From Mexican cartel to British mob – the 19 strongest gangs on the earth

As Mexico reels from a wave of cartel violence following the dramatic death of CJNG boss “El Mencho”, few realise that even this notorious gang doesn’t top the list of the world’s most dangerous organisations

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Mexico is currently facing a severe security crisis after the death of Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader “El Mencho” in a military operation. The cartel boss’ death sparked violent retaliation across 20 states, dozens of deaths, widespread arson, and chaos in tourist hotspots.

While the CJNG’s brutal retaliation has stunned the world, shockingly, it is neither the most powerful nor the most violent criminal organisation globally. From brutal drug cartels to shadowy mafias and global terror groups, the world’s most powerful criminal organisations are more dangerous, and far-reaching, than ever before.

The Daily Star has consequently ranked crime organisations from around the world in order of overall power.

Here are the 19 most powerful crime organisations in the world:

1. Islamic State (ISIS) and affiliates

Country: Global (primarily Syria, Iraq, and the Sahel region of Africa).

Operation: Insurgency, territorial control, and global terrorism.

Specialty: Asymmetric warfare and mass-casualty suicide attacks.

Fatalities: Responsible for 1,805 deaths across 22 countries in 2024 alone.

Members: Estimated tens of thousands across various regional “provinces” (e.g., ISK in Afghanistan/Pakistan).

Killing Methods: Specialises in mass-casualty suicide bombings and highly publicised executions (beheadings, mass shootings) to maintain authority over occupied territories.

2. Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)

Country: Mexico (operations in 28+ states and 100+ countries).

Operation: Transnational drug trafficking (fentanyl, cocaine, meth), fuel theft, and extortion.

Specialty: Paramilitary-style “ultraviolence,” including public executions and social media propaganda to intimidate rivals.

Fatalities: Linked to thousands of deaths annually in Mexico’s ~30,000 yearly homicides. A major 2026 military operation to kill their leader, “El Mencho”, resulted in over 73 deaths in just 48 hours.

Members: Estimated 15,000 to 20,000.

Killing Methods: They employ specialised “armed wings” for targeted assassinations and use a vast network of underground tunnels for tactical movement. Recently, internal factional warfare has led to a sharp rise in civilian deaths.

3. Sinaloa Cartel

Country: Mexico (global reach into Europe, Asia, and the US).

Operation: Dominates the global cocaine and fentanyl trade.

Specialty: Diversified criminal portfolio and high-level political corruption.

Fatalities: Heavily involved in Mexico’s nationwide violence, with hundreds of deaths annually from internal power struggles between the “Chapitos” and “Mayiza” factions.

Members: Estimated 20,000+ including armed wings and local affiliates.

Methods: Similar to CJNG.

4. ‘Ndrangheta

Country: Italy (operations in 84+ countries).

Operation: Controls an estimated 80% of Europe’s cocaine trade.

Specialty: Massive-scale money laundering through legitimate businesses and deep international infiltration.

Fatalities: While more discreet than Mexican cartels, they are responsible for numerous targeted assassinations and international gang wars.

Members: Estimated 6,000 to 10,000 core members, with tens of thousands of associates globally.

Killing Methods: While they prefer “submerged” operations to avoid heat, they are ruthless in enforcing discipline; for example, the 2007 Duisburg massacre involved a public street shootout to settle a blood feud.

5. Comando Vermelho (Red Command)

Country: Brazil (primarily Rio de Janeiro).

Operation: Dominates local drug and arms trafficking; controls urban favelas.

Specialty: Urban guerrilla warfare against police and rival militias.

Fatalities: Linked to hundreds of deaths annually; a single 2026 police raid targeting them resulted in over 120 deaths.

Members: Estimated tens of thousands across Brazil.

Killing method: The group employs urban guerrilla warfare with high-calibre firearms, weaponised drones, and booby traps, engaging in intense shootouts and using scorched earth tactics like burning vehicles to block police advances. Within the favelas, they enforce strict control through “parallel justice” executions, often torturing and killing those who break their rules.

6. Clan del Golfo (Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces)

Country: Colombia.

Operation: Controls the majority of Colombia’s cocaine production and export.

Specialty: Neo-paramilitary structure with significant territorial control over rural areas.

