Do you think the mob could make a small comeback due to this?
I don't think we'll see a family make a "comeback" like the Bonannos did during the 1990's. But the decreasing manpower put against them could give them more breathing room and the time and ability to stabilize more.
This clearly showes that Italian OC isnt the priority anymore. It will help to reorganize the families, but i dont expect a strong comeback. Even if there was 1 task force on all of Cosa Nostra. The Mafia wont have a great comeback, because they lack the manpower. Thats the main reason i think that the feds decided to shrink the squad sizes.
Well, that's the question - how much of a priority should it be? The whole point of the article is that even those within the FBI don't agree. The reorganization and downsizing is coming from the top brass in Washington DC. But it appears those in New York itself don't agree with the recent changes.
It should be remembered that even the feds have limited resources. And I don't think anyone believes as many resources need to be devoted towards the Mafia today as there was in the 1980's and 1990's. Even with decreasing agent numbers over the past decade since 9/11, the FBI has continued to hit the Mafia pretty hard. But now it seems there is a concern they've gone too far by downsizing the numbers even more, combining squads, and putting people in charge that have no prior experience of investigating LCN.
i think they have shrunk the squad sizes becaise the fellas are relying more on traditional ways to make money like bookmaking and loansharing and these crimes are not of a high priority for the feds. Union raceteeringg and murder is what the feds look for mostly and those crimes have dropped off a great amount.
I am from boston and here the past 5-10 years or so the state police have been very active with gambling and loansharking cases. But we havent heard from the feds much
If we're talking about the mob outside of New York, I agree with you. It's basically down to the standard gambling, loansharking, and extortion rackets. Not much labor union racketeering left and very few murders.
But New York still has quite a bit of labor racketeering activity. Not nearly what it was in the past but still a significant amount. The New York families are still big into drug trafficking. As well as newer high-tech scams. And more murders and violence because of the bigger numbers involved.
