Across the world, organized crime is modernizing along with our boom in technology and business. Early in 2013, Italian authorities seized over 30 wind farms in Sicily in a sting operation that connected them to the Sicilian mafia, commonly referred to as La Cosa Nostra (LCN).
In America, we know LCN as the American mob. The mafia. The thugs the Americans were fascinated by in movies like ''Goodfellas'', ''Casino'' and ''The Godfather''. They were the good guys during Prohibition; the Al Capones; the real American Dream.
Today, the mafia is a part of the classic American culture. It is so dramatized in movies and series like ''The Sopranos'' that Americans today feel that the mafia has lost its power. The days of boot-legging are over and the Al Capones are dead. The drug trade is controlled by ragtag street gangs. Prostitution is almost legal. Gambling surely is. Law enforcement is but a call away, so there’s surely no more extortion going on.
Many forget that La Cosa Nostra is comprised of people. In the face of adversity, some people die and others are cast off. Meanwhile, a select few adapt and survive. Criminal evolution is an unstoppable phenomenon. The more you fight crime, the more the criminals will seek to evolve in order to beat the system.
This phenomenon of mafia modernization is what we’ve been witnessing since the beginning of the 21st century. We will not see a repetition of the Apalachin Meeting or have the chance to break down the door to a meeting of the Commission. When you hunt for mobsters, they start to adapt the same way animals do when you hunt them long and hard enough.
As with many phenomena and rules of nature, there are always exceptions. The mob in San Andreas qualifies as such.
The fall of Valenti
Santino ''the Butcher'' Valenti was imprisoned in May 2011. His downfall created a power vacuum that turned the San Andreas underworld inside out. Mob wars and vendettas stirred the hellish pot while gangsters the likes of Vincent Malacci, Nicholas Diopare, Anthony Sutera, and countless underlings died chasing the dream of dominion over the Valenti empire.
Aside from the Rizzuto mob war in Quebec, the mafia scene throughout America has largely been a peaceful setting, undisturbed by necessity. Staring down the barrel of R.I.C.O. predicates and an increasing number of stool pigeons, the mafia understood its very survival depended on keeping a much lower profile. With all the blood being spilled in Los Santos, it looked like everyone got the memo except the boys down South.
After Santino Valenti's incarceration, gangsters like Joey ''Buddha'' Panzarino, Anthony Corsaro, Vincent Malacci, and Valenti consigliere Samuel ''the Beak'' Beccarini started hassling one another, vying for a tighter control over their inherited rackets.
When rumored Valenti underboss Adam Ottone was murdered in 2013, many contenders gained the courage to openly rebel against the Valentis supremacy in San Andreas. Nicholas Diopare and Anthony Sutera were a new breed of mobsters who, in 2013, challenged the Valenti status-quo by force, looking to carve a piece of the pie for themselves. Their bloody feuds ironically earned them both a bloody death; both Diopare and Sutera were gunned down.
New York finally intervenes
After the publicized feuds, LCN felt that the mobsters from Los Santos were way too brash. Like children, they needed supervision. The most prolific of the mobsters requesting that the Five Families take a larger hand in all things San Andreas was Bonnano captain Joseph Uttaro, uncle to the late Nicholas Diopare.
An ad-hoc committee of New York mobsters agreed that the seemingly incessant bloodshed had to come to a halt. A representative sponsored by the Families wouldn't have cut it. It might only instigate another feud if his leadership came into question. Instead, it was agreed that the Bonannos, who were the first to voice their concerns over the rampant killings, were to spearhead a delegation of New York mobsters sent to settle the state of San Andreas, establish new rackets and take over the leftovers from the Valenti loyalists, most of whom were scattered across the state or deceased.
The only problem the committee faced was that many prominent New York mobsters wanted to get a piece of the San Andreas pie. So close to Nevada, the gambling opportunities alone whetted the appetites of the greedy gangsters. After a few weeks of debate, the mobsters decided that Bonanno captain Angelo Gallifoco was the best man for the job.
Gallifoco and the D'Aquila crew
Out of the dozen-odd mobsters debating about San Andreas, Gallifoco was the only one who abstained from volunteering to lead the New York-backed faction into the sunny state. It marked Joseph Uttaro, who ended up backing Gallifoco as head of the yet to be formed San Andreas faction of the Bonannos. The committee voted in favor of Gallifoco because of Uttaro's politicking and Gallifoco's unquestionable loyalty and competence as an old school mob leader.
Although Gallifoco didn't want to have to deal with the younger, brash mobsters from the West Coast, it would have been against his nature to disobey the committee's decision.
Several Gallifoco representatives moved to Los Santos in the summer of 2014 to pave way for the newly-formed crew. Temporarily, the Gallifoco faction was to be headed by Bonanno soldier Lino D'Aquila, from Gallifoco's crew in New York, and Joseph Uttaro, with his own entourage.
It didn't take long before local gangsters began joining the fold of the newly-anointed New York regime. Since Lino D'Aquila acted as the face of the group before Gallifoco's coming, law enforcement officers monitoring LCN activities throughout the state dubbed the New Yorkers the D'Aquila family. Also called the West Coast Delegation, they engage in various criminal activities such as yet not limited to racketeering, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, loansharking, prostitution, counterfeiting, murder, extortion, illegal gambling, smuggling, embezzling, fencing, and fraud.
Mafia experts still speculate as to what the move could entail. Some cite a possible rise in violence; while others claim Gallifoco's presence should calm the waters of the otherwise turbulent criminal underworld.
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