Brutal Georgian criminal gangs behind escalation in violence in Poland
Georgian gangs exploit Poland’s open borders, orchestrating violent robberies and home invasions as law enforcement struggles to respond.
Brutal, organised crime is making a comeback in Poland. But this time, it’s not local gangs like the infamous “Pruszków” or “Wołomin” mafias of the 1990s, it’s foreign criminals, primarily from Georgia, who are behind a wave of violent robberies and home invasions.
According to Rzeczpospolita, these gangs operate with a level of ruthlessness not seen in years, ambushing their victims in broad daylight, attacking currency exchange workers, and even torturing homeowners to access their valuables. Experts warn that if authorities don’t get a grip on the problem now, Poland could become a key base for international criminal networks, especially once the war in Ukraine ends, potentially unleashing a flood of illicit weapons onto the market.
Poland thought it had left behind the era of violent street gangs. In the 1990s and early 2000s, names like “Pruszków” and “Wołomin” were synonymous with organised crime. Groups from these towns near Warsaw built their empires on extortion, drug trafficking, and brutal enforcement tactics. Public slayings, bombings, and kidnappings were common, and gangsters openly carried out their operations in nightclubs and city streets.
But after years of police crackdowns, these groups were dismantled or shifted their focus to more sophisticated financial crimes, such as VAT fraud and cybercrime. Street-level brutality faded, and for years, Poland felt like it had moved past the lawlessness of the post-communist transition period.
Now, violent organised crime is back, but with a new face. According to a recent report in Rzeczpospolita, Poland has seen a surge in ruthless gang activity, this time driven largely by criminals from Georgia. These groups operate with military-style precision, carrying out highly organised daylight robberies, home invasions, and targeted attacks on individuals carrying large sums of cash. Their methods are strikingly familiar: surveillance of victims, staged car accidents to force people out of their vehicles, and even old-school brutality, such as beatings and torture to extract information.
One particularly brazen case highlighted by Rzeczpospolita took place on Mokotowska Street in Warsaw, a high-end shopping district. A driver transporting €110,000 worth of diamonds stopped briefly, only to find his car had a flat tire. The moment he began changing it, three attackers rushed in, stole the diamonds, €10,000 in cash, and a jeweller’s scale.
Surveillance footage helped identify the culprits: three Georgian nationals with a history of similar attacks. Elsewhere, currency exchange workers have been ambushed and robbed outside their businesses, sometimes in broad daylight. In another case, masked intruders broke into a wealthy businessman’s home in Podkarpacie, tied him up, burned him with boiling water, and held a knife to his throat until he revealed his safe’s combination.
Experts cited by Rzeczpospolita warn that these gangs are not only becoming more aggressive but are also establishing deeper networks across Poland. Unlike past Polish crime syndicates, which controlled specific territories, these Georgian groups operate like mobile criminal enterprises, moving from country to country to avoid detection. Polish police are struggling to track them—many suspects vanish abroad before they can be arrested, and the gangs rely on strong internal networks to move stolen goods quickly.
Law enforcement officials fear that if these groups aren’t dealt with quickly, they could become as embedded in Poland’s underworld as their predecessors. And with the war in Ukraine still ongoing, some experts warn that the situation could get even worse, as criminals gain access to an influx of illegal weapons.
These gangs are not opportunistic street criminals. Their operations are planned with precision, often involving weeks of surveillance, coordination, and escape strategies. Rzeczpospolita reports that Georgian criminal groups have perfected a range of tactics that allow them to strike quickly, neutralise their victims, and disappear before authorities can react.
One common approach is staged car accidents, in which the criminals provoke a minor collision, and when the target steps out to exchange insurance details, they are overpowered and robbed. This method was used in a heist near Żary, where a gang caused a deliberate fender-bender before smashing a victim’s car window with pickaxes and making off with 657,000 złoty (€150,000) in cash.
But these gangs do not limit themselves to robbing vehicles. They have escalated to violent home invasions, targeting business owners and wealthy individuals. In one case near Łańcut, five masked intruders broke into a businessman’s home at night, tied him up, scalded him with boiling water, and threatened to kill his son unless he opened his safe. In Sanok, a similar attack saw criminals restrain an entire family, locking the children in a bathroom while they tortured the parents for valuables.
Beyond the brutality, what makes these gangs particularly dangerous is their cold professionalism. Rzeczpospolita notes that these are not disorganised thugs but disciplined criminal networks. Members rarely act alone, and stolen goods are quickly moved up the chain to avoid being traced. Surveillance footage often shows that robbers operate in rotating teams, with some members flying in from abroad for specific jobs before vanishing back into the Schengen Zone.
