Modern Bonanno + Sicilian Mafia ties

[B.]

According to the Dimino case, the Sicilian mafia is heavily investing in gambling machines in North America in collaboration with American mafia families. These arrests haven't mentioned drugs so far from what I've seen.

Bonanno-connected Dimino associate Sergio Gucciardi already had machines in his NYC bars at the time of the arrest and the Ribera mafia already had machines in Montreal in partnership with the local mafia rule. Dimino was looking to place his own machines in parts of the US without stepping on other mafia families' toes.

As far as Mancuso goes, it's hard to speculate. Sal Montagna was a zip and his years as acting boss seem to have cemented Mancuso as the official boss. They were from the same crew. Nothing is permenant, though. Look at Carmine Galante -- he was the rallying point for the zip faction of the 1970s Bonanno family but look at who participated directly in his murder? His fellow Castellammarese Bonventre, Amato, and Giordano. Politics can shift quickly even within a single faction.

[antimafia]

[snip]
Here is a controversial question:

If the Bonannos are traveling to Sicily and meeting with the boss of Castellammare and asking for favors, including meetings with other members of the Castellammare-Alcamo mandamento, doesn't it seem likely they still have connections to their decina in Montreal?

- We know from the Dimino case that Sciacca boss Accursio Dimino has associates connected to the Bonannos in NYC and he's also up to date on the Ribera family's business with the Cattolica Eraclea group in Montreal.

- Leonardo Rizzuto visited Sicily and stayed in Sciacca during a period where American Bonanno members have ongoing contact with boss Francesco Domingo in Castellammare, who himself is said in this new investigation to have met with Dimino of Sciacca.

- We still don't have any concrete knowledge that the Montreal crew are officially recognized as anything except Bonanno members. Five years ago Buffalo underboss Domenico Violi offered to introduce NYC-turned-Canadian Bonanno member Enzo Morena to several of the Montreal crew members/associates, suggesting there is no bad blood.

It's unlikely to me in the small, interconnected world of the mafia that these events are completely disconnected. At the very least, the mafia network is alive and international in scope.

I'll even take it one step further. If the Bonanno and Gambino families are meeting with Sicilian mafia bosses, keeping each other up to date, and conducting activities together and the Ribera family has a slot machine partnership with the Bonanno crew in Montreal, it shouldn't be difficult to believe Joe Todaro in Buffalo has contact with the New York mafia bosses like his underboss Violi said.

I have no idea what the future holds, but I think we have to reconsider the narratives we've had about the US mafia for the last twenty years. They are keeping the network alive as best they can. Fifteen years ago I never would have believed that Bonanno members are meeting directly with the sitting boss of Castellammare and discussing mafia issues with him.

B.,

You had previously written more than two years ago that "Bonanno informant Vincenzo Morena was inducted in Canada but it's not clear if he was at all associated with the "traditional" Montreal wing of the family." (viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3592&p=79832)

When Domenico Violi offered in September 2016 to introduce Morena to Frank Arcadi, Tony Mucci, and Frankie Cotroni (son of Frank Cotroni Sr.), Violi was apparently a Buffalo soldier (having been inducted in January 2015 according to Violi and Morena), and Morena had been a made Bonanno at that point for what we all estimate to be between eight and 10 months (having been inducted in November 2015).

Are you still of the opinion that there is a "traditional" Montreal wing of the Bonanno Family? Or did you mean that there are still a scant number of members of the Montreal Mafia that are likely or probably made Bonannos? I count five: Arcadi, Mucci, Tony Volpato, Tony Van(n)elli, and the aforementioned Cotroni. (I do suspect that Frankie is a made member.)

Why do you currently think that Violi's offering to introduce Morena back in September 2016 to three likely or probably made Bonanno members suggests that there was no bad blood in Montreal's Italian underworld?

Violi might not have had a chance to introduce anyone to Arcadi at that time or for most of 2016 -- Arcadi was released to a halfway house in February 2016, Lorenzo Giordano was killed shortly after on March 1, and Arcadi was put back in prison shortly after Rocco Sollecito's murder in late May. I'll have to double check whether Arcadi was put back in prison after Giordano's murder; I know that Francesco Del Balso was. I may be wrong about how many times Arcadi was on parole in 2016; so there is indeed a chance that Violi could have introduced Morena to Arcadi in September 2016, though I'm not quite sure why Arcadi would risk his freedom for such an introduction.

