Does the Italian Mafia still exist in Los Angeles? Is the Los Angeles crime family still active today?

[Pogo The Clown]

You can't always trust FBI reports. I recently read a report about the New Orleans family. One report said the family was dead. Then I found another recent report that said it may be one of the stronger families. I think the LCN went back to what they are. An underground organization. On many sites, the Detroit family is said to still be the number one crime group in Michigan. I know they have ties to Chicago and St. Louis and I believe they still have major power. I think LA Italian crime family is small but not nearly as dead as reports would have you believe. Like I said, back underground. You don't have to have bodies in the trunk every week to have power.

There are no such reports about New Orleans or Detroit.


Pogo

[CabriniGreen]

There are hints that the Gambinos have quite a decent presence out there. Whether or not they run it as a family or it’s structure who knows. Tommy Gambino who was recently arrested seemed to be in charge out there.

Wrong Tommy gambino. I follow info on him. Thomas Gambino (Tommy’s cousin) was arrested last year in Italy. Rosario Gambinos son Tommy (who John stanfa asked for backing in the 90s if you recall, and Roger Clinton took money from for parole consideration and a possible pardon) is legit to all outward appearances in 2020. He and his wife have a house in LA, NYC, and Swampscott MA and he has a wine company. Still young, and who knows maybe he’s the LA boss but it seems to me he’s doing well enough on legit money that he doesn’t have to commit much crime. Still an inducted LCN member, but that isn’t against the law

Lol, if it can be proven the organization still commits crime, then yes it's illegal. That's why mobsters hate RICO...

[JoeCamel]

You can be an LCN member and not be active and therefore not be Rico indictable. You need 2 predicates. Being a member is one.

[JoeCamel]

Otherwise every single confirmed member would be in the feds.

[Wiseguy]

In all seriousness though, plenty of LCN members probably have plenty of rackets that expand to LA. As far as the classic Milano family, defunct. Joe isgro is still alive. Donnie shacks is still alive. Tommy Gambino and Anthony both made members in the family. But like we said above legit. Cosa Nostra is everywhere. It just is entirely different organization nationwide then the 80s. The negotiating power of a guy with a button has waned immensely in the upper echelon if criminals.

They're not everywhere. There are approximately 900 members left in the U.S. About 700 of those belong to the five New York families. If you add in the families or otherwise living members in the Northeast, you're looking at over 90% of remaining members in that region. Doesn't leave many guys to cover the rest of the country.

Nick prango,I’m saying this to be nice. These guys will eat you alive so be careful how you portray yourself. There is plenty of peripheral LCN involvement in every major American city. Definitely, but they are very different from even 15 years ago

Every major American city? The mob wasn't in every major American city at it's peak, let alone now.

Check out Breakshot Blog and the book too. Kenji what’s his name
He touches on more recent LA events (2000s)

He'll be the first to tell you there is no LCN in California.

I mean it’s probably a little late now but the medicinal/legal marijuana industry seems to be something that could’ve provided some fairly healthy revenue streams on and off the books.

That's actually something they have tapped into to a degree, as far as a source for marijuana. That was part of the multi-family bust in 2016 involving Paradiso, etc. Their sources were legal grow houses and they were shipping it back east. But that's a lot different from families from the east coast having standing crews on the other side of the country.

You can't always trust FBI reports. I recently read a report about the New Orleans family. One report said the family was dead. Then I found another recent report that said it may be one of the stronger families. I think the LCN went back to what they are. An underground organization. On many sites, the Detroit family is said to still be the number one crime group in Michigan. I know they have ties to Chicago and St. Louis and I believe they still have major power. I think LA Italian crime family is small but not nearly as dead as reports would have you believe. Like I said, back underground. You don't have to have bodies in the trunk every week to have power.

There are no such reports about New Orleans or Detroit.
Pogo

Some people need to join the 21st century.

[The Greek]

The Mafia in all of SoCal - ALL - is ONLY La Eme. Everyone works for La Eme with the exception of a handful of street gangs that probably travel in groups given the green light on them. Illegal numbers rackets dominated by one of the largest L.A. gangs who essentially are OWNED by the Eme. The "dreaded" Mongols pay a street tax; and they were green lighted prior to groveling back to have it lifted. Wake Up!

What about African American gangs, Armenian gangs or Hells Angels. I don't believe they pay street tax to La Eme.

Armenian gangs 100%

[JoeCamel]

See nick prango wiseguy ate me alive

[Chopper]

https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... ow-mafioso

Good, recent article on the Mexican Mafia.

