IS RICO USED AGAINST ANYONE ELSE, OR JUST ITALIANS

It seems like RICO is primarily used against LCN, but what about other street gangs and prison gangs? 🤔 This law is looking really racist and discriminatory right about now.

Among others:

The Hells Angels
Latin Kings
Michael Milken
Key West FLA Police Dept
LAPD
FIFA (Soccer Federation)
A couple PA judges and politicians.
MLB
Connecticut Senator Len Fasino

RICO as been use to take down criminal organizations that are not the Mob.
Many groups of the UBN have been charged with Rico. The hells angels and the Latin Kings also have been charged with RICO.

Some organizations are charged with RICO.
But the organizations that mainly are targeted because of drug trafficking are mostly charged with CCE, Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute. Also known as the Kingpin Statue.

So RICO or CCE.... you are probably f*ck and will do alot of time

Okay, that's why I said it 'seems' like it

Just some thoughts here, maybe I'm wrong or maybe I'm right, but I think the main reason these other groups seem to hold up better against laws like RICO is that they have far more members and a never-ending string of recruits. Like Latin Kings and UBN ain't ever going anywhere, plus members of street gangs seem to love prison, it's a badge of honor. It's part of their culture, whereas mobsters for the most part will do anything to stay out of prison. This has made them weak, as their fear of prison restrains them from instilling discipline and setting examples. Again just my opinions if I'm wrong I'm wrong but this is how I see it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act#Famous_cases

The Cowboy Mafia

RICO was instrumental in indicting members of this group from Texas, Tennessee and Florida during 1977 and 1978, this group imported over 106 tons of marijuana. To date the largest amount of marijuana smuggling ring in North America using the shrimp boats Agnes Pauline, Monkey, Jubilee, and Bayou Blues, the group made six trips from Colombia to Texas. The group was arrested in 1978 after the federal government seized the Agnes Pauline when they were unloading their cargo in Port Arthur, Texas. In 1979, 26 members of the smuggling ring were convicted. Charles “Muscles” Foster, a ranch foreman and the head of the operation, pleaded innocent by reason of insanity and was acquitted in 1980.In August 1981, Rex Cauble was indicted by a grand jury, as the government believed he was the financial backer of the smugglers. Foster was the foreman for his ranches and the drugs were transported to Cauble's ranches throughout Texas. Cauble was a multi-millionaire, the former chairman of the Texas Aeronautics Commission and an honorary Texas Ranger. He was also the owner of Cutter Bill, a famous cutting horse. Cauble was convicted in January 1982 on ten counts including: two counts of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act statute (RICO), conspiracy to violate RICO, three violations of the Interstate Commerce Travel Act, and four counts of misapplication of bank funds. He was sentenced to ten concurrent terms of five-years. He completed his prison term and was released in September 1987. Cauble died in 2003. Three books were published, Rex Cauble's personal jet pilot Roy Graham released a book "The Cowboy Mafia" in 2003, "Catching the Katy" by Barker Milford 2017 and "A Conspiracy Revealed" by DEA agent Daniel Wedeman Sr.

As a result of the RICO conviction, Cauble forfeited his 31% interest in Cauble Enterprises and one of the largest forfeiture of holdings. This included interests in: two Cutter Bill Western World stores, three Texas banks (Western State Bank in Denton, Dallas International Bank and South Main Bank of Houston), six ranches, a welding supply company, and oil and gas holdings. The company's worth was estimated at $80 million. However, the government sold their interest back to the other partners (Cauble's wife and son) for an estimated $12 million.

Hells Angels Motorcycle Club

In 1979, the United States Federal Government went after Sonny Barger and several members and associates of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels using RICO. In United States vs. Barger, the prosecution team attempted to demonstrate a pattern of behavior to convict Barger and other members of the club of RICO offenses related to guns and illegal drugs. The jury acquitted Barger on the RICO charges with a hung jury on the predicate acts: "There was no proof it was part of club policy, and as much as they tried, the government could not come up with any incriminating minutes from any of our meetings mentioning drugs and guns."

