Cesare Mori, the officer Benito Mussolini put in charge of taking care of the Sicilian Mafia, was not very successful in breaking up the Mafia. However, due to his aggressive attacks against the Sicilian Mafia, many notable figures defected to the United States in the 1920s.

The American Mafia is much like its Sicilian counterparts and actually has no definite formal name. It is a secret criminal society taking advantage of the Prohibition by being bootleggers and brought illegally to the American shores liquor they have gotten from other places. Some even made their own distilleries and breweries.

In addition to these homemade Sicilian distilleries and breweries, Frank Uale, who was believed to be behind the killing of Jim Colosimo, also organized the offshore transactions for the acquisition of imported liquor. In June 1920, the bootleggers, under the supervision of Tommy Pennochio, created the Liquor Exchange where they can swap or sell surplus liquor. This was the first inter-gang cooperatives of the American Mafia during the Prohibition era. On that same month, Ignazio Lupo was released by the Harding Administration was deported back to Sicily.

On the same year, Big Joe Lonardo, who headed the Cleveland Mafia Group has allied himself with the “boss of all bosses”, Toto D’Aquila.

The United States has around 26 families though they are more active in metropolitan areas like New York, Philadelphia, New England, Detroit and Chicago. It was NewYork who saw most of the action when two factions of the American Mafia caused the Castellammarese War for the total control of the organized crime in the city. When Joe Masseria, one of the leaders of the two factions, was murdered, the war ended and the two factions became united. Salvatore Maranzano, the first leader of the American Mafia was also murdered within six months of the organization and Lucky luciano became the new leader. New York became the center of organized crime since the Five Families ended dominating the area. The five families were Lucchese Family, Bonanno Family, Gambino Family, Colombo Family and the Genovese Family.

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