One of the most interesting episodes in the HBO series " The Sopranos " was in season 6 : TwoMafiagoons , Burt and Patsy , essay to escape from down a new java store in a region where their crowd collects money in rally for " trade protection . " But the burnt umber seat is a corporate - owned franchise , and the managing director explains that he has no access to the money ; he could n’t give it to them if he wanted to . When they threaten him , he explain threat to the store or to his own safety in all likelihood wo n’t count much to the larger corporation . Leaving the shop class empty - handed , one of the mobsters hang his read/write head and pronounce , " It ’s over for the little guy . "
The scene illustrates perfectly the outlook for the footling Mafioso , too . If the past two decades have taught us anything , it ’s that corporate mastery and efficiency are just the matter to relax the Mafia ’s grip of extortion . But is the same true for traditional Mafia - run businesses ?
unionised criminals have long invested in legitimate business as both a base of trading operations and a means oflaundering moneyfrom illegal activity such as drug trafficking , weapons dealings , prostitution , smuggling , counterfeitingand robbery . The Mafia favors unregulated or John Cash - based businesses that require the strength and stomach to do thing member of polite company avoid . thriftlessness management , for example , has become so powerfully tied to unionised crime that in some parts of the country the terminal figure " sanitisation bunch " might as well be synonymous with " the Mob . "
Even as Mob types have gained in high spirits profile on TV and in movies , there ’s still the perception that the factual ring is less present or relevant than it was in the yesteryear . In the digital age , cash businesses are more transparent , which makes it harder to warm - arm the competition . The jurisprudence seems more adept at take in these criminals , and a slew of high - visibility indictments have made headline , beginning with the famous cases brought by Manhattan attorneys Rudy Giuliani in the eighties and Robert Morgenthau in the 1990s , and top up to former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ’s 2011 historic roundup of members of New York ’s " Five Families " ( Bonanno , Colombo , Gambino , Genovese and Luchese ) [ generator : Rashbaum ] .
rank in the Italian Mafia , aka La Cosa Nostra , is tell to have send away to 3,000 in Italy and another 3,000 in the U.S. [ sources : Goldhill , The Week ] . Even the killings are down . The Mafia ’s murder pace in Italy fell by 80 percent between 1992 and 2012 [ source : Davy Boren ] . In 2020 , just 28 murders in Italy were Mafia - related , compared with 527 between 1988 and 1992 [ source : Frate ] . Law enforcement officials say violent organized criminal offense is down in the U.S. , too . Given this info , it ’s easy to get the impression that some of the Mafia ’s power has diminished .
That impression , it turns out , is a myth . While traditional criminal activities have waned , the Mafia has adapted to the time and is discover ways to fly high in today ’s economy . It might have a low-toned profile , but in some industries ( and union Charles Martin Hall and political back room ) the Mafia still has tilt . Let ’s take a looking at some of the business and industries that have historically been hold by the Mafia and see whether they are still connect today .
10: Garbage Hauling/Waste Management
The association between the garbage - hauling industry and get up law-breaking goes back 10 . In the U.S. , La Cosa Nostra has been part of New York ’s commercial-grade sanitisation arrangement since the fifties ( personal trash is hauled by the city ’s Department of Sanitation ) . Carters , as trash haulers are have a go at it , have always been able to carve out and deal routes to one another , make the system vulnerable to secure - arm tactics .
The Mafia entered the industry through theTeamsters union , gaining influence over sure road and using unsavory tactic to keep contention at bay . When a national waste - industry loss leader , Browning - Ferris Industries , accede the securities industry in 1992 , an executive ’s wife found the decapitated head of a German shepherd on her lawn . In its mouth was a note : " Welcome to New York " [ author : Keenan ] .
Law enforcement in New York has made ongoing strides to , ahem , clean up the industry . It was one of Rudy Giuliani ’s top antecedence as New York City city manager , and he and lawyer Robert Morgenthau oversaw bill of indictment of members of the Genoese and Gambino criminal offense mob throughout the 1990s .
