Gangs and criminal organizations come into creation for a number of reasons or motives. Usually they revolve around money, and use fear, crime and extortion. They can be loosely controlled with no apparent structure, or they can be highly efficient with military like organization. In contrast to general media conception, gangs have been around for centuries in one shape or another, the Chinese Triads for example were started as a resistance to the Manchu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in the 1760s. Here are just 5 of the biggest gangs and criminal groups in existence today.
Yakuza
The term “Yakuza” literally derives from beginnings of the traditional words “Yattsu (Eight)”, “Ku (Nine)” and “Za (Three)” based on the worst hand attainable in the Japanese card game Oicho-Kabu.Prospective yakuza come from all walks of life. In the past they would accept sons who have been abandoned or exiled by their parents. Many yakuza start out in junior high school or high school as common street thugs or members of bosozoku gangs. Some yakuza “goons” are actually mentally handicapped, but recruited due to their large physiques while the leadership levels of yakuza gangs usually consist of very sharp, cunning, intelligent men, as the process to rise to the top-levels in the yakuza can be very competitive and Machiavellian. Members of yakuza gangs cut their family ties and transfer their loyalty to the gang boss. They refer to each other as family members - fathers and elder and younger brothers. The Yakuza is populated entirely by men, and there are usually no women involved. However, unlike many crime groups, women are sometimes involved in its activities. When the Yamaguchi-gumi Family boss was shot in the late nineties, his wife took over as boss of Yamaguchi-gumi for a short time.Yubitsume
Popularized in the west in several movies, Yubitsume is the cutting off of a finger as an act of apology or humility. For a first offense the offender cuts off the tip of his left pinky, giving it to his boss. Sometimes an underboss does this to his boss in order to spare a member of his own gang from retribution. This is so prominent in Japan that when UK kids shows Bob The Building and Postman Pat were imported, the Japanese considered adding an extra finger to the characters’ four fingered hands to avoid scaring children..
Symbols Irezumi are full body tattoos, which many Yakuza members have and are often hand-poked, where the ink is injected using a steel or bamboo needle instead of a machine. This can be very painful and take as long as 10 years to complete.
Size
Nationwide, there were some 84,700 known members of Yakuza. Since they are not a secretive gang, their numbers are relatively easy to track down.
Russian Mafia
The Russian Mafia had been around since the 1970’s but became highly established in and after 1991 when the Cold War ended. Many of their members are ex Soviet Army and ex KGB officers who lost their posts due to the large reduction after the end of the Cold War. They have political ties too, due to many officials being desperate for money, eventually turning corrupt or entirely to crime. They also recruit boxers, wrestlers, weightlifters, athletes and martial arts experts. Infighting is common and murders across the Russian mafia take place often. They are highly secretive and maintain this using one significantly morose tactic where they will not only murder an informer or snitch, but his entire family too.
Throughout the 1990’s they attempted and somewhat succeeded hostile takeovers of national banks. Banking executives, reform-minded business leaders, even investigative journalists, were systematically assassinated or kidnapped. In 1993 alone, members of the eight criminal gangs that control the Moscow underworld murdered 10 local bankers. Calling themselves “Thieves in Law”, Russian gangsters murdered ninety-five bankers between 1993 and 1998.
Foreign companies pay up to 20% of their profits to the Mafia as the on-going price of doing business in Russia. Ignoring shakedown threats merely invites tragedy. Most American and other western firms find it necessary to hire private security guards to protect their executives from extortion threats and roving assassins..
SizeIntelligence reports emanating out of Russia peg the numerical size of the Russian Mafia at 100,000.
The MS13 Gang
MS13 or Mara Salvatrucha are a huge international gang comprised mostly of Salvadorans, Hondurans and Central Americans, but have also aquired followings throughout most parts of the Western World. Activities typically include drug smuggling and sales, black market gun sales, human trafficking, assassinations for hire, theft, and assaults on law enforcement officials and as such are one of the most hated gangs by police forces and FBI,who declared them the greatest internal threat to national security. In 2005 the FBI began wide-scale raids on suspected gang members and arrested 600 members.
Most Mara Salvatrucha gang members from the Los Angeles were deported either because of their illegal status in the United States, or for committing crimes as non-citizens, or both. This resulted in a huge recruitment drive in the deportees home countries. Some contend deportation policies have contributed to the size and influence of the gang both in the United States and in Central America.
Gang Size
Former gang member Brenda Paz said that MS is well structured, with multiple leaders, and that the gang’s goal was to become the top gang in the United States. Currently the gang is estimated to be at least 100,000 members strong and growing fast.
Gang Symbols
Sign: The “devil’s head” hand signal, which forms an “M” when displayed upside down, is similar to the same symbol common in hard rock. The founders copied this symbol they saw on their visits to rock concerts.
