If you had to rank each OC outfit (I don't just mean the Mafia, I mean every OC group there is) in terms of power (by which I mean street power, influence, wealth - not so much numbers or manpower), what would your ranking be?

In the US:

1)Sinaloa Cartel;
2)Mexican Mafia;
3)Russian Mafia;
4)Big Circle Boys (chinese);
5)American Mafia (only east coast).

1. Fbi, Dea, Atf
2. Politicians
3. The cops/pigs

1. Genovese family

What do you mean by street power?

Street power meaning, who is most influential on the streets, who has the most say, etc. Like the way the Five Families basically controlled commerce in NYC in the 50s-70s.

In that case it's hard to say. Things can vary from region to region so :

Local Syndicates
1% Clubs
Prison Gangs
Street Gangs
LCN
Transnational Syndicates

Well, who would you say is most powerful in NYC in that case, particularly in Brooklyn and Staten Island?

La Cosa Nostra is still most powerful organized crime group in the US.

I agree, but only in the Northeast.. And you can make a convincing case that this makes them the most powerful in the country, as the Northeast is the most populous and wealthy region of the US..

I take it 1 step further, Only in their territorial cities as it always been. There's plenty of unknown local syndicates in other regions of the U.S.

I'm assuming this is directed to me,
LCN crime families
Local Syndicates
Prison/Street Gangs
Transnational Syndicates .

Is the LCN really more powerful than the Mexican cartels in US now? I mean the Cartels basically controls the drug in US am i right? I dont know , i dont have so much knowledge about the US but what has come to my mind is that the LCN are bunch of softies in comparison to the Cartel guys,, yea they still make money of frauds etc but in terms of street power?

Can really a Cosa Nostra member go to a bad neighbourhood in New York and tell them what time it is like they was capable of before?

Im just curious and asking you guys who knows better.

Mexican Mafia probably has the most influence and power over the most people. Having hundreds of gangs kicking up money to them regularly, setting up rules and codes throughout gang neighborhoods in California, having a strict program that is followed inside every county jail and prison in California by Hispanic gangs under them and even throughout the federal system. Influence over and feared by thousands of gang members in the streets, jail and prison. But they probably fall way short in terms of wealth.

It depends but in general no, an old wiseguy can't physically manhandle a young narco. The power from LCN comes from a totally place than pure muscle these days, the LCN and Sinaloa are fishing in two completely different ponds..

LCN is mostly white collar these days: medicare frauds, construction racketeering (bid rigging and the like), gambling and loansharking. Sinaloa is a DTO and only a small percentage of their income comes from human trafficking and what not..

LCN is just a part of Italian organized crime in the US, you also have sicilian mafia, 'ndrangheta and camorra.

What!! Really?? You don't say paisan, never heard of those 3 organizations before..

As far as on a nationwide level , I'd say the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels . After all they operate in various parts of the country as opposed to select areas , control a very large chunk of the drug market , and have great influence over the actions of other criminal organizations .

What influence do they have over other crime groups in the US?

1) american mafia (lcn)
2) street gangs (bloods/crips/ms13)
3) bikers
4) prison gangs (eme)

the sinaloa cartel supply several local groups with drugs but i don't think it has great influence over them aside some southern zones

I might be wrong here , but I imagine there are a few American criminal organizations that source their drugs directly from the Sinaloa and JNGC cartels , which obviously results in them having a lot of power in terms of being said organizations suppliers .

There must even be more American criminal organizations who buy their drugs from suppliers who buy from said cartels , which results in said suppliers ( whether they be independent dealers or gangsters ) wielding a lot of power .

In short a lot of American criminal organizations depend ( either directly or indirectly ) on the cartels for their supply of drugs and very few ( if any ) of said organizations mess with the cartels or their close associates , since doing so would be tantamount to killing the golden goose .

I don't think this has ever occurred , but to use a salient example , the Sinaloa cartel could end a conflict between US gangs by threatening to cut off their supply of drugs . Few ( if any ) other criminal organizations that operate in the US have that kind of behind the scenes power .

How could MS and bikers be above La Eme.. there’s no way.

American crime groups that's heavily involved in drug trafficking do maintain business with the Mexican Cartels yet outside of constintence drug supply the Mexican Cartels have little say in the everyday actions/activities of those crime groups. There are cases of American crime groups ripping off cartel middlemen and others have drug suppliers from Columbia, Peru, Carribean, West Africa, Europe, and Asia. Cutting off supply line will be cutting off a prominent income and wouldn't stop any ongoing conflicts between rival American crime groups. They just go to a different drug source or fight over the next biggest racket.

I'll concede that you much more than me about organized crime BF , so I won't try to argue , however for the sake of furthering the discussion I'd like to jot down the following scenario :

Say there's a garden variety street gang in Chicago that's heavily into heroin and cocaine trafficking . Said gang wants to find a non Mexican cartel connected supplier for whatever reason . How does said gang go about finding said supplier ?

I mean most of the wholesale heroin and cocaine market in the US is supposed to be in the hands of various Mexican cartels ( most notably the Sinaloa and JNGC ) as per the DEA and this information is supposed to especially apply outside of the Northeast . In other words it would ( seemingly at least ) be very hard for such a low level Chicago street gang to find a non Mexican cartel source .

After all it's not like the present day Outfit is heavily into wholesale heroin/cocaine trafficking and unless said street gang were to have connections to the Outfit , then establishing a fruitful business relationship would be hard ( if not next to impossible ) .

@2A,

They would connect with Nigerian Syndicates for the heroin and Carribean, South American , or Black traffickers down south for the cocaine.

The Biggest Mc like Hells Angels,Otlaws ad Bandidos are feared on the streets and are deep into drug and weapons traffick while Sinaloa is the biggest coke supplier and in us border states are much feared on the streets.The lcn is more focused on the white collar crimes and less on the street crimes at the prison gangs even if had members on the streets are more strong in prison that out.So:

1)Sinaloa
2)la Eme
3)LCN
4)Bikers
5)Prison Gangs

The Russian mafia has a U.S. president in their pocket.

You can start your list there.

Bikers, 1% type, most prison stg and Street Gangs[18th ST, Crips, Blood's,Various Aryan cliqs,ALKQN, Netas' etc].are not in the same league as La Eme[the exception for prison stg's] or LCN, Triads and Yakuza and the cartels.

I think a definition of what consists of influence and power, the definition changes with each organization, perception is a key driver, remember Luca Brasi still sleeps with the fishes.

There's different scales of activities but it's not that drastic league.

Yeah I just read some ( admittedly dated ) information about Nigerian traffickers operating in Chicago from the DEA , not to mention that Chicago has a lot of ( if not the largest amount ) of fairly sophisticated/well connected street gangs , so using it as an example wasn't the best .

That said I bet there are many second and third tier cities in the US where the Mexican cartels are the only game in town , so I think my point stands in that case .