[JoeCamel]

he’s kind of reaching superiority complex wise but I will admit I was making out of control and unverifiable statements. There is LCN activity in the broadest sense of the word in between 10-15 cities nationwide. Defunct families inactive memebers remnants in a smattering more. Peripheral involvement however is a broad statement that could be construed many different ways, but I want to note I am of the camp of An LCN member being a member Criminally active or not And Cosa Nostra is something that the essence of can be debated. I admit however I was exaggerating about the every major city thing

[Etna]

African-American gangs have become shooting practice in East L.A. for Latino gangs; they may have certain neighborhoods that they still control but they've shrunken to insignificance; SoCal is predominantly Latin and predominantly Mexican American. The Hells Angels couldn't take the Mongols. California was HA territory - only where they didn't cross paths with La Eme and Nuestra Famiglia. Like the Asians and what's left of black street gangs, they may have a small piece and be left alone as long as they don't encroach. The Mongols, in the late seventies Took southern Cal from the HA. The HA agreed to peace terms and have northern Cal (don't know their relationship with Nuestra Famiglia). There is a video story -story within a story - of the HA wanting to kill someone but were told no as the guy is with a formal La Eme member. Only one -ONE - Eme member has ever been murdered by someone other than Eme themselves. They dominate. OK, Armenians and Russians may have rackets but they are not moving on traditional rackets in SoCal: Not Happening.

I just have one thing about this post. There are no African American gangs in East L.A. That's always been considered latino gang turf. But as far as black on brown gang conflicts, are you referring to the Crips vs. Florencia 13 beef? The odd thing about that is Florencia has co-existed with a blood set for years and never had a beef.

Maybe something going on in Inglewood as well? The black on brown stuff seemed very over hyped when it went on in the 2010s.

[Nick Prango]

In all seriousness though, plenty of LCN members probably have plenty of rackets that expand to LA. As far as the classic Milano family, defunct. Joe isgro is still alive. Donnie shacks is still alive. Tommy Gambino and Anthony both made members in the family. But like we said above legit. Cosa Nostra is everywhere. It just is entirely different organization nationwide then the 80s. The negotiating power of a guy with a button has waned immensely in the upper echelon if criminals.

They're not everywhere. There are approximately 900 members left in the U.S. About 700 of those belong to the five New York families. If you add in the families or otherwise living members in the Northeast, you're looking at over 90% of remaining members in that region. Doesn't leave many guys to cover the rest of the country.

Nick prango,I’m saying this to be nice. These guys will eat you alive so be careful how you portray yourself. There is plenty of peripheral LCN involvement in every major American city. Definitely, but they are very different from even 15 years ago

Every major American city? The mob wasn't in every major American city at it's peak, let alone now.

Check out Breakshot Blog and the book too. Kenji what’s his name
He touches on more recent LA events (2000s)

He'll be the first to tell you there is no LCN in California.

I mean it’s probably a little late now but the medicinal/legal marijuana industry seems to be something that could’ve provided some fairly healthy revenue streams on and off the books.

That's actually something they have tapped into to a degree, as far as a source for marijuana. That was part of the multi-family bust in 2016 involving Paradiso, etc. Their sources were legal grow houses and they were shipping it back east. But that's a lot different from families from the east coast having standing crews on the other side of the country.

You can't always trust FBI reports. I recently read a report about the New Orleans family. One report said the family was dead. Then I found another recent report that said it may be one of the stronger families. I think the LCN went back to what they are. An underground organization. On many sites, the Detroit family is said to still be the number one crime group in Michigan. I know they have ties to Chicago and St. Louis and I believe they still have major power. I think LA Italian crime family is small but not nearly as dead as reports would have you believe. Like I said, back underground. You don't have to have bodies in the trunk every week to have power.

There are no such reports about New Orleans or Detroit.
Pogo

Some people need to join the 21st century.

While it’s true the LCN in the U.S. isn’t what it once was at the peak of its power it’s still a viable and profitable criminal enterprise that has proven to be very resilient. The Mafia continues to make millions and millions of dollars from not only traditional mob rackets but new and innovative schemes. There have been numerous reports of the Mob’s demise over the last decade or so but families in and outside of New York remain.