Most Mara Salvatrucha members often cover themselves in tattoos. Common markings include “MS”, “13″, “Salvadorian Pride” the “Devil Horns” and the name of their clique.
Hells Angels
One of the most international groups, Hells Angels are more of a club than a criminal organization, and shouldn’t be considered a gang. In fact in the USA and Canada they even have their own copyrights as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Generally considered to have started up in San Francisco around 1950, virtually all Angels ride a Harley and their website states that members travel on average 20,000 miles per year, come rain or shine. Although the media has always viewed the Angels as a criminal organization, and indeed in the past much crime and even murders were performed by Angels, or on their behalf, they are no longer seen as a major threat to society and organized charity events have been held by the Angels.
Symbols
The Hells Angels insignia is called the Deathshead (pictured above). They also utilize the number 81, 8 for the eighth letter of the alphabet: H, and 1 for the first: A. HA being Hells Angels. They also use the colors red and white.
SizeDue to the secretive nature of the Hells Angels, there is no way to accurately tell how many members they have
The Crips
The Crips are a primarily, but not exclusively, African American gang founded in Los Angeles, California in 1969 by 15 year old Raymond Washington. What was once a single gang is now a loosely connected network of individual sets, often engaged in open warfare with one another. The gang is known to be involved in murders, robberies, drug dealing, among many other criminal pursuits. They have been popularized in many movies, thousands of songs, and even video games like GTA 3.
Gang Size
Through the years the gang has grown to be one of the largest and most powerful gangs in the United States with a membership that exceeds well over 30,000 gang members. Since affiliation is lose and unofficial, the number may be much higher.
Gang Symbols
The gang is notorious for flamboyant use of the color blue in their clothing. However, this practice has waned due to contentious police crackdowns on gang members. It’s thought to be from the school colors of Washington High School in South L.A. Another theory is the co-founder, Stanley Williams, had a good and close friend called “Buddha”, who wore blue shirts, khakis, shoes, and a blue bandanna from his back left pocket. When Buddha died, Williams made blue the Crip color in honor of Buddha.
Due to the infamous rivalry with the Bloods, some Crips will change words containing the letter B or choose another word to replace it, the best being a word with a C. If no word can reasonably be substituted, the letter B may be crossed out. Sometimes excessive use of the letter C also occurs, such as “be right baCC” to refrain from using the initials “ck” which stands for “Crip Killer”. Also, the letter B can be written Bk as in “Blood Killer”.
Notes
The Crips are known to have an intense and bitter rivalry with the Bloods as well as with some Chicano gangs.
Many famous entertainers have Crip affiliation including:
- Afroman
- Coolio
- Ice T
- Snoop Dogg
- Xzibit
According to legend, the Phrygians, who lived in what is now central Turkey, were told by an oracle to make king the first man to ride into town in an oxcart. As luck would have it, this man was Gordius, a poor peasant. After his coronation, Gordius dedicated his cart to the god Zeus and tied it to a pole outside the temple. The knot was made of cornel bark, which hardened over time. It was said that whoever untied this intricate knot would conquer all of Asia. Alexander could not pass up such an opportunity, but there were no ends to the knot for him to even get started. In frustration, he sliced it in half with his sword, proclaiming, "I have loosed it!" The Gordian Knot has since become synonymous with an intractable problem that requires an unconventional solution
After defeating the Persians at the Battle of Issus, Alexander decided to enter Egypt, which had been under Persian rule for almost 200 years. The Egyptians despised the Persians for their heavy taxes and religious intolerance. They gladly anointed Alexander as pharaoh, initiating a cultural exchange between Greece and Egypt that lasted for the next three hundred years. While in Egypt, Alexander also made the dangerous journey across the desert to the shrine of Zeus Ammon. It is said that he was guided by ravens and blessed with rain. Upon his arrival, the priest apparently told him he was the son of Zeus. Whether or not Alexander believed in his own divinity, he played it up to his own advantage
Besides razing cities, Alexander also founded about 20 new ones, naming most of them after himself. The most enduring of these is Alexandria on the coast of the Nile delta. In a superb natural harbor where the Persians had once erected a fortress, Alexander had his architects build a grand city along Greek lines. Alexandria later developed into a cosmopolitan port, with schools, theater, and one of the greatest libraries of antiquity. Greeks ran the city?s administration, but Egyptians were allowed to keep their customs and religion. Egyptians could only become citizens if they learned Greek and accepted Greek traditions.
