How does it operate? And what kind of criminal threat does it pose? Originating in Italy, the mafia is one of the oldest organised crime groups in the world. The FBI estimates that the four groups have approximately 25, members in total with , affiliates worldwide. The US mafia has around members. While these groups share some general characteristics, each does have distinguishing features. Central to, and common to, all mafia groups is the importance of power, family, respect and geographic territory.
In general terms, mafia groups are run by a boss who exercises general control of the family and makes leadership decisions. There is an underboss who is second-in-charge. Made men are all male and all of Italian descent. There are also a number of associates who are career criminals but not made members. The capos and those above them take a share of the proceeds from the crimes undertaken by the soldiers and associates.
The criminal enterprises are not necessarily run by the bosses or capos, but the latter are paid from the profits for services rendered, and for their association with the enterprise. When JFK faced Hubert Humphrey in the Democratic primary in , many claimed that the Kennedy clan called on their mob connections to ensure a favorable vote, and similar accusations were made during the presidential election against Richard Nixon, which Kennedy won by a slim margin.
Several theories tie JFK's assassination to the Mafia. One story attributes motive to the Mafia through the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. The Mafia reportedly hated that Cuba was in the hands of Fidel Castro, who had thrown them out of their lucrative Cuban casino businesses when he came to power. The invasion was an utter failure attributed by some to Kennedy's refusal to approve air support.
Once appointed, Robert Kennedy immediately began a Mafia crackdown. Robert also died from an assassin's bullet. Another rumor plays on suggestions that JFK kept several mistresses and girlfriends, some of whom were known to associate with mobsters. Some evidence, including federal wiretaps, shows that mobster Sam Giancana may have set JFK up with various women and recorded proof of the President's extra-marital affairs.
Conspiracy theorists have speculated hit men sent by Giancana murdered Marilyn Monroe, one of JFK's supposed girlfriends. Almost from its start, the American Mafia operated luxurious, illegal casinos through the United States, bribing local police officers to look the other way.
When Nevada legalized gambling in , mobsters were not the first to see the opportunity. And when mobsters finally did arrive, it wasn't the usual suspects. It cost a lot of money to build casinos, and these men offered shady loans to prospective developers.
Some of the loans happened out in the open, with the mob-controlled Teamsters union using its pension fund to finance casino and hotel construction projects. This stopped in , when federal officials took notice. Casinos generate huge profits, so it didn't take much creativity on the part of the wiseguys to figure out a way to get their cut. They skimmed cash from casinos they partly owned or simply extorted payoffs from casino managers.
Many mob bosses were "business partners" with casino owners, whether the owners wanted them as partners or not. Since the s, the government has been very strict about keeping the mob out of the Vegas casinos. Today, it is believed that the major casinos are not influenced by the Mafia; any hint of an organized crime connection is enough for a casino to lose its gambling license.
One of the government's most important tools in the fight against organized crime is RICO. It was passed in specifically to help fight the Mafia.
It allows prosecutors to go after entire organizations. Racketeering a crime that was invented with the law and is based on the word for Mafia schemes, or "rackets" is making money through an unlawful enterprise that shows a pattern of such illegal money making activity. Almost any felony falls under racketeering; two or more such crimes must take place with a year period for a conviction to occur. The result is extra jail time if multiple crimes are committed in pursuit of the same general scheme — that is, bribing a union representative, murdering an uncooperative business owner and extorting money from construction contractors add up to racketeering , a designation that adds decades to the bribery, murder and extortion sentences.
Furthermore, members of the criminal enterprise can be prosecuted for racketeering even if they weren't specifically involved in individual crimes. This removed one of the most common defense tactics of Mafia dons — sending low-level criminals to commit the actual crimes so they could never be prosecuted. Today, RICO has been used by civil attorneys to get large lawsuit awards from corporations and other groups and is used less and less against organized crime.
For officials to arrest and prosecute high-level criminals as part of a crime family, they need to find out what's going on throughout the organization. They can bust drug dealers or truck hijackers, but the family will just find new ones. They need to reach the top to really crack a family. And the best way to do that is by sending someone to infiltrate the family, undercover.
An FBI agent working undercover as a mob associate is an incredibly dangerous job. In an interview for the now-defunct website Mafia-International. Pistone was so effective that even when the operation put dozens of mobsters behind bars, his Mafia friends still thought he was a mobster-turned-informant, rather than an actual FBI agent. His story was made into the film " Donnie Brasco. Undercover work continues to be an important part of the FBI's fight against the mob.
A sting orchestrated by an undercover agent in Cleveland netted more than 40 corrupt cops in However, you will never hear of most undercover work — the very nature of the job means that undercover agents use assumed names, refuse to be photographed and hide their very existence from the public eye.
Today, the American Mafia doesn't hold nearly the sway over illegal activities as it once did. And what is left of the Mafia remains active. Late in , 15 people associated with a Philadelphia mob family were indicted on racketeering and other charges.
