At face value? I believe what the feds have been saying. They've already publicly declared several families defunct. It's funny how you believe that and not their take on Detroit. As far as the charts go, I believe they have 22 to 25 active members tops. That's inflated to you?
. The fact that they are so few is precisely why it's so difficult to build a case against them. It's not an attempt to explain away everything. It's simply a reality that it's a lot more difficult to penetrate a tight knit group of few than a large organization. This is logic.
What's funny is people have often accused me of blindly following the feds, since I defer to them more than anyone, but when I take other sources into consideration as well - as I always do - people feel they need to remind me what the feds say. Yes, we do see law enforcement sources stating there's still a family in Detroit. On the other hand, we have the 1999 UN report on the LCN (by OC expert James Finckenauer) which listed Detroit among those cities where the LCN was "weak or non-existent." Or the 2011 WSJ article which stated "most experts agree that its (the LCN) operations are now largely confined to its traditional bases in the Northeast and Chicago."
So, we have conflicting reports to some degree. Which is why I've always said it's debatable and people are free to go either way. What makes me lean towards the latter is additional info in the form of a relative lack of cases in Detroit as compared to other remaining small families such as New England or Philadelphia. I think things people bring up, like the close familial relations in Detroit, the feds having bigger priorities, etc are factors but not big enough ones to explain away everything. Especially when we're talking 15+ years with the 2006 bust being the biggest.
I've posted the numbers many times when it comes to the membership. 30 members at most in 1996, with one article citing that figure again in 2001. However, I saw another figure in the book The New Ethnic Mobs, which came out shortly before the GamTax case in 1996, which cited 23 members. Scott himself cited 25 members in his 2006 book Motor City Mafia. So, over a decade from 1996-2006 we have a range of 23-30 members. However, as I posted, we can see a list of some 30 members or possible members who have died just since 2001. I certainly don't believe they were all members, and have no way of knowing just how many on the list were, but I think it's a safe assumption that several of them were. And I think it's a safe assumption that, even IF there have been more making ceremonies over that time, it like you hasn't been enough to keep the membership stable against those who have died.
I think the lack of cases in Detroit stems much more from what's left of the mob there being a low priority than the family being so close knit and secretive. Contrary to popular opinion here, they don't necessarily need to flip any members to bring indictments. Especially when it's something like illegal gambling. And that's pretty close to the sum total of what we're talking about when it comes to the mob in Detroit - illegal gambling - specifically bookmaking. But, comparatively speaking, we don't see the amount of gambling busts there (mob connected or otherwise) that we see in different parts of the Northeast. In short, I think the evidence shows a much smaller, less robust, slower paced mob organization in that city than many are imagining.
