Originally Posted By: pizzaboy
Originally Posted By: CabriniGreen
Yeah, see the thing Alfa, any coke coming into the U.S. To be consumed by Americans is coming thru the border, meaning Mexican cartels. I'm sure they can truck this shit wherever they need to go in the U.S.
And then you got heroin, if European, it's coming from Afghanistan, or like Southeast Asia, this side of the world, it's Colombian or Mexican, with the Colombian being the higher grade. And they would be using their own routes along the border, not really the port of NEw YOrk, again unless it's being shipped OUT of the country.
This is why I really hope they shed some light on the calabrians, also if you believe Roberto SAviano (and I mean, why not when he has a standing price on his head) the Sicilians have, since like the early 2000s, had to go through either Naples clans or recently the Calabrians for even heroin.
Rizzutto really left a void in Italian Amrican crime, are they holding on, or have they been muscled out?

Good post, Cabrini.

The Mexicans, other South Americans, and various European ethnic groups don't NEED American CN to bring drugs into this country. And, for the most part, American CN doesn't give a shit. All they want is a little taste, which they'll make on a mid-level distribution level.

American CN counts on gambling, shylocking, their White Collar specialties (construction, trucking, garbage, etc.). And THEN the mid-level distribution of drugs, if that.

Alfa's reading too much into the traditional Italian groups (whether it be the Mafia, Camorra or the 'Ndrangheta) doing business with their AMERICAN counterparts. Does it happen occasionally? Sure. But American CN needs to count on the aforementioned scams and White Collar businesses to survive.

@ Alfa: These aren't the Illuminati or a bunch of boogeymen. These are only street guys. STREET guys. Not Don Corleone. They're just men. And I'll leave it at that because you're such a brilliant historian. But this is where we get into that intellectual vs. "been there, seen that" debate, so I'll stop now to avoid a needless argument.

Bookmaking + Shylocking + White Collar and legitimate investments = The potential future of American CN. They're not depending on partnerships with Italian National groups.

In other words, it's working right now. And if it ain't broke, you don't fix it. This is, of course, rhetorical. But go ask Barney or Stevie if they give a shit about that pipeline. See what kind of look you get.


PB hit the nail on the head and I couldn't have said it any better.

You can read any recent DEA national drug threat assessment or local HIDTA report. At this point, generally speaking, the Mexican DTOs are the dominant drug group in just about every area of the country except the Northeast and South Florida. They may even rival the Colombians in South Florida now. The last threat assessment I read, before they stopped due to funding few years ago, had the Mexicans the dominant drug trafficking group as far north as the Philadelphia/South Jersey area and they were quickly expanding more into the New York and New England regions.

Following the end of the Pizza Connection in the mid-1980s, that was also the end of the Italians being at the top of the drug trade. By then, cocaine (which they never had control of the supply) had probably eclipsed heroin in popularity. Ever since, the Mafia has been marginalized.

The NY families certainly continued to be significant players in narcotics, and remain so today, but what gives the mob its strength and staying power - even more than being at the top of the drug trade - is its diversity. It isn't a one trick pony like the strictly drug trafficking groups. Take away narcotics and many other criminal enterprises and gangs would cease to exist or at least lose their far and away biggest source of income.

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