La Macchinetta Nostra

So some capo, a couple of generations down the line, figures out that the human frailties of his underlings are a big part of his business management problems. They've got anger management problems, they get addicted to the drugs or the booze, they get involved with some floozie, they take something personal, whatever. Next thing you know, bam, you can't rely on them anymore.

So bit by bit, he automates his workforce. Androids, after all, are efficient, dispassionate ("It's just business"), they follow orders, you always know where they are, and you can program them to self-destruct rather than turn stool pigeon.

Of course, they are also relentlessly logical - and literal. So if you tell them to "always do what's best for the business" as a generalized heuristic, well, don't be surprised if they eventually knock YOU off...

And so over time, the entire world - well, universe, actually - of "organized crime" becomes the stock-in-trade of a certain tribe of automatons. They're so good at it that no one notices. They refer to themselves as "la Machinetta Nostra" - "this little machine of ours."