Keep in mind too that in mid-June 2016, an innocent man was killed in Montreal's Ahunstic neighbourhood because he was mistaken for Tony Van(n)elli.

My reservations about Violi's claim to being underboss of the Buffalo Family and beating out 30 made members of that family have boiled down to 1) there being no corroboration of what he said -- Viol's claim, alone, to being made meets two of the three's FBI requirements but not this very important third one, and 2) whether Joe Todaro Jr., not Violi, was the one essentially exaggerating, i.e., he told Violi about beating out 30 other (made) guys because Violi might very well have had no idea of the size of the Buffalo Family. Re-examining what Violi claimed he could do for Morena in September 2016, and given the turbulence in the Montreal Mafia in 2016 in general, my gut feeling that Violi tends to exaggerate is stronger than it was before. The FBI and RCMP may very well have the corroboration of Violi's made status by another source close to Violi; however, we posters do not.

One of the reasons Morena became an RCMP informant, not an FBI informant as a number posters on here keep getting wrong, is the RCMP's Operation J-Tornado, which culminated in mid-August 2014. I have previously opined that Morena was living somewhere in Quebec between Laval and Drummondville prior to his arrest back then but I don't know for how long. Rightly or wrongly, I'm of the opinion he was a Bonanno associate at the time of his arrest. If he had been in Quebec for at least three or more years before then -- I haven't see any evidence of this, though, but again I could be wrong -- then I could see him possibly having had contact with Sal Montagna himself.

The closer one looks at Domenico and Giuseppe Violi's drug-conspiracy case from the mid-1990s, the easier it is to see that they consorted with Italian-Canadian criminals in Quebec as far back as that decade. The Violis were no stranger to that province.

If Morena did not make contact with made Bonannos in Quebec before or after he became an RCMP informant, the question is why?

I have yet to see evidence that remaining members of the old Cotroni-Violi group who are made -- Volpato, Van(n)elli, and Mucci -- have hostility toward Stefano Sollecito and Leonardo Rizzuto; or vice versa. We don't have evidence that Sollecito and Rizzuto are made members of an American LCN family such as the Bonannos, let alone are made. And yet these two individuals, along with perhaps others in Montreal's Italian underworld, have put made members like Arcadi and possible made member Francesco Del Balso in their place ("According to a joint statement of facts presented to Quebec Court Judge Robert Marchi by prosecutor Simon Lacoste and defence lawyer Anthony Francischiello on Thursday, Del Balso told the prosecutor 'that he was in the Italian Mafia. That he was a lieutenant in the Rizzuto clan,' and that he was upset over the publication of the photo of his family’s home." -- see the December 6, 2018 article at https://montrealgazette.com/news/local- ... a-reporter.)

So when you write "We still don't have any concrete knowledge that the Montreal crew are officially recognized as anything except Bonanno members," do you mean that a Montreal decina of five or so Bonanno members is the only Italian organized-crime group officially recognized by American LCN families, Sicilian CN families, and the 'ndrangheta? that all of the individuals who were listed in the 13 cells that were part of the investigation done this past February constitute 1) a Montreal crew, and 2) are Bonanno members/associates?

There is evidence that, in Montreal, being a high-ranking made Bonanno in the Rizzuto camp did not insulate one from being targeted for murder; same with Montagna. When you have usurpers like Andrew Scoppa ordering the murders of Rocco Sollecito and Giordano, or Vittorio Mirarchi being somehow very involved in trying to depose the Rizzutos and then to kill Montagna, did the usurpers have sanction from very high-ranking individuals in another Italian organized-crime group to which Scoppa and Mirarchi were respectively attached? If yes, where is the sanction that permitted these high-ranking individuals to become so interested in killing Nick Rizzuto Sr., Paolo Renda, and Agostino Cuntrera? Or was the sanction from Montagna himself because he was the acting boss of the Bonanno Family?

