New York's infamous crime families are making headlines again.

As the Oct. 23 arrests and indictments allegedly show in stunning detail, the old-school Italian mafia – La Cosa Nostra with its loyalty oaths, nicknames and lucrative gambling rackets – haven't gone away.

In announcing one of the biggest purported sports-betting and illegal gambling scandals in decades, FBI Director Kash Patel said Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones all were arrested as part of two sprawling and long-running investigations into illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed in some cases by four of the major New York Mafia families.

Patel − and the charging documents − detailed how mafia members allegedly used high-tech tools, along with their old-fashioned racketeering schemes, to help orchestrate major aspects of the criminal operation.

"Not only did we crack into the fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a system of justice against La Casa Nostra, to include the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese crime families," Patel said at a news conference.

"The fraud is mind-boggling," Patel added. "It's not hundreds of dollars, it's not thousands of dollars, it's not tens of thousands of dollars, it's not even millions of dollars. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation."

Behind the headlines, here's what we know about so-called New York Mafia families that have been quietly involved in international sports betting operations and other crimes in recent decades despite a dedicated Justice Department and FBI campaign to eradicate them.

'Joe Bananas' and the Bonanno 'Crime Family'

Like the other Italian crime families, the Bonanno family – one of the original "Five Families" of New York – has roots that originated with Sicilians who immigrated to the United States beginning in the 1930s. Some of that exodus had to do with the "Castellammarese War" back in Sicily, an island just off the tip of the boot that comprises southern Italy.

Like other Mafia families, nicknames were commonly used to easily identify members, some with similar names given the family connections. Under the long tenure of Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno, the family expanded in the U.S. into loan-sharking, drug trafficking, prostitution – and gambling of all kinds.

Like the other major Mafia crime families, the Bonannos suffered through turf wars, internecine succession struggles and targeted investigations and prosecutions.

Justice Department and FBI efforts, spearheaded out of their New York offices, have spent more than half a century going after the Bonannos and the other families to weaken their organizations and take down their leadership. They ramped that up in 1970 with the establishment of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute, or RICO, which allowed them to go after entire hierarchies of the crime families.

Those efforts have continued.

In January 2018, federal prosecutors charged the "acting boss of the Bonanno Organized Crime family," Joseph Cammarano, Jr. and nine other members with racketeering and related offenses, including extortion, loansharking, wire and mail fraud, narcotics distribution, and conspiracy to commit murder.

The 'Teflon Don' and the Gambino 'Crime Family'

The Gambinos and their onetime leader John Gotti – aka the Dapper Don and the Teflon Don – are perhaps the most notorious of the five New York crime families and the one most closely mimicked by a slew of Hollywood TV shows and movies.

It too traces its origins to early Italian and Sicilian gangs in New York before consolidating and becoming one of the major Five Families in the 1930s. The family grew extremely powerful under the two decades of iron-fisted leadership by Carlo Gambino beginning in the late 1950s, engaging in labor racketeering, loansharking and gambling, among other crimes.

Gotti, who got his name from all the failed FBI and DOJ attempts to convict him, made headlines for taking the family’s gambling operations high tech, international – and offshore. He was also known for his bloody rise to the top, including the 1985 mob hit on 70-year-old-mafioso Paul Castellano — the apparent successor of recently deceased Gambino boss Aniello Dellacroce, or Gotti's boss of bosses at the time, according to the FBI.

The Teflon Don was ultimately convicted in 1992, including for ordering two top Mob boss murders, and was sentenced to a long prison term. "The don is covered with Velcro, and every charge stuck," the FBI chief in New York said at the time.

But Gotti’s son and others continued the business. Gotti died in prison in June 2002.

'Lucky Luciano' and the Genovese 'Crime Family'

Not as splashy or blood-soaked as the Gambinos, the Genovese family historically has been considered the most powerful of the five New York families, with tentacles reaching into New Jersey, Philadelphia and Cleveland.

It too emerged from the infamous Castellammarese War of the early 1930s and, under the leadership of Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Vito Genovese and others, built out lucrative businesses in racketeering, extortion, gambling, sports betting and union corruption.

For two-plus decades beginning in the 1980s, the Genovese family was run by Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, also known as "The Oddfather." He got that name by feigning insanity – and dodging prosecution for a time – by shuffling unshaven through Greenwich Village wearing a filthy bath robe and muttering incoherently.

Many DOJ operations over the decades targeted Genovese family operated illegal gambling parlors, sports-betting operations and online betting. In one 2014 case, a member admitted controlling a sports-betting "package" via an overseas sports-betting operation.

In March 2018, Genovese crime family member Salvatore "Fat Sal" Delligatti was convicted in the Eastern District of New York on a range of illegal gambling charges similar to those announced by Patel on Oct. 23, but also attempted murder in aid of racketeering in connection with a "in a large-scale bookmaking and sports betting operation that took bets from bettors in Manhattan and Queens, among other locations, and made use of an offshore wireroom."

Beginning in at least May 2012, the Genovese and Bonanno families jointly operated a lucrative illegal gambling parlor concealed inside a coffee shop called the Gran Caffé in Lynbrook, the Department of Justice said.

Tommy 'Three Finger Brown' Lucchese and the Lucchese 'Crime Family'

Not as well known or powerful as the Gambinos and Genovese, the Lucchese family initially made it into the Five Families through its involvement in labor racketeering, including controlling unions like the trucking and garment industries.

Boss Tommy Lucchese helped the family secure a seat on the infamous Mafia Commission that was put on trial in 1986.

"Smart, savvy and fearless, he made his name with his muscle during Prohibition and kept power through the mid-20th century with cautious maneuvering, a strong head for business and gangland political acumen," according to Lucchese's bio at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

As a teenager, Lucchese worked in a factory until an industrial accident cut off part of his right hand, leading to nickname, which eventually morphed into "Three-Finger Brown" in a reference to Hall of Fame pitcher Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown.

The family eventually moved into heroin trafficking and murder-for-hire. And it focused heavily on gambling and sports-betting.

In one 2025 Justice Department case, Lucchese family members pleaded guilty to operating a large-scale illegal online betting operation that had been underway since the 2000s, taking bets from hundreds of people weekly and bringing in millions in profits annually.

The Mafia in the movies

Bonanno: Hollywood portrayed the Bonanno family in "The Valachi Papers" in 1972, starring Charles Bronson as Joe Valachi. He was the Bonanno soldier who became the first Mafia insider to publicly break the code of silence, "Omerta," and testify about the inner workings of La Cosa Nostra.

Gambino: Hollywood loved portraying John Gotti’s life, and criminal trials, including in "Gotti," the 1996 HBO drama about the rise and fall of the flamboyant and media-savvy boss.

Genovese: Though fictional, the Corleone family in "The Godfather" trilogy (1972-1990) is believed to be mostly inspired by the Genovese family (and some Bonanno family), especially Vito Genovese’s ambition to dominate the Mafia Commission and control illegal narcotics trafficking routes. "The Godfather II" also has drawn parallels to Genovese’s exile in Italy and eventual return.

Lucchese: One of the most successful mob movies made by Hollywood, "Goodfellas" in 1990, was directed by Martin Scorsese and was based on Nicholas Pileggi’s book "Wiseguy." Its cast included Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci (who won an Oscar) and Ray Liotta as Henry Hill, a Lucchese family associate trying to rise through the organization through heists, racketeering, illegal gambling and the infamous Lufthansa Heist in New York.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gambino. Bonanno. Genovese. Lucchese. Meet the Mafia families in the NBA gambling scandal

Reporting by Josh Meyer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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