[5][7] The family's illicit activities include bookmaking; bootlegging; corruption; drug trafficking; extortion; fencing; fraud; hijacking; illegal gambling; money laundering; murder; prostitution; racketeering; and cement, construction and waste management violations.

In 1920, Prohibition began in the United States and it presented many gangs with the opportunity to make a lot of money through bootlegging, the selling and transportations of illegal alcohol.

With large amounts of money to be earned, violence erupted throughout cities and towns in New Jersey as criminals fought for territory and dominance to control illegal bootlegging rackets, but the two most powerful bosses in Newark were Neapolitan faction boss Richard Boiardo and Jewish gangster Abner "Longie" Zwillman.

[12] During thanksgiving week of November 1930, Boiardo survived an assassination attempt after a gunman fired a shotgun into his car hitting him with thirteen slugs his neck, mouth, chest and arm.

[12][13] In early December of 1930, Boiardo was released from the hospital, only to be arrested by the Police for having a gun in his possession during his assassination attempt later he was sentenced to two and half years in prison.

Days later on September 13, 1931, Badami's underboss Sam Monaco and top member Louis Russo were discovered dead after their bodies were found floating in Newark Bay.

[21] During Amari's time as boss he recruited Emmanuel Riggi, Louis "Fat Lou" LaRasso and Frank Majuri into his Mafia faction.

[21] Over the years Amari continued to grow in power and was recognized by US law enforcement as being heavily involved in extortion, labor racketeering, loansharking, and narcotics activities in Elizabeth and Newark.

Badami was unsuccessful in taking over the Elizabeth Ribera Mafia faction because he was born in Corleone, Sicily and they didn't trust him.

Delmore was a longtime member of the Elizabeth faction, going back to the prohibition era when he owned the Maple Shade Inn in Berkeley Heights and worked with Abner Zwillman in some brewery operations.

[22] In 1957, Delmore attended the infamous 1957 Apalachin Convention to represent the Elizabeth family of New Jersey, with his underboss Frank Majuri and capo Louis LaRasso.

He gained much respect because he held a place on the infamous Commission, a governing body for the American Mafia which included the Five Families of New York, as well as mobsters from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Florida.

After DeCavalcante left prison in the mid-1970s, he appointed Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi as acting boss of the family while he stayed semi-retired in Florida.

DeCavalcante stepped down as boss officially in 1980, passing leadership to Riggi,[25] who had been a business agent of the International Association of Laborers and Hod Carriers in New Jersey for years.

Riggi was promoted to the position of official boss, and he reaped the enormous benefits of large labor and construction racketeering,[25] loansharking, illegal gambling, and extortion activities.

In 1981, bosses and underbosses of the DeCavalcante and Colombo families attended a conclave in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, to divide territory in Miami.

[26] Riggi used his power and influence to place subcontractors and workers at various construction projects around the state, and the DeCavalcantes were able to steal from union welfare and pension funds.

Riggi continued to run the family throughout the 1980s, with underboss Girolamo "Jimmy" Palermo and Stefano Vitabile as consigliere,[27] after Frank Majuri died of health problems.

[29] Riggi continued to run the family from his jail cell, but he appointed Giacomo "Jake" Amari as his new acting boss.

The Panel infuriated longtime captain Charles Majuri, who had been a hardworking member of the family since his teens and felt that he was wronged when he was not selected as the only acting boss.

The downfall of the DeCavalcante family was precipitated in 1998, when an associate named Ralph Guarino became an FBI informant, in an effort to avoid a long prison sentence in connection with taking part with two others in a heist of $1.6 million from the World Trade Center.

[31] Using information provided by Guarino, US law enforcement launched a large scale arrest on December 2, 1999, of over 30 members and associates of the DeCavalcante crime family.

Prosecutors claimed that Stango and his son had plans to open a high-end escort service in Toms River, New Jersey.

[47] On January 2, 2023, longtime family member and former influential capo Paolo "Paul" Farina died of natural causes at the age of 96.

[117][118] The family was the subject of the CNBC program Mob Money, which aired on June 23, 2010,[119] and The Real Sopranos TV documentary directed by Thomas Viner for the UK production company Class Films.