Once the prime focus of the FBI in New York the American Mafia also known as La Cosa Nostra has been worn down so much by informants, death, and long prison terms that it no longer ranks atop the list says sources. The FBI has once again downsized its squads that are assigned to investigating New York’s five Mafia families. There was once an FBI squad assigned to each of the Gambino, Lucchese, Genovese, Colombo, and Bonanno families but they have slowly been consolidated over the years and now only two remain consisting of roughly 25 agents. FBI sources also say that much of the resources once devoted to Mafia related intelligence gathering has also begun to become harder to get and is slowly drying up. An FBI source said today everything is terrorism and if you want to be somebody that has a future in the bureau then you want to be assigned to terrorism.
These days the mob agents are the bastard stepchildren of the FBI says a source. But not everyone believes this is a good move by the feds with more then 700 made Mafia members and over 7,000 associates still operating in New York it may be just the break the Mafia needs to rebuild. The lack of attention could very well allow a resurgence by some of not all of the mob families in New York. A former FBI agent said the Genovese crime family alone deserves a 20 agent squad and shrinking resources is welcome news for wiseguys. He said once you have a limited amount of agents working on a mafia family your dead in the water because you can no longer properly develop informers and keep tabs on what the families are doing they could be infiltrating and new industry.
The New York Mafia has survived over the years because they have a knack for rebuilding and adapting. They may never reach the heights of power they once had in previous years but given an opportunity matched up against a shrinking law enforcement presence a new period of growth and reorganization could be on the horizon.
