The Most Dangerous Gangs; Part One of...

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So thank you to a beautiful and wonderful listener, we decided to do an addendum to our top police stings and follow it up with the top most dangerous mobs/gangs of all time. 

La Cosa Nostra

One of the biggest threats to American civilization from organized crime is the Cosa Nostra, sometimes referred to as the "Mob" or the "Mafia," which sprang from the Sicilian Mafia. The term "La Cosa Nostra," used by the US government, and "Cosa Nostra" by its members literally translates to "this thing of ours" or "our thing." This international organization of criminals, made up of many "families," is committed to combating crime and defending its members. These organized and major racketeering activities are being carried out by these crime families or groups, which are connected by kinship or by conspiracy. A wide range of illicit activities, including as murder, extortion, drug trafficking, government corruption, gambling, infiltrating lawful enterprises, labor racketeering, loan sharking, prostitution, pornography, tax fraud schemes, and stock manipulation are also engaged in by them. The Cosa Nostra is most prevalent in the urban areas of New York City, New England, and portions of New Jersey, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago. The Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese families are among the prominent ones in the New York City region. Sometimes, members and associates of one La Cosa Nostra family collaborate with members of other La Cosa Nostra families to carry out joint criminal activities.

 

Within these families, members collaborate on "crews" that are commanded by a "capo" or "captain," who is in charge of overseeing his crew's illicit actions and offering them assistance and safety. The crews are made up of trusted outsiders known as "associates" and "made" members known as "soldiers." An associate must be of Italian heritage, have proven their capacity to make money for the Family, and have shown a willingness to use violence in order to become a "made member" of the Family. The three highest-ranking members who manage the Family are the Boss or Acting Boss, the Underboss, and the Consigliere, or advisor. Cosa Nostra has its origins in Italian organized crime, although it has existed as a distinct organization for a long time. It still collaborates with many criminal organizations with Italian headquarters today in a variety of illicit operations. 

 

Labor racketeering, in which it attempts to dominate, manage, and control a labor movement in order to have an impact on associated businesses and industries, is one of its main sources of income, power, and influence. Organized criminal organizations may profit greatly from labor unions, particularly their pension, welfare, and health funds. The mafia tries to regulate these schemes by giving businesses "sweetheart" contracts, cordial worker relations, and weak work regulations, or by manipulating union elections. Large cities like New York, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia that have robust industrial bases and labor unions tend to be the epicenters of labor law infractions. Additionally, there are several organized criminal characters in these cities. Labor racketeering costs the American public millions of dollars annually through increased labor expenses that are ultimately passed on to consumers, according to many FBI investigations.

 

In order to investigate potential violations of labor law, the FBI collaborates closely with other governmental organizations and uses methods such as electronic surveillance, covert operations, use of secret sources, and victim interviews. The passing of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in 1970 was the one event that helped more than anything else to deter organized crime. The agencies were able to work more effectively as a result of this action because they could target the entire corrupt organization rather than incarcerating individuals who might simply be replaced by other members or affiliates of organized crime.

 

The first known Sicilian Mafia member to immigrate to the United States was Giuseppe Esposito. After assassinating 11 rich landowners, the chancellor and vice chancellor of a Sicilian province, and six other Sicilians, he escaped to New York. In 1881, he was detained in New Orleans, Louisiana, and then sent back to Italy. 

 

The nation's first significant Mafia event occurred in New Orleans. Police Superintendent David Hennessey of New Orleans was executed on October 15, 1890. Numerous Sicilians were detained, and 19 were ultimately charged with the crime. An acquittal spread allegations of widespread corruption and scared witnesses away. On March 14, 1891, a group of angry New Orleans residents formed a lynch mob and murdered 11 out of the 19 defendants. Eight managed to flee, nine were shot, and two were hanged.

 

As different gangs gained and lost power throughout the years, the American Mafia changed. The Black Hand gangs in the early 1900s, the Five Points Gang in New York City in the 1910s and 1920s, and Al Capone's Syndicate in Chicago in the 1920s were a few of the earliest.

