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By 1935, the American Sicilian Mafia had been in control of the artichoke market for two decades, cutting millions of dollars from consumers, producers, and distributors. The authorities have been forced to take drastic measures to stop them.
Fiorella LaGuardia, then Mayor of New York, imposed a total ban on artichokes in the city effective December 26, 1935, as represents a serious and imminent emergency for the city. “
The decision was quite extraordinary. This merchandise was already under the control of the mafia by then.
Artichokes were known to city dwellers only a few decades earlier and enjoyed particular popularity with Italian immigrants and their descendants, making them a particularly good target for the mob.
The artichoke is a very delicate plant that grows only in certain climates. In the United States, industrial production did not develop until around the 1900s, when Italian farmers who migrated to California and began agricultural production there recognized the potential of the region’s climate and began growing artichokes. Artichoke farms are so prevalent in the region that 99 percent of commercially available artichokes still come from California.
But it wasn’t just the weather that made growing the artichoke easier. After farmers in the West realized the demand for the vegetable, huge artichoke farms were established and began to grow them in large quantities and then transport them to the big cities of the East.
So the artichoke market grew to about $ 12.5 million in 1935 at current prices.
This was also recognized by the mafia organized around the food industry and deciding for it. In the early 1910s, the Morello-Terranova family imposed an import tax on trains arriving in New York, which amounted to between $ 25 and $ 50 per car (this is between $ 600 and $ 1,200 at prices current). Then in the 1920s, farmers were already under threat in California, trying to limit the amount of production and wanting to buy the crop at a low price. Thus, they caused an artificial reduction in supply, which made the price rise in the market. Because the mob bought the artichokes at a low price, they were able to sell them at a much higher price due to the tight supply, making a small profit on the difference.
By 1935, organized criminals had managed to get each artichoke to New York through their own company. They were purchased at $ 6 per box, 30 to 40 percent more expensive, and sold to retailers for $ 7.8 to $ 8.4. When the mayor of New York completely banned the artichoke trade in 1935, by then criminals had made $ 333,000 a year, at current prices of $ 6.25 million.
Historians say mafia groups based on intimidation were formed in the 19th century, when Sicilian criminals formed organized groups to profit, first from the citrus trade. Subsequently, everything they knew was taxed and, whenever possible, fixed prices were imposed, for example, on dairy products, the production and sale of meat. In 1914, for example, by pricing chicken meat in Manhattan alone, at current prices, they made $ 2.5 million.
However, the mafia did not later give up its interests in the food industry. According to criminal investigators, the presence of the agricultural mafia has become increasingly significant in large cities as the reach of those involved in the prohibition of organized crime and drug trafficking has been reduced.
It seems that the illegal customs taxes that have been imposed on agricultural production have not disappeared to this day.
According to some research, in 2017, organized crime in Italy made $ 25 billion in businesses only in agricultural products.
Much of the business was based on some form of fraud, such as selling cheap feed as a high-quality product or selling counterfeit products as genuine, with profane profit. But there may also be simple coercion behind anarchy to buy a particular product at a higher price from producers, such as restaurants.
The history of the North American artichoke mafia is by no means unique, and many forms of crime still exist around agricultural production. Today’s Mexican drug cartels specialize in, among other things, an avocado, a crop that is especially popular in the United States.
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