What kind of gang is the Mafia?

Eastern Mafia

Compared to the Western Hemisphere, the Mafia in the Eastern Hemisphere has a longer history, but people don’t call them Mafia.

In Japan, the history of the underworld can be traced back to the 17th century. At that time, samurai were often hired by landowners or bureaucrats to guard casinos or assassinate opponents. Later, these special groups gradually developed a behavior of apologizing to their employers - finger chopping and tattooing. These habits are still retained in many local mafia organizations today.

The Mafia is called "Yakuza" in Japan. It is estimated that there are about 3,000 mafia gangs in Japan, such as the Affinity Society, the Double Love Society, the Matsuba Society, and the National Essence Society. The Gangs Association, the All-Hong Kong Association, the Inagawa Association, the Sumiyoshi Association, etc., but all gangs cannot be compared with the "Yamaguchi-gumi". Because this gang accounts for about 70% of the total number of Japanese mafia members, it is a huge mafia organization that can be compared with any mafia in the world, and is involved in almost all industries in Japan.

The reason why the Japanese mafia can do this is related to the good face of their citizens. Even in court, Japanese people will refuse to testify due to face concerns. The mafia takes advantage of this psychology and draws a large number of government officials or entrepreneurs into their camp to achieve their own goals.

Osaka is the home base of the "Yamaguchi-gumi", which was formed around the 1920s. This organization can be said to be a replica of the American Mafia in Japan. Within this gang, there are also an astonishing number of sub-gangs. They have about two thousand sub-gangs, with a total number of more than 150,000. The Yamaguchi-gumi has contacts with the American Mafia, the Triads of old China, and the Fuqing Gang. They jointly organize drug trafficking and other activities in East Asia.

The Triads are the most famous gang organizations in old China, and they have penetrated into almost every Chinese world overseas. After achieving tremendous growth during the heroin era, it established a bridgehead into Asia, Europe and North America. What is different from gangs in other areas is that they regard their compatriots as one of the important targets of plunder. For example, in Chinese restaurants in San Francisco, many tables must pay them an annual protection fee of US$200 to US$700. . What's even more surprising is that this huge organization actually has very good cooperative relations with mafia everywhere. Paris, France is also one of the bases of the Triads. They are called "Sharks" by the locals. They are generous and always set their sights on the golden land along the Seine River. Today the Triads have replaced the Sicilians as the leaders in the heroin trade. Their advantage is that they can control the products in Myanmar and provide 2/3 of the market demand. Another big business of the Triads is the illegal immigration business, which is much less risky but not nearly as profitable as the drug business. In old Hong Kong, China, the law stipulated that those who first joined the triads could only be sentenced to six months in prison. Therefore, the triads have always used Hong Kong as their window to connect with the world. In 100 years, they have transferred at least 5 million people Chinese people were smuggled to various parts of the world.

Russian "Godfather"

From a geographical point of view, Russia belongs to the West, but the mafia here is very similar to the traditional Eastern gangsters. Taking the disintegration of the Soviet Union as an opportunity, a new mafia quickly emerged in Russia. It took them less than 20 years to complete the path that the Sicilians took 100 years to complete. Different from the Western tradition, the Russian Mafia follows a unique set of ethical rules. Their leaders often spend most of their lives in prison and live a puritan-like life, but they are strong-willed and intelligent. They have strong appeal, and the mafia they lead also has amazing cohesion like the Orientals.

Since the 1990s, the Russian Mafia has developed numerous gangs around the world. The godfather of the Mafia outside Moscow was an administrative chief; Baddev, the godfather of the "Far East Gang", established a foundation in Khabarostok; the State Duma Aysergis was assassinated by the Mafia when he tried to break away from the Mafia; Franz, the godfather of the "Ilyich Gang", is a member of the Democratic Party.

In addition to these local gangs, more mafias have chosen to establish bases abroad: Petlik and other 13 mafia members established their bases in Germany, and Ruslan, the godfather of the "Chechen Gang", opened a bridge between Moscow and London. Arms smuggling channel. Of course, the most famous one is Ivankov, the Russian "little Japanese" from the Caribbean. This man rose up in Aruba and has very deep connections with the mafia in the United States and South America. He returned to Moscow He quickly became the leader of the Russian Mafia and organized an indestructible Mafia family. What is even more noteworthy is that when the Soviet Union collapsed, about 300,000 soldiers were stranded in Germany. They quickly became the targets of the Mafia, and many of them eventually joined the Mafia.

As soon as the Russian mafia entered the world, it left an impression of fear on people with its large-scale kidnappings, assassinations and explosions. Sometimes they use tanks to transport several kilograms of drugs, and other weapons such as rocket launchers are often used. In addition, their godfathers also paid great attention to the dignity of funerals. For example, Kortunov, the godfather of the "Don Gang" and nicknamed "The Boss", was buried in the famous Valkov Cemetery. When he was buried, 500 Mafia people followed his coffin through the bustling streets, recreating the scene after the death of the Sicilian Mafia Godfather.

