Sentence:  This dinner was the start of a new blatancy in the relationship between the <WSD>gangs</WSD> and the politicians , which , prior to 1924 , says Pasley , `` had been maintained with more or less stealth '' , but which henceforth was marked by these ostentatious gatherings , denounced by a clergyman as `` Belshazzar feasts '' , at which `` politicians fraternized cheek by jowl with gangsters , openly , in the big downtown hotels '' . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  an association of criminals