by PolackTony » Fri Feb 26, 2021 8:06 pm
I'd be careful with the info on this Wikipedia page, you'll notice that there are hardly any citations for most of the claims there. I've personally never heard of any of the PR drug organizations using terms like "made members" (not even sure how this would be presumably translated in Spanish) and I'm pretty suspicious of that. Drugs and gambling (including cockfighting rings) have long been major rackets in PR of course. While PR has played a big role over the years as a hub for Colombian and Dominican traffickers, it also has a lot of its own drug addicts and thus a sizeable internal market. Hence the wars between drug gangs over lucrative "puntos" (drug dealing turf) that have driven much of the outrageous levels of violent crime there in recent decades. I've been to some really rough areas in PR, including some of the worst caseríos (housing projects), and the drugs and violence are just completely out of control. Very easy place to get killed or "disappeared" if you're not careful when you venture out of the tourist zones.
When I was a kid in Chicago we had older PR guys from the island operating in the neighborhood (Humboldt Park) that everyone referred to as "mafiosos", who owned various clubs and other businesses and real estate. They were said to be involved in narcotics trafficking and linked to street gangs (MLDs, Spanish Cobras, LKs, etc) as well as the Outfit. The latter connection wouldn't be surprising as the Outfit had Ricans working for them since at least the 60s in Bolita and narcotics, and also had investments in gambling and hotels in PR following the Cuban Revolution. I would suspect there are some interesting connections over the years between LCN and PR OC that remain largely unexplored.
An interesting figure from decades past was Antonio Flores Serrano, a native of Caguas, PR involved in the French Connection narcotics trafficking networks. Motorfab has mentioned Flores in his excellent thread on French/Corsican OC:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6503&p=175207&hilit=Flores#p175207
(While almost certainly tangential, it's interesting to note in relation to the last point that PR had a sizeable and very influential French and Corsican migration in the 19th century, such that French and Corsican surnames are quite common. Many established themselves as major slave owners in the sugar and coffee plantation sectors, which is why one can today meet black PRs with Corsican surnames like Maristani and Franceschini).
I'd be careful with the info on this Wikipedia page, you'll notice that there are hardly any citations for most of the claims there. I've personally never heard of any of the PR drug organizations using terms like "made members" (not even sure how this would be presumably translated in Spanish) and I'm pretty suspicious of that. Drugs and gambling (including cockfighting rings) have long been major rackets in PR of course. While PR has played a big role over the years as a hub for Colombian and Dominican traffickers, it also has a lot of its own drug addicts and thus a sizeable internal market. Hence the wars between drug gangs over lucrative "puntos" (drug dealing turf) that have driven much of the outrageous levels of violent crime there in recent decades. I've been to some really rough areas in PR, including some of the worst caseríos (housing projects), and the drugs and violence are just completely out of control. Very easy place to get killed or "disappeared" if you're not careful when you venture out of the tourist zones.
When I was a kid in Chicago we had older PR guys from the island operating in the neighborhood (Humboldt Park) that everyone referred to as "mafiosos", who owned various clubs and other businesses and real estate. They were said to be involved in narcotics trafficking and linked to street gangs (MLDs, Spanish Cobras, LKs, etc) as well as the Outfit. The latter connection wouldn't be surprising as the Outfit had Ricans working for them since at least the 60s in Bolita and narcotics, and also had investments in gambling and hotels in PR following the Cuban Revolution. I would suspect there are some interesting connections over the years between LCN and PR OC that remain largely unexplored.
An interesting figure from decades past was Antonio Flores Serrano, a native of Caguas, PR involved in the French Connection narcotics trafficking networks. Motorfab has mentioned Flores in his excellent thread on French/Corsican OC:
http://theblackhand.club/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6503&p=175207&hilit=Flores#p175207
(While almost certainly tangential, it's interesting to note in relation to the last point that PR had a sizeable and very influential French and Corsican migration in the 19th century, such that French and Corsican surnames are quite common. Many established themselves as major slave owners in the sugar and coffee plantation sectors, which is why one can today meet black PRs with Corsican surnames like Maristani and Franceschini).