Following the federal crackdown in the mid-1950s and then the arrival of Howard Hughes in Las Vegas, the influence of the mob began to diminish from what they would have regarded as their heyday.  However many still remained, unable to let go of their profitable legal casino games and equally profitable but illegal ‘skimming’ scams and sportsbooks.

So the mob had become firmly entrenched by the time the Nevada authorities decided to instigate an era of respectability with the introduction of the Corporate Gaming Act in 1969.  While the Act didn’t specifically target the mobsters, it allowed corporations to become licensed casino owners.  This allowed non-mob connected,large companies to more easily join the Las Vegas party with the hope that they would invest and dilute the influence of the mafia.

The Las Vegas Strip in the 1960s

It partly worked but the mob soon reorganised their businesses and operations to take the new laws into account.  Front men and companies were brought in to become license holders while the skimming and the profiteering continued behind the scenes.

What eventually happened was that the local and federal authorities began to take such a close interest in what were thought to be the mob-run casinos that it became more and more difficult for the gangsters to operate.  Gradually the criminals were arrested or they decided to sell up to legitimate corporations and leave Las Vegas, leaving the casino businessto someone else.

By the mid-1980s this casino city was largely free of organised crime.  There is some misplaced nostalgia regarding the days when the mob ‘ran’ Las Vegas; old-timers regard it as a period when there was no crime on the streets and everything was cheaper (before the big corporations moved in and began to invest).  Common sense will tell you though that a city without organised crime is more desirable then a one with it.

Las Vegas is a clean city now, although there is some suspicion that the strip clubs and pole-dancing venues still operate money laundering schemes.

Casinos began to emerge in the 1930s in Las Vegas when gambling became legal in the state.  Perhaps it was because the Second World War was interrupting things or perhaps it ws just because Nevada was a long way from the mafia’s traditional east coast territory, but it took another decade for the mob to realise that there was money to be made in the city.

The mafia originally had a hard time making headway in the city’s casinos; Las Vegas was largely run by a number of influential families who had managed to protect and build their investments in the relatively lawless early days in the region.  They knew how to look after their own interests and it wasn’t until mobsters Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel and Meyer Lansky managed to funnel money through sympathetic mormon banks and build The Flamingo.

Built by the mob.....

This was the first step for organised crime in Las Vegas and the Teamster Union became another vehicle through which east coast mobsters could fund casino developments.  By the 1950s they were well ensconced in Vegas and making huge amounts of money legally by just operating successful casinos.  However they were also ‘skimming’.  This practice involved the removal of money directly from the casinos counting rooms before it could be taxed.  It was untraceable and could be used in any manner by the gangsters.  Much of the proceeds headed back east to New Jersey and New York.

The good times for the mob were effectively ended in the early 1950s when the federal authorities began to take an interest and to target Las Vegas specifically.  This coincided with the arrival of the reclusive, eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes in Vegas who began to buy up casino and other property and intrude upon the mob’s patch.  However the myth that Howard Hughes forced the mob out of Vegas is just that, a myth.

The Sicilian Mafia

The Neapolitan Camorra

The Calabrian Ndrangheta

The Apulian Sacra Corona Unita

In this post we’re going to take a look at the Ndrangheta, the mafia-like organisation based in Calabria in Southern Italy.  Calabria is right next door to Sicily and this proximity has led to speculation over the years that the Ndrangheta may just be an offshoot of the Sicilian mafia but this is not the case, they are two independent entities that sometimes work together for mutual benefit.  The FBI has speculated that the Ndrangheta was formed by Sicilians kicked of the island but this doesn’t seem to have proven.  The word ‘Ndrangheta’ is probably derived from a similar Greek word relating to heroism.

The origins of the Ndrangheta are not dissimilar to that of the Sicilian mafia; police records dating back to the late 19th century show that court records were already familiar with the omertá and had experience of written agreements within local groups for self protection.  These rules would lay out guides based on solidarity and secrecy and reprisals for those who did not comply.

Ndrangheta massacre aftermath

For most of the 20th century the activities of the Ndrangheta were restricted to their home region of Calabria, making money mostly via extortion but in the mid-1970s the inter-clan peace was broken when more than 300 people were killed in a ferocious gang war.  This was followed by what is now known as the Second Ndrangheta War which cost the lives of another 600 people between 1985 and 1991.  It began amongst a background of acrimony over the awarding of a bridge building contract between Calabria and Sicily and only ended when, six years later, they had fought each other to a standstill did sense prevail.  Senior Ndrangheta figures unconnected with the conflict oversaw the peace negotiations and the Sicilia Mafia were also involved in as much as they suggested the setting up of a communications body similar to the Sicilian Mafia Commission.

When the violence had died down, the Ndrangheta began to expand their operations abroad, largely through migration.  This ‘keep it in the family’ attitude and unwillingness to recruit non-family means that loyalty  is high on the agenda and police infiltration is very hard.  There are now confirmed Ndrangheta operations in several European countries as well as Australia and North America.

Alleged boss Francesco Maisano under arrest.

Drug smuggling has become their main source of income and it is estimated the worldwide turnover from this and smaller enterprises (prostitution, gun running, extortion) probably exceed £50 billion globally.

Back in Calabria, the units which make up the Ndrangheta are called locale and are usually based around one family and one village or suburb.  This locale will be part of a larger group in the immediate area and marriages between families are relatively common to cement inter-locale bonds.

We’ve written elsewhere on this site about the Brummagem Boys and how they operated with and fought against London gangs such as the Hoxton Mob and the Italian Mob in the 1930s but those latter two were just part of a large array of territorial and ethnically separated criminal organisations.

The UK's 1920s gangsters in more peaceful times.

London’s attraction for immigrants from all over the world in the 20th century (and earlier) inevitably led to a type of ghetto-isation of the new communities involved.  As the newcomers rubbed up against the established communities and tensions arose,  organisations were set up to protect the various cultures and the areas in which they lived.

As time passed these groups almost inevitably diverted their attention to illegal and lucrative activities, morphing into much more recognisable criminal enterprises.  Of course the established Anglo-Saxon communities also had their own groups and over time a pattern emerged where the illegal activities of each area were controlled by one group; in the next area it would be controlled by a different, perhaps ethnically separate group.  Jewish (the Yiddishers) and Italian gangs (Charles Sabini’s Italian Mob) were prolific at this stage but it was just the beginning of an era in which a new type of professional gangster would take control.

In the 1960s families such as the Krays and the Richardsons dominated large parts of

Eddie & Charlie Rchardson

London (read more here) but were gradually brought down by determined police investigation by forces outside the capital; the Metropolitan police were known to be too far under the influence of organised crime to get the job done.  In fact some 700 officers were ‘retired early’ when Robert Mark took over the Met in 1972.

London now plays host to organised crime groups from around the world; very few major global crime groups don’t have some sort of presence in the capital – Jamaican Yardies, Russians and Hells Angels to name a few.  At the lowest level gangs populated mainly by teenagers still maintain territorial boundaries in the areas in which they live and they are still largely based on ethnicity, whether it be black, Asian or white gangs.

The Brummagem Boys

In post-First World War England (1914-1918), crime was rife and threatening to spiral out of control.  Into this mix a number of regional criminal enterprises emerged to take advantage of the situation.  London had the Hoxton Gang, the Italian Mob and the Bethnal Green Mob, Yorkshire had the Leeds Mob and Birmingham had its notorious Brummagem Boys.

The main focus of these gangs eventually became the chaotic racetracks, especially Epsom and Ascot, at which unlicensed bookmakers regularly fleeced customers.  These bookies used the gangs as protection (from angry customers and other bookies) and the Brummagem Boys, led by the clever and charismatic Billy Kimber, had fingers in this protection racket all over the country.

A group of 1920s gangsters before they fell out - Kimber is on the back row, second from left

The Brummagem Boys had alliances with the Hoxton Gang and the Leeds Mob and used these alliances to spread their influence further.  Their main rivals the Italian Mob, led by Charles ‘Darby’ Sabini, also had their eyes on the racetracks and this rivalry led to one of the most notorious and brutal events of the 1920s.

On the first day of the Epsom Derby in 1921, the Italian Mob were known to be visiting the racetrack.  The Brummagem Boys and the Leeds Mob had made their way to the racetrack separately to confront the Italians but the presence of so many Metropolitan Police officers made them think again.  Leaving by car, the Brummagem Boys set up an ambush on the route back towards London and waited for the Italians to drive by.

When two cars appeared on the road near the village of Stoneleigh in Surrey, the Brummagems blocked the road, rushed from behind the bushes and attacked the cars with bricks, hammers and other metal implements.  Dragging the occupants from the car, they proceeded to batter and slash the men with knives until it looked like someone would be killed.  Suddenly one of the injured men recognised the attackers and realised the error, shouting “Stop it, we’re the Leeds Mob” – the Brummagems had ambushed and attacked the Leeds Mob rather than the Italians.  By this time however the attack had taken on a life of its own and did not stop until the Brummagem Boys were satisfied.

By 1921 the police were becoming more effective in tracking down and prosecuting the gangs and when the Brummagems car was spotted outside the George and Dragon pub near Richmond Park in London, several officers were sent to investigate.  Unusually, one of the officers, Sergeant Dawson, was armed with a revolver and it proved vital.  When the gang saw the police they attempted to rush Dawson but he drew his weapon and calmly said “I shall shoot the first man who tries to escape!“  Twenty three gang members were sentenced to prison terms in the ensuing trial.

In this last article on the Italian Camorra, we’ll have a look at the efforts this organisation has made to expand into other countries.  It’s worth mentioning from the start that if the Camorra achieved anything it was only in a very minor way; it was never any rival to the Sicilian mafia within the United States or elsewhere.

In the United States

The Camorra had some early influence in the New York area at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.  They were eventually absorbed into the growing Italian-American mafia and had no presence of their own until the 1980s when mafia wars and police crackdowns in Italy forced many members abroad and particularly to the United States.

There are still thought to be only around 200 members of the Camorra active in the United States but according to the FBI they are particularly good at working with other organised crime groups, giving them influence out of all proportion to the numbers involved.

In the United Kingdom

We say United Kingdom but really we just mean Scotland, which those from outside the

Antonio La Torre of the Aberdeen Camorra

region may not realise has a substantial second and third generation Italian population.  A Camorra boss in Italy named Augusto La Torre had a brother called Antonio.  It was Antonio who ran a network of illegal businesses in Aberdeen in the 1980s and actually takes credit for the economic revival in the city which occurred at that time.  Others may argue that the huge sums of money coming in to the city from the North Sea oil industry were a more likely candidate.

The Camorra appeared to have chosen Aberdeen because of the Italian community, the lack of any rival gangs, Italian or otherwise and the inability of the inexperienced Aberdeen police to deal with organised crime.  The lack of gang warfare made this a strangely non-violent environment.

There is now almost certainly no Camorra presence in Aberdeen, meaning they will have to stick to their Italian and U.S. facing businesses for the time being.

In the 1970s Raffaele Cutolo was the first senior Camorra figure to attempt to introduce some sort of unification into the disparate clans and cells.  This may have been influenced by the Sicilian Mafia’s structure or it may have been an attempt to impose some measure of authority on the organisation.  Cutolo set up the New Organized Camorra (NCO) and spent the best part of two decades in an ultimately futile attempt to establish it.  During it’s brief reign it did become, according to the Italian police, one of the most powerful Camorra clans, becoming allied with elements of the ‘Ndrangheta and maintaining a distinctly hostile relationship with the Sicilian Mafia.

Raffaele Cutolo

Following the demise of the NCO after a spate of arrests and clan killings, the Camorra was in a pretty feeble state – the Italian police estimated that there were only twelve or so clans remaining.  This was only the beginning of the expansion though; four years later there were twice as many clans, the following year the number was 32.  Now there are estimated to be more than 100 clans in the Naples area, controlling the bakery and fish industries and the coffee trade.  Investigation into their activities have revealed an organisation which has quickly outgrown the Sicilian Mafia and the ‘Ndrangheta, both in revenue and membership.

Unfortunately for the city of Naples, this overarching control of the city’s businesses and industry has made it the focus of violence in the last decade or so.  Turf battles became increasingly common as new clans crowded into the city looking for a piece of the action. Probably the most notorious result of Camorra influence in Naples is their complete control of the waste industry in the city and surrounding Campania countryside.

