Most powerful crime bosses by country

Who would be the most powerful bosses throughout the US? What about Italy? From what I have researched, It is likely that Riina was the most powerful boss Italy has ever seen. Feel free to add any other countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbaro_%27ndrina

In Italy definitly the ndrangheta with the Barbaro ndrina,in the ‘ndrangheta it is said that there are only two roads: or born Barbaro or become their ally.Cosa Nostra never rebuilt his power and the Camorra don't have the power to compete.
Mexico:The Sinaloa Cartel with Ismael Zamba aka El Mayo

I thought about the ndrangheta but there are several powerful crime families. Like the Barbaros as you mentioned, Piromallis, De Stefanos, Condellos, Strangios and so on. I wasn’t aware that the Barbaros are the de facto powerhouse of the ndrangheta. The Yakuza would have to be mentioned for the eastern side of the globe.

The Sinaloa cartel appears to be the strongest in Mexico. In the US it is hard to tell as the mob is not quite what it once was here. Canada has the Rizzutos. Safe to Sinaloa cartel is the powerhouse of not only Mexico but North America. Could make the argument that they’re the strongest out there along with the mafia in Italy and Russia.

i don't think barbaro's are stronger than other ndrangheta groups, the strongest are the ones from san luca (nirta/strangio and pelle/vottari)
anyway matteo messina denaro is the most powerful and richest boss in italy

Strongest 'Ndrangheta groups are from San Luca.

There are a lot of big players in the underworld that we don't know about.

dom cefulo or barney b for the lcn in usa

in the us or in general ?

Everywhere

yes that's true
but in the us people know then in the rest of the world
except maybe the westside

In the US the power remaining is in New York, but in terms of most powerful, it's gotta be Barney Bellomo now. Head of the Genovese. My guess is Joey Merlino is up there among the other NY bosses as well.

You have Russian organized crime that are pretty powerful in the US , not much is known about their operations today.

Denaro is quite possibly the richest criminal figure at the moment. What Ndrangheta boss compares to him? The San Luca bosses? I have heard that they are the base of the ndrangheta as well. I read that the Nirta family is the strongest in the area because Antonio Nirta was named the capo crimine which is almost like having the title boss of all bosses I think. Pesce-Bellocco in Rosarno is very rich too.

Also, Carmine Alfieri, Michele Zaza, Antonio Bardellino and the Nuvoletta brothers should be mentioned as well because they were some of the richest and most powerful mafiosi in Italy at one time.

In italy Matteo Messina Denaro can be considerated rich but the Barbaro ndrine was the most powerful especially in north italy and in Australia (a member of the ndrine Robert Trimbole killed the politician against the weeds Donald McKay in 1977,this episode was portrayed in Underbelly tv serie) and had ties even in canada.

In the US you must consider state by state and even city by city: in NY Barney Bellomo while in some part there are the bikers or the gang that are the most powerful. But if I would make a choice I would say that the Mexican cartels and their allies are the most feared and powerful in the whole US territory.

Yeah because Russian and Chinese communities have traditionally been closed to law enforcement.

Joey Merlino one of the most powerful crime bosses in the US? No I dont think so, he himself doesnt have that much money he uses others. He def is not poor but there are cartel members who operate in the US as well as russian mobsters and top drug importers and dealers who probably have much more money but in terms of actual power merlino might have a little more sway because he controls a larger organization..

The amount of money that they see in Italy and overseas in general the is the stuff of hedge fund managers here in the US I think. Just seeing how much is seized by the government is mind boggling. And it’s only a fraction of their wealth. Routinely you’ll see hundreds of millions of euros taken away from them but it doesn’t seem to affect them that much.

i don't think so, messina denaro is by far the richest boss but he's also very powerful, he's the boss of trapani province with 1.000 made members under him and connections everywhere in italy and abroad (europe, usa, venezuela, africa)

Good point. Seems like the money that is being dealt with over there dwarfs us over here. When we talk about most powerful in terms of the LCN, no one really stands out to me. Everything in this country is so overshadowed by drugs and Chapo has taken more lime light in this country than any mob boss has.

