What shenanigans are the Italian American Mafia up to in present day?

26 comments

1. Whaddaya say, whaddaya know?

2. Kneecapping those who put pineapple on pizza.

3. You a cop?

4. They’ve rebranded to spa like activities. Sleeping with fishes and the like.

5. I’m in a waste management business. Everyone immediately assumes you’ve mobbed up. It’s a stereotype, and it’s offensive.

6. Modernization largely ended the mafia as we knew it.

   The best explanation for the decline of the mafia in the United States is that scene in The Sopranos where they [try to shake down imitation Starbucks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gsz7Gu6agA&ab_channel=amigomac). The rise of big box stores, online retailers, and the fact that nobody uses cash anymore decimated them. I mean why would anyone place bets with a mafia bookie when you can just open up your app?

   In present day they’re involved with mostly legitimate operations. The mafia is notorious in NYC construction where they’re legitimate outside of the fact that they squeezed out competition through threats of violence and sabotage.

7. Concrete business, parking lots/garages, valet parking, waste management, small businesses (delis, restaurants).

   They’re still around, but they lay pretty low these days compared to how they used to operate.

8. I knew a guy who was self-proclaimed mafia. And I believe him. I fully expect him to be on a Presidential ballot in 20+ years and I will say nothing.

9. Just some teenage hijinx. Lighting firecrackers under your shoes. Loitering. Some smoking. Skateboarding on the sidewalk past a cop. Not paying for their egg cream.

10. They’re still big in New York City real estate. If you’re a deadbeat tenant the city requires you I think 6 months before you can kick them out but they always leave the next day when “no knees” Vido pays them a visit and explains their options.

11. >While the Mafia – also known as La Cosa Nostra – may no longer possess the robust national presence and influence it once had, it remains a significant threat in the New York metropolitan area, New England, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit. – [FBI](https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/mafia-family-tree.pdf/view)

12. Not very much. The Italian mafia was pretty much shut down by the RICO act cases and competition from other groups and other forms of organized crime. Remnants of it still exist, are probably still involved in organized crime but on a smaller scale or involved in legitimate businesses without always pursuing them in entirely legal ways. I got curious and looked up the local crime family that used to be in the news all the time when I was in my teens and twenties and there’s various people still reputed to be the bosses, capos, underbosses etc. of the local crime family… But almost none of them have been in the news for any reason in the last twenty years or more.

    On the other hand I worked in the old Italian neighborhood the family used to operate out of and there are a lot of old Italian guys hanging around who look and act like extras in a Mafia movie, the older restaurants still look like the set for such a movie.. and in fact a few of them were in fact well known mob fronts or the sites of gangland hits 30 or 40 years ago or more.

13. Mind your business! Haha

14. Mostly investing their money in legitimate businesses these days.

    Crime just doesn’t pay like it used to.

15. Their front pizzerias and Italian restaurants became actual businesses. That’s what happened to a few in my area.

16. Almost none, most organized criminals at this point are either “conservative”, black, Latino or some sort of religiously aligned.

    A lot of what the fbi does is subject to public information laws, you’ll find reports and statistics if you google enough.

    https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/home

17. Remnants of one mafia family were caught up in a mass arrest a few years ago. Their crime was putting illegal poker machines in shitty bars. A few people were sentenced to probation and the rest were fined.

18. Every so often they get busted in NJ for running some back room gambling

19. I have a story about that… but I’m not going to post it on the internet.

20. They invest in [jukeboxes and pool tables](https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/son-murder-victim-and-co-conspirator-sentenced-life-prison-murder-hire-committed) at bars and restaurants as well as commercial real estate like the late [Sylvester Zottola](https://apnews.com/article/new-york-mafia-hit-mcdonalds-drivethru-1e9f5aa94b6c9eec501a31540a0ba072).

21. I figure they ran out of a large, insulated working class Italian communities to recruit from and rip off.

22. I have a tiny bit of inside baseball on this-not much, but a tiny bit.

    The answer is slightly more than people think, but not a ton.

    They have a presence in the drug trade (though mostly as distributors for bigger groups), some internet fraud, etc.

    They have a bit more that’s basically legitimate businesses (like construction) where they squeeze out some extra profit through unsavory means.

    Then there are guys like [Joey Merlino](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Merlino) who made some money and invested it well, like in real estate.

    The last quarter of the 20th century absolutely gutted the Mafia-the US Government threw their full force against them and battered them into submission. Immediately post 9/11, law enforcement turned most of their efforts towards counter terrorism, which gave people like [Joe Massino](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Massino) the opportunity to carve out a decent presence, but even then it all came crumbling down.

    All in all, you can basically put them somewhere above most regular street gangs, but towards the bottom of actual “organized crime.”

23. They are still around they’re just quieter and in different business

24. Nobody has room for the penal experience! So everybody turns government witness!

25. It’s likely that the mafia still exists and operates today in the US, but just on a much smaller scale compared to what it once was back in the 70s and 80s. However, it probably depends on the city, state, or region, the situation might be different between NYC and Las Vegas and Chicago.

26. They have mostly gone 100% legitimate.