Still , the Mafia presence persists . As late as January 2013 , 30 people were indicted for extortion in New York City . The grouping included members and associates of three different Mob crews — the Gambino , Genoese and Luchese crime families — all connected to the food waste - hauling business [ seed : Margolin ] . While syndicate involvement in garbage accumulation in New York City has declined , it still persist in in other place like Philadelphia and New Jersey [ source : Soniak ] .
The drift continues overseas , too . The Italian Mafia ’s Camorra group is said to have controlled food waste in the city of Naples since the early 1980s . The badly run system gained worldwide attention back in 2008 , when ungathered refuse piled up on the metropolis ’s streets for more than two weeks because the Mafia left the shit close . But even when the dump were n’t close , Naples ' streets were famous for being Methedrine - occupy due to Camorra mismanagement of the permissive waste organization [ source : want in Rome ] . In addition , the Camorra Mob has been illegally dump and burn toxic dissipation for decennary , which has had calamitous consequences for the environs , agriculture , intellectual nourishment yield and human health [ source : Deitche ] .
9: Gambling
Mob history tells of two famous occurrences in now - renowned locus . The first was in 1929 when , under the guise of celebrating gangster Meyer Lansky ’s honeymoon , get up crime chassis met up in Atlantic City to discuss proscription . Specifically , they talk about how the Mafia could profit from the conclusion ofProhibitionby enthrone in casinos and club [ source : Harper ] . As the other write up proceed , Lansky and his right - hand military personnel , Bugsy Seigel , see at a Las Vegas desert and project its potential as a gambling Mecca . In liveliness and in traditional knowledge , the Mafia and casinos are inextricably linked . It makes gumption : betting odds are designed to be on the side of the house , regulators are bear less attention than they might be in other industries , and the Mafia has the heftiness to make the sometimes - explosive play business go somewhat swimmingly .
The Mob connection helped build up Las Vegas into the multi - billion - dollar holidaymaker destination it is today . But aside from in the periodic museum , topic eating place or rill - in with one of the locals , tourists are n’t potential to see grounds of the Mafia in Vegas these days . The twinned effects of the Black Book ( a tilt of suspect mobster and others excluded from entering casinos by Nevada ’s gaming commission ) and incarnate gambling casino owners moving in have decimated Mafia interests in Nevada casinos [ source : Henry ] .
But mobster have adapted to the times and taken their human action online . These days , they are more potential to be busted for online sports gambling . In 2008 , a Queens district attorney charged the Gambino family with illegal play and gambling casino - style gambling operations . Players were allowed to take up play money at 200 percent interest [ source : Bonner ] . In 2014 , appendage of the Genoese family in New Jersey were indict for making millions of dollar sign each year through illegal gambling operations [ beginning : Ivers ] .
In Europe , officials have heighten business over the Brobdingnagian amounts of money being launder by the Mafia throughonline gambling , particularly sites based in Germany , where there are no penalties for illegal play activities [ source : Walther ] . And in Italy , where on-line gambling surged during the COVID-19 pandemic , official are enquire more than 300 individuals tied to an online gambling scheme [ source : Ford ] .
8: Carpentry and Construction
Similar to its waste - direction strategy , the Mafia made its way into the edifice business through union . Typically , twist companies make bids for chore that include union crews . Mafia - run construction society are roll in the hay to include unification rates in the tender and gain the contracts — then pay up far less to their worker . Inside the union , Mafia cronies get top jobs , shake down the legitimate crews and betray job to the highest bidder ( rather than the most skilled carpenters ) . There are even threats of strong-arm violence . They also vest in and own companies that provide material like steel or cementum to other expression crews ( the cement horseshoe trope intelligibly exists for a reason ) . These company mob on the costs , get the Mary Leontyne Price of building expensive .
It seems the Mafia remains a part ofconstructioncompanies and union . Mafia - linked subcontractors continue to build project in Manhattan , admit the Freedom Tower at theWorld Trade Center . And in 2021 , intimately a twelve alleged members of the Gambino family pled shamed to a expression graft schema involving a luxury condominium tug and other projection [ sources : Brenzel , The Standard ] .
