USA 
United Kingdom
Leaders within Sicily’s Cosa Nostra are apparently having a recruitment crisis, bemoaning their ability to find recruits who meet their expectations, revealing a deepening crisis in organized crime's talent pipeline.
Recent police wiretaps exposed members of the crime syndicate moaning about the declining quality of new members, with veteran figures lamenting the lack of loyalty, ambition, and capability among younger recruits.
“There’s no commitment anymore. Today, they arrest someone, and if he flips, they just arrest another... it’s all low-level,” one former boss reportedly said before his death.
The issues go beyond individual failings, highlighting a broader identity crisis within the organization. Once synonymous with power and influence, the Mafia now struggles to inspire the same level of fear and respect. Leaders blame a shift in societal values, modern law enforcement tactics, and new criminal competitors, including international drug cartels and digital fraud networks.
Small-time operators
Veteran leaders complain that today’s recruits are more interested in small-time operations like low-level drug dealing, lacking the strategic vision that once built empires.
Ghostbusters | Why the game is up on ignoring candidate applications
One insider mocked the current generation's ambitions, saying: “They’re happy selling a few bars of hashish... we used to think bigger, importing entire shiploads.”
The organization is also facing stiff competition from rival groups like the ‘Ndrangheta, which has overtaken it as the dominant criminal enterprise in Italy. The changing competitive landscape has forced the criminals to modernize operations, adopting encrypted communication tools and even collaborating with competitors to survive.
In a new and interesting twist on remote working, one gangster was able to watch a beating he had ordered from inside jail in real time via a video-link.
Yet, the shift toward digital crime seems to have exacerbated recruitment challenges, as younger members lack the discipline and cunning of their predecessors.
'Watch The Godfather'
Ironically, as leaders reminisce about the “good old days,” they struggle to adapt to contemporary realities. They yearn for a time when recruits were groomed for leadership through mentorship and loyalty tests, rather than hastily inducted to fill vacancies. “Watch ‘The Godfather,’” one leader reportedly advised a young recruit, urging him to learn from the fictional portrayal of power and influence.
The situation reveals a cultural and operational crisis within the Mafia, with leaders confronting an aging membership base with few promising successors. It is an organization at a crossroads, forced to either modernize its recruitment strategy or face gradual decline.
For now, the nostalgia persists. But as the old guard laments the loss of discipline and ambition, the future of the crime family hangs in the balance, caught between romanticizing the past and trying to adapt to an uncertain future.