 

The Italian Mafia factions started fighting during Prohibition for exclusive control of lucrative bootlegging networks. They struggled for dominance of bootlegging alongside Jewish and Irish ethnic gangs. By the conclusion of the decade, two Italian organizations were competing for dominance of the nation's criminal underworld. Joe Masseria, the head of the Genovese criminal family, oversaw one gang, while Salvatore Maranzano, who oversaw the Bonanno crime family, oversaw the other. The deadly Castellammarese War, which raged from February 1930 to April 15, 1931, was the result of the rivalry's escalation. When Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Masseria's senior soldier, and Salvatore Maranzano planned to have Masseria assassinated, the battle came to an end.

 

Maranzano eventually rose to prominence as the nation's most powerful Mafia leader, referring to himself as "Boss of Bosses." Maranzano designed the organization's code of conduct, set the conflict resolution processes, and split New York City into five families. Charles "Lucky" Luciano was designated as the leader of the Genovese family, as it eventually came to be known.

 

Maranzano's leadership position would, however, be transitory. Maranzano preferred to exclusively associate with Sicilians and upheld the traditions of the purported "Old World Mafia '' by refusing to cooperate with non-Italians. Younger Italian organized crime figures like Luciano believed that limiting their business dealings to Italians would restrict both the development of their individual careers and the possible expansion of their criminal empires. As long as there was money to be made, these men—known as the "Young Turks''—wanted to deal with Irish and Jewish gangsters.

 

Marazano quickly saw Luciano as a threat and gave the order to kill him. On September 10, 1931, Marazano was murdered by a group of mobsters at his office in the New York Central Building when Luciano learned about the scheme.

 

In order to prevent future Mafia battles, Lucky Luciano formed "The Commission," a coalition of five Mafia families of similar magnitude, with the aid of his lifelong buddy, Meyer Lansky. Vincent Mangano, Tommy Gagliano, Joseph Bonanno, and Joseph Profaci served as the commission's other leaders. After then, this panel made decisions about all organized criminal activity throughout the 1930s. The leaders of the Chicago Outfit and the Five Families of New York City reportedly still make up the Commission.

 

The organized crime groups quickly diversified into new businesses after Prohibition ended in 1933 because they were unable to maintain the high profits they had made throughout the 1920s. These new businesses included labor racketeering through the control of labor unions, construction, loan sharking, extortion, protection rackets, sanitation, transportation, prostitution, and drug trafficking.

 

In Las Vegas, Nevada's legal casinos by the 1950s, numerous Mafia leaders had made legitimate investments and were skimming money before it was recorded. It is assumed that the sum was in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

For years, the Mafia operated in secrecy with little opposition from the law because local law enforcement authorities lacked the tools or expertise necessary to successfully confront organized crime perpetrated by a covert organization they were unaware even existed.

 

It wasn't until 1951 that a U.S. Senate investigation concluded that this country was home to a "sinister criminal organization," subsequently known as La Cosa Nostra. Six years later, in the little upstate New York hamlet of Apalachin, The New York State Police discovered a gathering of important La Cosa Nostra officials from all across the nation. Numerous guests were taken into custody. The incident served as the impetus for altering how organized crime is combated by law enforcement.

 

Joe Valachi, the first Mafia member to turn state's evidence in 1963, divulged extensive details about the organization's inner workings and trade secrets. After then, the National Crime Syndicate of the Mafia was aggressively attacked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Although the Mafia came under additional pressure as a result, its illegal operations were not significantly reduced.

 

However, the Nevada State Legislature's passage of a measure in 1969 that made it simpler for companies to run casinos caused the Mafia's power in the Las Vegas economy to start to decline. A year later, the RICO Act was approved by the US Congress, giving law enforcement extra power to go after the mafia for its criminal operations. By the start of the 1980s, the FBI had achieved success when it was able to free Las Vegas casinos from Mafia rule and made a concerted effort to weaken the Mafia's grip on labor unions.

 

23 mafia bosses from all throughout the country were found guilty of violating the RICO statute between 1981 and 1992. By 1990, almost 1000 members of criminal families had been found guilty. While many Mafia organizations around the nation were severely damaged, the most powerful families continued to control crime in their regions.

