Most Powerful CO in the world

Sinaloa Cartel,'Ndrangheta,Solntsevskaya Bratva.


Nigerian Syndicates...? I don't think so.

Someone please state me how much aproximetely are there Ndragheta clans and how big is the membership. And also please state the number of Mexican cartels and their aprox. membership.

I would say 50-100 people not more(Ndrangheta)but you have 'Ndrangheta cells in other countries that have about 5-10 people and they report to Calabria,but you also have families that have grown such as case in Canada and Australia and they became independent.

1. Vors - too many billionaires and Putin protected not to mention them

50-100??? The 'ndrangheta has thousands as a whole, and there are clans like the Piromalli who have about 500 made members (don't remember the source, but I can try to find it) and an unknown number of associates.

However I do think that the Russian or former so ite groups are exaggerated a little , sure they're major players, but people tend to over caution them I think. I would imagine Balkan organized crime is more powerful or pervasive than some Russian groups, eg the Albanians.

Organized crime in Russia has been weakened, at least somewhat, in recent years. The system under Putin is not like it was back in the 1990's.

I hope it really is like you are saying, but as far as I know, many crime groups are considered not active anymore NOT because the leaders have been imprisoned, but only because they are considered "to have gone legit", and this isn't always the case. Many crime bosses have been killed, but nobody of the ones who have national or international power has been punished through the law. The only one is Vladimir Kumarin (head of the Tambovsakya group), and that's only because some underlings of his tried to extort somebody who was friends with the governor who sent a complaint to Putin. Most of the others who went to jail are just local bosses who don't control more than one region. The only exception apart from Kumarin I can think of is the thief-in-law Tariel Oniani, the main rival of the killed Grandpa Hasan (Aslan Usoyan).

The reasons for nigerian syndicates is for the flexibility in their networks. Within 20 or so years they were able to expand into 80 countries subtle and swiftly. Focusing mostly on financial fraud that cost countries billions of dollars a year without the use of violence. They have good skills in coordination and communication which they use to partner up with every major crime group that is mentioned in this forum.

Organized crime in Russia has been weakened, at least somewhat, in recent years. The system under Putin is not like it was back in the 1990's.

According to the FBI, the 'Ndrangheta has about 6,000 members. For the record, the FBI says the Camorra has 7,000 members, the Cosa Nostra 5,000 members, and the Sacra Corona Unita 2,000 members. This totals 20,000, which is less than the 25,000 also cited on the FBI website. Obviously, estimates are going to vary. For example, Italian OC scholar Letizia Paoli cites the 'Ndrangheta as having 5,000 members and the Cosa Nostra 3,500 members. And it's hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison with the manpower in other crime groups, many of whom do not have the distinction of being "made" vs not "made."

3. The Smaldone LCN Family in Denver

who are the smaldone

so would you guys say the nigerians have reached the wealth and power as the ndragheta

Ofcourse no.

Ofcourse no.

Ofcourse no.

yes, but are they as powerful as the ndragheta

yes, but are they as powerful as the ndragheta

no however Nigeria is on the way to becoming the México of cocaine passage into europe the ndragheta isn't involved in the traffic of cocaine so maybe in drugs the nigerians are bigger.

3. The Smaldone LCN Family in Denver

From Russian wikipedia: States that there are total around 12 000 Russian crime groups with membership of 160 000.
Ndragheta has 150 groups and 5000 members.

From Russian wikipedia: States that there are total around 12 000 Russian crime groups with membership of 160 000.
Ndragheta has 150 groups and 5000 members.

Keep in mind that B) that figure for the 'Ndrangheta doesn't include associates, which could be 10 times the number of made members; B) the figure for the Russian groups likely includes other groups that are not Russian, i.e. Ukrainian and people from other Eastern European countries that often get lumped in under the "Russian Mafia" umbrella; and C) many of these Eurasian groups don't have the distinction of "made" members so the numbers will appear bigger.

I guarantee that there are some Nigerian groups that are stronger than some individual ndragheta clans or some mafia families

In italy from all groups,there are about 25,000 made members and about 300,000 associates.