What’s most striking is their total disregard for consequences. They strike in broad daylight, in crowded areas, often in front of security cameras. In December 2024, a gang stormed a jewellery store inside Westfield Mokotów, one of Warsaw’s busiest shopping centres. They disabled the guard with pepper spray, smashed glass cases with crowbars, and stole Rolex and Hublot watches worth over 2 million złoty (€500,000). They escaped on electric
Rzeczpospolita’s sources in law enforcement warn that these gangs are operating like multinational crime syndicates, taking advantage of open borders, weak intelligence-sharing between countries, and a lack of effective countermeasures.
And if Polish police don’t adapt quickly, these methods could become the new normal.
The rise of Georgian organised crime in Poland is no coincidence. These gangs have found a way to exploit the European Union’s open borders and Poland’s status as a growing economic hub. According to Rzeczpospolita, Poland’s relatively high wages, increasing cash circulation, and strategic location between East and West make it an attractive target. But what truly enables these criminals to operate so freely is the visa-free travel regime between Georgia and the Schengen Zone.
Since 2017, Georgian citizens with biometric passports can enter the EU without a visa for up to 90 days. In theory, this agreement was meant to strengthen economic and cultural ties. In practice, it has given criminal groups a passport to unrestricted movement across over 20 European countries, including Poland. Once inside Schengen, there is little stopping them from travelling across borders, committing crimes in one country and escaping to another before authorities can catch up.
Law enforcement officials speaking to Rzeczpospolita describe this as an "eldorado for criminals". Georgian gangs are structured like multinational corporations, with different "cells" operating in various EU states. A group might carry out a robbery in Poland, pass stolen goods to associates in Germany, and launder money through contacts in France or Belgium. This constant movement makes it difficult for police to track or dismantle their operations.
Even when gang members are arrested, many are back in Poland within months, as deportations and re-entry bans are often ineffective. Some return under false identities, while others simply wait out their legal bans and re-enter through a different EU country.
Complicating matters further, these gangs are not isolated groups but part of a wider criminal ecosystem with connections to Russian and Eastern European mafias. Rzeczpospolita’s sources suggest that Georgian criminals often collaborate with Russian-speaking networks involved in drug trafficking, arms smuggling, and high-level fraud. Their ability to integrate into existing underworld structures makes them even harder to root out.
Polish police have been slow to adapt. The country’s crime-fighting infrastructure was designed to deal with domestic gangs, not highly mobile international syndicates. Rzeczpospolita highlights how officers accustomed to tracking local criminals are now faced with a constantly shifting network of foreign suspects, many of whom disappear across borders before arrests can be made. Intelligence-sharing with other European law enforcement agencies remains patchy, allowing repeat offenders to return and commit more crimes with impunity.
With little stopping the flow of Georgian criminals into Poland, and with their networks growing more sophisticated, the question is not whether the problem will get worse, but how much worse it will get.
The problem is not just operational but systemic. Experts interviewed by Rzeczpospolita argue that Poland’s police force has lost its ability to conduct classic investigative work. Over the past two decades, crime-fighting methods have shifted toward reliance on technology – CCTV cameras, wiretaps, and digital surveillance – while old-school infiltration and human intelligence gathering have fallen by the wayside.
But Georgian gangs operate like their Polish predecessors from the 1990s: physical surveillance, direct attacks, and cash-based transactions. They do not rely heavily on electronic communication, making them difficult to track using modern policing methods.
One former high-ranking police officer told Rzeczpospolita that officers today feel constrained by legal and political pressures. Following recent controversies over police surveillance and government oversight, there is hesitation to use aggressive investigative techniques, such as wiretaps and informant recruitment. This reluctance, he warns, gives criminals an advantage.
Even when police manage to break up individual groups, the results are often temporary. Rzeczpospolita describes how many arrested gang members are deported, only to return under different identities or resume their activities from another EU country.
Experts warn that Poland’s struggle with foreign criminal networks is only the beginning. According to Rzeczpospolita, once the war in Ukraine ends, the situation could become far worse. The chaos of post-war periods has historically created a massive surplus of illegal weapons, and Poland – sitting directly between Ukraine and Western Europe – risks becoming a key transit hub.
The comparison often made is to the Balkan wars of the 1990s. When the Yugoslav conflicts ended, the black market was flooded with military-grade firearms, explosives, and ammunition. Much of this weaponry ended up in the hands of organised crime across Europe, from the Italian mafia to the Parisian suburbs.
If the same pattern repeats after Ukraine’s war, gangs operating in Poland will have access to unprecedented firepower. Some of these weapons will remain in Poland, while others will be smuggled westward – potentially into the hands of terrorist organisations, as happened with weapons from the Balkans.
And it is not just weapons. Rzeczpospolita’s sources suggest that the end of the war will also unleash a wave of “post-war criminals” – ex-soldiers, mercenaries, and deserters with combat experience but no legal means of income. Some of these men will be recruited by existing gangs, bringing with them military tactics and a complete lack of fear of violence. Others will set up new criminal enterprises of their own. Either way, Poland is likely to feel the effects first.
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