Originally Posted By: JSTony
Originally Posted By: Ludovico
Ok well I suppose I'lla gree with that if you purely meant domestic organized crime in new york. But so long as you know that New York isn't the only epicenter of power here in america.

Either way I aree with you about the american mafia now, they've begun operating on a much smaller scale internationally which is probably contributing to their decline.

To the best of my knowledge though the big influx of russian syndacites have been comeing in since the fall of the iron curtain, I'm defintly not denying a presence since the 70's but I don't think it was anything truely considerable as compared to now.

And to clear up one last misunderstanding I did think you were talking about the mafia as a whole in america not primarily the Five Famalies, now it makes more sense to me.


With relatively few exceptions, the American Mafia never had extensive international operations. Those few exceptions would be things like certain factions operating in Canada, stolen cars being shipped to Kuwait, wire rooms in Costa Rica, casinos in Cuba, drug connections to Mexico and South America, etc. The LCN was national in scope at one time. Now, it's influence is regional, mainly in the Northeast, parts of the Midwest, and Florida.

True, the main influx of Russian gangsters came about in the early 1990's but the prediction of many that the Russian Mob would replace the LCN has never taken place.


Then again you can't really take those predictions seriously. It seems that EVERY new ethnic mob thats comes over to america is gonna replace the american mafia. I remember reading about all the hype in "The New Ethnic Mobs" (one of the best books if you want an overview of organized crime) that people thought the blacks were gonna take over, then the asians, it goes on.

I'm not sure if I entirley agree with you on the mob being national in scope. But let me ask for some clarifacation, did you mean the mafia as one large incarnation or the various outfits from NY, Chicago, etc.?


I will be asking the questions! Because I don't know them!