 

The Mafia has persisted in engaging in a wide range of illicit operations into the twenty-first century, including extortion, government corruption, gambling, infiltration into lawful firms, labor racketeering, loan sharking, and more. Today, Chicago and the Northeast still account for the majority of its operations.

 

La Cosa Nostra's organizational structure has not altered since the 1930s, and Cosa Nostra has operated for more than a century in a variety of guises.

 

Camorra Mafia

 

Now We talked about the American Mob, and we hear about them a lot, so let's talk about the True Italian Mafia, The Camorra.

 

Due to that gang's effect on American organized crime, the term "Mafia" has come to symbolize all forms of organized crime in popular culture. However, that phrase is really the name of the organized criminal gang rooted in Sicily, according to Mafia historian Umberto Santino's study of Mafia and Mafia-type groups in Italy. The 'Ndrangheta, from Calabria, the Sacra Corona Unita, from Apulia, and the Camorra, from Campania, the area that includes the city of Naples, are further "Mafia-type" groups.

 

The history of the Camorra is "particularly discontinuous," according to Santino. Despite having origins that may go as far back as 15th-century Spain, sources like Britannica claim that the organization first rose to prominence in the 19th century. Santino, however, claims that the organization's current form dates back to the late 1950s, when local criminal organizations in Campania started using the term "camorra." In the 1960s, these organizations expanded and became increasingly effective at smuggling cigarettes.

 

In this decade, they also forged advantageous relationships with a number of Neapolitan Mafia factions, which in the 1970s led to the development of profitable black market drug trafficking. However, there is one key distinction between the Cosa Nostra, sometimes known as the Mafia, and the Camorra. While the Mafia has a top-down, pyramidal structure of authority, the Camorra has a more dispersed system of small organizations, or "clans," that hold power. The Camorra has found success with its organizational structure, and as a result, is currently more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia.

 

According to Santino, the Camorra has 7,000 members spread throughout its 145 clans. The Camorra is the most prosperous and feared criminal gang in Italy thanks to its domination over the trafficking in narcotics including cocaine and heroin. The Independent published a story in 2006 about an Italian author named Roberto Saviano who wrote a book that revealed a few more details about the Camorra than the gang would have wanted. He had excellent reason to worry for his life. "This sprawling network of criminal gangs, according to [Saviano]," wrote reporter Peter Popham, "now dwarfs both the original Mafia of Sicily, the 'Ndrangheta and southern Italy's other organized gangs, in numbers, in economic power and in ruthless violence."

 

The New York Times reported that Saviano's book Gomorra was a "literary sensation" that sold more than 500,000 copies, but it also resulted in death threats and compelled him to go into hiding because it depicted gang violence, drug trafficking, child soldiers, and other aspects of the Camorra's business that the gang would prefer to keep hidden from the outside world. Aspects like the rampant government corruption, which causes trash to pile up in the streets car-high, or the fact that the Camorra has killed much more people recently than the Sicilian Mafia and made Campania one of the most deadly regions in Europe.

 

Sicily is where the Mafia that we know and admire today originated. They first appeared at some time in the late 19th century, and over the next 150 years or so, they expanded all over the world and became involved in just about everything. It has long been a mystery how this highly ordered system came to be, but new study from the University of Nottingham suggests that it all began with lemons.

 

Sicily discovered they had the ideal mixture to develop a lucrative crop in the late 1800s. Despite having the greatest concentration of lemon trees in all of Italy, they also faced a particular set of issues. Lemon farmers eventually turned to hiring their own private protection firms to protect their investment and themselves because of factors such as a wealthy upper class that exploited the peasant class to the fullest, a glaring lack of public law enforcement, and a government that really wasn't keeping the peace. Add a few more elements now: Sicily's location on a key Mediterranean trade route, the rapidly expanding citrus industry, and the demand for private security forces to safeguard interests make it the ideal location for the Mafia to establish itself.

