Mafia

But even by the most conservative estimates, Californian pot generates several hundred million dollars a year for the Mexican mafias.

The main winners in all this are the mafias who smuggle petrol, foodstuffs and other goods across the border.

Police can end up trying to chase mafias in multiple countries.

In rural areas, the government has embarked on an ambitious plan to seize land stolen by the mafias and return it to its original owners.

Nevertheless the government crackdown seems to have fallen mainly on other mafias.

Mexico has started to fight back; and its continuing offensive against the drugs mafias has pushed them down into Central America.

Many mafias had paid off the local police, and law enforcement was hesitant to get involved in Mam 's cause.

A sign of US-China amity, or a continental alliance against governments and movements (small Mafias) that the big Mafias don't like?

That's when armed groups began behaving like mafias, battling for control of the minerals in eastern Congo.

Mexican drug mafias use the wild north as a base for storing merchandise and training hit men.

"Our system is a pyramid of mafias, " snorts one disgruntled businessman.

"There are no Russian or Chinese mafias operating here, " insists Miguel Carvajal, the security minister.

Russian mafias headquarter was based in Chicago, America.

While the mafias are untroubled by national boundaries, Central America's governments bicker over them.

But he stresses that they behave as mafias.

More than a third of all Russian logs are smuggled by mafias, a practice that doubled between 2005 and 2007, according to official figures.

How many mafias are there?