Is the Mafia on the Rise or on the Run?

Two themes have emerged from recent media coverage of organized crime. On the one hand, protests like those held in Naples two months ago and sweeping arrests are said to signal the decline of the Mob. On the other, the international financial crisis is said to present new opportunities for mafiosi to take advantage of credit-constrained conditions to seize control of businesses and gain ground against the law.

As to the first point, this sort of give-and-take between the forces of order and disorder has been going on for most of a century. Mussolini near broke them but the US occupation put them back in business. Corruption is ingrained in certain parts of the world; see the municipal scandal in Naples and a medical scam in Sicily. As to the second, cash is king and the mafia has cash.

Stepping back, the larger issue is that organized crime is not a problem, for problems can be solved. It is a condition with which one deals. The last major round of globalization (1870-1914) saw the large local mobs — Sicilian Mafia, Neapolitan Camorra, Chinese Tongs, Corse Unione, etc. — all go worldwide. Today, as in the past, globalization offers new vistas for such groups. Two points:

1. Drugs and people are huge businesses for smugglers and illegal local dealers. The failure of the First World to be serious about either of these things creates quite rich transnational networks. Such networks can be used to move terrorists, weapons, restricted nuclear technologies, etc. The smart ones won’t do it — brings down too much scrutiny from the police — but enough of the players are undereducated thugs with attitude who will deal in anything for a short-term profit. As these crews tend to be linked but mostly independent, rather than the top-down Godfather-type empires, one can always find some wild boy who will do your deal.

2. Cultural “diversity” means demographic replacement in many areas. This, in turn, creates situations of social chaos and lack of cohension which, again, leave openings on the internal security front. Italy and Spain, for example, are both in the process of becoming national states that lack a clearly defined national population as immigrants with little interest in becoming genuine socio-cultural nations, dilute the native population.

Thanks to Bellum

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Nobody Does a Funeral Quite like the Mafia

The local chapter of La Cosa Nostra may be a hapless shell of its former self. But when it comes to staging a funeral, nobody does it quite like the Mafia.

“Three flower cars, wow!” said a pilgrim from Wisconsin who was just about to chomp down on a chocolate cannoli from Mike’s Pastry yesterday morning. The cheesehead was momentarily spellbound by the stately procession of black Cadillacs gliding toward him up Hanover Street, coming to rest at the venerable gates of St. Leonard’s Church. “Wonder who that is?” the tourist said to his wife.

Standing within earshot was a slight gentleman wrapped in a tailored black suit, black tie, black sunglasses and a perfectly coiffed head of white hair that seemed to glow in the sun.

The dapper gent studied the rube for a moment, then made his way across Hanover Street, where he began kissing the family and friends of Donato “Danny” Angiulo, a capo regime in brother Jerry’s mob franchise, who expired Sunday night at the ripe age of 86.

Inside St. Leonard’s, a Franciscan Friar told the congregation that “death comes to all of us. Yes, we think we are going to live forever . . . that death will never touch us . . . it’s not a part of our future . . . but sooner or later . . .”

In a consoling gesture, the priest went on to remind the mourners that fate had actually smiled upon the old capo they called “Smiley.”

“Donato’s death was a peaceful death,” the priest noted, “whereas other deaths can be violent, horrible.” The words just hung in the incensed silence, floating among the statues of the saints and the chorus of angels swirling in vast murals across the domed ceiling.

“Danny was always the muscle in the (Angiulo) family,” recalled one law enforcement source, who studied the kid brother who enforced the Angiulo family will on the street.

“Where Jerry was always the yeller and the screamer, Danny was the guy who carried out the assignments. He was the brother that functioned where the rubber met the road. As result, he was respected on the street.”

There was a strange clash of cultures seeing that long black train of Cadillacs choke traffic in a North End where tourists and yuppie condo-dwellers now exert far more sway than bookies and leg-breakers.

Smiley Angiulo died peacefully surrounded by his family, which, in the end, is all any aging Mafioso could ask given the range of alternatives.

As the flower cars headed north, a certain nostalgia took hold. Could it be the end of an era? Or will there be four . . . maybe five flower cars, for brother Jerry, the tempestuous old don who stayed largely out of sight yesterday.

Thanks to Peter Gelzinis

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Six Indicted in Organized Crime Bust

The statewide Grand Jury has handed up an indictment Thursday naming six local men in connection with an organized crime bust.

Donald St. Germain , of West Warwick, Joseph Montuori, of Cranston, Michael Sherman of West Warwick, Michael Lillie of West Warwick, and Jeremy Lavoie also of West Warwick are charged with one count each of conspiracy and extortion. Police say the five men conspired together to extort money in West Warwick back in January. Officials also say the men threatened to injure someone with the intent of extorting cash.

St. Germain is facing several additional charges, including bookmaking, as well as drug possession and intent to deliver drugs, including Oxycodone and Hydrocodone. All of the incidents were witnessed by an undercover West Warwick Police officer.

Montouri is also named on one count of bookmaking, and involvement in an organized crime business. Sherman is named on four additional drug charges, as well as possessing a pistol while delivering a controlled substance.

Lillie and Richard Crowley are also facing charges involving the delivery of drugs.

All six men will be arraigned in Providence County Superior Court.

Thanks to Amanda Mathias

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