The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Friday 3 December 2010

A telltale sign of our occasional uncertainty over Spanish surnames appeared when we referred to a prosecutor investigating Russian organised crime in Spain as José González. He should have been named as either José Grinda González or José Grinda. In this double-barrelled system Grinda is the surname taken from the prosecutor's father, and González the surname taken from his mother.



Russia and its intelligence agencies are using mafia bosses to carry out criminal operations such as arms trafficking, according to allegations contained in the US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks.

The Kremlin's spy agencies have such a close relationship with top organised criminals that Russia has become a "virtual 'mafia state'," the cables say. The gangsters enjoy secret support and protection and in effect work "as a complement to state structures".

A senior Spanish investigator alleged to the US that Moscow's strategy was to use "organised crime groups to do whatever the government of Russia cannot acceptably do as a government". Recent operations included gun-running to the Kurds "in an attempt to destabilise Turkey" and "arms trafficking" in the mysterious Arctic Sea cargo ship hijacking in 2009.

The allegations are made by José "Pepe" Grinda Gonzalez, Spain's national court prosecutor. Gonzalez has spent 10 years battling the Russian mafia and was responsible for the investigation of Zakhar Kalashov, reportedly the most senior mafia figure to be jailed outside Russia.

Spain conducted two major operations – codenamed Avispa (2005-07) and Troika (2008-09) – against mafia networks on its territory, resulting in the arrest of more than 60 suspects. They include four of the alleged leaders outside Russia: Gennady Petrov, Alexander Malyshev (Petrov's deputy), Vitaly Izguilov (a key lieutenant) and Kalashov. Despite this, the networks are said to have swiftly reconstituted.

On 13 January 2010 Gonzalez, a special prosecutor for corruption and organised crime, gave a "detailed, frank" briefing to US officials in Madrid. In a classified presentation to a new US-Spain counter-terrorism and organised crime experts' working group he said the mafia now exercised tremendous control over sectors of the global economy.

He said Russia, Belarus and Chechnya – the Muslim republic of Russia run by a pro-Moscow president, Ramzan Kadyrov – were "virtual 'mafia states' ". Ukraine was "going to be one", he predicted. He spoke shortly before presidential elections in Ukraine won by the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych. The country is now back under Moscow's sway.

"For each of these countries … one cannot differentiate between the activities of the government and OC (organised crime) groups," Gonzalez told the US delegation.

His observations are likely to provoke a hostile reaction from Russia's political leadership and could lead to a serious diplomatic falling out between Russia and Spain.

Gonzalez said it was an "unanswered question" to what extent Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, was personally "implicated in the Russian mafia and controls the mafia's actions".

But Gonzalez – referred to in the cables as Grinda – said he agreed with claims made by Alexander Litvinenko, the whistleblowing Russian spy who was fatally poisoned with radioactive polonium in London in 2006.

Litvinenko secretly met Spanish security officers in May 2006, six months before his death, the cable reported. Another cable, quoting an investigation by Spain's flagship centre-left daily newspaper El País, said Litvinenko tipped off Spanish security officials on the "locations, roles, and activities of several 'Russian' mafia figures with ties to Spain".

According to Litvinenko, Russia's intelligence and security services control the country's organised crime network – with Gonzalez citing the federal security service (FSB), foreign intelligence service (SVR) and military intelligence (GRU). "Grinda stated he believes this thesis [by Litvinenko] to be accurate," the cable said.

The Spanish prosecutor said he had evidence that certain political parties in Russia worked hand in hand with mafia groups. Citing information gathered from "intelligence services, witnesses and phone taps" he named the Liberal Democratic party of Russia (LDPR), an ultra-nationalist party in Russia's Duma. One of its deputies is Andrei Lugovoi, the ex-KGB agent accused by Scotland Yard of Litvinenko's murder.

Gonzalez claimed the KGB and its SVR successor had deliberately created the LDPR. Some of its ranks were now home to serious criminals who owned large mansions in Spain, he said. He further alleged there were proven ties between the Russian political parties – all of which support the Kremlin – and "organised crime and arms trafficking".

