Is there organized crime in rural Kentucky ? (Lexington, Frankfort: crime rate, neighborhood)
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This article, while an interesting read, is pretty outdated and crime in Kentucky is varied, depending on where you go and what you consider organized crime.
Organized crime in the form of any real street gangs aren't going to really be seen outside of Louisville, Lexington, and the areas across the river from Cincy. Southern, rural street gangs are usually "sets," people from the same hood who band together but aren't really associated with any national gang. Paducah, Hopkinsville, Owensboro, Bowling Green- cities this size usually have sets.
As far as old school, Italian mafia, I'm not sure about that. I'm sure there are probably some of them in Louisville and maybe Lexington, but probably not any sizeable organization.
There is a definite Russian/Bosnian/Armenian mob presence in Bowling Green and a lot of drugs are run through that town from Nashville to be sold in the Midwest.
And there are lone wolves in a lot of places- gang or cartel members from another place who move to rural areas to serve as local distributors. This is especially common with the cartels- it has become much harder to acquire the materials needed to make large amounts of methamphetamine and cartels have seized on the opportunity and are constantly looking to expand into new markets.
Pot still plays a big part but so many states have legalized it that it has become much easier to obtain high-quality product for cheap. Eastern Kentucy is a heroin den if anything nowdays and most of the "organized" criminals in that part of the state are politicians. And if you think in terms of members of organized crime who are established and affluent, most of them will be business owners in the community, etc. The guy who always gets the city contract, or the family that owns a bakery that is never busy but has been open for 60 years. Those are the true members of rural organized crime.
This article, while an interesting read, is pretty outdated and crime in Kentucky is varied, depending on where you go and what you consider organized crime.
Organized crime in the form of any real street gangs aren't going to really be seen outside of Louisville, Lexington, and the areas across the river from Cincy. Southern, rural street gangs are usually "sets," people from the same hood who band together but aren't really associated with any national gang. Paducah, Hopkinsville, Owensboro, Bowling Green- cities this size usually have sets.
As far as old school, Italian mafia, I'm not sure about that. I'm sure there are probably some of them in Louisville and maybe Lexington, but probably not any sizeable organization.
There is a definite Russian/Bosnian/Armenian mob presence in Bowling Green and a lot of drugs are run through that town from Nashville to be sold in the Midwest.
And there are lone wolves in a lot of places- gang or cartel members from another place who move to rural areas to serve as local distributors. This is especially common with the cartels- it has become much harder to acquire the materials needed to make large amounts of methamphetamine and cartels have seized on the opportunity and are constantly looking to expand into new markets.
Pot still plays a big part but so many states have legalized it that it has become much easier to obtain high-quality product for cheap. Eastern Kentucy is a heroin den if anything nowdays and most of the "organized" criminals in that part of the state are politicians. And if you think in terms of members of organized crime who are established and affluent, most of them will be business owners in the community, etc. The guy who always gets the city contract, or the family that owns a bakery that is never busy but has been open for 60 years. Those are the true members of rural organized crime.
Would you say that criminal organizations/networks as described in the article have gone out of business and/or declined ? If so then why ?
Also are there any articles out there about the Eastern European organized crime presence in Bowling Green ? I'm asking because I searched for some and I didn't find anything .
I wouldn't say they have gone away, but the game has changed considerably since this article was written. I was born in KY and have lived here most of my life, so I have seen the change in these groups.
Political and law enforcement corruption is still prevalent. I was outside the county courthouse smoking a cigarette a few years ago, and several detectives from the sheriff's department were discussing how they weren't going to bust a guy they knew was making meth because he didn't have any money. My brother got in some serious trouble with the law about 10 years ago and he sat in jail for 18 months awaiting trial because the county prosecutor solicited my family for a bribe to move his case up and we told him no.
This article was written in the early nineties, and a lot has changed. For one, there's still a moonshine/bootlegging activity, but not like back then. When this article was written, only 20 of the 120 counties in Kentucky were wet (legal to sell alcohol). Now, because the state is broke and needs tax revenue, just about every county allows alcohol sales in some form, and if it doesn't, the next county over probably does.
The cocaine trafficking mentioned in the article is probably long gone. Coke is still a thing in the big cities, but for the most part it's for rich folks and college students. A lot of dealers in my neck of the woods stopped selling crack a few years ago when Craig Petties got busted in Memphis- he was pretty much single-handedly providing coke for the entire region. After that, they started buying meth because the cartels are flooding the country with high quality product for cheap. 2 guys in a county of about 35k people about 30 minutes from where I live got busted with 60 pounds of it earlier this week. And that's probably the third or fourth bust over 10 pounds in that county this year.
As I stated in my original post, there are still a lot of people growing pot in the state, but it's no Cornbread Mafia, Johnny Boone multi-state conspiracy. Mexican cartels and legal growers selling their overstock (weed-legal states limit the amount that can be grown and sold in a fiscal year) provide higher quality product at cheaper prices than anyone running an outdoor grow in the woods somewhere. Well, maybe not better quality, but more variety.
Regarding the bratva in Bowling Green, you won't find any articles about it. I know from living there a few years back. There was a Slavic restaurant down there I'm assuming was the base of operations- lots of big black Mercedes and Lexus sedans in the parking lot, guys in ugly sweaters and track suits. Just by the size of the community alone there would have to be connected guys- there were billboards in Cyrillic in parts of town telling people to register their kids for school. Haven't seen that anywhere else in the country in a town that size. A lot of Eastern Europeans move there for truck driving jobs as I65 and US231 run through there. I lived in a nice, newly constructed neighborhood. One of my next door neighbors was a Ukranian family. The wife stayed at home, and the husband would be gone for 2 or 3 days at a time then come home in a box truck late at night with a couple other guys and they would quickly unload a bunch of furniture into the garage, then the van would take off. Living in a brand new house with no discernable income and moving truckloads of furniture under the cover of night sounds pretty mob to me.
