During Prohibition, many Polish-American criminal gangs took advantage of the opportunity to make money through the illegal sale of alcohol.
The infamous gangster Meyer Lansky, one of the leaders of the National Crime Syndicate and associate of Lucky Luciano, was a Polish Jew.
Many residents in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia can tell of multiple accounts where these so-called gang members have caused trouble.
Led by Ostap Kapelioujnyj and Krzysztof Sprysak, the gang ran its operations of gunrunning, armed robbery, drug trafficking, extortion, car theft, credit card fraud and fencing (reportedly including a stolen Stradivarius violin) mostly in New York City, as well as having connections back in Poland and Eastern Europe.
The gang was not above resorting to violence to achieve their aims, as one video used as evidence shows Kapelioujnyj discussing his threatening to kill a debtor with a golf club after already taking two computers, a camera, and an iPod.