This city has always had it's fair share of gangsters and other various forms of riff raff but in recent weeks there has been an an noticeable increase in the number of people that are doing smaller jobs for some of the larger Families.
They are known on the streets as associates and there is evidence that these low level thugs are working to become connected to larger more established Families.

An Associate is not a member of the mob, and an Associate's role is more similar to that of an errand boy. They are usually a go-between or sometimes deal in drugs to keep the heat off the actual members, or they are people the family does business with (restaurant owners, etc.). In other cases, an associate might be a corrupt  Labor Union delegate or businessman. Non-Italians will never go any further than this. However, occasionally an associate will become powerful within his own family, for example Joe Watts, a close associate of John Gotti.

This increase in mules and snitches promises to be a greater burden to the already incompetent ML City PD.