70 articles
Juárez Cartel
Juárez Cartel (Cártel de Juárez), also the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug trafficking organization based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, founded in the 1980s, led by Amado Carrillo Fuentes until 1997, and now dominated by its La Línea armed wing.
Kansas City crime family
Kansas City crime family, also called the Civella clan, a Kansas City, Missouri Italian-American Mafia family born under the Pendergast machine, led by Nick Civella, notorious for Las Vegas casino skimming, now a small remnant reportedly led by John Sciortino.
Knights Templar Cartel
Knights Templar Cartel (Los Caballeros Templarios), Mexican drug cartel formed in early 2011 from a La Familia Michoacana split, based in Michoacán; issued a Templar code of conduct, ran meth, extortion, and iron ore, and was dismantled by autodefensas and federal forces by 2015.
La Familia Michoacana
La Familia Michoacana (LFM) is a Mexican drug cartel founded 2005-2006 in Michoacán by defectors from Los Zetas and the Milenio Cartel; known for pseudo-religious ideology, extortion, and violence, it fragmented in 2011 into the Knights Templar and persists through La Nueva Familia Michoacana and United Cartels.
La Línea (gang)
La Línea ("The Line") is a Mexican criminal group founded in the early 2000s by police officers in Ciudad Juárez as the Juárez Cartel's enforcement arm; it fought Sinaloa in 2008–2011, was linked to the 2019 LeBarón massacre, and now dominates parts of Chihuahua.
List of criminal organizations in New York City
List of criminal organizations in New York City: the five La Cosa Nostra families (Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese), the DeCavalcante family, plus Westies, Russian networks, and MS-13, with origins, activities, and decline.
Los Angeles crime family
Los Angeles crime family (Dragna family), the Southern California La Cosa Nostra organization led by Jack Dragna until 1957; weakened by informant Jimmy Fratianno and 1980s prosecutions, it remains California's last Mafia family.
Los Ántrax
Los Ántrax, armed enforcement and security group of Ismael El Mayo Zambada's faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, founded 2008 by Chino Antrax after the Beltrán Leyva split; its leaders were killed, imprisoned, or fugitive by 2024.
Los Pepes
Los Pepes, acronym of People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar, was a Colombian vigilante coalition formed in January 1993 to destroy Pablo Escobar, who was killed in December 1993.
Los Zetas
Los Zetas, Mexican criminal organization founded in the late 1990s by Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cárdenas from military deserters; split from the Gulf Cartel in 2010, notorious for the San Fernando and Allende massacres, fragmented after 2012 into the Northeast Cartel and Old School Zetas.
Lucchese crime family
Lucchese crime family, one of New York's Five Families of La Cosa Nostra, originally the Gagliano family; led by Tommy Lucchese from 1951, later Anthony Corallo; known for garment district, union, and airport rackets and ongoing RICO prosecutions.
Made man
Made man: a fully initiated member (soldier) of the American Mafia, also called man of honor, goodfella, or wiseguy; entered via a blood-oath ceremony, restricted to men of Italian descent, revealed publicly by Joseph Valachi in 1963.
Mafia Commission Trial
The Mafia Commission Trial, formally United States v. Anthony Salerno, was a 1985–1986 federal RICO prosecution led by Rudolph Giuliani that convicted eight bosses of La Cosa Nostra.
Medellín Cartel
Medellín Cartel: Colombian cocaine trafficking organization based in Medellín, led by Pablo Escobar, dominant in the 1980s US cocaine trade, defeated by the early 1990s.
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky (Maier Suchowlansky), 1902-1983, American organized-crime financier and Syndicate accountant behind Las Vegas and Havana gambling; indicted 1970 and 1972, charges dropped; died nearly broke.
Mickey Cohen
Mickey Cohen (Meyer Harris Cohen, 1913–1976) was a Brooklyn-born Los Angeles mobster, featherweight boxer, and West Coast crime boss who took over Bugsy Siegel's rackets in 1947, feuded with Jack Dragna, and was twice convicted of tax evasion.