[Nick Prango]

he’s kind of reaching superiority complex wise but I will admit I was making out of control and unverifiable statements. There is LCN activity in the broadest sense of the word in between 10-15 cities nationwide. Defunct families inactive memebers remnants in a smattering more. Peripheral involvement however is a broad statement that could be construed many different ways, but I want to note I am of the camp of An LCN member being a member Criminally active or not And Cosa Nostra is something that the essence of can be debated. I admit however I was exaggerating about the every major city thing

All the Italian mobsters know that the number one way to stay successful is to be quiet and stay out of the light, nowadays.

The Italians are also much more unified, nowadays. They barely ever war with each other, anymore. They’re all about making money, just way more quietly and in the shadows — which is how it always was before the glitz and glam of the Gotti era, and the leftover behavioral tide/ripple effect that carried over through the rest of the 90’s and into the mid-2000’s.

[Nick Prango]

he’s kind of reaching superiority complex wise but I will admit I was making out of control and unverifiable statements. There is LCN activity in the broadest sense of the word in between 10-15 cities nationwide. Defunct families inactive memebers remnants in a smattering more. Peripheral involvement however is a broad statement that could be construed many different ways, but I want to note I am of the camp of An LCN member being a member Criminally active or not And Cosa Nostra is something that the essence of can be debated. I admit however I was exaggerating about the every major city thing

LCN is still the strongest organised crime group in the New York area. Other ethnic organised crime groups got bigged up about 20 years ago as the next big thing in the underworld but it never really materialised. No other organised crime group in the area is as structured as LCN, and none have as much influence, particularly when it comes to control of unions.

People tend to lump together different Eastern European crime groups and call them the 'Russian mob' in a way that's very misleading and makes them out to be far more organised and structured. The varied criminal organizations which are generally lumped together as being the “Russian Mafia” are not native born Americans in the same manner as the 5 families members. They are usually foreign nationals, or recent immigrants, who simply view the United States as a large target to plunder. They aren’t looking for “territory” as it is portrayed in films and television; they are looking for opportunities to make legal and illegal profits. Russians probably control most of the organized crime in Brighton Beach, NY. Which is a largely Russian community. Most of the organized crime in NYC is still controlled by the Italian Mafia -- 5 families , but they do business with other groups such as Russians or Albanians. The Russian mafia heavily favor smuggling and trafficking schemes.

The New York 5 families had (and to a certain extent still have) sections of the city carved up as being parts of their “spheres of influence.” While this declined drastically in the last 30 years due to declining membership numbers and issues with federal prosecutions, they are a still potent force and their members can still evoke fear in both criminals and civilians alike.

The so-called Russian Mafia is an international criminal organization. It operates in the US, Russia, the former Soviet states, Europe…basically on every continent, excluding Antarctica (for now). They have, or can find, lucrative criminal and legal enterprises across the globe, and so they have little need to butt heads with the New York City-5 families.

[Nick Prango]

he’s kind of reaching superiority complex wise but I will admit I was making out of control and unverifiable statements. There is LCN activity in the broadest sense of the word in between 10-15 cities nationwide. Defunct families inactive memebers remnants in a smattering more. Peripheral involvement however is a broad statement that could be construed many different ways, but I want to note I am of the camp of An LCN member being a member Criminally active or not And Cosa Nostra is something that the essence of can be debated. I admit however I was exaggerating about the every major city thing

Irish, Cuban, Russian, Chinese, Albanian, African American, Puerto Rican etc criminal organizations are not serious competition for what the F.B.I. calls traditional organized crime, the Italian mob. They do not demonstrate the established criminal sophistication of traditional La Cosa Nostra (LCN) organisations. There is no single criminal organization in United States structured hierarchically like the traditional LCN. Other criminal organizations are not clearly defined or organised and are instead grouped around a central leader or leaders.

Latin/Black/Chinese etc groups do have hierarchies, but the division between them isn’t as formal as for the Mafia. There’s more access to the high ranks than there is with the Mafia, where a soldier may never meet the boss except when he’s initiated. Plus the Mafia structure is pretty much the same everywhere.

Other crime groups have a more democratic structure compared to the Mafia. The Mafia in United States has a defined hierarchy. It’s a tree-like hierarchy that could be compared to the military or to a corporation.

Boss

Underboss Consigliere

Captain Captain Captain Captain Captain

Crew (soldiers) Crew (soldiers) Crew (soldiers) Crew (soldiers) Crew (soldiers).

Today, most of the Mafia's activities are contained to the northeastern United States, where they continue to dominate organized crime, despite the increasing numbers of other crime groups.

[scagghiuni]

there are by far more italians members of bikers than lcn in western united states