Back in 2010, Vito Lord of the Wends, Nacostri, a prominent Italian businessman was relaxing in his

lavish Sicilian home when he heard a loud knock at the door.

It was the police.

It turns out Nacostri had strong ties with the mafia, and he was about to have a record-breaking

$1.3 billion worth of fraudulent assets seized from him.

But what the hell had he been up to? I mean, what does the mafia even do anymore?

Well, from fixing sports games to selling you fake food, it turns out it does a whole lot.

So grab your fedora wise guy, because we're about to step deep into the criminal underworld.

You're listening.

Be amazed.

First things first.

When people say mafia, they're not referring to a single organization.

It's more of an umbrella term, describing any of several groups of gangsters whose origins can be traced back to southern Italy.

Whilst loads of organized crime syndicates throughout the world also get called mafias,

were only interested in the real OGsGs. That is, the American

Mafia, which was started by Southern Italian immigrants and the Southern Italian Mafia itself.

During their heyday in the 1950s, the American Mafia could pull strings all over the world.

I mean, they had a vast network of 26 gangs or families residing in a multitude

of U.S. states and corrupting everything they touched. Throughout the 1960s onwards, though,

the U.S. government doubled down on its efforts to destroy them. More and more prominent

mafiosos got taken down, and many of them opted to blab on fellow members to reduce their prison sentences.

So nowadays, the American Mafia has nowhere near the influence it once had.

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