American Mafia

The American Mafia is the network of Italian-American organized crime families that emerged in the early twentieth century, modeled on Sicilian criminal organizations.

Also called La Cosa Nostra or simply the Mob.

The term evokes a hierarchical structure of bosses, underbosses, and soldiers engaged in racketeering, gambling, loan sharking, and other illicit enterprises: His uncle had ties to the American Mafia.