What I will say is based off everything I've read about the guy. I feel like if Cali never got killed, he would of became huge here. Fast forward 10-15 years, if he was still alive and became boss of the Gambinos, he would of been talked about in the same circles as guys like Carlo among other big time historical bosses. He would of been a no brainer as the most powerful in the country.

In Japan it's still Shinobu Tsukasa he leads since 2005 the Yamaguchi-gumi. He lost some influence however after the big split in the organization a few years ago.

Agreed on Cali. I don’t believe he would’ve enjoyed the success that Carlo did as he really built that family up into a powerhouse and was the ruler during its golden years. When the mafia in Italy did not compare. Now it’s the other way around.

Simeon Mogilevich might have more power and could be richer but we don’t really know. He has been involved in money laundering schemes worth $5-10 billion. I know that Denaro’s frontman was arrested and $1.5 billion worth of assets were taken from him. Do you know how much of that would have personally belonged to Denaro? I am sure that it was just a fraction of his fortune as well but we only know what’s documented unfortunately.

from messina denaro frontmen were seized assets worth 5 billions in total, anyway i was talking of italy i dont know about mogilevich, he could be richer although i doubt it

Piromallis are very rich...

I was about to disagree about the Barbaros, but then you see Ciments post about the meth bust in Australia and well..... They might have the most profit potential.. the Aussies also produce thier own weed, and a few years ago there was the record extacy bust, kilos of coke are like 100 grand.... Shit, they could be.....


Dimaria was very rich, I have no idea what clan hes boss of.

The Commisos gotta be filthy, Aquinos, Romeos...

The Polverinos had a billion dollar hash business...

Don't forger the Cuntrera-Caruana , extremely powerful and rich. Also the Guttadauro's

There were some myths about cuntrera-caruana. Something about them owning islands among other things but many of the claims were said to be exaggerated. I think the Corleonesi under Riina could’ve been richer.

I see an article saying that in total he has had $1.5 billion seized but I do not doubt your knowledge. His net worth is listed on a website as $4.9 billion so I am assuming that they’re going off of the assets seized that you are referring to. If Denaro really has that money at his disposal then there could be a chance that he’s one of the richest men in the world, forget about the criminal world. Unfortunately for him, he can never go legit at this point

CabriniGreen Polverino clan stills controls the hashish traffic from Morocco the broker Raffaele Vallefuoco was captured over there some days ago.

I have heard of Dimaria but I do not know much about him. I hear a lot about the Piromallis. Maybe because they have a lot of influence over the port. Perhaps the most. The San Luca families buy their cocaine from the Colombians on credit which should give everyone an idea of how big they are in the drug trade. If the top Ndrangheta members remain at the top for a while then they could reach and maybe even surpass Denaro as richest and most powerful in italy(maybe the world) as well as going legitimate if that’s even possible for them.

Anything on Leandro Greco or Calogero LoPiccolo?

The Condello-Imerti and De Stefano-Tegano are also among the top families in Calabria.

It's not the Orlando's in control? Still the Polverinos?

Yes they took control the last years but it's one powerful clan Orlando-Polverino-Nuvoletta. BTW when Vallefuoco was arrested with Pepe Polverino in 2012 he offered a million euros to the Spanish and Italian agents.

Yeah for example Vito Roberto Palazzolo of Terrasini was the treasurer-recycler of the bosses Riina and Provenzano.
Palazzolo was the protagonist of the international drug trade in the early 1980s, between Sicily, the Far East and the United States, better known as the "Pizza connection".

Any idea who the most powerful crime boss is in France?

i suppose some corsican, maybe the boss of the brise de mer

Corsican mafia for sure, but who exactly i have no idea.

Serbian Sreten Jocic aka Joca Amsterdam is up there here in Europe.

The ndrangheta’s most powerful families appear to be present mostly in the southern area of the region. Why not the north?

Putin is the most powerful Russian mob boss

Filip Korac is more powerful than Joca Amsterdam.

