The list of brilliant mafia-inspired movies and shows is extensive, but it began with the Godfather series and peaked (for me) at The Sopranos. That Tony Soprano, what a twisted and brilliant character he was and the world will miss the talents of actor James Gandolfini. Sob story over.

Maybe our fixation with the mafia and their power stems from these cinematic representations and have caused us to overestimate their reach. A recent study has shown that Japan’s equivalent to the mafia actually rules the world’s roost and by quite some margin, raking in a massive $80 billion revenue. Fortune reports:

The largest known gang in the world is called the Yamaguchi Gumi, one of several groups collectively referred to in Japan as “Yakuza,” a term that is roughly equivalent to the American use of “mafia.” The Yamaguchi Gumi make more money from drug trafficking than any other source according to Hiromitsu Suganuma, Japan’s former national police chief. The next two leading sources of revenue are gambling and extortion, followed closely by “dispute resolution.”

The term ‘dispute resolution’ would appear to me to have some rather sinister undertones. So who comes in second behind the Japanese mega-hang? It’s our friends from Russia, Solntsevskaya Bratva, with revenue of $8.5 billion:

It’s estimated that the group claims upwards of 9,000 members, and that it’s bread and butter is the drug trade and human trafficking. Russian organized crime in general is heavily involved in the heroin trade that originates in Afghanistan: it’s estimated that Russia consumes about 12% of the world’s heroin, while it contains just 0.5% of the world’s population.

Ah yes, the old ‘human trafficking’. Not to make light of this horrendous crime but we have heard it’s lucrative business. But what of the mafia you cry, tell us how much they rake in:

…local governments in Italy remain linked to and protective of various mafia groups, to the point where a 2013 study…estimated that mafia activities generate revenue of $33 billion dollars, mostly divided among Italy’s four major mafia gangs.

Camorra [based in Naples] is the most successful of these groups, raking in an estimated $4.9 billion per year on everything from “sexual exploitation, firearms trafficking, drugs, counterfeiting, gambling … usury and extortion…

Based in the Calabria region of Italy, the ‘Ndarangheta is the country’s second largest mafia group by revenue…

‘Ndrangheta has made its name for itself by building international ties with South American cocaine dealers, and it controls much of the transatlantic drug market that feeds Europe.

Moral of the story? Having morals stands in the way of getting filthy stinking rich, but we knew that already.

[source:fortune]