The FBI has cited 25,000 members and 250,000 associates. One could accuse them of taking the lazy man's route of just estimating 10 associates for every member but, with the Italian clans, 10 associates per member is very realistic.

Nice stats, the thing is though with Italian organized crime you know that the members and associates are closely interlinked - hence have an organized structure. With Russian mafiya groups , they may have something like 100 000 members but a lit of them aren't all Russian and a lot of them are small groups of fraudsters , traffickers etc. like that fraud ring in Miami where waitresses ripped of clients , how can that be considered mafia?

If a group of Italian fraudsters got busted with no links to the mob the media wouldn't call them Mafiosi , why is it different within soviet ethnic groups ?

Oleg Simchuk was from Riga, Latvia and was associated with one of the largest groups here in the 90's. Then as many others after reaching power he moved into his own rackets.

The Russian Mob differs from the Italians very drastically. Such as there's no united guide by which you make a Russian mob or consider one to be. More or less nowdays Vory V Zakone have the most influence over every criminal group. Not all of these groups respect them, tough.

There are no ceremonies or anything "family based". Russian speaking organized crime is mainly a group of men(Bratva) who engage into criminal activities together to make profit. The system differs also. There aren't such things as "being made".

Practically in Italian Mob you get made as you're choosen to be made by other higher people. In Russian Mob, made gets only Thieves in Law, and a lot of them are nowdays those who have bought their status. The real criminals, those are criminal authorities. That's how we call them - criminal authority. As my father explained this to me - a person who everyone knows that he is a criminal but the law enforcement can't do shit to him. And no-one inducts you to become a criminal authority. You have your own head, your own hands and you do your thing to become one till people start to recognize you as one.

Practically there's up to 300 000 people who are connected to organized crime groups that are registered by police in Russia. There's also those which aren't registered.

ThePolakVet, do you have information about Boris Dekanidze and the Vilnius brigade, how was it structured, if it's still active etc? I am interested in Dekanidze because he is one of the few mafia bosses of any nation to ever get the death penalty. Do you know if there ever were any other major kingpins executed in the Baltic states?

The FBI has cited 25,000 members and 250,000 associates. One could accuse them of taking the lazy man's route of just estimating 10 associates for every member but, with the Italian clans, 10 associates per member is very realistic.

Also on the cocaine trade in Europe, it's a diverse marketplace. But according to Europol the most prominent poly-drug groups are Albanian speaking crime groups, Lithuanian crime groups, OMGs, and West African crime groups. I found it odd that they mentioned Ndrangheta but don't include the Italian crime groups.

Whatever you say man.

i don't think you know enough of europe to talk about it...nigerians are not the strongest group in europe as you like to believe, they are maybe among the strongest not european groups, but domestic groups are by far the most powerful over there

nigerians are among the biggest drugs importer among not-european groups, but as i sad domestic groups are the most prominent in drug trafficking and most powerful in general

I agree in the Netherlands, a HUGE drug hub, domestic groups called "Penose" are dominant.

I'm the only stating that because they have done business with everyone of those groups you listed abroad and within these group's territory with little to no consequences.

right... have they political connections? i wonder if there is some criminal group in europe aside italian, russian and balkan criminal groups that are strongly political connected... maybe corsican? they sure have some political link

mexican cartels are the strongest nowadays they import 90% of drugs into the states and the level of violence in mexico is staggering

" nigerians are among the biggest drugs importer among not-european groups"

Your making a contradiction.

Gets

You actually know more than you think. Check out Mob Museum blog, an article on OC groups in Europe. African - especially Nigerian syndicates involved in different rackets.

BF,

I don't know much about criminal organizations, but I'd think that one advantage that the Nigerian syndicate has is one of the advantages that the Russian mafia has. I think the Russian mafia is led by those from the well educated class of people.Articles I've read about Nigerian syndicates point to the same thing.

Kind of backwards, because you don't think of well educated people being recruited into, or forming criminal syndicates. The assumption is that the other organized crime groups are mainly made up of those from the lower segments of their society.


