Drug cartel

The U.S. State Department has designated Mexican drug cartels as well as MS-13 and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organizations.

[24] According to some observers in 2010, Los Zetas instituted social media demonstrations of torture and sadism in their reprisals which changed the rules of the game among the Mexican cartels.

[27] The former head of Mexican law enforcement, Genaro García Luna, was sentenced in the Eastern District of New York on October 16, 2024 for his role in Sinaloa Cartel associated drug trafficking in the United States.

Although government crackdowns and a less-tightly knit Italian-American community have largely reduced their power, they remain an active force in the underworld.

[97] The cartel groups involved include: Pasquale, Paolo and Gaspare Cuntrera were expelled from Venezuela in 1992, "almost secretly smuggled out of the country, as if it concerned one of their own drug transports.

[103] The yakuza of Japan are similar to the Italian mafias in that they originated centuries ago and follow a rigid set of traditions, but have several aspects that make them unique, such as their full-body tattoos and their fairly open place in Japanese society.

See also Caucasus Emirate Balkan organized crime gained prominence in the chaos following the communist era, notably the transition to capitalism and the wars in former Yugoslavia.