THE NEW ‘ LA COSA NOSTRA’

THE NEW ‘ LA COSA NOSTRA’ By Joe Ingino BA. Psychology Editor/Publisher Central Newspapers ‘La Cosa Nostra’, our thing in Italian. A phrase that the FBI during the American New York mob era in 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, found out to mean. “How is our business going.” The mob an Italian cultural system of taking care of their own and taking care of what they deem business became known world wide. It touched all that the government wished they could. They operated with rules and strict code. A system that proved to generate millions of dollars and as such. It had to generate systems to legally launder it. Much like what is taking place today with the Ukraine. Back to the mob. The FBI, along with numerous international agencies, uncovered the "Pizza Connection" money laundering scheme through meticulous, long-term investigative efforts including extensive surveillance, undercover operations, analysis of thousands of phone calls, and international collaboration. The investigations, which spanned over four years in the 1980s and involved agents across multiple continents, utilized a variety of techniques to dismantle the complex Sicilian Mafia operation that laundered an estimated $1.6 billion in heroin profits. Something that was crippling society. Crucial intelligence was initially provided by FBI agents who had infiltrated the Bonanno crime family in 1976 and set the case in motion. Authorities conducted round-the-clock physical surveillance on key players across multiple countries. Investigators traced and analyzed thousands of telephone calls, often made from remote public pay phones to avoid detection. The case was a massive multi-agency and multi-national effort, involving law enforcement from the New York Police Department, DEA, U.S. Customs, and international authorities in Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and many other countries. This cooperation was vital for tracing the flow of drugs and money across borders. A mountain of records and evidence was gathered and analyzed to track the illicit cash profits as they moved through a web of banks and brokerages in the U.S. and overseas. The FBI applied the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute to attack the criminal organization as an ongoing enterprise, which allowed for a more comprehensive case targeting the entire structure rather than isolated incidents. These combined efforts allowed the agents to prove that the pizza parlors were being used as fronts for a vast heroin distribution network and subsequent money laundering operation, leading to the conviction of all but one of the final 19 defendants, including top boss. The connection between the mob and pizza joints isn't just a stereotype; it's rooted in reality, with Mafia families historically using legitimate-looking businesses like pizzerias as fronts for money laundering, drug trafficking (famously in the "Pizza Connection"), and other illegal activities, while some former mobsters later opened pizza places as a legitimate venture, like Michael Franzese with Slices Pizza. Pizza itself came from Naples, Italy, and became popular in America, but its association with crime stems from Italian-American organized crime using these popular, cash-heavy spots for illicit operations. Pizza shops, like other small businesses (laundromats, restaurants), were perfect for cleaning dirty money by mixing illegal profits with legitimate earnings. During the mob years, the system was being used to infiltrate society with a hidden agenda. Money. Today, with the religious over tones shown on the media. One can say that laundering money to fund socio-political causes may not that be far out. Take for example - ethnic cleansing, not "ethenic laundering". Ethnic cleansing is the systematic and forceful removal of a particular ethnic, racial, or religious group from a given territory by a dominant group to make the area ethnically homogeneous. Is this not what we are witnessing today by all these immigrants all of a sudden opening up business and taking over industries much like restaurants and pizza joints, laundry mat? Interesting parallel that in theory could be the fuel for secret agendas much like the Mob did years prior. Have you been at any Tim Horton’s? Or tried to order a pizza locally? What makes the most work force? Wether it is money, ethnic or other. Money is the root of operations... Money is what is needed to make the system operate. In the Italians it was raw profit through sheer force. In this modern new wave it is about preserving religious agenda and the conquer of civilization in the name of a God. Should we alarmed? Should we not be persecuting as they did with the Italians? What do you think?