Mafia

I gotta tell ya, the mafia is still alive and kicking. I come from Brooklyn, Bensonhurst, I've been around them all my life, I lived bout 4 blocks from Sammy the rat bastard, so I see it all the time. It's true they were dealt a serious blow back in the 90's , alot of top wise guys got put away, and most of the crews got weak. But since then they've been regrouping, and staying low key.
They learned some valuble lessons from seeing Gotti and others go down.
They are still into all the old way's, construction, drugs,carting, loan sharking etc.
But it's a new breed out here now. People don't trust anyone, too many rats, so they stay low take care of buisness and have alot less hassles that way.

______
Tony

The Yakuza are still pretty big in Japan and Australia, I think they've got 250,000 in Australia but that number could well be wrong. After the fall of the Soviet Union the Russian Mafia has grown in numbers a lot, and are now a worldwide threat.

Mafias try to stay low, so they don't want you to hear much of them, and they are usually connected with smaller gangs that work for them...

yes now you have all these drug cartells and protution gangs we need old school like the mafia who agrees.

[edit on 12/22/2004 by bet555]

Mainly Maori gangs here, MM, BP, HH, et el. Triads are moving in, especially in Auckland. Some Greek and extremely little Italian OC.

As for the italian/scillian mobs,yeah there still around....its a money making buisness wich will never end.
Russian maffia is huge,+probably the biggest in the world.
English mafias are big to,especially around london,manchester and glasgow.
Triads are big in uk and most of europe,
IRA big all over the world.

maffias equal money,most are just smart enough to stay low profile.

"Confessions of a Hitman" is a Mafia documentary that has been wrapped up and is looking for a distributor.

It is an independent film that has live interviews from the last few years from real Mafia members, and their confessions.

I hope this film gets distributed so we can all see it, but it is low budget and may never make it to screen. If it does it is filled with more Real life Mafia secrets than any other film. It is all TRUE and REAL and would prove the mafia is active and alive.

the mafia isnt in the news anymore?

you could have fooled me, but its ON CNN Today!!!

www.cnn.com...

45 arrested in Italy Mafia raid

PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) -- Italian police raided houses and hideouts around the Sicilian city of Catania on Monday and arrested 45 Mafiosi accused of coc aine trafficking, extortion and kidnapping.

The operation was aimed at the "Santapaola" Mafia family, Cosa Nostra's outpost in the foothills around Mount Etna and the port city of Catania, police said in a statement.

Among those arrested was Giuseppe Ercolano, 68, who is believed to be the head of the clan and was last released from prison only a year ago.

"Various people cooperating with the police were able to throw light on a long series of kidnappings and extortion, as well as a vast drug trafficking ring organised by the 'Santapaola' mafia family from 1989-1995," the investigators' statement said.

It said gangs believed to have been controlled by Ercolano had kidnapped local bankers, run a flourishing coc aine trafficking network and forced businesses to pay up to 10,000 euros ($13,000) in protection money.

Last week police swooped on Mafiosi in and around the Sicilian capital of Palermo who had formed a web of protection around top Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenzano, who has been on the run for four decades.

The KuoMinTang party that ruled China until the Communist revolution of 1949 was basically Triad kingpins playing dictator. When they fled to Taiwan, they robbed the country blind, actually placing most of the countries gold reserves and historical treasures onto ships and sailing across the strait.

Taiwan is the country it is today because of Triad money. Even today, many top figures in the KMT are known Triad affiliates. Before Chen Shui Bian's DPP won their first term in office, an investigation into the misappropriated funds and real estate of ex-KMT member James Song was aborted because the information exposed was threatening to put half of the movers and shakers of government into prison.

Mafia presence in Taiwan is an unspoken, yet accepted and normal part of life, particularly in the south. The old Italian thing of if you have a problem, you see the local mafia boss is still alive and well in Taiwan. My Taiwanese ex-gf's uncle was mid-level in the Triad heirarchy. I made damn sure I did the right thing by her...

The mafia is still alive and kicking. Try and cheat at cards in the wrong casino in Vegas and you'll find that out first hand. In all seriousness many of the big bosses have gone more legit, but it is still not a good idea to snoop around too much or impede them in any way.

When somebody refers to "mafia" it can only mean the Cosa Nostra. The word was applied to the Sicilian group and was twisted to mean a type of honour peculiar to the people who come from that region.

