70 articles
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: killing of seven Moran North Side gang members in a Chicago garage on February 14, 1929, by gunmen posing as police, generally attributed to Al Capone's mob; solved ballistically but never prosecuted.
Sinaloa Cartel
Sinaloa Cartel (Cártel de Sinaloa), Mexican drug-trafficking federation founded in the early 1990s by El Chapo Guzmán, El Mayo Zambada, and El Azul; federal, factional structure, Golden Triangle base, CJNG rival, and 2024 internal war after Zambada's arrest.
Sonora Cartel
Sonora Cartel: 1990s Mexican drug trafficking organization identified with Rafael Caro Quintero in Sonora state; its successor groups, the Caborca Cartel and Nuevo Cártel Independiente de Sonora, now fight Los Chapitos for the border desert.
The Commission (American Mafia)
The Commission, the governing council of the American Mafia (La Cosa Nostra), was formed in 1931 by Lucky Luciano with seven family bosses after Maranzano's murder; its five New York bosses were convicted in the 1985 Mafia Commission trial.
Thomas DeSimone
Thomas "Two-Gun Tommy" DeSimone, Thomas Anthony or Thomas James DeSimone, was a Lucchese crime family associate of New York, tied to the 1978 Lufthansa heist and the Billy Batts murder, who disappeared in January 1979 and inspired Joe Pesci's Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas.
Tijuana Cartel
Tijuana Cartel, or Arellano-Félix Organization (AFO), a Mexican drug trafficking organization based in Tijuana, Baja California; founded from Félix Gallardo's network in 1989, it dominated Baja smuggling before losing the city to the Sinaloa Cartel around 2009-2013 and allying with CJNG.
Trafficante crime family
Trafficante crime family: Tampa, Florida Mafia family led by Santo Trafficante Sr. and Jr., at its peak from the 1940s to the 1960s, built on bolita gambling, Cuba casinos, and CIA-linked Castro plots.
Vito Genovese
Vito "Don Vito" Genovese (1897–1969), Italian-born American Mafia boss, underboss to Lucky Luciano, later boss of the New York family bearing his name; convicted of narcotics conspiracy in 1959 and linked to the 1957 Apalachin raid.
Westies
The Westies were an Irish-American organized crime gang, also called Coonan's Crew, based in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, active from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s under James Coonan, allied with the Gambino family and dismantled by 1988 federal RICO convictions.
Winter Hill Gang
Winter Hill Gang: Irish-American organized crime group from Somerville, Massachusetts, also called the Irish Mob, led successively by Buddy McLean, Howie Winter, and Whitey Bulger; fought the McLaughlin Gang in the 1960s and collapsed after Bulger's 1994 flight and 2011 arrest.