Originally Posted by Hollander
Originally Posted by Revis_Knicks
I have been told that the Di Lauro and Licciardi families are more like cartels than they are mafia. Is that why they were historically at odds with the more entrepreneurial mafia families like the Zaza-mazzarellas and Nuvoletta-Polverinos?


The Camorra is not an organization like the Mafia. Neapolitans call it “the system” with resignation and pride. The Camorra offers them work, lends them money, protects them from the government, and even suppresses street crime. The problem is that periodically the Camorra also tries to tear itself apart, and when that happens, ordinary Neapolitans need to duck.


You are right. The Camorra is a lot more fragmented than the Sicilians and Calabrians. How exactly did the ndrangheta get to their level so quickly? They seized the drug trade ever so quickly and reinvested their earnings. The most powerful families in the Ndrangheta must be more powerful and wealthy than any other subsets within any other organization today. The Sicilians were traditionally the richest and most powerful but the top Camorra members may have made as much money if not more than the top Sicilian mafia members in the 80s.