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List of criminal enterprises, gangs, and syndicates

List of groups engaged in illegal activities From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The following is a listing of enterprises, gangs, mafias, and criminal syndicates that are involved in organized crime. Tongs and outlaw motorcycle gangs, as well as terrorist, militant, and paramilitary groups, are mentioned if they are involved in criminal activity for funding. However, since their stated aim and genesis is often ideological rather than commercial, they are distinct from mafia-type groups.

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Drug cartels

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See also: Allegations of CIA drug trafficking

In several drug-producing or transit countries, drug traffickers have taken advantage of local corruption and lack of law enforcement to establish cartels turning in millions if not billions of dollars each year. Sometimes if government enforcement is particularly poor, the cartels become quasi-paramilitary organizations.

Latin America

See also: List of drug cartels in South America, Manuel Noriega, narcokleptocracy, Service d'Intelligence National, and Yomagate

Brazil

Active

Colombia

See also: Guerrilla movements in Colombia and The Extraditables
Active
Defunct

Mexico

Juárez Cartel[3][5][10][13]

Asia

See also: List of drug cartels in Asia and Manchukuo § Drug trafficking
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North American organized crime

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Canada

United States

See also: The Order (white supremacist group)

American Mafia

Italian immigrants to the United States in the early 19th century brought with them the underground government many Americans refer to as "Cosa Nostra" (Our Thing) along with its traditions and formal induction rituals along with the concepts and precepts of Omerta, which espouses honorable and manly behavior at all times and under all conditions, taking care of your own problems and assisting your community, as well as non-cooperation with corrupt law enforcement and government officials. Many Italian-Americans around this same time also formed various small-time gangs which gradually evolved into sophisticated crime syndicates, but the nationwide organization known as "Cosa Nostra" has traditionally dominated organized crime in America for several decades. Although government crackdowns and a less-tightly knit Italian-American community have largely reduced its power, the American Mafia remains an active force in the underworld

Active
Defunct

Jewish mafia

African-American organized crime

Irish Mob

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European organized crime

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Italian organized crime

See also: Propaganda Due

Organized crime in Italy, especially the south, has existed for hundreds of years and has given rise to a number of notorious organizations with their own traditions and subculture which have managed to infiltrate almost every part of Italian society.[44] The Italian mafia is often thought of as being the archetype for organized crime worldwide.

British organised crime "firms"

See also: Irish Republican Army (disambiguation) and Ulster loyalism § Paramilitary and vigilante groups

Balkan organized crime

Balkan organized crime gained prominence in the chaos following the communist era, notably the transition to capitalism and the wars in former Yugoslavia.

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Post-Soviet organized crime

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See also: List of post-Soviet mobsters

Although organized crime existed in the Soviet era, the gangs really gained in power and international reach during the transition to capitalism. The term Russian Mafia, 'mafiya' or mob is a blanket (and somewhat inaccurate) term for the various organized crime groups that emerged in this period from the 15 former republics of the USSR and unlike their Italian counterparts does not mean members are necessarily of Russian ethnicity or uphold any ancient criminal traditions, although this is the case for some members.

Caucasian crime syndicates

See also Caucasus Emirate

Central Asian crime syndicates

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Asian organized crime

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East Asian criminal organizations

Korean criminal organizations

See also: North Korea's illicit activities

Japanese Yakuza

Main article: List of Yakuza syndicates
See also: Kenji Doihara and Aum Shinrikyo

Active yakuza groups

Defunct yakuza groups

Hangure (半グレ, literally "half-grey") are considered to be “jun-bōryokudan(準暴力団, quasi-yakuza)” groups. The term half-grey in Japanese refers to groups that commit crimes, yet are not considered to fit the description of criminal organizations (referring to yakuza clans in this context). They mostly consist of former Bōsōzoku teenagers and former juvenile delinquents (also known as furyō(不良)) in middle and high schools, who became an adult[67] and refuse to join the Yakuza because of their dislike for the traditional code of the Yakuza. Sometimes they outsource their crimes to their kōhai delinquents at Old Bōsōzoku group or Alma Mater as Senpai.[68][69]

