The article above is a good example of how some news outlets (if you can call them that) take original material from other sources, add their own spin to it, and then serve it up to the public.

Even though terrorism is really looked at as separate, the original Wall Street Journal article talked about how terrorism and transnational organized crime (which includes more than just the Russians) had pulled agents away from investigating La Cosa Nostra.

This is what the 2006 U.S. Department of Justice Organized Crime Report said:

"While the LCN still remains a threat today in certain cities of the U.S., IOC groups have steadily emerged over the past two decades to pose greater challenges to law enforcement.

Defined priorities of the U.S. Attorney General's Organized Crime Division included -

1) Top International Criminal Organization Targets

2) Families of La Cosa Nostra

3) Organized Crime Groups investigated by the International Organized Crime Intelligence & Operations Center

4) Any other organized crime group the Organized Crime/Gang Squad and the local U.S. Attorney designate a High Priority Organized Crime Group"


These new priorities were seen again in 2008 when the U.S. Attorney General's Organized Crime Council began to consider international organized crime, rather than La Cosa Nostra, to be the primary organized crime threat facing the U.S.

One needs to keep in mind however that, in addition to referring to international organized crime as a whole, the above reports are also dealing with the U.S. as a whole. The relative presence of the LCN is going to vary from one area to the other and so be higher up or lower down on the list. As far as New York goes, if anything it would have to be transnational organized crime in general that has bumped the LCN to the #2 criminal priority and not just a single organization or ethic group.