If you guys saw part 6 of the mob documentary on Sunday, you saw at the end of the show that many people said the mob will make a comeback. "Fat Sal" Saudi that there is a crew in brooklyn that will be coming out of prison in about the next year or two that will make waves. He also said that the mob will make a comeback and when they do it will be huge. I really don't buy too much of what he said though. What do you guys think?

I think it is possible and it makes sense. I think it was Franzese who said something else will come up like terrorism and the attention will go to that and the focus wont be on cosa nostra as much. this will give them freedom and allow them to build back up. but will it happen? time will tell.

I think they can definitely get more powerful than they are now, but nowhere near where they were at through the 50s-70s.

It's over. They'll always be around because criminal minded people will always be around. But they'll never be "huge" again. The only people who believe that are the people who want to believe that.

But the guy made a good point about the terrorism task force. If not for 9/11, the mob would be in even worse shape than it is now.

what ur saying has already happened, after 9/11 the fbis main priority has been terrorism, and they have been steadily down sizing the amount of agents that invistigate the five families, i think its only down to two squads. and the mob has difinatly taken advantage of this but as evident of the "historic" january 2011 takedown, the fbi is only going to let the LCN grow so much before they close back in on them.

That's it right there, Dellacroce. The smarter bosses (like Crea and Barney) are fully aware that the Feds will turn up the heat as soon as they try to expand. They're content to keep it right where it is. If they do that, they'll hang in there for awhile. But if they ever have delusions about returning to the "glory days," the Feds will stomp on them quicker than you can say John Gotti.

i personally think we are gonna start seeing alot more busts from the nypd occb(organized crime control bureau), at least more of the street level busts. there are the ones that recently took down nicky mouths crew of the bonnanos.

Does anyone know wht crew he was referring to exactly?

Anyone have any idea who the hell he was talking about here specifically?

Anyway, the New York 5 will probably always be around, at least for our lifetimes, though I imagine they might eventually mutate into something quite different from what they are like now. But that will be at least 20-30 years from now I bet. Expect the mob to be a lot different when the guys who are 60+ now start dying off.

And no, they will never make an actual comeback, but they do seem to have stabilized a bit in the past decade.

I honestly think he was talking out of his ass, Revis. That's not a shot at you; it's directed at these mob documentary producers who want to convince everyone that it's stll 1970 in order to prop up their ratings.

That's spot-on, Ivan. As usual .

The mob people know is over but only time will tell.

There will always be guys who are huge money makers and guys who are broksters but the mob as whole will never be like it was in the 50s too many rats and broksters.

I think the nxt step for the 5 families will be to (if they havent already)start doing buisness with the Cartels.Coke is more expensive in NY than in LA or Texas.So if they can completley take over the NY market like galante did with Heroin in the 70s that will be glory days for $$$$$$$ but if they did something like that it will bring too much heat

The thing that will kill the mob is assimilation. Without the Italian neighborhoods, there is no recruiting pool. That's why only the NY/NJ area is still going strong. Philly and New England may outlast Chicago because of that.

Seems like people on here think there are barely any Italians in Chicago. Keep in mind that Chicago has the 3rd highest number of Italians in the U.S. only behind NYC and Philly. Still many Italians neighborhoods in Chicago.

Crime is a socio economic issue.

The poor will generally dominate the criminal landsape and the poor are usually the latest immigrant ethnic minority.

Italian OC will only continue to die out as long as there are no large fresh waves of immigration from southern Italy (which obviously, there won't be).

South and Central Americans form the poorest contingent of ethnic immigrants and as such for generations to come will only continue to dominate the criminal landscape.

I bet Philly will be the last to go outside New York, actually. Could be way off base here, but it seems like Philly is an ingrained social institution like the New York 5, whereas the other families were more like opportunistic enterprises centered on some key personalities (and I think the Outfit also fits into this category; it was just really big).

