African American Gangs and the Italian Organized Crime Groups
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Institution
African American Gangs and the Italian Organized Crime Groups
Introduction
Narcotics trade or drug trafficking is the most widespread organized crime activity in the United States. This trade generates approximately $ 120 billion per year (Griffin, 2003). The illicit drug market is dominated by large trafficking groups operating from different cities across the country. These groups include the African American gangsters or the Black Mafia, the America’s La Cosa Nostra families or the Italian Mafia, and other groups that have joined the arena more recently such as the motorcycle gangs found in the Colombian and Nigerian communities (Griffin, 2003). Despite the existence of stringent law enforcement measures in place to curtail the activities of drug traffickers in the US, their operations have been increasing every ending day. In particular, the post Prohibition and World War I saw an increase in criminal activities in the United States following as a result of an influx in African and Caribbean Americans into the Midwest and Northeast cities. In the United States, the Italian Mafia or Italian organized crime groups have historically been involved in drug trafficking. However, the emergence of newer organizations like the African American gangsters or the Black Mafia has seen the activities of crime organizations balance in most of the cities (Walsh, 2004).
History of drug trafficking
Much of the Italian organized group’s crime activities started in the 1920’s with their operations concentrated in such cities as Chicago and New York (Griffin, 2003). By then, the group’s success in crime had been boosted by illicit liquor trade, which it controlled. However, following the Prohibition Act of the 1920s, the Italian organized crime network shifted to drug trafficking, distributing narcotics in all major cities within the United States. On the other hand,...