 

Don Calo Vizzini was at the head of the Villalba Mafia during World War II, and he may have said it best. He was quoted by the University of Nottingham paper as saying, "In every society there has to be a category of people who straighten things out when situations get complicated. Usually they're functionaries of the state. Where the state is not present, or where it does not have sufficient force, this is done by private individuals."

 

The roots of the Camorra have speculated that it originated from a secret 12th century organization of assassins.

 

The Beati Paoli were a Sicilian group that originated in the 12th century; no one knows why they were given that name, although it's presumably religious in nature. The tale claims that they formed in response to the persecution of the aristocratic class, and the majority of what we know comes from Francesco Maria Emanuele, Marquis of Villabianca. They not only attracted each and everyone to their cause, but they also created a hierarchy akin to a royal court. From there, they set up security services, employed themselves as paid killers, and... well, secrets prevent us from knowing what else. Since they obviously had an underground hideout, we do know that it was accessible through the crypt of a Palermo church.

 

There are even reports that the Camorra had a lot to do with helping the allies sabotage Mussollini in World War 2. Much information was originally written up as German control and sabotage during this time but many years after, with arrests of many members, documents were found that showed that the Camorra and other factions helped screw over Ol’ Mussollini.

 

Crips

 

The Crips were only a social group, as one Original Gangster (OG) put it, and by most accounts, he is right (Kontos 99, 2003). While there are numerous uneven areas throughout the turbulent history of the Crips, there are also recurring themes. However, unlike the violent, frequently fatal incidents connected with the Crips, which are frequently portrayed with dramatic exaggeration, the genuine components of the narrative do not make for riveting television. Many OGs and gang members have voiced their shock and disappointment at how the Crips have been portrayed, while still admitting the group's flaws and its final transition from activism to gangsterism. Debra Addie Smith, a close friend of the founder of the Crips, once expressed that she “was wondering when someone was gonna finally tell the real story about the Crips”.

 

The Black Panther movement was being dismantled by the police, who were making "mass arrests, incarcerations, and deaths of black teenagers by the police," which led to the formation of the Crips, a grassroots group mostly made up of African-Americans. The CRIPS (Community Resources for Independent People) emerged in South Central Los Angeles, California, in 1969 with a message of resistance and justice during a period of despair and pessimism within the black community, following the ultimate dissolution of the Black Panther movement. Raymond Washington, a "fearless and strong 5-foot-8 fireplug who liked to fight and detested guns," is credited with founding the gang. He finally distanced himself and was killed as the Crips started using guns and formed a feud with the Bloods.

 

Stanley Tookie Williams met Raymond Lee Washington in 1969, and the two decided to unite their local gang members from the west and east sides of South Central Los Angeles in order to battle neighboring street gangs. Most of the members were 17 years old. Williams however appears to discount the sometimes-cited founding date of 1969 in his memoir, Blue Rage, Black Redemption. In his memoir, Williams also refuted claims that the group was a spin-off of the Black Panther Party or formed for a community agenda, writing that it "depicted a fighting alliance against street gangs—nothing more, nothing less." Washington, who attended Fremont High School, was the leader of the East Side Crips, and Williams, who attended Washington High School, led the West Side Crips.

 

Williams recalled that a blue bandana was first worn by Crips founding member Buddha, as a part of his color-coordinated clothing of blue Levis, a blue shirt, and dark blue suspenders. A blue bandana was worn in tribute to Buddha after he was shot and killed on February 23, 1973. The color then became associated with Crips.

 

By 1978, there were 45 Crip gangs, called sets, in Los Angeles. They were heavily involved in the production of PCP, marijuana and amphetamines. On March 11, 1979, Williams, a member of the Westside Crips, was arrested for four murders and on August 9, 1979, Washington was gunned down. Washington had been against Crip infighting and after his death several Crip sets started fighting against each other. The Crips' leadership was dismantled, prompting a deadly gang war between the Rollin' 60 Neighborhood Crips and Eight Tray Gangster Crips that led nearby Crip sets to choose sides and align themselves with either the Neighborhood Crips or the Gangster Crips, waging large-scale war in South Central and other cities. The East Coast Crips (from East Los Angeles) and the Hoover Crips directly severed their alliance after Washington's death. By 1980, the Crips were in turmoil, warring with the Bloods and against each other. The gang's growth and influence increased significantly in the early 1980s when crack cocaine hit the streets and Crip sets began distributing the drug. Large profits induced many Crips to establish new markets in other cities and states. As a result, Crips membership grew steadily and the street gang was one of the nation's largest by the late 1980s. In 1999, there were at least 600 Crip sets with more than 30,000 members transporting drugs in the United States.

