The Mafia is still alive and well and powerful in areas such as New York, but they are more careful than they used to be. Before the 1970's, any crimes done by crime organizations were persecuted the same as a singular person doing a crime. Additionally, mob bosses couldn't be persecuted because they themselves weren't doing the crimes. For example, Al Copone couldn't be taken down because he didnt technically do anything illegal, except for not paying taxes and that's what they nabbed him on. This changed with the 1970 RICO act. This law allowed for criminals committing crimes under a larger criminal organization to face much larger prison times than singular criminals. Additionally, Mafia leaders could now be charged for ordering criminal activity. An example of this was the 2004 trial of Joseph Massino, the boss of the Bonanno crime family of New York. He was facing 11 charges including murder, arson, illegal gambling and others. With the murder charges alone, he faced the death penalty, but he decided to testify against others to save himself. This being the boss of a whole family obviously creates trust issues within the groups too. Overall, the RICO act made crime families less effective and forced them to be more careful lest their entire command structure be at risk of persecution.