Colombo crime family
| Also Known As | Colombo family Colombo organized crime family Former Profaci family Former Magliocco family |
|---|---|
| Origins | |
| Founding Location | Brooklyn, New York City |
| Territory | New York metropolitan area, especially Brooklyn Long Island Documented operations in New Jersey |
| Lineage | |
| Predecessor(s) | Profaci crime family Joseph Magliocco administration |
| Profile | |
| Structure | La Cosa Nostra family with an administration, captains, inducted soldiers and associates |
| Activities | Racketeering conspiracy Extortion and loansharking Illegal gambling Fraud and money laundering Drug trafficking Labor racketeering Murder and violent internal conflict |
| Politics | |
| Leader | Joseph Colombo (c. 1963–1971; incapacitated after 1971 shooting) |
| Notable Members | Joseph Colombo Joseph Magliocco Carmine Persico Joseph Yacovelli Victor Orena Andrew Russo |
| Activity | |
| Status | Active organization documented in federal guilty pleas; current leadership not assigned |
| Years Active | c. 1963–present (Colombo phase; earlier Profaci–Magliocco lineage) |
The Colombo crime family is one of New York City's five La Cosa Nostra families. Joseph Colombo became leader after the removal of Joseph Magliocco around 1963, giving the continuing Profaci–Magliocco borgata its modern conventional name.
The family was not a split from the D'Aquila–Mangano–Gambino lineage. The Profaci crime family was a separate, Villabate-heavy Palermitani formation created around 1928.
Profaci and Magliocco lineage
[edit]Joseph Profaci headed a newly formed Brooklyn family around 1928. David Critchley describes its largest hometown bloc as coming from Villabate in Palermo province and treats it as a separate fifth New York family rather than an offshoot name for D'Aquila's organization.[1]
Profaci led until his death in June 1962. Contemporary reporting described him as head of a feuding Brooklyn mob.[2] His brother-in-law and underboss Joseph Magliocco succeeded him.
Magliocco became involved in Joseph Bonanno's plan against rival Commission leaders. After the plot was exposed, Magliocco was removed or forced to retire. Contemporary reporting on his death described him as having headed a Cosa Nostra family after Profaci.[3]
Joseph Colombo then became leader. The sequence is:
- Profaci crime family → Magliocco administration → Colombo crime family.
This was succession and Commission-backed reorganization, not the creation of an unrelated family.
Colombo leadership and first internal war
[edit]Colombo cultivated a public profile through the Italian-American Civil Rights League while continuing to lead the family. In June 1971, he was shot at an League rally and left severely disabled. No final judicial determination established the complete sponsorship of the attack.
The family had already experienced a conflict between Profaci loyalists and the Gallo faction in the early 1960s. Colombo's shooting and incapacity produced further leadership adjustments. These events were factional struggles within one family, not separately chartered criminal organizations.
Persico and later wars
[edit]Carmine Persico became the family's dominant long-term figure. During the 1980s, federal prosecutions imprisoned Persico and other Commission leaders. Acting administrations managed the family while senior figures were incarcerated.
A second major internal conflict followed Victor Orena's challenge to the Persico faction in the early 1990s. The violence included murders, attempted murders and shifting crew loyalties. The conflict did not produce two permanent crime families; one Colombo organization survived after the Orena faction was defeated.
Later prosecutions weakened the family and produced numerous cooperating witnesses. Leadership labels in newspaper accounts changed frequently, so a complete current hierarchy should not be inferred from one investigation or one meeting.
Federal prosecutions and modern activity
[edit]The FBI identifies the Colombo organization as one of New York's five Mafia families.[4]
In September 2021, federal prosecutors charged fourteen defendants, including alleged members of the Colombo administration, captains, members and associates, with labor racketeering, extortion, money laundering, fraud and related offenses.[5] Indictment descriptions were allegations until resolved.
By October 2023, all fourteen defendants had pleaded guilty to various crimes. The Justice Department said the defendants and their co-conspirators used extortion, loansharking, fraud and drug trafficking to enrich themselves and promote the continued operation of the Colombo family.[6]
Those pleas provide stronger evidence than the original allegations and establish activity into the 2020s. They do not make every person associated socially or through employment an inducted member.
Organization and current limits
[edit]Federal proceedings describe a boss or acting leadership, underboss, consigliere, captains, soldiers and associates. Associates may commit crimes for the family without induction.
The current evidence supports the organization's continued existence and particular admitted offenses. It does not provide a sufficiently stable, comprehensive current boss, underboss and consigliere roster for this article, so none is assigned.
Relationship to Palermitani networks
[edit]The family descends from Profaci's Villabate-heavy organization and therefore belongs in the genealogy of Palermitani-origin coalitions. However:
- Villabate or Palermo-province origin did not confer membership;
- the Profaci organization was separate from D'Aquila and Mangano;
- the Colombo name belongs to the post-Magliocco leadership phase;
- later recruitment broadened the family beyond its original hometown bloc.
References
[edit]- ↑ David Critchley, The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931 (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 160–163.
- ↑ “Profaci Dies of Cancer; Led Feuding Brooklyn Mob”, The New York Times, June 8, 1962.
- ↑ “Magliocco, Cosa Nostra Chief, Buried Quietly on Long Island”, The New York Times, January 1, 1964.
- ↑ “New York's Five Families”, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- ↑ “14 Defendants Indicted, Including the Entire Administration of the Colombo Organized Crime Family”, United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, September 14, 2021.
- ↑ “14 Defendants, Including Leaders of the Colombo Organized Crime Family, Plead Guilty to Various Crimes”, United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, October 20, 2023.