The
DeCavalcante crime family is an
organized crime family that operates in
Elizabeth, New Jersey and surrounding areas in the state and is part of the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the
American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra). It operates on the other side of the
Hudson River from the
Five Families of New York, but it maintains strong relations with many of them, as well as with the
Philadelphia crime family and the
Patriarca crime family of
New England. Its illicit activities include
bookmaking, building, cement, and construction violations,
bootlegging,
corruption,
drug trafficking,
extortion,
fencing,
fraud,
hijacking,
illegal gambling,
loan-sharking,
money laundering,
murder, pier thefts,
pornography,
prostitution,
racketeering, and
waste management violations. The DeCavalcantes are, in part, the inspiration for the fictional
DiMeo crime family of HBO's dramatic series
The Sopranos. The DeCavalcante family was the subject of the
CNBC program
Mob Money, which aired on June 23, 2010 and
The Real Sopranos TV documentary (first airdate April 26, 2006) directed by Thomas Viner for the UK production company Class Films.