Drugs and the Mafia
Works Cited Missing
The Accuracy of Drugs as portrayed in the Godfather by Mario Puzo, as opposed to reality
Throughout history Writers have been writing fictional novels based on real historical events. The Godfather by Mario Puzo is such a book in which Puzo portrays Mafia life and business starting at the late 40’s. The Corleone crime Family in this novel is shown having troubles with the other organized crime syndicates concerning drugs. Many of the other families are pushing the idea of joining the narcotics market, however the Corleones do not want to intervene in such a disagreeable business. Much tension forms as mobster wars starts within the syndicates and most favor drugs.
My purpose of this paper will be to analyze whether Mario Puzo the author of The Godfather , represents an accurate portrayal of narcotics as a major part of Mafia business.
As the demand for illegal narcotics rose in the United States, it was the Mafia who would jump on it as they did all other illegal activities, such as gambling operations, prostitution, extortion, and loan sharking. The whole drawback to this was, from where could they get it. Depending on what it was, it had to be found and brought in from over-seas. From Ecuador they could obtain opium poppies with which to make heroin, and virtually unlimited supply of coca leaves, with which to make cocaine from Bolivia and Peru. Plus their smuggling routes and expertise were solidly established. Hence, the first drug laboratories were established in Medellin, supposedly with Mafia money (Eddy and Hugo, 45). The New York Mafia as well as other American crime families, would buy the drugs from Colombian drug lords. One of the major Colombian syndicates- commo...
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...in importation and distribution in the United States, all charged in the indictment later.
Although Catalano’s organization was located in New York City, the investigation by the FBI revealed that Catalano’s heroin business was tied directly to organized criminal groups in Sicily.(Roemer, 406). Another way they would try to cover up or pay someone elsoe to do all of the work.
Delgiorno and other members of his family would loan a drug dealer to finance the importation of fifty to a hundred gallons of p-z-p(pheno- two- propane, used to make a drug called Meth). Since Delgiorno dealt with loan sharking and this was a loan sharking deal it technically skirted the mob prohibition on dealing drugs.(Anastasia, 114). If any of these acts would have happened a decade earlier it would not have been let go so easily and all of these would have been punished by death.
These issues are of utmost importance, gang membership does not only present an issue on an individual level, but on a societal level as well. Gangs are well-known for their proclivity for violence, even to those who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Youth gang crime is no longer limited to big cities; these problems have now spread beyond those boundaries into suburbs, small cities, and even rural areas (Spergel & Grossman, 1997). These organizations put us all at risk, and are a threat to public safety. Furthermore, these groups put our youth at risk and threaten to destroy their
A mentor is a trusted guide who shows you the way in life. Through the mentors of Pi and Antonio, they help save and point them to the right way in life. In the novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Ultima shows Tony that good can always overcome evil, no matter how evil it may be. Life of Pi by Yann Martel, shows that Pi can face his fears by the help of a big Bengal tiger in a small boat, and that the littlest things in life can change the course of how your destiny awaits.
Schmidt, L. M., & O'Reilly, J. T. (2007). Gangs and Law Enforcement: A Guide for Dealing with Gang-Related Violence. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher, LTD.
... Mafia, had helped criminals obstruct the justice system (10,13). It was claimed to be “impossible to get a jury of men courageous enough to try criminals” because of their power and ruthlessness (10,14). This prevented any violent criminals from being incarcerated and kept many of them on the streets to keep creating violence. Crime groups such as the Mafia run by Torrio controlled elections for their benefit, like in Cicero in April 1924, where gunman and mafia members stood outside election ballots to intimidate the voters (11,909). Criminals such as Dion O’banion, an Irish bootlegger, were treated as celebrities. When O’banion died in 1924, his funeral was attended by nearly 20,000 mourners (12,137). It was clear that due to the power and wealth that the illegal smuggling had given criminals, law and order was certainly at the mercy of organized crime (12,137).
Gang involvement has been quite higher than past years. The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey estimates that about 32.4 percent of all cities, suburban areas, towns, and rural counties had a gang problem (Egley et al., 2010). This represented a 15 percent increase from the year 2002. The total number of gangs has also increased by 28 percent and total gang members have increased by 6 percent (Egley et al., 2010). This shows how relevant gang related activity is in today’s society. More locations are beginning to experience gang activity for the first time. Gang crime has also been on the rise in the past...
the mob or mafia today. Capone was a man who of the many prohibition leaders,
‘The American mafia is often portrayed as the invisible and omnipotent criminal of the movie melodrama" ( Cummings and Volkman 4). "It is neither of them, but the American mafia is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the world" ( Cummings and Volkman 4). When the American mafia first started people did not pay much attention to the criminal acts that they did and the unholy morals that they stood for. That was until a man from Chicago by the name of Al Capone took the mafia from rags to riches from the late nineteen twenties well into the nineteen thirties. Thanks to Mr. Capone, the American mafia was well known, and became a great force to be dealt with in the world. Mr, Capone also made men of the mafia among the most socially mobile people in America.
