Whisperings of the mob have also surfaced in Des Plaines, where it appears an alleged mob associate is working to enter the city's billboard industry.

Crime experts say the mob is still prevalent in Chicago and surrounding suburbs, but it has ceased to dominate public attention.

"Is organized crime dead? No," said Chicago historian and author Rich Lindberg. "Nowadays it's been a lot smaller, people have paid less attention once they stopped killing people."

An affidavit by Peter J. Wacks, a former Federal Bureau of Investigations employee, says La Cosa Nostra (LCN) is a nationwide mob organization that peaks in its violence and prevalence in Chicago. According to Wacks, ongoing mobster activity includes illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, prostitution, labor racketeering, armed robberies, "numbers" games, bookmaking and even collecting a "street tax" on burglary receipts.

Lindberg said ongoing mob activity tends to be most pervasive where the mob was historically active, especially areas like Cicero, Melrose Park, Northlake and Stone Park.

According to Chicago Crime Commission president Tom Kilpatrick, no suburb is immune to the mob's influence.

"It's not limited to one geographic area," Kirkpatrick said.

He said he sees about two to three mob-related indictments surface each year.

Lindberg said the number may be even less, with the last four to five years being a very quiet time for mob attention.

He said the 1980s and early 1990s were the boom years for mob busts.

"We don't have that strike force anymore," Lindberg said.

Mob-related indictments have occasionally surfaced in the suburbs. In Aug. 2001 and February 2002, Stone Park officials admitted their complicity in a racketeering conspiracy involving video-poker machines. The lucrative video poker machines spanned from Stone Park and Franklin Park to Northlake.

In Aug. 2002, a federal jury found Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese and other officials guilty of racketeering conspiracy for a health insurance fraud worth $12 million.

But mob influence is not limited to only notorious suburbs, Kirkpatrick said.

"Lots of suburbs North, South and West of Chicago have had problems," Kirkpatrick said. "Apparently business is booming."