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Italian mafia
Italian-american organized crime
Gangs and gang violence in California
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La Cosa Nostra
An Italian American criminal organization that was started and created from the Sicilian Mob. All the members of the family generally considered it as Cosa Nostra. These Sicilian crime families in the U.S. developed in Italian migrant neighborhoods of New York. It additionally rose in different parts of the East Coast of the U.S. and a few other metropolitan territories amid the late nineteenth century and mid twentieth Century taking after influxes of Italian migration, particularly from Sicily and different areas of Southern Italy. It has its roots in the Sicilian Mafia, yet is a different association in the United States. Neapolitan, Calabrian, and other Italian criminal organizations in the U.S., in the end converged with
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While individuals from the Norteños are thought to be partnered with Nuestra Familia, being an individual from Nuestra Familia it does not mean relationship as a Norteño. Some law officers hypothesize that the Nuestra Familia pack, which works all through jails, impacts a significant part of the criminal movement of a great many Norteño posse individuals in California. The organizations primary source of finance are circulating cocaine, heroin, maryjane, and methamphetamine inside of the jail systems and additionally through outside sources and coercing drug dealers in the city. Nuestra Familia were adversaries of the Southern Latinos who part of La Eme, otherwise called the Mexican Mafia. While these members had at first been made to secure Mexicans in jail, there was an apparent level of mal treatment by individuals from La Eme towards the detained Latinos from country cultivating regions of Northern California. While this criminal organization is principally a Chicano group of individuals, enrollment here and there stretches out to different Latinos and also non-Latinos. Individuals from the association are considered to have taken a "blood pledge" to join the group, and are viewed as deep rooted members. Nuestra Familia's composed constitution professedly expresses that no part ought to organize ladies, cash or drugs over their participation in the group. Enrollment in
Thomas Reppetto’s book is a solid account of the events that took place between 1880 and 1995. The events are detailed and contain fact and evidence, he uses first hand knowledge, being a former chicago commander of detectives, Reppetto was well equipped to write this book. In American Mafia, and its rise to power, Reppetto shows the different parts of the mafia and their communication with the police and italian civilians. The book starts off showing the worst part of the mob, or mafia, and how bad they truly are. Using examples like how many people they’ve taken out and how they’d be one of the richest fortune 500 companies, ift was legal. The book also has how the police reacted to the crimes, in chapter one, they take you into the lives
A life of organized crime, fancy cars, machine guns, beautiful women, money, power and family; these are the images that have perpetuated the associations of Italian-Americans with the Mafia in film and television for decades. It is in this traditional Godfather fashion that the HBO hit series The Sopranos continues to perpetuate this stereotypical image into the 21st century. From classic films like The Godfather and Goodfellas, to miniseries events like Bella Mafia and The Last Don, to the dramatic series The Sopranos, Italian-Americans have traditionally been portrayed as gangsters and mobsters and have been seen living the lives of organized criminals. Italian-Americans and the Mafia have traditionally been linked in popular culture and The Sopranos is no exception.
Nuestra Familia (NF, Spanish for Our Family) was created in the late 1960’s at the Soledad Correction Training Facility in California. (NF 2011) Nuestra Familia was created because some of the Spanish inmates had gotten tired of the abuse handed out by the Mexican Mafia to fellow Mexicans. (Nuestra Family (2011)) Nuestra Familia was created as protection from the Mexican Mafia for young Mexican-American from rural areas. The first members of Nuestra Familia were strictly from Northern or Central California. (NF 2011) The all-out prison war between the Mexican Mafia and Nuestra Familia occurred in 1968 when Sonny Pena was stabbed to death by a member of the Mexican Mafia at San Quentin state prison. The recruitment for the two gangs split California in two. ...
The Mafia is groups of criminals that developed for the purpose of protecting those who can not go to the police for protection. Its roots can be traced back to Sicily, where the Mafia was based on the premise that any member suffering an injustice was to take personal vengeance while avoiding all contact with legal authorities. Even in the modern day American Mafia, each family ruled it's own territory and when others from outside the territory interfered they were dealt with through violent methods.The wiseguys paid for their protection by paying the head of their local family. This payoff was also known as paying tribute to the boss.
The Mafia is a secret criminal organization that has great economic and political control over large parts of Sicilian society and operates both criminal and legitimate enterprises in the United States. It is believed to have started during Sicily's late Middle Ages, beginning as separate bonds of strong-arm enforcers hired by local landowners. It eventually evolved into a network of independent groups governing in rural areas. With the Sicilian immigration of the late 19th century, the Mafia began to operate in several large United States cities. During the period of Prohibition it monopolized the trade in bootleg liquor and controlled loan sharking, gambling, and prostitution. Competing Mafia families established mutually recognized territories, reaching agreement by negotiation or by intimidation. By the mid-1930 the Mafia had taken on the institutionalized structure that is now typical of organized crime in the United States.
