 | Life for 59 year old Anatoly Petukhov after being one of Russia’s top crime fighters has been good, very good. He gave up Moscow’s icy winters for the warm embrace of South Florida, where he’s amassed a $38 million portfolio of condos, office buildings and prime development sites, not to mention his 31-foot boat. Petukhov served as a general in an elite law-enforcement unit dedicated to fighting organized crime. The task force was so corrupt that it was reorganized and eventually shut down after a scandal involving its top official. It was thought beyond reform. |  Petukhov is described as a ruthless gangster, extorting tens of millions between 1999 and 2013. |
 Petukhov is building a $17 million mansion on Miami Beach’s Hibiscus Island | Petukhov came to Florida in 2010, paying $3 million for a three-bedroom Miami Beach condo in Sunny Isles Beach, sometimes called “Little Moscow.” His activity was summed up by an American telecom firm doing business in Russia. When Russian mobsters shook down the company for protection money, it contacted Petukhov and the police. Petukhov got the gangsters to back off, then demanded the same amount as a “monthly consulting fee”. |  |
 Petukhov purchased this building for $6.2 million in 2015. | The anti-organized crime unit would extort money from the people it was investigating, often with a promise not to bring charges. Junior officers were expected to funnel some of their illicit earnings up the ladder. Those in the highest positions like Petukhov sat at the top. The crime unit’s commander, Lt. Gen. Alexander Orlov, used his post to extort vast sums. Orlov was dubbed the “dark prince of Russia’s Interior Ministry.” He fled Russia and is said to have surfaced in Thailand and Fort Lauderdale. |  One of Petukhov's homes. |
