In 1999 in Jamaica, troops were given emergency power to patrol the capital after the government had "declared" war on criminal gangs that were estimated to have killed 500 people in a six month period.
Bulgaria is known for its Olympic class wrestlers (claimed to be mass-produced by the old Soviet regime to personify the heavy-set virility of socialist labour in the world's sporting arenas). Following the collapse of the communist bloc, many wrestlers have become part of a new "thugocracy" – the Bulgarian word for "the wrestlers" (borsite) has now become the slang term for gangsters. Former state-paid secret policemen also work with the gangs, mostly as advisors.