When people think of organized crime, they think of the Italian Mafia and the Russian Mafia. These are the ones they see in movies and on television, and the ones they hear about the most. However, they were created a few centuries after their Asian counterparts, the Yakuza in Japan and the Triads in China. These Asian unions were founded in the 16th and 17th centuries and were composed of merchants and others from what was essentially the middle class. These were simply groups of poorer people who were simply looking for protection or trying to help others. The first organized crime syndicates were a kind of Robin Hood, they helped the poor. They were neither great nor powerful, and they were not numerous. The Italian crowd was the same way, small in number and very little power. However, over time, these organizations began to grow beyond what their founders imagined. When this started to happen and these organizations became more and more harmful, governments started to take notice. They began trying to stop them by either slowing their growth or making them cease to exist. Despite efforts to eradicate organized crime, it is stronger than ever. At the beginning of the 20th century, organized crime began to appear in the United States with a structure similar to today. Prohibition caused men to engage in the manufacturing and distribution of alcohol under the government's radar. There was one name that stood out above all the others, Al Capone aka "Scarface". Capone paved the way for organized crime in America and brought it into the spotlight. However, it will be necessary to wait around twenty years for large groups to begin to have a significant presence in the United States. As America opened its borders...... middle of paper......tp://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/organizedcrime/eurasian>.Finckenauer, James O." La Cosa Nostra in the United States." Www.ncjrs.gov, June 6, 2007. Web. March 20, 2014. “How the Law Finally Caught Up with Al Capone.” FBI. FBI, March 28, 2005. Web. March 20, 2014. “Italian organized crime.” FBI. FBI, August 27, 2010. Web. March 17, 2014. Pike, John. “La Cosa Nostra”. La Cosa Nostra. Federation of American Scientists, October 3, 1998. Web. March 20, 2014. “Russian organized crime.” Russian organized crime. Federation of American Scientists, March 1996. Web. March 20, 2014. “The Yakuza.” The Yakuza. Okinawan-shorinryu.com, nd Web. March 20. 2014. .