who is considered the most powerful in Europe

It depends on what you mean by power. the N'Drangheta dominates the cocaine market. The Albanians and other Eastern European groups are involved heavily in heroin and human trafficking. Russian groups probably make the most money off of white collar fraud and they make a lot in arms trafficking along with Italian and Eastern European OC. Even the Hells Angels and other outlaw MC's are big in Germany, Holland, and Scandinavia. Do you mean who dominates their home country more than another group effects its respective country? If you want a simple answer I would say you really cannot say absolutely who is most powerful, as it is not clear cut who is because there are so many factors at work.

who makes the most profits/money

It would probably be the N'Drangheta as they are very diversified and basically run the gambit in terms of criminal activity. I am talking in terms of strictly Europe, not including Russia.

how did the ndragheta get to such a dominating position

apparently the nigerian OC groups are making a big play in the global drug markets and with arms and human traffacking, and establishing a presence in a lot of european countries.
http://www.sundayworld.com/top-stories/c...an-crime-threat

there was just a bust not to long ago of an Nigerian OC group in italy involved in human trafficking.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/840878.shtml#.Uv1YV_2whhA

I would say by dominating the cocaine trade is what really put them out ahead. Also as their Sicilian counterparts were indicted they took advantage of the indictments to move farther in cocaine trafficking. Cocaine is probably the most profitable drug in Europe and it is getting bigger, thus the recent Gambino bust. A good way to put it is the cocaine market in Europe is similar to what it was in the United States in the 1980s. The N'Drangheta could see the future and they invested well. Carmela can answer questions better than me she knows more about Italian OC than almost anyone else on this board.

are the Nigerians more powerful then Ndragheta?

Nigerians operate throughout Europe and they make a lot of money but I do not think you could put them on the same level as N'Drangheta. They do not have any government contracts and not nearly as much legitimate money as the Italians do.

i guess your right, it depends on how you define "powerful"

how about in terms of 'fear'. what OC group in Europe is the most feared?

It come down activities and locations.Europe is a vast area and for criminal group to be more powerful collectively over all other groups is perhaps far fetched . It's the equivalent of asking who's the most powerful criminal group in North America ?

I don't think you can talk about one criminal organization being the most powerful. A couple of organized crime groups each have their own interests in different locations. As for being the most prevalent? I would definitely say the Ndrangheta. In Belgium Ndrangheta groups have been able to blend into local Italian communities, operating from small local bars, restaurants and pizzeria's. Their main activity is cocaine importation (smaller amounts of marijuana and heroin as well). They import the stuff but within smaller communities they work as drug pushers themselves as well. Extortion has also been noticed. Ndrangheta guys aren't typically flashy, they mostly come across as gritty born and raised hoods.
Other groups in Belgium include Turkish mobs (work mostly within their communities), Moroccan crime families, Albanian mafia, Greek crime groups (literally every Greek community has at least one) and ex-Soviet crime groups (largely Armenians, Russian Jews, Georgians and Georgian Jews). Native Belgian groups are mostly active in Liège and are mostly linked to Italian groups (it used to be the Sicilian mafia, but not too sure what the state is on them now).

Ndrangheta don't really 'run' the whole cocaine trade. In Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria,...they have a large share of the cocaine market.
In the UK and Ireland it's mostly homegrown crime groups that have extensive contacts with Colombian and Mexican drug trafficking groups. They are able to bring in the cocaine without the need of Ndrangheta middle men.
In the Netherlands criminal organizations based in the country also don't always need the Ndrangheta. Outlaw Motorcycle-linked groups (such as the mostly Dutch Hells Angels or the Moluccan Satudarah), Moroccan groups and Curaçaoan gangs like No Limit Soldiers are able to bring in the stuff themselves. I would say the Dutch motorcycle gangs are the ones in Europe that are the most active in organized crime. The German ones too, to a lesser extent. Curaçaoan gangs on the other hand have always been inherently linked to Colombian drug barons.
In France it's mostly the Corsican mafia or the Yéniche gypsy and North African groups operating within impoverished ghetto communities.
In Scandinavia it's largely Balkan (Serbo-Montenegrin and Albanian) gangs.
There are a lot of groups active in cocaine trafficking, the power of the Ndrangheta depends on the country.

today is the 'ndrangheta the most powerful group in europe

yes, but i assume ndragheta is the biggest player in the trade... i heard that many times before

I would definitely say they are the most prevalent in the cocaine trade, because their cocaine trafficking activities reach into a wide range of countries. They are literally everywhere. Yet they have little power in a couple of large markets, such as UK and Ireland. They have more activity in Netherlands and France, but also in these countries they don't necessarily run the show.
There is no criminal group that I would say is 'the most powerful', since there are a lot of groups active in differents areas.

Hell I don't know. I have read that that Italian organized crime has their hands in 1 in every 3 businesses in Italy. Shit I was in the Army from 2002-2009 and stationed in Germany and I think it was in 2006 some N'dragheta guys came up to Germany and shot and Killed several other Italian connected guys on a street corner about 40 minutes away from my base. Even are 1st Sargent briefed us on it during are weekend safety brief just before we were released for the weekend. The hit took place I think in Nuermberg and are 1st Sargent told us to stay the fuck out of Nuermberg.

i think 'ndrangheta is the most powerful not just because of the drug trafficking, but especially because it is eavily involved in legitimate business and it has tons of judges, politicians and policemen in its pocket

Three prominent O.C. groups that i know of...

1.Italian mafia('Ndrangheta and Camorra)-Massive political corruption,church corruption,sport betting(mostly football corruption),narcotics(mostly cocaine and heroin),human trafficking(prostitution and immigrants),extortion,theft,weapons,kidnapping etc.Connections Eastern Europe,Great Britain,the Netherlands,Germany,Belgium,Switzerland,France,Spain,Czech Republic,Greece,Albania,Turkey

2.Russian mob-Massive political corruption,gas,oil,human trafficking(everything but mostly prostitution),weapons(every kind),hotels and casinos,sport betting,thefts,vast money laundering...Connections in France,Great Britain,Germany,Spain,Austria,Switzerland,Montenegro,Ukraine,Latvia,Cyprus,Turkey,Greece,Bulgaria,Czech Republic

3.Albanian clans-political corruption,religious corruption,human trafficking(immigrants,prostitution,human organs),narcotics(everything but mostly weed and heroin),weapons,thefts,kidnapping etc.Connections in Great Britan,the Scandinavian countries,Switzerland,Germany,France,Belgium,Italy,Balkans,Greece,Turkey etc. and also connections to terrosts groups like Al Qaeda.

are those in order as in top 3