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The last decades the Black sea region has leapt up the international attention as operational basis for the development of contemporary organized crime. After the fall of the former USSR and the opening of the border the countries of the Black Sea region became the operational springboard for transnational organized crime. The reasons are many and very. Radical economic transition, political instability and ethnic conflicts paved the way for the rising of numerous organized crime groups throughout the region. Moreover the the globalization of capital and the technological evolution contributed to the expansion of organized both in the countries of the region but also worldwide. However organized crime within the Black Sea region is not a homogenous phenomenon. A number of different organized crime groups are operating in the region such as Russian and Turkish organized crime and the Albanian Mafia which differ in terms of their structure and criminal operations. What they have in common is that they are cooperating in the accomplishment of many criminal enterprises (drug and human trafficking, weapon trade) consisting a criminal network throughout the region. On the other hand these organized crime groups share many common elements. In particular, except form Greece and Turkey, all the other countries of the region were under the same political orientation for more than fifty years. The establishment of communist regime both in the countries of the Eastern block and south Caucasus has affected the development of organized crime which was generated under the social turmoil that followed the end of the Cold War. As a result the present dissertation aims to delineate the historical roots and the causes that contributed to the evolution of organized crime in the region. In specific the present essay focus on the examination of Russian organized criminal groups and the Balkan organized crime. Additionally it examines the relation between organized crime and ethnic conflicts in the disputable regions of South Caucasus.