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Zips

Zips, also known as Siggies or Geeps, is a slang term that emerged in the United States during the mid-20th century, primarily used by Italian-American organized crime members as a derogatory epithet for recent Sicilian immigrants engaged in mafia activities.^[1]^[2] The label underscored intra-ethnic frictions within American criminal syndicates, where longer-established Italian-American wiseguys perceived these Sicilian newcomers—frequently characterized as more violent, insular, and adherent to traditional Cosa Nostra codes—as threats to existing power structures and operational norms.^[3]^[4] Zips often filled roles as enforcers or specialists in transatlantic drug importation, notably contributing to heroin networks linking Sicilian clans with New York families during the 1970s and 1980s, which culminated in high-profile conflicts and prosecutions like the Pizza Connection case.^[3] The term's etymology remains debated, with attributions ranging from the perceived rapid, clipped manner of Sicilian speech to derivations from "zippo," Italian slang for zero or insignificance, implying disdain for their foreign status.^[4]^[3] While emblematic of broader immigrant rivalries in organized crime, zips exemplified the Sicilian faction's tactical edge in ruthlessness, including a willingness to employ bombings and other methods shunned by American counterparts to minimize civilian fallout.^[3]

Definition and Etymology

Meaning and Usage of the Term

"Zips" is a slang term originating in the American Mafia subculture, referring to Sicilian-born or recent Sicilian immigrant mafiosi operating in the United States, often characterized by their ruthless efficiency and violent methods.^[5] The term was employed derogatorily by established Italian-American mobsters to denote these newcomers, who were frequently recruited as enforcers or "soldiers" due to their willingness to engage in high-risk criminal acts, including bombings and assassinations that American-born members avoided to minimize civilian casualties.^[6] For instance, during the 1970s and 1980s, New York crime families like the Bonanno and Gambino organizations imported Zips to bolster their operations amid internal conflicts, valuing their loyalty to Sicilian Mafia traditions over assimilation into American norms.^[4] The usage of "Zips" highlighted tensions between Americanized Mafia members and purer Sicilian elements, with the former viewing the latter as unpredictable "imports" whose rapid, unhesitating style—sometimes likened to their quick speech patterns—disrupted established hierarchies.^[7] This distinction became prominent in major investigations, such as the FBI's Pizza Connection case starting in 1980, where a network of Sicilian defendants, labeled Zips by prosecutors and law enforcement, facilitated heroin trafficking from Sicily through pizzerias in the U.S., leading to a landmark 1985-1987 trial involving 22 Sicilian nationals.^[8] The term's application extended to specific figures, like hitman Luigi Giammona, known as "Luigi the Zip," who exemplified the archetype through his role in Bonanno family hits during the 1970s Castellammarese War revival.^[6] Over time, "Zips" evolved from an intra-Mafia slur to a broader descriptor in criminological accounts of transnational organized crime, underscoring the Sicilian Mafia's infiltration of American syndicates without implying endorsement of the ethnic generalizations it conveyed.^[9]

Linguistic Origins

The slang term "zips" (also rendered as "zip" in singular usage) refers to Sicilian-born mafiosi who immigrated to the United States, particularly those arriving after World War II and integrating into American Mafia families. It carried a derogatory connotation among Italian-American mobsters, implying cultural backwardness or unreliability due to the zips' stronger ties to Sicilian Cosa Nostra traditions over assimilated U.S. operations.^[8] The etymology of "zips" remains uncertain and debated among historians of organized crime. A commonly cited explanation attributes it to the perceived velocity of Sicilian dialects, which sounded like a rapid "zip" to English-influenced Italian-American ears unaccustomed to the faster-paced regional speech patterns.^[7]^[10] This theory aligns with anecdotal accounts from Mafia insiders, who noted communication barriers in joint criminal ventures during the 1970s heroin trade, such as the Pizza Connection network involving Sicilian importers.^[8] An alternative origin, advanced by Remo Franceschini—a New York Police Department detective specializing in Mafia investigations—posits that "zips" derives from a contraction of Sicilian vulgarisms for "hicks" (zippuni) or "primitives," underscoring the contempt of urbanized Italian-Americans toward rural Sicilian arrivals viewed as unsophisticated or overly insular.^[11] Journalist Selwyn Raab, in his 2005 history of New York Mafia families, describes the term's roots as "fuzzy" while endorsing Franceschini's interpretation over folk etymologies.^[11] Neither theory is conclusively proven, as primary Mafia documentation rarely addresses slang self-referentially, but both reflect underlying ethnic tensions within Italian organized crime hierarchies during the mid-20th century.^[11]

