94 Sinister Facts About Organized Crime They Don’t Tell You

A group of French thieves called the vacuum gang stole 600,000 Euros by sucking bills out of safes through those pneumatic tube deposit things with a vacuum.

2. The gang named "Cribs" evolved into "Crips" when members began carrying around canes to display their "pimp" status. People in the neighborhood then began calling them cripples, or "Crips"

3. A monkey's fist knot is used as the weight in heaving a line between ship and dock. Recognizing their potential, drunken sailors began using them as melee weapons in street and bar fights with the knot eventually being adopted by street gangs of the 19th century.

4. In China, 97% of all counterfeit bills in circulation originate from the templates hand-drawn by 73-year-old painter Peng Daxiang. Peng profited by selling templates between $8000 and $12,000 each to counterfeiting gangs. Peng was arrested in 2013 & is currently serving a life sentence in prison

5. The Crips street gang was originally formed as a Neighbourhood Watch to eliminate criminal gangs by force

In the '80s, New York City was terrorized by a street gang called the Decepticons. They had names like Megatron and Soundwave and they called Brooklyn "Cybertron."

7. Donnie Yen once beat up a gang of 8 men who were harassing him at a club; they had to be hospitalized.

8. Sean Connery once fought and won against 6 gang members after they tried to mug him. The gang gave him great respect after the defeat and Connery became known as a "Hard man".

9. A California Gang member named Anthony Garcia was arrested for driving with an expired license when Police noticed his chest tattoo depicted a liquor store robbery and murder that had gone unsolved. After questioning he confessed and was convicted of the crime.

10. There is a pirate 'stock exchange' in Somalia where locals can invest in pirate gangs planning hijacking missions

A group of unpaid volunteers travels around Detroit mowing and cleaning neglected parks. They call themselves "The Mower Gang".

12. A Russian hitman named Alexander Solonik (AKA Superkiller) assassinated 30 mob bosses. After leaving contract killing, he becomes Russian mob boss. He was assassinated 2 years later.

13. In an attempt to shut down the MS13 gang in the early 90's, illegal members were deported to their home countries. Instead of shutting down, deportees gained territory upon their return home and now MS13 has over 100,000 members worldwide and is one of the largest, deadliest gangs.

14. A pizza delivery guy named Brian Wells had a bomb collar attached to his neck and was forced to rob a bank by a gang. Shortly after robbing the bank, he was arrested and handcuffed by police, but the bomb detonated, killing him.

15. There is a charity in the United States which offers discounted tattoo removal for former gang members.

The most powerful gangs in the United States have a presence in the US military. Gangster Disciples, Crips, Bloods, 18th Street, Nortenos, Black Disciples, Surenos, Latin Kings, Vice Lords, African Nations, Aryan Nations, Aryan Brotherhood and Ku Klux Klan graffiti has been documented in Iraq.

17. In 1880, an Australian outlaw and his gang (Ned Kelly) smithed steel suits out of ploughshares and held off the Victorian Police with their bulletproof armor

18. America's first serial killers, the Harpe Brothers, were kicked out of pirate gang for being too brutal they would throw their victims off the cliffs of Cave-In-Rock, Illinois

19. The FBI likely encouraged myths about Ma Barker being a criminal mastermind to justify shooting her during the shootout between the Barker-Karpis gang and the FBI. She likely never had any involvement in the gang's crimes.

20. In 1995 a pizza driver, Tariq Khamisa, was killed by a 14-year-old gang member. The victim's father reached out to the perpetrator's grandfather and together they started a forgiveness and youth outreach project that has reached 350,000 children.

Chinese Triad members tried to shakedown and extort Michael Bay during the filming of Transformers 4

22. French criminal Albert Spaggiari was caught after his gang stole 60 million francs worth of valuables from a bank. At his trial, he distracted the judge, jumped out of a window and escaped on a motorcycle specially set up for him. He was never caught again and died a free man.

23. Libyan dictator Gaddafi gave the Irish Republican Army four tons of Semtex. The IRA sold the plastic explosive to FARC in Colombia with bomb-making technology and training, charging $1 million per class for 28 classes

24. To be inducted into the infamous biker gang Hells Angels, newbies must never wash their uniform (the biker jacket and jeans) even after they have been covered in urine and feces of acting members.

25. The Yakuza operate openly in Japan: they have offices, make charitable donations, and even have large investments in mainstream companies