What A Crime!: La Cosa Nostra

Did you ever hear of Charles "Lucky" Luciano? Up until he died in 1962, he was leader of a big Italian name was Salvatore Lucania. He was born on November 24, 1897, and his birth name was Salvatore Lucania.

Charles Luciano

His family moved to the lower east side of New York in 1906, where he was first arrested in 1907. By 1915, he trained in the Five Points Gang, a crew under John Torrio. In this gang he became friends with Al Copone and started his prostitution with Joe Adonis in the early 1920's and was in total control of prostitution in Manhattan by 1925. In 1929 Luciano was kidnapped, beaten and stabbed repeatedly with an ice pick. He survived but maintained "Omerta." Omerta is a vow that is to never reveal any secrets or members under penalty of death or torture. He got involved with some high people that only had crime on their minds. One day when he was at a restaurant with a couple of his boss's, he went to the bathroom and a couple men came in and had killed them. When "Lucky" came back out, they were dead. Later he had become the new boss. He went years without ever being caught, although the police were aware of what was going on. They just never had enough evidence to prove anything. Then one year, they ended up actually getting pictures, and that was all that they had needed. Charles was sentenced to lie in prison however he got a deal and was let out. The police kept their eyes on him but that didn’t stop him from doing what he did best. On January 26, 1962, he passed away after having a severe heart attack.
The major threats to American society posed by these groups are drug trafficking and money laundering. They have been involved in heroin trafficking for decades. Two major investigations that targeted Italian organized crime drug trafficking in the 1980s are known as the “French Connection” and the “Pizza Connection.” Mafia crime families don't limit themselves to drugs and money laundering, though; they are also involved in illegal gambling, kidnapping, fraud, murders, bombings, and the selling of illegal weapons. Their crimes generate about $100 billion every day. "Lucky" is credited with making the Mafia what it is today. He was known to be one of the most dangerous and most out-of-control crime leaders the world has ever known. Most of the people in the Mafia here in the United States came here illegally. "Lucky" structured the La Cosa Nostra when he was deported back to Italy in 1946 for operating a major prostitution ring. In Italy the word "mafia" usually means, "manly". The Sicilian Mafia specializes in heroin trafficking, political corruption, and military arms trafficking—and is also known to engage in arson, frauds, counterfeiting, and other racketeering crimes. With an estimated 2,500 Sicilian Mafia affiliates it is the most powerful and most active Italian organized crime group in the U.S.La Cosa Nostra is the foremost organized criminal threat to American society. Literally translated into English it means “this thing of ours.” It is a nationwide gang of criminals, linked by blood ties, dedicated to committing crime and protecting its members. To this day the mafia is all over the world, they are conducted of all sorts of races. Many people are dead set against the mafia, however, there are a few people that think it is a great thing that people want to take the world into their own hands, their own way. I feel that this is very disappointing, because the world is chaotic by itself, but when people decide to take their own lives and try to "make the world better by getting even" it just makes thing's worse. It saddens me and scares me at the same time. It only takes one mistake to get into the mafia, and a lot of the times, when you get in, you can’t get back out. Mafia that first appeared in the 1800's. They are some of the most notorious and widespread of all criminal societies.