Featured Blog Posts (226)

By David Amoruso

What were two mobsters doing inside a van outfitted with gun ports and with a .22-caliber sniper rifle and silencer inside? That’s the question authorities in New Orleans have as they continue to investigate how come two members of a thought to be extinct and relatively docile Mafia family were apparently getting ready to dish out…

By David Amoruso

Hollywood loves gangsters. Not because film makers condone their crimes, but because their stories make them lots of money. It’s difficult to name any other genre that has so many titles based on a true story. Yet, despite this label, the true story often gets twisted to fit the silver screen. That is why Gangsters Inc. shares its…

By David Amoruso

One of the American Mafia’s last old school Godfathers has passed away. Detroit mob boss Giacomo “Black Jack” Tocco died this Monday, July 14, 2014, at age 87 while surrounded by his family. Despite an alleged criminal career dating back to the 1940s, Tocco’s only conviction came in 1998 when he was found guilty of racketeering and was sentenced…

By David Amoruso

Pure evil. There is no other way to describe Russian mob boss Sergei Tsapok. He is a prime example of the totalitarian power Russian gangsters have over their respective territories. For a long time he got away with murder. But then he murdered twelve people, among them four children, and Moscow took notice.

The village of Kushchevskaya is located…

By David Amoruso

In the old days every gangster wanted to be the boss of a Mafia family. It meant you had the world at your feet. All the broads, more money than God, and the power over life and death. That was then. Nowadays, being the boss of a family means only one thing: Life behind bars. Philadelphia mobster Joseph Merlino knows this all too well. And he…

By David Amoruso

Russian mob boss Alexander Matusov (52) was arrested in Thailand this week on charges that he led a violent gang that committed over 60 murders in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He had been a fugitive since 2009. His arrest is another sign that life as a fugitive in Thailand isn’t what it used to be.

Matusov was caught in front of a supermarket…

By Christian Cipollini

Just a month following the murder of “Boss of all Bosses” Salvatore Maranzano, another crucial moment in the evolution of the National Crime Syndicate took place. This, essentially, was an incident that not only officially inaugurated the…

Crime Beat: Issues, Controversies and Personalities from the darkside on Artist First Radio Network is pleased to announce its forthcoming schedule for June 26, 2014, through August 21, 2014. Topics covered include Mafia History, the Pizza Bomber, Joseph Mengele, private investigation work and more.

Here is the lineup:

• June 26—Mel…

By David Amoruso

“I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.” – Fictional mob boss Frank Costello in The Departed

It’s a quote befitting of the situation in Italy, which is one drenched in Mafia intimidation, corruption, and malpractice. It’s also the topic of accusations…

By David Amuroso

Cops and mobsters will never be the best of friends. But every wiseguy trusts that if he surrenders to the law he will not be murdered. Ironically, it’s that belief that got a bunch of gangsters killed. Not by the cops, but by their underworld rivals who abused the trust all members of society, including criminals, place in the badge and the uniform…

By David Amoruso

Italy officially has 1,150 informants and 82 witnesses under interior ministry protection. Italy’s Deputy Interior Minister Filippo Bubbico shared these numbers with the anti-mafia parliament commission yesterday.

The writing has been on the wall for decades now, but with these numbers Gangsters Inc. is officially declaring…

By David Amoruso

When the Soviet Union crumbled there were plenty of men who used the absence of a strong government to enrich themselves. The fall of the Iron Curtain ushered in the rise of the powerful oligarchs and introduced the world to Eastern European gangsters with access to the best and most advanced weaponry money can buy. One of those men…

By David Amoruso

With the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics coming to Brazil in the very near future, the South American country is extremely busy ridding its crowded streets from the criminal elements that rule them. On Wednesday, police arrested drug boss Eduardo Herculano da Silva after a fierce gun battle in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. His rise and…

I’m no God damn rat! I’m a player. I’m a pirate. I’m a hedonist; and one hell of a good smuggler, but I’m no rat!

This is the true story of the events of my life. It involves arriving at the infamous Norman’s Cay in the Bahamas, participating in the island drug smuggling business, and the subsequent consequences that include stunning…

By David Amoruso

Italian authorities released an updated identikit of Sicilian boss of bosses Matteo Messina Denaro, today. New digitally created images show the 52-year-old mob boss with a little bit more weight, his receding hairline advanced, and without his glasses. The update comes after an informant who had recently met with Messina Denaro had…

By David Amoruso

Oh, how we miss The Sopranos! Tony and his two families. The drama. The violence. And those storylines that seemed too funny to be true. Like when Uncle Junior started running the mental institution as his personal fiefdom. Great entertainment, but that would never happen in real life, right? Wrong.…

By David Amoruso

Updated on March 22, 2014

The Bandidos Motorcycle Club has started a probationary chapter in the city of Sittard in the Netherlands. In the country where once the Hells Angels reigned supreme things have gotten pretty crowded in the past few years. The presence of the Bandidos is especially worrisome to police, though, as…

By Alex Hortis

This story is an excerpt from The Mob and the City: The Hidden History of How the Mafia Captured New York (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2014), available at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and other book…

By David Amoruso

Devon “D-Bloc” Rodney, a former leader of the violent Brooklyn street gang “Six Tre Outlaw Gangsta Disciples Folk Nation,” was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, yesterday. It’s the FBI’s latest success in its campaign against America’s violent street gangs. A campaign with no end in…

By David Amoruso

The Yakuza is not doing so great. According to Japan’s National Police Agency, the total membership in Yakuza organized crime groups dropped below 60,000 for the first time since police started keeping records. Last year, all the Yakuza groups combined had 58,600 members, down from about 63,200 in 2012.

Membership has been going down for…