I'm not sure they are saying this. Rather, as it has been for some time now, we've got one author (a lone voice in the wilderness) claiming they're saying it. And even if some of them are saying it, like I said, actions speak louder than words. What does it really mean if they say the Detroit mob is still strong but they don't consider it enough of a priority to do anything about it? We don't hear half the claims about families in New England or Philadelphia and yet law enforcement in those areas has continued to bring forth plenty of indictments. Meanwhile, in Detroit since 2000, we've seen one gambling bust (in 2006) and a handful of more or less peripheral cases. In both size and activity, Detroit seems a lot closer to, say, Buffalo than any of the families still considered viable by the feds.


"In other previous strongholds such as Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh, the LCN is now weak or non-existent." (UN report, 1999)
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/218555.pdf

"Even after imprisonment of senior leadership, it survives, and in some places thrives, though most experts agree that its operations are now largely confined to its traditional bases in the Northeast and Chicago." (Wall Street Journal, 2011)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704115404576096392318489246.html


Again, there are other links that say the opposite - that Detroit is still viable. However, considering the conflicting opinions, and the relative lack of mob cases in Detroit over the past decade, it's ridiculous for one to claim Detroit is anywhere near one of the more powerful LCN families left.

Detroit mafia is hard to investigate because most of them is related so thier not that quick to rat on each other like the guys in new york would

This has always been a hot topic here. My opinion is that they are active and keeping low-key, as has been their MO over the years. They were always smaller, more educated, and considerably legit. That said, I do not see them as having a very reduced influence in the city because, well nothing's there. It's a wasteland. No rackets but crack. There's no construction rackets cause there's no construction. However, one thing that needs to be taken into consideration is their criminal and semi-legit businesses in the suburbs. I'm from the Jersey suburbs and its active there. Why not in Detroit? Like everybody else, they're active but very weakened from their heyday. I definitely want much more evidence to show me that they, or any family for that matter, are on the verge of extinction.

I dunno, that's my stand. But this is going to be a bone of contention until we get some guys from this forum out to Michigan to do some thorough investigating.

Detroit is more like a entire family that is into gambling/shy. (By family I mean brothers,uncles,cousins). A crew like that is hardly a Mafia family. If in Philly there are barely any 100% Italians that want to pursue that life I would have to believe it to be even worse in Detroit.

Great post.

Minimal indictments = Minimal activity worth prosecuting.
If Detroit Partnership was this powerhouse mob family, The FBI would be constantly investigating and indicting them. Whats left of the Partnerships ACTIVE members would at best be considered a crew in NY. I know you wants to believe your hometown mob is this major family but it aint bro.

why do u think that all five new York families are powerful?

the Genovese, and the Gambino's are still strong

but the other 3 have been plagued by internal wars and informants

god knows how many ranking ny mob figures are currently ratting

Power is obviously a relative term. Yes, there is a big drop off from the Genovese and Gambino families to the Luccheses, Colombos, and Bonannos. But there is another big drop off from those 3 smaller NY families to the other remaining ones.

a family full of informants is not strong

it doesn't matter if they make people for the sake of making people

NY mob has more competition from other mafia families and other ethnic crime groups (Russians, Dominicans, latin kings, bloods, etc.) than other cities that have mob families

NY mafia is more diminished than you want to believe

You keep saying things like "infested with rats" and "full of informants." Whether in one NY family, or as a whole, the guys who flip are a very small number compared to the ones that don't. And all the rats in the world won't do as much damage to a mob family as general attrition will.



There are far more examples of the NY families working with other groups for mutual profit than examples of direct competition.



Nobody said the NY Mafia isn't diminished. It certainly is. But not nearly as much as elsewhere in the country.

Gangs and other ethnic groups aren't involved in the same rackets as the NY families. They operate in different neighborhoods and territories. There was a case with the Luccheses and bloods working together once. But NY is far from diminished, they manage to keep their numbers up and sustain their criminal activities to an extent. What kind of fantasy world are you living in?

Geez, look at what they're posting. Most powerful? Weakest? If they posted something somewhat intelligent, then I wouldn't have used that statement.

They did lose their numbers racket and most of their protection rackets, along with control of much of the drug trade.

Mob still runs most of the gambling in NYC and jersey. They did lose protection in most cases. Mom and pop stores dont really exist anymore in addition it attracts heat. Some members still deal on the side I'm sure, but that's nothing compared to the money you can make with unions, construction, shy, gambling, trucking, fraud, laundering and whatever else they can get into.

The only area where the Mafia can really be said to have lost ground directly to other crime groups is the drug trade. Overall, the Italians have been marginalized in that respect for the last quarter century, though they remain significant players in New York.

Though it still exists, the numbers racket isn't what it was, not so much as a result of other groups, but because of legalized state lotteries and the fact that the mob's typically white clientele engage more in sports betting.

