The new generation of mafia soldiers are said to be less brutal and less versed in traditional in-person tactics.
➡️One alleged gangster sent his victim, a union official, a message saying: "Hey, this is the 2nd text, there isn't going to be a 3rd"
The extent to which social media has now infiltrated the crime world was evident in the recent case of a fugitive mafia suspect.
His son pictured him in a swimming pool in Florida and taunted the FBI by posting it on Twitter, along with a rat emoji 🐀
Ageing crime family bosses are now left concerned about their succession.
🚨They have to be more personally involved in criminal operations, leading to them getting arrested more often
❌ Last month Andrew "Mush" Russo, the Colombo family boss, was arrested along with most of the rest of its senior leadership.
They were held over an alleged two-decade long plot to seize control of a New York City construction union
Mafia experts said their involvement in the details of the alleged plot showed a lack of confidence in lower-ranking members.
According to court records, Mr Russo was taped by the FBI saying of his leadership role: 🗣️"I can’t walk away. I can’t rest"
The five crime families that have controlled New York's Italian-American mafia for decades are "shadows of their former selves", according to a research paper
🔻It says there is a lack of tough young mafiosos coming up through the ranks
⛔Professor James B. Jacobs of New York University School of Law wrote there had been a "breakdown of omerta" (the mafia code of silence).
✍️ Working-class Italian neighbourhoods “have dramatically shrunken as Italian-Americans have steadily assimilated into mainstream society,” wrote Jacobs.
“Thereby radically diminishing the pool of tough teenagers with Cosa Nostra potential"
The former detective described the extreme abuse Uyghurs were subjected to in order to elicit confessions as China rounded up about two million people in a social cleansing programme
The officer, identified only by the surname Jiang, said he worked in one of the hundred internment camps dotted around far-western China
🇨🇳A sudden surge of Chinese warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence zone has raised alarm about whether the drums of war are beating louder across the Taiwan Strait.
🛫A record-breaking 56 Chinese warplanes flew close to the island’s airspace on Monday, following 93 similar flights over the weekend.
The latest mission included 12 nuclear-capable H-6 bombers in the vicinity of the uninhabited Pratas islands claimed by both Taiwan and China
So, what is China up to?
🇹🇼Taiwan acts like any other nation with its own democratic government and military but China’s ruling Communist party claims the island of 24 million as its own territory even though it has never ruled there
Analysts trawled through PCR procurement contracts in Hubei Province, of which Wuhan is the capital, and found spending had almost doubled on the previous year
The study by Internet 2.0 says: "We have come to the conclusion that, based on the data analysed, it suggests the virus was highly likely to be spreading virulently in Wuhan, China, as early as the summer of 2019 and definitely by the autumn"
@Telegraph's unannounced visit to the government building now in the hands of the Taliban was a relaxed affair, @benfarmerDT writes...
🫖"The offer of tea was made with a warm welcome inside, part of a charm offensive by the Islamist leaders who until not too long ago viewed Western journalists with suspicion"
Ethnic Amhara forces have been going "door-to-door" to round up ethnic Tigrayans in the latest harrowing evidence of population cleansing in Ethiopia's blood-drenched civil war.
Witnesses told @Telegraph of forces cutting off limbs and dumping mutilated bodies into mass graves
🔴"They took her to Tekeze river and shot her," said one resident, who knew a victim well.
"Before they killed her, they removed her eyes and cut off her legs. They did not let anyone pick her body up and bury her"