Founded | 1928 |
---|---|
Founder | Joe Profaci |
Named after | Joseph Colombo |
Founding location | New York City, New York, United States |
Years active | 1928–present |
Territory | Primarily New York City, with additional territory in Long Island, North Jersey, Massachusetts, South Florida, Las Vegas and Los Angeles[1] |
Ethnicity | Italians as "made men" and other ethnicities as associates |
Membership (est.) | 112 made members and 500 associates (2004)[2] |
Activities | Arms trafficking, arson, assault, battery, bribery, burglary, cigarette smuggling, chop shop, conspiracy, contract killing, counterfeiting, drug trafficking, extortion, fencing, fraud, illegal gambling, larceny, loansharking, money laundering, murder, pornography, prostitution, racketeering, robbery, skimming, theft, truck hijacking, and tax evasion[3] |
Allies | |
Rivals | Various gangs in New York City, including their allies |
The Colombo crime family (/kəˈlɒm.boʊ/, Italian pronunciation: [koˈlombo]) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was during Lucky Luciano's organization of the American Mafia after the Castellammarese War, following the assassinations of "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, that the gang run by Joseph Profaci became recognized as the Profaci crime family.
The family traces its roots to a bootlegging gang formed by Profaci in 1928. Profaci would rule his family without interruption or challenge until the late 1950s.[4][5] The family has been torn by three internal wars. The first war took place during the late 1950s, when caporegime Joe Gallo revolted against Profaci, but that conflict lost momentum in the early 1960s when Gallo was arrested and Profaci died of cancer. The family was reunited in the early 1960s under Joseph Colombo. In 1971, the second family war began after Gallo's release from prison and the shooting of Colombo. Colombo supporters led by Carmine Persico won the second war after the exiling of the remaining Gallo crew to the Genovese family in 1975. The family would then enjoy over 15 years of peace under Persico and his string of acting bosses.
In 1991, the third and bloodiest war erupted when acting boss Victor Orena tried to seize power from the imprisoned Persico. The family split into factions, loyal to Orena and to Persico, and two years of mayhem ensued. It ended in 1993, with 12 members of the family dead and Orena imprisoned, leaving Persico the winner. Left with a family decimated by war, Persico continued to run the family until his death in prison in 2019, but the organization has never recovered.[6] In the 2000s, the family was further weakened by multiple convictions in federal racketeering cases and numerous members becoming government witnesses. Many law enforcement agencies believe the Colombo crime family to be the weakest of the Five Families of New York City as of 2011.[7]
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