Things you wish people would stop saying

Stupid shit you wish people would stop saying regarding the Mafia or just organized crime in general. I'll go first, " You're not even Italian!" So you have to be Italian to be interested in this subject? You know how many non-Italian associates helped make this thing what it was/is? Some with even more clout than some made men? Even in Italy, big busts often involve a rainbow mix of criminals involved from all over the world. Or here's a similar one, "You're not even from Chicago!" As if somehow being from Chicago makes you the absolute authority on organized crime in Chicago. There's people not even from Chicago who probably know more about your own city than you do. Ridiculous.

"Hes my homie"

Fuckin stupid word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUG0IMjfxCE

i'm not sure if this is what you were angling for. however anytime i can find even a minor reason to insert anything from MR.CONDUCTOR...i will. not to divert topic but carlin was the best. i was very lucky to see him in concert twice before he died. the true GOAT of stand up bar none.

Uhm...99% of the Mafia, Ndrangheta, Camorra or SCU busts have a 99% ratio of Italian criminals that are involved. Sure, you'll find of Balkan associate pop up here or there or a North African drug dealer that worked for usually an SCU or Camorra clan, but those really show up in a small percentage of the Big Four busts in Italy.

There are a small number of similar criminal organizations operating in Italy. They are mostly based outside of Italy, or composed of non-Italians living in Italy, such as the Chinese, Russian, Georgian, Nigerian and Balkan crime groups including the Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Montenegrin and the Albanian mafia.

Exactly Hollander, no doubt that Italians outnumber everyone else, but we have seen busts where many associates of other ethnicities are busted with the big 4.

Do you know who I am? do you know who my father is ? I heard he's a rat... I think the phone is tapped, I hear tapping....
I can go on and on. I hate that shit !

Oh here's another one, "I wonder what organization is going to replace the 5 Families when they die out?" How many decades they've been saying that now? Everyone's always looking for the next big thing and the media eats it up. Also, anyone who says that the Colombos will be absorbed by one of the other Families (something else people have been saying for decades), I can't take them seriously.

Oh here's another one, "bosses like Accardo, Gambino, Costello, and Trafficante are true bosses because they died in bed and not in prison unlike Gotti, Gigante, Persico, etc" This is also fucking ridiculous. For starters, those bosses died or became inactive before RICO, before idiots like Scarfo, Gotti, and Amuso brought so much grief to the mob, and before the government’s all-out assault on the mob. Gigante gets a pass because let's face it, his crazy act did keep him on the streets for decades, and he only got a lousy 12-year sentence in the end, which isn't shit when he went decades ordering murders and conducting numerous racketeering schemes.

Most of what you say can be applied here

Thanks, you're right.

"Greek Mafia, Russian Mafia, Chinese Mafia"

Good one Jace. I prefer to say Greek mob, Russian mob, or Chinese Triads or organized crime. Mafia is Italian. Period. I know that it's become a generalized term but I'm a stickler.

We're on the same page on that. There is a Russian mob and Triads, I don't think any Greek mob ever really existed. Small groups yes, a mob no.

In North America there has never been such a thing as a substantial Greek mob and it has definitely only been small crews like the ones in Astoria and Philly.

In Europe on the other hand - operating from Greece and Cyprus - there definitely is Greek organized crime that's noteworthy enough to mention. There are more than a few organized crime networks operating from Athens that run protection rackets, loansharking, drugs...and that have infiltrated legal economies (Greek OC is highly known for its stakes in the shipping industry) and a lot money is laundered through major soccer teams. The Grigorakos clan used to be the most notorious name in the 90's and early 2000's, but after their downfall the biggest power was the conglomerate that was formed by the criminal organizations of Vassilis Stefanakos, Yiannis Skaftouros and Panagiotis Vlastos. In the past ten years there has been a big fallout. A number of other crime bosses have now taken over the power structure. In the last 10 years I think there have been about 40 major gangland hits in Greece (not counting the hits that happened on Greek soil due to conflicts within foreign criminal organizations from Kosovo/Albania, Serbia/Montenegro, Turkey and Georgia).
There's also the so-called "Mylopotamos mafia" which operates from Athens, but whose members come from a certain region in Crete. They are active in the illegal European arms trade and run large cannabis farms on the island of Crete. Members of that organization have been detected in other European countries (a connected family for some time lived in a town close to where I live in Belgium).
Moreover in Cyprus there's about 12 to 15 local crime families operating and many of them have been active for generations and have also infiltrated the legal economy. Two of those families formed a conglomerate and used to be very well known in the UK as well (specifically North London) where they were active in extortion, loansharking and heroin smuggling. A member of one of these families owns a well known nightclub in London.

In Western Europe, Greek organized crime is definitely a thing. Of course not as huge as the Italian criminal organizations and probably not as endemic as the ones from Turkey, Serbia/Montenegro, Albania/Kosovo, the FSU states, UK, Ireland and the Netherlands either. But they're definitely big and far-reaching enough to count them in as a factor; probably on par with Corsican or maybe even Bulgarian organized crime in the way that they have a ton of influence on their local economies.

When it comes to Greek organized crime , its a very strange thing. It is country with a lot of ports and islands , yet with very weak organized crime when compared to other states that have exit to the sea ( Italy, Montenegro, Albania , Spain , Netherlands and so on).

It's definitely a favorite hiding spot for Mafia fugitives, as we've seen over the years.

Greeks and Sephardi Jews were among the earliest people involved in the global opium/heroin trade.

I wouldn't call it very weak. It's not as entrenched as it is in Italy and the Balkans and it's not as internationally widespread, but local organized crime groups have successfully muscled their way in a substantial part of the legitimate world. And investigative reporters who are getting close to exposing contacts between organized crime, officials, law enforcement and big businesses are frequently threatened or even assassinated (such as in the case of Giorgos Karavaiz). They don't have anything resembling a Cosa Nostra, Ndrangheta, Camorra or SCU with thousands of members each, but there are quite a number of organized crime networks with enough muscle at their disposal to hold quite a bit of influence in their respective sector.

I'd say Spain doesn't have that much of a homegrown organized crime scene, except for smuggling groups in Galicia and Cadiz. The Galician smugglers' role is largely limited to transporting cocaine shipments from the Latin American cartels (usually the Colombians) to the organized crime groups in other parts of Europe. Their local political influence has diminished greatly compared to the 80's.
There are a ton of major European criminal organizations that have property in Spain though; groups from Italy, the Balkans, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, France, the FSU as well as outlaw motorcycle groups all have operatives in Spain.

Spain have none domestic organized crime groups, but its a smuggling hub for all other powerful groups and some of most powerful drug traffickers hide in Spain. Netherlands have both , but Greece was always 'short' of organized crime groups, very strange thing, its not a rich country, with weak laws , surrounded by sea. It has all factors for powerful organized crime groups , domestic or not.

What you said about Crete, true. I went to Greece 11 times. Once we were on holiday in Crete, got friendly with some locals there and they tried to sell me some guns, they were very open about it , told me how its pretty big thing there. I was pretty shocked , never saw anything illegal in Greece , but then when i was in Egypt , literally everyone offered me hashish , even in pharmacy lol

Gun culture is huge in Crete lol. It's actually illegal to own a gun in Crete, but a lot of families own them. Vendetta killings still happen every now and then.
Several Cretan families also run huge illegal cannabis plantations. The government must surely know about them, but they only bust one once in a while.

Egyptians are one of the world's most avid consumers of hashish lol. It's a strange situation if you come from Western Europe because the hashish trade in Egypt isn't really seemingly controlled by big professional organized crime groups (like usually is the case in our region) yet at the same time the possession of marihuana is still illegal. It's like there's just some kind of cultural tolerance policy going on.

Speaking of hashish.

The name "assassin" is commonly believed to be a mutation of the Arabic hashshshin (???????), which allegedly derives from the drug hashish that was said to be used by the group before going into battle. However, there are those who dispute this etymology, arguing that it originates from Marco Polo's account of his visit to Alamut in 1273, in which he describes a drug whose effects are more like those of alcohol than of hashish. However, alcohol is not likely to have been the drug described, being totally prohibited by the Muslim faith. It is suggested by some writers that assassin simply means "followers of Al-Hassan" (or Hassan-i-Sabah, the Sheikh of Alamut)). Others suggest that since hashish-eaters were generally ostracized in the Middle Ages, the word "Hashshashin" had become a common synonym for "outlaws." So the attribution of Hassan's Ismaili sect with this term is not necessarily a clue for drug use. Some common accounts of their connection with hashish are that these "assassins" would take hashish before missions in order to calm themselves; others say that it helped to boost their strength, and turned them into madmen in battle. Yet other accounts state it was used in their initiation rites in order to show the neophyte the sensual pleasures awaiting him in the afterlife. The connection between their mysticism and that drug is not something subject to reliable or consistent historical accounts; this is not surprising given their secrecy and infamy.

The word Hashish (of probable Arabic origin) refers to resin collected from cannabis flowers. This could be the true drug of the Assassins as described by Marco Polo.

Just thought of another one: "I thought this was supposed to be a secret society" everytime something that would normally be hidden is revealed. For example, when someone posted a list on Reddit and Facebook of recent shelved LCN members, people were predictably saying that. First of all, the mob itself didn't post it. People talk. Always have and always will. Their best efforts will never change that. Information comes to the surface. Second of all, it hasn't been a secret society for decades now. Let's not pretend otherwise. And regardless of how you feel, there are still some staunch Mafiosi out there who still believe in La Cosa Nostra. Not everyone is a Merlino or Gotti.

"Dons don't wear shorts," some people take those Sopranos quotes too serious. Like they heard it once on a TV show and think that every mobster, don or not, is breaking some kind of rule by wearing shorts. Get real.

You're on quite a Richie Aprile kick lately.

“Like”

Listen to any comment from a student these days and the word (like) is used several times in each sentence.

Another thing I noticed is the same students parents speak the same way since they start to parrot the children …….which is making them all brainwashed.
These stupid ass parents are supposed to be forming foundations, tradition and common cense into their children, not letting bad teachers and professors do that.

You are right - this is a definite fallacy. It's like saying you'd only want to be treated by a cancer doctor who had actually had cancer, rather than evaluating their abilities based on their education, experience or qualifications. You're either in the mafia or you're not and if you're not then it wouldn't matter if you're Italian, German, Pakistani or Japanese - you're just not in. And historically there would have been many Jewish men walking around that would know a lot more about it than you would, no matter how Italian you were.

Agree 100%

So according to this, Accardo was "dead" or "inactive" before RICO? Lol Accardo died in 1992 as a free man and was active until his last breath. I think you are mixing stuff. Sounds like you come from across the street with those "nazi" statements which you place them as facts. And if you wanna go deeper in history, the term "Mafia" probably comes from Arabic word/words.

In his last 5 or 10 years alive, I highly doubt that Accardo was all that active. He took a step back, I personally believe that but it's not written in stone. And what about the others? Still, comparing present-day bosses to pre-RICO bosses are unfair comparisons, that's my fucking point. Lots of Sicilian dialect is rooted in Arabic, your fucking point? It's still primarily an Italian word and Chinese Mafia, Russian Mafia, Irish Mafia, just sounds fucking stupid and lazy when many other ethnic organizations have their own names, no need to lump every group under one name.

Lol back off. You have pics of DiFronzo, Carlisi and Accardo from the late 1980's attending a mob meeting and you also have members coming to Accardo during the early 90s Lol.

And my point is that...according to your idea...the term "Mafia" applies for the Arabs, again according to your idea...since most of the Sicilian words are Arabic. There are also similarities between the Italians and Albanians in their language and last names and so the Albanians are also able to use the word Mafia right?! Lol

....so my last point is that the Sicilian "Mafia" term falls in the same "lazy" group which you previously mentioned. History says that even the term "camorra" comes from Spain lol Terms like "Cosa Nostra" is one thing, while the term "Mafia" is another which is more general. Cheers

Apparently I'm not the only one who feels that way, Jace was the first one to say he's tired of hearing Greek Mafia, Chinese Mafia, Russian Mafia, etc, and I agree with him! Accardo is an anomaly then. Still, my point is that it's unfair to compare pre-RICO bosses to present-day bosses and you keep using this Accardo guy, deviating from the point I'm making.

