I can’t really blame you honestly, don’t worry. But this is already the first and least problematic issue with mafia stories.
Whether people believe it or not, stories carry messages and information. People like myself (because I literally live in the country these authors think to portray correctly, not because I possess infinite knowledge) know that the information contained in those stories is false. But to the rest of the readers (and quite frankly, to the authors themselves), what is written in the story is taken as truth. Sure it’s fiction, but in reality every story is based on some foundation of truth. When even that foundation that is supposed to be reality turns out to be false, that’s when problems arise.
The “Italian mafia” distinction is just a minor issue. Imagine how many others develop through these stories because people are too lazy to do their research on the internet. It’s literally the ABC of a writer.
People are free to write whatever they want, but when something is public, the public has the right the express their opinion and authors can’t silence them. Freedom to write problematic stories = freedom to call these stories out 