Sentence:  It wasn't as though there were groups of kids from mob-<WSD>connected</WSD> families who socialized exclusively; in fact, a consequence of growing up in a huge city like New York was that you had several groups of friends, simply due to the number and density of people. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  involved with organized crime, specifically someone not (yet) working for a crime organization, but referred to as a "friend" by made guys/wise guys inside the organization.