Mafia a very effective security organisation

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33241, 2 June 1973, Page 11

Mafia a very effective security organisation

(By

ROSS MADDEN

A few weeks ago, a New York wholesale domestic appliance company clinched a deal which almost certainly guarantees it will never be broken into again. The firm, worried by a growing number of burglaries despite the installation of a costly alarm system, had a wide selection of security organisations from which to choose.

In the end, they elected not to hire any of them. Instead, they decided to do what an increasing number of American companies are doing these days — to pay the Mafia for protection. But unlike the old days when “protection” meant that if you didn’t pay up the gangs, they would put you out of business, there are no such threats today.

Comments an American crime expert: "When you pay the Mafia to look after your premises, word soon gets around. Only a madman would then risk robbery or violence against you.” Police officers wryly agree. When it comes to maintaining law and order, they admit, nothing quite equals the Mafia. As one New York policeman told me; “They have a simple, but mighty effective code. Step out of line and you’re a dead man.” And if the firm who has bought protection doesn’t pay up? Says the crime expert: “They probably wouldn’t bother to retaliate in the physical sense. They’d just let crooks have a free hand to raid the office or factory.” As you can see, it s all perfectly and surprisingly legitimate . . . and, if that isn’t all, the Mafia will even help the police and public for nothing, if the gangs feel their honour or position is in jeopardy. Earlier this year, for example, jewels worth £40,000 were stolen from Brooklyn’s Queen of Peace Church. The valuables included two solid gold crowns made from the wedding rings of women widowed during World War Two. It was a daring, if mean, crime. But the thieves had miscalculated. They either forgot or chose to ignore that the Queen of Peace Church is where Mafia “Godfather Carlo Gambino regularly worships. Anonymous call He took the robbery as a personal insult and set the awesome wheels of the Mafia in motion to run the villians down. Two days later, the police received an anonymous phone call telling them to go to a locker at the city air terminal. There, they found most of the stolen property. “There were a couple of small items missing,” said a detective, “but we are confident the Mafia will track those down, too.” Other clues supplied by the Mafia led to the arrest of two men and a woman. “They were darned lucky that we got to them before the

Mafia,” said the detective. “We have to learn to live with this situation, and take advantage of it as best we can,” a senior New York police officer told me. “The Mafia is second only to the Federal Government as the most powerful force in America today.” Not amused Occasionally, the police are quite happy to let the Mafia gun down factions they regard as politically undesirable or socially dangerous. In 1970, for instance, it was virtually a case of open warfare between the Mafia and the militant Black Panthers. The Panthers began to photograph known members of the Mafia in the streets and prominently displayed the pictures on “Wanted”

The Panthers began to photograph known members of the Mafia in the streets and prominently displayed the pictures on “Wanted” posters. The Mafia chiefs were not amused and the bullets began to fly. In the end, a head-on clash was avoided, but New York police admitted that it would have lightened their work. “If one crook kills another that’s one less for us to worry about,” a New York patrolman told me. “But if an innocent guy gets chopped we have to take notice. That’s why the Mafia tread carefully.” Recently, two respectable New Yorkers were gunned down in a bar by a shortsighted Mafia hatchetman who had been ordered to liquidate some rivals. His protests that the innocent bystanders had looked like the men he was supposed to murder did not save him. His bullet-riddled body was dumped outside a police station with the necessary proof that he had carried out the killings. The most remarkable

instance of the Mafia being used as an international police force came to light just a few days ago. It happened in 1965 when the French President, Charles de Gaulle, decided to withdraw his country’s gold reserves from Fort Knox as part of his campaign against the United States. The Americans had to let the gold go, but were purposely as unhelpful as they could be. For a start, they made it clear that no armed police could be spared to guard the multi-miilion dollar consignment. As a result, the American insurance companies, who were covering the shipment, demanded an astronomical premium. Reduced lender They promptly lost the business to a consortium of French companies who offered a much - reduced tender which was accepted by the French Government. The gold was safely transferred. But what nobody knew at the time was the method the consortium had used to ensure that the gold bullion would arrive in France intact . . .

They had simply instructed their New York agent to contact the Mafia, and arrange a price for the protection of the gold. It. cost them 8Q per cent of the premium . . . but it was worth it.

The consortium packeted the other 20 per cent and no one suffered a single sleepless night. They • realised what the growing number of American businesses have come to appreciate — that if you want security, there’s no organisation quite as effective as the Mafia.