compared to the families at their peak?. I always have heard mixed things, with people saying they were equally as powerful as the families. Other people have told me that they still answered to the five families, and others told me they were able to muscle the families out of Harlem. I assume reality is a mixture of the three and much more, but can anyone tell me the definite answer to this.

The spooks always had zero power on the street. They had no idea how to organize or do anything. The Harlem guys were the worst. We're talking about people who had the IQ of cement blocks.

Frank Lucas wasn't that big and only operated in Harlem, he was able to set up his own pipeline and circumvent the Mob's stranglehold on supply. Nicky Barnes was bigger and operated in all Five Boros but was essentially a conduit to the minority neighborhoods for Herbie Sperling, Matty Mafonna and the Lucchese’s. They couldn't challenge any one Family let alone all Five, no criminal organization had more influence on our society than the American Mafia.

Not anywhere close to as powerful as Hollywood pretended they were.

Nino Brown wasn't pulling off drive-by's against a Boss in NY either, lol. Not during that time period anyways.

During that time, Costra Nostra was the most powerful crime syndicate in the country.
Sure there was probably some drug kingpins that were wealthier than some top made guys.
But the strenght of the cosa nostra was not about some individuals being so wealthy. The strenght was that the organization was WEALTHY.
The mafia is not just one name, its a corporation that can fonction even if some members are not there anymore.
Now, in 2021, the mob aint what it used to be. But during the 60s-70s, it was something else.

Sure, you had some organization that had some tension with the mob. But in the long run, the mob got on top.

***in the african American community, you had gangsters like Frank Matthews, the Black Mafia of Philly who were with the NOI, and others. They were strong, but not like the Mafia, who had an all organization

I’d say as powerful as any high ranking mob captain. And just as powerful as a small mafia don. Didn’t Nicky have a made guy hit? Frank Matthews threatened to light up little Italy.
Organization is where the ethnic groups have an advantage over black gangs and that’s it. When the Muslims killed a Jersey member Don Carlo didn’t advise a war he counseled patience and a solution that would benefit the Jersey family because a war might not turn out so well

They were powerful in their own neighborhoods, and never answered to the mob or anyone else, except each other. They did not branch out into other neighborhoods back then including other Black ones as much as the mob or others did. The Mafia did work with each other in their respective neighborhoods. The ones we know about are known as the biggest, but there had to be groups that stayed low key and thrived. I once came across a 1957 arrest of a Black drug dealer who had multiple locations in Harlm and the surrounding areas where he stated both cocaine and heroin in apartments of various women. He was bringing it up from Mississippi and Alabama, out of Mexico. No info on his partners, but he had big amounts coming in. I came across his case 10 years ago in a file, but found no news coverage of his case, just the arrest file and his indictment, after hat it was a dead end. I think Black groups were largely ignored in the news till the 1960's.

There had to be a few who we rarely hear of, they would be of interest to read about.