Quote:
Originally Posted by dcarson
The mafia was also well established as were Italians. Ethnic criminal organizations work well when the ethnic group feels and is outsiders, they won't go to or trust the authorities. So they didn't have that anymore in the mafia.
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Just so.
It's hard to enforce a cultural code of silence when the people in your organisation are growing up in a completely different culture, with at most a few sentimental touchstones in common with the original.
That's part of the reason why the most powerful criminal organisations in the US these days seem to be Mexican, Dominican, Puerto Rican or another ethnicity that has a large population of first-generation immigrants. Or, alternatively, come from a clearly-defined subculture within the US, such as inner-city neighbourhoods with multiple generations of non-working, non-studying people.
Anywhere people experience the reference society and its mechanisms of law enforcement as dangerous outsiders is fertile ground for organised crime.
In my campaign, where there is an emerging supernatural scene, I imagine that the established underworld will be much quicker to accept its existence than bureaucratic organisations of the legitimate government.
Thus, Eastern European gangs with a profitable sideline in medical supplies and a Haitian gang using superstitions for extortion.
Alternatively, mysterious Eastern Europeans buying blood in bulk and a Haitian bokor taking a cut of all drug trade in neighbourhoods with a large Haitian presence.