The secret lifestyle and history of the Mafia is very complex and understandably peaks curiosity in many. Mafia movies have captivated audiences for over thirty years and today online entertainment such as “Mob Wars” and the “Mafia Wars” game have become increasingly popular.
The Mafia is a secret crime group working in many parts of the world that was created in Italy more than 200 years ago. The history of the Mafia is sketchy but many believe that the Mafia was born in order to protect and help the less fortunate. The American Mafia is an Italian-American criminal society and offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia. The Italian-American Mafia has its roots in the Sicilian Mafia, but has been a separate organization in the United States for many years. Neapolitan, Calabrian, and other Southern Italian criminal groups merged with the Sicilian Mafia to create the modern pan-Italian Mafia in the United States. The mafia made money from crime. They make billions of dollars a year from such crimes as selling illegal drugs, money laundering, extortion, robbery, gambling and prostitution. In the USA, the Mafia is notable also for its infiltration of legitimate business; for example, in transport, construction, gambling, and fast-food, and its use of these businesses for laundering money.
The Italian American Mafia began at the time when many Italians immigrated to the United States and made it their home in the 1800s. The American branch of the mafia is believed to have begun in 1893 when Don Vito Cascio Ferro fled to New York after the murder of banker Emanuele Notarbartolo, in Sicily.The Italian mafia in the United States is sometimes referred to as La Cosa Nostra which is Italian for “Our thing”. They continue to dominate organized crime in the United States. It uses this status to maintain control over much of Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Providence, New Jersey and New York City’s organized criminal activity.
The American mafia is divided into different groups or “families”. Many large cities have one Italian mafia family but some larger cities like New York City have more. The New York Mafia has five families. They consist of the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese families. Much like The Godfather, which portrayed a romanticized version of the Mafia, there have been times when mafia families had gone to war with each other. (A term used for such is “hitting the mattresses”.) Local Police, State Police, and Federal law enforcement have cracked down heavily on the Mafia in New York over the past decade taking down much of the leadership including John Gotti and his crew.
http://www.fanabala.com/Brief_Mafia_History.html
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