How much influence does organized crime have on the restaurant industry? Do restaurants have to pay kickbacks, protection money, secret waste management fees, etc? If so, how widespread is the phenomenon? Are only areas close to major cities affected? Does Hell’s Angels or similar groups cover areas removed from Italian, Japanese, Jewish or other mafias? Lastly, are national chains affected? In other words, does the Olive Garden in suburbia pay off the mob regularly?
The old protection racket doesn’t work well in modern well policed societies. Too much chance of entrapment when the goons come around to collect.
Organized crime likes to get the contracts for restaurant support - garbage removal, laundry, supplies. the Mafia also likes to control the food and beverage workers unions for many reasons, not least of which is the control of and contact with attractive young people who may be redirected into prostitution and porno. By far the main involvement of criminals in the restaurant/nightclub/bar/hotel industry is for money laundering. An ongoing major criminal enterprise will be constantly snapping up struggling businesses that deal in cash a lot (restaurant/nightclub/bar/hotel businesses) and swiftly transforming them into miraculously successful businesses. They pay their taxes and the profits are effectively laundered money. I read a true crime book recently on a major international heroin and cocaine operation and was amazed at the complexity of the hundreds of businesses they acquired or set up to launder money. Nightclubs, hotels, and restaurants were the most popular because they handle a lot of cash.
So it’s very unlikely that your suburban Olive Garden pays off the mob, but it’s very possible that they do business with mob businesses, and it’s even more possible that they are owned by an organized crime group.
IANAMobBoss & IANARestauranteur…
Most mob crime deals with drugs, fencing and protections… I doubt that a suburban Olive Garden is going to need protection.
The only scenario that I can think of is if the restaurant is receiving goods for their store that happened to “fall off” the delivery truck. In that case, then most likely somebody is getting a kickback, whether its the mob or the distributor or simply the delivery driver. However, that would not really be feasible since these are all franchise restaurants and such behavior would be noticed very quickly.
Mom & Pop style restaurants would be more prone to mafia-rule, however those probably do not account for very many restaurants in the entire scheme of things.
RE: OP.
It depends on how often the criminals eat out.
DUH!
As already stated, the only involvement I see in organized crime and restaurants is the money laundering angle. This has historically been the case with some dry cleaning and carpet cleaning operations.
Anyone remember ZZZBest Carpet Cleaning in Los Angeles and it’s owner Barry Minko? They used to advertise 24/7 on TV when I was a kid. Turns out it was a huge money laundering scheme which ‘supposedly’ did carpet cleaning for huge banquet halls, convention centers, etc. explaining their outrageous profits. We did a forensic accounting case about the company when I was in business school that was quite interesting
The Mob can and does lean on all sorts of small operations and independent restaurants. The Olive Grden and restaurants like it, however, are a different matter. The Olive Garden belongs to General Mills, a huge corporation with even more money and political clout than the Mob. So, while it’s entirely possible that a suburban Olive Garden may buy supplies from Mob-affiliated enterprises, it’s unlikely to be under the Mob’s thumb.
A LOT of the most popular restaurants now are subdivisions of huge corporations. While a mobster might consider buying a franchise from such corporations (as others have mentioned, a restaurant can make for a nifty money laundering service), he’s not likely to step on their toes.
On the other hand, even a major restaurant chains aren’t likely to step on the Mob’s toes, if they can help it. If the Mob controls, say, garbage collection in Anytown, USA, the managers of the local Olive Garden will probably pay what the Mob asks, and consider that just one of the local costs of doing business.
To this I would add the fact that the Mob has infiltrated the giant “Foxwoods” casino in Connecticut. They control a firm supplying laundering services. Their MO is the same-force your competitors out of business (by threats of violence) then jack up the rates they charge. The majority of the trash-hauling businesses in NYC are indirectly controlled by the MOb. Also-construction: it costs you TWICE as much to pour concrete in NYC as it does elsewhere in the US-the reason is Mob-controlled unions, which pad the payrolls with “no-show” phantom employess. If you complain, you get your legs broken!
In my locality, the local Asian business areas are rife with gangs harassing businesses (including restaurants) for protection money and such. Now that Hispanics are forming large enough communities to get noticed, they are having their own gang problems too. In other places with Russian areas, they have their problems. Etc. (Immigrants are easy to pick on.)
Depends on your definition of “organized crime” being restricted to Italians or not. These gangs definitely span cities so they fit my definition.