7: Wind Energy
speak about an ill breaking wind . In countries across Europe , criminals are endue in twist farm and other eccentric of greenish get-up-and-go as a way to wash dirty money . In fact , a growing " eco Mafia " in Italy is take advantage of environmental Grant offer by the Italian political science and the European Union by entering thewind line .
A combination of factors makeswind powerattractive to criminals . There is a want of ordinance in the manufacture , a high price for the product , complicated financing — and politics subsidies . Wind power sells for a higher cost in Italy than anywhere else in the domain , which is why there are now so many windmills dust the Sicilian James Jerome Hill . While the country ’s citizen have to look at a propellor - filled landscape painting , they keep quiet for fear of retribution . Meanwhile , licit winding providers get muscle out of licenses to work up working farms , or they are unwittingly sold licence by the Mafia without have intercourse exactly what variety of businesspeople they ’re deal with [ source : Squires and Meo ] .
This Mafia - backed wind instrument power extends beyond Italy , with Italian malarky developers look to source turbines and equipment to other part of Europe . One mobster who was sentenced in 2018 told official that he had half a million euro ( more than $ 1 million U.S. ) allow for regional authorities to get permits for new lead farms and that he would make more than 15 million euros ( about $ 17 million ) from selling these permits to large company in the sector . It ’s clear official will need to keep a closelipped eye on potential fraudulent activity in this sector [ source : Traileoni ] .
6: Real Estate
The Mafia might not exactly control real estate , but gangster do care to place in holding . And when there ’s easy money to be made in real estate , it ’s even easy to find a Mafia connection with a cozenage .
During the run - up to the housingbubblein 2008 and after the subsequent crash , it was Dominick DeVito , connected to the Genoese family , who was finding new ways to make forged deals for homeowners . DeVito was sentenced to nearly five eld in prison for his particular real estate dodge , which regard grease one’s palms up big house in Westchester County , the suburbs just northward of New York City , and sell them for outrageous profits . He and his associates dwell to get the mortgages , then used the Modern dwelling house as collateral for more mortgage , which eventually went into foreclosure — but not before they cashed in on some insurance policy money for things like broken pipes ( freshly and very deliberately broken by the Mafia ) . When the trapping market took a dive , the Genoese gang was there toss foreclosure in the same way [ reservoir : Smith ] .
In another unexpected crook , relaxed loaning practices by major banks and mortgage companies before the tear really helped the loansharking job . citizenry apparently turn tohome equity loansto erase Mob debt . More recently , Canada ’s Charbonneau Commission discovered the Mafia here made plenty of money in the material estate business enterprise by staying on the by-line , work as consultants and arbiters . Essentially , Mob members would assist with negotiations between occupation partner , assist insure financing and more , then enjoy a cut of the lucre [ rootage : Banerjee ] .
A 2015 field of Italian mobs , print in the British Journal of Criminology , mention that real estate was attractive to the Mafia for many understanding : It provided a fundament for activities such as gaming and prostitution ; there was no regulatory authority overseeing it ( as with the store market ) ; and dimension could be let out or used for legal businesses . Real landed estate could also be prestigious and allow the family to be seen as socially prominent in an region [ source : Dugato , et al ] .
5: Restaurants and Pizzerias
Anyone lucky enough to have exhaust at a famous Mob hangout , like Rao ’s in the Bronx or Umberto ’s Clam House in low-toned New York City , sleep with the Mafia is connected to some delicious eatery . Even the lesser - known Mob spots , like PortuCale Restaurant & Bar in Newark , New Jersey , — allegedly the former base of money - laundering operations for more than $ 400 million add in by the Genoese family — purportedly serve really yummy meal [ source : Golding ] .
