There's also too much competition in the criminal world nowadays for LCN to have any type of monopoly or stranglehold on crime like they did back in the earlier part of the 20th century.
The LCN's influence and reach has receded while other criminal organizations and gangs have emerged and grown into legitimate threats. And it's not just other typical organized crime entities like the Russian or Asian mobs but also the proliferations of various street gangs that have infested and overtaken many former Mafia strongholds.
Way too much competition and way too many rivals. The changing U.S demographics have helped speed the decline of the Mafia while fueling the rise of other ethnic criminal gangs and organizations.
I doubt the LCN is even the strongest in the Northeast anymore (maybe the most well known).
During Al Capone's day in Chicago, he basically ran the entire criminal underworld in the Windy City. Today? What does the outfit control -- a few streets/blocks?
You have some good points but I disagree. The reason it's not like it used to be is because of attrition and Rico, not other gangs.
All these other "mobs" like Albanians and Russians always seem to be over hyped and not as big as the media makes them out to be.
And I would say they are the most powerful organization in the northeast. Apart from drugs, they are still on top with Unions, bookmaking, and loansharking. The mob and street gangs are for the most part, never involved with each other and street gangs are surely not rivaling them.
But those other gangs and criminal organizations don't have to be as big as the LCN per se, they just have to exist and operate. The point being that there are a collection of other competing organizations out there vying for control or parity over many of the same vices on which the LCN thrives. For many decades, the LCN controlled vast parts of the drug trade in and around the Northeast area. What about today? The drug trade was highly lucrative; you don't give that up or disinvolve yourself from it without a good reason. And a large part of the the LCN moving away from the drug trade had to do with the fact that they could no longer keep the drug business firmly under their control. These aren't the Pizza Connection days anymore; too much competition and too much money involved for any one organization to control the drug game. And that's just one area, one example.
The neighborhoods that used to be predominately Italian have changed; as a result, LCN doesn't control or influence large parts of their former neighborhood strongholds. Too many hispanic, Asian, and South American residents now, many of whom have their own ties to ethnic organized crime.
And the gang thing -- compare the number of documented street gangs from say, 1950-1970 to the present day, and you will find an astronomical increase. It's no longer possible for a Mafia Don like an Al Capone to actually oversee and/or control crime in any one city or area; there's too many local gangs with way too many 'soldiers' to do that. And even though the LCN and your typical street gang operate on different criminal spheres, they are bound to interact and/or intersect at various times in the interest of making a dollar. Pornography, theft, hijacking, gun running -- there are many areas where the LCN's interests and those of street gangs are likely to collide. And do you honestly think an LCN capo or boss can simply waltz in and say, 'I'm part of LCN', so get out of my way because I'm in charge? All criminal activity here is controlled by me and my family!
I doubt that.
It's just a changing of the times. The LCN was a major powerhouse pre-1990; today it's still a force, but not even close to what it once was.
