A former Philadelphia mob boss claims that the mafia is more than capable of taking out terrorist operatives in the United States. Ralph Natale, who led a crime family from the 90’s until 2005 when he was arrested and sentenced to 13 years in prison for racketeering, drugs, and bribery charges, was recently interviewed by Fox News host Eric Shawn to promote a book. He expressed doubt that the authorities can handle terror threats, deeming them to be “pussycats.” He said he’d be glad to take care of these threats, if the government paid him to do it of course.

“As soon as they would point out a crew, say this is where they’re meeting they’re gonna go kill people-they’re own kind, white, black, they’ll kill anyone. Give me their names, I’ll take care of the business.” Before Eric Shawn could ask to clarify the statement, Natele Added “I would kill them all.”

“I would kill them immediately, and then I would hang them in front of their houses and then call the newspaper, the Inquirer,” he said. “‘Listen, come see what happened to those people.”

So basically, his strategy is to fight fire with fire. Terrorize the terrorists. Obviously, it’s doubtful that the US government would pay the mob to fight terrorism, especially with those kinds of tactics. But on the other hand, there is a precedent here. During World War Two, the US government enlisted the help of Italian and Jewish organized crime figures to protect ports from saboteurs, and break up union strikes. Still though, that’s a far cry from hanging terrorists in front of their homes.

And this isn’t the first time that the mafia has offered to help the US government fight terrorism.

Giovanni Gambino, the son of a key figure in the Gambino mob organization, says the mafia is in a much better position than security bodies, such as the FBI or Homeland Security, to give New Yorkers the protection they need.

“They often act too late, or fail to see a complete picture of what’s happening due to a lack of ‘human intelligence,’” he said in an interview with NBC News, as cited by Reuters, adding that the mafia’s knowledge of individual movements and interaction with locals gives it the upper hand, even compared to the latest surveillance technologies…

“…The world is dangerous today, but people living in New York neighborhoods with Sicilian connections should feel safe,” he said. “We make sure our friends and families are protected from extremists and terrorists, especially the brutal, psychopathic organization that calls itself the Islamic State,”

Gambino Jr, who was brought up in Torretta, a mountainous area overlooking Palermo, the capital of Sicily, says that Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) fear the Sicilian mafia, and this has been one of the main reasons why they have not tried to set up any underground cells in Sicily.

It may be tempting to take the mob’s offer. After all, they are well positioned to take on these threats. But in reality it’s a devil’s bargain. Let’s not forget, that the mafia has its own lengthy history of terrorizing civilians. And to fight terrorism, they would no doubt disregard civil liberties, just as our government does on a routine basis. To top it all off, letting them kill terrorists would give their criminal enterprise a renewed legitimacy in the eyes of ordinary Americans.

They may not be nearly as savage and twisted as ISIS, but let’s not forget that these aren’t good guys either.