Think you can also pretty safely suggest al-shabaab are engaged in widespread organised crime in parts of Somalia.

And, up until the last couple of months, Somalis were engaged in large scale piracy off the Horn of Africa. They were organised criminals making millions and millions every year. Whole coastal communities in Somalia exist off the back of organised crime.



Somali gangs in the UK are pretty much limited to London, and even then only in very specific parts of London. Somali gang problems in the UK are way overplayed. The main reason being because people are intimidated by how unassimilated and culturally different many Somalis in London are, and they use them as scapegoats, like this child killing scumbag did: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/c...ourt-hears.html

Main reasons for this happening are: Somali communities are incredibly close-knit and religious which means they tend to reject and opt out of mainstream education in favour of mosque-based learning. It also means they tend not to work outside their community, leaving many young men unemployed and hanging around the streets chewing khat. That turns A LOT of people against them.

Seocndly, a lot of these young guys' fathers were killed in the Somali CIvil War, so at home many are surrounded only by women. Somali culture is VERY male-dominated, so its basically culturally accepted that a male can overule his mother and female relatives, and live his life as he wants, from about age 14/15 - sometimes younger. This leads to many young men making very bad life choices.

Thirdly, the guys that ARE in gangs tend to be pretty bloodthirsty and don't really fear prison - so when they do commit crimes they are often fairly shocking, brutal and public. Like murder over a £10 debt, or stabbing someone to death in a busy shopping centre because they looked at them the wrong way or whatever. This bloody ruthlessness presumably stems from the violent, chaotic world these guys grew up in.

And fourthly, the Somali community is probably less likely to speak with the police than any other ethnic group in London. Again this is because they'd rather trial and punish criminals through private sharia courts then through western "kuffar" law.

All the isolation and alienation adds up make Londoners disproportionatly concerned about a relatively small group of people. It's definitely not like the Yardies yet. Crime-wise its all really petty. Street drug dealing, muggings, vehicle theft, more mugging, general territorial disputes, bit more mugging. Not a lot else.

For anyone interested in reading more, there's some pretty interesting stuff here: http://www.wardheernews.com/Articles_12/...outh_crime.html