Historical Immigration Context

Waves of Italian and Sicilian Immigration to the US

The principal wave of Italian immigration to the United States occurred between 1880 and 1920, during which over 4 million individuals arrived, primarily from southern Italy including Sicily.^[12]^[13] This period saw annual arrivals peak in the early 1900s, with approximately 300,000 Italians in the 1880s, 600,000 in the 1890s, and more than 2 million from 1900 to 1910.^[12] By 1920, Italians constituted over 10 percent of the foreign-born population in the U.S.^[12] Sicilians formed a substantial portion of these migrants, comprising about one in four of the roughly 4.5 million Italians who arrived between 1880 and 1930.^[14] Prior to 1880, Sicilian entries numbered fewer than 1,000 annually, but significant flows began in the late 1880s, accelerating thereafter; in 1906 alone, around 100,000 Sicilians emigrated to the U.S.^[15]^[16] Between 1900 and 1915, over 1 million Sicilians departed for America, representing approximately 90 percent of their era's Sicilian emigrants.^[16] These migrations were driven by economic hardship, overpopulation, agricultural failures, and natural disasters in post-unification Italy, where southern regions like Sicily suffered from land inequality, high taxation, and limited industrialization.^[17]^[13] Many immigrants were unskilled laborers or farmers seeking temporary work, with chain migration patterns drawing families to urban enclaves in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans.^[12] Immigration declined sharply after 1921 due to U.S. quota laws restricting southern European entries.^[18]

Post-World War II Sicilian Arrivals

Following World War II, Sicily faced severe economic devastation, widespread unemployment, and social upheaval, prompting a resurgence in emigration to the United States as part of the broader Italian diaspora. Although U.S. immigration quotas limited overall inflows, the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 and subsequent reforms facilitated the entry of thousands of southern Italians, including Sicilians, between 1945 and the 1960s; many settled in urban enclaves like New York City and New Jersey, taking low-wage jobs in construction, garment industries, and small businesses. This wave contrasted with the earlier mass exodus of 1880–1920, which had seen over one million Sicilians arrive, but it sustained Sicilian-American communities amid ongoing poverty in agrarian regions like the latifondi.^[19] Within this migratory context, a subset of arrivals comprised young Sicilian men affiliated with Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, who were actively recruited by American organized crime figures to revitalize weakening family operations. These individuals, often arriving with minimal resources and fluent only in rapid Sicilian dialect—earning them the derogatory moniker "Zips" from American mafiosi, alluding to their swift speech or the slang for "zero" (zippo)—began integrating into U.S. syndicates in significant numbers from the late 1960s onward, particularly under Bonanno family underboss Carmine Galante. Galante, during trips to Sicily, enlisted them amid the Sicilian Mafia's post-war reorganization, which had been bolstered by Allied cooperation during the 1943 invasion but later faced internal purges under anti-Mafia efforts. The Zips' influx accelerated after the 1972 dismantling of the French Connection heroin pipeline, filling labor shortages in smuggling and enforcement roles deemed too risky or unappealing for American-born members.^[8]^[6] The Zips quickly dominated narcotics importation, establishing the "Pizza Connection" network by the mid-1970s, wherein heroin refined in Sicilian laboratories was smuggled via couriers and laundered through over 200 pizzerias across the Northeast and Midwest, generating an estimated $1.6 billion from 1975 to 1984. Key figures included Salvatore "Toto" Catalano, a Sicilian exile who led Bonanno-affiliated Zips in New York, and Giuseppe Ganci, both tied to Palermo clans like the Bontate and Inzerillo families. Their ruthless tactics, including bombings—a hallmark of Sicilian vendettas uncommon in American Mafia hits—fostered tensions, as Zips flouted the U.S. syndicates' informal bans on drugs and deference to seniority, contributing to internal wars like the Bonanno factional strife of the 1970s. This period marked a causal shift toward transnational crime alliances, driven by profit motives over ethnic loyalty, though it ultimately invited federal scrutiny culminating in the 1985–1987 Pizza Connection trial, which convicted 18 Zips and associates.^[8]^[7]