In the cable's most revealing section Gonzalez referred to the case of the Arctic Sea ship as an example of arms trafficking. Russia maintains pirates seized the vessel in July 2009 off the coast of Sweden, diverting it to Africa and the Cape Verde islands. It has consistently denied there were any weapons on board.

Although Gonzalez does not elaborate, his remarks suggest he believes the ship was used by organised criminals to smuggle arms under secret orders from Russia's intelligence agencies. There has been speculation the ship was carrying S-300 missiles destined for Iran. Others have suggested rockets, smart bombs or even nuclear missiles.

Gonzalez said Kalashov, the arrested mafia suspect, was used by Russian military intelligence to sell weapons to the Kurds in an attempt to destabilise Turkey, a key US ally. The allegation is likely to infuriate Ankara.

The cables unambiguously state that "those recently arrested in Spain were involved in a complex web of shady business dealings and enjoyed a murky relationship with senior Russian government officials".

At least four ministers had connections with another alleged mafia leader, Gennady Petrov's network, the cable says, adding that Spanish investigators have compiled a secret list of Russian prosecutors, senior military officers and politicians – including current ones – linked to organised crime: 230 wire taps, from among thousands obtained during the two-year Troika investigation, were so sensitive they "will make your hair stand on end", the cable says, quoting Spanish media reports.

The intercepts described Petrov's "immense power and political connections" and said he frequently "invokes the names of senior Russian government officials to assure partners that their illicit deals would proceed as planned".

This evidence is so sensitive that Madrid has restricted it to just 10 top officials, fearful of its impact on bilateral relations.

The cables allege that an intercepted phone conversation suggested a Russian diplomat had been sailing on Petrov's yacht.

The cables also state that in October 2008 Spanish police publicly raided the Mallorca holiday mansion of Vladislav Reznik, chair of the Russian Duma's financial markets committee and a deputy in Putin's United Russia party, on suspicion of links with organised crime. Reznik, who has immunity within Russia, has not subsequently been charged.

Gonzalez added that the FSB had two ways to eliminate "OC leaders who do not do what the security services want them to do". The first was to kill them. The second was to put them in jail to "eliminate them as a competitor for influence". Sometimes the FSB put crime lords in prison for their own protection, he noted.

The Grinda cable alleges Russian mafia activities inside Spain included laundering money from a range of "illicit activities conducted elsewhere, including contract killings, arms and drugs trafficking, extortion, coercion, threats and kidnappings". Other cables claimed Russian criminal networks were active in Thailand – especially in the resorts of Pattaya and Phuket – and Bulgaria.

But hopes that investigators had dealt a blow to the Russian mafia in Spain by "decapitating" its leaders had disappeared, Barcelona's chief prosecutor, Gerardo Cavero, said in 2009. He admitted that large-scale money laundering continued in Catalonia, with many mafia members still active. Additionally, Kalashov and other Avispa defendants had sought to manipulate the Spanish judicial system in a "systematic campaign".

Gonzalez acknowledged that the term "Russian mafia" was something of a misnomer since the criminal groups sometimes involved Ukrainians, Georgians, Belarussians and Chechens. Their influence was such that they dealt directly with government ministers, he said, and steered clear of low-level criminal activities such as racketeering. "Cabinet-level officials do not spend time with unimportant people and cannot be tempted by those who do not have something important to offer," the cable quotes him as saying.

Unsurprisingly Gonzalez was damning about his attempts to negotiate with the Russian government. He said one mafia suspect, Georgian-born Tariel Oniani, fled to Russia in 2005, hours before Spanish police were about to arrest him. Russia gave him citizenship less than a year later and has since jailed him but refused to extradite him. Oniani now enjoyed the protection of both the FSB and Russia's interior ministry "even in prison", Gonzalez told US experts.

The ambassador made clear he regarded Gonzalez's allegations as credible. "Grinda's comments are insightful and valuable, given his in-depth knowledge of the Eurasian mafia and his key role in Spain's pioneering efforts to bring Eurasian mafia leaders to justice."