Waste on the streets of Naples

The variety of waste involved is vast and includes toxic substances as well as industrial and household rubbish.  There was very little intention to dispose of the waste properly and piles of burning rubbish containing a mixture of noxious substances are a common site around the city.  Third party contracts are signed to dispose of waste which offer huge profits to all involved but the end result is more rubbish just dumped by the roadside.  To add to the chaos, during periods in which the authorities have tried to crackdown on the Camorra, they have responded by refusing to deal with any waste whatsover, leaving the city’s residents faced with weeks of uncollected trash on the streets.

Over the past one hundred years or so, numerous efforts have been made to clip the wings of the Camorra in attempts to curtail their activities and, in recent years, to loosen their grip on Naples.  Several, almost military, interventions have been made into the city when clan killings looked likely to spiral out of control but these are only temporary measures.  As other commentators have noted, Southern Italy is an area of historically high unemployment and, lacking any future direction, the youth of the region are sometimes left with no choice but to get involved with the Camorra.

Part Three follows…..

Much of the international attention and appearances in popular culture of Italian mafia groups tends to focus on the Sicilian mafia.  Perhaps it’s because of the familial links to the United States that that’s the situation, but thee are other, older organisations on the Italian mainland and the Comorra is one of them.

We can reliably date the first use of the word ‘Comorra’ back to 1735 when it was mentioned in a royal decree regarding gambling in Naples.  It’s a combination of the words ‘Capo’ (boss) and ‘Morra’ (a gambling game).  Some historians argue that secret societies have been in existence in the region since the 16th century and that the Camorra may be a descendent of these groups.

History

Either way, the first official mention of the word ‘Camorra’ dates from 1820, when police reports describe a meeting and written rules (frieno) which clearly show a hierarchical organisational structure.  Working backwards, it’s easy to see that the Camorra must have been in existence for some time prior to this date to have evolved such a sophisticated model.  Other documents from the time indicate that the Camorra was also known as the Società dell ‘Umirtà, Onorata Società and the Bella Società Riformata.

Italy in the 19th century was not a unified state; it was a collection of states and some of the Northern ones were ruled by the Austrian Empire.  An 1848 revolution checked the power of the Austrians and during the upheaval which followed the Camorra began to cement their power.  Significantly they were in a position to mobilise popular support in favour of the liberal opposition (for which they were paid), a testament to how locally powerful they had become.

Early 20th century Camorra

In fact this involvement in local politics became the main reason why the Camorra’s power grew so impressively.  They acted increasingly as middle men between the political hierarchy and the local community, ensuring that the politicians retained support on one side and local businesses and organisations were sheltered from the authorities on the other.  Over the decades, as the sophistication of the Camorra increased and local and national politics became ever more connected, the organisation’s reach extended beyond the local area to involvement in national politics.

Organisational Structure

One of the reasons the Camorra has been so hard for the authorities to infiltrate and combat is the horizontal and distributed nature of it’s hierarchy.  Where the Sicilian Mafia has a recognised command structure and a method of controlling the entire organisation through the Commission, the Camorra’s various groups are more loosely connected.  One might liken the structure to that of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) with each cell working independently to lessen the impact if one such cell should be compromised.  That’s pretty much where the similarity ends though; each Comorran clan runs it’s own area and that clan will almost certainly consist of family connections.  When clan’s territories overlap, violent confrontation is unusual and this has regularly led to situations where agreements have been established between competing clans.

Part Two follows…

There are plenty of other smaller groups though and one of these is the Mongols motorcycle club, another of the organisations which takes pride in being known as one percenters, a group outside the 99% which are seen as law abiding motorcyclists.

Montebello, California, was the birth place of the Mongols and the interesting part here is that the first group was made up of those rejected from the Hells Angels because of their race.  Hispanic Vietnam war veterans had attempted to join the Hells Angels but has been refused.  What’s the next move then?  Start up your own club obviously and in 1969 the Mongols were born with the first fifteen members.  Not surprisingly the name is derived from Genghis Khan’s 12th century Central Asian Mongol hordes.