Role in Organized Crime

Integration and Conflicts with American Mafia Families

The term "Zips" referred to recent Sicilian immigrants affiliated with the Mafia, recruited by American crime families primarily for their established connections to Sicilian clans facilitating heroin importation. These individuals integrated into families like the Bonanno and Gambino through operational roles in narcotics distribution, often using fronts such as pizza parlors to launder proceeds and distribute product across the United States. Salvatore Catalano, a Bonanno family member who arrived from Sicily in 1967, exemplified this integration by leading a Zip crew that coordinated with Sicilian boss Gaetano Badalamenti, handling the U.S. end of a heroin pipeline estimated at $1.6 billion from 1975 to 1984.^[8]^[3] In the Bonanno family, acting boss Carmine Galante accelerated Zip integration upon his 1974 parole, employing young Sicilians such as Cesare Bonventre and Baldassare Amato as bodyguards and enforcers to bolster his control over the lucrative drug trade. Galante's strategy leveraged the Zips' direct ties to Sicilian suppliers, enabling efficient heroin refinement and smuggling via the "Pizza Connection" network of over 200 pizzerias. This reliance positioned Zips as key infrastructure for Galante's ambitions, filling voids left by internal Bonanno disruptions and allowing Sicilian methods like car bombings to influence American operations.^[20]^[3] Conflicts arose from Zips' divided loyalties, as their allegiance to Sicilian cosche often superseded American family hierarchies, fostering distrust among U.S.-born members who viewed them as untrustworthy and culturally alien. American mobsters resented the Zips' rapid ascent through drug profits, perceiving it as a threat to traditional power structures, with tensions exacerbated by the Zips' perceived arrogance and violent tactics unfamiliar to assimilated Italian-Americans. In the Bonanno family, Galante's favoritism toward Zips alienated factions led by Philip Rastelli, who feared a Sicilian takeover eroding native control.^[20]^[3] These frictions culminated in Galante's assassination on July 12, 1979, at Joe and Mary's restaurant in Brooklyn, where he was gunned down alongside two Zip bodyguards; the hit, approved by the Mafia Commission including Gambino and Genovese representatives, targeted his unilateral power grab and heavy Zip dependence as destabilizing. The subsequent Pizza Connection trial, commencing October 24, 1985, and resulting in convictions of 18 defendants including Badalamenti and Catalano by March 2, 1987, dismantled much of the Zip network, underscoring how their integration fueled both profitability and internecine strife.^[8]^[20]

Key Criminal Enterprises Involving Zips

Zips, recent Sicilian immigrants integrated into American Mafia families, primarily engaged in narcotics trafficking, leveraging their transnational connections to the Sicilian Mafia for heroin importation. The most prominent enterprise was the Pizza Connection scheme, an international heroin pipeline operating from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, which processed morphine base from Turkey into heroin in Sicilian laboratories before smuggling it into the United States hidden in shipments or via couriers, with distribution fronts in pizzerias across New York, New Jersey, and other states.^[8] ^[21] This network, orchestrated by Sicilian mafioso Gaetano Badalamenti and executed largely by Zips such as Carmine Catalano, generated hundreds of millions in profits through sales to American distributors, with laundered funds repatriated to Sicily via cash couriers or bank transfers disguised as pizzeria earnings.^[8] ^[22] In the Bonanno crime family, Zips served as enforcers under bosses like Philip Rastelli, conducting assassinations during internal power struggles in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the 1979 murder of underboss Carmine Galante at a Brooklyn restaurant, attributed to Zip hitmen loyal to Badalamenti's faction opposing Galante's monopolization of the drug trade.^[23] ^[20] These killings, part of the "Banana War," targeted rebels like Alphonse Indelicato and Gerlando Sciascia, utilizing Zip anonymity and willingness for extreme violence, such as bombings uncommon among American-born mafiosi, to consolidate Rastelli's control.^[21] FBI intelligence from undercover agent Joseph Pistone, embedded in the Bonanno family from 1976 to 1981, exposed Zip-orchestrated hits and drug operations, contributing to the 1985-1987 Pizza Connection trial that convicted over a dozen participants, including key Zips, on charges yielding sentences up to 45 years.^[8] Beyond drugs and enforcement, Zips facilitated money laundering and extortion in Sicilian enclaves, but their enterprises often sparked tensions with American mafiosi over profit shares and violent methods, leading to distrust and occasional purges, as American members viewed Zips as unpredictable outsiders prioritizing Sicilian loyalties.^[21] Figures like Luigi Ronsisvalle, known as "Luigi the Zip," exemplified this by participating in multiple Bonanno-linked rackets, including loan-sharking and contract killings, before his 2022 death from natural causes amid ongoing scrutiny.^[24]