Because south is their stronghold obviously , they have complete control of their southern region , thats the reason why they always stay there when they go on the run , because they are feeling safe and protected in south , having almost complete control of all aspects of life.

Not over here. But I agree he could be in the future didn't he settle in Holland some time ago? It's just that the name Joca still means something here he still has unfinished business and connections in Amsterdam. It is his hometown and that of his sons.

Yes he did, Filip Korac is in Holland , he is biggest drug trafficker in Balkans. He and his crew also did murders for Willem Holleeder.

Thanks, Holleeder once said he find it difficult to separate all those Yugoslavs. With Paja and Luka B., Holleeder was once fined on the Rozengracht for wild peeing lol..

How hurt will a lot of these drug trafficking mafia families around the world be when marijuana becomes legal? Of course it will make a dent in their profits but what can they do to offset this?

The cartels were making like 35%-40% of their income from marijuana but over the last decade that number has shrunk and shrunk and shrunk. That’s why they started going so hard core with the heroin and fentanyl....they had to find a way to make up their lost marijuana profits. And while cocaine use in the US has either dropped or stagnated depending on which data you read, it’s on the rise big time in Europe. They are making up some lost profit that way as well.

I think the Mexican cartels would be hit the hardest. What organization is the strongest in Spain? Do they have an organized crime syndicate or do they have transplants who set up operations there?

the galician mobsters are the strongest in spain and the most organized

Yes. The Spanish authorities use a secret list with 100 names of Galician suspects who play an important role in cocaine smuggling today. They operate also in Africa and have distribution chains in Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and Albania.

Are the Somali pirates organized at all or are they more like bandits who steal and do nothing else? I am sure there are more powerful crime groups on the continent of Africa.

The Nigerians are the strongest, but you also have nomadic tribes in the Sahara who are involved in drug and human trafficking.

Merlino isn't a New York boss. He heads a small crime family from Philly. There are bikey gang bosses more powerful than him.

Holleeder is very close to Luka Bojovic. He needed their help when he went to war vs Joca Amesterdam ,main guys for him in Amsterdam were Miloš Bato Petrović and Maruf Paja Mrzić. I don't know what side were other powerful figures from Amsterdam like Magdi Barsoum and Stanley Hillis.

Bato and Paja are around 60 years old school guys, both are living in freedom. Both were suspected of involvement in two failed attempts (in 1996 and 2000) to murder crime boss Cor van Hout, brother in law of Holleeder. Van Hout, said to be close to Joca, was eventually killed in 2003. Bato himself was shot in 1998 when he came out of the Amsterdam Okura hotel.

Magdi Barsoum and his brother, both killed, also belonged to the group around Joca.

I was reading about members of the Russian mafia being engineers, doctors, lawyers and so on. I know that this is the case for the Italians but did the Russians have the intuition to recruit them first? In a documentary I saw I believe it said some 80% of businesses at one time all paid tribute to the Russian mob and they own multiple big banks in Russia.

@ Strax, don't forget Dragan Ilic. Very wealthy gangster living in Argentina he has a good relationship with the leaders of the cocaine cartels. His connection with Joca began in the Netherlands and continued throughout the following years.

I know him personally, he is a billionaire , we met at a private party in Belgrade. He is from Nis. He is very powerful , but looks like almost everyone close to Joca got killed? And after so many years in prison , question is , how powerful he really is in Amsterdam today.

On both sides many were killed Yugoslavs and Dutchmen. He has to be careful, Jocic, Barsoum and Van Hout, before he became an alcoholic, were amiable, friendly guys besides the usual drug stuff they were also big in gambling and prostitution.

They are also powerful in Milan, Turin and Rome connected to politicians for decades.

Or do you mean the north of Calabria yeah their power base is Reggio Calabria province.

Do the Medellin cartel and Cali cartel still dominate Colombia or are they defunct?

Do they still operate in Messina? I saw a poster on here once say that Michele Greco was related to one of the ndrangheta members