Latin Kings

Several members of the Latin Kings have been convicted of RICO offenses.

Gil Dozier

Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Gil Dozier, in office from 1976 to 1980, faced indictment with violations of both the Hobbs and the RICO laws. He was accused of compelling companies doing business with his department to make campaign contributions on his behalf. On September 23, 1980, the Baton Rouge-based United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana convicted Dozier of five counts of extortion and racketeering. The sentence of ten years imprisonment, later upgraded to eighteen when other offenses were determined, and a $25,000 fine was suspended pending appeal, and Dozier remained free on bail.He eventually served nearly four years until a presidential commutation freed him in 1986.

Key West, Florida Police Department

Around June 1984, the Key West Police Department located in Monroe County, Florida, was declared a criminal enterprise under the federal RICO statutes after a lengthy United States Department of Justice investigation. Several high-ranking officers of the department, including Deputy Police Chief Raymond Cassamayor, were arrested on federal charges of running a protection racket for illegal cocaine smugglers.[23] At trial, a witness testified he routinely delivered bags of cocaine to the Deputy Chief's office at City Hall.

Michael Milken

On 29 March 1989 American financier Michael Milken was indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and fraud relating to an investigation into an allegation of insider trading and other offenses. Milken was accused of using a wide-ranging network of contacts to manipulate stock and bond prices. It was one of the first occasions that a RICO indictment was brought against an individual with no ties to organized crime. Milken pleaded guilty to six lesser felonies of securities fraud and tax evasion rather than risk spending the rest of his life in prison and ended up serving 22 months in prison. Milken was also ordered banned for life from the securities industry.

On September 7, 1988, Milken's employer, Drexel Burnham Lambert, was threatened with RICO charges respondeat superior, the legal doctrine that corporations are responsible for their employees' crimes. Drexel avoided RICO charges by entering an Alford plea to lesser felonies of stock parking and stock manipulation. In a carefully worded plea, Drexel said it was "not in a position to dispute the allegations" made by the Government. If Drexel had been indicted under RICO statutes, it would have had to post a performance bond of up to $1 billion to avoid having its assets frozen. This would have taken precedence over all of the firm's other obligations—including the loans that provided 96 percent of its capital base. If the bond ever had to be paid, its shareholders would have been practically wiped out. Since banks will not extend credit to a firm indicted under RICO, an indictment would have likely put Drexel out of business.By at least one estimate, a RICO indictment would have destroyed the firm within a month.Years later, Drexel president and CEO Fred Joseph said that Drexel had no choice but to plead guilty because "a financial institution cannot survive a RICO indictment."

Major League Baseball

In 2001, Major League Baseball team owners voted to eliminate two teams, presumably the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos. In 2002, the former minority owners of the Expos filed charges under the RICO Act against MLB commissioner Bud Selig and former Expos owner Jeffrey Loria, claiming that Selig and Loria deliberately conspired to devalue the team for personal benefit in preparation for a move.[29] If found liable, Major League Baseball could have been responsible for up to $300 million in punitive damages. The case lasted two years, successfully stalling the Expos' move to Washington or contraction during that time. It was eventually sent to arbitration, where the arbiters ruled in favor of Major League Baseball, permitting the move to Washington to take place.

Los Angeles Police Department

In April 2000, federal judge William J. Rea in Los Angeles, ruling in one Rampart scandal case, said that the plaintiffs could pursue RICO claims against the LAPD, an unprecedented finding. The idea that a police organization could be characterized as a racketeering enterprise shook up City Hall and further damaged the already-tarnished image of the LAPD. However, in July 2001, US District Judge Gary A. Feess said that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue the LAPD under RICO, because they were alleging personal injuries rather than economic or property damage.
Mohawk Industries
On April 26, 2006, the Supreme Court heard Mohawk Industries, Inc. v. Williams, No. 05-465, 547 U.S. 516 (2006), which concerned what sort of corporations fell under the scope of RICO. Mohawk Industries had allegedly hired illegal aliens, in violation of RICO. The court was asked to decide whether Mohawk Industries, along with recruiting agencies, constituted an "enterprise" that could be prosecuted under RICO. However, in June of that year, the court dismissed the case and remanded it to Court of Appeals.

Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella

A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Pennsylvania handed down a 48-count indictment against former Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella.The judges were charged with RICO after allegedly committing acts of mail and wire fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and honest services fraud. The judges were accused of taking kickbacks for housing juveniles, that the judges convicted of mostly petty crimes, at a private detention center. The incident was dubbed by many local and national newspapers as the "Kids for cash scandal".On February 18, 2011, a federal jury found Mark Ciavarella guilty of racketeering because of his involvement in accepting illegal payments from Robert Mericle, the developer of PA Child Care, and Attorney Robert Powell, a co-owner of the facility. Ciavarella is facing 38 other counts in federal court.
Scott W. Rothstein

Scott W. Rothstein is a disbarred lawyer and the former managing shareholder, chairman, and chief executive officer of the now-defunct Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm. He was accused of funding his philanthropy, political contributions, law firm salaries, and an extravagant lifestyle with a massive 1.2 billion dollar Ponzi scheme. On December 1, 2009, Rothstein turned himself in to federal authorities and was subsequently arrested on charges related to RICO.Although his arraignment plea was not guilty, Rothstein cooperated with the government and reversed his plea to guilty of five federal crimes on January 27, 2010. Bond was denied by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin Rosenbaum, who ruled that due to his ability to forge documents, he was considered a flight risk.On June 9, 2010, Rothstein received a 50-year prison sentence after a hearing in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

AccessHealthSource

Eleven defendants were indicted on RICO charges for allegedly assisting AccessHealthSource, a local health care provider, in obtaining and maintaining lucrative contracts with local and state government entities in the city of El Paso, Texas, "through bribery of and kickbacks to elected officials or himself and others, extortion under color of authority, fraudulent schemes and artifices, false pretenses, promises and representations and deprivation of the right of citizens to the honest services of their elected local officials"


FIFA

Fourteen defendants affiliated with FIFA were indicted under the RICO act on 47 counts for "racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies, among other offenses, in connection with the defendants' participation in a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer." The defendants include many current and former high-ranking officers of FIFA and its affiliate CONCACAF. The defendants had allegedly used the enterprise as a front to collect millions of dollars in bribes, which may have influenced Russia and Qatar's winning bids to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, respectively.
Drummond Company

In 2015, the Drummond Company sued attorneys Terrence P. Collingsworth and William R. Scherer, the advocacy group International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates), and Dutch businessman Albert van Bilderbeek, one of the owners of Llanos Oil, accusing them of violating RICO by alleging that Drummond had worked alongside Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia to murder labor union leaders within proximity of their Colombian coal mines, which Drummond denies.
Connecticut Senator Len Fasano

In 2005, a federal jury ordered Fasano to pay $500,000 under RICO for illegally helping a client hide their assets in a bankruptcy case.

Lechter v. Aprio

In the North Georgia case Lechter v. Aprio,[56] an Atlanta, GA accounting firm named Aprio, LLP[57] was sued by clients for involving them in a tax avoidance scheme[58] using conservation easements.[59] In the complaint,[60] David Deary, an attorney for the plaintiff, stated, “This is the exact kind of conduct that the civil RICO statute was designed to remedy, where you have a bunch of professional advisers that put together a scheme in secret manipulating a bunch of technical rules that laymen don’t understand to deprive people of their money."[61] Specifically, the claim cites violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. §§1961–1968, violations of the Georgia RICO statute, O.C.G.A. § 16-4-1, et seq.[62]

The case is being followed for its implications regarding the use of conservation easements as tax shelters.An article in Bloomberg Tax states: "A class-action claiming that the promoters of syndicated conservation easements knew from the outset that their deals violated tax laws is a new legal avenue for aggrieved investors as the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department grind through their own crackdowns."

In some of the cases below the RICO was used before (the first boss sentenced with Rico was Tieri in 1980) or during the fight against the mob.The fact is that the RICO was the keystone that allowed to condemn not only the small fishes but also the bosses, just because they were in charge of a criminal organization and what made Rico much more famous for fighting the mafia while being an indispensable law against any criminal enterprise.

