Cigar City Mafia is the first book ever written about the Tampa mob.

This enigmatic crime group extended its criminal empire across Florida, into Cuba and across the globe. Mafia traces the mob's history from its beginnings in the Cuban/Italian ethnic enclaves of Tampa in the 1920's through the present. The group also gave rise to one of the most powerful, yet least known mob bosses in crime history, Santo Trafficante Jr., who ran the crime family from 1954 to his death in 1987.

The book examines:

· The "Era of Blood", where 25 gangsters were gunned down on the streets of Tampa as Italian, Cuban, and Anglo crime groups battled for control of the rackets

· Bolita, the nickel and dime betting game that made the crime family millions

· The global narcotics empire of Santo Trafficante Jr.

· Control of gambling in pre-Castro Cuba

· The nebulous connections between the CIA, anti-Castro Cubans, and the mob

· On the 40th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, the relationships between key figures in the assassination plot and Santo Trafficante Jr.

· The pervasive influence of organized crime on Tampa politics through the present day

· The mob murder of police officer Richard Cloud and the "lounge wars" of the 1970's

· The Donnie Brasco FBI sting, designed to take down Santo Trafficante Jr.

· The true story behind the Goodfellas scene in Tampa

· The relationships between the Tampa mob and crime families in New York, New Orleans, and Chicago as well as ties with Sicilian, Spanish, Hispanic, and Asian crime groups as well as the cracker mob, a group of rural whites that controlled gambling in central Florida

· The death of Santo Trafficante Jr. and the rise of his successor, Vincent LoScalzo

About The Author: Scott M. Deitche has written extensively on organized crime since 1996 and has been interviewed on local television and radio on Tampa organized crime. He has written articles for American Mafia as well as The Weekly Planet, a local alternative newsweekly in the Tampa Bay area. He runs a website on the Tampa mob at: Tampa Mafia

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