I've read that the guys who became the newly minted millionaires when the Soviet Union collapsed were the former Russian mafia guys.

i mean tha the drug imported by nigerians is low, they are not even close to the one imported by european criminal groups

That article says differ, They're Wholesale to Mid level distributors. They don't import drugs in bulk like other syndicates instead via large quantities of small packages.

italian mafia and triads have also several members of high class, politicians, businessmen, doctors... italian mafia is very close to freemasons

right... have they political connections? i wonder if there is some criminal group in europe aside italian, russian and balkan criminal groups that are strongly political connected... maybe corsican? they sure have some political link

An outfit is only going to be as strong as the government they have ingratiated themselves with, and no stronger than that government is itself.

Because Italy seems to be so anti-organized crime, that would eliminate any and all mainland Italian syndicates from the top of the list because not being in the favor of their home governments puts them on shaky ground.

I have read that Bolivian drug traffickers will not leave the borders of their country to transport drugs....because production of cocaine is (or was) legal...within their country. That makes their organizations pretty strong.

In another example, Canadian Cosa Nostra seems stronger than American Cosa Nostra at this time, due to the differences in the way crimes are prosecuted in the US versus Canada. In Canada things are easier for an outlaw, therefore they are probably stronger. What does it matter how many made men you have, how many guns you have, and how much money you make...if you are under indictment???

It really might come down to who has the blessing of their government and how strong their government is.

I would say the Caruana and Cun-trera mafias are right at the top.

I can't make a fair comparison of OC groups against one another world wide because I've never looked up the list. All I can do is put forward my formula for what makes an outfit truly "tough".

It's a futile question because there are many factors that make up a threat potential of organized crime groups. Some have even been put into a working formula, like the Slepnir Matrix, by law enforcement. But it's not tennis rankings.

It's debatable how anti-Mafia Italy really is, even if it's come along way, but the fact the Mafia there has thrived for so long, even if Italy has been very anti-Mafia, it should be self evident that your comment about the Italian groups isn't the case. They have been around for years and years and won't be going away anytime soon.

Meanwhile, one could argue there was even more corruption and instability in Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s. According to your theory, that should have enabled the Medellin and Cali cartels to last. But that wasn't the case.

I think no one has mentioned the Hong Kong Triads 14k, Sun Yee On and the Wo group, with tens of thousands members. They have also big influence in Chinatowns all over the world.

italy is so anti-mafia that it couldn't wiped out mafia groups lol they are so strong that survived tons of indictments, there are anti-mafia blitzes almost daily in italy... i think only a dictatorship can defeat the mafia in fact mussolini weakened the mafia very much

italy is so anti-mafia that it couldn't wiped out mafia groups lol they are so strong that survived tons of indictments, there are anti-mafia blitzes almost daily in italy... i think only a dictatorship can defeat the mafia in fact mussolini weakened the mafia very much

Even Falcone praised Cesare Mori aka The Iron Prefect, for being the first man to successfully combat the Mafia.

Four top officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Tuesday received their letters directing them to proceed on compulsory retirement over the missing petrol scandal, multiple sources told PREMIUM TIMES.

On Monday, PREMIUM TIMES published an exclusive report that the Managing Director of the NNPC Retail, Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue, and three other top officials were asked to resign their appointment.

The officials, including the General Manager (Operations) of NNPC Retail, Mamza Gwadabe, and Ibrahim Bello, who was said to be responsible for monitoring the truck out of NNPC products at depots in Lagos, got their retirement letters. A fourth official whose identity of could not be ascertained last night also got his,

The four were found culpable in the 100 million litres 'missing' petrol scandal involving Capital Oil & Gas Nigeria Limited owned by controversial businessman, Ifeanyi Ubah.

A committee constituted by the NNPC management to investigate the scandal, which also involved MRS Petroleum, had initially recommended the outright dismissal from service of the four officials for their respective roles.

But, following the intervention of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, the dismissal was converted to compulsory retirement with full benefits, our sources said.

Although Mrs. Nnamdi-Ogbue had earlier said she was not aware of the recommendation for her to retire, authoritative sources close to the NNPC confirmed to this newspaper last night that she and other affected officials were served their retirement letters on Tuesday.

Despite collecting her retirement letter, the former NNPC Retail boss was said to have insisted on her innocence at a meeting with staff of the agency on Tuesday, where she announced her exit.

When contacted, Ndu Ughamadu, the NNPC spokesperson said he was not aware of the retirement letter.

