[Fat Tony] My wife is most anxious about the issue of the pretzel monies. [/Fat Tony]
Aren’t the Sicilian mob and the Italian mob the same thing?
I once read an article by an FBI agent who worked organized crime (sorry, I can’t remember where) and according to him, the Russian mob is the most dangerous of the bunch. They are wholly without honor and morals but more importantly, they have no reagard for government and as such constitue the biggest threat. They grew out of the complete anarchy which exists in Russia and they bring that desire for anarchy with them when they come here. FWIW many of them are also supposedly big fans of the Detroit Red Wings and big Russian mob honchos will appear at many Red Wings games.
Of course this is all third hand, so in actuality, I have no idea.
Believe it or not, not really. When I say “Italian mafia” I should clarify and say “Italian-American Mafia”, also known as “La Cosa Nostra” who have been established in America for decades. Many of them are indeed of Sicilian descent.
To further clarify (this confusion is my fault) when law enforcement in this country refers to “Sicilan” mafia, they are referring to Sicilians sent over by mob bosses that are based in Sicily, not the U.S… Out of respect, Italian-American/LCS mafia members kind of co-exist with them, referring to them as “zips”, but are not members of the same crime organization. Unlike the Italian mob, which supposedly forbids drug dealing, the Sicilaans are said to be heavily involved in the heroin trade, and are more of an “international” organization.
I know they were a big prescence in the U.S. in the 1970s and early 80s before getting busted in the highly publicized “Pizza Connection” case where they used several pizza parlors across the US to deal drugs, using Sicilian immigrants who worked in pizza shops but also doubled as drug dealers.
There are three mafias in Italy. ‘Cosa Nostra’ (‘our affair’) refers to the Sicilian mafia. There’s also the Camorra, based in the Campania region of the Italian mainland and the 'Ndrangheta based in the Calabrian region in the ‘toe’ of Italy’s boot.
The Cosa Nostra are the prominent mafia in Italy, and often work together with the other two, as well as with other European and South American organisations. The Cosa Nostra were hurt badly in the 1990s by the Italian government’s sluggish attempts at a crackdown under the (now dead) Judge Giovanni Falcone.
Falcone (along with other notables Borsellini and Dalla Chiesa) was assassinated, and this (along with the terrorist-style bombing of a passenger train) ironically helped damage the Cosa Nostra, dispelling the myth of an ‘honourable society’ above such actions. Angered at the rise of the ultra-violent Corleonesi branch of the Cosa Nostra supergrasses like Tommaso Buscetta also crippled the organisation, temporarily at least.
Or more sinister, the Florida Dept of Agriculture, who banned all Spanish Clementines from the state Friday, to include destruction of current supplies. Protectionism, anyone?
Not a big fan of the pop-culture fascination with mafia (though yes, I do watch the [v.o.] Sopranos on Canal Jimmy), but I think there are a few major “players” on the international crime scene that have been left out:
Vietnamese – control the smuggling of lots of people, drugs, weapons and general badness à la the Chinese Triad counterparts, and have become a nasty little menace in certain parts of the Pacific coast of N. America (in case it only counts what mafias do in the States)
Bulgarian – before you laugh, bear in mind that the Bulgarians control much of the counterfeiting operations that are often erroneously attributed to the Russian/Siberians, and they have nearly as gruesome of a reputation in Eastern Europe overall (I noticed after all this that someone did indeed mention the Bulgarians briefly)
Plus you have the Turkish, Jamaican and Nigerian versions, all of whom are significantly nastier and more notorious than half of those on the OP list, handling everything from heavy narcotic distribution to well-organized multinational fraud, and always with the muscle that one would expect around such iniquitous activities
None of this should be glorified, though I am not going to say that I don’t see the temptation to run through the whole “my favorite mafia could kick your favorite mafia’s ass” when the new version of Alien vs. Predator just isn’t enough anymore. Seriously though, these people are the foulest of scum, the rejects of their local militaries or police departments and the common variety street trash, and just because some of them (the Russians come to mind) try to model themselves after the Hollywood version of the equally pathetic Sicilians (yes, originally that was the same thing as the Italian mafia) it doesn’t mean there is anything glamorous about their lives. I wish they weren’t all presented in such a theatrical vein, but the entertainment industry works on the laws of supply-and-demand just like everyone else, so I guess it’s what the testosteronies want.
If you ask me, the best way to be both evil and rich enough to live in a glamorous way is to go to law school. (yes, that’s a lame joke, you don’t have to comment on it)
Ever since he lost his wallet there, Dick tells me the worst mafia belongs to the Bahamians. We told him the wallet probably fell out of his pants while he was sitting on the beach, but he keeps talking about how his credit cards and his driver’s license were in there.