On the term Mafia: The word mafia originated in Sicily. The Sicilian noun mafiusu (in Italian: mafioso) roughly translates to mean "swagger", but can also be translated as "boldness, bravado". In reference to a man, mafiusu in 19th-century Sicily was ambiguous, signifying a bully, arrogant but also fearless, enterprising and proud, according to scholar Diego Gambetta. In reference to a woman, however, the feminine-form, "mafiusa", means a beautiful or attractive female. The Sicilian word mafie refers to the caves near Trapani and Marsala, which were often used as hiding places for refugees and criminals.

Sicily was once an Islamic emirate, therefore mafia might have Arabic roots. Possible Arabic roots of the word include:

ma?af? (????): exempted. In Islamic law, Jizya is the yearly tax imposed on non-Muslims residing in Muslim lands. Those who pay it are "exempted" from prosecution.
mahy?? (?????): aggressive boasting, bragging
marf?? (?????): rejected
mu??f? (?????): safety, protection
Ma??fir (?????): the name of an Arab tribe that ruled Palermo

But notice how the word Mafia has Arabic ROOTS, keyword roots, that doesn't make the word Mafia Arabic itself, it's still an Italian word. All of the above Arabic terms are just that, Arabic.

And I'll end this with a quote from Anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone: "While there was a time when people were reluctant to pronounce the word "Mafia" ... nowadays people have gone so far in the opposite direction that it has become an overused term ... I am no longer willing to accept the habit of speaking of the Mafia in descriptive and all-inclusive terms that make it possible to stack up phenomena that are indeed related to the field of organised crime but that have little or nothing in common with the Mafia."

Is that Wiki? lol lol I rest my case.

I've seen that in books long before Wikipedia ever came to be. If you don’t agree with it, introduce evidence to refute it then.

Lol so I guess because the word Camorra might have originated in Spain it's okay to lump every organized crime group under that word. By your logic, we now have a Russian Camorra, Albanian Camorra, Romanian Camorra, lol probably a Nigerian Camorra out there too.

You forgot another statement from your Wiki source book man....lol lol

"mafya" - place of shade. The word shade meaning refuge or derived from refuge. After the Normans destroyed the Saracen rule in Sicily in the eleventh century, Sicily became feudalistic. Most Arab smallholders became serfs on new estates, with some escaping to "the Mafia." It became a secret refuge."

Mafya, still spelled differently from the Italian word Mafia. Maybe that's why that Russian mob book was called Red "Mafiya" because Red Mafia or Russian Mafia just doesn't make any sense and the author knew it!

Oh really?! I dont know about you but whole Mediterranean and eastern Europe can say it exactly the same as the term "Mafia" (in latin of course.

Also, maybe someone can chime in on this, but I believe there are some words and names that can be both Italian and Spanish. Camorra being one of them. I remember someone posting photos of Italian mobsters and others asking why they have Spanish surnames when they were actually of Italian origin. The two languages are very similar.

You just want so badly for everyone to be able to call themselves Mafia, like you feel left out or something if that doesn't happen lol. We must've offended you when we said that other ethnic criminal groups need to stop being called Mafia lmao.

Raimondo Gamur



Sorry I hurt your brain "Ligle". lol lol

TD, I suggest you don't waste your time and energy. This kid is lost in space 80% of the time and he spends the other 20% of it being derisive and contrary. (And I'm sure you're correct when you say he's "from across the street.")

Its like trying to shovel shit against the tide with him....you're just not going anywhere with it. LOL

I agree and thanks bud. As I always say, I love the "ignore button" on this forum lol

Anyway, moving right along, here's another one: "And they call themselves Men of Honor" everytime they do something that's morally repulsive to them. Another ridiculous comment. Their meaning of honor and your definition of honor is completely different.

Yes, one explanation is that the name may refer to the Arab rulers who ruled Palermo in the Saracens era, namely the Ma Afir tribe. Another possible Arabic influence is Mu Afat. Mu means courage, Afat protecting the weak against the strong.

Still, Ma Afir and Mu Afat are two completely different words from the Italian word Mafia. I don't know, maybe there's an Arabian Ma Afir out there somewhere?

