The revenues made by organized crime groups including the mafia can be staggering amounts brought in by various illegal activities. Some of these crime groups are much more highly organized like that of the American mafia and other mafia families and others much less structured. This makes tracking the profits brought in by these illegal groups somewhat of a challenge that Fortune.com has taken on. Here is their rank for the top 5 organized crime groups and a estimate on the yearly profits being made by each.
Yamaguchi Gumi – $80 billion
The Yamaguchi Gumi are the largest of the gangs that make up the “Yakuza” or Japanese Mafia. They make the bulk of their profits from the drug trade but are also deeply involved in other typical rackets like illegal gambling and extortion. They and other groups in the Yakuza are considered to be some of the centralized in the world and have elaborate hierarchies.
Solntsevskaya Bratva – $8.5 billion
The Russian Mafia has a much looser structure then many other organized crime groups broken up into separate “brigades” operating independently of one another. But the group does have a 12 man ruling panel that meets regularly to pool resources and to make major decisions. The group is said to have more then 9,000 members operating in drug trade and human trafficking among other things.
Camorra – $4.9 billion
The Neapolitan mafia also known as the Camorra is one of Italy’s most powerful mob families. The Italian mafia in Italy has been weakened some over the last few years because of more successful law enforcement techniques but still remains as a powerful organized crime force. Based in Naples the group makes its money from being involved in many of the mob staples like extortion, drug trafficking, gambling, and more.
‘Ndrangheta – $4.5 billion
Calabrian Mafia also known as the Ndrangheta is another of Italy’s powerful mob families. They have quickly gained in power over the last several years due to their control of the European cocaine trade and drug trafficking world wide. It has been linked to other mob organizations including the mafia in Canada and La Cosa Nostra or the American mafia.
Sinaloa Cartel – $3 billion
Sinaloa Cartel is the largest of the various drug cartels operation in Mexico. It makes its massive profits from providing many markets including the United States with multiple illegal drugs. It is estimated that American’s spend upwards of $100 billion dollars every year on illegal drugs with an estimated 60% of it reaching the Mexican Cartels with the Sinaloa raking in approx $3 billion of it.