"The only thing I am aware of is that the probe panel had submitted its report. But, I am not aware what their recommendations were," Mr. Ughamadu said.

The missing petrol worth over N14 billion was stored at the private depots under a throughput arrangement as part of NNPC's effort to maintain a strategic national fuel reserve.

Last January, when the Nigerian Products Marketing Company, NPMC, the NNPC subsidiary in charge of petroleum products marketing and distribution, needed some volume of petrol to bridge the supply gap, Mrs. Nnamdi-Ogbue had offered NNPC Retail's stock of the commodity at Capital Oil.

But, NNPC Chief Operating Officer, Downstream, Henry Ikem-Obi, said when trucks were sent to load the petrol at Capital Oil, it was discovered that the entire stock were sold off without the knowledge of NNPC Retail and the parent company.

Following the shocking discovery, Mrs. Nnamdi-Ogbue reported the matter to the NNPC management and anti-graft agencies, asking them to intervene and help recover the missing petrol or the funds from Capital Oil.

Gets,
Beats me. So much corruption throughout the country's government that it hard to tell without indepth information. Hardly anyone focus on that country's underworld.

Unless it's Italians involved

A gang of Nigerian fraudsters are facing jail for for using the identities of MPs, judges and police officers during a £10million scam.


The crew stole personal details from the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC), to make fraudulent claims over a four-year period.

Member lists were ‘stolen to order’ from CSSC and used to place orders for tax credit starter packs used in fraudulent claims over a four year period.

The gang managed to get away with nearly £2,500,000 before staff at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs spotted the ‘extraordinarily high rate’ of claims being made by civil servants.

If the scam had not been stopped it could have reaped more than £10,260,525.

CSSC events manager Adedamola Oyebode, 30, stole membership lists and passed them on to her brothers-in-law Oluwatobe Emmanuel Odeyemi, 34, and Oluwagbenga Stephen Odeyemi, 39, who ran the fraud with Kayode Sanni, 38.

Sanni, an illegal immigrant, denied being involved in the fraud and told Old Bailey jurors ‘my conscience is clear’ as he stood trial alone.

But he was convicted of one count of conspiracy to become knowingly concerned in a fraudulent act between 10 March 2009 and 11 June 2013.


Judge Michael Topolski QC remanded him in custody and said: ‘I’m quite satisfied at this stage that there is a significant risk that if he were released on bail he would fail to attend.

‘In my judgement the situation has changed drastically.

‘He chose to contest this matter against what I considered to be overwhelming evidence.

‘His incentive to stay in this country has now diminished.’

Emmanuel Odeyemi, Gumbs and Adedamole Oyebode have already pleaded guilty and will be sentenced with Sanni at the Old Bailey on 6 July.

Prosecutors have dropped charges against Emmanuel’s wife Oluwatosin Oyebode.

Prosecutor Allison Hunter QC said: ‘These defendants went to exceptionally complex and sophisticated lengths in their orchestration of this fraud.

‘They themselves operate under a number of fluid pseudonyms and false identities, operate a multiplicity of email address, have access to a number of mobile phone numbers and have spread the conduct of this fraud over computers and electronic storage devices sufficient to stock a small warehouse.’

Ms Hunter said the investigators began by identifying one of the multiple false tax credit claimants as Chantelle Gumbs, who has admitted her part in the scam.

The source of the stolen identity was traced to the CSSC in Chadwick Street, Westminster, where six staff had password protected access to members’ details.
The gang managed to get away with nearly £2,500,000 before staff at HMRC spotted the ‘extraordinarily high rate’ of claims being made, the Old Bailey heard
+2

The gang managed to get away with nearly £2,500,000 before staff at HMRC spotted the ‘extraordinarily high rate’ of claims being made, the Old Bailey heard

Adedamole Oyebode, who worked for the CSSC between August 2008 and August 2010, has since admitted supplying lists of members and their details in return for payment.

She also made calls to the tax credit helpline to obtain application packs.

Further investigation revealed the fraudsters had used the details to create false identities, buy online insurance and open false bank accounts to receive the cash.

The profits of the scam were then transferred out into either their own accounts or through Western Union facilities set up by Sanni and Emmanuel Odeyemi.

