India Mafia: Inside the Hidden Architecture of Organized Crime, Power, Fear and Transnational Gangs

Research Article | Criminology | Organized Crime | Transnational Crime

Author: Muhammad Kamran
Institution: University of Sargodha, Department of Sociology and Criminology
Email: muhammadkamran6067@gmail.com

India's mafia is not one organization.

It is better understood as a fragmented and adaptive ecosystem of criminal networks, markets, intermediaries, financial structures and transnational relationships. The most important criminological question is therefore not simply “Who is India's mafia boss?” but “How does organized crime continue to reproduce itself when individual criminals are arrested?”

Abstract

The expression “India mafia” has become a powerful phrase in journalism, popular culture and public discussion. Yet the term can obscure the organizational complexity of contemporary organized crime. This article examines India's organized-crime environment through a criminological and transnational-crime framework, focusing on criminal networks, extortion, human trafficking, drug markets, financial crime, cyber-dependent crime, corruption and cross-border criminal relationships.

Using secondary evidence from the Global Organized Crime Index 2025, United Nations materials, official U.S. Department of Justice documents, Reuters reporting, Indian legal sources and established criminological theories, the article argues that the modern Indian organized-crime environment should not be reduced to the image of a single centralized mafia.

The evidence instead points toward a more complicated architecture in which criminal networks, illicit markets, social relationships, technology, financial flows and institutional vulnerabilities interact.

The article also examines the contemporary international attention surrounding India-based criminal enterprises and discusses the implications for criminological research, law enforcement and transnational criminal-justice cooperation.

Keywords: India mafia, organized crime, criminal networks, transnational organized crime, extortion, human trafficking, drug trafficking, financial crime, criminology, criminal justice, gangs, corruption.

1. Introduction: The Mafia Is Bigger Than the Gangster

The word “mafia” immediately creates a familiar image: a powerful leader, loyal followers, violence, money, territory and fear.

But criminology demands a deeper question.

What happens when organized crime is no longer dependent on one territory, one organization or even one country?

This question is increasingly important in India.

India's contemporary organized-crime environment contains multiple criminal markets and different types of criminal actors. The Global Organized Crime Index 2025 assigns India an overall criminality score of 5.90. Its criminal-market score is 6.80, while its criminal-actor score is 5.00.

The same assessment records a striking difference between mafia-style groups and criminal networks. Mafia-style groups receive a score of 3.00, while criminal networks receive 6.50.

That difference matters.

It suggests that the popular image of a single, rigid “Indian mafia” does not adequately describe the contemporary structure of organized crime.

THE CRIMINOLOGICAL CHALLENGE

The gangster may be visible. The network is not.

2. What Is the “India Mafia”?

From a criminological perspective, “India mafia” should be treated as a descriptive media expression rather than the name of one unified criminal organization.

Organized crime can take many forms. Some groups have recognizable leaders and territorial structures. Others function through flexible relationships among people who cooperate for particular criminal activities.

The distinction between mafia-style organizations and criminal networks is therefore essential.

A traditional mafia model may involve:

hierarchical leadership
territorial control
defined membership
long-term criminal governance
systematic extortion

A network model can instead involve:

temporary alliances
distributed leadership
independent criminal entrepreneurs
cross-border associates
digital communication
outsourced violence

The second model is particularly relevant to contemporary transnational crime.

3. India’s Organized-Crime Landscape: What the Evidence Shows

The Global Organized Crime Index 2025 provides one of the clearest contemporary frameworks for examining India's organized-crime environment.

India receives a 5.90 criminality score and ranks 58th among 193 countries in the Index's 2025 assessment.

The criminal-market component is particularly important.

Criminal Market / Actor	2025 Score
Human Trafficking	8.50
Counterfeit Goods	8.00
Cyber-Dependent Crime	7.50
Financial Crime	7.50
Cannabis Trade	7.50
Heroin Trade	7.00
Synthetic Drug Trade	7.00
Extortion & Protection Racketeering	6.50
Criminal Networks	6.50
State-Embedded Actors	7.00

These figures do not mean that every person in India participates in organized crime, nor do they mean that the state itself is a criminal organization. They are indicators used by the Index to assess the scale and characteristics of specific criminal markets and actors.

4. The First Major Finding: India's Mafia Is a Network Problem

The most important finding is simple: India's organized-crime environment cannot be adequately explained through the traditional mafia-boss model.

The Global Organized Crime Index gives criminal networks a score of 6.50 while mafia-style groups receive 3.00.