Would you say those politico type gangsters you mentioned in post 31 are involved in Kentucky's present day drug trade ? Or do they strictly stick to white collar crime ?
I wouldn't say they have gone away, but the game has changed considerably since this article was written. I was born in KY and have lived here most of my life, so I have seen the change in these groups.
Political and law enforcement corruption is still prevalent. I was outside the county courthouse smoking a cigarette a few years ago, and several detectives from the sheriff's department were discussing how they weren't going to bust a guy they knew was making meth because he didn't have any money. My brother got in some serious trouble with the law about 10 years ago and he sat in jail for 18 months awaiting trial because the county prosecutor solicited my family for a bribe to move his case up and we told him no.
This article was written in the early nineties, and a lot has changed. For one, there's still a moonshine/bootlegging activity, but not like back then. When this article was written, only 20 of the 120 counties in Kentucky were wet (legal to sell alcohol). Now, because the state is broke and needs tax revenue, just about every county allows alcohol sales in some form, and if it doesn't, the next county over probably does.
The cocaine trafficking mentioned in the article is probably long gone. Coke is still a thing in the big cities, but for the most part it's for rich folks and college students. A lot of dealers in my neck of the woods stopped selling crack a few years ago when Craig Petties got busted in Memphis- he was pretty much single-handedly providing coke for the entire region. After that, they started buying meth because the cartels are flooding the country with high quality product for cheap. 2 guys in a county of about 35k people about 30 minutes from where I live got busted with 60 pounds of it earlier this week. And that's probably the third or fourth bust over 10 pounds in that county this year.
As I stated in my original post, there are still a lot of people growing pot in the state, but it's no Cornbread Mafia, Johnny Boone multi-state conspiracy. Mexican cartels and legal growers selling their overstock (weed-legal states limit the amount that can be grown and sold in a fiscal year) provide higher quality product at cheaper prices than anyone running an outdoor grow in the woods somewhere. Well, maybe not better quality, but more variety.
Regarding the bratva in Bowling Green, you won't find any articles about it. I know from living there a few years back. There was a Slavic restaurant down there I'm assuming was the base of operations- lots of big black Mercedes and Lexus sedans in the parking lot, guys in ugly sweaters and track suits. Just by the size of the community alone there would have to be connected guys- there were billboards in Cyrillic in parts of town telling people to register their kids for school. Haven't seen that anywhere else in the country in a town that size. A lot of Eastern Europeans move there for truck driving jobs as I65 and US231 run through there. I lived in a nice, newly constructed neighborhood. One of my next door neighbors was a Ukranian family. The wife stayed at home, and the husband would be gone for 2 or 3 days at a time then come home in a box truck late at night with a couple other guys and they would quickly unload a bunch of furniture into the garage, then the van would take off. Living in a brand new house with no discernable income and moving truckloads of furniture under the cover of night sounds pretty mob to me.
Im in the northern part of the state and from what Ive seen, most organized crime around here is involved in loan sharking, drugs to some extent. They are usually connected to a larger crime family in NY or NJ.
Im in the northern part of the state and from what Ive seen, most organized crime around here is involved in loan sharking, drugs to some extent. They are usually connected to a larger crime family in NY or NJ.
That does actually seem believable due to the influence of Cincinnati , though I'm not aware of any NY/NJ crime families having ties to that city . Though I could be wrong ...
Would you say those politico type gangsters you mentioned in post 31 are involved in Kentucky's present day drug trade ? Or do they strictly stick to white collar crime ?
Anyways thanks for these insightful posts .
That I am not sure of. I would say most of them stick to white collar stuff. If they are involved in the drug trade, it is probably indirectly- running protection for dealers, etc. There is a lot less of the "good old boy" system in the drug trade in the state now, so those politico types won't have the chance to get directly involved. A cartel may find a friendly official to bribe, but they aren't going to give a local politician a half pound of meth or weed for them to sell on the street. In the last 20 years the state police have become incredibly effective and they will usually be watching those suppliers or shut them down before some local city council or county judge type gets involved with direct transactions. Also, older white people with political connections prefer to do their dirt with their own kind. They're not going to stick their neck out for some Latino cartel affiliate or black street gang member.
That I am not sure of. I would say most of them stick to white collar stuff. If they are involved in the drug trade, it is probably indirectly- running protection for dealers, etc. There is a lot less of the "good old boy" system in the drug trade in the state now, so those politico types won't have the chance to get directly involved. A cartel may find a friendly official to bribe, but they aren't going to give a local politician a half pound of meth or weed for them to sell on the street. In the last 20 years the state police have become incredibly effective and they will usually be watching those suppliers or shut them down before some local city council or county judge type gets involved with direct transactions. Also, older white people with political connections prefer to do their dirt with their own kind. They're not going to stick their neck out for some Latino cartel affiliate or black street gang member.
As my last question I'd like to ask that do you think it would be a good idea for a fellow like me to try and shoot part of a documentary concerning rural organized crime in Kentucky ? Or would you advise against it ?
Believe it or not - they did and there are some areas today which are still controlled by organized crime because they are making a great deal of money - if we go back to prohibition era rural areas were key to create and store the merchandise.
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Organized Crime Groups in rural areas
