Experts say the American Mafia remains a dangerous force in the United States, despite a high-profile operation that has rounded up scores of accused mobsters and their associates.
Federal authorities revealed Thursday that 127 people face charges relating to murders, arson, extortion, drug dealing and other serious crimes. Hundreds of law enforcement officers helped bring in the dozens of suspects, an event that one official touted as "the largest mob-round-up in FBI history."
The arrests were possible with the co-operation of underworld figures who helped record thousands of conversations, as part of long-running investigations in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
James Dubro, an investigative journalist who has covered the Mafia for decades, said these "hard-core Mafia turncoats" are the key to building cases in court.
While law enforcement is more than capable of obtaining wiretaps and keeping close surveillance on suspects, Dubro said the people with direct knowledge of criminal activities are necessary to get these same suspects convicted.
The problem with these so-called "turncoats" is that they have their own motivations for coming forward and they seem suspicious in court.
"Unfortunately their credibility isn't great and they're going to have to win these charges in court," Dubro told CTV's Canada AM in a telephone interview from Toronto.
"So the lawyers go after those turncoats -- often they are murderers themselves, so it's a really tricky situation."
Janice Fedarcyk, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York office, said the use of informants was a sign of the times for the Mafia.
"The vow of silence that is part of the oath of omerta is more myth than reality today," Fedarcyk said on the day of the arrests.
A tendency to survive
This same strategy of using underworld figures against their colleagues has been used for decades, but the Mafia has managed to endure after many convictions and court cases.
Antonio Nicaso, an author and organized crime expert, said the sweeping arrests in the northeastern United States will only have a temporary effect on Mafia activity.
"It will have a short-term effect because there are so many people that are trying to move up," Nicaso told CTV's Canada AM on Friday morning.
The government also acknowledged the Mafia's ability to survive, with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder cautiously describing the arrests as "an important and encouraging step forward in disrupting La Cosa Nostra's operations."
Nicaso said the allegations relate to the types of crimes that the mob has traditionally been linked with -- extortion, loan-sharking and other such offences.
Asked if the arrests in the United States would have any impact on criminal groups north of the border, Nicaso said he was hopeful that the raids would prompt Canadian authorities to follow their example.
Nicaso said some the organizations targeted in the federal operation have also held links to Canada in the past, particularly to the city of Montreal.
"The Montreal port is the major port of entry for narcotic business, so always there was a relationship between New York families and Montreal and Toronto families," Nicaso said.
Many of the suspects listed in the U.S. indictments have nicknames that could have been pulled straight from a script from The Sopranos -- "Tony Bagels," "Johnny Pizza" and "Vinny Carwash" are three such nicknames listed in the court documents.
Several of the incidents described in the indictments match closely with some of the storylines from major Hollywood films including "On the Waterfront", "Goodfellas" and "The Godfather."
"These are legendary kind of stories coming out," Dubro said.
With files from The Associated Press
