The most important crteria is to posess an uncanny ability of committing crimes and not getting caught. The second most important crieteria is to have a natural talent of convincing a jury that you are an innocent man.
The famous wire tap of John Gotti illustrates the second criteria rather eloquently.
John- “Sammy, I think im a fraud”.
Sammy- “ why?”
John- “ everyone thinks i have a natural talent of convincing a jury that Im innocent when in actuality I had jurors bribed”.
The son of sam said if he had both those attributes be would still ne shooting people.
I actually disagree. What makes a Mafia a mafia is conditioning the members of the organization, to submit to a code of conduct in the intent of furthering the interest of the organization, and conditioning the inhabitants of a particular territory to submit to an authority in opposition to the legally appointed one.
It's actually not about any particular crime.....