The Camorra is an organised crime group active in Campania, mainly in its capital, Napels. The Camorra has managed to reveal very little about its origins. Some researchers argue that the Camorra’s history goes back to the early 16th century and that it is a direct descendant from the Spanish organised crime group: ‘the Garduna’. Other researches claim that the members of the Camorra were “a new type of lazzaroni” which is a word used to describe a very poor common thief. As Naples grew in size as well as in wealth, the lazzaroni started working together with family members and formed small clans. Yet, a far more likely explanation for the origins of the Camorra is that it grew out of the Neapolitan society during the French Revolution. One thing that we do know for a fact is ‘that throughout the centuries, there is evidence of small criminal gangs operating in Calabria.’ (Beham, 1996) All of these criminal gangs appeared among the poorer part of the population. This were often illiterate people, which makes it extra difficult to find out what kind of organisation, if any, the Camorra emerged from.
While the U.S. had a rise in gangs, the state of Nevada has seen an increase in Hispanic criminal gangs, mainly Nortenos, or north-siders, and with that, Nevada has established a special law pertaining to criminal gangs known as a “gang enhancement” law which states:
Initially, members of the Mara Salvatrucha were a group of Salvadorans that “banned together for support and protection from other gangs already present in Los Angles...” (Kindt, Post, and Schneider, 248). Common gang initiation for a prospective member is being beaten by several gang members, also called “jumped in” described in Gangs and Law Enforcement. (Schmidt, 39). Immediately, these new gang members have been introd...
Our team presentation focused on three Latino gangs, MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha), the Mexican Mafia and the Los Surenos gang. My part of the presentation was to provide information on the type of crime these three gangs are known to commit. The crimes committed by the MS-13 gang are varied, violent, and take place all over the country. The FBI even put together a task force called the MS-13 National Gang Task Force in December of 2004 to try to put a stop to this gang’s activities. (www.fbi.gov). Los Surenos or Sur-13, originally based in Los Angeles, has also branched out from turf wars with rival gangs to “for profit”, violent crimes across the country. The Mexican Mafia has a similar story to tell as well in regards to gang crimes, which again range from respect crimes, and retaliatory violence to crimes for profit.
Peter Maas declares organized crime the “biggest business in the country” (Maas). “The largest and best known organized crime group is the nationwide organization variously known as the ‘syndicate’, the ‘mob’, the ‘Mafia’, and the ‘Cosa Nostra’” (Nash, Jason O-155). Some activities of the Mafia include gambling, loan sharking, pornography, illicit drugs, and racketeering. The Mafia began in Sicily, but did not retain to just that one location. In fact, in the late nineteenth century many of the Sicilian members immigrated to the United States (Nash O-155). The Mafia in the United States contains members that are Americans with Sicilian ancestry (“Mafia” M-48). There are several Mafia groups in the United States. Law enforcement authorities agree that there are around twenty-five groups that operate in large cities across the nation (Nash O-155).
Mafia. What does this word mean? The actual members of the Mafia aren’t even sure where the word first originated or what it really means. One of the theories as to where the word came from is from Sicily, where people would yell “ Morte alla Francia, Italia anela!” (Death to France, Italy groans!), therefore forming the acronym MAFIA. Others claim the word derived from the battle cry of rebels who slaughtered thousands of Frenchmen after a French soldier raped a Palermo woman on her wedding day. Their slogan echoed her mother’s cry, “Ma fia, Ma fia” (my daughter my daughter). There are other less “glamorous” stories as to where the word originally formed. The most likely reasoning says that it came from the Arabic word mahias, meaning bold man. The American Mafia has become infamous due to its leaders, its method of operation, and its impact on the economy through illegal means.
The gang puts most of their focus on criminal activities, like drugs, prostitution, gambling, and other crimes inside the prison system. Their alliance with the Mexican Mafia gives them more power to control the African American gangs. They are a white supremacist group. Members have tattoos that include shamrocks, AB initials, swastikas, double lightning bolts, the numbers 666, and they sometimes add the state they are from. They are noted as not being politically motivated compared to the Black Guerilla Family according to Florida Department of Corrections.
In 1892, Giuseppe Morello emigrated from Sicily to New York. His family formed the city’s first Italian criminal gang. Sicilian immigrant Salvatore “Toto” D’Aquila and his D’Aquila gang acknowledged Morello as capo di tutti capi, or boss of the bosses. Morello joined with Ignazio “the Wolf” Lupo to form a counterfeiting ring that spanned from Sicily to America. Morello and Lupo eventually went to prison, leaving a power vacuum that allowed D’Aquila to break away and form his own gang. Still, the powerful criminal alliance Morello and Lupo formed would push the Morello family into conflict with other Italian gangs, specifically the Camorra, an Italian crime syndicate with origins in Naples.
The Mafia was first developed in Sicily in feudal times to protect the estates of landlords who were out of town. The word Mafia, derived from the Sicilian word, Mafioso, means family. Today, Mafia is a name which describes a loose association of criminal groups. These groups can be bound together by blood, oath or sworn secrecy. Many people had considered the Sicilian Mafia as the most ruthless mobsters of the twentieth century.
The Mexican Mafia is a prolific gang organization that includes both criminal street and prison gangs in California. Also known as La Eme, for the Spanish word "M", the Mexican Mafia was founded from within prison walls as a collation of gangs in order to protect Hispanics from other gangs within the California prison system. As La Eme expanded, the group saw the potential for profiting from drug sales, gambling and extortion rackets inside prison. In response, leaders placed taxes on these activities, forcing Latino inmates to hand over a small percentage of profits to the gang. Later on, La Eme took this approach to the street. By joining forces with East Los Angeles street gang leaders, La Eme began to control criminal activities such