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Secret societies related to organized crime

  • American MafiaJoe Valachi killed a fellow inmate with a pipe in 1962. He mistook the man for a Mafia hit man.
  • Sicilian MafiaThe Sicilian Mafia, an Italian criminal society born on the island of Sicily and also called Cosa Nostra, once made a young man juggle a burning saint. In 1976, a man named Giovanni Brusca was invited to what was called a banquet at a…
  • Triad (organised crime)A triad is a Chinese transnational crime syndicate, and its recruits have traditionally been sworn in at an altar dedicated to the warrior god Guan Yu. Incense burns there, and an animal is sacrificed, usually a chicken, pig, or goat. The…
  • Russian mafiaThe Russian mafia, known in Russian as bratva, stepped into the spotlight in May 1995, when Czech police raided the U Holubu restaurant in Anděl, a neighborhood of Prague. Semion Mogilevich had gathered Russian mafia bosses there for a…
  • YakuzaThe yakuza, the members of Japan's organized crime syndicates, are named after a losing hand of cards. In the traditional game Oicho-Kabu, players try to draw three cards that add up to nine. A total of ten or more counts only by its…
  • ThuggeeThuggee entered the British record in April 1809, when ten bodies were pulled from a well in the Etawah district of northern India. James Law, the local magistrate, was told to find the killers. The word describes a phenomenon of highway…
  • Irish mobThe Irish mob is not a single organization. It is a loose collection of crime groups, made up largely of ethnic Irish members, that have operated mainly in the United States since the early 19th century. Its earliest recognizable face was…
  • CamorraThe Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal society from the Italian region of Campania, and it ranks among the oldest and largest in Italy. One of its own clan leaders, Pasquale Galasso, once told a court: "Campania can get worse because you…
  • Murder, Inc.Murder, Inc. was painted on the leather jacket of an American airman whose B-17 was shot down over Nazi Germany on the 26th of November 1943. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels had the jacket's artwork photographed, and the picture…
  • 'NdranghetaThe 'Ndrangheta, a criminal syndicate from the Calabria region of Italy, carried a village feud to Germany on the 15th of August 2007. Six men were shot dead in front of an Italian restaurant in Duisburg. The killings belonged to a war…
  • Cartel of the SunsCartel of the Suns takes its name from the small sun emblems that Venezuelan generals wear on their uniforms. In Spanish those emblems are called soles. Journalists turned them into a nickname for officers accused of working with drug…

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