The more hierarchical Italian organized crime and the more loosely organized ethnic criminal enterprises both have their positives and negatives. On one hand, having a more identifiable, hierarchical structure makes the LCN more vulnerable to RICO. But it also provides the framework for the organization to perpetuate itself and to survive. On the other hand, while the lack of a solid hierarchical structure makes it harder for the newer groups to become established and survive indictments when they do come, it makes it harder to keep tabs on them and pin them down in the first place.
A few excerpts from articles in this topic...
"The mob adapted to investigations and convictions as layer upon layer of wiseguys-in-waiting stepped up. The Italians may still control the lion's share of illegal organized crime activity, but competitors are vying for a piece of the action. Law enforcement officials say Asians, Russians and Albanians have established their own crime organizations in the United States. These groups are smaller and more disorganized than their Italian counterparts but pose their own danger. Russian and Albanian groups 'are more like criminal enterprises than organized crime,' observes agent Dennis Bolles, who heads the squad investigating them.
http://articles.cnn.com/2008-07-16/justice/fbi.mob_1_traditional-mob-joseph-massino-crime-groups?_s=PM:CRIME
Despite their weakened state, the Five Families of the Cosa Nostra still form the largest and most organized crime syndicate in the country. But the Russians have a keen sense for finance fraud; the Albanians are exceptionally violent; and the Chinese keep local businesses under their thumb. The Feds have had success combating these newer groups: Rudaj and his crew were convicted of racketeering and illegal gambling last year in Manhattan federal court. But new Albanian crews are suspected of filling in the vacuum since then, one source said. 'These groups are more about particular scams than taking over huge pieces of territory or whole industries," said one law enforcement source. 'But they're very good at it, and they're very hard to infiltrate."
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/item_Sg70KTTLwQcQykvdx9ftrI"Over the past three decades, Russian mobsters, Chinese gangsters, Mexican cartels and a host of other groups have all grabbed slices of the criminal activity traditionally dominated by the mafia. But none have come close to exerting the kind of wide-ranging influence still enjoyed by La Cosa Nostra, as the Italian-American mob is known. That is partly because of how the different gangs have organized themselves. The mafia has a strict hierarchical structure, law-enforcement officials said, and it has proven capable of finding new soldiers. Even after imprisonment of senior leadership, it survives, and in some places thrives, though most experts agree that its operations are now largely confined to its traditional bases in the Northeast and Chicago. Russian gangsters were once feared as the next criminal superpower. But their looser structure, which helps them avoid detection by law enforcement, has also kept them from growing into an organization able to recruit the number of members needed to challenge the mafia. The Russian networks tend to come together briefly for particular criminal plots and then disband, according to Michael Vecchione, who heads the rackets division at the Brooklyn district attorney's office. Mr. Shafer, the FBI official, said some Russian crooks also realized there were great profits to be made in white-collar crime, such as scams involving insurance or medical fraud, "so why do the extortion or gambling? Most Asian gangs, meanwhile, tend to victimize only members of their own immigrant group and therefore remain small compared with much larger mafia families, experts who study the groups said. One area dominated by the newer gangs is the U.S. drug trade, where Mexican cartels are now challenging the Colombians for supremacy, said John Gilbride, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Office. But Mr. Abadinsky said the big drug cartels were "one-trick ponies" and didn't participate in non-drug-related crime since nothing else was as profitable. So while the days of John Gotti—the "Dapper Don" whose swagger and scheming made him the most wanted mobster of his time—are long gone, the Italian-American mob remains the most powerful criminal enterprise in the U.S., mafia observers say."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704115404576096392318489246.html
