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The Federal Government in the US has been a thorn in the Mafia’s side for decades, but they have also been significantly impacted by the arrival of rival organised crime groups, which have challenged their supremacy. One of the first to emerge was the Russian organised crime groups, which established themselves as the Odessa Mafia in the Brighton Beach area of New York in the mid-1970s. The

FBI estimates Russian crime gangs currently operate in 17 US cities across 14 different states.

Primarily based in Los Angeles and the Californian city of Glendale, an area that boasts the largest Armenian population outside of the country itself, AP-13 is a criminal syndicate that has an estimated 500 members and has been active since the late 1980s. Extortion, credit card and fuel fraud, kidnapping and trafficking are its favoured sources of illicit income.

The Albanian Mafia in the States has a fierce reputation for violence. They initially cooperated with the Italian-american Mafia in New York, but went independent in 1993 and became known as the Rudaj Organisation after its founder Alex Rudaj. Sometimes referred to as New York’s “sixth family”, the group has become increasingly powerful and in 2001, attacked associates of the Lucchese family in a dispute over the control of illegal gambling.

There are other, multiple threats to the Mafia’s traditional pre-eminence. The explosion in the drugs trade has seen both the Mexican and Colombian Cartels gain significant influence in the States over the last three decades, and while the Mob has done business with both, they are heavily armed and dangerous.

Biker gangs and Chinese Triads are also potential rivals outside the Mafia’s strongholds, but in terms of sheer numbers, it is the Central American gangs that dwarf the mafiosi. While not as rigidly organised, the Barrio-18 gang, for example, has an estimated 50,000 members across 20 US states.

Its bitter rival MS-13, established in Los Angeles in the 1980s by immigrants from El Salvador, has up to 10,000 foot soldiers.