169 articles
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
Mafia: organized crime born in 19th-century western Sicily, tied to citrus exports and weak post-1860 rule of law; comprises Cosa Nostra, Camorra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita; defined by protection rackets, omertà, initiation rites.
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.
Melbourne tobacco wars
Melbourne tobacco wars: violent turf conflict since March 2023 between organised crime syndicates, notably Kazem Hamad's 'The Commission', over Victoria's illicit tobacco and vape market, marked by 200+ arson attacks, homicides, and escalating police closure and seizure powers.
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 Cobras
The Mickey Cobras, historically the Egyptian Cobras and Cobra Stones, are a Chicago street gang allied with the Black P. Stones and named for Henry "Mickey" Cogwell.
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.
Mongols Motorcycle Club
Mongols Motorcycle Club (Mongol Nation, Mongols MC), founded December 5, 1969 in Montebello, California, is a predominantly Hispanic 1% outlaw motorcycle club, rival of the Hells Angels, subject of RICO prosecutions and a trademark forfeiture case.
MS-13
MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) is a violent street gang founded in 1980s Los Angeles by Salvadoran civil war refugees, spread to Central America by US deportations, structured in cliques, and designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US in 2025.
Mule (smuggling)
A mule, commonly called a drug mule, is a person paid, coerced, or deceived into carrying drugs across an international border, often by swallowing sealed packets, typically cocaine or heroin.
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.
Muthappa Rai (ಮುತ್ತಪ್ಪ ರೈ)
Muthappa Rai (ಮುತ್ತಪ್ಪ ರೈ), Nettala Muthappa Rai, was a Bengaluru underworld don, later realtor and founder of Jaya Karnataka; deported from Dubai in 2002, acquitted in over a dozen cases, died of brain cancer 15 May 2020 aged 68.
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.
Nazi Lowriders
Nazi Lowriders (NLR, The Ride): white supremacist prison and street gang founded in California Youth Authority facilities in the late 1970s, tied to the Aryan Brotherhood, dominant white gang in California prisons by the 1990s, active in meth trafficking.
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.
Nine Trey Gangsters
Nine Trey Gangsters (NTG, Billies), a set of the United Blood Nation (East Coast Bloods) founded in New York, with ranked hierarchy under The 31 rules, active in RICO prosecutions from New Jersey to North Carolina and in the Tekashi 6ix9ine case.
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.
Omertà
Omertà, also called the law of silence, is the code of silence of the southern Italian mafia, forbidding any cooperation with state authorities and punishing breach by death.
Organised crime in India
Organised crime in India: structured syndicates committing continuing unlawful activity for profit, from Mumbai's D-Company to sand and gold mafias. Governed by MCOCA 1999, UAPA, PMLA, and BNS 2023 Sections 111–112; 840 organised crime cases registered in 2024.
Organised crime in Ireland
Organised crime in Ireland: family-based gangs (Kinahan, Hutch), the New IRA, cocaine trafficking via Dublin and ports, GNDOCB and Criminal Justice Act 2006 responses, €390m seizures since 2019, and the €157m MV Matthew case.
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.
Organized crime
Organized crime: continuing profit-driven crime by structured groups. Key facts: UNTOC (2000) defines organized criminal groups (3+ members, serious crimes, material benefit) but not the term itself; estimated $870 billion yearly.
Organized crime in Italy
Organized crime in Italy: Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Camorra, and Sacra Corona Unita, mafia-type groups defined by Article 416-bis (1982), trafficking drugs and infiltrating public procurement and the legal economy.