Title: Is the Mafia still active in New York? - Quora
Headings: Is the Mafia still active in New York?
Is the Mafia still active in New York?
Anonymous

Content: Is the mafia still active in New York? Certainly. The small group of criminals and their associates collectively known as the American Mafia are still quite active in the New York City metropolitan area which was (and remains) their stronghold. While the group isn’t as prominent as it was even a decade or so ago, they have tentacles into a number of traditional businesses including cartage (trucking and waste removal), restaurants, construction and unions. Although the federal government made significant inroads into the group in the past two decades with numerous prosecutions and even getting the leaders of several groups to turn informant, they have been unable to completely eradicate the group as a functioning entity. This is because it has adapted to changing times, because it was already entrenched in multiple criminal enterprises and because the New York City region has numerous illicit sources of income for anyone seeking to become wealthy by tapping into them. The group consists of five “families” which are based across the five boroughs of the city itself, Long Island and some areas of Upstate New York. The groups in New York City itself have also increased their presence in neighboring Northern and Central New Jersey which used to be the exclusive territory of the DeCavalcante crime family which is based in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The DeCavalcante’s (the group upon which the US television series The Sopranos is based) was decimated by federal prosecutions and turncoats and is more of a large Mafia crew or borgata than it is a functioning individual entity. While criminal prosecutions, internal betrayals and changes in the business structures have weakened the American Mafia, there is simply no way to bring it to an end.