in my opinion the only drugs where the mafia is at or near top dog status would be prescription pills, mainly oxycodone and to a lesser extent benzos such as xanax or valium. oxy abuse has reached epidemic levels in the northeast and there are insane amounts of money to be made. by now most people with any drug knowledge are aware of south floridas pill mills, and with all five families maintaining a somewhat strong influence there it makes sense to me that there has to be lots of involvement with shipping the pills north. it also helps that these drugs are sold more in the suburbs which means less chance imo of conflicts with other groups. the mafia is also heavily involved with marijuana cultivation and distrubution as ther have been a number of grow houses with links to lcn. pot has such a wide customer base that there seems to be room for everyone. in terms of heroin and cocaine, the mafia in the us seem to be mid-level at best. gone are the days of the pizza connection, and even more importantly is the fact that most of the heroin in the united states is imported from columbia and mexico today, rather than sicily. the only mafia groups with direct links to the cartels seem to be the calabrians.