There definitely were some pretty sophisticated Black/African OC groups based out of Harlem back in the day ( f.ex the Frank Lucas organization ) . I also know that certain Nigerian groups are considered to be fairly sophisticated as well , though if I'm not mistaken they are much closer to being networks than organizations .

All that said most of the present day press involving Black/African organized crime , both in the USA and Europe , involves relatively unsophisticated street gangs . Which begs the question of are there any high level/sophisticated Black/African crime groups out there in 2017 ? Are they very under the radar or just too few in number to generate much press ? Also if any such organizations exist , then do they engage in a wider variety of rackets than their past counterparts ?

I'm asking because to my knowledge the more formidable Black/African crime groups like Frank Lucas's gang and the Black Mafia Family were mainly centered around drug trafficking . Granted it's certainly true that Nigerian groups have a reputation for engaging in white collar fraud , however ( as I wrote above ) these groups often seem to be more like loose networks as opposed to true blue organizations .

I got some sophisticated guys over at my Black Organized Crime section at Gangsters Inc. Includes OC from the US, Europe, and wherever the story takes me: http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime

2A

There's a varity of Black & African Syndicates with various structures. There are certain street organizations with structure on par with the bikers such as Chicago's Black Souls; A branch was raking in 11 million a year from drug trade plus other activities. Please read my past post along with Scorsese. We been covering this for 5+ years now.

I think if we should talk about blck organized crime,
Theirs four groups that come out of the lot.

You have the nigerian syndicate/mafia. The Nigerians groups
like the Black Axe, are in many countries of the world, and they are
all linked together. There presence is strong in many countries in africa,
like south africa and the ivory coast. They also habe a great presence in
many asian countries, like india, vietnam, japan and others. The nigerian
mafia are very strong in the states of Gao in India. They are also strong
in many european countries like italy, spain and england. Some sources will
say they are also in brazil, chicago, netherlands and other countries. Theses groups
are aleays link together. And the source is in Nigeria.

The second group would be the jamaican posses. They have lost alot of power since
the 80s and 90s due to murders and deportations.But the jamaican groups, like the shower posse
have or had a great presence in miami, nyc, philly, houston, toronto, england and probably other
places.

The third group would be the haitians. Since the 80s, the country of haiti has become more and
more important in the drug trade. During the reign of duvalier (the son), the military, the police and
some rich groups, have become some kind of caribbean cartel. A mini cartel if compared to mexico or
colombia, but still powerful enough to be one of the biggest place of cocaine in the caribbean with the dominican
republic. A lot of drugs coming to the US or Canada come from Haiti. Also, with the US, venezuela,Haiti is the top country
in arms trafficking in the caribbean. Alot of guns found in jamaica or others caribbeam countries come from haiti. And no,
is not international group who just utilize haiti. Haitians groups have a lot of decisions in this. Also, in the US, haitians groups
are probably the black group beside african americans, who have alot of power in the rap industry. With names like haitian jack, henchmann, zoe pound and probably others. Haitians are really present in miami, new york, montreal, bahamas (1/3 of the population),
Guadeloupe, martinique, Dr

And the last one would be african american groups like those from LA, nyc, chicago.
Many started as street gangs, but some of them have become real organized crime group.
Some are in drugs, prodtitution, gambling etc. But the biggest things they succeed in by
doing money laundering with the help of the entertainment buisness.

The Suri-Cartel led by Desi Bouterse, now President of Suriname.

Black American crime groups are similar to Nigerian groups in regard to networks of various sizes involved in specific rackets.

Yes african american have a large network. I thinks the african american organized crime groups are linked to many other organized crime groups around the world. Black american do import drugs to the US with the help of their connections, from many hispanics or black countries. Lets not forget, the US is the biggest market for drugs. Groups like BMF, JBM, GDs and others are well know. But their are other groups that are in the shadows, until the FBI or the news start talking about them.

They are also in gambling, money laundering, scams and i’m sure white collar crime.

I think the biggest problem about black organized crime in the US, is gangbanging. Gangbanging doesn’t help a group to grow, because gangbanging make hustlings more difficult, because of the attention of laws enforcement and other gangs.

Gangbanging is a mixed bag in itself. Some of it's over money and other times pride. Most of those peak years of it is done.

Minorities could never form a true mafia in this country because they can't corrupt the police, the way Italians, Jews, and the Irish did. Without cops on the take, a gang can't get much further than gang status. Suge Knight was on his way to forming a mob, then look how hard the indictments came down on the LAPD people he was connected to. Coincidence? Probably not.

Suge wasn't even close to forming a mob family. He was a gangster who made (and wasted) a ton of money. A mob/mafia family has their hands into every single thing in their town literally. Suge wasn't even close to that. I don't think he even led any Bloods did he? Other than paying a few to do some dirty work of course.

Suge had LAPD working for him, very likely had two of them take out Biggie. There was a brief time in the '90s that Suge could have anyone short of an elected officials killed in LA (and maybe Vegas...) He might not have been Mickey Cohen, but the kind of corruption he had going in LA was similar.

