What’s the mafia up to these days?

As we learned last week, the mafia at its most basic is an organized crime syndicate and society. It began as a way to protect the inhabitants of Sicily. It turned into a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct. They present themselves under a common brand or family and each has a territory they rule over.

We left the Mafia in Italy and America greatly weakened at the end of the 20th Century–more so in the U.S. than in Italy. So, where are they today? Do they have any power?

Most definitely.

And I explore that power in the Code of Silence series where a young girl discovers she was adopted to hide her from the mafia who want to find her and kill her.

As far as the Italian Mafia, they spring up all over the EU now doing all sorts of illegal activities like extortion,

illegal online betting, and gambling, selling drugs, fraud, and vote-buying. In 2018, 169 suspected mafia members were arrested in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Many say that Cosa Nostra and the old mafia are back to full force despite the arrest of the boss of the Cosa Nostra in 2019. Benedetto Bacchi had controlled over 700 betting shops earning nearly 1 million a month online before he was put away. Pretty lucrative.

Most say, however, that it’s not the Cosa Nostra in Sicily, but the Calabrian Ndrangheta Mafia that has the most control now. Its rise has come as the state of Italy continues to focus on the Sicilian mafia

Construction, bars, restaurants, wholesale food, and public works are often the Calabrian’s targets. With reports of earning in the 53 billion, yes billions in 2015 alone. They have 60,000-foot soldiers to call upon across many dozens of countries today. They are even taking advantage of the migrant refugee crisis with protection racketeering.

If nothing else, we can see how adaptive the Mafia can be as they look for crises and prey on weaknesses.

That leads us to the American Mafia.

What began with the bootlegging days of prohibition and developed into five enormous families creating criminal organizations akin to corporations, found itself ill-equipped to deal with Rico in the 1980s. However, it is well known that they are bouncing back.

And no longer are the Italian Mafia and the American Mafia completely separate. In this international world, it became easy to join forces. The Gambino crime family of New York is allegedly connected with Cosa Nostra wholesale food supplies through a food export company.

Even though in 2011, 127 suspected Mafia were rounded up with racketeering, extortion, murder and drug charges, it continues to flourish. And 9/11, a serious crisis, brought them new life when the government shifted focus to the war on terror.

Instead of flashy mob hits, they work more in secret, plotting and planning and outsourcing the crime so they won’t be caught. Yes, the 1980s truly weakened the American Mafia, but it’s still there, alive and kicking today. All families work independently and have their areas, but are still regulated by the commission which consists of the bosses of each of the strongest families.

Common rackets include extortion, prostitution, counterfeiting, and arms sales, however, drug trafficking is by far the most lucrative. They are also still in the business of murder, corruption of public officials, gambling, but mostly online, infiltration of legitimate businesses, labor racketeering, loan sharking, tax fraud schemes, fixing elections, and stock manipulation schemes.

The mafia lies in wait.       Waiting for doors to open.

Doors to perverting the law and repressing the people and to dirty wealth untold.

Find out how Kate deals with the full force of the mafia coming down on her and her family in the

Code of Silence series.