You give them WAY too much credit.
The Mafia is a shell of itself.
You’d have to go back 30 years for the last time they had that kind of power.
We tend to be older here so we think of the 1950s to 1980s mafia.
I’m from staten Island
They’re alive but on life support everywhere.
The kids are Americanized fully.
Better to have the DOJ, the FBI and the police kill for you.
And they’ve been effective.
Yeah, the really sharp guys that used to run the mob are all in jail or dead. You’ve got second and third stringers running things now, and while they still have some power with unions and rackets in a few areas, they have been in decline for decades.