The reason that the Mafia has survived for so long is that there has long been question as to whether or not it even existed!!! Even up until the 1980s, the Italian government refused to acknowledge that the Mafia was an organised group. It took the murder of a "Mafia-busting" judge (Falcone) before they finally admitted that the Mafia probably did exist in the way that people like Mario Puzo and some of his Hollywood coleagues had been depicting it. This could be the major reason why the Mafia seems so weak at this time. It has been exposed.

Over history, the strength of the Mafia seems to come in waves. When it is damped down in Italy, it goes underground for a while and then re-emerges. It has always been able to manipulate both political and clerical figures and, depending on the power that they have at the time, the Mafia is able to conduct it's business in relation.

In today's world, that power over politicians and clerics is harder to glean. The Mafia has always relied on weaknesses in the system to control it's interests but over time, a lot of the holes it used to exploit have been closed. The society into which it emerged has also evolved and the patronage and honour system that the Mafia relied upon has been superceded by a more commercial one.
That's not to say that the Mafia is finished as either a criminal or political force. History shows that it has a habit of re-establishing itself and adapting to change.

plus dont forget about the Russian Mob

ask any Russian who lives in Russia in past 5 or so years and they will say "ya the mob has alot of power there"

i knew about 10 Russian students here at Texas Tech University; i lived right next door to one too

as people they are like anyone else; kinda like americans who speak another language really

my Nextdoor Russian friend said his father had to pay protection to local mafia to keep his buisness running

its pretty widely known that since democracy came to Russia that the Mafia has been running the show for the most part
also, the Russian mod consists mostly of Ex-Military or Ex-KGB type people who were out of a job when the USSR fell...so they used their "skills" in the new mafia

the Russian Mafia is hardly a secret; most educated people know about them and are aware they have great wealth and power inside Russia

The American Mafia is a mere shadow of its former self.

How else would Sammy have snitched off the most powerful man in the Mafia and not even bother to hide?

reply to post by alias101


the Italian Mafia. Which ran in chicago.

Just to say that the Russian Mafia are not called the 'vory v kazone', that terms translates as 'thieves in law' and refers to a similar criminal hierarchy developed in the Gulag prison camps until 1953 and the fall of Stalin. The Russian mafia are a lot more recent.

Here where I am, the italian mafia is still boss and work closely with the russians, chinese and the bikers hells angels(command all bikers). Each specialises in different fields, and they leave the ordinary people alone. The cops are well paid off, and let them go about their business. The mafia is responsable for keeping any new gang from getting too important. We are safer through their presence, Thank You Mafia for this.



[edit on 5-3-2009 by HulaAnglers]

The Yakuza sell butter potatoes. There very political and help police and for the most part are ligit. I learned that in japanese class.

After all that I read, it seems that the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta has taken the lead in International drug trafficing with an estimated 35billion dollars in revenue every year.

It is also speculated by the Italian Antimafia organisation that the ’Ndrangheta, Camorra and Cosa Nostra clans are all cooperating on a certain level for the logistics of producing, shipping and selling of cocain seemed to be too much for one group to handle alone.

Atimafia estimates the total Mafia revenue in Italy to be around 100billion Euro each year.

So the Mafia ,seems to me, is as active as ever before.

Originally posted by HulaAnglers
Here where I am, the italian mafia is still boss and work closely with the russians, chinese and the bikers hells angels(command all bikers). Each specialises in different fields, and they leave the ordinary people alone. The cops are well paid off, and let them go about their business. The mafia is responsable for keeping any new gang from getting too important. We are safer through their presence, Thank You Mafia for this.



[edit on 5-3-2009 by HulaAnglers]

What a load of soppy bollocks. You're not safer with OC elements around AT ALL.

And the statement that the HA control all the other bikers? HA!

reply to post by DeltaNine

What a load of soppy bollocks. You're not safer with OC elements around AT ALL.

Until you live it first hand you really don’t know, and what you don’t know you should shut up about unless you post it’s your *opinion* not present it as fact.

FACT I can tell you first hand.

I too am thankful to the Family in my area that I can turn to in a time of crisis when I can’t turn to the Caribinieri or the Guardia di Finanza.

I’m also free to walk down any street in my area - day or night - without fear.
NO fear of being attacked, molested, whatever, it’s just not going to happen to a woman or child in my area.

So, if *soppy bollocks* means *right on* you’re correct.

If it doesn’t than you’re talking hot air and wanna be know it all.

peace