Andrea and I talked to a retired NYC Detective who has some very interesting insights on the NYC Maffia.
We chatted about how Rudy Giuliani before he was the mayor of New York City, was a prosecutor for the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District. He was a real force to be reckoned with and took down some of the most talented guys in the Mafia. He went after the heads of all five families in the Commission case, the Pizza Connection case, where heroin was being brought in through pizza parlors, and the Windows case, where corrupt contractors controlled by the mob were doing the replacement windows in millions of New York City housing projects, hiking up the cost and making the Mafia rich.
It was fascinating to hear how the sentencing guidelines and the RICO laws have changed the game when it comes to the Mafia. Nowadays, guys are flipping left and right because they're looking at getting 30 years or more in prison. It's a different story from the old days when guys used to do 8, 10, 15 years in the can with no problem. Middle-aged guys who have already done time twice before and have kids and grandkids are now looking at spending most of their lives behind bars. That's why everybody's flipping - it's a matter of self-preservation.
And the prison system isn't what it used to be. Back in the '70s and '80s, they sent you to Danbury, and it was like Club Fed. But now you've got all these MS 13 guys, drug gangs, and cartel guys - it's rough. The Mafia guys aren't running the prisons anymore, and they have to be subservient to the other groups because of the sheer numbers.
It was also interesting to learn how the Mafia makes its money now. They're into much stuff, like hitting stash houses or grow houses, but most of their money is made through offshore betting. They'll set up an offshore gambling website in countries like Belize or Costa Rica, and it's not illegal. People in the US can bet on these websites, but at some point, the money has to make its way back here. That's where the FBI and IRS come in and catch them. It's not like the old days when they were going around clipping guys. It's just different now.
Overall, it was eye-opening to hear about the inner workings of the Mafia and how it's changed over the years. I hope you find this as interesting as I did enough to listen to the whole story on “Things I Want To Know.”