Jurors were told that two of the gang, Stephen Odeyemi and his wife Oluwatumininu Banjo, 40, have fled to Nigeria and are wanted abroad.

Ms Hunter said: ‘These individuals conspired together to obtain in excess of £10,260,525.33 in fraudulent tax credits using the identities of 10,300 police officers, MPs, members of the judiciary, and civil servants for example, whose personal data and information was stolen from the Civil Service Sports Council.

‘The CSSC provides leisure events and activities together with sporting and fitness facilities to approximately 120,000 Public Sector employees or pensioners, including civil servants, local government employees, the NHS, teachers, police officers, fire fighters and HM Armed Forces personnel.’

Sanni, from Leeds, denied but conspiracy to become knowingly concerned in a fraudulent act - but was convicted of the crime.

Adedamola Oyebode, from Bellingham, southeast London, Stephen Odeyimi from Dagenham, Essex and Chantelle Gumbs, will be sentenced alongside him for fraud charges on 6 July at the Old Bailey.

Oluwatumininu Banjo, also from Dagenham, and Emmanuel Odeyemi, from Gravesend, Kent, are believed to be on the run in Nigeria.

Simon York, Director of Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said: 'We have dismantled an organised criminal attack on the tax credits system. HMRC officers and our counter-fraud checks identified the attack, and our investigators uncovered those behind the fraud, preventing £8 million of false claims being paid to the criminals. A further £2.4 million in tax credits claimed by the fraudsters was paid before we could stop the crime group and prevent further fraud.

'Tax Credits are paid to some of the most vulnerable people in our society. We have to strike a balance between making it easy for people to receive what is due, and having procedures in place to identify and stop fraudulent claims. Our investigation was made more difficult as the criminals had hijacked real identity details to make the fraudulent claims.

https://books.google.se/books?id=FgM17NM...usa&f=false



According to this book the Yakuza had debts to the Japanese bank from 600 billion dollars to almost 1 trillion that the banks couldnt collect from them, and they made in 1999 about 190 billion dollars from all illegal activities.. The Chinese Triads made annualy 200 billion dollars it says in this book..


What do you guys think about these numbers? Me personally think thats a lot of bullshit.

According to this book the Yakuza had debts to the Japanese bank from 600 billion dollars to almost 1 trillion that the banks couldnt collect from them, and they made in 1999 about 190 billion dollars from all illegal activities.. The Chinese Triads made annualy 200 billion dollars it says in this book..


What do you guys think about these numbers? Me personally think thats a lot of bullshit.

what would you guys say the answer to this now in 2019, any changes?

In general my top three would be:

1) Italian criminal networks
2) Chinese criminal networks
3) Russian criminal networks

You also have to look at the states and how they try to control or fight organized crime, in Russia and China for example the puppet masters are in the government.

As a whole, the Mexican cartels might have more money than anyone. I would not be surprised if I am wrong about that. The Ndrangheta reportedly makes a lot of money too. I think it’d be better to compare individual groups within the different crime organizations. For example, the Sinaloa cartel compared to the Nirta family(Not the one involved in the San Luca feud, the other more powerful one) in the Ndrangheta. Or the Russian Bratva run by Semion Mogilevich compared to the Trapani family in Sicily run by Matteo Denaro.

The Sinaloa cartel is that big? I am not certain how big they are I always just saw them as a group under the umbrella of the label of “Mexican drug cartel” like other Mexican cartels. Which is why I saw them as a subset. It’d be like comparing the value of one MLB team to the value of all of the NFL teams combined. If we compared the Sinaloa cartel and the whole Ndrangheta then I think the Ndrangheta has more money and power. We would be taking all of the powerful individual families into account.

