The Mexican Mafia are the top of the food chain. You think they don't have enforcers out on the street to pick up the tributes from the street gangs operating on their territory?

The Mexican Mafia once gave the green light for a hit on the Governor of California. LCN have no such capability to carry out such an operation in 2012. La Eme have also infiltrated Government programs and have many contacts in very influential Government positions and the magnitude of their connections into organised crime has not really been fully unravelled or exposed.

What is for certain is that they have the capacity to frighten alot of very weary law enforcement officials who are under no illusions about the level of their threat. LCN put a threat out on the Mayor of New York? Erm, the FBI would round them all up for conspiracy in five seconds flat and the family would be busted.

Only brutal criminals with nothing to lose can scrap it out on the street and LCN and their fine living wiseguys just ain't up to much. They look dapper and have shiny shoes but that don't make a tough guy.

In fact in terms of violence and threat level and in terms of brutality and ruthlessness LCN are almost white collar criminals by comparison.

They wouldn't have the muscle to compete with the Mexcian Mafia. The only power they have is through their networks and through their political connections.

Apart from a few bruisers collecting debts they are not the killing machine that gave them such infamy and notoriety up until the 80's. From thereon in as John Gotti himself conceded the mob were "losing the streets".

Made Mafia members are pampered mamma's boys by comparison to the thugs who spent their youth and life slugging it out on the streets with bullets or mano o mano with shivs. Most made men these days probably haven't been in a proper fight other than gutter punching some joe schmoe nobody who knows who they are and isn't going to mess with them anyways.

They would be annihilated in a war with La Eme. These mama's boys would get their asses spanked in a street confrontation. That's the reality. Unless they contract out their muscle to a street gang or an Outlaw MC they have no capacity of their own to fight toe to toe in a turf war.

In fact I'm not sure they'd even be allowed. LCN bosses have too much to lose to even dip their toes into street confrontations. LCN are many things, organised, well connected and influential.
One thing they're not, in 2012 is 'tough'.