Notable Figures and Events

Salvatore Catalano, a Sicilian-born mobster known as "Sal the Pizza Guy," emerged as a key figure among the Zips in the Bonanno crime family, serving as the primary liaison between Sicilian Mafia leaders and American operations for heroin importation. Catalano led a crew of Zips in New York, facilitating the smuggling of heroin hidden in shipments from Sicily and its distribution through pizzeria fronts, amassing hundreds of millions in proceeds.^[8]^[25] The Pizza Connection trial, commencing on October 24, 1985, in Manhattan federal court, stands as a landmark event exposing Zip involvement in transnational drug trafficking. Prosecutors charged 22 Sicilian defendants, including Catalano and Vito Badalamenti, with conspiring to import over $1.65 billion worth of heroin from the 1970s to early 1980s, using legitimate pizza businesses as laundering fronts and couriers embedded in Sicilian clans like the Badalamenti and Motisi families. The 17-month trial, one of the longest in U.S. history, resulted in convictions for most defendants on March 2, 1987, following testimony from turncoat Tommaso Buscetta, who detailed the Zips' role in bypassing American Mafia restrictions on narcotics.^[8]^[21] In the Bonanno family, Zips fueled internal conflicts during the 1970s and 1980s, aligning with imprisoned boss Philip Rastelli against American-born rivals after Carmine Galante's July 12, 1979, assassination, which some attributed to Sicilian operatives. Zip captains like Cesare Bonventre and Salvatore "Sally Blind" Marino briefly seized control in 1981, sparking the "Three Captains War," where Bonventre was murdered on April 16, 1984, by Rastelli loyalists Joseph Massino and Salvatore Vitale amid fears of Zip dominance. This violence underscored tensions between Zips' insular loyalty to Sicilian codes and American Mafia hierarchies, leading to over a dozen killings.^[3] John Stanfa, a Sicilian immigrant and Zip, rose to lead the Philadelphia crime family in 1991 after the November 5, 1980, slaying of Angelo Bruno, which federal probes linked to Zip ambitions for drug profits. Stanfa's regime devolved into war with younger Italian-American rebels like Joey Merlino by 1993, featuring ambushes such as the March 13, 1994, shooting of Merlino, reflecting Zip efforts to enforce traditional omertà against Americanized factions but ultimately resulting in Stanfa's 1994 racketeering conviction and family decline.^[26]^[6]