Harry Bowman was the President of the Outlaw Motorcycle Club, was charged and convicted under RICO.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-11th-circuit/1435860.html

Lol do the non while criminal gangs like prison as much as the DillyDolly gangster of gangsterbb? And is it because they are just tougher or they don’t want to lose their “gangster legacy.”

I think it`s mainly because maintaining a hierarchical organizational structure is not important for gangs. Gangs mostly operate horizontally, and each member would conduct his own crime, maybe associates with a few others. But there`s no one overseeing the whole operation and impose the will of the organization as a whole, or at least not on the scale of OC groups, therefore even if some influential members are charged with RICO the gang can still function.

Glad to see some completely baseless claims of racism. Wouldn't be a day in America without it.

I think the 1979 Hells Angels case was the first time anyone beat RICO.

RICO was designed with Cosa Nostra in mind but nowadays it is used wherever LE think they can use it. If you and two of your friends run a card game and also go shopping with counterfeit credit cards, LE can fuck you with RICO. Normally you'd be facing a 2 year prison sentence but under RICO it is now up to 20 years in prison. Don't got a name for your "criminal organization"?, all good, the FBI will call it the "DillyDolly Organization" in your indictment papers. They will use RICO against anyone if they can, and if they choose to.

It was introduced as a way to fight the mafia, and Italians, that helped the law pass. It should never exist, it's biased against defendants and allows too much government overreach. It does seem to mostly be used against Italians, more specifically the Mafia.

Is that a quote, or did you suddenly learn how to type in perfect English?

Where's the Italian-American Civil Rights League when ya need em? Lol

Good spotting. Damn furio you got caught.

No,Jace with the experience I improved my way to write in English.

They also used it against the leadership of the Aryan Brotherhood, who were already serving life sentences.

Jace you're fucking rude

SimonChen, those are some great points.

Is that what your school teachers are telling you about America, that we're all racist ?? Pretty odd that hundreds of thousands of hispanics from Central America are swimming across rivers to get to the racist United States..

This is by far the best country in the world, and if you think the country's so bad, you're free to leave !!

I read that differently, I think he is saying that there wouldn't be a day in America without baseless claims of racism.

I was wondering why you say that then I seen the Neo agreed with me. You're crazy. If I was rude I apologize. You're crazy, I don't think they found a cure for that yet. As for Furio, if tomorrow he says he supports a rat who testified, you'll show us what real insults are like.

I think that is they had not introduced it as a way to combat the Mafia it would have never been accepted. They even went out of their way to give it initials spelling out an Italian name linked to a fictional Italian gangster from an old movie. If they had introduced it as a law for everyone (which it is) people would have been up in arms. The defendants money is seized before a trial, old charges that have already been classified as misdemeanors can be brung up again as felonies even if time was served for the misdemeanor, and special lawyers who understand it are needed. There are other issues people have with it. I think in the future it may be repealed.

RICO will never get repealed because it's one of the tools used to target street gangs.

Imo it's also interesting that, even though the RICO law was introduced in 1970, it wasn't used against the most important mafia bosses until the 80s, letting guys like Carlo Gambino, Joe Zerilli or Stefano Magaddino basically off the hook until they died, and even in the later period characters like Tony Accardo, Philip Lombardo, Santo Trafficante etc remained untouched or got off with minimum sentences, like Jack Tocco. Quite a selective approach to the mafia issue by whoever was supposed to use RICO against them imo....While flamboyant characters like Gotti went down, the smarter ones with connections to the government and law enforcement were basically left alone, or "dealt with" in a very lazy way.

RICO can be used by federal prosecutors to target any enterprise that engages in fraud or any activity that may have violated federal law. It may yet be used to prosecute some involved in the January 6 storming of the US Capitol.

They did not as many informants then as they do now, plus the people you mention were super secretive, especially Gambino. They wiretapped him a few times and could not get anything. Others of that time went to prison for long sentences without RICO---Vito Genovese, Sonny Franzese, John Ormento, Carmine Trumanti.....