Sweeney said after several members of the Luchese family were charged with murder and racketeering and other crimes in Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Legal System. How the Mafia Works. Mafia boss John Gotti is escorted by an unidentified man through the crowds outside court during a lunch break in his assault trial in Later, a jury acquitted Gotti of all charges in the shooting of a Union leader.
See more pictures of public enemies. Mafia: An Overview " ". A trio of well-known gangsters makes up this photo: Vito Genovese left in a file photo , Charles "Lucky Luciano" Lucania center in a file photo and Joseph Profaci right in a file photo. Mafia Jargon. La Cosa Nostra - The term cosa nostra, which is sometimes translated from Italian to mean "our thing" or "this thing of ours," originally referred to the general lifestyle of organized criminals in Sicily.
They began using the term La Cosa Nostra which is grammatically incorrect to refer to the Mafia. Omerta - The Mafia code of silence. Made man - A man who has been officially inducted into a Mafia family.
Capo - The capo was originally the head of a family in Sicily. Now, the capo is more like a lieutenant who serves the family boss. Family - Each individual gang within the Mafia is known as a family. Not everyone within a family is actually related, although it is common for relatives of mobsters to be inducted into the same family as their brothers or fathers.
Wiseguy - Someone who is involved with the Mafia. Read More. The Structure of La Cosa Nostra " ". The Mafia family tree has many layers. Mafia Divisions " ". Mafia Induction " ". Hollywood loves the Mafia.
Mondadori via Getty Images. Mafia Activities " ". His hat and a revolver lie beside him. According to the police, Didato had been killed for interfering with fellow gangster Lucky Luciano's racket.
History of the Mafia The current structure of the Mafia took centuries to develop. The Development of the Mafia " ". American Mafia " ". The Commission The Commission that brought together mob bosses from all over the country was initially composed of bosses from the five New York families, along with Al Capone from Chicago and Stefano Magaddino of the Buffalo family.
Fighting the Mafia: Undercover " ". I always worked all kinds of blue-collar jobs: in construction, in bars, driving tractor trailers. So before I went to college, I saw a lot of things and learned a lot. My first government job was with the Office of Naval Intelligence, investigating drug, theft, and espionage cases. I passed the FBI's entrance exams and became a special agent in Because of my background and training, it became clear that my specialty was undercover.
The Mafia has various means to make money. However, drugs are one of the highest-paying ways they make their money. Drug manufacturing, transpiration, smuggling and distribution all generate billions of dollars every year. Who are the bosses of the five families today? Is the Mafia still active today? Italy has been the hub of all criminal activities since the 19th century.
The Mafia is also very active in other parts of the world, including the United States. What are the rules of the Mafia? Who was the biggest Mafia boss ever?
Vito Genovese and Al Capone are considered to be the biggest Mafia bosses of all time, both who rose in power during prohibition. For centuries, Sicily, an island in the Mediterranean Sea between North Africa and the Italian mainland, was ruled by a long line of foreign invaders, including the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, French and Spanish. The residents of this small island formed groups to protect themselves from the often-hostile occupying forces, as well as from other regional groups of Sicilians.
These groups, which later became known as clans or families, developed their own system for justice and retribution, carrying out their actions in secret. From this history, the Sicilian Mafia emerged as a collection of criminal clans or families. In , Sicily became a province of recently unified Italy.
However, chaos and crime reigned across the island as the fledgling Italian government tried to establish itself. In the s, Roman officials even asked Sicilian Mafia clans to help them by going after dangerous, independent criminal bands; in exchange, officials would look the other way as the Mafia continued its protection shakedowns of landowners. The government believed this arrangement would be temporary, lasting just long enough for Rome to gain control; instead, the Mafia clans expanded their criminal activities and further entrenched themselves in Sicilian politics and the economy.
The Mafia became adept at political corruption and intimidated people to vote for certain candidates, who were in turn beholden to the Mafia. Even the Catholic Church was involved with Mafia clans during this period, according to Raab, who notes that the church relied on Mafiosi to monitor its massive property holdings in Sicily and keep tenant farmers in line. In order to further strengthen themselves, Sicilian clans began conducting initiation ceremonies in which new members pledged secret oaths of loyalty.
Of chief importance to the clans was omerta, an all-important code of conduct reflecting the ancient Sicilian belief that a person should never go to government authorities to seek justice for a crime and never cooperate with authorities investigating any wrongdoing. However, in the s, the Mafia rose again when mob-backed construction companies dominated the post- World War II building boom in Sicily.
Over the next few decades, the Sicilian Mafia flourished, expanding its criminal empire and becoming, by the s, a major player in international narcotics trafficking. The American Mafia, a separate entity from the Mafia in Sicily, came to power in the s Prohibition era after the success of Italian-American neighborhood gangs in the booming bootleg liquor business.
Like the Sicilian Mafia, American Mafia families were able to maintain their secrecy and success because of their code of omerta, as well as their ability to bribe and intimidate public officials, business leaders, witnesses and juries.
For these reasons, law-enforcement agencies were largely ineffective at stopping the Mafia during the first part of the 20th century.
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