Cultural Depictions and Legacy

Representations in Media and Literature

In non-fiction literature on organized crime, Zips are frequently depicted as Sicilian-born mafiosi imported to the United States for their reliability in violent operations and drug enterprises, often exacerbating tensions with established Italian-American families due to cultural differences and aggressive tactics. Carl Sifakis' The Mafia Encyclopedia (2005) details their ruthlessness, noting figures like Salvatore "Toto" Catalano, a Zip leader who orchestrated the 1979 assassination of Bonanno boss Carmine Galante and coordinated the Pizza Connection heroin network in the 1980s, leading to his 45-year sentence in 1987.^[27] Similarly, Selwyn Raab's Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires (2005, revised 2016) portrays Zips as a vital influx of full-blooded Italian recruits amid declining domestic eligibility, with recent Sicilian arrivals strengthening families like the Gambinos through ties to homeland cosche, though sparking internal power struggles.^[28] These accounts emphasize causal factors like Mussolini's 1920s crackdowns driving migration waves of 500–1,000 Zips, who allied with modernizers like Lucky Luciano against traditionalists.^[27] Fictional media representations draw on this archetype, illustrating Zips as traditional, expendable enforcers clashing with Americanized mobsters over methods and loyalty. In the HBO series The Sopranos (1999–2007), Italian "zips" like Furio Giunta—a Neapolitan enforcer imported for hits—embody the stereotype of old-country operatives valued for their brutality but viewed suspiciously for their foreign accents and customs, as evidenced by dialogue labeling arrivals as "zips" during assignments such as collections and assassinations.^[29] The series reflects real dynamics, such as Bonanno family reliance on Zips for the 1979 Galante hit, portraying them as tools in interstate rivalries while highlighting prejudices, like American mobsters dismissing them as untrustworthy "crazies."^[27] Such depictions underscore causal realism in Mafia evolution, where Zips' importation fueled heroin booms but invited FBI scrutiny via cases like Pizza Connection, contributing to family weakenings.^[28] Broader media, including films like Goodfellas (1990), allude to Sicilian influences in mob hierarchies without explicit "Zip" terminology, focusing instead on ethnic purity rules favoring full Italians for membership, which Zips satisfied.^[30] These portrayals, grounded in empirical Mafia histories, avoid romanticization by emphasizing Zips' role in violent escalations, such as near-wars with Gambinos over rackets in the 1980s, resolved partly by external pressures like RICO prosecutions.^[27]

Influence on Italian-American Identity

The influx of Zips—recent Sicilian immigrants affiliated with Cosa Nostra—into American organized crime networks during the 1970s and 1980s accentuated internal ethnic divisions within Italian-American criminal elements, mirroring broader tensions in the immigrant community. Established Italian-American families, largely descended from earlier 19th- and early 20th-century waves, had adapted mafia operations to American contexts, emphasizing discretion and avoiding tactics like bombings that risked civilian casualties. In contrast, Zips adhered more rigidly to Sicilian traditions, employing violence including explosives and targeting non-combatants, which bred distrust and conflicts such as those within the Bonanno family.^[28]^[8] This divide highlighted a cultural chasm: second- and third-generation Italian-Americans increasingly prioritized assimilation into mainstream society, while Zips represented an unassimilated "old world" import, complicating narratives of ethnic progress. High-profile operations like the Pizza Connection heroin ring, which laundered approximately $1.65 billion through pizzerias from 1975 to 1984, exemplified Zip involvement and amplified negative perceptions. The ensuing federal trial from October 1985 to March 1987 convicted 18 defendants, mostly Sicilians, exposing transnational ties but fueling media narratives that conflated Sicilian mafiosi with all Italian ethnics.^[8]^[31] Such events perpetuated stereotypes portraying Italian-Americans as inherently criminal, despite empirical data showing declining Italian involvement in crime post-1950s due to socioeconomic mobility; for instance, by the 1970s, Italian-Americans had higher rates of homeownership and education than earlier immigrant cohorts, reflecting successful integration.^[32] These dynamics pressured Italian-American communities to actively disavow mafia associations to safeguard their emerging identity as law-abiding professionals and entrepreneurs. The persistent linkage of Sicilian elements like Zips to racketeering reinforced a "self-locking stereotype" equating ethnic origins with deviance, prompting advocacy against media portrayals and underscoring the causal role of visible criminal subcultures in hindering full assimilation.^[33]^[34] Ultimately, while Zips comprised a marginal faction, their activities delayed the decoupling of Italian heritage from organized crime tropes, influencing generational efforts to emphasize cultural contributions over criminal outliers.

