Well it depends what you consider strong. Only two families are currently still respectable in their strength but after the may 2000 stock scam bust even they've temporarily lost some footing. Also, think of it this way: You enter the Cosa Nostra, you're a soldier and considered killable if you do a single thing wrong. Other than that, you risk getting caught or convicted of a murder you committed (and you will be ordered to kill, it's not like John Gotti who killed 1 man then became the boss of the family a couple years later), and being put in prison for the rest of your life. Should you be lucky and survive to become the next Tony Soprano, you then risk a RICO trial everywhere you go. There's not a single place you can have a conversation, it'll more than likely be bugged (and the bugs today dont compare to 1990, where you could barely hear John Gotti talk over music in the appartment above Ravenite. Today the bugs hear everything with crystal clarity). And the chances of becoming boss or Underboss are slim to nil, so you'll have pretty much a nice house and car, maybe even a family, before they take it all away from you and put you in a brand new orange jumpsuit prison uniform.