The mafia and organized crime are often two different things. While the mafia is certainly an example of organized crime, organized crime is not always synonymous with the mafia. Mafia being a generic term for any ethnocentric crime organization; there are Italian, Cuban, Chinese, Russian, and other 'mafias' who pretty much consist of a single ethnicity or nationality.
Organized crime, however, can consist of all flavors of people, GREEN is the universal color baby! The mafia gets all the attention because Hollywood and the media have romanticized it, but other 'networks' of corruption and fraud are just as prevalent.
One study of organized crime in Seattle exposed a crime syndicate that involved witting participation by a former governor of the state, a county prosecutor, the police chief, the sheriff, at least 50 law enforcement officers, leading business people, including contractors, realtors, banks, corporation executives, and, of course, a supporting cast of drug pushers, pimps, gamblers, and racketeers (Chambliss, 1978).
In Miami, over 100 police officers were prosecuted, disciplined or fired after it was discovered that group of police officers were stealing drugs from drug pushers and evidence rooms, then selling it themselves, while a number of other officers protected them or simply looked the other way. This is a good example of 'organized' crime.
Syndicates are formed for a variety of purposes, such as smuggling of illegal commodities into and out of countries, gambling, prostitution, illegal dumping of toxic wastes, circumventing fire or building codes, money laundering, insurance scams, theft and larceny, arson, usury, and murder, and consist of a variety of people including business owners, bankers, corporate executives, judges, police, union officials, politicians, and ordinary citizens looking for extra-curricular income.
Source: "Organized Crime, The CIA, and the Savings and Loan Scandal" by Gary W. Potter.