Vyacheslav Ivankov: His savage methods of persuasion often include torture and brutality. Vyacheslav Ivankov is one of the most feared and respected criminals to emerge from the Soviet Union. Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack I: Soviet Union, 2006
During the days of communist Russia the government did not officially acknowledge the existence of organised crime. ibid.
Rumours of a Russian mafia began to circulate throughout the Soviet Union and the world. ibid.
Upon his release from prison, Ivankov began his life of crime capitalising on the Soviet Union’s thriving black market economy. ibid.
His mission: to take control and organise Russian criminal activities in America. ibid.
The reported godfather’s incarceration was a lead story in Moscow. ibid.
Russian organised crime is a growing phenomenon. ibid.
They were forced into existence by warring dynasties. And driven underground to grow in power. For centuries their global reach has increased through fear, symbolism, blood rights and secrecy. Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack II: Chinese Triads
Today we know them as the Triads … an integral part of Chinese history and heritage. ibid.
Martin Booth: The Dragon Syndicates. ibid.
Triad groups such as the United Bamboo Gang emerged in Taiwan in the early 1950s. They were mainly the sons of prominent national leaders like Chiang Kai-shek. The mid-50s also saw the emergence of the 14K Triad, which to this day remains one of the most powerful in the world. ibid.
Vincente Carrillo Fuentes: He was the king of narco-political law enforcement corruption in Mexico. Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack III: Mexican Mafia
His rise to power and ultimate demise offers a rare glimpse into the narco-political underworld of Mexican organised crime. ibid.
The man who was to become Mexico’s most powerful drug lord. ibid.
‘The police and the government in Mexico get a cut of everything.’ ibid. comment
‘Somebody deliberately killed him by injection.’ ibid.
They evolved from a noble race of warriors but have earned a darkened terrible reputation during the past 400 years. Manipulators of government and massive amounts of money, they can be powerful allies but fearsome opponents. Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack IV: Yakuza
The groups comprised nearly 500,000 Samurai. ibid.
Various Japanese government even use the Yakuza as an unofficial police force. ibid.
‘Well, they are the Cosa Nostra, the mafia of Japan. I mean, they’ve been around for 300 years. But when the Japanese were let off the hook in the early 1950s, the Yakuza had an opportunity to become legitimate, and some of them did.’ ibid. comment
By the 1960s the Yakuza had an estimated 184,000 members. ibid.
Australian Gold Coast: In with the tourists came the crime gangs. ibid.
First, a serious of violent events turned the Japanese people against those who had been regarded as their protectors. No longer is it considered desirable to have a Yakuza living on your block. ibid.
‘Now they’re an unknown entity because they are underground.’ ibid.
‘New Orleans was the first American city that the Sicilian mafia began to inahbit.’ Lords of the Mafia V: New Orleans, comment
Within the American mafia families the individual with the most power, influence and wealth is known as The Boss. ibid.
The longtime supreme ruler of the Mafia of New Orleans, Carlos Marcello. ibid.
For years he and his mafia family seemed to be able to operate with virtual impunity. ibid.
‘He ran a vast conglomerate, maybe of 50 businesses under his umbrella.’
Hoover had long maintained that the Mafia was a myth. In 1957, however, 60 Mafia leaders were rounded up at a house in upstate, New York. ibid.
The legality of the deportation has always been in question. ibid.
His fury towards Kennedy reportedly became an obsession. ibid.
The rise and fall of Salvatore Toto Riina is a story of the most dramatic period in the history of Italian organised crime. Though the Sicilian Mafia is only one of several criminal syndicates in Italy, under Riina’s guidance it achieved a position of unprecedented power, and subverted the highest levels of the Italian government. Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack VI: The Mafia in Italy Today
The most effective Mafia prosecution in history. ibid.
‘They went into the real estate business in a very major way.’ ibid. comment
A violent war in the battle for domination that laid the groundwork for the rise of Salvatoe Riina. ibid.
Mafia involvement in refining and smuggling heroin had a dramatic consequence on the people of Italy. ibid.
He built his cocaine empire on a foundation riddled with violence, blood and addiction. His menacing brutality forever changed a country, but his dangerous commodity destroyed families and entire communities. This is a story of Pablo Escobar, the king of cocaine. Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack VII: Colombia
The Medellin Cartel was growing stronger and more powerful with every successful shipment into south Florida. By the beginning of the 1980s, Miami was engulfed in a full-scale drug war between the newly formed cartel and the Cuban mafia. ibid.
The Lucchese family was involved in every aspect of New York’s economic system. Lords of the Mafia VIII: New York
In 1963 Joseph Valachi became one of the first members of the Mafia to break omerta code of silence. ibid.
‘Really the modern American Mafia as we know it was born up on those streets in the boyhood rumbles of guys like Luciano, and Lucchese and Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, they all knew each other.’ ibid. Volkman
One of the rackets that caused the greatest dissent was heroin dealing. ibid.
From destitute beginnings in Jamaica, [he] created one of the most feared drug gangs in American history. He is responsible for thousands of deaths. His impact is felt even today in the continuing war against drugs. Lester Coke created an empire, an empire built on fear. Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack IX: Jamaican Gangs
The Shower Posse brought havoc not only to its native Jamaica but across the United States as well. ibid.
In Tivoli Gardens he was the new Jim Brown. ibid.
An important force in the sale of crack cocaine. ibid.
One of America’s most notorious street gangs … By 1979 gang-related homicides are averaging almost 1 murder every 32 hours. What the press apparently did not realise at the time was that the victim, Raymond Lee Washington, was a founder of the notorious street gang called the Crips. Once a handful of teenagers dedicated to protecting their turf, by the 1990s Crips numbered in the tens of thousands. Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack X: Crips
Raymond Lee Washington was a soft-spoken charismatic leader intent on building an empire. ibid.
There was power to be found in numbers. ibid.
By 1972, 8 Crip gangs were thriving in Los Angeles County boasting a total membership of approximately 200 members. ibid.
In the early 1980s a new influence arrived in Los Angeles – crack cocaine. ibid.
Descended from centuries-old bandit gangs and spawned by the Vietnam War this new breed of criminal is young, tough and fearless, dispassionately dealing violence to their own people. With extreme prejudice. They’re into drugs, forgery, and extorting computer technology. The creeping new force vying for world organised crime domination – the Vietnamese Crime Gangs. Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack XI: Pacific Rim
California’s Justice Department estimates that that sate alone now has at least 15,000 members in Asian street gangs. ibid.
Australia: Within two weeks John Newman was dead, gunned down outside his home after he spoke at a public meeting on drug crime. He was shot at close range before the eyes of his fiancee, Lucy Wang. ibid.