Here's a well researched article about the well known "AdBlock Plus" browser extension.
http://www.mobilegeeks.de/adblock-plus-undercover-einblicke-in-ein-mafioeses-werbenetzwerk/

tl;dr: The extension with 15 million users belongs to a small company in Germany that is heavily affiliated with the advertising industry. At the same time AdBlock Plus has introduced what they call "Acceptable Ads" and it has become obvious that advertisers can buy into this whitelist or be extorted to buy into it, as the case may be.

Chrome Web Store - Adblock Plus - see recent reviews.

Dram drama, but only because they allow certain ads to come trough, I wouldn't say they could be called a "mafia-like network". They need some money to keep up their work, and I am pretty sure someone will code a patch to disable acceptable ads if they ever get obligatory.

https://adblockplus.org/blog/die-geheimen-details-von-adblock-plus
http://www.gulli.com/news/21895-kritik-an-adblock-plus-werden-partnerfirmen-bevorzugt-behandelt-2013-06-27
(Switch to Google Translate if you can't read German)

tl;dr: Not that simple


Besides, the changes are known for about two years now, everyone who isn't comfortable with other people making money off AdblockPlus can just disable all whitelists - problem solved.

there were time when i was looking for ideal solution that will free my eyes from all of ads. unlike adblock it can be applied even to android smartphone(mine has it) to save your bandwith and battery, by phisically not loading ads.
and unlike adblock this thing is working extremely well with no exclusions but stated in the phisical HOSTS file on your machine/smartphone.
works in all browsers - no need to use plugins. supported by any OS that uses HOST file.
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm