). Not only did the Mafia make it's money through the illegal distribution of liquor, but the gangsters also operated lotteries and took their cut from many of the poker games that occurred. According to New York Detectives Tom Tripodi and Joseph P. Desario the crime syndicate loaned money at usurious rates, imported and distributed narcotics, and held monopolies on vital foodstuffs: olive oil, cheese, anchovies, and artichokes (130). Every merchant paid a dollar or two a week as protection money, right down to the pushcart peddlers, whose carts would be smashed and merchandise scattered if they withheld as little as a dime. The people either paid the gang what they wanted or they lost everything they had including their lives. With every dollar that the Mafia got from its "customers", they could afford to manufacture more liquor to sell. The gang sold the liquor at a very high price claiming that it was "fresh off the boat", meaning authentic Canadian alcohol but in all actuality, the liquor was just bogus Scotch or gin made in local distilleries. Every man that had to pay for protection was helping the Mafia become more deeply rooted in the United States.
             As the Prohibition Era got underway, men were trying to steal as much liquor as possible for maximum profit. According to Anton Block, the night that the Volstead Act was passed, 2000 gallons of whiskey were stolen out of a federal warehouse (64). The Mafia became involved in bootlegging, and many people tried to overthrow the criminal syndicate and steal the illegal alcohol. Men tried to hijack alcohol by beating the drivers and stealing the trucks. Most of those would - be thieves were later found dead on the New York docks. They were executed mafia style, with either a napalm bomb (a light bulb filled with napalm that exploded when the light switch went on, burning the victim to death) or they had their body blown apart by automatic weapons. ...