So in another words they were stronger than your typical American mafia family while they lasted?
That's where you get into the old arguments of how you define or measure "strength" and "power." Sometimes a better term, and one LE often uses, is "organized crime threat." And, along those lines, I'd say the BMF was a bigger organized crime threat than any of the remaining LCN families outside New York. Simply because trafficking in drugs in several states is a bigger societal problem than gambling or loansharking.