The Mafia ’s foodie repute has an even rich history . In the 1980s , for instance , the Sicilian Mafia relied on the so - called " pizza connexion " to ship diacetylmorphine and cocain to pack - run pizzerias in towns throughout the U.S. , using cans of San Marzano tomatoes . Even cheese and European olive tree oil makers could be shaken down to exportation diacetylmorphine [ source : Lubasch ] .
Today , crime syndicate - run pizza shop , restaurants and coffee shop are everywhere . Coldiretti , a major Italian consumer organization comprise agricultural entrepreneurs , estimates at least 5,000 restaurants throughout Italy alone are run by the Mafia . It also warns the Mob is extending its reach into Italy ’s intact nutrient Ernst Boris Chain — the " agromafia " — include cultivated land , farm animal and markets , in addition to restaurants . Their take ? More than 22 billion euros ( $ 25 billion ) in 2018 alone . Chillingly , they ’re garner some of this money by brush off wellness and safety take , putting people and the environs at risk [ sources : The Local Italy , Roberts ] . If this is go on in Italy , it ’s in all probability occurring in other countries , too .
4: Bars
As early as the thirties , when homosexuality was illegal in the U.S. , Mafia - link establishment were around to furnish homo and lesbian customers a place to meet , mingle and spend money . At one point , the Mafia had a monopoly on gay bars in New York City , and probably control similar establishments in other metropolis around the country .
It was the Genoese family unit who ran Manhattan ’s Stonewall Inn , the internet site of the infamous 1969Stonewall riots , which direct place after patrons fight back against constabulary raiding the legal community . endow in the former straight streak , Tony " Fat Tony " Lauria purchased and transmute The Stonewall in 1966 , seeing more possible in the neighbourhood ’s growinggay community .
His motives were far from pure . Because customers were impel to live in the dark , the Mob could keep standard low . Drinks were overpriced and water down , and term were not hygienical or well - maintained . imbibition field glass were sometimes not even washed between U.S. . And while Fat Tony reportedly make up the bull up to $ 1,200 a month to detain away , the Stonewall ’s owners still made big profits by extorting customers in exchange for turn a blind eye to their illegal behaviour .
Another Genovese guy , Matthew " Matty the Horse " Ianniello , had a hand in run more than 80 bars , eating place and discos in the 1970s , many of them catering to the homosexual residential district . He also ran holding troupe tender an raiment of avail ( from the obligatory money - lending and garbage collection to topless dancing and interior decorating ) . These companies dish as money - laundering movement until the police force caught up with him , and he go to jail for revenue enhancement escape [ seed : Vitello ] .
As jovial activism gained footing , the link between gay and the Mob subvert [ reference : PBS ] . There are probable still Mafia member connected to bars and clubs in cities across the country , but the LGBTQ community of interests today is n’t reliant on the crime syndicate ’s ( or anyone else ’s ) subpar services .
3: Pornography
The Mafia has long been relate to the production and statistical distribution of adult flick , book of account and magazine . In the 1960s and seventies , the Colombo class reportedly ran coin - operate machines showing 8 mm film in New York ’s squalid Times Square . During the same era , Mafioso type owned and controlled most of the adults - only movie theaters , X - rated distributors and science laboratory march 35 millimeter films . " Mickey Z " Zaffarano of New York ’s Bonanno folk started a successful countrywide concatenation , Pussycat Cinemas , before theFBIcaught up with him in 1979 . And the attached Peirano family made the wildly successful breakout porno movie " Deep Throat . " ( The film ’s tragic star , Linda Lovelace , would later take she made the moving picture under the scourge of Mob wildness . )
The Mafia ’s connection to pornography waned in the eighties and 1990s , when video cassette took over the securities industry , Hollywood realized it could knock into this immense gain electric potential and Times Square get a family - friendly makeover that no longer included coin - op porn [ source : Gallo ] .
More recently , eminent - profile connections between organized crime and internet pornography have been uncovered . In 2005 , Gambino fellowship members were brought up on fraud charges for offering detached tours of adult websites , then bill extravagant charges to their client ' credit entry wit . The scheme brought in so much money that the earnings were invested in a phone company , banking company , and more than 64 shell companies and alien banking concern accounts .
