Which Country Has The Most Brutal Mafia Or Criminal Organization? (Gangs Are Alive And Thriving. They've Simply Evolved With The Times.)
In my opinion, I think the most powerful criminal organization in the world is the various Italian organized crime groups known as the Italian Mafia. These include Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Camorra, Sacra Corona Unita, La Stidda, Mafia Capitale, Basilischi and more.
First of all, from all of the research I have done, the Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Camorra, and Sacra Corona Unita make a combined $170-$180 billion per year. That is more than any other criminal organization that I have heard of. This would make them the 19th highest earning "company" in the world when compared to legitimate corporations. Remember, those are the 4 most powerful of the Italian groups, that figure does not include the other various groups. Money means power, they are able to buy vast amounts of weapons, vehicles, and whatever else they need for their operations. Not to mention, they can also buy many politicians and law enforcers.
Martyn V. Halm (Combat Pragmatist) cited a 2014 article in Fortune which is factually incorrect, their "estimates" are way off when it comes to the annual revenue of these organizations. In the article, it claims the 'Ndrangheta makes $4.5 billion/year, this is not the case, as they make $72 billion/year according to various European and American law enforcement agencies.
They are one of the largest criminal organizations in the world. Combined, they have around 300,000 members and associates spread across various countries. There is strength in numbers is a statement which is often true.
They are very widespread, they operate in many places such as North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Russia, and Australia. This gives them the advantage of having a global reach and being able to call on support/flee to anywhere in the world. This global support gives on-the-run mobsters places to hide, ability to call for help, and better business opportunities, as ethnically-similar crime groups often do business with each other because
a) They trust each other more
b) They often share a similar history
Alliances, Italian organized crime groups (OCGs) have been known to cooperate with each other on many occasions. Sure, many other criminal groups work together as well, but Italians seem to have the best relationship with each other and seem to have the most peace among themselves as opposed to other ethnic criminal groups. Sure, they fight, they are criminals, but they seem to fight the least among each other. This re-enforces the past two points I made, and is a huge advantage for them.
Money-making versatility, this also goes for other criminal organizations such as the Bratva (Russian Mafia) but being involved in a dozens of different criminal operations allows them to fall back on something if one operation goes awry. It also gives them an opportunity to increase and spread their power and influence in a given area. Such as Cosa Nostra controlling labor unions to control entire ports, and sometimes even entire industries.
Legitimate businesses. Again, other OCGs own legitimate businesses too, but Italian OCGs seem to be most heavily involved in legit businesses in comparison to other groups. As I mentioned above, they are involved in unions, they own construction companies, various restaurants, they own real estate ('Ndrangheta owns almost entire neighborhoods in Germany and Brussels as a form of investment.)
To recap:
1.Italian OCGs make the most money.
2. Italian OCGs are larger in numbers.
3. They are one of the most, if not the most widespread.
4. Great internal relationships.
5. Money-making versatility.
6. Involvement in legitimate enterprises.
Time for some counterarguments (I am going to name a powerful global OCG that others may have mentioned but I will explain why I believe they are not as powerful as the Italian OCGs globally)
Russian Mafia (Bratva): You could say that they traffic nuclear weapons, but this is simply a different money-making opportunity. They are not going to actually use them, as this would bring down heat from every law enforcement agency within 2000 miles of them. You could say they have submarines, but Italian groups have submarines bringing drugs from Colombia and Mexico as well. Italian OCGs (Camorra in this case) also find sunken WWII ships and retrieve weapons and bombs from them.
Mexican Drug Cartels: You could say that they control a large part of the world's drug trade, they do, but they are not nearly as wide spread as other groups such as the Italian or Russian OCGs. They are mainly in Mexico and the US, they also operate in Canada, but not as heavily as in the US. They send over drugs to Europe but it is then controlled by Italian OCGs. ('Ndrangheta controls 80% of Europe's cocaine, and that is 1 of many Italian OCGs.) The Mexican cartels also make less money from their businesses than Italian OCGs do, cartels make around $40-$60 billion/year. Which isn't shabby, but it doesn't match up against $170-$180 billion/year. They are not as widespread, either. They do have people operating in other countries, but they are usually under the control of other criminal groups, and are their mainly to assist in the reception of drugs or they are on the run there. Most likely and most often the former.
