La Cosa Nostra vs. the Mexican Cartels

La Cosa Nostra vs. the Mexican Cartels
There are some similarities between the organized groups in the past like La Cosa Nostra and those organized groups of today like the Mexican Cartel. The most obvious one being that both were organized groups who committed illegal activities. Another similarity is that both of these groups maintain a well-defined hierarchy of roles for members and leaders. Both of these criminal groups also have specific goals and unwritten laws for all their members. These are some similarities between these two groups of criminals. Finally, both of these groups participated in the crime of smuggling, La Cosa Nostra would smuggle cigarettes and alcohol during Prohibition. The Mexican Cartels on the other hand make huge profits and are known for drug trafficking and gun smuggling into the United States. There is a huge time gap between La Cosa Nostra and the Mexican Cartels but there are some of these similarities between these groups.
There are major differences between these two organized groups that set them apart from each other. The major difference between the two is that La Cosa Nostra has been extremely hard to trace and learn about because of a code of secrecy they believe in. On the other hand the Cartels don’t have any type of this secrecy they instill fear into the public, the citizens and other countries know about whom the leaders are and their goals within their groups. Another difference is how the membership works, La Cosa Nostra is strict on choosing its members they are usually all men and usually are initiated from the age of sixteen. These individuals are put through a selection process and must prove to be obedient, courageous, ruthless, and prove they can commit the crime of espionage. The Mexican Cartels are different in that they start their members at a very early age. There are members of law enforcement and government officials that back these Cartels up and help fund their activities. Finally, La Cosa Nostra has their own Ten Commandments that their members must live by and live up to. The Mexican Cartel has not exposed if they have anything similar to this.
Like stated before these two groups were similar in various ways, but with the change of time and the world evolving they also vary in many ways as well. Today, with the Mexican Cartels you have a huge support from corrupted members in the government and law enforcement agencies backing these groups and their illegal activities. These groups have put fear in their citizens and even tourists who travel to Mexico. These Cartels have grown ruthless and don’t care about anyone as long as their goals are being accomplished. There isn’t much written on La Cosa Nostra because of their secrecy belief but as time has passed people are speaking up and revealing more about this organized crime. It won’t be long before we know all the secrets and insights of La Cosa Nostra. When that time comes we will be able to compare and contrast them not only with criminal groups such as the Mexican Cartels but also other organized groups. It was interesting comparing these two organized criminal groups and finding that there were many things these two groups shared. It also proves why there have been many different definitions to organized crimes, because every criminal group is different and vary in many ways.

References
Roth, Mitchel P.. Organized crime. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.