if we take chicago as an example some street gangs there have tight links to the sinaloa cartel for supply of drugs on a massive scale unlike the outfit. mostly this is a case of the outfit NOT being involved in street level drug dealing. none the less in chicago much like los angeles street gangs of both black and hispanic ethnicity have shown the ability to forge tight alliances with some of the worlds most powerful drug cartels. los angeles has no mafia family currently and even back into the 80's when the mafia was last prominent street gangs both black and hispanic were long dominant throughout the city.

on the other hand if we take the city of ottawa in canada it also has NO mafia family,crew,cell nothing going on. there are claims that the city has around 600 gang members divided along bloods/crips lines. so you would think with no italian mafia the gangs would reign supreme. in ottawa you couldnt find a more disorganized low level group of fake wannabe rapper gang bangers if u tried. this is not a racist screed its just that in ottawa the alleged gang culture/problem is non existent. compared to any U.S. city or toronto,montreal and vancouver ottawa is as light weight as it comes.

in montreal the mafia and HA are shared #1 in power in the city and it is only some of the street gangs that r smart enough to align with them.