For a long time it was the other way around the US mafia had the political connections in a very rich country only the last decades the Italian Mafia surpassed LCN because of the links to freemasonry politics in Rome and business in North Italy. Southern Italy and sicily is still very poor and undeveloped so the mafias will always be the biggest employer.
During 1980's Sicilian mafia earned huge amounts of money from drug trafficking also don't forget the "Sack of Palermo".There is a lot of money to be made in South Italy,but yeah i agree that North is real deal when it comes to money