Yes racism has alot to do about the growth of black organized crime groups in america. I read an article in gangster bb, about an italian mobster who said that politicians didn't accept money from blacks back in the days. But it was back in the days, now we don't know. Black organized groups from the caribbean or africa thats another thing.

Sorry for my english, I speak french

I think the FBI and the US tried to stop people like suge knight, because the rap industry became some king of black organized crime. When you have groups or people like suge knight, J.Prince, Harry O, BMF, Boobie Boys, many people from nyc, LA or Atl. Big drug dealers, this industry become some kind of crime families.
Lets be honest, the rap industry like many other industries is controled by gangsters.

The JBM in Philly in the 80's, were no joke. And Camden NJ had a crew in the early 90's called the sons of malcolm x. Very violent crew. Too much violence to last for any length of any time on the streets.

As a researcher on Black OC from the 1920-70 in various cities, police corruption was everywhere. The Black racketeers did have police, judges, and alderman/councilmen on their payroll or bribe. Profits speaks louder than racism generally. From paying the county sheriff in Mississippi to supporting the alderman in Bronzeville, Chicago. Major rackets of that time was Gambling ( Numbers, Policy, Cards & Dice), Bootlegging ( some people don't know that) , Prostitution & Drugs trade ( most spoken obviously). There was a national policy association that included kingpins/queenpins from NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Gary, St.Louis, Indianapolis, DC, Nashville, & Atlanta. I could be missing a few other cities. During the 30-40s was the peak of the numbers/policy racket moneywise in Midwest/Northeast black communities along in the West too. The South is a mix bag of gambling & bootlegging rackets in the black communities.

I think due to L.E ( law enforcement) , Criminologists, & Mainstream media use La Cosa Nostra as the model to set the definition of OC when it's ambiguous definition wise. Add the USA history of discrimination than it's viewed as non-white crime groups can't form similar syndicates which is completely untrue. Each group is different just like the Jewish mobs to Irish mobs. Black syndicates are structured to facilitate the racket like a business not a club/fraternity setting. That's the common misunderstanding when comparisons are made to LCN. The growth of street organizations and 1% club shaped the black underworld.

The sports & music industry have a long history with the black underworld prior to hip-hop formation. Jazz to Rock N Roll to Disco along with Boxing & Baseball have indirect ties to Black racketeers. Everybody heard of Joe Louis and his manager was John Roxborough, well Roxborough also was one of Detroit's premier numbers kingpin.

French article about the nigerian mafia in Italy. Ya’ll can use Google translater, its a good article.

https://www.google.ca/amp/amp.paris...-sous-l-emprise-des-black-mafias-1261841

Another article about the nigerian mafia and there key role in africa and europe.

http://mobile.lemonde.fr/afrique/ar...-de-la-mafia-nigeriane_5107002_3212.html

Which city are you from?

Theodore Roe was the one controlling the numbers and bootlegging in chicago black neighborhoods during the 40s and the beginning of the 50s.

Roughly late 40s until his death. Big 12 syndicate had control through 30s until 40s.

ballarò is not a black neighborhood is an italian one with some africans living, nigerian refugees arrived recently etc. and it's dominated by the sicilian mafia
the strongholds of nigerian mafia in italy are turin and padua, in the north
the black axe boss in italy was arrested in padua

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/haiti-drugs.htm

Some news about drug trafficking in Haiti.

During the time of BMF, was there some african-american groups that as powerfull as them?

I think there was an organization from seattle or phoenix. I read that somewhere, but I dont remember. Young african american from good families, not wealthy but neither poor. Those guys form a group that was involved in many criminal activities. But i forgot the name of this group and where I read it.

BMF were not powerful. contrary to popular belief,they were not involved in crime. BMF were a record label. the name was not BMF but "BMF Entertainment". the book "BMF Rise & Fall of Big Meech" was 99% fiction. the author Mara Shaloup writes for a tabloid newspaper called Creative Loafing,it's the same as National Enquirer. everything in the book was sensationalized, and exaggerated. it's not a reliable sauce, and neither is Wikipedia. when you do a google search on BMF, the first thing that comes up is the fake Wikipedia page,full of false information. And after that it's the book,which belongs in fiction and not the true crime section. and when you look up BMF online what you'll moastly find are dozens of hip hop websites talking about BMF. notice you'll never find any actual news articles,or crime writers discussing BMF,only gossip columnists and entertainment sites.

I think the name BMF was only a front cover for money laundering. But the members of bmf and the leaders, were in organized crime since Detroit.

Was BMF powerful? Depends to what type of organization you compared them to.
Was BMF the same level as organized crime in nigeria or caribbean countries? I dont think so. But I think they could rivaled some MC’s

I thought BMF was a huge drug traffickers. And that one brother started the record label later. Cause he loved the spotlight. Those guys had a very long run.