The Infamous Mafia - A Bygone Era in American History

First of all, I never thought I’d be saying this in a million years! In fact, I never even imagined that I could think it let alone contemplate it - that “traditional organized crime" in the United States, better known as the infamous Mafia or Cosa Nostra, is a far cry from what it was just a few decades back.

But it is!

Unbelievably, nowadays, what now passes for “traditional organized crime,” as the FBI likes to refer to the Italian-American Mafia , is almost unrecognizable from the entity it once was.

Button Guys thought it would be interesting and very informative to pull back the curtain and take a peek at the awesome power the Mafia once had in this country and what little remains of that power today.

We decided to break the mob’s once monolithic “Octopus-like” power down into several sub-categories.

First, was the near ironclad control they once exhibited over wide swaths of legitimate businesses and industries. Next, was their deep penetration and pivotal control over much of the national labor movement . And lastly, the near-total control the mob exhibited over most major illicit underworld rackets throughout the United States.

The Infamous Mafia - A Bygone Era

Today, Cosa Nostra is but a mere shell of its former self. Its once all-consuming power and deadly reputation for enforcing that power have mostly gone the way of Jesse James and Ma Barker and her gang.

“The Mob” is quickly becoming ancient history and the stuff of American folklore…So let’s take a good look, shall we?

Monopolstic Control

The Mob’s monopolistic control over the following industries and lucrative rackets was almost completely stripped away from them by the United States Department of Justice and their law enforcement partners in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, and the various Strike Force Attorneys heading key cities.

Lost forever were such underworld moneymakers as:

Lower Manhattan docks and waterfront Fulton Fish Market Midtown Manhattan “Westside” docks and piers Staten Island docks South Brooklyn docks Northern New Jersey docks Miami, Florida docks Jacob Javits Convention Center Jukebox, vending, coin-machine industry Times Square pornography and sex-related industry San Gennaro Italian Feast Las Vegas Casinos (hidden ownership of) Casino skimming operations (Las Vegas, Bahamas, and various island nations)

Revenue Rackets

Either through the legalization of these activities or their dissipation because of modern and sophisticated law enforcement techniques and computerized technology, the following rackets are now largely considered extinct and no longer viable for Cosa Nostra to operate.

The loss of this myriad of rackets has been devastating to them and the resultant loss of the revenue these rackets once brought into the mob’s coffers cannot be overstated.

Bookmaking (horse races) Policy numbers lottery Cuban lottery game called “Bolita” Floating dice games Illicit casinos (Roulette, Poker, Blackjack, etc) Football parley sheets Truck hijacking Cargo thefts (waterfront, airport freight) Fencing stolen goods Cigarette smuggling and bootlegging Counterfeiting; U.S. currency, credit cards, stocks, bonds, etc. Smuggling contraband Burglary and organized theft rings Boiler-room securities fraud Illegal alien-smuggling Heroin importation Liquor bootlegging After-hours unlicensed drinking clubs Protection and shakedown rackets

The mob’s social clubs, once a fixture in nearly every Italian neighborhood where crime figures congregated daily are mostly gone as well.

I’d say a good 95% of all the private mobbed-up social clubs throughout New York’s five boroughs are long gone. The few that remain are an anomaly.

The Labor Movement

Total loss of control and dominion over the national labor movement.

he following “once upon a time” labor unions were under the tight reign of the mob. Today finding any type of underworld presence in major labor unions is like “trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack.”

International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union International Longshoremen’s Association International Laborers & Hod Carriers Union (AFL-CIO) Restaurant, Nightclub, and Bartenders Union International (AFL-CIO) International Union of Electrical Workers (AFL-CIO) International Carpenters and Joiners Union (AFL-CIO) International Ladies Garment Workers Union (AFL-CIO) International Alliance of Theatrical Stagehand Employees Union (AFL-CIO) International Seafood Workers Union Plumbers & Joiners Union (AFL-CIO) International Union of Operating Engineers (AFL-CIO) Dozens of other smaller or “Independent” labor unions John F. Kennedy International Airport Garbage carting-private sanitation monopoly Garment District trucking monopolies Various other industry management “Trade Group Associations”

*Also: The loss of all the lucrative “monopoly contracts” awarded through the above-listed entities.

Extremely limited involvement and control over Manhattan’s “Garment District” manufacturing and contracting factories which has evaporated 90%, and the Hunts Points Produce Markets in the Bronx.

What's Left?

Nowadays, the only major rackets left for the Italian mob to engage in are the following activities listed below.

But even these rackets operate at a vastly reduced volume and state of power from what it once was. Here is a general list of street rackets that are still somewhat viable for them:

Sports bookmaking Card games in private social clubs Gambling machines, so-called “Joker Poker” machines in certain social clubs Loansharking Labor unions (mostly smaller “independent” unions) Narcotics; marijuana, prescription pills, cocaine, and its derivatives Frauds: bank fraud, business fraud, health care fraud, etc. Various frauds are prolific, but they are generally perpetrated by independent criminals, not the mafia, per se. The massage parlor “prostitution” rackets are rampant and booming today from coast to coast. But, nowadays, prostitution is almost exclusively controlled by Asian organized crime groups such as the Chinese and Korean gangs. The multibillion-dollar narcotics racket is today largely controlled by Hispanic-type criminal organizations such as the Mexicans and Colombians drug cartels and narco-traffickers. They have complete control over both the production, smuggling, and wholesale distribution of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, etc., from those South American countries into the United States. The so-called “Outlaw 1% Biker Gangs” are said to control much of the production and interstate distribution of Methamphetamine across the United States and Canada. The Hells Angels, The Pagans, The Rock Machine, The Outlaws, etc., are all said to be dominant forces in the meth trade.

What’s really left today after that? The correct answer is not much! In my estimation, that's about all that's left for them to handle. The Mafia is a dying business model - at least in the United States.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

The Infamous Mafia – A Bygone Era in American History

The current state of traditional organized crime in the United States

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