If we argue that Nick Sr., Renda, and Cuntrera were killed because they were rogue Bonannos, do we also consider Di Maulo, Volpato, Van(n)elli, and Mucci rogue Bonannos for not supporting Montagna in his plans? I suspect that being made was still important to Di Maulo, Volpato, Van(n)elli, and Mucci if it insulated them from murder but that being a made Bonanno had lost its importance. I'm no longer entirely convinced that Di Maulo was killed on Vito Rizzuto's orders, given Di Maulo's frosty relationship with brother-in-law Raynald Desjardins, and as already alluded to, Angelo D'Onofrio was killed because he was mistaken for Van(n)elli.

In my humble opinion, I don't think that Vito Rizzuto, his father, and others in the old Montreal Mafia hierarchy (i.e., Arcadi, Sollecito, and Renda) thumbed their nose at their fellow made Bonannos in the Montreal Mafia who were loyal to that hierarchy. In the Montreal area alone, there have historically been made members that were not part of the Montreal decina, with such individuals belonging to the Sicilian CN (the Caruanas and Cuntreras, for example) and the 'ndrangheta (I count Vincenzo Melia as one such member).

In addition, and very importantly, depending on how you interpret Emanuele Ragusa's admission in a parole hearing without his having been prompted -- "Here, it’s paesani all from the same village, maybe fifteen or twenty people” -- in Quebec there may be a Cattolica Eraclea cosca or, according to one interpretation by the Mafia inc. co-authors, a group of made Sicilian CN members with ancestry from Cattolica Eraclea, Siculiana, and other nearby comuni.

In the 1970s, some of these made Sicilian CN members transferred to the Bonannos' Montreal decina and back, and in the case of Nick Rizzuto Sr., a very strong argument could be made that he quite probably transferred from the Montreal decina to the Caruana-Cuntrera Family and then back to the Montreal decina.

Historically, in Quebec, you also have examples of Italians or Italian-Canadians who were perhaps not made but had ties to American LCN families -- one of the best examples of such an individual would be Giuseppe Napolitano ("Jos), who had ties in the 1970s to the Gambino Family and Colombo Family.

I do think that the old Montreal Mafia hierarchy developed a contempt for the Bonanno Family of New York that started in the early 2000s. Not all individuals in the orbit of the Montreal Mafia felt that way, as Montagna was even able to find individuals with ancestry from Cattolica Eraclea who were eager to become made Bonannos and to see the Montreal Mafia forge closer bonds with the Bonanno Family of New York.

Now as for Leonardo Rizzuto's having spent some time in Cattolica Eraclea last August with his mother, wife, kids, sister (Bettina), Bettina's husband, and Bettina's kids before continuing their vacation in Sciacca, there is nothing remarkable about this. By this I mean that there are individuals in Montreal's Italian underworld, allied with the Rizzutos, who have also made trips to Sicily and other parts of Italy just in the last decade -- sometimes on business; sometimes for other reasons. As an example of the former, there is evidence that Stefano Sollecito went himself to talk some sense into Juan Ramon Fernandez ("Joe Bravo)" when the latter was in Bagheria, a comune known for having a history and ties with the Rizzutos. Conversely, there are individuals in Sicily, other parts of Italy, and New York that have visited the Montreal area in just the last few years, as individuals have done over the decades because of their ties to the Rizzutos -- sometimes on business; sometimes for other reasons.

[CTamg65]

Hats off to you guys who put your work in with this stuff.It's amazing to me how far back these families go with the each other . With some of these families guys are really born into the life going back centuries. I just wanted to say thanks to the guys (don't have to mention names,you guys know who you are)on here that dedicate serious time to research ,compare all this info,put together charts, and write articles for the rest of us to read and b.s about.

[B.]

Antimafia -- I appreciate the thorough reply.

We still don't have any concrete knowledge that the Montreal crew are officially recognized as anything except Bonanno members. Five years ago Buffalo underboss Domenico Violi offered to introduce NYC-turned-Canadian Bonanno member Enzo Morena to several of the Montreal crew members/associates, suggesting there is no bad blood.

- By this statement, I meant that the men who have been identified as members of the Bonanno family in Montreal have as of yet not been proven to be part of another organization through any definitive source. You make a good point about the possibility of a transfer, as evidenced by Paolo Violi's recorded discussion of transfer protocol in the 1970s and the long-term presence of Sicilian mafiosi in Montreal, though it has yet to be seen if transfers have taken place.

