Mr. Schiff: Hello I’m Neal Schiff and welcome to Inside the FBI, a weekly podcast about news, cases, and operations. Organized crime has been around for more than a hundred years. The FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division at Headquarters in Washington, D.C. has the Organized Crime Section overseeing the FBI’s field offices investigating organized crime.
Mr. Heron: “ There’s basically no crime that they won’t commit if there’s a dollar to be made.”
Mr. Shaver: “It’s been reported by many that organized crime, primarily Italian organized crime, or LCN, is dead. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Mr. Schiff: And that’s why the FBI has agents and analysts working what’s called “OC” wherever this illegal activity appears. It could be from people in this country already, or those who may immigrate from Europe, Asia, Africa, or anywhere else. Matt Heron is the Chief of the FBI’s Organized Crime Section.
Mr. Heron: “We actually first saw the presence of organized crime activity in this country during the latter part of the 19th century and really started to see a huge influx in the early 20th century with the massive immigration from Europe and particularly Italy and Sicily.”
Mr. Schiff: To help in the battle against organized crime, Heron says that it was more than 30 years ago that Congress passed the RICO Act.
Mr. Heron: “RICO stands for Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organization statute. And basically it is legislation that enables us to attack a criminal enterprise as opposed to just individual members of the organization.”
Mr. Schiff: Now how does that work?
Mr. Heron: “Well what we do is we will open up a RICO case on a particular group, and instead of charging maybe one or two or three individuals for committing an assortment of crimes, we can identify the organization itself as a criminal enterprise. And as long as they are engaged in predicate acts that fall within the RICO statutes, we will charge that and basically take out the entire leadership of an organization as opposed to an individual or two.”
Mr. Schiff: What role does undercover activity play when investigating this type of activity?
Mr. Heron: “Undercover operations have been a huge tool that we have used in the conduct of organized crime cases over the last 30 years or so. Probably the most famous example of that is the Donnie Brasco investigation which we began in the mid ‘70s and went for about five or six years into the early 1980s. In that case, an FBI agent by the name of Joseph Pistone infiltrated the Bonanno family, and when all was said and done, there was a huge number of convictions resulting from that and also a huge number of additional investigations which were initiated based on Mr. Pistone’s work in his undercover role.”
Mr. Schiff: Undercover activity could be kind of stressful for the individual or individuals doing that, can’t it?
Mr. Heron: “Oh absolutely it can be. You’re, you’re basically getting by on your wits and living day to day. You’re living a lie for all intents and purposes. It takes a special kind of person to be able to succeed in that sort of role and not everybody can do it.”
Mr. Schiff: We asked Heron what these organizations are doing around the country.
Mr. Heron: “Organized crime enterprises will commit any sort of crime that will generate revenue to support the enterprise. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, these organizations exist for one purpose and one purpose only, which is to enrich themselves at the expense of the public. I have said in the past and I will maintain that these enterprises are able to continue to exist because they are able to meet a demand for a particular good or service that people in society want. Probably the most classic example of that was Prohibition. When Prohibition was implemented in 1920, it outlawed the manufacture and distribution of alcohol, but it didn’t do anything to curb the public’s desire for it. That created an opportunity for organized crime groups to traffic in illegal alcohol, meet the public’s demand, and at the same time enrich themselves.”
Mr. Schiff: If there’s a chance to make a buck, those involved will take chances, break laws, and hurt people.
Mr. Heron: “It runs the gamut from drug trafficking to extortion to loan sharking, white collar criminal activity we have seen over the last several years. There’s basically no crime that they won’t commit if there’s a dollar to be made.”
Mr. Schiff: We asked Heron where the FBI finds organized crime activity in the United States.
Mr. Heron: “Historically it’s been in the larger cities. Places like New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit. But Middle America has also seen an organized crime presence over the years. And as these groups become more and more prevalent and as they expand their base of operations and use things such as the Internet to facilitate their activities, we’ll see them branching out into more suburban areas where the law enforcement presence may not be as noticeable or as great and where they can use things such as computers to commit criminal activities without actually being present in the major metropolitan areas.”
Mr. Schiff: At the New York City FBI Office, Dave Shafer is the Assistant Special Agent in Charge. We asked him how OC got started there.
Mr. Shafer: “One of the more well-known players back during that time period was Lucky Luciano who was reported to be one of the master organizers for LCN, or La Cosa Nostra, primarily centered around the New York City-Little Italy area at that point. And they were involved in, I suspect, many of the similar crimes they are now. Into gambling and loan sharking and preying upon the Italian ethnic community that was coming into the country at that point and exploiting any opportunities they could like they do today to make money.”
Mr. Schiff: Shafer says that the bad guys in the New York area continue operating, but that the FBI, along with New York City police, state officials, and other federal agencies are taking down many of organizations known as La Cosa Nostra.
Mr. Shafer: “We have, in the last few decades, made some significant disruptions of their criminal activities here in the New York City area but they continue to be a very viable criminal force in the five areas here. Today they are involved in a litany of criminal acts. Violent crimes to murders to extortions and that type of thing, but more the lower level things; the gambling, the loan sharking and all which many times percolates up to be the more violent crimes. There are also in money laundering their ill-gotten proceeds of their criminal acts; other violent crimes; theft from interstate shipment; drug trafficking. They’ve recently morphed into what we consider some of the white collar crime-type acts, the various frauds associated with “pump and dump” stock schemes to insurance-type frauds.”
Mr. Schiff: The FBI’s New York Office has a large staff working organized crime cases day and night and Shafer says back in the ‘90s they began what he calls “a systematic approach” to tackling the bad guys.
Mr. Shafer: “The tools of the trade, if you will, that we use are the standard investigative techniques, from the development of confidential sources, court authorized electronic surveillance, physical surveillance, detailed examination of their financial aspects, and the aggressive use of the forfeiture and seizure statutes.”
Mr. Schiff: There’s information about many ethnic organized crime groups from around the world. Check on the Internet at
www.fbi.gov. That concludes our show. Thanks for listening. I’m Neal Schiff of the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs.
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