The DeCavalcante crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family operating in Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey. Active since the early 20th century, the family was originally involved in bootlegging during Prohibition before finding its footing in the 1960s under the leadership of Simone DeCavalcante. Despite being a key ally to Five Families of New York, it has historically been regarded the lower class of organized crime and perceived as less powerful than the New York families. The DeCavalcante family is officially under the command of the Gambino family. After the retirement of Simone DeCavalcante, he was succeeded by John Riggi.
The family was destabilized in the early 1990s when a ruling panel was installed to run the organization as a council, but the members of this panel had conflicting interests, and a period of unrest resulted in multiple hits, attempted murders and turncoats. Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, an influential panel member and the de facto boss of the family, turned government witness after getting caught up in a racketeering case in 1999, and his cooperation led to a tremendous number of convictions. The family has since been debilitated, but still remains one of the most active criminal groups in New Jersey, with 40-50 made members by 2017.