(FORTUNE Magazine) – Organized crime in the U.S. is not a Mafia monopoly. Members of the Chinese Triad secret societies and Japanese Yakuza have acquired growing influence in Hawaii and on the West Coast, where their legal and illegal enterprises range from prostitution and heroin to commercial real estate. Vietnamese underworld gangs operate in California and Texas, and the so-called Israeli Mafia is based in Los Angeles. Even a Russian emigre gang works extortion and narcotics rings in New York City. And in September a jury convicted 11 members of a Taiwanese crime syndicate, United Bamboo, of racketeering and drug dealing in the same Manhattan courthouse where eight of the top 50 Mafia bosses are now on trial. At least three other groups have become strong enough to strike deals with the Italian-American mob. Most powerful are Colombian cocaine and marijuana traffickers, who are shattering the widely held assumption of Mafia omnipotence. For one thing, the Colombians' sources of supply, their cocaine-processing labs, and their armed strongholds in Latin America are beyond the Mafia's reach. For another, Colombian gunmen in the U.S. are known not only for shooting their targets, but for picking off the victims' relatives as well. Even Genovese and Bonanno hitters are afraid to challenge these wild men, preferring a policy of appeasement, and a cut of the profits for serving as their distributors. Perhaps the biggest cocaine trafficker is Colombian Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas, 38, a fugitive from the Drug Enforcement Administration who is also known as Joe Lehder. Arrested in Detroit in 1973 for smuggling stolen cars, Lehder was imprisoned for two years and then deported to Bogota. Back home he got into the drug business, acquiring jungle plantations and processing labs. He also assembled a private army and a fleet of fast ships and planes, and built a well-guarded base for his smuggling activities on Norman's Cay in the Bahamas. With the assistance of fugitive American financier Robert Vesco, Lehder's men struck a deal with Fidel Castro's officials to let drug-laden planes fly through Cuban air space unimpeded for two hours a day. Federal agents estimate that Lehder's cocaine sales in the U.S. range from 500 to 1,000 kilos a week. At a rock-bottom price of $6,000 per kilo, his annual revenues would come to between $160 million and $320 million. U.S. agents investigating Lehder believe he is hooked on his own wares. He fancies himself a Marxist revolutionary called ''Comandante Rambo'' but runs his far-flung operations from the cockpit of a Learjet. He also owns a newspaper that publishes anti-U.S. diatribes. He pronounced death threats against U.S. diplomats in Colombia and the agents trying to close down his business on American soil. Other crime groups, such as the Pagan Motorcycle Club and the Cuban ''Corporation,'' have also reached accommodation with various Mafia families. The Pagan ''bikers,'' who are Americans, work with the Philadelphia mob in drug trafficking and extortions, while the Corporation (estimated annual net profit: $45 million) operates numbers games in New York and New Jersey. The Cubans reportedly surrender a small percentage of their gross revenues to the Genoveses and Bonannos. But in Gambino territory the split goes the other way. To keep the peace, the Gambinos give 35% of all gambling proceeds -- horses, casinos, and numbers -- to the Cubans.