Fatalities: Responsible for a large portion of Colombia’s 13,432 homicides in 2023.

Members: Estimated 6,000 to 9,000 armed combatants.

Killing method: The group employs tactics such as “Plan Pistola”, offering bounties for killing security personnel, and “Paros Armados”, enforcing region-wide lockdowns through violence and intimidation, including burning vehicles and executing violators. They also carry out paramilitary executions of activists, engage in military-grade combat with authorities, and maintain internal control through purges and public executions of suspected informants or defectors.

7. Black Axe (Neo-Black Movement)

Country: Nigeria (transnational reach in 21+ countries).

Operation: Cybercrime (generating billions), human trafficking, and ritualistic murder.

Specialty: “Cultist” violence and extreme initiation rituals involving torture.

Fatalities: Linked to roughly 6,000 gang-related deaths in Nigeria (2006–2021); rates have doubled since 2019.

Members: Estimated 30,000+ globally.

Killing Methods: Extreme torture during initiation or to settle disputes.

8. MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha)

Country: El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and the United States.

Operation: Extortion (the “renta”), local drug distribution, and human smuggling.

Specialty: Extreme personal violence (use of machetes) and rigid gang discipline.

Fatalities: Historically thousands; however, recent government crackdowns in El Salvador have significantly reduced their operational lethality in that country.

Members: Estimated 50,000 to 70,000 globally.

Killing Methods: Favours the use of machetes for personal, high-trauma violence intended to send a visceral message to local communities.

9. Tren de Aragua

Country: Venezuela (rapidly expanded to Colombia, Peru, Chile, and the US).

Operation: Human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and kidnapping-for-ransom.

Specialty: Exploiting migrant routes and violent “taxing” of informal economies.

Fatalities: Hundreds linked to regional expansion and turf wars in South America.

Members: Estimated 3,000 to 5,000.

Killing method: Tren de Aragua is notorious for brutal, public acts of violence, including beheadings and displaying bodies, to terrorise rivals and communities, and enforces its authority with escalating punishments for non-payment of its “causa” tax, culminating in death.

10. Solntsevskaya Bratva (Russian Mafia)

Country: Russia (Moscow-based with global operations).

Operation: High-level extortion, money laundering, and international drug trafficking.

Specialty: Infiltration of legitimate state and financial institutions; cyber-warfare.

Fatalities: Difficult to quantify due to state ties, but responsible for numerous high-profile assassinations since the 1990s.

Members: Estimated 5,000 to 9,000 core members.

Killing method: The group’s killing methods are marked by ruthless efficiency and technical expertise, often employing professional hitmen, silenced firearms, and state-linked tactics like poisoning to eliminate targets, while also resorting to extreme brutality, including targeting entire families, for intimidation. They dispose of bodies in ways designed to avoid detection and use psychological warfare, threatening or fantasising about even more extreme methods to instill fear across borders.

11. 14K Triad

Country: China (Hong Kong-based, global reach).

Operation: Heroin trafficking, illegal gambling, and human smuggling.

Specialty: Highly decentralised “lodges” that operate autonomously worldwide.

Fatalities: Hundreds linked to international turf battles and internal discipline.

Members: Estimated 20,000 to 25,000.

Killing method: The group is known for “chopping” attacks with machetes to maim rivals as public warnings, ritualistic internal discipline, and arson against non-compliant businesses. They also carry out street-level executions via motorcycle hitmen and use “sleeper” associates to infiltrate targets’ neighbourhoods before committing violent home invasions or kidnappings.

12. Camorra

Country: Italy (Naples).

Operation: Counterfeiting, hazardous waste disposal, and drug trafficking.

Specialty: Fragmented horizontal structure that makes it harder to dismantle than the Mafia.

Fatalities: Thousands of deaths in the “Camorra Wars” over the last few decades.

Members: Estimated 6,000 to 7,000 members.

Killing Methods: While shifting toward “white-collar” crime, they remain lethal in turf wars, often using young recruits (“paranza”) on mopeds for drive-by shootings in crowded Naples streets. They are also noted for disappearing victims (lupara bianca) and using extreme violence, such as blunt force trauma or powerful explosives, against those who fail to follow orders or pay extortion.

13. G9 Family and Allies

Country: Haiti.

Operation: Gang-led governance; controls critical infrastructure like fuel terminals and ports.