The Sinaloa cartel is that big? I am not certain how big they are I always just saw them as a group under the umbrella of the label of “Mexican drug cartel” like other Mexican cartels. Which is why I saw them as a subset. It’d be like comparing the value of one MLB team to the value of all of the NFL teams combined. If we compared the Sinaloa cartel and the whole Ndrangheta then I think the Ndrangheta has more money and power. We would be taking all of the powerful individual families into account.

yes, it's big, thousands members as the ndrangheta, just look at how many gangsters are killed in mexico... it seems sinaloa members do not refer to themselves as a cartel, but rather as a federation of families, i suppose they have not made members like in the mafia but loyal people who killed someone for them or who control multiple areas / drugs

Don't think the Mexican cartels are the biggest OC groups in terms of membership. Asian criminal organizations tend to have a ton of members. The Yamaguchi-gumi for instance, even at its all time low, has a whopping 9.500 members.

M2w, is Ndragheta ranked in the top 3 in your opinion?

M2w, is Ndragheta ranked in the top 3 in your opinion?

They are for sure,its very hard to 'rank' organized crime groups,because they try to keep everything secretive as possible. But top 3 would be: italian organized crime, mexican cartels and russians.

They are for sure,its very hard to 'rank' organized crime groups,because they try to keep everything secretive as possible. But top 3 would be: italian organized crime, mexican cartels and russians.

how were the Ndragheta able to surpass the Camorra and Sicilian Mob?

the influence in the country etc.

In Russia they are literally the state , pretty much in whole of Eastern Europe , organized crime is "working" for the state. In South Italy they are like shadow state down there

i try to relate it by country and even in the case of canada by province.
in the whole of canada there is no OC group bigger or more influential than the hells angels.
HA spans the country and if u aren't a HA chances r the drugs u sell came from them through the ports or from border crossings.
BUT...not all HA chapters have the same amount of influence and some don't appear to be involved in crime at all.
in quebec resides the 3 most influential chapters in canada in MTL,South and Trois Rivieres.these chapters have alliance with the mafia,independent importers of narcotics at all the major ports and control there own on street distribution through own members or alliance with street gangs.
so as an example the trois rivieres chapter could be the #1 crime group in all of canada even eclipsing mafia groups like the rizzutos and commissos in toronto just by strength in numbers,top to bottom ctrl of narcotics and total profits.in that same thought it could be one of the most influential chapters in the world(remember just an example).
another example in canada would be a HA chapter on the west coast in BC/vancouver as it may have alliance with a mexican cartel for drug import,money laundering through triads/chinese criminals and the same type of top to bottom ctrl of drugs.

finally!
it has never made sense to compare all of the mexican cartels as a group compared to 'ndrangheta,russian mafia(a whole other thread),american against sicilian mafia as large top to bottom groups.
no 1 person controls all of the russian mafia or 'ndrangheta,sicilian mafia etc...as all of u know.
no 1 person not even el chapo controlled all of the sinaloa cartel when he was outside of prison.the logistics of that are ridiculous.
comparing these large groups against each other is pointless.
comparing individual families,factions,'ndrines,bratvas whatever operating under these groups would be a better question.

looking at the post above about the feb 2009 sinaloa arrests is a good example i'd be curious to know how many of those 750 arrested were directly connected to the el chapo led faction inside the sinaloa cartel.how many were loosely connected or just caught up in arrests and now released.how many were part of other organizations?

the 'ndrangheta #1 would probably be whichever 'ndrine controls the majority of cocaine imports into europe.
there is a dispute as to who that is probably only 2-4 groups?

I thibk nobody can really tell which organized crime is the most powerful or number 1. Because there is to much things we can compare to make a list. Like money, drug distribution, territories, gambling, arm trafficking, involment in politics, the influence in the country etc.

So I think it will be better to make tiers list.

For exemple:

First tier: would be organized crime groups like the mafia, cosa nostra, ndrangheta, jewish mob, mexican cartels, russian bratva and chinese triads.

Second tier: would be japanese yakuza, irish mob, colombian cartels, albanians, italian camorra, hells angels, some nigerians

Third tier: chinese tongs, some nigerians, dominican cartels, biker MC, Yardies

**Some street gangs could be on the list of third tier.
And by the way nigerian crime groups are getting stronger in europe and asia, they can be put in second tier.

*** I domt know if I should put the Yakuza on first tier, since I dont really know their operations and power outside of Japan.

I thibk nobody can really tell which organized crime is the most powerful or number 1. Because there is to much things we can compare to make a list. Like money, drug distribution, territories, gambling, arm trafficking, involment in politics, the influence in the country etc.

