The World's Biggest Crime Organizations

By Savannah Cox | Edited By John Kuroski

Published September 18, 2012

Updated November 9, 2023

The World’s Biggest Crime Organizations: Yamaguchi-gumi

The largest criminal organization in Japan and one of the biggest crime organizations in the world, the Yamaguchi-gumi boasts over 55,000 active members. It was founded before World War II and can be traced back to the labor union of dockworkers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB17kKq40C0

The World's Five Biggest Crime Organizations

Source: Outsider Japan

The organization amasses billions of dollars a year through various criminal activity including extortion, drug dealing, real estate, arms dealing, gambling, Internet porn and stock market manipulation. One of the members even assassinated the mayor of Nagasaki because he damaged his car in 2007.

author

Savannah Cox holds a Master's in International Affairs from The New School as well as a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Sheffield. Her work as a writer has also appeared on DNAinfo.

editor

John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.

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Cox, Savannah. "Inside The World’s Five Biggest Crime Organizations." AllThatsInteresting.com, September 18, 2012, https://allthatsinteresting.com/crime-organizations. Accessed May 16, 2025.