That article was written by Scott Burnstein, who posts over on the Real Deal. I suppose it depends on how you define both "active" and "family."

Activity? The last significant bust involving the Detroit mob was back in 2006. Mainly a gambling and loansharking case. Then you have to go back 10 years to 1996 when Tocco and a bunch of other guys were rounded up.

Family? Scott believes there is 40-50 members there. I have to disagree for any number of reasons. First, the families in New England, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Chicago each have about 50 members but far more activity than Detroit. And I don't buy the argument that Detroit has found a way to avoid law enforcement detection while every other family hasn't. Second, in 1996 the max estimate what 30 members there. It's highly unlikely that a family like Detroit could increase that much in size over the past 15 years. Scott cites rumors about a couple of making ceremonies in recent years but it's not much to go on.

When judging which families are still viable, I choose to use the RICO standard - an ongoing pattern of crimes conducted in behalf of an organization. In my view, Detroit doesn't meet that standard anymore.