It's alleged that many so called terrorist groups are in fact organized crime groups or at least are much more motivated by money than by ideology . Colombian BACRIMs and dissident Irish Republican groups immediately come to mind , though I'm sure there are many others .

The purpose of this thread is to discuss this topic and list as many groups as possible that fall into the category of gangsters masquerading as terrorists .

mexican drug cartels are terrorists, not organized crime. people mislabel them as gangsters or organized crime but they are terrorist groups,by definition

To me typical organized crime is the the American mob. I don't consider them terrorists. But some organized crime groups are also terrorists. Sicilian mafia they are terrorists to me when they are killing and blowing up political figures and taking innocent lives. I would say all terrorists are involved in organized crime but not all organized crime is involved directly in terrorism.

Here's a fairly decent article regarding the Real IRA and it's involvement in organized crime activity : https://christopherrickard.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/the-real-ira-crime-or-terror/

I also believe I've read that certain loyalist groups have been heavily involved in OC activity as well , but I haven't been able to find any articles concerning the topic so far .

They seem mainly motivated by money though . Of course it's definitely true that they employ terrorist methods much more frequently than other OC groups , but I'm not aware of any Mexican drug cartel committing violence in the name of ideology . I know that the Knights Templar cartel is described as being quasi religious , yet I'm not aware of them committing any terrorist acts because of their ideology .

Here's an older PDF file concerning the involvement of well known ( mostly former ) terrorist groups in OC activity : https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/WestEurope_NEXUS.pdf

The information may be dated , but it's a good read IMO .

The relatively recent declarations of ceasefire by ETA and FLNC beg the question of will these formerly active terrorist groups venture deeper ( if not completely ) into the world of organized crime .

Is there any information out there regarding this hypothesis ? Anyone know of what ETA and FLNC may be up to these days with regard to OC type activity ?

The Al Shababb of Somalia region. Tax merchants traveling through their area.