Thats your opinion i guess. But what exactly do they control that backs up your statement of them controlling the north east of the USA?
To me i would say that they are perhaps one of the largest OC groups based in the north east but even then you would have to divide them into 5 different groups with varying amounts of power and influence.
Scorsese, what follows is the opinion of someone who is not connected in any way, doesn't know anyone connected, and doesn't have any first hand knowledge of criminal life.
If the Five Families made the Sicilian Mafia pay them a tax to be able to distribute in the United States, how is any Russian mob muscling in in any major way on the drug trade. Everyone who was not under the protection of the American Mafia was going to jail, whether they knew it or not. The American Mafia was connected to the Narcs directly and indirectly.
How can another crime group muscle in in any major way when everybody on the harbor is Mafia connected? You need the harbor to ship in the most massive amounts of Smack. The other crime groups can sneak in a little here and there, but they won't be able to use ships, maybe not even the airports. Airports have always been under domination of the local Cosa Nostra hood element. Then what policies did the American Mafia institute when they banned the sale of drugs by lower members of their organization? They told them they could never sell drugs, but they could rob unconnected drug dealers. So if you have Russian guys moving junk, according to the way things used to be, they had to pay tribute or they'd be either killed or indicted.
