It is worth reading Blood Brotherhood about three Mafia networks that originated in Italy. Each of these organizations compete with each other but also cooperate, stretching their deadly violence across the world from prison gangs in Sicily, Calabria and Naples into the United States and other nations. Each organization has its own rituals and legends about the founding of these criminal organizations. Nevertheless, a constant theme is banding together to protect poor families from being exploited by the rich and powerful.
Freemason Models. The problem is that the secrecy of the Mafia networks, modeled along the lines of Freemasonry, evolved into complex systems of extortion and political influence that still attract the most powerful politicians and industrialists in Italy, the United States and across Europe and other continents. Operating throughout the global economic system, such organized crime networks have long been adept at shifting allegiances and opportunistically provide support to opposing political movements.
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