 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2010) |
The US state of Georgia has seen a rise in the number of gangs over recent years, [ when? ] in the main focused on the illegal drug trade.[ citation needed ]
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2010) |
The US state of Georgia has seen a rise in the number of gangs over recent years, [ when? ] in the main focused on the illegal drug trade.[ citation needed ]
Many gangs started appearing in Georgia in the mid 1980s, as a result of the crack cocaine epidemic. [1] In 2003, there were an estimated 78 gangs in the Atlanta area alone. In 2015, Atlanta police announced that they were tracking an estimated 192 gangs. [2] In more recent times, Mexican drug cartels have established Atlanta as a major distribution hub for methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Drug dealing is the main source of money for gang members, which has led some of the gangs to form untraditional alliances with one another. Armed robbery, commonly drug robberies, are another way in which gangs capitalize in Atlanta's open air drug market.
The Italian Mafia has long considered Atlanta and its suburbs to be "open territory"; its local Italian-American population was never old, large, or cohesive enough to field a local crime family on its own. Rather, families from other cities, such as New York's Five Families, have over the years embarked on one-off business ventures such as local restaurants, bars, and strip clubs as lucrative investments in their own right, or as front companies and mechanisms for money laundering. There are also a handful of Greek families owning local diners that, over the years, have been reputed as having connections with these larger syndicates.
There are also Asian gangs, mainly in the northeastern part of Atlanta, as well as individuals linked with the Russian mafia.
The well-known gangs are mainly concentrated in the West, Southwest, Southeast, and East Atlanta such as "The Robbing Crew " from Decatur and the "FENNOKES" from College Park with many gangs with turf on the outskirts of the city and have hybrid sets that are found in smaller cities all over Georgia.[ citation needed ] Some of the gangs are nationwide, such as the Sureños, Bloods, Gangster Disciples, 61PK, Nortenos, Crips, Latin Kings, Tiny Rascal Gang, and MS-13 who have sent high ranking shot callers to establish local neighborhood cliques as loyal sets under the same flag.[ citation needed ]
Downtown Atlanta has had national television coverage about the gang situation. The city was featured on the show Gangland , in the episodes "Death in Dixie", "Street Law", and "Death Before Dishonor". In addition, the city has been featured on Drugs, Inc. [ citation needed ]
The 'Ndrangheta is an Italian Mafia-type association based in the peninsular region of Calabria and dating back to the 19th century. Although loosely structured, it is considered one of the most powerful organized crime groups in the world. It is characterized by a horizontal structure made up of autonomous clans known as 'ndrine, based almost exclusively on blood ties. Since the 1950s, following wide-scale emigration from Calabria, 'Ndrangheta clans dispersed to other European countries, Australia and the Americas. Currently, its main activity is drug trafficking, but it also deals with human trafficking, sex trafficking, arms trafficking, money laundering, racketeering, extortion, and loan sharking.
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster. Gangs provide a level of organization and resources that support much larger and more complex criminal transactions than an individual criminal could achieve. Gangsters have been active for many years in countries around the world. Gangsters are the subject of many novels, films, television series, and video games.
The Mexican Mafia, also known as La eMe, is a Mexican American criminal organization in the United States. Despite its name, the Mexican Mafia did not originate in Mexico, and is entirely a U.S. criminal prison organization. Law enforcement officials report that the Mexican Mafia is the deadliest and most powerful gang within the California prison system.
The Black Mafia, also known as the Philadelphia Black Mafia (PBM), Black Muslim Mafia and Muslim Mob, was a Philadelphia-based African-American organized crime syndicate. The organization began in the 1960s as a relatively small criminal collective in South Philadelphia, known for holding up neighborhood crap games and dealing in the illegal drug business, but at its height of operation in the early 1970s until about the early 1980s, it managed to consolidate power and control a large portion of criminal activity in various African-American neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, including South Jersey, Chester, and Wilmington. In addition to drug trafficking, burglary, and armed robbery, the Black Mafia was also engaged in traditional organized crime activities such as political corruption, extortion, racketeering, prostitution, loansharking, number running, and other illegal gambling rackets.
The Dixie Mafia or Dixie Mob is an American criminal organization composed mainly of White Southerners and based in Biloxi, Mississippi, operating primarily throughout the Southern United States since at least the late 1960s. The group's activities include movement of stolen merchandise, illegal alcohol, and illegal drugs.
Criminal organizations have been prevalent in Italy, especially in the southern part of the country, for centuries and have affected the social and economic life of many Italian regions. There are major native mafia-like organizations that are heavily active in Italy. The most powerful of these organizations, the 'Ndrangheta from Calabria, the Cosa Nostra from Sicily, and the Camorra based in Campania.
The Black Mafia Family (BMF) is a drug trafficking and money laundering organization in the United States. It was founded in 1985, in Southwest Detroit by brothers Demetrius Edward "Big Meech" Flenory and Terry Lee "Southwest Tee" Flenory. By 2000 it had established cocaine distribution sales throughout the United States through its Los Angeles-based drug source and direct links to Mexican drug cartels. The Black Mafia Family operated from two main hubs: one in Atlanta for distribution run by Demetrius Flenory and one in Los Angeles to handle incoming shipments from Mexico run by Terry Flenory.
Serbian organized crime or Serbian mafia are various criminal organizations based in Serbia or composed of ethnic Serbs in the former Yugoslavia and Serbian diaspora. The organizations are primarily involved in smuggling, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, human trafficking, assassinations, heists, assault, protection rackets, murder, money laundering and illegal gambling. The mafia is composed of several major organized groups, which in turn have wider networks throughout Europe and across the world.
