Families controlled markets, and businesses, swimming in money and running the cities- this was the era of organized crime in the United States. But what is organized crime?
ORGANIZED CRIME
Organized crime is a network of people using unlawful, frequently violent means of gaining money. It is often regarded as the ”traditional form of crime”. Most people today have a fair idea of how organized crime works, thanks to movies like ”godfather” and ”Goodfellas”.
The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act defined organized crime as “the unlawful activities of the members of a highly organized, disciplined association engaged in supplying illegal goods and services, including but not limited to gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, narcotics, labor racketeering, and others unlawful activities of members of such organizations.”
WHY ARE ORGANIZED CRIME GROUPS FORMED?
The reason for the formation of such groups isn’t clear. But experts largely agree that organized crime groups are-
- Politically motivated
- Financially motivated
- Organized criminal gangs
HOW IS AN ORGANIZED GROUP NETWORK FORMED?
Mafia– the first way organized crime groups network is within a family. This form of organized crime group is called the Mafia. It functions based on the hierarchies of the related families. The family members are trained to carry the business forward. This type of crime group is traditional, cultural, or religion based.
Business– the second way an organized crime network is formed is through a business. These crime groups are impersonal, rigid, ruthless, and have a complex authority hierarchy. They are also regarded as the most dangerous criminal groups because of their impersonal nature. The members do not owe personal loyalty to each other. The emphasis is more on power networking than on group members’ protection. The work of business organized crime networks includes drug trafficking, illegal trading, etc. these are legal organizations using illegal organized crime methods to gain power and make more money.
Gangs– organized crime groups can also network by picking out individuals involved in crimes as youth and recruiting them. These crime groups may be involved in extortion, prostitution, drug trafficking, robbery, armed robbery, cyber crimes, etc.
ORGANIZED CRIME AND THE UNITED STATES
Organized crime can be traced back to 1800s Forty Thieves in New York City. Hundreds of immigrants gathered for mutual financial and personal safety. These people regarded organized crime as a way to better their lives and protect them from other gangs and dishonest police officials. The gang was involved in a wide array of activities and even politics. Likely named after Ali Baba and the forty thieves, the gang consisted primarily of Irish Americans and Irish immigrants who operated in the Five Points Neighborhood of Manhattan from the 1820s to the 1850s. They are often known as the first criminal street gang in New York.
However, the group separated in the 1850s, with members leaving to join other gangs and make new factions. These new factions consisted of people from the lowest economic groups brought together by factors such as religion, culture, ethnicity, etc.
Organized crime networks grew and prospered. However, the most notorious groups are the Italian Mafia and the Cosa Nostra. Together, Italian immigrants used extortion, prostitution, the sale of stolen goods, and other criminal means of making quick money to combat oppression and escape poverty. The American La Cosa Nostra evolved from the Sicilian Mafia organization. The Sicilian Mafia now reigns over a vast global heroin trafficking network and is a powerful criminal organization in the United States. Sicilian Mafia investigations were given top priority by the FBI’s Organized Crime Program’s head in 1984.
Cosa Nostra members have been involved in various ideas and ventures. Their dominance since the 1930s has been well known, given their intense government connections, headline-making assassinations, cartels, etc.
Mafia organizations were known and feared, but it was when Prohibition reached their current levels of success, affluence, and danger.
Prohibition: Between 1920 and 1933, all states were subject to a national prohibition on selling and importing alcoholic drinks. Prohibition directly led to an increase in organized crimes.
During this nationwide Prohibition, several rival Italian crime organizations engaged in the manufacture and distribution of alcohol. There was constant competition between these organizations to gain the upper hand in the alcohol trade and overthrow each other. This competition often turned violent, with incidents like ST. Valentine’s Massacre making headlines.
FBI built cases against leaders like “Lucky” Luciano and Alcapone due to their bold illegal behavior.
ORGANIZED CRIME GROUPS TODAY
Even today, organized crime groups in America are as omnipresent as ever. They are not just a threat at the city level but also at an international level. Many areas of the United States have been home to Central American gangs, Jamaican posses, and Colombian cocaine traffickers since the 1990s.
Armenian Power garnered considerable police attention in the 1990s and 2000s, at least in Los Angeles. A hundred people associated with Armenian Power were accused of crimes in 2011, which included witness intimidation, drug trafficking, fraud, extortion, loan-sharking, kidnapping, and identity theft.MS-13, a gang with roots in Central America and the United States, has been deeply involved in drug trafficking and extortion in the twenty-first century. Justice Department declared that Andranik Aloyan of Los Angeles had been found guilty of his part in one of the worst racketeering plots in American history in February 2014.
Due to their affiliation with the drug cartels known as Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations, prison gangs now constitute a significant domestic threat (DTOs). They also exercise significant influence over street gangs. For example, the multi-generation gang known as ‘Big Hazard’ acts as a link between Mexican Drug Cartels and their operations in East Los Angeles but works as suppliers and wholesalers.
Outlaw Motorcycle gangs primarily consist of military veterans interested in American motorcycles and partying. Even today, gangs like Outlaw are looking to recruit new members to their gangs. More than 300 clubs are currently in operation in the country, with sizes ranging from single chapters with five or six members to hundreds of chapters with thousands of members globally. Most criminal activity associated with OMGs is carried out by the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, Bandidos Motorcycle Club (Bandidos), and Outlaws Motorcycle Club (Outlaws), particularly when it comes to drug trafficking and, more specifically, cross-border drug smuggling. OMG, groups do all this usually through their bikes. They sometimes collaborate with International crime syndicates in Russia, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, etc.
Organized crimes have gained strength with technological advancement as they can now function from legal corporate houses, undetected, perform cybercrimes, sell drugs online, launder money, etc.
WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT DOING TO STOP THEM?
Over the years, the DRO and FBI have worked incessantly to bust these organizations and have seen many successes. However, with technological advancement, these organized groups are finding it easier to collaborate internationally and commit crimes like cyber crimes. These organizations affect the fundamental aspect of how Americans live, work, and do business. The government has launched several programs and centers to end these organizations from the local, state, national, and international levels, like the State Threat Assessment Center (STAC) State Threat Assessment System (STAS). Department of Justice has formed the Organized Crime and Gang Section (OCGS).
It is essential to dismantling these crime organizations promptly, as they threaten American well-being and the economy.