The mob isn’t gone in New Jersey—it’s just been overshadowed.
That was the takeaway from a public hearing Tuesday in Trenton, where more than a dozen law enforcement agents and investigators testified before the State Commission of Investigation about the evolution of organized crime within New Jersey, according to New Jersey Monitor.
Mafia families are still active—La Cosa Nostra groups with roots across the region continue to maintain operations in New Jersey. The DeCavalcante family with roots in Elizabeth; Bruno-Scarfo from Philadelphia; and the Genovese, Lucchese, Bonanno, Colombo, and Gambino families from New York.
But today’s organized crime landscape is less about strip clubs and gambling rings. Instead, activity is dominated by neighborhood-based street gangs, drug trafficking, motorcycle clubs, and prison gangs—groups that are notoriously more difficult to track.
“Just as the generation of children raised in recent years have become known as digital natives, so too have organized criminal gangs become digitally sophisticated,” said Bruce P. Keller, the commission’s executive director during Tuesday’s hearing.
Gangs are now using social media to expand their ranks. They use Venmo and PayPal to move money around. Google Street View and Zillow to scout targets for theft. One sergeant from the Newark Police Department testified that thieves are virtually walking through neighborhoods on Google Maps to identify high-value vehicles.
The number of outlaw motorcycle gangs in New Jersey has doubled in the past decade—from about eight clubs in 2018 to roughly 16 today. Meanwhile, county jails and state prisons have become active recruitment grounds.
Investigators also flagged the upcoming FIFA World Cup as a prime opportunity for organized crime, warning of schemes involving counterfeit merchandise, illegal gambling, sex trafficking, and cyber fraud tied to the tournament’s eight matches at MetLife Stadium—which will temporarily be renamed New York New Jersey Stadium—starting next month.
Two bills currently moving through the Legislature would make gang participation a crime and increase penalties for gang recruitment. Nearly two decades after The Sopranos cut to black—and people’s view of the mafia with it—the New Jersey mob landscape still shows life.
Tom is a lifelong New Jersey resident, Rutgers and FDU alumni and the publisher of The Digest.
