Ivy, how does that work? For instance Trafficante guys who affiliated themselves with Gambinos. Did they kick up to NY administration and were they equal in status(notice I said status, not the actual respect on the streets or power) as the NY made Gambinos?
I think it was just an alliance where the Gambinos were the senior partner. There wasn't much left of the Trafficantes and them being affiliated with the Gambinos gave them more weight.
Didn't the DeCavalcante have something like 70-100+ members at one time? And if they had done this in the early 50s couldn't something like this happen? Or would it probably just break down to war?
Thanks for responding.
From what I've read, the DeCavalcantes never had more than 60 or so members max.
I seem to see Cleveland mentioned a lot in a lot of the big Vegas operations in the mid 20th century. With the low margins of todays criminal underworld, where drugs is THE primary industry, there's only enough room for the biggest and the most powerful mafia families, most being in NY. The other families across America have lost their territories to street gangs. This is a lay person's opinion, however. I welcome any and all corrections.
Can you send me a link to this?
I doubt theres anything ''family'-ish going on there. Like I said, a few crooks with italian names doesn't make a family, nor a capable gang. Just hustlers.
They haven't lost much territory to street gangs other than the albanians, russians and maybe chinese/japanese?
Crips and bloods doesn't do what the mafia does. A Mob family and a street gang can coexist on one territory as far as my understanding goes. And I don't think drugs are THE primary income for OC. They mostly survive on Racketeering, Gambling etc. Drugs are mostly for low guys, the high era of LCN and Narcotics are over as far as I know.
Drugs are the primary money maker for street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and of course the cartels themselves, but gambling is #1 for the LCN. Drugs is still a big money maker for the mob but it has been marginalized in the trade because of all the competition.
Well, it seems this discussion has taken place before here and it's going in circles. I've seen a lot of people post about how the mob's primary business today is loan sharking. I can watch any late night tv program, and see 10 commercials for payday loans, regardless of credit history. Perhaps you can tell me, how does the mafia compete with what is basically boom times for legal predatory lenders? If I lose my rent money in Reno, why do I go to a wiseguy who will break my legs if I can't make my payments when I can just go to a payday loan place where worst case scenario, my already crap credit just gets crappier and eventually gets paid for by the tax payers?
The mob's #1 business is gambling - primarily sports betting. But loansharking goes hand in hand with it. Most mob loansharking cases are tied to gambling.
Even if you disagree on the strength and numbers of the Detroit fam, the fact that they have a fully functional admin all on the street and at least 3, possibly 4 crews makes it clear to me theyre not close to being defunct...imo i would say the Decavs are the closest to being defunct or more likely absorbed into one of the NY fams? I may very well be wrong and im happy to admit it, but i don't recall any concrete list of the family admin and who the actual skippers and what crews they have? Im sure a more knowledgeable poster can correct me on this though
I'd believe it about Detroit if we had more than just Scott saying it. I've said it before, I don't take his chart's at face value and have good reason for not doing so. The DeCavalcantes at least are in the Northeast, which has the biggest recruiting pool, and have made new members recently.