This creates a significant criminological distinction.

A criminal network can survive even when a central figure is arrested because relationships, markets, money and criminal knowledge may continue to exist.

In network theory, removing one node does not necessarily destroy the entire network. Other nodes may reconnect, replace missing participants or establish new relationships.

This helps explain why organized crime can be extraordinarily adaptive.

Arresting a criminal is not always the same thing as dismantling a criminal economy.

5. Extortion: The Economics of Fear

Extortion is where violence becomes an economic instrument.

The Global Organized Crime Index assigns India a 6.50 score for extortion and protection racketeering.

Extortion can involve threats against individuals, families, businesses or organizations. The objective is not necessarily to steal once. Instead, criminal actors may attempt to create a continuing stream of income through fear.

This creates an important criminological relationship:

VIOLENCE → FEAR → COMPLIANCE → MONEY → POWER

The cycle can reinforce itself.

Money finances criminal activity. Criminal activity creates fear. Fear can produce compliance. Compliance generates additional income. Income can strengthen the network.

The result is a self-reinforcing criminal economy.

6. Human Trafficking: The Hidden Market Behind the Headlines

One of the most serious findings in India's organized-crime profile is human trafficking, scored at 8.50.

This is considerably different from the popular image of the mafia.

Trafficking may involve recruitment, transportation, exploitation, financial management, brokering and other forms of criminal cooperation.

The victim may never encounter the person responsible for the wider organization.

This makes trafficking an important example of how organized crime can operate through fragmented networks.

The criminological focus must therefore move beyond the offender and examine:

victim vulnerability
recruitment mechanisms
economic incentives
social networks
border controls
institutional guardianship

7. Drugs: The Financial Engine of Transnational Crime

Drug trafficking creates one of the strongest connections between local criminal networks and international organized crime.

India's 2025 organized-crime assessment identifies significant markets involving heroin, cannabis, synthetic drugs and cocaine.

Drug trafficking should not be understood merely as the possession or street sale of controlled substances.

It can involve a much larger chain:

SUPPLY → TRANSPORT → DISTRIBUTION → FINANCE → MONEY LAUNDERING

Each stage may involve different people.

This fragmentation makes organized crime harder to detect and dismantle.

8. The Digital Mafia: When Criminal Networks Move Online

The modern organized-crime environment increasingly intersects with technology.

India receives a 7.50 score for cyber-dependent crime in the 2025 Global Organized Crime Index.

This does not mean that every cybercriminal belongs to a mafia. Rather, digital technologies can become part of broader criminal systems.

Encrypted communication, online recruitment, digital payments, identity fraud and remote coordination can reduce the importance of physical distance.

The result is a profound transformation:

THE TERRITORY OF ORGANIZED CRIME IS NO LONGER ONLY THE STREET.

It can also be the phone, platform, financial account, encrypted channel and international network.

9. Financial Crime: Follow the Money, Not Just the Gun

A powerful criminal organization needs financial infrastructure.

India's financial-crime category receives a 7.50 score in the 2025 Global Organized Crime Index.

For criminologists, this produces a critical methodological principle: following the money may reveal relationships that street-level investigations cannot.

Financial investigation can identify:

criminal proceeds
money laundering
asset ownership
financial intermediaries
business connections
cross-border transfers

Therefore, organized-crime investigations increasingly require cooperation between police, financial-intelligence agencies, prosecutors and international partners.

10. The Bishnoi Case: A Contemporary Transnational Example

One of the most internationally visible examples of an India-based criminal network in recent years is the organization associated with Lawrence Bishnoi.

This case should be approached carefully because many claims concerning individuals remain allegations contained in criminal proceedings, rather than final judicial findings of guilt.

In July 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced an international crackdown involving 24 arrests in the United States, Canada and Europe connected to three India-based transnational organized-crime groups.

According to the U.S. indictment described by the Department of Justice, the Bishnoi enterprise allegedly involved racketeering, extortion, killings, shootings, kidnappings, drug trafficking, human smuggling and other criminal conduct.

The Department of Justice further alleged that the enterprise used regional leaders and cross-border associates.

These are prosecutorial allegations. They must not be presented as established facts unless proven in court.

ACADEMIC CAUTION

An indictment is an accusation, not a conviction. Academic criminology must preserve this distinction.

Reuters also reported in July 2026 on U.S. charges against Bishnoi and an alleged associate in connection with the 2023 killing of Canadian Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The case attracted international attention because of the intersection between organized crime, diaspora communities, violence and international law enforcement.

