The Mafia The Mafia, America’s most organized crime group, has dominated the crime scene for centuries. It’s largest profits come from drugs and gambling. Other forms of illegal profit come from loan-sharking, labor racketeering, hijacking, pornography, and prostitution. The Mafia is a secret criminal organization that began in Sicily. The idea of a secret society began around 1735 when Spanish Bourbon kings controlled all of the land in Sicily. “The Mafia developed as an alternative to weak outsider governments and unfair laws that were viewed as tools of the ruling class” (Italian 3). When they first started, they replaced the Spanish landowne