I've read a report by the FBI which states that in the USA there are middle eastern organized criminal gangs active.
( Mideast Enterprises)
I always thought Europe and Australia were the main settlements of middle eastern organized crime. In Europe for instance there are :
- Turkish, Turkish-Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot gangs in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.
- Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian Berber gangs in France, the Netherlands and Belgium.
- Mhallami-Lebanese gangs in Germany.
- Mirpuri Pakistani, Sikh, Bangladeshi and Pashtun gangs in the UK.
- Assyrian gangs in Sweden.
- Chechen gangs in Russia, Germany and Belgium.
- Armenian, Yezidi Kurdish and Azerbaijani gangs in Russia.
In Australia you of course have the numerous Lebanese ( muslim as well as christian ) OC groups, as well as some Assyrian ones.

I've heard of some Mideast gangs active in the USA. The Mizrahi criminal gangs from Israel were active in New York once and have also been signalled in the West Coast, the Armenian Power is also big in the West and in Michigan and Illinois there are some Assyrian gangs active.
But I've never heard of other Mideast groups active to this extent? Do any of you have more information on this ?

not too sure about specifics, but there are criminals of pakistani decent in and around northern nj, and i assume nyc as well. in and around detroit, there is the chaldean mafia, which i believe is of iraqi, and more specificly, kurdish decent although i'm not too sure. i know i remember hearing they had some connections with the detroit lcn, at least in relation to some gambling.

The Chaldean mafia are ethnic Assyrians ( of Assyro-Chaldean faith) from Iraq. Assyrians are somewhat the 'Native Americans of Iraq'. I don't know if they are highly active in the USA but the Assyrian criminal bands in Sweden for instance don't play around. A large part of the organized criminal activities and gangland killings over there can be contributed to them and some Albanian and Yugoslav groups.

dont think you can call pakistanis,sikhs and bangladeshis middle eastern. found some stuff on middle eastern street gangs in chicago and else where.
TAP Boyz
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0f7yT...%22&f=false
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=12...pg=7077,2656236

yeah,the 'falaful' crew.mohammed is the skipper over there,they run the taxi cab and street vendor rackets.lol.

Thanks for the articles. In the FBI-article people from India and Pakistan were also grouped under the Mideast criminal gangs, but yeah in general they aren't really comparable to Middle Easterners. What's also funny is that every mideast gang is always described as an 'Arab' group while none of those are in fact ethnically Arab.

There is a lot of these fuckers in the los angeles area, mainly the san fernando valley, north hollywood and glendale. Glendale has like the largest Armenians population outside Armenian, they are pretty serious into organized crime. From what I know first hand their bread and butter is credit card fraud/identity theft. You can google "Armenian power gang" and a lot of shit will come up about their credit card skimmer devices they had everywhere and how many millions they were stealing. The main ethnic groups involved are Armenians, Lebanese, and Persians. They fucking all know each other and stick to their own kind like crazy. Many of them are also huge into the illegal pharmaceuticals in the san fernando valley. Someone in their family will own a pharmacy and they use it like a fucking candy shop.. Pull up in theirs s500 Mercedes, 7 series BMW"s, Bentleys, and they walk out of the pharmacy with bags full of opiate painkillers. We're talking like 20,000 tablets at a time that sell on the streets for 15 a pop.. I've never met one who isn't a crook, or doesn't know a crook in some way.. Anything you need they can get it. Counterfeit money, illegal smogs,jewelry, weapons, credit cards, cars.. I think they're going to become a serious problem on the west coast, they have the numbers and the brains.

Any questions feel free to ask ill try to help

Thanks for the answer. I've read about the Armenian Power, they also seem to have connections to 'Russian' crime figures who are probably of Armenian ethnicity.
I knew Lebanese are highly active in Australia and I've also heard about some reports about Lebanese activity in Detroit. I didn't know they were active on the West Coast though.
Persian gang activity I knew was centered in Vancouver (Tahvili for instance), but outside of that the Persians -unlike Armenians and Lebanese- aren't really known to me for having hardcore gangsters.
Are the Lebanese and Persian groups involved in violent crime on the West Coast ? Or are they more involved in white collar scams and non-violent smuggling ?

In Europe Turkish and Kurdish groups have a reputation for extreme violence, as have the Assyrians and the Maghrebi Berbers. In Belgium -where I live- the Maghrebis are still mostly low-level criminals often doing crazy, risky shit for some quick bucks and they often get caught. In the Netherlands and France there are quite some Maghrebis who have slipped in the more organized criminal activities. In France they mostly are part of groups which also consist of Manush/Gypsy gangsters and/or Corsicans. In the Netherlands the more organized Moroccan criminals are also often part of mobs which consist of native Dutch, Surinamese, Antillean and Moluccan gangsters.

Yeah I would say in order or seriousness it goes armenians, lebanese and then persians.. You're right armenians and armenian power specifically is connected with top russian mob figures also know as a "vors" or "theif in laws".. There is tons on stuff on google if you type in armenian power or armenian mafia.. All the ones I know are strictly into white colar big money shit, but at the same time they won't pass up an oppurtunity to make money.. The armenians can be pretty violent.

I've also read about some Afghan gangs in Fremont, California. Are they just small groups of youths protecting their 'honor'. Or are they also into money-making crime ?

Armenians are really powerful in the States as of what I know. They got the street gangs and the top are very intelligent business thinking people. Plus most Armenians usually know as well Russian and got connections with Russian criminal figures.

@dsbaloo Not every high ranking Russian criminal figure is a Thief in Law. To become a thief in law, you must do time in an ex-ussr prison where you get crowned as one.

I've heard that in New York there is an Uzbek neighborhood, probably also they have some criminal gang or at least have connections to the Russian ones.

My brother lives in Hollywood and said the Armenians as you have stated are nothing to mess with and are the real deal out there, he has several of his buddies that are in with them and told me its just better to be on their side out in Hollywood

Yea i Agree there.. i had worked with Armenian guys for 2weeks..Did concrete in ne phlly.. They were pretty tough and real quiet guys..They worked real hard..They and their company was from NY..Yea they were serious guys n didnt say much..

This is true. I lived in east Hollywood for 2 years. Literally 2 blocks away from little Armenia, which is the founding turf of the street gang armenian power. They have a strong presence.. Funny they all live in shitty apartments or small houses but are all driving the newest Mercedes and bmw's. Ran into literally a 16 year old at the gas station trying to hustle gas. He had like 35 schemed debit cards with the pin numbers written down on a little sheet of paper and was trying to fill up peoples tanks full of gas for like $20 cash. I bullshitted with him for a few minutes and he gave me a full tank of gas on my audi for free. I mean if you have such young kids doing those type of schemes you could imagine what the older most established criminals are pulling off.