Over on my blog,
http://cosa-nostra-news.blogspot.com/, you can see a series of charts that show some trends in global crime outfits, primarily in terms of size, that make LCN seem like a fart in the wind.
As I wrote, "With 1,100 members, 80% of which are tripping over one another in New York and its outer boroughs, the American "La Cosa Nostra," which is the official FBI term for the U.S.-based Mafia, is a mere hill of beans compared with other criminal outfits around the world.
"Just look at this chart... The Italian Comorra has 7,000 members -- but even that is a drop in the bucket when compared with the Russian mob, which has over 300,000 members around the world; the Triads, at 250,000; and the Yakuza, at 86,000.
"Maybe AG Holder was on to something when he consolidated the Fed's focus on O.C. in this country."
You need to scroll down to about the third post... Hope you find it edifying, if not necessarily enjoyable...
The American LCN is primarily a domestic operation. One that isn't really even national in scope anymore. So it's obviously different from the larger syndicates that are international in scope. That 1,100 figure was actually from 1999 when the UN cited it. Since then, according to the FBI, the total membership in the U.S. is down to about 1,000. At least 70% of it being the 5 NY families. If you throw the other remaining northeast families in there - New England, New Jersey, and Philadelphia - it goes up to 85%. Throw in the rest of the remaining members in the northeast and you're probably looking at close to 90% of the mob's membership in that single region of the country. Or, to put it another way, you could add up all of the remaining members outside of the northeast and it would roughly equal the smallest NY family.
I've always said that, if we're talking international groups, the Italian syndicates are a much better example than the American mob. But even then, you have to take a lot of these especially large membership estimates with a grain of salt. Even the experts don't always agree. For example, the FBI cites the Cosa Nostra as having 5,000 members and the 'Ndrangheta as having 6,000. However, Mafia expert, Letizia Paoli, cites the Cosa Nostra as having 3,500 members and the 'Ndrangheta 5,000. In other places I've seen 10,000 cited for the 'Ndrangheta. And 7,000 for the Camorra. The FBI cites 2,000 for the SCU but estimates for them vary as well. Getting into even much larger figures, like 300,000 for the Russians, 250,000 for the Chinese, and 86,000 for the Japanese can be even harder to read.
