I was thinking, within the last 2-3 years things have been fairly quiet for families in NY such as Gambino's, Lucchese's and of course Genovese. The talk on here in that time is that some new guys have been made, leaderships established. A few guys arrested here or there but nothing major that decimates the ranks.
I'm no fan boy or want to say that suddenly these families are like they were in the 70s but seems things for the minute are going pretty good. Are we beginning to see the effects of the FBI downsizing their squads for the families? It seems groups like ISIS and other islamists are much more the priority atm (rightly so), so I guess there is some breathing space.
Also it was only 10 years ago the media and Feds were declaring Joe Massino 'the last Don' but we are calling Crea and Cefalu bosses of families today, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Genovese do have an official boss known only to members also. Thoughts?
From a strictly law enforcement approach, the 5 NY families are nearly indestructible. Prosecutions and defections help the process along but only attrition (in both quantity and quality) will see the eventual end.
No doubt a lot of pressure was taken off post-9/11 but there have continued to be plenty of cases against the mob since then. One can argue that the FBI has downsized their resources against the NY mob too much but, at the same time, they probably don't need the amount they did decades ago to simply keep it in check.
One thing that's interesting was some comments Robert Blakely made. He, of course, is the guy who helped come up with the RICO act to target the mob.
In 1990, following many mob busts in the 1980's, he said "They are dead or finished almost everywhere. Their strongholds in Boston, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Cleveland, New Orleans, Chicago and New York are all gone or under siege. They are virtually gone. If the sun is not set on all of them, it surely is twilight time."
While certainly true about some of those areas, others - particularly New York - were very premature. I suppose he realized that later on because in Raab's 2006
Five Families book, Blakely is quoted as saying "We don't win the war against the Mafia. All we can do is contain it and control it."
Back in the 1990's you had Giuliani and others in law enforcement or government predicting there wouldn't be a Mafia in 5 or 10 years with all the prosecutions. Well, that was 20 years ago now.
But if that's the case with the Italian-American Cosa Nostra, is there anybody else who has taken their place as the n.1 crime syndicate in the USA? I mean, is there somebody who is as powerful now as the Cosa Nostra was in the 30s-70s? The Mexican or Colombian cartel representatives maybe? Or is the organized crime generally weaker than before in all ethnic groups in the USA?
The answer to your question is no. Even if the Mexicans ended up dominating the drug trade from coast to coast, times have changed. They don't have the
systemic political and police corruption the LCN benefited from. Or the feds ignoring their existence like Hoover did with the mob. The Mexicans and Colombians have made a lot of money from the drug trade but they have not been diversified or in a position to control the lion's share of various criminal rackets in multiple cities like the mob did at it's peak. Much less be able infiltrate the labor unions and legitimate industries. Nobody will be able to "take the place" the mob once held. It really doesn't exist anymore. Now, rather than one dominant crime group on a national scale, you have several big time ones.
