@ pmac
I get what you mean, but this is the thing, I think it's shortsighted to say they aren't organized crime. Outside of a blood oath and burning Saint card, I can't see what exactly you think they CANT do. Run a sports book? Corrupt politicians? Secure public works contracts, white collar type corruption? If you are talking about just a codified hierarchy, I mean, sometimes I don't get you guys on here.


I could give you guys a street gang with a hierarchy, and 3000 members, but I guarantee you will say, no, it's not organized crime. I give you a family clan with 30- 40 core members moving a thousand kids a month, laundering untold millions, corrupting all kinds of politicians, and it's like, no it's not organized crime. And this is solely based off a comparison with NY Cosa Nostra, you can't seriously believe it's the ONLY CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD, right?

The Mexican cartels aren't OC. Doesn't that sound silly? See I've said before these Italian groups from Italy more resemble Latin American crime syndicates more than American Cosa Nostra. They are more drug cartel first, extortion syndicate second, just like the prohibition era gangs were liquor merchants first, gambling and all that came after they got the funds. The prohibition era gangs LOOK LIKE THE DRUG CARTELS, key difference, no family members.( And actually, consider the Genna family....)

Did you take a look at the Map of Italian families strax put up? Sicily has like 161 families? Sicily is tiny. Every family can't have 150 members and 1500 associates. I would bet you a VAST MAJORITY of them don't fit your definition of OC. Same for most Calabrian clans, and probably Naples clans too. Ditto for the gangs of Rome. Hell, the Russians too. Now, we aren't going to sit here and say there is no ORGANIZED CRIME IN ITALY CAUSE THE SYNDICATES DONT LOOK LIKE THE FIVE FAMILIES? Italy might be the FUCKIN CAPITOL OF ORGANIZED CRIME LOL


For me American LCN is most comparable to like, the Japanese Yakuza. Large organization, with a codified hierarchy, initiation rituals, integrated into the mainstream business and corporate structure, largely out in the open, accepted by society. Most their income from gambling and extortion, infiltration of public works and such, sound familiar?



It's like saying Luciano NEEDED the mafia structure to be successful, or move liquor. Like he couldn't charter shipments from Europe, get the the stuff ashore. Keep a tight trucking schedule to get the stuff to his distributors. Like Costello couldn't bribe anyone without the mafia telling him how, or run a gambling operation. They were doing all this stuff, BEFORE they joined the mafia, with a small core group of key gangsters, I am so serious, if you do a comparison they look like these drug clans, again just no family members. (I think this came later, as they began to understand that they needed product and trust, nothing else) In fact, the fact that they were SO organized was what made em attractive to the Cosa Nostra.

This is why I recommended The Sixth Family, it explains how all of this rigid hierarchy and rules becomes an impediment to business. And understand, these mafia rules and regulations are a pain for a mafia business man the same as government rules and regulations are a pain for legit businessmen. It's the flip side of the same coin.
Edit: ( This was something else they dramatized on the TV show Gommorah, they had a Calabrese gangster in the second season who was chafing under the Ndrangheta leadership cause he had to get permission for every little thing or move he wanted to make. They wacked him, sorry for the spoiler lol)

My last point made clear in the Sixth Family book, GLOBALIZATION. HUGE RAMIFICATIONS ON NOT JUST OC, but business in general. The lean structure of these gangs reflect a need to be everywhere in the world. These guys do business on the phone and on planes. A single neighborhood, he'll even a single city is just too damn small. Sticking to one ethnic group for business, too damn small for guys like Luciano or Rizzuto.


That TV show Gommorah demonstrated this dramatically during the second season. The kids father is obsessed with controlling his neighborhood stronghold, but the son had a direct connection, and had the capacity to ship cocaine around the world. He was like, basically unconcerned with the territory, indeed, he didn't even need a gang as no one dared touch him for fear of killing the money train. ( similar to the Galante situation) And he was basically above everyone, while they killed each other fighting over the turf, and the right to move his product. His pops was stuck in the past.....