Oh here's another banger, when people say shit like, "They ain't got nothing on those boys in Mexico!" when talking about LCN. Stupidest fucking shit in the world to compare any American group, much less LCN, to a thoroughly corrupt by drug profit shithole like Mexico.

The Sicilian language has been shaped by many years of foreign influence, occupation, and conquest. Unlike Italian, which is almost entirely Latin based, Sicilian has elements of Greek, Arabic, French, Catalan, and Spanish.

The name 'Ndrangheta for example has Greek origins.

I get that the word itself has other origins, but the word in and of itself is Italian. There are words even throughout the English language that is rooted in Greek, Latin, etc, they have counterparts and derivatives if you will, in other languages, but they're still English words. Some people don't mind it, and are okay calling every criminal group out there Mafia, but others like myself are a bit put off when we hear Irish Mafia or Chinese Mafia. But call it whatever you want.

Mafia has become the general term for organized crime, but I agree, for example Dutch OC should be called penoze or milieu not mafia.

Lol funny thing, I used to ask people if they think the Mafia is still out there, and they'd be like, which one? Irish? German? Etc etc Lol people don't have a clue. Lots of criminal groups past and present really have little in common with the actual Mafia. They lack the militaristic structure, codes, oaths, etc. And they're not set up to pass on from generation to generation. I also think there's the Mafia and then there's "mafia-type" groups.

That's true in dutch we find hebrew, german, french and english origins.

Thats right @H and if we look at the word "mafia", it has also a plural form which is "mafias" ("mafie" in Italian or "mafir"" in Russian something like that). Italy has "Cosa Nostra" and it has NO plural version, I mean you cannot call it "cosa nostras" or "cosa nostri" lol, or the "camorra" for which you cannot have a Italian plural word for it like the "camorras" in English lol (The declension of the noun Camorra is in singular genitive Camorra and in the plural nominative- the noun Camorra is declined with the declension endings. It does not form plurals). Maybe the Spanish also sometime use the word "camorras" but again there's no plural in Italian, and instead mainly you can call them families or clans under one of the previously mentioned criminal societies. They also have specific names for their ranks and you can rarely see some member calling other member a "mafioso" (Buschetta is probably the one who used it to easily describe the Sicilian organization to the government). The Camorra members call themselves "Camorristi", while the Sicilians use the term "men of honor" and the N'Drangheta clans are called "'Ndrine" or something like that and their whole membership is called "Andranghateia” and have specific ranks such as “crimine”. So my final point is that there are MANY "MAFIAS" out there, but there's ONLY ONE "Cosa Nostra", "Camorra" or "N'drangheta" or "Yakuza" (organization with old hierarchy) or "Russian Bratva" (same here), or the old American Jewish mob which received its seat on the Italian commission during one period with their rep Meyer Lansky etc. So how can we label the old Jewish mob with their seat on the American Cosa Nostra commission? A "Jewish Mafia", obviously because the term "mafia" has a plural version lol

@Furio????

"A don doesn't wear shorts." I just saw it again on Facebook.

"The Ivy League of Organized Crime" everytime someone tied to the Genovese Family is found to be committing petty crimes. That's getting old. I figured at least most people would know by now that mobsters are involved in crime at every level they can get into.

Saying anyone was "A major player" or "The biggest/One of the biggest" in whatever they were active in. This is used in many stories or documentaries, and not just for the Mafia either. Let's include "One of the most feared" in there too.

"Sicilians don't rat" or "Sicilians are tougher and more loyal." This couldn't be any more false. In fact, some of the newest rats to have come out lately in America are Sicilian. And don't even get me started on Sicily. Same thing goes for Calabrians, lots of Ndrangheta rats out there.

"You can't get away with stuff like that in this day and age with Big Brother and cameras everywhere."

The current Cosa Nostra-Gambino case proves them wrong. You can find similar cases from the 1960s and 70s, there's just less of it today. Arrests and roundups for racketeering charges against the mob is far from anything new. If the Lanni crew had a more cool-headed and calculated captain at the helm, who knows how many more years they would've went before an indictment.