Mafia trial will show modern face of mobsters

The trial of an alleged mafia boss which started on Thursday promises to reveal the inner workings of modern-day US organised crime.

Twenty-one stone Michael The Large Guy Sarno, whose case opens in Chicago, is considered at the relatively young age of 52 – a different breed of mobster, someone whose talents as an enforcer normally would not have translated into a top mob job.

“I would say he is the perfect example of the new face of the mob,” said Art Bilek, a former mob investigator.

“He has street smarts – he’s not a dope. What he simply doesn’t have is the intelligence some of the earlier guys had.”

That goes to show how far the mob has fallen, he and other law enforcement experts said.

A huge trial in Chicago three years ago was a body blow to the local mob. It ended in life sentences for bosses James Marcello, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo.

With ageing kingpins behind bars and others dying, a weakened mafia has scaled back a network that in its heyday, around 1970, encompassed operations ranging from prostitution and drugs to multimillion-dollar scams involving corrupt unions or Las Vegas casinos.

But laws designed to target organised crime, aggressive federal prosecutors and competition from big-city street gangs or biker syndicates have severely cut into mob-associated operations. Not surprisingly, mobster numbers are down.

There are now fewer than 100 people formally initiated into the Chicago-area mob compared with more than 200 ‘made men’ around 1970.

In Chicago, the mob now focuses more heavily on running illegal video gaming, with approximately 25,000 machines in bars and restaurants, generating millions of dollars in revenue. It’s leaders allegedly include Mr Sarno who was known for using his bulk to collect gambling debts as an enforcer.

It is impossible to know just where Mr Sarno fits in, partly because the mob’s old pyramid structure is coming undone and true leaders are eager to maintain a low profile, even endeavouring to keep violence at a minimum.

There also are reasons to question the extent of Mr Sarno’s power. For one, mob bosses want to see crime organisations they built up over decades continue after their deaths, so it is likely mobsters smarter than Mr Sarno also are being promoted.

Mr Sarno is accused of ordering co-defendants Mark Polchan and Sam Volpendesto to plant a bomb that wrecked the offices of a gaming company as a warning to stay away from a profitable mob business.