Like Dracula, the Mafia represents the other in the 20th century. The Mafia is foreign, in other words, their origin is different from mainstream Americans. Their organization is ruthless as well as exclusive, and they live outside the law. We have the fear that they will control us, and due to that fear, we must destroy and control them. In a way, the Mafia is the ultimate vampire of modern day society because they invoke fear, repulsion and anxiety much like the reactions felt by Jonathan Harker, Van Helsing, Mina and the other vampire hunters in Stoker’s Dracula. Both vampires and the Mafia appeal to our most private selves through sexuality, they operate with the greatest power at night, and run their organizations in a parallel manner.
The other front of the battle of the “War on Drugs” comes from locating and shutting down the manufacturers of cocaine. Cocaine is manufactured from the coca plant, the drug’s main ingredient. When the government imposes sanctions on different nations for growing the coca plant, careful considerations must be made. Just like any other market, there may be underlying circumstances for growing the plant that are perfectly innocent to the illegal cocaine market.
During 1869-2014 the Sicilian mafia in America evolved in a number of ways such as: the change in rules, leaders, how it is run, the change in code and power over American society. These topics will be covered throughout this essay and will give you a detailed explanation furthermore the history of the evolution that took place. The Sicilian Mafia started in poor Sicilian ghettos in America and spread into the cities striking fear into the American society. With around 2,500 members it is seen as the most powerful and the most active Italian organized criminal group in the United States of America. The Sicilian mafia is more commonly known as La Cosa Nostra.
...g violence statistics show that majority of the member in a gang are directly involved in gang related criminal activities and one third of them have no involvement.
“I don’t trust society to protect us, I have no intention of placing my fate in the hands of men whose only qualification is that they managed to con a block of people to vote for them.” This quote from The Godfather, which is famous for glorifying the Mafia, reflects the concerns of criminology within organized crime. Using ideas from Sutherland, Rawls and Nussbaum, one might argue that the relationship between organized crime and the governance relating to it plays a significant role and influence on society.
Organized crime in the United States keeps the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in a never-ending investigation of criminals suspected of the infiltration of legitimate businesses. A notorious twentieth century organized group was the New England Patriarca Mafia, or N.E.P.M.. Originating in 1915, the N.E.P.M. evolved over the early twentieth century decades, until 1954 when Raymond Loredo Salvatore Patriarca was donned as boss* and promptly began to expand its power. Due to mafia-related language that will be present throughout the paper, a page of definitions is supplied at the end of the paper. Defined words throughout the paper will be noted with an asterisk, “ * ”.
The Mafia way of life may seem like a romantic updated version of the western movie played out on the streets of the big cities where the good guys and the wise guys who share the same instincts and values do battle before an enthralled public but it is actually very different. The Mafia is really just a group of uneducated thugs making money by victimizing the public. Initially, the Mafia was setup as a prominent supplier of bootlegged liquor, but it has spread into many different areas of crime. During this research paper I will discuss three aspects of the Mafia which are crime, structure and decline in leadership.
Organized Crime Organized Crime is non ideological. It perpetuates itself and is typified by the motivation to use illegal violence and inducement. It is focused in the division of labor, is monopolistic and directed by precise rules and regulations. The study of organized crime is a multidisciplinary attempt. Organized crime, from a political scientist’s viewpoint, can be an interesting object of study in a variety of respects. First of all, organized crime is a construct that characterizes and legitimizes criminal policy. Secondly, organized crime may be conceptualized as an aspect of politics where crime networks and power elites overlap or where organized criminality turns out to be an instrument of politics. Thirdly, organized crime in the sense of criminal milieu as well as criminal subcultures can be interpreted as primitive states in their own right. Organized crime is a methodical criminal activity for money and power and applies this definition meticulously to the rich and powerful. The conventional perceptive of organized crime, which centers on gangsters and Mafia-type organizations that penetrate and corrupt the national and even international economic and political systems, is inadequate. Organized criminal activity was never a severe danger to create or developing economic and political power structures in the United States however more often a fluid, variable, and open-ended phenomenon that complemented those structures. Thus we can say that politics, money and power are important in the study of organized crime. William Chambliss defines the importance of politics, money and power in the study of organized crime on his book “On the Take” and “Power, Politics and Crime”. On the Take illustrates the level and intri...