Controversies and Ethnic Dynamics

Derogatory Implications and Internal Prejudices

The term "Zips," employed by Italian-American mafiosi, served as a pejorative slur specifically targeting recent Sicilian immigrants active in organized crime, underscoring ethnic hierarchies within U.S. crime families. Established mobsters, often second- or third-generation Italian-Americans from regions like Naples or Calabria, used it to demean these newcomers as culturally inferior outsiders—rapid-talking, hot-tempered, and insufficiently assimilated into American mafia norms. This linguistic dismissal highlighted a broader prejudice viewing Sicilians as perpetual foreigners, despite their shared heritage, with the label implying unreliability or excessive zeal in criminal pursuits.^[35]^[36]^[2] Such internal biases manifested in operational distrust, particularly during the 1970s heroin epidemic tied to the Sicilian "Pizza Connection," where Zips dominated importation and distribution networks, often bypassing American bosses' oversight. American faction leaders, enforcing a commission ban on narcotics since 1957, resented Zips for profiting independently and attracting federal scrutiny, fostering accusations of disloyalty and greed. This prejudice fueled violent schisms; for instance, in the Bonanno family, tensions escalated in 1979 when boss Carmine Galante—himself Sicilian but aligned with Zips for enforcement—relied heavily on them, prompting American members to back his assassination on July 12, 1979, outside a Brooklyn restaurant, partly to curb Sicilian influence.^[37]^[38]^[35] Prejudices extended to perceptions of Zips as more barbaric or unbound by omertà's subtleties, with American mafiosi like John Gotti in the Gambino family decrying them in the 1980s as threats to family unity during power struggles post-Paul Castellano's December 16, 1985, murder. Gotti's faction targeted Sicilian enforcers, leading to retaliatory hits and the 1987 Pizza Connection convictions of over a dozen Zips, which exposed and exacerbated these divides. These dynamics revealed not mere slang but a causal ethnic realism: longer-assimilated groups prioritized U.S.-centric alliances, viewing unvetted Sicilian imports as risks to territorial stability and law enforcement evasion.^[36]^[3]^[38]

Broader Impacts on Assimilation and Crime Narratives

The importation of Zips in the 1970s and 1980s, often as operatives for heroin smuggling under figures like Salvatore Catalano, represented a deliberate influx of unassimilated Sicilian mafiosi who prioritized allegiance to Palermo-based clans over adaptation to American norms. These recent immigrants, typically fluent only in Sicilian dialect and bound by rigid codes like omertà, formed insular crews that operated parallel to, yet in tension with, the more anglicized Italian-American Mafia families. Internal frictions, such as the 1979 murder of Carmine Galante and subsequent Bonanno family upheavals, arose from Zips' perceived disloyalty and violent autonomy, mirroring broader cultural barriers to integration faced by this criminal subset and delaying recognition of Italian-Americans' overall socioeconomic progress.^[37]^[31] Zips' orchestration of the Pizza Connection scheme—smuggling over 1,600 kilograms of heroin worth approximately $1.6 billion from 1975 to 1984 via morphine processing in Sicily and distribution through pizzerias in New York, New Jersey, and Midwest states—amplified crime narratives framing Sicilian immigrants as vectors of transnational organized crime. The ensuing 1985–1987 federal trial, the longest in U.S. history at 17 months, convicted 18 defendants including key Zips and American Mafia associates, exposing a hybrid Sicilian-American network but also entrenching media portrayals of Italian ethnicity as synonymous with drug trafficking and extortion. This high-profile exposure, while rooted in verifiable operations, overshadowed data indicating Italian-American crime involvement remained confined to a tiny fraction of the community, with overall rates no higher than those of other immigrant populations during the era.^[37]^[8]^[39] Law enforcement triumphs, including RICO applications and U.S.-Italian collaborations that dismantled Zip networks by the late 1980s, gradually reframed narratives from ethnic inevitability to prosecutable enterprise, underscoring how imported Sicilian Mafia traditions proved maladaptive against American institutions. These outcomes facilitated partial dissociation of Italian-American identity from persistent criminal stigma, though residual stereotypes endured, complicating assimilation discourses by conflating a deviant minority with the assimilated majority's achievements in education and business.^[37]^[31]

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American Mafia Terminology | About The Mafia
Aug 9, 2013 · Zips: Derogatory term used by American mafiosi to describe Sicilian Mafiosi. Hitting or Going to the Mattresses: To go to war with a rival ...
[37]
Pizza Connection - FBI
Catalano served as Badalamenti's primary nexus to the American Mafia and the leader of his U.S. crew, a group of Sicilian immigrants known as the “Zips.” The ...
[38]
Feature Articles 568 - AmericanMafia.com
Capone had crudely insulted his guests, zips being a derogatory term for Sicilian Mafiosi. Half-crocked and loose of tongue, John Scalise fired first. ï ...
[39]
Italian Immigrants and Crime - The Peopling of New York City
May 11, 2009 · Contrary to popular belief, Italian Americans had crime rates no higher than that of other immigrant groups.