169 articles
Tijuana Cartel
Tijuana Cartel, or Arellano-Félix Organization (AFO), a Mexican drug trafficking organization based in Tijuana, Baja California; founded from Félix Gallardo's network in 1989, it dominated Baja smuggling before losing the city to the Sinaloa Cartel around 2009-2013 and allying with CJNG.
Tiny Rascal Gang
Tiny Rascal Gang (TRG), or Tiny Rascals Gangsters, a Cambodian-American street gang founded in Long Beach, California in the 1980s; blue and grey colors, rival of the Asian Boyz, active nationwide.
Tong (堂) (organization)
Tong (堂), Chinese for association, names fraternal organizations in North American Chinatowns that provided mutual aid to Chinese immigrants and, in some cases, ran vice businesses; the Hip Sing and On Leong tongs fought 19-year tong wars.
Tong Wars
Tong wars were violent conflicts between rival Chinese-American tongs, notably the Hip Sing Tong and On Leong Tong, in New York, San Francisco, and other Chinatowns from the 1880s to the 1920s, fought over gambling, opium, prostitution, and territory.
Trafficante crime family
Trafficante crime family: Tampa, Florida Mafia family led by Santo Trafficante Sr. and Jr., at its peak from the 1940s to the 1960s, built on bolita gambling, Cuba casinos, and CIA-linked Castro plots.
Trafficking of children
Trafficking of children, or child trafficking, is recruitment, transport, or receipt of under-18s for exploitation, defined by the 2000 Palermo Protocol (185 parties). Children were 38% of detected victims in 2022; risks include poverty, conflict, migration, and technology-facilitated abuse.
Tren de Aragua
Tren de Aragua (TdA), the Aragua Train, is a Venezuelan transnational criminal organization founded in Tocorón prison around 2012-2013 under Niño Guerrero, expanded via migrant smuggling into Colombia, Peru, and Chile, designated a US foreign terrorist organization in 2025, and fragmented after the 2023 prison raid.
Triad (organized crime)
Triad (organized crime) is a Chinese organized crime society linked to secret brotherhood societies founded in Fujian in 1761 or 1762, derived from the Tiandihui.
Trial of the Nine Trey Gangsters
Trial of the Nine Trey Gangsters: 2019 SDNY federal racketeering case against Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods members, famous for Tekashi 6ix9ine's cooperation; Mack and Ellison convicted October 3, 2019.
Trinitarios
Trinitarios (3NI, La Trinitaria): transnational Dominican street and prison gang founded in the New York correctional system (late 1980s to early 1990s), known for drug trafficking, extreme violence, machete use, rivalry with DDP, and RICO prosecutions in Massachusetts, New York, and Spain.
Turkish mafia
Turkish mafia: organized crime groups of Turkish origin in Turkey and the European diaspora, rooted in Laz migrant syndicates of early-20th-century Istanbul, historically dominant in the Balkan heroin route and now active in cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking.
Underboss
The Underboss, or Sottocapo, is the second-in-command of a traditional organized crime family. This role involves relaying messages and is a primary target of federal law.
United Blood Nation
United Blood Nation (UBN): East Coast Bloods offshoot founded 1993 on Rikers Island by Omar Portee and Leonard McKenzie; prison-born gang with sets, 'The 31' rules, dues, and major 2017–2019 North Carolina RICO prosecutions.
Vito Genovese
Vito "Don Vito" Genovese (1897–1969), Italian-born American Mafia boss, underboss to Lucky Luciano, later boss of the New York family bearing his name; convicted of narcotics conspiracy in 1959 and linked to the 1957 Apalachin raid.
Wah Ching (华青)
Wah Ching (華青), a Chinese American gang founded in 1960s San Francisco Chinatown by foreign-born immigrant youths, evolved from street gang into organized crime, known for the 1977 Golden Dragon massacre and Los Angeles/San Gabriel Valley operations.
Westies
The Westies were an Irish-American organized crime gang, also called Coonan's Crew, based in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, active from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s under James Coonan, allied with the Gambino family and dismantled by 1988 federal RICO convictions.
Winter Hill Gang
Winter Hill Gang: Irish-American organized crime group from Somerville, Massachusetts, also called the Irish Mob, led successively by Buddy McLean, Howie Winter, and Whitey Bulger; fought the McLaughlin Gang in the 1960s and collapsed after Bulger's 1994 flight and 2011 arrest.
Yakuza
Yakuza (boryokudan, gokudō): Japan's organized crime syndicates, active since the 17th century, structured on oyabun-kobun bonds, led by the Yamaguchi-gumi, Sumiyoshi-kai, and Inagawa-kai, legally never banned but restricted since the 1992 Botaiho.
Yamaguchi-gumi (山口組)
Yamaguchi-gumi (山口組), Japan's largest yakuza syndicate, founded 1915 in Kobe by Yamaguchi Harukichi as a dock labor-broking group; designated bōryokudan since 1992, split in 2015 forming the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, with about 3,100 members at end-2025.