Specialty: Kidnapping-for-ransom and systemic sexual violence as a weapon of control.

Fatalities: Responsible for over 4,700 deaths in 2023 during the collapse of state authority.

Members: Estimated several thousand across a coalition of nine gangs.

Killing Methods: Operates as a “criminal federation” that uses massacres and arson as primary tools for territorial control. They are infamous for burning victims alive, including infants, during raids on rival neighbourhoods to ensure total submission.

14. Los Lobos

Country: Ecuador.

Operation: Prison-based drug trafficking and extortion.

Specialty: Brutal prison massacres and public hangings to terrorise the populace.

Fatalities: Linked to Ecuador’s soaring homicide rate (44.5 per 100,000 in 2023).

Members: Estimated 8,000+.

Killing Methods: Known for extreme brutality designed to broadcast power. They specialise in public hangings (bodies suspended from pedestrian bridges) and beheadings to terrorise local populations. In prison settings, they orchestrate large-scale massacres using grenades and firearms to eliminate rivals in coordinated “cleansing” operations.

15. 28s Gang (Numbers Gangs)

Country: South Africa.

Operation: Prison-based hierarchy that controls the street-level drug trade and extortion.

Specialty: Highly ritualised violence and coded communication within the “Numbers” system (26s, 27s, 28s).

Fatalities: Hundreds annually in Cape Town’s gang-related violence.

Members: Estimated over 100,000 across the different “Numbers” factions.

Killing Methods: Stabbings with sharpened makeshift blades (shivs) in prison to signify rank or punishment. On the streets, they engage in high-frequency assassinations and gang-land shootings using illegal firearms. Historically, the “Numbers” gangs have been associated with necklacing (burning victims with petrol-soaked tyres) as a method of summary execution.

16. Yamaguchi-gumi (Yakuza)

Country: Japan (Headquartered in Kobe).

Operation: Sophisticated corporate fraud, gambling, and methamphetamine trafficking.

Specialty: Strict “chivalrous” codes (ninkyō) and finger-cutting (yubitsume) as penance.

Fatalities: Historically thousands; currently low due to strict Japanese laws, though still involved in violent turf wars.

Members: Approximately 3,300 regular members and 3,600 quasi-members (2024).

Killing Methods: Currently maintain a low profile due to strict Japanese laws, but historically known for targeted shootings.

17. The Kotor Clans (Kavač vs. Škaljari)

Country: Montenegro and Serbia.

Operation: Controlling the “Balkan Cartel”, a massive pipeline for South American cocaine into Europe.

Specialty: A decade-long “blood feud” marked by high-profile assassinations in restaurants and streets across Europe (Greece, Turkey, Germany, Spain).

Fatalities: Over 170 deaths since the feud began in 2014.

Members: Hundreds of core members, with thousands of associates in the broader Balkan Cartel.

Killing Methods: They frequently use professional snipers to target victims in public squares or restaurants. Other methods include car bombings and the use of cyanide poisoning to eliminate high-value targets. They are also known for luring rivals to their deaths by hacking encrypted communication apps like Sky ECC.

18. Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG)

Country: Ireland (headquartered in Dubai).

Operation: Global narco-terrorism and large-scale money laundering.

Specialty: High-tech evasion of international law enforcement; infamous for the “Regency Hotel shooting” which sparked a massive gang war.

Fatalities: At least 18 deaths in the Hutch–Kinahan feud alone.

Members: Estimated hundreds of associates across Europe and the Middle East.

Killing Methods: They employ a corporate-style approach to violence, hiring contract killers for high-profile hits. Their most infamous tactic is the mass-shooting raid, such as the Regency Hotel attack, where hitmen dressed as tactical police officers to infiltrate a rival gathering.

19. Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate (The Adams Family)

Origin: Islington, London.

Operation: One of the UK’s most established firms, involved in drug trafficking, extortion, and high-value robberies (e.g., gold bullion).

Specialty: High-level political and police corruption; they are known for “disappearing” rivals and informants.

Fatalities: Credited with over 20 murders throughout their history.

Members: A small, tight-knit core family with an estimated wealth of £200 million.

Killing Methods: Noted for high-level corruption and “disappearing” rivals or informants to prevent any legal testimony against the core family members.

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