 

Funny side note: As of 2015, the Crips gang consists of between approximately 30,000 and 35,000 members and 800 sets, active in 221 cities and 41 U.S. states. The states with the highest estimated number of Crip sets are California, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Members typically consist of young African American men, but can be white, Hispanic, Asian, and Pacific Islander. The gang also began to establish a presence in Canada in the early 1990s; Crip sets are active in the Canadian cities of Montreal and Toronto.

 

Bloods

 

The Bloods gang was first established in Los Angeles as a defense against the Crips. The Pirus street gang, which was initially a group of the Crips, split out during an internal gang battle, united with other minor gangs to create the gang that would later become known as the Bloods, which is where the Bloods' origins and their rivalry with the Crips begin. At the time, there were three more Crips sets than Bloods sets. Despite this disparity in numbers, Bloods sets became more aggressive, especially towards rival Crips members, in an effort to demonstrate their dominance. Therefore, it is believed that the Pirus were the original Bloods founders. The gang's concentration changed to drug manufacture during the emergence of crack. The United Blood Nation, a gang that started out on Rikers Island, is frequently associated with blood sets on the East Coast.

 

The George Motchan Detention Center (GMDC), often known as C 73, is located on Rikers Island and is home to the United Blood Nation, also known as the Bloods. Problem offenders were separated from the rest of the jail facilities using GMDC. The Latin Kings were the most prominent and well-organized gang in the NYC jail system before this time. The majority-Hispanic Latin Kings were violently abusing White and occasionally African American prisoners. These African American prisoners created a defense organization they named the United Blood Nation after being organized by some of the most aggressive and charismatic prisoners. This prison group, United Blood Nation, was copying the Bloods street gangs in Los Angeles. Eight initial Blood sets were formed by many of the leaders of this freshly formed prison gang to recruit in their local communities around New York City.

 

By 1996, the Blood street gang had grown to include thousands of members and was becoming one of the most powerful gangs in existence. It also kept up a regular recruiting push. The Bloods were at this point less organized and more vicious than other gangs. Numerous slashings (attacks with a razor blade or knife) that were recorded during robberies were later determined to be Bloods initiations. The Bloods' signature ceremony was the Blood ritual. Bloods found recruits all throughout the East Coast.

 

In addition to members of other races and ethnicities, African Americans make up the majority of the Bloods. Early adolescence to mid-twenties is the average age of members, however some continue to retain leadership roles well into their late twenties and, on occasion, their thirties. Although there is no one person who can be identified as the Bloods' national leader, each individual Bloods set has a hierarchical leadership structure with distinct degrees of membership. Status within a gang is indicated by these membership levels. Each set is managed by a leader, who is often an older person with a longer criminal history. A fixed leader is not chosen; instead, he or she exerts themselves through creating and overseeing the gang's illicit businesses, using their reputation for brutality and violence as well as their own charisma to do so. The majority of the cast members are "soldiers," and they range in age from 16 to 22. Because of their readiness to use violence to win the respect of gang members and to deal with anybody who "disrespects" the set, soldiers have a strong feeling of dedication to their set and are very dangerous. Although they are not full members, "associates" participate in a variety of illegal acts and identify with the gang. If any women are involved in the gang, they are often associate members and are frequently employed by their male counterparts to carry guns, store narcotics, or engage in self-prostitution in order to support their group.

 

The surroundings of a recruit frequently affects recruitment. Bloods actively seek for school-age African Americans in particularly impoverished regions. Youth might find security and a sense of belonging by joining a gang. Economically deprived children who observe the trappings of gang life—gold jewelry, cash, pricey sportswear—can likewise experience instant satisfaction.

