MIAMI -- Russian organized crime groups, flush with dollars, are forming alliances with Colombian drug traffickers in the Caribbean, acquiring cocaine for delivery to Europe and providing weapons to Latin American mafias, according to U.S., European and Latin American law enforcement officials.

The Russian groups, operating out of Miami, New York and Puerto Rico, also are opening banks and front companies across the Caribbean, largely used to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from drug sales and other criminal activities, the sources said.