Mongols Motorcycle Club

Comparisons with the Hells Angels are obvious to spot – this is a motorcycle gang which attempts to maintain a respectable appearance to outsiders, whatever may be going on internally.  Even their motto is similar:

“When we do right, nobody remembers.  When we do wrong, nobody forgets.”

By the early 1970s, five other Mongol motorcycle chapters had been established within California.  It now has representation in a number of U.S. states and, like other motorcycle gangs, has spread to several other countries around the world.  Countries which are familiar with biker groups such as Germany, Sweden and Australia have chapters but less likely venues such as Italy, Spain and Mexico also have them.  The largely Hispanic make up of the Mongols may mean that countries with a Spanish influence are more likely to feature international chapters.

Any claim that the Mongols have that they are not a criminal organisation was largely blown out of the water in 1998 when an ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) agent named William Queen (using the alias Billy St. John) managed to infiltrate the club, passing the various initiations and eventually rising to be a treasurer.  In this position he was in an ideal position to gather evidence regarding motorcycle theft, drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit murder.  Fifty-three Mongol members were subsequently convicted.

A book about the subject written by Queen provided readers with the interesting insight that he eventually came to identify with the camaraderie and brotherhood of the Mongols.  This is a pattern which has been noted previously when authorities have infiltrated football hooligan groups for example and Queen says it caused him some emotional difficulty to leave the group when the investigation began after more than two years.

German Mongols in the city of Bremen are are another prime example.  According to a local police investigator, they are mostly Kurdish Muslims who have no motorcycle licenses and drive around in cars.  The belief is that the Kurdish gangs have aligned themselves with international Mongol chapters to take advantage of established drug routes. Rivals?  Not surprisingly the Hells Angels.  Check out a promotional Mongol video below:

As we’ve discussed in other articles, many of the motorcycle gangs suspected of illegal activity in the United States and abroad are known as one-percenters.  One percenters take the name from a term applied to them  by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA).  Although the AMA regards the claim as nonsense, they are supposed to have said that while 99% of motorcyclists were law abiding, 1% were not – hence the one percenters.  Several of the gangs have their own individual one percenter patches.

As we know already, there are plenty of motorcycle gangs which regard themselves as one percenters; Hells Angels, Bandidos, Outlaws and in this article we’re going to introduce the Pagans.

Pagans History

Pagans patches

The pagans were formed by Lou Dobkin in 1959 in St George’s County, Maryland.  As with other motorcycle clubs the original group of 13 members were simply motorbike enthusiasts – in this case they rode Triumph bikes and steered away from the patriotism of groups such as the Bandidos who only rode Harley Davidsons.  By the mid-1960s, their natural geographic location in the North East of the United States led them to create contacts with the American mafia there.  The DeCavalcante family were the New Jersey mafia organisation which became most closely linked with the Pagans.

By the early 1970s, the leader of the Pagans was John ‘Satan’ Marron, a biker who saw the groups future as an conduit for organised crime and as they grew, the violence which the Pagans are now renowned for began to grow considerably.  Philadelphia tends to be regarded as the home of the Pagans, although the group has no fixed home as such.  The 1970s was also the period of speedy growth for the Pagans and their natural rivals became the Hells Angels.  This enmity enabled them to hoover up some of the smaller Outlaw motorcycle gangs in the North East and add experienced members to their ranks.

The Triumph motorbikes were soon dispatched and Harley Davidsons became the mandatory bike of choice for Pagans members.

Membership and Structure

The structure of the Pagans is relatively rigid, matched only by the Hells Angels hierarchy although much smaller.  It’s a top down organisation and the relatively small size of the group means that there is very little devolved power and disputes are often resolved through violence.

It has been described as a pretty unpleasant group – many members are known to have fascist or racist views and some of the patches reflect this.  These unconventional views may be behind the gradual decline in membership of the Pagans, which some sources estimate now numbers only around 400 members in 44 chapters along the East coast of the United States.

There are no known chapters outside the United States and very few outside the North and East of the country, although members have been arrested from chapters in Florida. Their historical association with the Outlaws means they have had access to shared drug distribution networks in cities in the North East.  Aside from drug-dealing, they are suspected of being involved in activities such as car theft, extortion, racketeering, murder and gun running.