Deputy U.S. Attorney: Chicago Politicians Connected To Chicago's Mob

John Kass reports:

"What makes the Chicago Outfit different from most street gangs and other organized criminal organizations that we go after is that 100 years or so of building up connections among politicians and cops and judges and businessmen," said Gary Shapiro, the first deputy U.S. attorney and a lifer when it comes to fighting the Outfit in Chicago.

"And every time one of these old-timers is convicted and locked up forever, he takes those connections with him," Shapiro said. "And those connections cannot easily be restored, the trust that a corrupt politician has for a particular mob leader can't be restored, when that mob leader goes to jail."

"That's what we are really about here," Shapiro continued. "We are about taking them out. Taking the people with the most power and the most connections and the most influence, knocking them out, and that's why apparently small numbers [of defendants] have such significance in a place like Chicago."

What Shapiro was describing, standing there in the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, is the iron triangle that runs this town.

Where would the Chicago Mob be without politicians on the pad? Or better yet,running a "made member" for political office? We aren't aware of any of the New York crime families putting their guys in high ranking elected political positions.