You know I'm reading that book Gotham Unbound right now, which looks at each of the big industry rackets the mob was involved in through the 80's and how they were taken down, and there's no chapter about the ports. And the Newark port is still supposedly heavily controlled by the Genovese family.

Anyhow, I've always felt the real reason for Giuliani's anti-mafia crusade was to crush the unions.

Because bosses like Gambino, Zerilli, Accardo, Trafficante, Tocco, and Lombardo knew better than to taunt the government.

The reasons is simple. Before the 1980s the directors of FBI was from the Hoover old school that prefer fast indictments that long investigations. In the 1980s when was created the squads for every mob family the things changed.
The Jaguar tapes are a good example: the feds before find a same model of Sal Avellino Jaguar and start to practice forcing the door, disassemble the radio and connect the bug to the battery and close everything again so Avellino can understood nothing.
The first time Avellino went to holiday,at his return the bug consumed the car battery and the feds removed the bug at the last minute and replaced it even was raining and there was the risk that Avellino can see the wet car seats.

And after all,the feds with cars with an antennas must follow the Jaguar for a clear recording.

And this because the RICO needs many proofs and evidences and the LE must spendmany time (months or years) for made a good Rico case.

The primary reason (as has been admitted by the feds) for not having utilized the Rico laws in earlier years, although Rico was formed in the year 1970, is because prosecutors were largely unfamiliar with its complex rules and structure. They basically avoided it because they did not understand the complexity of it.

But by the late 1970s prosecutors in several jurisdictions decided to delve into it and attempted get a handle on its use. After several successful prosecutions they realized how exceptionally valuable Rico could be to them as they started to understand how to apply it.

By the early 1980s it was being used more regularly. From the point in time it has become the primary tool used to dismantle criminal organizations (LCN primarily), as well as, their primary tool to strip illicit money from those same people.

PS: at its core, Rico is largely unconstitutional. Yet, the FBI, federal prosecutors, as well as magistrates and judges, close their eyes to this in order to 'beat' the Mafia. When these convictions go before the appeals courts the convictions are generally rubber-stamped by those panels as well.

It is a lopsided 'game' that the U.S. Government had to employ in order to disrupt the power of LCN. Otherwise you would still have wise guys as powerful as they have always been since the 1920s. It was the beginning of the end of power.

If you notice the enactment of Rico correlates with the destruction of the Mafia. It's heavy-handed penal laws has led to the plethora of stool pigeons into witness protection, relocation; stripping of labor unions, business and cartel infiltration and domination, nationwide rackets, asset seizure, draconian sentences, etc. Many states even followed suit and created their own 'state' version of Rico.

G.Robert Blakey is the 'creator' of it. He was commissioned to close all 'loopholes' in any given law so the G would have the upper hand, and regardless of its legality or illegality, Rico is here to stay.

The G threw the constitution went out the window to win so to speak. And it took fifty years more, but they largely did win because today LCN is a shell of its former self. And its very foundation is cracked to its core....and it ain't coming back.

Nowadays prosecutors are absolutely in love with Rico. It allows them 'carte blanche' and they rarely worry about their use of it being deemed inappropriate by the courts. It basically allows them to charge anybody with anything. They use it against everyone. It's a dangerous law, and the G gas set a very dangerous precedence with its use. You get in its way? You'll get steamrolled. Any schmuck prosecutor just apply good ole "Rico" and the chances of any defendant winning his case is 'nill'

Prosecutors can literally throw the rest of the hundreds of penal law violations out the window. No more need for a law handbook. They use 1 law; Rico!!!

It is a very bad law IMO.

NYmafia the Rico is like the 41bis and the Italian Supreme Court said that the isolation for long period of time is dangerous but that the 41-bis is the better weapon to isolate the bosses and let the State to force the criminals to cooperate only through the merce of be put in 41 bis.

Anyway the laws are pieces of paper,and stay to the prosecutors to make a good use and the abuse is beyond the corner.

