This is a list of Italian organized crime groups around the world. This list does not include all groups, clans or families identified as Cosa Nostra (Mafia crime families). This list does not include all Camorra, 'Ndrangheta or Sacra Corona Unita clans ("crime families").
In Italy there are many different Mafia-like organizations.
According to the 2004 New Jersey State Commission of Investigation, there were 24 active Mafia families in the United States. [2] In 2004, author Thomas Milhorn reported that the Mafia was active in 26 cities across the United States. [3]
Western New York
The city of Youngstown was at one point considered open territory, split between the Cleveland crime family (Porrello family) and the Pittsburgh crime family (LaRocca family).
Las Vegas is considered open territory allowing all crime families to operate in the city's casinos. Since the 1930s, the Los Angeles family, the Five Families of New York and the Midwest families have owned and operated in Casinos in the Las Vegas Strip .
In Southern Ontario there are two types of Italian organized crime Cosa Nostra (Sicilian) and 'Ndrangheta (Calabrian). [12] In the 2018 book, The Good Mothers: The True Story of the Women Who Took on the World's Most Powerful Mafia, Alex Perry reports that the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta has, for the past decade, been replacing the Sicilian Cosa Nostra as the primary drug traffickers in North America. [13]
Carmine Verduci was also linked with the 'Ndrangheta group. [16] Leaders are based both in Calabria, Italy and Ontario. [17] The Siderno clans are part of the Commisso 'ndrina a crime family based in Calabria. [12]
During a 2018 criminal trial, an Italian police expert testified that the 'Ndrangheta operated in the Greater Toronto Area and in Thunder Bay particularly in drug trafficking, extortion, loan sharking, theft of public funds, robbery, fraud, electoral crimes and crimes of violence. After the trial, Tom Andreopoulos, deputy chief federal prosecutor, said that this was the first time in Canada that the 'Ndrangheta was targeted as an organized crime group since 1997, when the Criminal Code was amended to include the offence of criminal organization. [18] He offered this comment about the organization: [19]
We're talking about structured organized crime. We're talking about a political entity, almost; a culture of crime that colonizes across the sea from Italy to Canada. This is one of the most sophisticated criminal organizations in the world.
In Quebec there are two types of Italian organized crime: Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta. While Canadian law enforcement agencies consider the Rizzuto and Cotroni crime families to be separate, the FBI considers them to be sub-units of the Bonanno crime family's Montreal faction. [20]
The Rosario mafia – led by Juan Galiffi during the 1920s and 1930s. [30]
The 'Ndrangheta is an Italian Mafia-type association based in the peninsular region of Calabria and dating back to the 19th century. Although loosely structured, it is considered one of the most powerful organized crime groups in the world. It is characterized by a horizontal structure made up of autonomous clans known as 'ndrine, based almost exclusively on blood ties. Since the 1950s, following wide-scale emigration from Calabria, 'Ndrangheta clans dispersed to other European countries, Australia and the Americas. Currently, its main activity is drug trafficking, but it also deals with arms trafficking, money laundering, racketeering, extortion, and loan sharking.
Carlo Gambino was a Sicilian-born American crime boss who was the leader and namesake of the Gambino crime family of New York City. Following the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission of the American Mafia and played a powerful role in organized crime until his death from a heart attack in 1976. During a criminal career that spanned over fifty years, Gambino served only twenty-two months in prison for a tax evasion charge in 1937.
The Havana Conference of 1946 was a historic meeting of United States Mafia and Cosa Nostra leaders in Havana, Cuba. Supposedly arranged by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the conference was held to discuss important mob policies, rules, and business interests. The Havana Conference was attended by delegations representing crime families throughout the United States. The conference was held during the week of December 22, 1946, at the Hotel Nacional. The Havana Conference is considered to have been the most important mob summit since the Atlantic City Conference of 1929. Decisions made in Havana resonated throughout US crime families during the ensuing decades.
The Genovese crime family, also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American Mafia. They have generally maintained a varying degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia, Patriarca, and Buffalo crime families.
Frank Alphonse "Funzi" Tieri was an Italian-American mobster who eventually became the front boss of the Genovese crime family of New York City.
The Five Families refer to five Italian American Mafia crime families that operate in New York City. In 1931, the five families were organized by Salvatore Maranzano following his victory in the Castellammarese War.
Criminal organizations have been prevalent in Italy, especially in the southern part of the country, for centuries and have affected the social and economic life of many Italian regions since at least the 19th century. There are six major native mafia-like organizations that are heavily active in Italy. The oldest and most powerful of these organizations, having begun to develop between 1500 and 1800, are the 'Ndrangheta from Calabria, the Cosa Nostra from Sicily, and the Camorra based in Campania. In addition to these three long-established organizations, there are also three other significantly active organized crime syndicates in Italy that were founded in the 20th century: the Stidda of Sicily and the Sacra Corona Unita and Società foggiana, both from Apulia.
Capo dei capi or capo di tutti i capi or Godfather are terms used mainly by the media, public, fiction writers and law enforcement community to indicate a supremely powerful crime boss in the Sicilian or American Mafia who holds great influence over the whole organization. The term was introduced to the U.S. public by the Kefauver Commission in 1950.
The Commission is the governing body of the American Mafia, formed in 1931 by Charles "Lucky" Luciano following the Castellammarese War. The Commission replaced the title of capo di tutti i capi, held by Salvatore Maranzano before his murder, with a ruling committee that consists of the bosses of the Five Families of New York City, as well as the bosses of the Chicago Outfit and, at various times, the leaders of smaller families, such as Buffalo, Philadelphia, Detroit, and others. The purpose of the Commission was to oversee all Mafia activities in the United States and serve to mediate conflicts among families.
The Pittsburgh crime family, also known as the LaRocca crime family or Pittsburgh Mafia, is an Italian American Mafia crime family based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The LaRocca family is one of the original 26 mafia families in the United States. In 2021, the boss Thomas "Sonny" Ciancutti died, he was also the last known made member of the family.
The Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan was a Mafia clan of the Cosa Nostra and held a key position in the illicit drug trade and money laundering for Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and 1990s. The Italian press baptized the clan as "The Rothschilds of the Mafia" or "The Bankers of Cosa Nostra".
The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian-American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group.
To become member of the Mafia or Cosa Nostra – to become a "man of honor" or a "made man" – an aspiring member must take part in an initiation ritual or initiation ceremony. The ceremony involves significant ritual, oaths, blood, and an agreement is made to follow the rules of the Mafia as presented to the inductee. The first known account of the ceremony dates back to 1877 in Sicily.
The Genovese crime family's New Jersey faction is a group of Italian-American mobsters within the Genovese crime family who control organized crime activities within the state of New Jersey. The New Jersey faction is divided into multiple crews each led by a different caporegime who oversees illegal criminal activities in labor racketeering, illegal gambling, loansharking and extortion. The Genovese crime family's New Jersey faction has maintained a strong presence in the Northern Jersey area since the early prohibition era. A number of powerful mobsters within the New Jersey faction such as Guarino "Willie" Moretti, Gerardo "Jerry" Catena and Louis "Bobby" Manna have each held positions within the Genovese family's administration. From the 1990s until his death in 2010, Tino "the Greek" Fiumara was one of the most powerful caporegimes in the New Jersey faction.
The Bonanno crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, and in the United States, as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia.