Murder, Inc.
Murder, Inc., also called the Brownsville killers' ring, was a Brooklyn-based contract-killing arm of the U.S. crime syndicate founded circa 1930, led by Albert Anastasia and Louis Lepke Buchalter, credited with 63 New York-area slayings from 1931 to 1940, and dismantled after Abe Reles turned informant in 1940.
Musitano crime family
The Musitano crime family, also known as the Musitano 'ndrina, is a Canadian mafia family based in Hamilton, Ontario, known for the 1997 murder of crime boss Johnny Papalia.
National Crime Syndicate
National Crime Syndicate: alleged coast-to-coast American organized crime alliance formed around the 1929 Atlantic City Conference by Luciano and Lansky, named by the 1951 Kefauver Committee, disputed by scholars as a Mafia myth.
New Orleans crime family
New Orleans crime family (Matranga family), American Mafia organization founded around 1870 by Charles and Antonio Matranga; led for decades by Carlos Marcello, active in docks, gambling, and wire services, weakened by BRILAB and 1994 video-poker prosecutions.
Norte del Valle Cartel
Norte del Valle Cartel (Cartel del Norte del Valle), Colombian cocaine trafficking organization based in northern Valle del Cauca that dominated the trade after the Cali cartel's 1995 fall, exporting over 500 metric tons of cocaine to the US before its 1994-2011 collapse.
North Side Gang
North Side Gang: Prohibition-era Irish-led Chicago crime organization north of the Chicago River, rival of Al Capone; led by Dean O'Banion (murdered 1924), attacked Cicero in 1926, and lost seven members in the 1929 St. Valentine's Day massacre.
Organizacion de Narcotraficantes Unidos
La Organización de Narcotraficantes Unidos (La ONU) is a Puerto Rican drug-trafficking alliance formed around 2004 by San Juan housing-project gangs, distinct from Colombia's Clan del Golfo; it trafficked cocaine to New York and was dismantled through RICO prosecutions.
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén (born 1967, Tamaulipas), Gulf Cartel boss of Matamoros and founder of the Zetas; captured 2003, extradited 2007, sentenced to 25 US years in 2010, released and deported to Mexico in December 2024.
Patriarca crime family
The Patriarca crime family is the New England La Cosa Nostra organization, named for boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca and based on Federal Hill, Providence; it ran gambling, extortion, and loansharking before federal RICO prosecutions in 1989-1991 dismantled its leadership.
Philadelphia crime family
The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Philadelphia Mafia or Philly mob, is a La Cosa Nostra organization based in Philadelphia and active since the early 1900s.
Pittsburgh crime family
The Pittsburgh crime family, also called the LaRocca or LaRocca/Genovese family, is the Pittsburgh-based La Cosa Nostra organization of western Pennsylvania, shaped by Prohibition, the Youngstown war with the Cleveland Mafia, and a 1990 federal racketeering conviction of nine defendants.
Rayful Edmond
Rayful Edmond III (1964-2024), D.C.'s biggest crack cocaine kingpin of the late 1980s, ran a 1,700-pound-a-month trafficking operation, dealt from prison, became a federal informant, and died at 60 before his planned release.
Rizzuto crime family
Rizzuto crime family, Montreal Sicilian Mafia clan founded by Nicolo Rizzuto of Cattolica Eraclea and led by Vito Rizzuto; Bonanno-linked, dominant in Quebec until the 2009–2013 war, Project Colisée, and Vito's 2013 death.
Roberto Escobar
Roberto Escobar Gaviria, El Osito, Colombian accountant of the Medellín Cartel and older brother of Pablo Escobar; surrendered 1991, blinded by a letter bomb in prison, wrote The Accountant's Story, founded Escobar Inc., and demanded $1 billion from Netflix over Narcos.