Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution,[14] fraud, hijacking, and fencing.

The rise of what was the most powerful crime family in America for a time began in 1957, when Anastasia was assassinated while sitting in a barber chair at the Park Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan, New York City.

In 1920, the United States outlawed the production and sale of alcoholic beverages (Prohibition), creating the opportunity for an extremely lucrative illegal racket for the New York gangs.

To compensate for loss of massive revenues with the end of Prohibition in 1933, Vincent Mangano moved his family into extortion, union racketeering, and illegal gambling operations including horse betting, running numbers and lotteries.

Vincent Mangano felt uncomfortable with Anastasia's close ties to Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Joseph Bonanno and other top mobsters outside his family.

[54][55] Castellano also supervised Gambino control of Teamsters Union Local Chapter 282, which provided workers to pour concrete at all major building projects in New York and Long Island.

[65][66] Castellano, who had banned made men from his family from dealing drugs under threat of death, demanded transcripts of the tapes,[65][67] and, when Ruggiero refused, threatened to demote Gotti.

[76] Several days after the Castellano murder, Gotti was named to a three-man committee, along with Gallo and DeCicco, to temporarily run the family pending the election of a new boss.

[90] Jury selection for the racketeering case began again in August 1986,[91] with Gotti standing trial alongside Willie Boy Johnson (who, despite being exposed as an informant, refused to turn state's evidence[92]), Leonard DiMaria, Tony Rampino, Nicholas Corozzo and John Carneglia.

[95] In the trial's opening statements on September 25, Gotti's defense attorney Bruce Cutler denied the existence of the Gambino family and framed the government's entire effort as a personal vendetta.

[97][98] Despite Cutler's defense and critiques about the prosecution's performance, according to mob writers Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain, when the jury's deliberations began, a majority were in favor of convicting Gotti.

At the same time, attorneys Bruce Cutler and Gerald Shargel were disqualified from defending Gotti and Gravano after prosecutors successfully contended they were "part of the evidence" and thus liable to be called as witnesses.

[120][121][122] On the stand, Gravano confirmed Gotti's place in the structure of the Gambino family and described in detail the conspiracy to assassinate Castellano, giving a full description of the hit and its aftermath.

[citation needed] In 2005, Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo and his longtime underling Leonard "Lenny" DiMaria were released from prison after serving ten years for racketeering and loansharking charges in New York and Florida.

On Thursday, February 7, 2008, a federal grand jury issued an indictment which led to the arrest of 54 Gambino family members and associates in New York City, its suburbs, New Jersey, and Long Island.

[citation needed] The family continued to be active in a variety of criminal enterprises, including gambling, loansharking, extortion, labor racketeering, fraud, money laundering and narcotic trafficking.

The arrested were accused by prosecutors and law enforcement officials of organizing a transatlantic drug ring with the aim of shipping 500 kg of pure cocaine from Guyana in South America to the port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria.

[145][146] US Attorney Loretta Lynch singled out Gambino family associate Franco Lupoi as the linchpin of the operation, accusing him of conspiring with his father-in-law, Nicola Antonio Simonetta, a member of the Ursino clan, to set up the network.

Prosecutors said that he and Rodolico attempted to obstruct the federal grand jury proceeding into their criminal activities by intimidating a loan shark victim into lying to law enforcement.

Italian police said Gambino was caught on video meeting with ranking members of the Inzerillo clan on a speedboat off the coast of Palermo a year earlier, allegedly discussing the sale of property formerly owned by Frank Cali.

[160][161][162] On December 5, 2019, Gambino family capo Andrew Campos and nine other gangsters were arrested in a federal mob crackdown in the Bronx and Westchester County, on allegations of threats of violence to extort money.

Prosecutors alleged that CWC Contracting, operated by Kocaj, Campos and Vincent Fiore, paid bribes to employees of numerous construction companies and real estate developers, including HFZ Capital.

[165][166] On January 18, 2023, Gambino family capo Frank "Calypso" Camuso, soldier Louis Astuto and associate Robert "Rusty" Baselice were indicted along 20 other defendants including Genovese family soldier Christopher "Jerry" Chierchio, and 26 companies by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for a kickback scheme operated by Baselice, the vice president of the Grimaldi Group, a firm which allegedly received $4.2 million from contractors.

[167][168][169][170] From April 2013 to July 2021, Baselice reportedly used his position to steal from his firm's developer clients by providing inside information about competitors' bids to subcontractors, among other offenses.

Soldier Diego Tantillo is also accused of embezzling funds from employee pension plans, and conspiring to rig bids for demolition contracts throughout New York City.

[338][339][340][341] News reports in July 2019 indicated that a recent police investigation confirmed strong links between the Palermo area Cosa Nostra and the Gambino crime family in New York.

[343] The Gambino-Lucchese-Genovese alliance (1953–1985) between Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese, and Vito Genovese began with a plot to take over the Mafia Commission by murdering family bosses Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia.

The members were arrested in 2005 leading to the revelation that Gambino acting capo DePalma had allowed an FBI agent Joaquín García (known as Jack Falcone) work undercover with his crew since 2002.

Genovese front boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno wanted to seize control of lucrative construction rackets at the new Jacob Javits Convention Center from the Westies.

"It may be that the Gambinos at a certain point recognised that the Corleonesi had been victorious in the war between rival families in Sicily ... there is nothing unusual in the traffic of personnel and ideas across the Atlantic ... they were cousin organisations," according to John Dickie, professor of Italian studies at University College London and the author of Mafia Republic – Italy's Criminal Curse.