Importantly, the U.S. indictment reported by Reuters did not allege Indian government involvement in the killing. That distinction is essential when discussing this case.

11. Why the Bishnoi Case Matters for Criminology

The importance of the case extends beyond one individual.

It provides a contemporary example for examining the possible relationship between:

criminal leadership
regional lieutenants
diaspora networks
encrypted communications
extortion
drug markets
violence
international law enforcement

In other words, the case illustrates why contemporary organized crime is increasingly a transnational network problem.

12. Criminological Theory: Why Do These Networks Survive?

12.1 Differential Association Theory

Edwin Sutherland's differential association theory argues that criminal behaviour can be learned through interaction with others.

Within criminal networks, individuals may learn techniques, rationalizations and criminal attitudes through social relationships.

This makes recruitment and peer relationships central to organized-crime research.

Read: Social Disorganization Theory

12.2 General Strain Theory

Robert Agnew's General Strain Theory examines how negative experiences, blocked goals and other forms of strain can contribute to offending.

However, strain should never be interpreted as a simple explanation for organized crime. Most people experiencing economic or social pressure do not become organized criminals.

Strain interacts with opportunity, learning, social networks and criminal markets.

Read: General Strain Theory

Read: Robert K. Merton and Anomie Theory

12.3 Routine Activity Theory

Routine Activity Theory emphasizes the convergence of a motivated offender, a suitable target and inadequate guardianship.

For organized crime, the theory can help explain why certain businesses, financial systems, drug shipments, trafficking victims or online environments become vulnerable.

Read: Routine Activity Theory

12.4 Rational Choice Theory

Rational choice perspectives examine how offenders may consider rewards, risks and opportunities.

Criminal networks can make decisions about markets, victims, locations and methods according to perceived costs and benefits.

Read: Rational Choice Theory in Criminology

12.5 Marxist Criminology

Marxist criminology directs attention toward class, inequality, economic power and structural relationships.

Applied carefully, this perspective encourages researchers to ask why certain illicit markets become profitable and how economic structures interact with criminal opportunity.

Read: Marxist Criminology and Class

13. State-Embedded Actors: The Most Sensitive Question

Organized crime becomes particularly difficult to address when criminal actors obtain access to legitimate institutions.

The Global Organized Crime Index gives India's state-embedded actors a score of 7.00.

This category does not mean that the Indian state as a whole is criminal. It refers to criminal actors who are embedded within, or operate through, state structures.

For criminologists, this raises questions about:

corruption
institutional vulnerability
criminal influence
law-enforcement integrity
political-criminal relationships
public trust

The appropriate academic approach is to investigate specific evidence rather than make general accusations against institutions or communities.

14. The Indian Mafia and the Internationalization of Crime

The greatest transformation in contemporary organized crime may be geographical.

A criminal network can have:

LEADERS IN ONE COUNTRY → ASSOCIATES IN ANOTHER → MONEY IN A THIRD → VICTIMS IN A FOURTH

That is the basic logic of transnational organized crime.

The 2026 U.S. Department of Justice operation demonstrates the scale of international law-enforcement attention directed toward alleged India-based criminal organizations.

According to the DOJ, the July 2026 operation involved arrests in the United States, Canada and Europe.

This means that organized crime cannot always be effectively investigated through national policing alone.

15. India, Diaspora Communities and the Danger of Generalization

An important academic distinction must be made between criminal networks and legitimate diaspora communities.

The existence of alleged India-based criminal organizations operating internationally does not mean that Indian migrants, Indian-origin communities or diaspora populations are connected to organized crime.

Criminology must avoid collective blame.

The appropriate unit of analysis is the criminal actor, network, activity, market or institution for which evidence exists.

16. Why the Traditional “Gangster” Story Is Incomplete

Popular culture often reduces organized crime to a battle between rival gangsters.

Academic criminology asks a much harder question:

WHO PROFITS WHEN THE GANGSTER DISAPPEARS?

If the market remains profitable, someone may attempt to replace the criminal actor.

If the demand remains, suppliers can emerge.

If financial channels remain available, money can continue to move.

If recruitment conditions remain unchanged, new participants may enter.

Therefore:

DESTROYING A PERSON IS NOT THE SAME AS DESTROYING A NETWORK.

17. What Should Law Enforcement Do?

A serious organized-crime strategy requires more than arrests.

Financial Intelligence

Follow the money. Financial investigations can expose relationships, assets and criminal proceeds that conventional policing may not immediately reveal.