You're the one who needs a school teacher. See your way to Reading Comprehension 101.

Finish the wall!

That seems to have been a big part of it, the other was to put himself in the spotlight. Mafia cases draw the most attention.

At least I had a bad hangover, anybody who still likes Alice Cooper should still leave the country !!

Lol! I figured alcohol was involved.

LOL at how people explain in several ways, in terms a 5-year-old could understand, how RICO isn't prejudiced against Italian people, and yet the usual suspects crawl out of the woodwork with the same trite propaganda.

A 5-year old could understand that no one said it was prejudiced against Italians, but was it used more against them, which seems to be the case. You never have anything worthwhile to add. No one is using propaganda, you sound like a paranoid kook.

Back in the days there were only Italians, now there are so many groups. The Russians for example.

There have always been other groups, especially as you go across the United States. It has also been used against non-ethnic based groups that do a one time scam or crime over a short period of time. Even in Philadelphia or New York there have always been many other ethnic or race based organized groups. RICO was first used in 1980, though it was passed in the 1970's, the reasons for the delay were explained above by NYMafia.

Yes but it was passed in 1970 as a way to prosecute the Italian mafia, later it is used against all kinds of organized crime.

The Mafia was an italian criminal organization. They were great at it, too. So good it took the United States government to bring them down.

Can you hear it? The world's smallest violin playing just for the Italian mafia.

No one minds them bringing down the Mafia, it's the problem of such a lopsided law that can be used against any citizen. Also the original question was does it single out Italians over others. Plus, I have to correct you: The Mafia is not an "Italian" organization here, it's Americans who have some Italian ancestry, and their non-Italian associates. I doubt most of them speak Italian or have ever set foot on Italian soil.

Good post. The American Mafia isnt italian from the 1960s when the second generations start to replace people born in italy.

It's still the Italian-American Mafia, they're descendants of Italian immigrants, and people from Italy can still come over here and easily fill the ranks. In fact, with such a sorry Italian-American recruitment pool these days, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually prefer actual Italians from the old country joining their fraternity.

I doubt it.The Sicilian mafia lost much of his power,the ndrangheta is the best dog on the scene and won't help the US mafia to fill the ranks and the camorra clans even the small ones had a national if not european diffusion and much important the RICO law is similar to 416 and 41 bis so are finished the times of the america as a paradise for european gangsters.

That's a bunch of fucking bullshit stupid ass motherfucker, Sicilian Mafia is nowhere near finished your shitty ass government can't even capture Matteo Messina Denaro who's been on the run for nearly 30 years and it took them over 40 years to capture Bernardo Provenzano. Nobody, absolutely NOBODY, stays on the run for that length of time without enormous political power. And 41 bis isn't even as hard-core as it's been made out to be bosses have been been found to be running their clans even under 41-bis money talks bullshit walks everything is for sale in this world.

Hey idiot piece of shit,do you know that before the maxi trial for the politicians the mafia doesnt exist,Provenzano was capured 13 y after Riina and Messina Denaro is a ill mobster that was hidden someone if is not dead.
For what you write you deserve to be beaten up,you little piece of shit, you have insulted hundreds of people who gave their lives to serve the Italian state, do you think you know the situation of the mafia for some article read online?
In 2018 they tried to recreate the Commissione provinciale but Settimo Mineo the future capo dei capi was arrested.The Italian State is fighting against the mafia,ndragheta and camorra as it has never done before.
And these brave people don't deserve to be insulted by a louse like you.

Why so nasty to Furio? He is right this time IMO, and I usually agree with you, but not this time. Also you said above in another post in this topic that Italians can come to America and just join, which is ludicrous. They can't, not like that. Do you live in America? I don't like those who rat, but you are going overboard, you're mad at rats in other countries, and losing your mind over it.

Read again my post,I said the opposite:

I doubt it.The Sicilian mafia lost much of his power,the ndrangheta is the best dog on the scene and won't help the US mafia to fill the ranks and the camorra clans even the small ones had a national if not european diffusion and much important the RICO law is similar to 416 and 41 bis so are finished the times of the america as a paradise for european gangsters.

