Levantine Mafia

The Levantine Mafia (Arabic: المافيا الشامي al-māfiyā ash-shāmī), commonly known within the Arab Union as simply the Mafia (مافيا māfiyā) and until 1980 as the Lebanese Mafia (المافيا اللبنانية al-māfiyā al-lubnānīyah), it is the dominant organised crime syndicate in the Levant and likely the most powerful in the Arab Union. Founded in Zahlé, Lebanon in 1950, it quickly established a monopoly over the import, export and local distribution of illegal narcotics in the country and the surrounding region, as well as arms trafficking, racketeering, money laundering and other activities typical of organised crime.

Following the establishment of the United Arab Republic (UAR) in 1958, its admittance of Lebanon in 1980, and its expansion to most other Arab countries by 1988 and the UAR's subsequent federalisation, the Levantine Mafia exponentially increased its territorial and political influence become, by the late 1990s, the foremost organised crime group in the UAR. It nonetheless continues to be headquartered in Beirut, and is therefore sometimes still known colloquially as the Lebanese Mafia.

The incumbent leader ("pasha"; باشا bāshā) of the Levantine Mafia since 2009 is Maalouf Pasha, son-in-law of former leader Aoun Pasha (1977–2009).