- By "no bad blood", I was referring to this statement from Violi, as reported in an article sourced from Morena's cooperation:

In September 2016, Domenico Violi says that the situation is stabilizing in the Quebec metropolis. Everyone is working together nowadays, the old barriers are gone, he said, according to the double agent.

- That statement coupled with Violi's willingness to introduce Morena to men from the Montreal faction suggest to me that, at the very least, he had no political reservations about a proposed interaction between a new Bonanno member and three men known to have been part of the Bonanno crew in Montreal. Granted, these were men who Violi was more comfortable with given his historic ties to the Cotronis, so it's possible the same offer wouldn't have been possible with other Montreal figures. However...

- Violi said "everyone is working together" which is open for interpretation but tells us the three men from Montreal were not seen by Violi as a fractured group who would be subverting all of Montreal's interests by meeting a Bonanno member transplanted from NYC. This is important because we know from recent history Montreal has reason to be cynical toward NYC Bonanno transplants in Canada (Montagna). If those three Montreal figures represented a different faction in Montreal and it came out that they had met with a Bonanno member in Ontario, that could certainly ignite paranoia in Montreal even if it was unfounded. Violi didn't think it was an issue, apparently, and I do believe he would have some sense for that even if it wasn't perfect.

- The meeting never panned out, but the suggestion by Violi didn't strike me as outlandish even if the logistics would have been difficult. Even if he was making an empty offer, does that mean his take on Montreal was incorrect at the time? Is it incorrect now? Hard to say. It's also hard to say what he would get out of lying or exaggerating that Montreal was "working together" or what he would get out of boasting to a Bonanno member that he could make an introduction.

- I didn't mean that there is no bad blood within the confusing politics and competing groups within Montreal itself, only that Violi's statement suggests that Bonanno->Montreal contact is not seen as immediately toxic according to Violi, at least on an individual member-to-member level. Nothing has happened since then to make us believe this would have changed in recent years.

- I agree with your strict approach to corroboration, but Violi's attendance at a recorded Bonanno induction in Ontario indicates not only that the Bonanno family in NYC had the means to make contact with Violi as a matter of protocol for inducting a member in his area, but they also involved him in the process. Inviting a member of another group to an induction is extremely rare, and in cases where it has happened the guest member typically has stature (Bonanno underboss Frank Garafola attended a San Francisco induction aeons ago, for a Bonanno example).

- Violi's alleged attendance at the Morena induction confirms his membership in a Cosa Nostra family and supports his claim to have a ranking position. Violi's attendance at the induction indicates political importance in the mafia and this supports his claim as underboss, a claim that Morena easily could have refuted had he asked other Ontario members or his Bonanno superiors who invited Violi to the induction. Whether his Buffalo family estimate was accurate or not doesn't change the Bonanno's interaction with him, just as Bill D'Elia once mediated issues between the Philly, Colombo, and Genovese families despite being boss of a virtually dead family in Pittston.

- Joe Violi's alleged "choice" between Buffalo and the Bonanno family is an important mystery in this. Morena was associated with the Bonannos in NYC sponsored by NYC Bonanno members though he lived in Canada. Who would have sponsored Violi for Bonanno membership and who would he report to? Mafia association is strict and when another organization tries to induct someone who is on record with another group it provokes a conflct that must be settled via sitdown. If Violi was telling the truth, members of the Bonanno and Buffalo families came to a rare agreement to let Joe Violi decide where to end up. The implication is that it would be a Canadian wing of the Bonanno family, possibly Montreal where their father had been a leader. If Domenico Violi was lying, the question is what he would have to gain from stating his brother had a choice between those two groups. Joe Violi was a candidate for the Buffalo family, that much is true, so his candidacy for membership was not in question -- I don't see what Violi would get from bringing the Bonanno family into the story. If he wasn't lying, it means there is some element of the Bonanno family Joe Violi could have joined in Canada and it appears to be independent of Morena's own weird spot in Ontario.

- I have zero idea how everything lines up (or doesn't) in Montreal, obviously. The protocol has stayed eerily consistent since the mafia first came to N.America, as evidenced by those Morello letters CC posted, and I like to look at certain details in that context since the mafia is filled with endless patterns and recurring themes.