What’s a bunch of fucking bullshit is the role you wanna play on here, you wouldn’t say that shit in the real world. In the real world you would be on a corner giving away “good times” to make money for daddy. Now shut your fa***t ass up and be quiet, men are talking here!

Those are not brave people Furio, they're Statist scumbags trying to get rid of the competition. Has nothing to do with morals or principles or standards or any of that, the State wants to take the place of the Mafia, they want all the pizzo in the form of "taxes," and they only want the banks loaning out their printed-from-thin-air fiat currency with sky high interest rates. They're just as scummy as the Mafia.

Fuck you Louiebynochi, piece of shit.

Jace, I guarantee you that if given the choice between a mobster from Italy who's steeped in traditional Mafia values and knows exactly what the life is really about and some blowhard Italian-American Jersey Shore looking motherfucker from suburban America, I guarantee you that bosses like Bellomo and Mancuso will pick the former over the latter.

I love it when Furio tries to curse me out in his broken English, it's so comical and amusing 😄

Only because you are a keyboard warrior,in real world I should beat you up.

Okay Furio 👌

I do think that Giovanni Falcone was a genuine man who wanted the best for his people, him and Paolo Borsellino, but for the most part I'm very cynical of government.

Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino gave their lives and are heroes while many politicians especially Giulio Andreotti and later Silvio Berlusconi was deeply involvolved with the mafia but apart this pieces of shit after the 1992-1993 more politicians even the sicilians open the eyes and start helping the judges and the prosecutors without create him useless problems.And now the same thing is happening with the ndrangheta thanks to Nicola Gratteri.

You really are a clown Alice..And an arrogant one at that !!

Southern Italy should have been much richer like the North as long there is poverty there will be the Mafia the biggest employer.

The Mafia will always find a way to adapt and thrive in Italy, they're even in the north as countless operations have shown. I don't buy that stuff about them only thriving in the south because the south is poor. The Mafia is a very adaptable organization.

After 1861 the South was used as pool of workers for the industries in the north and when after the WWII was created industries during the so called Miracolo Economico (Economic Miracle) most of it ended up in bankruptcy because the increase in labor costs and the end of state economic incentives combined with the lack of a serious and competent industrial class caused their end.
Now there are the port of Gioia Tauro,the steel mills in Taranto and the shipyards of Castellammare but they are too few and more industries would be needed, as far as the mafia is concerned, if people found a well-paid job they would not turn to the mafia for a job or would not do business with them.

I don't agree, wealthy businessmen are having their fortunes and empires seized all the time for Mafia collusion and fronting for them. Let's quit acting like there's actually a way to make the Mafia extinct, they've been singing the same song for literally over a century. Like I said, the Mafia adapts and overcomes. And even if you didn't have the Mafia, you would be left with a corporate oligarchy that exploits the working class and lobbies the government to pass laws in their favor, so you're still fucked either way. Corporate America isn't any better.

“Those others the JP Morgans, they were crooks and killers too, but that was business right? The American 🇺🇸 way!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZJy89A7LgY

Hey and don't forget, if you like that, smash that like button and hit subscribe, it really helps us out!

Alice,

Why are you even on these boards? I'm really curious to know what compels you be so active on here?

Because like every other boring guy on here, the lives some of these guys have led fascinates me?

Im barely on here, I dont consider myself very active here at all. I'm surprised anyone knows I exist.

Why am I here? To stop in and see if anyone turns up an old tv segment on Mickey Featherstone, or Tony Spilotro, or Jimmy the Gent, or Taco Bowman, or whoever. To be able to clarify things when I read a book like Joe Dogs. I acknowledge that most of the people we discuss were simply evil, as do many others on here. I don't really understand your question. I'm not going to hero worship some of the worst people in our society, if that's what you mean...

Also, I like to contribute when I can. That picture of the biker club guy is not from 1978 because he's sitting on an Evo Softail. That Henry Hill quote is from Howard Stern, not 20/20. Actually. yes there have been innocent people on death row, etc etc.