 

Based on how long a person has been a part of a certain set, blood sets have an informal hierarchy of levels.

 

The ranks are only a symbol of respect for individuals who have been a part of the set the longest and have survived the longest; they do not indicate leadership or domination over the set. Bloods of lesser ranks are not subject to those in positions of authority. Bloods of lesser status frequently refer to Bloods of higher rank as "Big Homies." They also call one another "relatives." Once a person joins a Blood set, they cannot quit the set or flip (move to another set) for the rest of their lives.

 

Members of the Bloods frequently refer to themselves as dawgs or ballers, HKs (an initialism for Hoover-Killer), CKs (an initialism for Crip-Killer), and MOBs (an initialism for Member of Bloods) (meaning drug dealers). Contrary to popular belief, Bloods & Crips are typically friendly amongst sets. Although it is against the law, bloods sometimes engage in civil war with one another. For example, the deuce 2x Crips and tray 3x Crips are at war, and they frequently work with Crip sets to eliminate their fellow blood competitors.

 

The many gang indicators used by Bloods members to distinguish themselves from other gangs include colors, attire, emblems, tattoos, jewelry, graffiti, language, and hand signals. Red is the gang's primary color. They like donning athletic attire, such as team coats that display their gang's colors. San Francisco 49ers, Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks, Houston Rockets, Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Portland Trailblazers, Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Clippers, New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia 76ers, and Chicago Bulls are a few of their favorite clubs.

 

The most commonly used Bloods symbols include the number “5,” the five pointed star, and the five pointed crown. Despite common misconception Bloods are not a people nation (with the exception of a few) but they will however tie flags with the people for defense or mutually such as how the Crips & BGDs consider themselves cousins. These symbols may be seen in the tattoos, jewelry, and clothing that gang members wear as well as in gang graffiti, which is used by the Bloods to mark their territory. Such graffiti can include gang names, nicknames, declaration of loyalty, threats against rival gangs, or a description of criminal acts in which the gang has been involved. Bloods graffiti might also include the word “Piru” which refers to the fact that the first known Bloods gang was formed by individuals from Piru Street in Compton, California.

Yakuza

 

During the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603–1868), two distinct groups of outcasts gave rise to the yakuza. The tekiya were the first of such groups; they were nomadic peddlers who moved from village to village selling cheap things at fairs and markets. Many tekiya belonged to the burakumin social class, which was essentially underneath the four-tiered Japanese feudal social order and consisted of misfits or "non-humans."

 

The tekiya started forming close-knit gangs in the early 1700s under the direction of bosses and underbosses. The tekiya began to engage in customary organized crime operations including turf battles and protection rackets after being strengthened by fugitives from the upper classes. In keeping with a long-standing custom, tekiya frequently provided security for Shinto festivals and, in exchange for payment for protection, assigned stalls at the associated fairs.

 

Between 1735 and 1749, the shogun's government appointed oyabun, or officially recognized leaders, in an effort to quell gang conflicts among various tekiya factions and lessen the amount of fraud they engaged in. The oyabun was given the privilege of using a surname and carrying a sword, which was previously reserved for samurai. The term "oyabun," which refers to the bosses' roles as the leaders of their tekiya families, literally means "foster parent."

 

The bakuto, or gamblers, were the second social group that gave rise to the yakuza. During the Tokugawa era, gambling was outright prohibited and is still outlawed in Japan today. The bakuto hit the highways and preyed on gullible prey using hanafuda card games or dice games. They frequently adorned their bodies with vibrant tattoos, which gave rise to the practice of full-body tattooing among modern yakuza. The bakuto naturally expanded from their primary line of work as gamblers into lending shady business and other illicit pursuits.

 

Depending on how they make the majority of their money, certain yakuza groups may still refer to themselves as tekiya or bakuto. They still use the rites that were a component of the initiation ceremonies of the older organizations.