After less than a year in Egypt, Alexander resumed to chasing after the Persian emperor, Darius III. At the palins of gaugamela, Darius assembled an army of 200,000, which included cavalry wearing chain mail and chariots with blades spinning out of the wheels. Alexander?s 47,000 men attacked Darius? flanks, splitting the Persian forces, while Alexander charged into the center. The Persians broke ranks and were routed. Darius escaped by horseback, only to be later killed by one of his own men. Having conquered the Persians, Alexander was named King of Asia. He took Babylon and Persepolis, the Persian capital. In an attempt to solidify his rule, he began to dress like a Persian, and married a Persian dancer named Roxanne. His men found it unbecoming of their king that he thought it necessary to please a defeated enemy
Alexander?s vision of Asia was that it ended just on the other side of India. Wanting to conquer the continent, he persuaded his men to march east. The Indian king Porus and his elephants fell to Alexander, but the weather and the mountains wore out his men. It soon became clear that Asia was larger than had been estimated. With his campaign suffering from ?mission drift,? Alexander succumbed to his men?s pleas and turned back. But he decided on a circuitous route: down India?s rivers to the ocean, then along the coast back to Persia. It was probably Alexander?s greatest mistake, as 15,000 of his men died of starvation or heat in the Gedrosan Desert -- more than all those he lost in battle. The journey may have taken its toll on Alexander as well. At a banquet back in Babylon, he drank excessively -- as usual -- then fell ill of a fever, most likely due to malaria. He died a few days later, just shy of his 33rd birthday.
How many of history?s great leaders can claim to have had one of the great philosophers as their personal tutor? Out of all the intellectuals at the prestigious Academy in Athens, Alexander?s father, Philip, chose Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) to instruct his 13-year-old son. Aristotle, who had been the student of Plato, was offered a handsome salary to move to the town of Mieza, deep in the Macedonian countryside. In the nearby Temple of the Nymphs, Aristotle taught the young prince geography, zoology, politics and medicine. Alexander was greatly influenced by the philosopher?s teachings. On later military campaigns, Alexander brought scientists with him and sent plant and animal specimens back to his former mentor.
Philip, Alexander?s father, bought a horse called Bucephalus for the exorbitant price of 13 talents (1 talent = 27 kg of gold), but the rambunctious animal bucked all comers. Watching the futile attempts, Alexander noticed that the animal was frightened by its own shadow. He bet his father that he could mount the horse. By turning Bucephalus toward the sun so its shadow was behind it, Alexander was able to climb into the saddle and gallop around triumphantly. To which his father said: ?My boy, you must find a kingdom big enough for your ambitions. Macedonia is too small for you.? Bucephalus remained Alexander?s faithful steed until it died in what is now present-day Pakistan, fighting elephant-mounted brigades.
Alexander?s father, Philip, was stabbed by one of his bodyguards in 336 B.C. at a wedding banquet. Although few scholars think that Alexander was directly involved in the assassination, he wasted no time dispatching any possible rivals ? even instructing his mother, Olympias, to execute the infant son of Philip?s last wife. Alexander spent the next two years quelling rebellions in the lands conquered by his father. Thebes revolted on a false rumor that Alexander was dead. Showing no mercy, Alexander slaughtered or sold into slavery 30,000 inhabitants before leveling the city to the ground. By setting such an example, there were no significant uprisings in Greece during Alexander?s 12-year Asia campaign.
The most distinctive element of the Macedonian war machine was the phalanx. Developed by Alexander?s father, the phalanx was a tight formation of soldiers ? usually 16 by 16 ? carrying shields and sarisses, which were 20-foot-long spears made of cornel-wood. The back rows of the phalanx held their sarisses upright, hiding the movement of forces behind the lines, while the front rows kept the enemy at bay with an impenetrable wall of sharp pikes. On flat terrain, the phalanx proved unbeatable. Alexander also had at his disposal light auxiliaries, archers, a siege train, and a cavalry. Thanks to his father, Alexander?s army was largely a professional one. In earlier times, Macedonians would stop fighting during the harvest, but Philip and Alexander paid the men enough that they could afford to be soldiers full-time. This meant they were often better trained than their adversaries.
After solidifying his rule of Macedonia and Greece, Alexander looked east to Asia and the Persian Empire, which was led by Darius III. Alexander assembled an allied Greek army of 5,000 cavalry and 32,000 infantry to avenge the Persian invasion of Greece in 490 B.C. With 60 naval vessels, Alexander crossed the Hellespont (a narrow strait separating Europe and Asia -? now called the Dardanelles) in 334 B.C. From his ship, Alexander threw his spear onto the shore. As he took his first steps in Asia, he pulled his weapon from the sand and declared that these lands would be won by the spear. But the first order of business was a little tourism! Being quite fond of the Trojan War story -- even keeping a copy of Homer?s Iliad tucked under his pillow, Alexander made a special trip to Troy to perform several sacrifices and to trade some of his armor for a sacred shield in the Temple of Athena.