So I think it will be better to make tiers list.

For exemple:

First tier: would be organized crime groups like the mafia, cosa nostra, ndrangheta, jewish mob, mexican cartels, russian bratva and chinese triads.

Second tier: would be japanese yakuza, irish mob, colombian cartels, albanians, italian camorra, hells angels, some nigerians

Third tier: chinese tongs, some nigerians, dominican cartels, biker MC, Yardies

**Some street gangs could be on the list of third tier.
And by the way nigerian crime groups are getting stronger in europe and asia, they can be put in second tier.

*** I domt know if I should put the Yakuza on first tier, since I dont really know their operations and power outside of Japan.

In terms of longevity Italian OC and Yakuza are head and shoulders above the others.

how were the Ndragheta able to surpass the Camorra and Sicilian Mob?

Escobar was by far the richest and most powerful organized crime boss of all time at the height of his power. But the Medellin cartel has lost a lot since then.

from 1990-1993 the medellin cartel did not exist.
pablo ran cocaine threw the gaeleano(sic) and moncada families.
both families paid a tax to escobar on monthly cocaine shipments.
there was no cartel after 1990 only because original members were dead or arrested.

Is the Trapani faction still the most powerful faction within the Sicilian mafia? I kinda get the idea that several Palermo clans are still plenty strong due to their American operations.
Also some of the Agrigento clans are quite international in scope with links in North as well as South America.

Ndrangheta got tons of clans that are widespread. There's a well known clan that allegedly operates in my area. They're basically ghosts though, extremely low-key.

if we talk of factions, the families of the sicilian mafia are not all made up of relatives as in the ndrangheta, a better comparison would be between a single locale (de stefano for example) and a mafia mandamento (brancaccio for example)
be widespread is just an indicator and not even the most important, the best indicators of power are politics connections, infiltration of economy and rooted in the territory... their main strength comes from being extremely rooted in the territory from which to operate
i think the most powerful factions of the sicilian mafia are san lorenzo, misilmeri, san giuseppe jato, porta nuova and brancaccio mandamenti (palermo), the whole province of trapani, the rinzivillo family from gela, the santapaola family from catania and some agrigento mandamenti

Cheers.
From what I read I always got the impression that Catania is a bit of "the runt of the litter" in the Sicilian mafia in that the mafia doesn't seem to have an iron grip over the territory over there - but I could be wrong of course.
What state are the Stidda in these days? In the 90's there was a Stidda clan active in the French-speaking region of my country. They infiltrated the local economy quite well and were allegedly involved in a few disappearances.

The 'Ndrangheta also operates like a drug cartel, the cocaine operations in Italy, but also the entire value chain from the buying of drugs in South America to their distribution in Europe and to the laundering of the illicit revenues.

Cheers.
From what I read I always got the impression that Catania is a bit of "the runt of the litter" in the Sicilian mafia in that the mafia doesn't seem to have an iron grip over the territory over there - but I could be wrong of course.
What state are the Stidda in these days? In the 90's there was a Stidda clan active in the French-speaking region of my country. They infiltrated the local economy quite well and were allegedly involved in a few disappearances.

it's doing what sicilian mafia did in the 1970s and 1980s at the time of pizza connection etc. it became both power and enterprise syndicate

@m2w: Is Giuseppe 'The Doctor' Guttadauro still boss of Roccella family(Brancaccio mandamento) ? Guttadauros for example are very poweful family.Carlo Guttadauro a capodecina of Bagheria family and Filippo Guttadauro member of castelvetrano family.Giuseppe was primary of Palermo hospital , i know he is surgeon.

he was the boss of brancaccio mandamento in the early 2000 i don't know nowadays... a difference between cosa nostra and ndrangheta is that in the sicilian mafia members of a blood family can be made in multiple criminal families instead it's nearly impossibile a de stefano would be made by another locale (morabito for example)

The Chechen mafia is also very powerful. I’m not sure if anybody mentioned them yet.

He is still the boss of Roccella family ,currently he is living in Rome.