 

Yakuza gangs have seen a rise in prominence since the end of World War II following a decline during the conflict. More than 102,000 yakuza members in 2,500 different families were reported to be employed in Japan and overseas by the Japanese government in 2007. Despite the burakumin being officially exempt from discrimination since 1861, many gang members today are descended from that marginalized group. Others are ethnic Koreans, who are also subjected to a great deal of prejudice in Japanese society.

 

The distinctive characteristics of modern yakuza culture bear traces of the gangs' antecedents. For instance, a large number of yakuza have full-body tattoos that were applied with conventional bamboo or steel needles as opposed to sophisticated tattooing guns. Even the genitalia may be tattooed, which is a very unpleasant ritual. Although they typically wear long sleeves in public, the yakuza members frequently take their shirts off while playing cards with one other and show off their body art as a reference to the bakuto customs.

 

The practice of yubitsume, or cutting off the little finger's joint, is another aspect of yakuza culture. When a yakuza member disobeys or otherwise offends his boss, he will perform a yubitsume as an apology. The offender provides the boss with the top joint of his left pinkie finger, which he has amputated. Subsequent offenses result in the loss of other finger joints.

 

This practice dates back to the Tokugawa era; the gangster's sword grip is weakened by the loss of finger joints, theoretically making him more reliant on the group as a whole for defense. To blend in, many yakuza members wear prosthetic fingertips today.

 

The three biggest yakuza organizations currently in existence are the Sumiyoshi-kai, which started in Osaka and has about 20,000 members, the Yamaguchi-gumi, centered in Kobe, with 15,000 members, and the Inagawa-kai, located in Tokyo and Yokohama, with 20,000 members. The gangs engage in illegal activities such the trafficking of people and goods, the exportation of weapons, and the smuggling of illegal drugs. They do, however, also own a sizable amount of stock in well-established companies, and some of them are well-connected to the Japanese financial, banking, and real estate industries.

 

It's interesting to note that the Yamaguchi-gumi were the first to assist victims in the gang's hometown after the tragic Kobe earthquake of January 17, 1995. Similar to this, many yakuza organizations delivered truckloads of goods to the afflicted area following the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. The yakuza also has the strange benefit of suppressing small-time criminals. Because small-fry thieves don't intrude on yakuza turf, Kobe and Osaka, with their strong yakuza syndicates, are among the safest cities in an overall safe country.

 

The Japanese government has clamped down on the gangs in recent decades despite these unexpected social benefits of the yakuza. A strong new anti-racketeering law known as the Act for Prevention of Unlawful Activities by Criminal Gang Members was passed in March 1995. All of the listed businesses with ties to the yakuza were removed from the Osaka Securities Exchange in 2008. Yakuza bosses have been detained by authorities since 2009, and businesses that support the gangs have been closed down.

 

Even though the police are currently working very hard to quell yakuza activities in Japan, it appears improbable that the syndicates would completely vanish. After all, they have endured for more than 300 years and are intricately linked to many facets of Japanese society and culture.

 

Mara Salvatrucha(MS-13)

 

La Mara Salvatrucha, also referred to as MS-13, is a ruthless, inhumane street gang. As many as 40 states in the United States are now home to MS-13 members who commit murder, rape, maiming, and terror. Legendary tales exist of their heinous crimes.

 

No one contests the veracity of these statements. MS-13, like many street gangs, actually takes pride in its well-deserved image. The U.S. Department of Justice claims that the group's motto is "kill, rape, control."

 

If you believe President Donald Trump and others, America's broken immigration system is to blame for MS-13. The belief is that the United States will be a lot safer if it can stop MS-13 gang members from committing all of their mayhem, deport them, and stop them from crossing the border.

 

Unfortunately, things don't work that way.

 

"Attention to gangs is valid. About 13 percent of the homicides in this country are gang related. That's far more homicides than from mass shootings or terrorism," David Pyrooz, a sociologist at the University of Colorado who specializes in gangs and criminal networks, says. "But let's remember this. The maximum number of homicides associated with MS-13 in a given year — gang-related homicides — is about 2 percent of the total ... gang-related homicides in the United States. That is, I hate to use this language, but that is in many ways a drop in the bucket when it comes to gang activity."

