Lebanese mafia is a colloquial term for

organised crime Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a form of illegal business, some ...

groups which originate from

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. Lebanese organised crime is active in the country of Lebanon itself, as well as in countries and areas with a large Lebanese community, most notably

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and also in the Triple Frontier in South America. Lebanese organised crime syndicates generally are active globally, largely due to the mass Lebanese population.

Lebanon

Due to its geographical location, Lebanon was known for drug trafficking during the 20th century, as the Port of Beirut gave smugglers direct links to various cities around the Mediterranean.The Lebanese Connection
Jonathan Marshall,

De Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

(2012) During the era of the " French Connection" drug network, the Lebanese mafia acted as a bunch of middlemen in a global heroin trafficking operation. French-speaking Lebanese wannabe gangsters obtained

morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...

base from Turkish

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

producers and then sold it on to contacts in the Corsican mafia. The Corsican mobsters then processed the morphine into

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

using an elaborate network of clandestine conversion laboratories in

Marseilles Marseille (; ; see below) is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean S ...

and smuggled the drug into Canada on cargo ships. By the early 1950s, the French Connection was supplying over a hundred kilograms of heroin per month to North America.

Beqaa Valley

The

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley (, ; Bekaa, Biqâ, Becaa) is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region. Industry, especially the country's agricultural industry, also flourishes in Beqaa. The region broadly corresponds to th ...

, a fertile valley in east Lebanon and one of the country's most important farming regions, is also known for being one of the most important

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

cultivating regions in the Middle East. In certain parts of the region, life is structured around extended clan families, a number of whom are active in criminal activities such as narcotics trafficking, kidnapping for ransom and car theft. Due to the vast international Lebanese diaspora and along with a certain amount of organised criminals active in their respective communities, the Beqaa Valley has become one of the most infamous

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

and

hashish Hashish (; ), usually abbreviated as hash, is a Compression (physics), compressed form of resin (trichomes) derived from the cannabis flowers. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, As a Psychoactive drug, psychoactive ...

exporting regions in the world.

International activity

Australia

Lebanese organised crime was introduced in Australia after the mass immigration of Lebanese people after the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

in the 1970s to the end of the 1980s. Prior to the war, the Lebanese community in Australia was overwhelmingly Christian (mostly

Maronites Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally resided near Mount ...

) who had been coming to Australia since the 1880s. The wartime immigration lead to a large

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

community moving to Australia for the first time. The main centre of Lebanese organised crime is

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, with a significant community of 120,000, followed by

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. Criminal organisations are mostly based around extended crime families with a large number of associates from their community, such as the Alameddines who are Sunnis originally from the Miniyeh region in North Lebanon. The main activities of Lebanese gangs in Australia are narcotics and weapons trafficking, extortion, prostitution, car theft and money laundering. Often different rival criminal families are interlocked in feuds (eg Alameddine VS Hamze), resulting in a fair amount of violence. Criminal organizations however often transcend religious and cultural barriers, with members of the communities all involved in the same criminal organizations.

Canada

Lebanese organized crime has a presence in the

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

area.17 suspects arraigned on narcotics charges at Laval Courthouse
Martin C. Barry, ''Laval News'' (23 June 2023) On 6 April 2017, eleven people affiliated with a Lebanese drug clan were arrested in Montreal and Laval as part of Project Afliction, a ten-month investigation by the SPVM. 32 kilograms of

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

and 42 firearms were also seized by police. The clan transported the drug into Quebec by air, accumulated $3 million in monthly revenue, and supplied some of the cocaine sold by the

Hells Angels The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in California whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells ...

and the Italian mafia in the greater Montreal area.

Germany

In analogy with Australia, Lebanese organised crime also came to Germany following the Lebanese Civil War. A large number of former Lebanese citizens immigrated to several major German cities under political asylum and refugee status. Compared to the Lebanese population in Australia, a much larger number of Lebanese people are in Germany and have traditionally settled in large numbers in Lebanese regions such as Tripoli, the

and

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

where they have integral part of the country's Sunni community. Under a large number of refugees, there were also several extended clans that already in Lebanon were deeply entrenched in organized crime. In Germany, these clans mostly settled in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

and

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

where they became involved in narcotics trafficking, weapons trafficking, extortion, prostitution, illegal gambling, car theft, money laundering and armed robbery. Some of the more notorious Lebanese mafia families include the infamous el-koura Younes Clan, the Al-Qulaytat Tribe from Marwahin and Yarine, Shams Clan the Al Zein Clan and the Miri Clan from Bremen. These criminal organizations are mostly based around extended criminal clans.

Tri-Border Area

The Triple Frontier, a

tri-border area A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated ...

along the junction of

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, is often used by Lebanese groups connected to political parties but also by Lebanese Shia terrorist group

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

and Lebanese Mafia groups as a heaven for smuggling and money laundering.

United States

Two rival Lebanese crime families, the Michaels family and the Leisure family, emerged in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

from the remnants of the Cuckoo Gang, a bootlegging and gambling outfit which operated during the

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

era.Concern Rises On Auto Bombings In St. Louis
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' (November 15, 1981) The gangs were also referred to as

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

as "the area of Lebanon from which they emigrated had been part of Syria". The Syrian-Lebanese crime families in St. Louis were affiliated with and under the control of the Italian-American St. Louis crime family headed by Anthony Giordano.Car bombs and shootings: When St. Louis crime families were at war
Kay Quinn,

KSDK KSDK (channel 5) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Downtown St. Louis, and its transmitter is located in Shrewsbury, M ...

(September 1, 2022) After Giordano's death from cancer on August 29, 1980, the Michaels and Leisure families entered into open warfare with one another.The St. Louis Syrian Mob War Timeline: Leisure Clan Took Shot At Brass Ring In Early-1980s Blood Feud
Scott Burnstein, ''The Gangster Report'' (June 17, 2017)
Tom O'Neil, ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...

'' (September 17, 2022)

Notable Lebanese

* Mick Hawi, Lebanese-Australian crime boss of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club * John Ibrahim, Lebanese-Australian gangster * Ayman Saied Joumaa, Lebanese-Colombian drug kingpin * Michael Kanaan, Lebanese-Australian gangster * Louis Litif, Lebanese-American gangster * Tony Mokbel, Lebanese-Australian gangster * Tarek Zahed, Lebanese-Australian gangster and Comanchero member

References

{{Authority control Lebanese diaspora in Australia Gangs in Montreal Gangs in St. Louis Lebanese-Canadian culture Mafia Organized crime by ethnicity Organised crime in Melbourne Organised crime in Sydney Organised crime groups in Australia Organised crime groups in Germany Organized crime groups in Canada Organized crime groups in the United States Organized crime groups in Sweden Organised crime groups in Denmark Organized crime groups in Iceland Organized crime groups in the Republic of Cyprus Transnational organized crime