The Chechen mafia is also very powerful. I’m not sure if anybody mentioned them yet.

most of thieves in law are georgians, it seems the strongest faction of ex soviet oc

chechen mafia is a mysnomer.there is no overall top chechen BOSS directing all activities throughout the world.
the chechens have proved to be a strong aggressive OC group in parts of the world but they do not have an international reach.
where is there an example of a chechen controlling even a small part of any major city in north/south america,asia,africa etc...???
they have strength in chechnya and other parts of russia but have never been a strong cohesive organized group.

would also like to know those on here what there thoughts r on an organization in asia known as SAM GOR.
looks to be an alliance/syndicate of the 14k triad,wo shing wo,sun yee on,big circle gang and the bamboo union
the Boss is tse chi lop a canadian/chinese citizen.
he has been described as the "el chapo" of asia,whatever that meens.
the main m.o. of this alliance is meth/heroin trafficking across asia.
with a large asian population in both toronto and vancouver and consistent large meth,heroin,fentanyl,precursor chems and other drug busts in these cities i wonder if this organization has began penetrating said markets?

since project o phoenix in toronto there has not been a large scale 'ndrangheta drug bust.
project sindicato involved some drugs but was mostly focused on on-line gambling and money laundering.

there has also not been any high level mexican cartel drug busts in last few years.
2014 project roadmaster(sinaloa cartel)
2017 project hope(unsure of cartel connection)

i guess what i am putting down is that both above mentioned groups r accused of being high level drug trafficking organizations and in the last 5 yrs they have not been busted.
so that would show they r being more insular and not as involved in the direct importation of drugs(possible w/ 'ndrangheta and some mexican cartels)...OR
some other group has decided to take over that position of direct supplier to an area like toronto.

in most recent large scale drug busts in GTA the majority of arrested have asian/southeast asian names,not italian or latin american.

I just read about SAM GOR, that is heavy. They old as much weight than the mexican cartels and italian groups.

If I what I read was accurate then they are above everyone.

"Sam Gor" is probably a myth or - as is the case with "Brother's Circle" - just a designation to describe a cooperation between a group of criminals.

And seeing a lot of articles seem to describe them that way; Big Circle Gang isn't a Triad. Triad groups are mostly Hong Kong- and Taiwan-based and are largely connected to a certain community.
For instance, 14K has traditionally been the Cantonese group and has a lot of links with Guangdong. Sun Yee On on the other hand is connected to the Teochew community. The Wo Group has different branches; Wo Hop To is traditionally Cantonese, but the biggest out of the Wo branch, Wo Shing Wo, was formed in Sham Shui Po which is a Hakka stronghold. Nowadays their powerbase is more in Tsuen Wan (which is also an area with a strong Hakka contingent, even though most Hakka in Hong Kong are speaking Cantonese these days).
The Bamboo Union in Taiwan on the other hand is connected to the Mandarin-speakers (from Sichuan, Yunnan, Zheijan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi) who came to Taiwan.

Big Circle Gang on the other hand was more formed as an organized street gang consisting of Cantonese/Taishanese speakers from the Guangdong province. Largely Guangdong (especially from Guangzhou and the outskirts) based criminals that aren't directly connected/employed by a Triad organization (loosely) band together to conduct criminal operations.

Thank you for the clarification. I see you on here from time to time and I really enjoy your posts. I just wanted to let you know that.

The Italian mafia had about 18 billion euros worth of assets seized from them in a 5 year span at one point I think. I don’t believe the article stated how much of those assets belonged to which of the 3 major organized crime syndicates in Italy exactly.

With all of that value seized, it still surprises me that they can still operate. Is there any accurate estimation on what they are worth based on asset seizures? They must be worth five times the assets that are seized in order to keep operating like business as usual.

I already said it multiple times , good % of that assets seized are returned back after tons of trials and so on. Also when state puts all that assets on public auction , everyone know who it belonged and people are afraid to buy it , its bought again by families/close associates of mafia , so it finds its way back to their hands again

Are there any South American criminal organizations that compare to the top orgs?

Probably Colombian

Other than Matteo Messina Denaro, what Sicilian mafia member had hundreds of millions of euros worth of assets seized? Stefano Bontade had money but I don’t know how much money we could really trace back to him.

The major bosses don't have millions stashed away they use legitimate people who control the assets. For them it's more about power than money.