African- American/ Black And Latino Organized Crime
African- America/ Black and Latino Organized Crime
In the past there have been many organized crime organizations that have made their presence known. These groups have resorted to the use of violence to control an area as well as their workers. Organized crime organizations have been involved in the trafficking of drugs and money laundering. These organizations have some similarities and differences between them.
African- American and Black crime organizations have been around since 1960. In the 60’s African- American gangs controlled the numbers racket, which in the 60’s were illegal lottery. The cities that were dominated were New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. They dominated these cities and the numbers racket until white violent gangsters who had superior police and political power overpowered them (Abadnisky, 2003). Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson, in alliance with the Genovese crime family, headed the African- American gang who ruled over black Harlem until his death by natural causes in 1968. White criminals were not able to operate with the freedom necessary to continue dominating indigenous black criminal organizations because of the civil rights/ black power movement of the 1960’s (Abadnisky, 2003).
There were a variety of black criminal organizations throughout the United States. Some of these gangs were homegrown, such as the Frank Lucas and the Country Boys and the Gangsters Disciples. Since drugs is an equal opportunity employer, blacks have been able to get in the business of selling drugs, when they were not able to get into activities typically associated with organized crime, such as labor racketing and loansharking. Blacks made important strides during the Vietnam War with selling heroine. The war exposed many black soldiers to the heroine market of the Golden Triangle. Black organized crime groups controlled the heroine market in New York, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. (Abadnisky, 2003)....
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