‘Organized crime it is just a bunch of people getting together to take all the money they can from all the suckers they can.’Vincent Teresa (deceased) While not a weighty quote, Teresas words go to the heart of what a crime family is: people who derive profits from illegal activities on an ongoing basis who form a subculture of civil society. Members of organized crime groups believe that only suckers work at legitimate jobs. The deeper sentiment expressed is therejection of traditional rules, norms and laws that govern civil society. A ‘wiseguy’ is just satisfying the demand for goods and services deemed illegal by an authority they repudiate. Organized crime has a long and notorious history in Canada. The antecedent to todays criminal organization can be traced backto the pirates who operated off the Atlantic coast. In the 19th century, the pirate was superceded by criminal groups who engaged in cattle rustling, liquor smuggling, counterfeiting and government fraud. In the early part of the 2oth century, immigrant Italian communities in southern Ontario were terrorized by the Black Hand, brutish bands of extortionists. During the Prohibition Era, the profits reaped by supplying a thirsty American market catapulted Canadian crime groups to unprecedented levels of sophistication, wealth, power and violence. Beginning in the 1930s, illegal bookmaking was the largest revenue generator for criminal organizations. Montreal emerged as Canadas underworld capital, dominated by an alliance of Canadian and American Mafia Families. Numerous rackets included loan-sharking, prostitution, labor racketeering, fraud and theft. In the 1950s, narcotics became the greatest source of revenue for crime families, and Montreal became the largest single importer of heroin in North America. In the global arena of crime today, Canada is both a branch-plant operation and international headquarters to the Italian Mafia, outlaw motorcycle gangs, Chinese triads, Eastern European crime groups and South American drug cartels.
- ISBN: 978-0-470-83500-5
- Editorial: John Wiley & Sons
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 608
- Fecha Publicación: 06/06/2009
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés