TommyGambino wrote:How many times are you going to ask about these defunct families Furio? You've literally made a hundred threads about them, I know you'd like them to be viable, but they're not, get over it.
I've posted the list below before - extending over the past 15 years. When reads them, and combines what can be seen in the mob cases in a given area over the same time frame, it gives a pretty good thumbnail sketch of the state of things.
You've got the 5 families operating in the extended NY metropolitan area - "ground zero" for the Mafia with roughly 75% if the total remaining membership.
You've got a handful of small families remaining outside NY. The ones that are consistently listed are New Jersey, New England, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Chicago still seems to be be considered a step above the others. Detroit is, at times, listed as well but it's inconsistent. So, when "9 families" are cited, it likely refers to the 5 NY families plus the first four I mentioned above. The times when Miami or South Florida are listed no doubt refer to the activity of the NY families in that region, as there's very little activity of any others to speak of.
You have to go back to the mid-1990's - 20 years ago now - before you can really find another family that was mentioned as still being viable and that was Buffalo when LIUNA Local 210 was taken over. Sure, you can find the odd case here or there since then involving mob members or associates in other areas - 15 people charged in a mob gambling bust in Pittsburgh in 2000, 19 people affiliated with the Tampa family busted in 2000, 10 people charged in a mob gambling bust in Kansas City in 2010, to name a few. But these are more like remnants of families that no longer have a formal structure in place or consistent and ongoing activity - certainly not recognized by the FBI anyway. Many of these other cities don't have the manpower to staff a good sized crew, much less a crime family.
On these forums there always have been, and always will be, certain posters who look for any scrap of info they can to excuse themselves for believing (or hoping) a family still exists somewhere. But when one looks at the evidence objectively, it leaves little room for doubt about the state of things.
"The estimated made membership of the LCN is 1100 nationwide, with roughly 80% of the members operating in the New York metropolitan area. There are five crime families that make up the LCN in New York City : the Bonanno, the Colombo , the Genovese, the Gambino, and the Lucchese families. There is also LCN operational activity in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and the Miami\South Florida area, but much less so than in New York . In other previous strongholds such as Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh, the LCN is now weak or non-existent. (UN Report, 1999)
"The LCN is most active in the New York metropolitan area, parts of New Jersey, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, and New England. It has members in other major cities and is involved in international crimes." (FBI website, 2000)
"Once boasting 26 families nationwide, the mob is down to 11, half of those confined to the New York area. Moreover, the Mafia's influence still extends far beyond New York . There remain active families in Chicago, Detroit, New England, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Miami." (US News & World Report, 2000)
"Although the LCN remains strong in the metropolitan New York City area where rougly 80% of the LCN members operate, the LCN has been substantially weakened in other parts of the United States - particularly in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and other cities." (Effective Methods to Combat Transnational Organized Crime in Criminal Justice Processes, 2001)
"I think law enforcement has done a lot of damage to the Mafia. There are very few families that are strong anymore. New York is about the only place where there's a Mafia now." (Charles Maurer, FBI, 2002)
"Operation Buttondown, the code name for the FBI's campaign to crush the Mafia, reduced the number of families operating in the United States from 24 to only nine, FBI officials said. (CNN, 2004)
"Only families in New York and Chicago , the largest traditional bases, retained a semblance of organizational frameworks. Elsewhere in the nation, the twenty-odd borgatas were in disarray or practically defunct, except in areas where the New York and Chicago families had branches, especially in Florida . The remaining strength of the Mob was largely concentrated in New York and the Northeast Corridor." (Five Families, 2005)
"Cosa Nostra, once a nationwide organization of Italian-American mobsters, is down to one Outfit in Chicago and New York City's five organized families - the Bonannos, Colombos, Gambinos, Genovese, and Luccheses. 'They are about 'all that's left,' Mob historian Selwyn Raab says." (USA Today, 2005)
"They're beleaguered, battered, and bruised but they are far from wiped out. They have been hurt by nearly three decades of prosecutions, mostly by federal authorities. But the five families in New York and those in other metropolitan areas, notably Chicago and its suburbs, remain viable criminal networks. (New York Times, 2006)
"Today, families in former strongholds like Cleveland, Tampa, and Los Angeles are gone. Our thing - as initiates called the mob - is in serious everywhere but New York City. (USA Today, 2007)
"There are 9 La Cosa Nostra families throughout the country; five of them exist in New York ." (Former LCN member Michael Franzese, 2009)
"Within the LCN there are five principal crime families. Most members of the LCN operate in the New York metropolitan area, but there are also criminal operations in Boston, Chicago, Newark, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Miami." (US Congressional Report, 2010)
"While the Mafia - also known as La Cosa Nostra - may no longer possess the robust national presence it once had, it remains a significant threat in the extended New York metropolitan area, New England, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit." (Los Angeles Times, 2011)
Even after imprisonment of senior leadership, it survives, and in some places thrives, though most experts agree that its operations are now largely confined to its traditional bases in the Northeast and Chicago." (Wall Street Journal, 2011)All roads lead to New York.
