Worldwide no but in certain parts they are growing inpart because they stick to white collar scams and they have alot of experience.

Southend I've had my ear to the streets for almost 40 years. Albeit never in drugs my question simply was that according to the FBI the Denver family was taken out in 2002, so I have no idea my friend who is running Denver? Without a little Italy or a large Italian community should prove difficult to get recruits unless they are brought in. Plus the Sons of Silence have a menacing presence along with the Hell´s Angels in downtown metro.The bikers control most if not all the bars. Beyond on me my friend where you could find real estate Didn't mean any disrespect.

you're blinded by hate

the Nigerians are making a lot of money and have been for awhile

money buys you power

The fact here on this forum is this. That there are too many fanboys, including myself to be also one of them. When some guy has been doing research on Ndragheta, he'll state that they're the strongest group out there. I have done a lot of research on Russian criminal groups and I'll state that they're the strongest. Like here mentioned, this guy says that Ndragheta supplies cocaine to whole Europe. While I personally know that every cocaine that comes in Eastern Europe is from Russia.

On the real side, neither do I know much about Ndragheta, and neither that guy knows so much about Russian OC.

To be honest, where do we get our info? From the media, some guys have maybe access to some law enforcement files, some guys maybe know a few associates to some criminal organization. But the real ity is known only to those groups. They are the ones that know their real income, number of people, resources and power in general.

So, I think we could go here ages arguing which CO is the strongest. But the truth won't be known until they go against each other.

To put my two cents in the Italian and Nigerian scene. Italians have been there for a long time. While Nigerians have done it fast progress. The conclusion you can make yourself.

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.

Wait, what? The 'Ndrangheta's biggest money maker is the cocaine trade. It's the #1 group involved in cocaine in Europe. And, while Nigeria and other African areas are becoming major shipping points for cocaine, much of that is already controlled by the 'Ndrangheta; to say nothing of the drug routes in Europe itself.

@Red: The ports of west Africa are used,because its closest point of entry,and it's almost no one who control ports in west Africa,from Africa it is going to Europe.From there it is getting in Europe through Spain and italy,and most of that shipments are controlled by 'Ndrangheta,Cosa Nostra & Camorra.

In terms of power ( by your definition) is no. It's mainly due to their activities and structure. Ndrangheta as a collective is involve in about half a dozen rackets and of course legit business that gives additional income. While the Nigerian groups are involved in mainly drugs trade, fraud, and human trafficking in europe. It's goes back to their structure as well, Nigerians having a flexible network that keeps the money flowing.

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.

10 Most Powerful Drug Cartels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcuY3fmI8u4

Mostly mexican,'Ndrangheta is placed on 3. place.I wouldn't call 'Ndrangheta a cartel but most of the drugs in Europe are coming through Calabrian ports.

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 A) that figure for the 'Ndrangheta doesn't include associates, which could be 10 times the number of made members; ) the 'Ndrangheta is only one of 4 major Italian OC groups; C) 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 D) many of these Eurasian groups don't have the distinction of "made" members so the numbers will appear bigger.

nigerians are not even close to ndrangheta
although involved strongly in drugs nigerians dont control any market of a rich country like ndrangheta does, so ndrangheta profits are bigger even in drugs that is the major nigerian activity



you can't compare very generic numbers from all russian groups with accurate ones about ndrangheta
and 5000 are only the made members, the associates are much more

To make it a fair comparison you'd also have to include all the Italian Crime Syndicates rather than just the Calabrians.

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

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

that's true but italian mafia as a whole is by far stronger than nigerian clans as a whole

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.

Most powerful criminal organizations:


White house
Internal Revenue Service
US department of Justice

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?

Like you said , this is why it's difficult to compare organized crime between cultures , because mafia often means something slightly different in each one. For example you said yourself , a group of men who conspire to commit organized crime (bratva) in Russia or former soviet states would be considered "mafia" for you guys. However groups of men in Italy (who aren't connected to the LCN, Camorra, Ndrangheta, SCU, Mala del Brenta etc) also exist and come together to carry out rackets like fraud and bid rigging. For us though they aren't considered mafia or Mafiosi , just organized criminals.

So if you compare the stats between Russian and Italian OC , the chances are those organized Italian criminals seperate from the main groups aren't mentioned in Italian organized crime membership. If you see what I mean...

I remember watching a video where Dekanizde was meeting some crime bosses from Latvia in the 90's shortly before his death penalty.

The brigade is dead, there were other groups that took their place. Some of the old members are still out there, could be connected with other groups or running their own.
I think the structure was more or less Boris and his father Georgiy Dekanidze being the bosses, with the later operating in US. And the rest were just their soldiers.

I remember there was some other small time robber gang leaders that may have been executed in the Baltic states. But Dekanidze was the last and only one in 90's.

How do the Italian clans/members operate? and how are the associate's accounted for and what do they serve towards the group? In Mexico or so more Los Zetas and Gulf Cartel operate similarly but different. What I mean is that the Gulf Cartel members are just as goons as Los Zetas but are more of an administration role.

There are about 2,000-3,000 Los Zetas "fighters" in Mexico operating in about 150-200 municipalities. These "fighters" take more of a enforcers role than hitmen, their general role is to enforce their rackets within the neighborhoods and install fear and respect within the street gangs that work for them/authorities/ and citizens. These fighters or "estacas" as what they call themselves are the most respected members and are the core members of the cell or organization as a whole. There are about 10-25 or so "estacas" per area or sector of the city under or per "commadante" or local captain. There are about 4 or 5 "commadantes" or local captains per town and one "jefe de plaza" per town or the town boss. There is a second in command or "second plaza boss" and of course the accounting or accounters that pay every their weekly checks including the police that work for them. There are about 6-8 local thugs(street gang members) per neighborhood that work for the "central" selling drugs, lookouts, and sometimes hitmen. "Central" means the local headquarters but it's basically the core group that makes up a cell which is a the "commadante" they work for and his "estacas" or enforcers. Above the town boss or "jefe de plaza" are the regional commanders of "jefe regionales" in Spanish. Regional bosses are basically state bosses/region bosses, they command or control the "plaza bosses" or town bosses(They are very powerful). Not all of the cells leaders or "plaza bosses"are under the same command or under the same regional boss. And obviously under the regional bosses are "Sol" which is the head of the central bank for the organization as a whole, Z-42 the under boss for the whole orgination and the leader himself Z-40.

The Gulf Cartel uses the some of the same similar nicknames but they operate differently. Los Zetas are freaking goons compared to the Gulf Cartel.

The Gulf Cartel uses similar names or nicknames but operate or are organized differently. They call their members "estacas" too but their "estacas" take more of a administration role rather than enforcer role. Their members only care about controlling the drug houses/drug distribution and not the territory or the street gangs/neighborhoods themselves. Their member aren't as "hardcore" compared to Los Zetas but can be as violent as Los Zetas. Most of or if not all of their bosses are in either Matamoros or Reynosa and from there most of the shots are coming from. They don't have "plaza bosses" or town bosses like the Los Zetas do but they do use the same slang. Their plaza bosses are more of national lieutants rather than some mere cell leaders. They care about controlling the drug routes into the U.S rather than territory.

I would say either the Sinaloa Cartel or the Nrdangheta as being the most powerful but I have a feeling and what I know of is that the Sinaloa Cartel is probably considered the most powerful speaking of it's range of influence and range of penetration of the government.