 

"MS-13 is sort of the perfect boogeyman," Pyrooz says. "They are the moral panic; the connection to immigration, the connection to Latinos, and then the heinous violence, makes it so they can function as this evil boogeyman."

 

It's frequently forgotten in discussions of MS-13 that the organization didn't start out in Latin America and then storm the border to wreak havoc on the American way of life.

 

The gang was founded in the United States in the 1970s. El Salvadoran immigrants went to Los Angeles in an effort to escape a devastating civil conflict. There, they lived in areas of the city that were already under the influence of other gangs, used marijuana, and listened to heavy metal music. La Mara Salvatrucha was created when the newcomers came together to socialize and to defend themselves from other groups.

 

A brief explanation of the group name is as follows: In El Salvador, the word for "gang" is "mara." Here is an explanation of "Salvatrucha" and the subsequent 13 (again, from the DOJ):

 

Salvatrucha is a slang term for "alert," "watch out," or "cunning," and it combines the terms "Salva," which stands for "Salvadoran," and "trucha." The "13" stands for the 13th letter of the alphabet, or "M," signifying the group's ties to the Mexican Mafia, an organization that operates inside prisons.

 

Police started to crack down as the new gang confronted more established organizations in Los Angeles and linked up with other gangs (including the Mexican Mafia), deporting some members to El Salvador, where civil instability remained rife.

 

However, some of those MS-13 members returned to the United States in the 1980s, and others from El Salvador joined them. However, it seems unlikely that there was a premeditated influx of gang members from Latin America into the country.

 

"Criminal migration is real," according to "MS13 in the Americas: How the World's Most Notorious Gang Defies Logic, Resists Destruction," a report by The Center for Latin American & Latino Studies at American University in Washington D.C., and Insight Crime, a foundation that studies organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean. "But this does not appear to be part of a master plan, nor is it coordinated from some central headquarters. Gang members appear to move in the same patterns as the rest of the population, and many of them move to escape the gang and the violence associated with it."

 

Currently, MS-13 claims to have 10,000 members in the United States and 30,000 members worldwide. Thus, it ranks among the largest gangs in the entire world. The group is the first and only street gang to be listed as a global criminal organization by the American government.

 

Despite its size, MS-13 does not have a particularly significant criminal presence in the United States when compared to the total number of gang members in the nation. The National Gang Intelligence Center estimates that there are 1.4 million gang members nationally, and MS-13 is just one of the 33,000 gangs that the FBI has identified.

 

"What's interesting about them, what makes them different from other groups — partly in response to what the president has been tweeting and talking about them" Pyrooz says, "we can't think of an example in recent history of a single group that has attracted such attention on a national level."

 

According to news reports and those who have investigated the MS-13 gang, its members engage in money laundering, prostitution, drug trafficking, racketeering, and other illicit activities. They are extremely brutal in how they do their street business. The group has been implicated in numerous violent assaults, kidnappings, rapes, and most infamously, some horrifying murders.

 

"Gang violence is far more lethal than what it was four or five decades ago," Pyrooz says.

 

From "MS-13 in the Americas":

"Violence is a major part of the glue that binds the MS-13. It is part of every stage of an MS-13 member's life: Potential members commit violent acts to be considered for membership and ultimately to gain entry; they are then beaten into the gang in a ritual that has left more than one permanently scarred; they move up the gang ladder by 'putting in the work' and showing 'commitment,' euphemisms for committing violent acts in the name of the gang."

 

According to the Washington Post, up to 10 MS-13 members lured a guy into a park in Maryland in 2017 before stabbing him more than 100 times, beheading him, and chopping out his heart. In vengeance for her boyfriend's murder, an 18-year-old Virginia lady admitted to taking part in the killing of a 15-year-old girl. The 18-year-old killed the younger girl by stabbing her 13 times and recorded it to show MS-13 leaders.

 

"It's hard to say that the attention is not undue or not deserved," Pyrooz says. "But it's hard to be able to focus specifically on them without paying more attention to what the problem of gang activity is in the United States as a whole."

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