While the 2005 apprehension were the last eminent - visibility internet porn bust , it ’s assumed that several Mafia groups are involved insex traffickingthat results in the creation of pornography . member of the American Mafia have been brought up on sex trafficking and whoredom charges , while the Russian Mafia is articulate to prefer the high-pitched - profit leeway found in sexual activity trafficking enslaved people from economically poor areas in the Ukraine and Romania [ beginning : Weiss ] . And in 2021 , one of the independent sources of income for the Nigerian Mafia , which is circularise throughout Europe and works with the Italian Mafia , was human trafficking , often via prostitution [ seed : DW ] .
2: Music Recording
Anyone who ’s interpret " Jersey Boys " ( the pic or Broadway melodious ) knows something about the Mafia ’s transcription industry chronicle . It tell the tale of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons ' link to Gyp DeCarlo , a Genovese - tied gangster from New Jersey . Years earlier , another Genovese guy identify Willie Moretti had a hand in build Frank Sinatra ’s vocation . A scene in " The Godfather , " where Luca Brasi put a gun to the head of a bandleader to get a singer out of a contract , is reportedly based on a 1943 tarradiddle , in which Moretti shoved a torpedo down bandleader Tommy Dorsey ’s pharynx on Sinatra ’s behalf to get him out of his contract [ source : Doyle ] .
The Mafia has been a force behind some of thebest recordingsand recording artists of all time . But even as it promised to protect creative person , the Mafia would eventually restrain and wring from them , too .
Take the Genoese family ’s Moishe " Morris " Levy , known in some circle as the Godfather of rock - and - roll . ( He also founded illustrious New York jazz ball club Birdland for his friend , Charlie " Bird " Parker ) . As a manufacturer of classic hits , including " Why Do Fools Fall in Love ? , " Levy ’s contracts were notoriously one - sided , go along everything that could generate foresighted - terminus money , includingcopyrightsand publish royalties [ source : Sucher ] . mafioso like Levy not only controlled artist management , but they also possess the concert venues , then finally therecord labels , record - processing plants and even the disk stores . Levy institute the Strawberry record entrepot chain in the seventies .
In the 1980s , organize criminals reportedly buy record - pressing plants , allowing them to duplicate copies of a master recording and flood the market place with lower - priced copies . Since then , the manufacture has become more corporate and less lucrative . Most of the revenue come from digital sources , go away less chance for cash transactions and corn liquor transcript [ germ : Mishra ] . The music Mafia seems to have extend quiet .
1: Drugs
A few decades ago , there was a unyielding belief that no matter how insidious the Italian Mafia , it at least stayed out of the drug trade . But that impression was pretended . In 1959 , for instance , Vito Genovese was imprisoned on drug armorial bearing . And today more than ever before , the Mob is involved in traffic and sell narcotic . In Italy alone , the syndicate pull in some $ 34.70 billion annually from drugs . In summation , the country ’s notorious ' Ndrangheta Mafia , based in Calabria , now dominates the worldwide drug trade , chiefly via cocaine [ source : Scherer ] .
In Europe and Canada , for exercise , the ' Ndrangheta is the force behind their endless supply of South American cocain [ origin : Humphreys ] . The group also distributes cocaine to Italy ’s other Mafia groups . In 2014 , phallus of the Gambino and Bonanno offence families in the U.S. were involved in a dodge with the ' Ndrangheta syndicate , which was shipping cocaine through New York inside sweeping frozen Pisces the Fishes , then frozen pineapples [ source : Marzulli ] . And in Spain , there ’s been a huge rise in marijuana trafficking , good manners of the Eastern European Mafia , along with hashish from Morocco . In 2019 , narcotic officials intercept 3,000 kg ( 6,600 dog pound ) of South American cocain hidden in a U-boat [ root : El País ] . If money can be made from an industry — any industry — the Mob will be there .
