You would think that LCN as a whole would not want to do business with a lowly street gang. After all, the LCN has, for decades, been considered the ivy leagues of crime, whereas gangs like the Bloods and Crips are, for the most part, simply street gangs made up of members you would think that LCN would consider beneath them!
I think that lcn members would work with anyone doing anything from home invasions, drug dealing to sex trafficking so i wouldnt say anyother group of criminals are beneath them. I think the major difference between the two is the environments that both live in. Mobsters live in alot more of a peacful and calm environment where they can perhaps resolve things with a sit down because things arent as fast moving and they can plan for the future more, street gangs live a more do or die lifestyle where perhaps they are mostly concerned with the present things are alot more violent for them. But i think you have to differentiate from low level gang members and gang leaders and the high level drug traffickers in the gang.
The articles on this site are good. theres one about the outfit associates hiring gang members to do hits.
http://americanfocus.tripod.com/gangawareness/id10.html Chasing dirty money
April 8, 2002
Cops call it velocity. The rapid-fire exchange of dollar bills for dime bags. Cash flowing from a drug deal into a bank account under an assumed name.
Money being pulled from the account to buy luxury cars, designer clothing and more dope.
The high-speed spin cycle that makes dirty money clean.
"The faster you can spend the money to buy the dope, the faster you sell the dope, and the more money you make," said William O'Brien, the assistant Cook County state's attorney in charge of the office's Narcotics Prosecution Bureau. "One way to stop the velocity is to throw a wrench into the money aspect of it. Once it gets deposited and the bulk cash is turned into a blip on the computer screen, we can't do anything about it."
Police and prosecutors have always known Chicago street gangs launder their drug profits through seemingly legitimate businesses such as currency exchanges, cellular phone shops and beauty salons.
Until now, federal agents typically have investigated money-laundering. Local authorities said they did not have the expertise and manpower to concentrate on such time-consuming cases.
This year, however, money-laundering is at the heart of Cook County prosecutors' strategy for breaking up Chicago's drug operations, which they believe have already been splintered with the imprisonment of top gang leaders.
Millions of dollars are at stake, according to Ranell Rogers, 23, a member of the Mafia Insane Vice Lords.
"I make between $1,000 and $2,000 a week. It's my keep. I worked for a guy, and I counted his money one time and for a week, counted $1.2 million sitting on my table. But it was his money. I wanted to get my gym bag and run. But he knows where my house is. That was his take."
Cook County's initiative could become a model for the rest of the nation, backed with the clout of U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).
"It's a 180-degree turn," O'Brien said. "Everyone has always been following the powder, following the dope. Now we are going to follow the money."
In February, police and prosecutors opened three cases using the new approach.
Police and prosecutors will approach the Illinois Gaming Board to develop intelligence about drug dealers who launder their cash at riverboat casinos.
They will work with the Illinois Department of Revenue to obtain tax returns of drug kingpins and their associates.
