StiddaThe Stidda; ˈstiɖːa) is a Sicilian and Maltese Mafia-type criminal organization and criminal society centered in the central-southern part of Sicily and Malta. Members are known as stiddari or stiddaroli. It is most active in the rural parts of southern Sicily and Malta and is a rival to the Cosa Nostra, originating as a dissident offshoot group of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. Some members have a star tattooed on their bodies. Little is known of the origins of the organization, though it is believed to have come about in a similar fashion to the Mafia, in the same rural environment of Sicily.
Russian mafiaRussian organized crime or Russian mafia (росси́йская ма́фия, ру́сская ма́фия), otherwise known as Bratva (братва́), is a collective of various organized crime elements originating in the former Soviet Union. The initialism OPG is Organized Criminal (prestupnaya in Russian) Group, used to refer to any of the Russian mafia groups, sometimes modified with a specific name, e.g. Orekhovskaya OPG. Sometimes the initialism is translated and OCG is used.
RacketeeringRacketeering is a type of organized crime in which the persons set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and often still specifically, racketeering may refer to an organized criminal act in which the perpetrators offer a service that will not be put into effect, offer a service to solve a nonexistent problem, or offer a service that solves a problem that would not exist without the racket.
Mafia stateIn politics, a mafia state is a state system where the government is tied with organized crime to the degree when government officials, the police, and/or military became a part of the criminal enterprise. According to US diplomats, the expression "mafia state" was coined by Alexander Litvinenko. Mafia and Yakuza In a critical review of Moisés Naím's essay in Foreign Affairs, Peter Andreas pointed to the long existence of Italian mafia and Japanese Yakuza, writing that there were close relationships between those illicit organisations and respective governments.
GangA gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectively, in illegal, and possibly violent, behavior. The word gang derives from the past participle of Old English gan, meaning . It is cognate with Old Norse gangr, meaning .
CalabriaCalabria is a region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. It has almost 2 million residents across a total area of approximately . Catanzaro is the region's capital. Calabria is the birthplace of the name Italy, given to it by the Ancient Greeks who settled in this land starting from the 8th century BC.
Organized crime in ItalyOrganized crime in Italy and its criminal organizations have been prevalent in Italy, especially Southern Italy, for centuries and have affected the social and economic life of many Italian regions since at least the 19th century. There are six major native mafia-like organizations that are heavily active in Italy. The oldest and most powerful of these organizations, having begun to develop between 1500 and 1800, are the 'Ndrangheta from Calabria (currently considered the most powerful criminal organization in the world), the Cosa Nostra from Sicily and the Camorra based in Campania.