International Cooperation

Transnational networks require cooperation among police, prosecutors, financial-intelligence agencies and international partners.

Digital Investigation

Law enforcement increasingly requires specialized expertise in digital communications, online evidence and cyber-enabled criminal activity.

Read: Digital Forensic Evidence and Judicial Processes

Victim-Centred Approaches

Human trafficking and extortion investigations require protection for victims and witnesses. A system that cannot protect victims may struggle to obtain reliable evidence.

Community Prevention

Prevention should address recruitment opportunities, social vulnerability, substance misuse, economic insecurity and weak guardianship.

18. India Mafia as a Research Problem

For criminology students, India's organized-crime environment provides a rich field for empirical research.

Potential research questions include:

How do criminal networks recruit young people?
How does extortion affect local businesses?
How does social media contribute to criminal reputation?
How do diaspora networks affect transnational organized crime?
How does financial crime support violent criminal enterprises?
How effective are organized-crime laws?
What role does corruption play in criminal-network resilience?
How is technology changing traditional organized crime?

Read: How Criminal Justice Research Really Works

19. Comparative Criminology: India and the Wider Region

Organized crime does not respect political borders.

South Asian criminal markets can intersect through geography, migration, trafficking routes, drug markets and financial relationships.

Comparative criminology can therefore examine India alongside other South Asian countries without assuming that their criminal structures are identical.

20. The Atlantic Question: What Can and Cannot Be Claimed?

Because discussions of organized crime increasingly circulate through major international media, source verification is essential.

A direct, relevant Atlantic report on India's mafia or the Bishnoi network was not verified during preparation of this article.

For that reason, this article does not attribute any of the empirical claims above to The Atlantic.

This is not a weakness in the research design. It is an example of source discipline: an academic writer should never attach a prestigious publication's name to a claim unless the publication actually supports it.

The principal evidence used here instead comes from the Global Organized Crime Index, U.S. Department of Justice, UNODC, Reuters and official legal materials.

21. Limitations of This Analysis

This article relies primarily on secondary and documentary sources. Organized crime is inherently difficult to measure because criminal activities are hidden, underreported and frequently detected only after investigations.

Index scores should therefore not be interpreted as direct counts of crimes. They are assessments designed to compare criminal markets and actors.

Similarly, media reports and indictments may describe allegations that have not yet been established in court.

Future research should combine documentary evidence with:

court records
police data
interviews
network analysis
financial intelligence
victim-centred research
comparative international datasets

22. Conclusion: The Real Power of the India Mafia Is the Network

The phrase “India mafia” sounds like a story about gangsters. The evidence tells a more complicated story.

It is a story about markets.

It is a story about networks.

It is a story about money.

It is a story about fear.

It is a story about technology.

And increasingly, it is a story about borders.

The 2025 Global Organized Crime Index shows that India's criminal networks score substantially higher than its mafia-style groups, while human trafficking, financial crime, cyber-dependent crime, drug markets and extortion remain significant criminal-market categories.

The 2026 international law-enforcement actions involving alleged India-based criminal groups further demonstrate why organized crime must be studied as a transnational phenomenon.

THE FINAL CRIMINOLOGICAL QUESTION

WHEN ONE GANGSTER FALLS, DOES THE CRIME ECONOMY FALL WITH HIM?

If the market, money, networks and opportunities remain, organized crime can adapt.

References

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. (2025). Global Organized Crime Index 2025: India Profile. https://ocindex.net/
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Transnational Organized Crime. UNODC
U.S. Department of Justice. (2026, July 7). International Crackdown on India-Based Organized Crime Gangs Results in 24 Arrests in U.S., Canada, and Europe. U.S. Department of Justice
Reuters. (2026, July 7). US charges imprisoned Indian gang leader with ordering 2023 murder of Canadian Sikh separatist. Reuters
Sutherland, E. H. Differential association theory and the social learning of criminal behaviour.
Agnew, R. General strain theory and criminological explanations of offending.
Cohen, L. E., & Felson, M. (1979). Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity approach. American Sociological Review, 44(4), 588–608.

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Author's Academic Note

Muhammad Kamran is a criminology student at the University of Sargodha. This article is written for educational, academic and criminological discussion. It does not represent the official position of the University of Sargodha.

Email: muhammadkamran6067@gmail.com

Editorial note: Allegations, indictments and law-enforcement claims are identified as such. They should not be interpreted as proof of guilt unless established through the appropriate judicial process.