‘When you live a notorious life, you’re more feared than respected, and the most vicious, the most violent, the most dominant – you get what you want ’cause you take what you want.’ Gangland: Most Notorious s7e1, Snoop Dogg
There are about one million gangstas stalking America’s streets. ibid.
Trenton, New Jersey, the capital of the Garden State is a melting-pot of cultures and some 9,000 Puerto Rican Americans call it home. The community has a fierce sense of pride, but with the good comes the bad. On the dark-side is the association Neta, a violent gang born in the prisons of Puerto Rico. Gangland s7e5: Better Off Dead
The Neta’s influence extends to all parts of the north-east. ibid.
Gang members were also dealing narcotics and smuggling drugs into prison. ibid.
The gang’s ultimate authority still lies with its leaders in Puerto Rico. ibid.
Members swear to follow a set of rules called norms. ibid.
Every thirty seconds somewhere in America thieves break into a car. Joy-riders steal for cheap rides. Professionals steal to order for organised crime groups to smuggle overseas. Now thieves take larger vehicles for Mexican drug gangs. Underworld Inc s2e8: Grand Theft Auto, National Geographic 2012
Vehicle theft continues to plague America. Every year thieves steal one million cars. ibid.
Chop-Shops are the driving force behind most of the car crime in America. ibid.
The Eastern Connection: Lithuania. ibid.
Grand Theft Auto in America will continue to attract organised crime and opportunist thieves alike. ibid.
Murder: for the American Mob it’s just business. And some of those messages have demanded attention. The most violent, the most daring and the most shocking: the Mob’s greatest hits ... As many as 10,000 hits. Mobsters s2e7: The Mob’s Greatest Hits, Bio 2009
Maranzano knew the Federal government had started using tax laws to go after gangstas and feared trouble from the Internal Revenue Service. ibid.
Luciano had planned the hit, and he quickly became one of the leaders in the criminal underworld ... Luciano revolutionised the way the New York mob was run. ibid.
Luciano proposed that the mobsters share the New York territories. ibid.
But when Joe the Boss Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano were taken out by organised hits, mobster Lucky Luciano rose to the top, and organised crime was born. ibid.
Like other gangstas Dutch [Schultz] built his empire by profiting from prohibition. ibid.
He [Thomas Dewey] won scores of convictions, and in 1946 saw to it that Lucky Luciano, an illegal immigrant, was deported back to Italy. ibid.
In Chicago, notorious gangsta Al Capone had wanted to teach a similar lesson to his rival – Bugs Moran. ibid.
Al Scarface Capone rose to power in the 1920s. ibid.
Capone had had enough: he decided to end the war once and for all. ibid.
Valentine’s Day 10.30 a.m. ... The Moran crew was waiting for their leader to arrive ... Men dressed in police uniforms arrived at the garage and walked into the building. ibid.
No-one was ever arrested in connection with the St Valentine’s Day Massacre. ibid.
Tony ‘Joe Batters’ Accardo ... A rising star was helping Accardo establish the Chicago Outfit as a mob powerhouse – his name was Sam Giancana. ibid.
In 1975 Giancana was subpoenaed to testify before a Senate Committee investigating CIA plots to kill Fidel Castro. ibid.
19th June 1975 Oak Park, Illinois 10.30 p.m. What happened next remains a mystery. All that’s known for sure is that as he stood cooking Sam Giancana was shot in the neck. No-one was ever arrested for the murder. ibid.
Bugsy Siegel found himself on the wrong end of mob justice for breaking a cardinal rule – never rob the mob. ibid.
Bugsy’s new casino would be called The Flamingo. ibid.
Not only was Bugsy a bad businessman he was skimming the profits. ibid.
Gambino chose his brother-in-law Paul Castellano. Castellano was now in charge of the largest criminal organisation in the country ... Hundreds of millions of dollars each year. ibid.
John Gotti was furious that his boss Dellacroce had got passed over. ibid.
Castellano had made a fatal miscalculation by under-estimating the wroth of John Gotti. ibid.
John Gotti was convicted of multiple murders including Castellano’s. In 2002 Gotti died in prison of throat cancer. ibid.
He was America’s most amazing smuggler. The mastermind who landed sixty-seven tons of marijuana. Scoring two hundred million right under the DEA’s nose. Masterminds e7: A Smuggler Supreme, 2003
Master smuggler Brain O’Dea lands the biggest haul of marijuana in US history. ibid.
He calls on his old friends the Shaffer brothers. To the world at large Bill and Kris Shaffer are rich playboys. In reality they are drug smugglers with world-wide connections. O’Dea convinces them to finance the deal to the tune of $10,000,000. ibid.
As O’Dea struggles to turn his life around the authorities spend six years of painstaking investigation to get enough evidence to arrest him. ibid.
Forty-nine people are brought to justice. ibid.
A master jewel thief steals gems worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Armed with a team of highly trained experts and an arsenal of sophisticated electronics. And breaks into an ultra-secure safe. Masterminds s15: Safe Landings
In the late 1990s the FBI was caught off guard by a rash of nearly fifty jewellery store heists in the south-eastern United States. ibid.
The mastermind the FBI was searching for was Tony Granims. Armed with an extraordinary range of skills he pulled off the most sophisticated jewellery heist in US history. ibid.
They were like characters out of a movie. A brilliant creative leader, a crew working in perfect precision, they pulled off hundreds of robberies, stole millions and baffled law enforcement for years. And they made daring escapes in a custom BMW loaded with gadgets and gizmos. Like 007 himself the gang seemed to have it all. Brains, bravery, bravado, it seemed no-one could stop the James Bond Gang. Masterminds e18: James Bond Gang
Their high-tech getaway car always kept them one step ahead of the law. These criminals were home-grown. ibid.
The James Bond car was the critical piece of evidence for the FBI. ibid.
They’re one of the most violent and feared gangs in America. Outlaw Empires s1e1: Crips, Discovery 2012
Stanley Tookie Williams had a vision of the Crips as a proud gang bound by brotherhood. ibid.
By the mid ’70s the Crips had become a defining force in south-central. ibid.
The stage was set for a bloody urban civil war. ibid.
The entire empire stood on the brink of destruction … Now Crips were killing Crips. ibid.
The Crips were larger, more violent and much richer. The reason: Crack Cocaine. ibid.