Mafia Cartel Inflated Garbage Prices

From the mid-1950s until the mid-1990s, a Mafia-controlled cartel dominated private trash collection for New York City businesses, an industry worth $1.5 billion annually by 1995. The mob inflated prices and protected customer territories through threats, extortion, arson, and forced cartel membership. An NYPD detective named Rick Cowen spent three years undercover and recorded hundreds of hours of evidence, leading authorities to charge 72 defendants in 1997 and dismantle their companies. Garbage removal prices fell 40 percent, cutting costs by an estimated $600 million, although later corporate consolidation reportedly erased those savings.

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