The Italian American Cosa Nostra crime families are the longest-lived and most successful organized crime organizations in US history, achieving their pinnacle of power in the 1970s and 1980s. The families seized opportunities during the early twentieth-century labor wars and under national alcohol prohibition from 1919 to 1933. Control of labor unions gave them power to determine the companies that could operate in various sectors and enabled them to establish employer cartels that rigged bids and fixed prices, and provided opportunity to exploit pension and welfare funds. The racketeers were urban power brokers. The families also profited from gambling, illicit drugs, loan-sharking, prostitution, and pornography, and they extorted protection payments from other black marketeers. For decades they faced little risk from law enforcement. FBI Director Hoover denied the existence of a national organized crime threat. Local police were corrupted. After Hoover’s death, the FBI made eradicating organized crime a top priority. Relentless law enforcement coincided with socioeconomic and political changes that greatly weakened the Cosa Nostra families.

中文翻译：

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美国有组织犯罪的兴衰

意大利裔美国人科萨·诺斯特拉（Cosa Nostra）犯罪家族是美国历史上寿命最长，最成功的有组织犯罪组织，在1970年代和1980年代达到了权力的顶峰。在20世纪初期的劳工战争和1919年至1933年的国家酒精禁令中，这些家庭抓住了机会。工会的控制赋予了他们权力，可以确定可以在各个部门开展业务的公司，并使其能够建立雇主卡特尔来操纵标书和固定价格，并提供了利用养老金和福利基金的机会。球拍是城市的电力经纪人。这些家庭还从赌博，非法毒品，放高利贷，卖淫和色情制品中获利，并从其他黑市贩子那里勒索了保护金。几十年来，他们面临的执法风险很小。联邦调查局局长胡佛否认存在国家有组织犯罪威胁。当地警察腐败。胡佛死后，联邦调查局将消除有组织犯罪列为重中之重。无情的执法与社会经济和政治变化同时发生，极大地削弱了Cosa Nostra家庭。