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10. Area Boys

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Lagos, Nigeria Drug trafficking, extortion, murder, inciting riots35,000Over the past three decades, Nigeria’s Area Boys have gone from young kids committing crimes of opportunity to a massive if still largely unorganized street gang responsible for acts of extortion and murder. Local authorities, who have made a number of failed humanitarian attempts to eliminate the gang, tie the rising level of violence to a depressed economy, high unemployment and the increasing prevalence of drug addiction among the gang’s members.