Chinese Triads

Hong Kong-based Triads

  • 14K Group 十四K
    • 14K Yee 十四怡K
    • 14K Hau 十四豪K
    • 14K Yan 十四颜K
    • 14K Yung 十四容K
    • 14K Ngai 十四魏K
    • 14K Chung 十四钟K
    • 14K Mui 十四梅K
    • 14K Tak 十四德K

Taiwan-based Triads

Triads in Chợ Lớn

Southeast Asian criminal organizations

See also: Piracy in the Strait of Malacca and Pirates of the South China Coast

Thai gangs

Cambodian crime gangs

Indonesian crime gangs

Malaysian crime gangs

Filipino crime gangs

Vietnamese Xã Hội Đen

South Asian criminal organizations

See also: Haqqani Network and Zomi Revolutionary Army

Indian mafia

See also: Insurgency in Northeast India

Sri Lankan criminal groups

Pakistani mafia

See also: Peoples' Aman Committee, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan, and Inter-Services Intelligence

Middle Eastern criminal organizations

See also: Free Syrian Army, Shabeeha, Al-Qaeda, Islamic State, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, Lions of Hussein, Piracy in the Persian Gulf, and Houthi movement

[79][80]

Iranian mafia

Israeli mafia

See also: Lehi (group)

Lebanese mafia

See also: Lebanese Civil War

Turkish mafia

Source:[3][4][84]

See also: Illegal drug trade in Turkey and Deep state in Turkey
See also: Kurdistan Workers' Party

Yemeni mafia

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Australian organized crime

See also: Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union, Nugan Hand Bank, and List of gangs in Australia

Caribbean crime groups

See also: Piracy in the Caribbean

African organized crime

See also: Taxi wars in South Africa, blood diamond, Kivu conflict § Conflict minerals, Barbary Coast, Al-Shabaab (militant group), Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and Boko Haram
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Cybercrime networks

See also: List of hacker groups

As society enters the Information Age, certain individuals take advantage of easy flow of information over the Internet to commit online fraud or similar activities. Often the hackers will form a network to better facilitate their activities. On occasion the hackers will be a part of a criminal gang involved in more 'blue collar crime', but this is unusual.

Drug and smuggling rings

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Smuggling is a behavior that has occurred ever since there were laws or a moral code that forbade access to a specific person or object. At the core of any smuggling organization is the economic relationship between supply and demand. From the organization's point of view, the issues are what the consumer wants, and how much the consumer is willing to pay the smuggler or smuggling organization to obtain it.

Drug rings

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Prison gangs

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Prisons are a natural meeting place for criminals, and for the purposes of protection from other inmates and business prisoners join gangs. These gangs often develop a large influence outside the prison walls through their networks. Most prison gangs do more than offer simple protection for their members. Most often, prison gangs are responsible for any drug, tobacco or alcohol handling inside correctional facilities. Furthermore, many prison gangs involve themselves in prostitution, assaults, kidnappings and murders. Prison gangs often seek to intimidate the other inmates, pressuring them to relinquish their food and other resources. In addition, prison gangs often exercise a large degree of influence over organized crime in the "free world", larger than their isolation in prison might lead one to expect.

Prison gangs in the United States

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Street gangs

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Youth gangs have often served as a recruiting ground for more organized crime syndicates, where juvenile delinquents grow up to be full-fledged mobsters, as well as providing muscle and other low-key work. Increasingly, especially in the United States and other western countries, street gangs are becoming much more organized in their own right with a hierarchical structure and are fulfilling the role previously taken by traditional organized crime.

North America

African-American

Native American/Indigenous

Asian-American

Hispanic

Historical

Gangs in Canada

Other

South America

Europe

Africa

Asia

Oceania

Outlaw motorcycle clubs

See also: List of outlaw motorcycle clubs

Other

Historical

See also

References

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