FBI Boston abandons organized crime squad due to mafia defeat

Posted: January 3, 2025, 08:33 pm.

Last updated: January 3, 2025, 08:33 pm.

The FBI's Boston office has quietly disbanded its Organized Crime office. This is a testament to the current toothlessness of the New England Mafia, which once controlled illegal gambling, loansharking and extortion rackets throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and beyond.

Sources spoken to boston globe It said this week that agents from the anti-mafia squad have been reassigned to other priorities as the agency focuses on more immediate threats such as terrorism, foreign espionage and cybercrime.

However, Kristen Cetera, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the FBI “will continue to devote significant resources to working and dismantling international and regional organized criminal enterprises.” Earth.

shadow of self

The once-feared New England Mafia has been in decline for decades, thanks to in-fighting between rival factions and countless lawsuits, often over some members' formerly sacred “omerta” code of silence – or in Mafia parlance, “rat “The willingness to break helps. ,

Former Rhode Island State Police Superintendent Steven O'Donnell estimated that the New England Mafia now has only 30 “made” members, compared to hundreds during its heyday in the 1960s.

“It's mostly imaginary people and normal people… people pretending they're doing their best Sopranos act,” said Lieutenant Steve Johnson, a former Massachusetts State Police detective. Earth“It's mostly just in name. “They’re definitely not like they used to be.”

The news comes shortly after the death of former B.C. boss Luigi “Baby Shakes” Manocchio at the age of 93. patriarchy crime familyPerhaps the last “old school” gangster to lead the New England Mafia.

He emerged in the 1960s as the family's most powerful boss, Raymond Patriarca, who ruled for three decades. After Patriarca's death in 1984, the family descended into internal warfare as members of the Rhode Island and Boston factions competed for control.

breaking up the family

The 1980s and 1990s also saw a spate of federal prosecutions, which sent eight bosses and subordinates to prison.

These were aided by improvements in surveillance technology that enabled the Boston office to capture the first recording of a Mafia induction ceremony. This helped lead to the prosecution of Patriarca's son, Raymond “Junior” Patriarca, among other mafias.

Some of these convictions were also aided by information provided by Irish American Winter Hill Gang boss and longtime FBI informant James “Whitey” Bulger.

bulgar affair

But the Boston Organized Crime Office didn't always hide itself in glory. In 1982, Bulger's FBI handler, John Connolly, leaked information to the mobster that FBI colleagues were investigating connections between the Winter Hill Gang and John Callahan, president of the Florida bookmaking operation World Jai Alai.

Bulger had already murdered World Jai Alai owner Roger Wheeler after discovering that the gang was profiting from his business.

Connolly was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2002 for fraud, obstruction of justice and murder, all charges related to her relationship with Bulger. He was released on parole in 2021.

Bulger famously lived on the radar for 16 years before being captured in Santa Monica, California in 2011 at the age of 81.

In 2018 he was murdered by a prisoner in jail Relation to the Patriarca family.