The Cleveland crime family, also known as the Scalish crime family or the Cleveland Mafia, is an Italian American Mafia crime family based in Cleveland, Ohio and throughout the Greater Cleveland area. The organization formed during the 1900s, as leadership turned over frequently due to a series of power grabs and assassinations. In 1930, Frank Milano became boss and was able to bring some stability to the family. Under the control of the family's longest-serving boss, John T. Scalish, who led the organization from 1945 until 1976, the Cleveland Mafia exerted influence over the Teamsters union, profiting from labor racketeering and the the skimming of revenue from Las Vegas casinos.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African American organized crime emerged following the first and second large-scale migration of African Americans from the Southern United States to major cities of the Northeast, Midwest, and later the West Coast. In many of these newly established communities and neighborhoods, criminal activities such as illegal gambling, and speakeasies were seen in the post-World War I and Prohibition eras. Although the majority of these businesses in African American neighborhoods were operated by African Americans, it is often unclear the extent to which these operations were run independently of the larger criminal organizations of the time.
Albanian mafia or Albanian organized crime are the general terms used for criminal organizations based in Albania or composed of ethnic Albanians. Albanian organized crime is active in Europe, North America, South America, and various other parts of the world including the Middle East and Asia. The Albanian Mafia participates in a diverse range of criminal enterprises including trafficking in drugs, arms, and humans. Thanks to their close ties with the 'Ndrangheta of Calabria, they control a large part of the billion dollar wholesale cocaine market in Europe and appear to be the primary distributors of cocaine in various European drug hubs including London. Albanian organized crime is characterized by diversified criminal enterprises which, in their complexity, demonstrate a very high criminal capacity. In Albania, there are over 15 mafia families that control organized crime. According to some sources, Albania is the first European narco state.
The East Harlem Purple Gang was a gang or organized crime group consisting of Italian-American hit-men and heroin dealers who were semi-independent from the Italian-American Mafia and, according to federal prosecutors, dominated heroin distribution in East Harlem, Italian Harlem, and the Bronx during the 1970s and early 1980s in New York City. Though mostly independent of the Italian-American Mafia and not an official Mafia crew, the gang was originally affiliated with and worked with the Lucchese crime family and later with the Bonanno crime family and Genovese crime family. It developed its "closest ties" with the Genovese family, and its remnants or former members are now part of the Genovese family's 116th Street Crew.
Organised crime in Nigeria includes activities by fraudsters, bandits, drug traffickers and racketeers, which have spread across Western Africa. Nigerian criminal gangs rose to prominence in the 1980s, owing much to the globalisation of the world's economies and the high level of lawlessness and corruption in the country.
Gangs in Canada are mostly present in the major urban areas of Canada, although their activities are not confined to large cities.
Frank Larry Matthews, also known as Black Caesar, Mark IV and Pee Wee, was an American drug trafficker and crime boss who sold heroin and cocaine throughout the eastern United States from 1965 to 1972. He operated in 21 states and supplied drug dealers throughout every region of the country. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) ranks Matthews as one of the top ten drug traffickers in U.S. history and he is estimated to have had US$20 million in savings.
Organized crime in the Netherlands, sometimes called penose is the organised criminal underbelly in Amsterdam and other major cities. Penose usually means the organizations formed by criminals of Dutch descent. It is a slang word coming from the old Amsterdam Bargoens language.
Although organized crime has always existed in Sweden, it has risen significantly in the 2000s. The number of organized criminal groups operating in the country continues to rise. In 2018, Sweden had the highest gun deaths in total across Europe, and deaths involving guns tripled in Sweden between 2012 and 2020.
Turkish mafia is the general term for criminal organizations based in Turkey and/or composed of (former) Turkish citizens. Crime groups with origins in Turkey are active throughout Western Europe and less so in the Middle East. Turkish criminal groups participate in a wide range of criminal activities, internationally the most important being drug trafficking, especially heroin. In the trafficking of heroin they cooperate with Bulgarian mafia groups who transport the heroin further to countries such as Italy. Recently however, Turkish mafia groups have also stepped up in the cocaine trafficking world by directly participating in the massive cocaine smuggling pipeline that runs transnationally from South America to Europe. They allegedly have a lucrative partnership with the Venezuelan drug-trafficking organization known as the Cartel of the Suns who ships them cocaine along with criminal elements from Ecuador. Turkish organized crime has pushed into less traditional cocaine markets as well such as into Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the wealthy petro-states of the Persian Gulf. Cosa Nostra and the Turkish mafia are also known to be extremely close. Criminal activities such as the trafficking of other types of drugs, illegal gambling, human trafficking, prostitution or extortion are committed in Turkey itself as well as European countries with a sizeable Turkish community such as Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Albania, and the United Kingdom.
The Greek mafia is the colloquial term used to refer to various organized crime elements originating from Greece. Indigenous organized criminal groups are well-entrenched in the largest Greek urban centers, particularly in Athens.
Gangs in Liverpool have been in existence since the early-19th century. There were also various sectarian 'political' gangs based in and around the city during this period. During the 1960s and 1970s, crime in Liverpool mainly focused on theft and armed-robbery. In the late 1970s, drugs became the new and most profitable way for gangs to earn money and made local criminals very wealthy in a short space of time. Liverpool’s modern organised crime centres mainly on the drug trade. Merseyside police have reported in 2023 that as many as 120 gangs are operating around Merseyside.