"Peaceful Mafia Era"

In people's eyes, the Mafia has always been synonymous with violence and conflict, but after entering the 1990s, this situation changed. A sea change. From the Sicilian and American mafia, Japan's Yamaguchi-gumi, to the new mafia forces in Russia or other regions, the world's mafia is or has created a new pattern of peaceful coexistence, avoidance of conflict, and a new way of collaboration. The Communist Party carved up the global market and entered a "peaceful mafia era." With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, world economic integration and population mobility, the barriers between many countries have become smaller and smaller, and it has become easier for the mafia to infiltrate from one country to another. nation. At the same time, this also brings more convenient trading conditions to the mafia. They can negotiate a drug or arms deal on the Internet in the name of a wool or beverage deal, and the flow of these materials no longer requires the escort of armed personnel, but only needs to be prepared in containers several stories high. A gap is enough.

The EU differs greatly in specific measures to combat the mafia, which provides new opportunities for the emerging mafia. A drug dealer can be sentenced to life imprisonment in the UK or Greece, 40 years in France, and only 20 years in the Netherlands. Police in Belgium and the Netherlands do not have the power to monitor citizens' phone calls; French officers can go undercover to lure drug traffickers with money, but if a German police officer did so, he would be breaking the law.

The global mafia has shown a trend of unity. Mafia and mafia gangs in various countries no longer confront each other, but divide labor and cooperate. The arms and drug organizations in Sicily, the United States, Russia, Japan and Turkey have globalized, forming a "welding of the Eastern and Western hemispheres" and forming an unprecedented alliance. A document from the Italian Interior Ministry concluded that the Mafia has "operated on a global chessboard." When the Russian mafia crossed over to the Pacific and continued to transport their new forces to the United States, they met their counterparts in Burma and Japan on the other side of the world, and a chain was formed around the world. After a year-long investigation into the European companies of the "Calli Group", the German Federal Criminal Investigation Office found that in addition to Berlin, they also have offices in Brussels, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Hungary, South Korea, and major cities in the United States. There are branches. In fact, in many areas today, mixed mafia team models have indeed taken shape, such as the "Berlin-Russia-U.S." model in Eastern Europe; the "Germany-Italy-U.S." model in Central and Southern Europe; The "Triad-Yamaguchi Formation-Sicily" model in Southeast Asia; the "Sicily-United States-Colombia" model in America, etc.

Became a "business boss"

In the early 1990s, some radicals claimed that the Mafia was extinct.

Their reason is that in the past decade, the number of direct confrontations between the Mafia and the government has been greatly reduced, and their incidents of internal strife are even rarer. This phenomenon does give people a good feeling. It seems that the Mafia suffered a devastating blow in the late 1980s. Even many leaders of the European Union hold this view, but now it seems that this is a very naive idea. Not only did they not become extinct, but they developed in a new way of survival.

After 1993, Aruba, a sovereign country in the Caribbean, has become a resort for mafia vacations and trade negotiations and the headquarters of international cooperation for mafia from all over the world. It was negotiated in a hotel or casino surrounded by flowers.

Street force is no longer the main means of survival for the Mafia. They have completed the primitive capital accumulation stage, abandoned traditional street extortion, and directly fight in the image of "business bosses". In their eyes, street drug trafficking is a low-level business. After the 1990s, most of them were engaged in legal business, and only a few mafiosi at the lowest level of power would directly do such risky things. Italian officials believe that after laundering their income, the Sicilian Mafia invested at least 50% of their funds in legal businesses. Worldwide, at least 250 billion US dollars in black income are transferred to legal businesses every year.

For example, in Australia, a manufacturing company backed by the Yamaguchi-gumi is building a port tunnel in Sydney. The Sicilian Mafia, through the Hirap Enterprise Group, directly controlled a US$1 billion public construction project in Sicily in 1993. In the fertile Tuscany region and industrial cities like Milan, their hotels, factories and mines sprouted everywhere - this kind of operation is generally popular around the world.

Infiltrating into governments

Mafia in many countries are quietly infiltrating into government departments. The Cali Group in Colombia once spent $1 billion to establish a research center to track every high-level official in the country and establish a video library of those who accepted bribes. If someone does not act according to their instructions, they will This person's old background is revealed.

In Russia, the cooperation between the mafia and corrupt bureaucrats is even more seamless. They can buy a ton of oil from bureaucrats with rubles worth 5 US dollars, and then sell it to Western Europe for 140 US dollars. If they can obtain a license to import goods, they can get 400% or even 1000% of the high price. profit. In addition, for $2,000, Mafiosi can freely enter and leave the State Duma, and enjoy free lunch and international long-distance calls there. In fact, in today's Russia, the alliance between the mafia and the bureaucracy has threatened the country's security.

Italian politics remains the same. Judges here estimate that the Mafia still controls 500,000 votes in Sicily today, or one in every five votes. If you add the votes in the hands of the Christian Democrats and their southern allies, you can account for 1/3 of the southern votes. Their votes are not in vain, and the elected bureaucrats will eventually use their power to return benefits to them.

As the EU and NATO expand eastward, the Sicilian Mafia is also expanding eastward; their influence has already extended to countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic. The Russian mafia is marching westward, and they have established a foothold in the United States and the European Union. The Triads and Yamaguchi-gumi are also joining forces to control the Pacific Rim, and their shares are increasing in value as the Pacific Rim's economy grows. They have been operating in an orderly manner, which requires sufficient vigilance from the law-abiding society under the sun