You may never have heard this name before.  You may not even know that the Russian mafia's stronghold is Brighton Beach.  The man we are speaking about is Boris Nayfeld.  

Nayfeld, now 70 and fresh out of prison is a busted man.  Once rich, from heroin trafficking, extortion and murder, he is the so called "the guy you don't want to see entering your establishment." in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

Nayfeld arrived from Belarus in the early 70's when Russian Jews were fleeing to the United States due to religious persecution.  Just as soon as he arrived, he began a life of crime.  His nickname on the streets was BIBA, and has a long rap sheet which includes trafficking, fraud, extortion, and tobacco smuggling.

Back in 1986 Nayfeld was shot by an automatic weapon when gunmen burst into his office where he ran the gasoline tax skimming scheme.  You might remember him now as the guy Michael Franzese tried and failed to shake down.  In 1997 the US CUSTOMS named him the "organizer, enforcer and distributor of narcotics for the Russian mafia.  He was also the bodyguard for Marat Balagula.

Marat Balagula was the former Russian mafia boss and was also an associate of the Lucchese crime family. When former mobster Michael Franzese couldn't get his way with Nayfeld, he then attempted to shake down Balagula.  Balagula inturn went to Anthony Casso for help, along with Nayfeld.  The five mob families decided that it was better for everyone to make a profit then for one family to try and shake down the Russian mob.  Therefore they decided on a 2 cents per gallon tax on each gallon sold.  It made the mob millions, and was not the invention of Michael Franzese.

Casso was so endeared with Balagula that he joined business with him and opened a diamond mining company in Sierra Leone, Africa.   A few months later while Balagula was sitting in his office with Nayfeld, gunmen who were subservient to Vladimir Reznikov entered the office and lit the entire place up with Ak-47's in an effort to kill everyone.  It was essentially an effort in a hostile takeover.  While some were killed, and Nayfeld wounded, Balagula remained unscathed.  Later Reznikov would put a gun to Balagula's head and the stress wound up giving him a heart attack.  Casso who wouldn't deal with such an insult would go after Reznikov, and Casso would reach out to the Demeo crew for help.  Joey Testa and Anthony Senter would kill Reznikov in a parking lot that night.

Balagula would eventually go to prison for the gas tax scheme and credit card fraud and would be ultimately released from prison in 2004.   As fat as Nayfeld goes, at 70 he just wants to return to Russia and live out whatever time he has left, but his probation and parole stand in the way.  From a guy whose lived through some of the biggest mob moments, he's still alive and well and still in Brooklyn.  By all accounts Nayfeld was a tough guy, a fighter, shooter, and really feared guy in the neightborhood.  He's considering telling his life story, which might make for a good film, but at this point he just wants to return to Russia and I can't say I blame him.