Yakuza: I saw a few people mention this. Lets start with the Fortune article. They say the Yakuza makes $80 billion/year. Whether this is true or not, it is hard to believe because of their mistake on the annual revenue of the 'Ndrangheta (they were off by $67.5 billion.) They also claimed that the Camorra makes more than the 'Ndrangheta, which it doesn't. While I have heard from >1 sources that they make an annual revenue of $13 billion. That is a lot, but not enough to compare to the Italian OCGs. I have seen $80 billion/year on other websites, but they are referring to what the Fortune article said, or they cited it. The Yakuza is not as large as the Italian groups, the Yakuza have an estimated 100,000-120,000 members across the world, most of them being in Japan. This does not compare with nearly 300,000 that the Italian OCGs have. The Yakuza are not as widespread as well. They operate mainly in Japan, Asia, and North America. That is only 2 continents, maybe another country on a 3rd continent. But the Italian OCGs operate on basically every continent except Antarctica.
While the above groups are powerful, they are not as powerful (on a global scale) as the Italian OCGs. Feel free to contest my opinions in a comment.
The Italian Mafia is still strong. They just changed their way of doing business. They're not as strong as they once were, but then again, who is? They had more power than the US President. No one in this day and age will ever come remotely close to being that powerful. So the next time you hear someone say the Italians are finished, tell them they're either naive or clueless. They still have a stranglehold on much of the criminal underworld, believe it or not.
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What about the Chinese? Surely the biggest in Asia. What about the Jews?
ReplyDeleteIt is actually the British Crown. No other criminal organization is older, has the " rule of law" backing their evil, has killed more people, or has more vast wealth, built over a millennia,no other organization has ruled more dominions with more criminal brutality.
DeleteI would state that although they aren't considered to be mafias, Government is just another form of violence used to loot, and control a territory. As such the US empire, and UK empire both qualify to be on anylist of criminal enterprises. No mention of the Jewish Mafia in the article.
ReplyDeleteI agree on all counts. But what you omit here is that, notwithstanding many courageous judges and law enforcement officers, basically the Italian state and the mafias are just two sides of the same coin. Mafias (with the exception of Camorra) did not exist before the unification on Italy in 1861. Mafias and Italy as a state, that is, were born together. You may well argue, as it has been done here, that governments are the true mafias. That's a respectable position, albeit debatable. It is not in Italy, where, as said, the two are in fact just one: unless, of course, you think that controlling the cocaine market in Europe is something you can do without the "authority" noticing or even against that same authority, and through the management of people barely able to speak any language (the ones you see on television when they are arrested)... And you are very right about the risk of underestimating Italy. Venice invented the modern banks, for instance (from banco, a bench, originally), an art later refined by the Florence of the Medici family. And as a state, it found just two, but of enormous importance and lasting legacy, ways of ruling a society: mafias, as said, and of course fascism, what an author (Gobetti, unsurprisingly later killed by fascists) rightly called "an autobiography of the nation". Professor John Dickie, among others, wrote extensively about mafias and their intermingled nature with the Italian state since its inception. While he stops short of calling Italy a narco-state, he provides ample evidence to lead you to this conclusion. Another essential book on Italy in general and its double-face character is "Italians", of Luigi Barzini Jr. It is from 1964 (!), but nothing has changed. Where it however appears that you may have underestimate something, it is violence, of Italy in general and mafias in particular. The three principal internecine mafias' wars (mafia, camorra, 'ndrangheta) body count after the end of WWII runs in the thousands. But, after all, this is the country where intelligence services have been convicted (but never served a day of prison) of placing bombs on trains, stations, crowded squares, and so on. Good luck for your work and please never listen to those who would (sometimes it may happen in the future) tell you to "farti i cazzi tuoi" (mind your own business, even if the original expression is somehow cruder). There is no first amendment in Italy, and some kind of Italians tend to forget that this is not the case in all countries.
ReplyDeleteThe mafia is in very tight with the vatican and their bank. Almost one and the same.
DeleteHow can any other organized crime syndicate come close to the United States government?
ReplyDeletethe richest most organized most funded criminal gang is the chabad Lubovich jews. they deal with trillions
ReplyDeleteThey all pale in comparison to the Jewish mafia.
ReplyDeleteIf these groups are as strong and powerful as stated why do they not take out the Muslims? Supposedly they do not support using drugs and other contra band that is smuggled into various countries.
ReplyDeleteWhy glorify all these creeps? They look at this a feel like big, bad boys, and probably challenged to move up your totem pole of infamy. You forgot the biggest organized crime group-- CIA.
ReplyDelete