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.
How did the Americans lose their political contacts? At one time it appeared like they were the most powerful entity in the country and one of the most powerful entities in the world based on how people talk about them throughout most of the 20th century. They were on pace to be the most powerful criminal enterprise in the world but somewhere they unraveled. Now it is laughable to even compare their success and wealth to that of the Italians.
