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The New York Times
OPINION -- New Jersey
Break Up This Merger
EDITORIAL,
nytimes.com on the Web, December 23, 2007
Anne Milgram, the state attorney
general, called it an “alarming alliance.” That was an understatement.
She was referring to evidence that members of the Luchese crime family joined
forces with the Bloods street gang to supply prison inmates with drugs and
cellphones.
Law enforcement officials arrested 32 people, including 27 from New Jersey, on
Tuesday as part of a broad investigation of organized crime and gangs in the
region. The well-coordinated arrests may have disrupted the alliance
between Mafiosi and Bloods, but as the attorney general noted, the possibility
of continued cooperation between the two groups is both real and frightening.
She noted that whatever differences existed between the typical mobster and
typical gang member, they shared important priorities: a casual attitude
toward violence, a proprietary interest in the distribution of drugs, and an
obsession with quick profits.
The possibility that street gangs and the mob might merge their work forces has
haunted many law enforcement officials, but this is the first time that
authorities have seen evidence of an actual working alliance in New Jersey.
According to the charges, two members of the Luchese family worked with a
prominent member of a Bloods faction to smuggle drugs and cellphones into the
East Jersey State Prison in Woodbridge. The operation succeeded in part
thanks to the alleged participation of a prison guard — an especially
discomforting development in light of the dramatic escape of two inmates from
the Union County jail several days ago.
Ms. Milgram described the smuggling operation as a combination of what she
called “old-school organized crime, the Mafia, and new-school organized crime,
gangs.” The combination suggests that law enforcement officials in New
Jersey will have to adjust their strategies and tactics accordingly. If
divisions between organized crime and street gangs are becoming less rigid, law
enforcement officials assigned to monitor gangs and organized crime have to
share their expertise, intelligence and tactics with each other.
New Jerseyans who think of organized-crime figures as colorful characters who
simply provide consumers with goods they cannot get elsewhere should reconsider
their views, and perhaps even their viewing habits. If popular art takes
its cues from real life, the next mob movie should feature a pair of New Jersey
wise guys working in tandem with the leaders of an inner-city street gang.
That chilling scenario is not from a script. It’s from an indictment, and
it is cause for grave concern.
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