The difference is Detroit has an identifiable leadership and enough made members for multiple crews. I'll take the word of the FBI and Michigan State Police. When they say the Detroit mob is dead then I'll believe it
Maybe someone should ask the Detroit FBI and Michigan State Police why there aren't more cases devoted to the LCN there.
This is, of course, a rhetorical question and probably part of the reason why some OC experts don't consider Detroit to be among the remaining viable families.
My guess is the FBI in Michigan are more concerned with terrorism since the Detroit area has the highest concentration of Muslims. The state police are probably more concerned with out of control black gangs and crime in the Detroit metro area. A bunch of bookies and loansharks are very low on their list. According to Jerry Capeci, there are only 3 FBI agents assigned to the entire Lucchese Family. How many FBI agents do you think are assigned to the traditional organized crime in the Detroit area? That would explain the lack of indictments. If a bomb went off in DC or NYC or a plane blew up, would you like to explain to Congress why your FBI agents were busy chasing after a bunch of geriatric bookies instead of working on national security threats?
Here's a 2011 article on the Detroit Mafia that has been posted here before:
Quote:
As recently as 2006, FBI agents in Detroit arrested more than a dozen individuals under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) charging them with bookmaking, money laundering and extortion. Though federal authorities did not officially link the case to the mob, sources in local law enforcement confirm that the indictment’s alleged ringleaders, Peter Tocco of Troy and Jack V. Giacalone of West Bloomfield, as well as several of their co-defendants are affiliated with the area’s mafia family.
I'd say they're on life support, but not extinct. Once the current crop of leaders dies off or decides to retire, it may go the way of the Buffalo Family.
