Associate

Associates are unofficial members of a crime family, who are closely associated with crime families and often work in the family rackets, or carry out oddjobs for family members, in the hopes of being 'made' into a family soldato. An associate is not a member of the mafia, 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.