Draft:Iraqi mafia

The Iraqi mafia (Arabic: المافيا العراقية) is a general term used for organized crime groups based in Iraq or composed of Iraqis. Iraqi crime groups are active worldwide, especially in Iraq, Europe, and the Middle East.

History
The Iraqi mafia are especially active in trafficking drugs, arms, humans, and oil, and also does illegal taxation, smuggling, extortion, robbery, and assassinations. The Iraqi mafia often operates based on Arab tribal structures. There have been instances of armed groups working with the Iraqi mafia.

The Iraqi mafia is known for human trafficking, including a type in which they make people pose as beggars in the streets and give all their earnings back to the mafia.

The Iraqi mafia also includes women, who were described as "more crafty, skilful and require double police effort to arrest them."

The Iraqi diaspora is also active in organised crime which is linked to Iraq.

The Popular Mobilization Forces, in 2019, carried out "the largest campaign in the history of Iraq", raiding many casinos, drug rings, and prostitution clubs, and arresting the "grand mafia leader."

In 2024, an Iraqi mafia leader in Baghdad was killed by an Albanian mafia operative who travelled from Sweden to commit the murder, and tried to flee Iraq before being arrested by Iraqi police and given the death penalty.