Yes, the Mafia still exists in the United States. La Cosa Nostra is smaller and quieter than it was at its mid-twentieth-century peak, but the FBI still classifies it as a significant threat in the New York metropolitan area, New England, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit, and federal prosecutors continue to win racketeering convictions against its members well into the 2020s.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mafia Org Chart The organization adapted rather than disappeared. Recent indictments involving multiple crime families show it still moves millions of dollars through a mix of old rackets and newer schemes.
Recent Convictions Show the Families Are Still Operating
The clearest proof comes out of federal courtrooms. In February 2026, Gambino crime family soldier James LaForte pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, extortion, witness retaliation, and weapons charges. Between October and December 2025, seven more Gambino members and associates either pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial on racketeering and extortion charges in the same case.2U.S. Department of Justice. Gambino Crime Family Soldier Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy and Related Charges One defendant was convicted specifically for stealing from employee benefit plans.
Other families have taken similar hits. In 2024, five members and associates of the Genovese crime family pleaded guilty to various felony charges in the Eastern District of New York.3U.S. Department of Justice. Five Members and Associates of the Genovese Crime Family Plead Guilty to Various Felony Charges A 2021 indictment swept up the entire leadership of the Colombo crime family, charging the boss, underboss, consigliere, and multiple captains with labor racketeering, extortion, loan sharking, and money laundering.4U.S. Department of Justice. 14 Defendants Indicted, Including the Entire Administration of the Colombo Organized Crime Family Each defendant in that case faced up to 20 years in prison.
These are not historical prosecutions. They involve crimes committed into the 2020s by people holding recognized ranks within the families.
Where the Mafia Still Operates
The geographic footprint has narrowed, but it hasn’t vanished. The FBI identifies the New York metropolitan area as the primary hub, with continued activity in New England, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mafia Org Chart
New York City is still home to the Five Families that have dominated organized crime there for nearly a century: the Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese, Bonanno, and Colombo families. Each keeps its own leadership and territory. The Genovese family is widely considered the most disciplined and secretive. The Gambino family, once known for the flashy John Gotti era, has moved toward quieter operations centered on labor rackets and financial fraud. The Lucchese family retains a presence in Bronx and New Jersey construction. The Bonanno family, damaged by the Donnie Brasco infiltration and a boss who became a government informant, has worked to reorganize. The Colombo family, the smallest of the five, has been weakened by decades of infighting and repeated leadership takedowns.
Outside New York, the Chicago Outfit operates as a distinct organization with its own history and structure. Smaller remnants exist elsewhere, but the days of coast-to-coast influence are over. The families remain in dense urban areas where large construction projects, complex financial systems, and union labor create the openings they know how to work.
How the Mafia Makes Money Today
Traditional rackets still generate steady cash, and the families have layered white-collar and digital schemes on top of them.
Gambling and Loan Sharking
Illegal gambling remains a core business. Even after many states legalized online sports betting, crime families have allegedly infiltrated legal platforms while continuing to run their own unauthorized books and rigged poker games. Loan sharking runs alongside gambling. Borrowers who can’t cover their losses end up taking high-interest loans from mob-connected lenders who enforce repayment through intimidation and violence. Those loans can carry effective rates that dwarf anything a legal lender could charge, sometimes demanding double the principal within weeks.
Labor Racketeering and Construction
Control over labor unions and the construction industry has been a Mafia profit center for decades. The 2021 Colombo indictment charged defendants with labor racketeering involving extortion of construction-related businesses.4U.S. Department of Justice. 14 Defendants Indicted, Including the Entire Administration of the Colombo Organized Crime Family The Gambino case that produced guilty pleas in 2025 and 2026 included theft from employee benefit plans.2U.S. Department of Justice. Gambino Crime Family Soldier Pleads Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy and Related Charges The pattern involves controlling who gets hired, which contractors win bids, and how union funds get spent. Kickbacks, no-show jobs, and rigged bidding let the families pull money from projects without doing legitimate work.
Healthcare Fraud
Healthcare fraud has become one of the largest sources of illicit proceeds in the country, and organized crime groups are active participants. A 2026 FinCEN advisory reported a 330 percent increase in suspicious activity reports related to healthcare fraud between 2020 and 2025, with over 3,800 initial reports filed in 2025 alone.5Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. FinCEN Advisory on Health Care Fraud Schemes Targeting Medicare, Medicaid, and Other Federal and State Health Care Benefit Programs The schemes involve enrolling as healthcare providers, then billing Medicare and Medicaid for services that were never delivered.
White-Collar and Financial Crime
Stock manipulation, identity theft, credit card fraud, and money laundering fill out the modern portfolio. These activities produce high returns with less physical risk than street-level crime, and the digital trail is harder to follow than a shakedown at a loading dock. Federal money laundering charges alone carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000 or twice the value of the laundered property, whichever is greater.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1956 – Laundering of Monetary Instruments
Why the Mafia Shrank but Did Not Disappear
Several forces compressed the Mafia from its mid-century peak into its current diminished but persistent form. The RICO Act, passed in 1970, gave prosecutors the ability to charge entire criminal enterprises instead of picking off individual crimes one at a time. Before RICO, convicting a boss for a murder ordered through three layers of subordinates was nearly impossible. After RICO, the boss and the subordinates could all go down in the same indictment.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC Ch. 96 – Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations The statute defines a pattern of racketeering as at least two qualifying criminal acts committed within ten years of each other, drawn from a long list that includes murder, extortion, loan sharking, drug trafficking, fraud, bribery, and money laundering.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1961 – Definitions
Cooperating witnesses accelerated the damage. Once prosecutors could threaten 20-year sentences and total asset forfeiture, some members chose to testify against their associates in exchange for reduced sentences or witness protection.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1963 – Criminal Penalties Every cooperator who flipped eroded the code of silence that had made the organization so hard to penetrate. Electronic wiretaps and other surveillance tools bypassed what remained of that wall.
Demographics played a quieter but equally important role. The insular Italian-American neighborhoods that once served as recruiting grounds gradually assimilated into the broader culture. Younger generations had more economic options and less incentive to enter organized crime. The families found it harder to replenish their ranks, and membership dropped from estimated peaks of several thousand to roughly 3,000 members and affiliates across the country.
The organization also lost investigative attention after September 11, 2001, when significant federal resources shifted from organized crime to counterterrorism. That breathing room may have helped the families survive. They used the period to restructure, lower their profiles, and stay out of headlines. The result is a smaller, more cautious organization that no longer dominates entire cities but still controls enough rackets in its core territories to remain profitable.
Legal Exposure Reaches Beyond Made Members
One important boundary for anyone reading about the Mafia’s continued existence: federal criminal liability doesn’t stop at made members. Under RICO, liability attaches to anyone who participates in operating or managing a criminal enterprise, even without holding a formal position.10Ninth Circuit District and Bankruptcy Courts. Civil RICO Courts look at whether a person occupied a place in the chain of command, knowingly carried out the enterprise’s decisions, or was indispensable to its goals. The Colombo indictment included associates alongside the boss and underboss, all facing the same 20-year maximum.4U.S. Department of Justice. 14 Defendants Indicted, Including the Entire Administration of the Colombo Organized Crime Family A contractor who knowingly rigs bids for a mob-connected crew, or a bookkeeper who launders proceeds, faces the same exposure as a soldier.
The families have always relied on a network of non-members to run businesses, handle finances, and provide cover. That network is a large part of why the Mafia still exists at all, and it is where federal prosecutors have been increasingly effective.