The London-based criminal organizations that rose to power in the late 80's/90's made a LOT of money. More so than any of the old time 60's/70's gangsters before them. I'd say about eight to nine criminal organizations operating in the city were definitely some of the most powerful criminal enterprises in Europe at the time. Especially thanks to their contacts within freemasonry. Many detectives looked at these big time criminal organizations with a "better the devil you know" attitude. Afterwards many of them moved out of the city and most of the ones calling the shots turned "legit".

Plenty of groups from those circles are still active. If you take a look at huge busts in the London/Essex/Kent/Hertfordshire area every few years you'll find names showing up that used to hang around those criminal organizations back in the days. It's not the same as it was back then - a ton of activity is very much under the radar - but there's still lots and lots of organized crime going on in that region that is NOT foreign in origin (no matter how much the media tries to play up that "foreign crime threat" story). They still own car dealerships, recycling companies, etc...in London.