Without knowing exactly what he meant by "comeback," as we've seen since 9/11, the feds have been able to keep the mob in check even with lower manpower devoted to organized crime. That seems to be the game plan, i.e. keep the mob under control with repeated indictments while general attrition slowly takes it's toll. Of course, more recently there have been concerns about FBI manpower getting too low and we'll have to see where that goes. After all, the feds taking their eye off the Bonannos allowed that family to regroup for a time. But that doesn't mean they ever came anywhere close to the power they had at their peak, which is what seems to be the insinuation when people talk about the mob making a comback.



The LCN has never been in a position to control the cocaine or marijuana trade the way it did heroin. Colombians are still the dominant group for cocaine in New York but the Mexicans continue to expand rapidly. The mob is still a significant player in the NY drug trade but has been marginalized for years now.

the bonnanos were making a play to take over the viagra/cialis market

Yeah because they cant get their coke direct from the cartels.If they are still getting coke from the colombians then they are still midlevel playes.Yes coke comes from colombia BUT bringing shit by plane and through the ports is the 80s way of doing buisness.If you had a cartel connections they can send truck loads ofcoke everyday

Organized crime is finished period in america period.

I think what Ivy said below is spot on. I think the Feds have finally got it - the object is not to try to eradicate organized crime, but keep some semblance of control on it; meaning, size, growth into other industries, etc. They simply don't have the manpower to try to eradicate something that as a concept will always exist. But the next best thing is to reduce the power and influence once wielded by these groups (like in the 50s-70s).



"Without knowing exactly what he meant by "comeback," as we've seen since 9/11, the feds have been able to keep the mob in check even with lower manpower devoted to organized crime. That seems to be the game plan, i.e. keep the mob under control with repeated indictments while general attrition slowly takes it's toll. Of course, more recently there have been concerns about FBI manpower getting too low and we'll have to see where that goes. After all, the feds taking their eye off the Bonannos allowed that family to regroup for a time. But that doesn't mean they ever came anywhere close to the power they had at their peak, which is what seems to be the insinuation when people talk about the mob making a comback."

Most mob guys and cops all say the same thing in recent interviews- It will never be like it was. The way Jimmy Calandra explained it in the last NatGeo episode pretty much sums it up.

I honestly think he was talking out of his ass, Revis. That's not a shot at you; it's directed at these mob documentary producers who want to convince everyone that it's stll 1970 in order to prop up their ratings. [/

I guess you guys don't know what he's talking about either. And he probably was.

However Lets be honest for a minute, everyone is talking about how the mob is in really bad shape, in comparison to old times that is fair enough. However for this day and age and knowing how hard it is for any organized crime group to operate across the US these days, I'd say the Mafia are in very decent shape. Especially if you look how successful they still are in comparison to other crime groups. Sure other crime groups are equally as dangerous, clever and powerful if they wanted to be, but the Italian-American mafia still has a lot going for them. Sure the power in the unions has died down however we are still seeing major busts involving labor racketeering, especially from the Genovese's. And apart from the increase in rats and the decrease of Omerta in the states, they are still making damn good money from Gambling, Loan sharking, extortion, Drugs e.t.c.

To be fair, most mob members actually don't rat, either because the circumstances aren't that bad for them or because they are still loyal to their organization.

Also if there was a shortage of Italian-Americans in big American cities, I'm sure some people from the old country be it Calabria, Sicily, whatever wouldn't mind stepping in to reap some profits (If things went really badly for the mob)

The Mob's strength waxes and wanes in proportion to that of the federal government's. Right now federal power is growing at an alarming rate, which is bad news for the Mob. Should the power of the federal government be broken, then expect the Mob to make a comeback.

I predict there will be a small comeback but nothing like we've seen in the past. Perhaps significantly smaller families and involved in fewer schemes. There will always be criminals out there, and not only Italian. All looking for an easy dollar. Look at the current generation- not to indict them all, but there will be a lot of informers as the younger generation doesn't want to do time

For God's sake, no one from Italy is coming over here to "replace" the old mob they want nothing to do with us you hear that Antonio? It's not coming back!

That part baffled me too. Why on earth would they wan't to come over here, away from their family and friends. They'd more than likely end up in jail in 5 years or so anyway. Also what "profits are there to reap" here that aren't in Italy, when they at least know if they get caught they won't be far from their families.

Exactly Camarel