Mafia! Is she safe?

Rahant

I know that this is going to seem somewhat contrived, but I assure that the following is true. I'm keeping identifying information to a minimum for safety reasons as you will see.

My girlfriend tutors in the gypsy community, as in actual Romani. She herself is not a gypsy, but has worked with the family for a longtime. Recently, the family she works with has become a target of the gypsy mafia (she told me what the name of the organization is, but I can't remember; like the Yakuza, the gypsy mafia has it's own name). They've basically threatened to kill someone if they don't hand over money. Basically, extortion. I'm assuming that she meant kill someone in the family. Apparently, there was an incident quite some time ago before she started working with them where someone did indeed get killed, supposedly at the hands of the mafia.

So, my question is how safe is my girlfriend and how worried about her should I be? She's not a gypsy, she's not part of the family, but she has worked with them for years. She has been apparently been told to keep away from their house for the time being. I'm not sure how these things usually go, or how short-lived these threats are.

In other words, I know nothing about how the real-life mafia works, especially the gypsy mafia, and I have no idea how worried I should be about her safety.

Improvolone

If you she is legitimately concerned and she was told to stay away, I don't know why she wouldn't and contact the police.

Sipex

The police, while a sensible and easy solution, is not her decision in this situation. It's up to the family what they do and they may have personal reasons for keeping the police away (ie: depending on how violent and serious this mafia is.)

Unless she feels her life is in danger her best bet right now is to decide "Do I want to associate with this family anymore?"

edit: I just realised I basically said the same thing as improvolone, just from a different viewpoint.

Yeah, if she's worried for her life then she should contact the police.

Satsumomo

Although it varies by country, down here it is common practice for people in jail to obtain an illegal phone, and a phone directory, and start calling people to those numbers. They usually have your family name, so they use this little information to threaten your life, in exchange for money.

They will usually claim to have one of your family members with them, and that if you don't comply, they will kill them. People tend to panic, and since the "ransoms" are somewhat low ($500-$1000) they end up paying, even though they weren't in any danger at all.

So what I'm saying is that, if your girlfriend decides to get involved (She shouldn't) then they should try to identify if this is a scam or not.

Rahant

I should add that it's me who has the concern, not my girlfriend. My girlfriend doesn't really think much about things like this, and when I actually asked if she thought she might be in any danger, she answered with "I don't think so...," but with a tone like she hadn't really thought about that.

She did say that the evidence seems to point to it not being a scam because apparently someone in the family was killed several years ago under similar circumstances. It's enough that the family she works for seems to have gone into lock-down mode, not even letting the kids go to school.

wogi

Well, if she steers clear, she should be fine. Mafia types aren't necessarily the smartest people in the world. Things like this don't tend to last very long, people don't like to wait for money, and criminals are no different.

Kakodaimonos

Couple of things. First, the police won't do anything if it's just your girlfriend. They might do something if the family themselves went to the police, but that's a big if in those communities.

I wouldn't worry about whomever's making the threats targeting your girlfriend. This sort of stuff stays in the community. They would not deliberately go after an outsider. Now, she could be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it sounds like the family is having her stay away until it's blown over. As long as she's staying away until the family thinks it's safe, she's probably not in too much danger.