Extortion still exists in many forms. Much of it within the realm of the shakedowns and kickbacks that make up labor racketeering. The direct, rather obvious "protection" shakedowns still happen, albeit to a lesser degree; especially with such targets as strip clubs. It can be more subtle and indirect like forcing a business to purchase supplies from a mob-owned wholesaler and whatnot.

members of the same mafia family compete with each other

so why do you think there ain't any competition from outside groups?

new York makes people just so they can have a high number of soldiers

There really is no reasoning or explaining things to you is there? In one ear and out the other

That pretty much sums it up with cookcounty and some of these other guys. It's all about one thing for them - Chicago's rep. And if they can't get people to buy what they say about Chicago, they'll try to take down other families a few notches, if possible.

Detroit is definitely a tight knit, low key family. Until somebody flips and starts talking we may never know whats really going on with them.

Why don't more families encourage thier members to marry and have kids amongst themselves like detroit? Its proven to be pretty successful for them, the persicos do it and to my knowledge nobody within thier tight circle has flipped on each other

The Big Fella, You are basically correct in your postings about the Detroit Mafia. It is very similar to The Chicago Outfit except smaller with not quite as much political power. However, the Detroit group is strong and are basically all white Collar like the Outfit. The Men are mostly all related by blood or marriage, many of them are college graduates and they are actively involved in White Collar activities. Like Chicago, There is a PARENT company that owns a piece of all the smaller companies run by their younger relatives. These companies are involved in getting large Contracts from the City of Detroit plus other contracts from surrounding Suburbs.
Big Fella, don't waste your time trying to convince a couple of these other New York bloggers about what's happening in Detroit and the surrounding area. A couple of these guys that argued with you don't understand the DIFFERENCE between the Old Blue Collar Mafia (which is still basically New York) and the modern( White Collar) Mafia of Chicago and Detroit. The New York Blue Collar Rat Infested Families will be basically all gone (maybe not the Genovese's but certainly the other 4) within the next 10 to 12 years at most. There is no future in it.

So not just Chicago and the mafia in Sicily but now you're an expert on Detroit

Yes, and I'm also an expert on Scottish Mafia men wearing kilts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_mafia

Suits actually.

Ivy, Don't believe me. Read the current F.B.I. Reports about Chicago. Not just ONE Report but SEVERAL reports. They are conflicting. However, the ones that say the Outfit is smaller, leaner, and much more White Collar than Blue Collar is correct. The Outfit, under John DiFronzo, has streamlined THEIR OPERATIONS INTO LEGITIMATE BUSINESSES and are making a lot of money legitimately through Union activity, Construction and other businesses connected to supplying goods or personal services to the City of Chicago and a lot of the Suburbs. Does it really bother you that this is even possibly true? Why would it bother you? Why does the New York Mafia always have to have a bigger Dick or you get upset? Maybe their Dick is bigger for the time being, but their direction has no future. Chicago's DIRECTION has more future including men who are college graduates related by blood or marriage to older men who have been in the Outfit for Years.

One thing you guys should keep in mind is that with maybe a dozen active made members left, most of whom are older, and perhaps twice as many associates, most of whom are older, the Detroit Family is microscopic compared with its city. The city itself is still huge, even after the emptying out, but the urban area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_area) is over 3 million people (still the 11th largest in the country), and if you count the suburbs, exurbs, Windsor, and Toledo that are all interconnected heavily, it's nearly six million. That's a lot of territory for a handful of old college graduates to cover.

So I reckon what Burnstein says about the family's remaining membership is reasonable. And I agree that most (all?) their business is out in the suburbs. Also, law enforcement in the region (especially in the municipality of Detroit) has priorities and limited resources. 911 calls go unanswered quite a bit. They have better things to do than go after a bunch of older white guys who run gambling and loansharking operations.

I would bet that active law enforcement scrutiny of the Detroit Family is limited to those two or three FBI agents that Burnstein seems to know, who probably occasionally check in on what's left of the mob to make sure it doesn't get ambitious and cross over into the UAW or something, but spend more time on things like making sure the substantial Mideastern population in the area doesn't have any Al-Qaeda members. I would bet that the local cops don't give a shit about them AT ALL as they are not an imminent threat to public well-being in any substantial way.

Burnstein has also stated that he feels the family will be defunct in 20 years due to the fact that the membership is so old. He or his co-authors have an unfortunate tendency to write with a kind of hyperbolic style, which is too bad, but other than they some of you don't give him enough credit. Other than the aforementioned writing style, which is sadly common in "true crime" stuff, I don't think he personally says anything fanboyish.

Bcause a family is low key do not making it Dead

The problem with that theory is that law enforcement in, say, New England or Philadelphia take the time to regularly bring cases against the LCN families there. And their bread and butter are basically the same things. It wouldn't even have to be the feds. For instance, the state police have been a big factor in going after the mob in New England in more recent years. Why don't we even see that in Detroit? If one looks at what cases there have been over the past decade, there's still some gambling going on. But that's about it. Of course, remaining members are going to have legitimate interests. But I don't see any reason to believe that the Detroit family is as large or as hierarchical as Scott makes them out to be.

detroit has 400 murders a year and a lot of drug dealing

detroit fbi probably has higher priorities than the remnants of the mafia