--

- The current affiliation of Montreal mafiosi will be one of those great revelations once it (hopefully) becomes confirmed. Sciacca boss Accursio Dimino said that the Riberesi in Sicily had gambling machines in Montreal with the Cattolicensi, so the Rizzuto faction is working with the Sicilian mafia in Montreal. It is hard to come to any conclusion about what their formal affiliation means at present, but if nothing else the Rizzuto group is working with Sicilian mafiosi from Agrigento in an international operation.

- This operation also includes Bonanno-connected Sicilian mafiosi putting gambling machines in NYC. That doesn't mean the Bonannos are working directly with the Cattolicensi in Montreal, only that there is an organized business venture between the Sicilian mafia and North American mafia that includes relationships to both the NYC Bonannos and the Rizzuto group in Montreal. We can't assume that this means the Bonannos and Rizzuto group are in contact or working together, but participating in the same active network.

- The Bonanno family have direct contact with the capomandamento of Alcamo/Castellammare and have requested contact with Sicilian mafia members in other unspecified areas. The Bonannos also have a relationship to mafia figures from Sciacca, Agrigento, under boss Accursio Dimino. Accursio Dimino is up to date on what is going on between the Sicilian mafia and the Cattolicensi in Montreal. He also met with the Castellammarese capomandamento who has been working with the Bonannos. He was in an interesting position prior to this case. Whether these contacts are all separate or not, Dimino was in the center of an international network involving groups with strong historic ties.

- We don't know who is part of this modern Sicilian faction of the Bonanno family. Capeci has said older Sicilian-American members Asaro and Grimaldi are respected by this faction, but we don't know exactly who comprises the group itself or who among them is making direct contact with Sicily. The Cattolicensi in Montreal have historically had a much stronger relationship with the Sicilian faction of the Bonanno family than the rest of the organization. In particular, they were close to Castellammarese-born men like Cesare Bonventre, Baldo Amato, and Santo Giordano. Two of those men are dead and one is in jail for life, so they are off the table, but this new connection between the Bonannos and mafia bosses in Castellammare Del Golfo and Sciacca, Agrigento, open up some interesting possibilities.

- Leonardo Rizzuto's stay in Sciacca may not have been remarkable in the sense that it is typical of them and their circle, and I'd agree, but I mention it only because we have the boss of Sciacca making a reference to the Cattolicensi -- Rizzuto's paesani -- in an international gambling machine partnership during a time where the Bonanno family is connected to the same operation in NYC and strengthening their own Sicilian mafia ties. Whether Rizzuto's vacation was purely social/familial, or if it was speckled with mafia meetings, there are coincidences worth observing.

- Forgot to mention an obvious name earlier -- Sal Catalano. He was acting boss of the Bonanno family and a key leader in the US<->Sicily network decades ago. He now lives in Ciminna and a few years ago was observed at the funeral of Frank Cali's mother, a native of Ciminna. Cali's people in the Gambino family were also arrested last year in an international case showing that NYC and Palermo are working together. Catalano's cousin Onofrio was the boss of the Ciminna mafia. The head of the Bonanno's historic zip faction has been living in Sicily at a time when the Bonanno family is making high-level contact with the Sicilian mafia. Could be another coincidence, but it's part of the conversation.

--

The mafia has a reputation for vendettas, grudges, and misgivings, but they have a far greater history of cooperation and the mafia tradition is focused on maintaining and expanding the network. The relationships between Gambino/Palermo, Montreal/Ribera, Bonanno/Castellammare+Sciacca show that the mafia has been making an effort to strengthen these international relationships after decades of believing these sorts of international relationships had weakened or died out completely, especially in NYC.

[CabriniGreen]

Pixel might have averted a war...

https://www.lasicilia.it/news/cronaca/3 ... mafia.html

[CabriniGreen]

Pixel might have averted a war...

https://www.lasicilia.it/news/cronaca/3 ... mafia.html

Police might have averted a war....

[B.]

Cross-posting this here because this has been an ongoing discussion about this modern situation. Thank you to Felice as always for filling in details we might not otherwise hear about.

some weeks ago there has been a nice police operation against the castellammare del golfo family and I got some papers about it:

Francesco Domingo is the current family boss.
Francesco Domingo's aunt was married to mariano maranzano, probably brother of Salvatore. he 's considered to be figlioccio of Antonino Montagna (father of Sal), figlioccio means he was sponsored by Montagna so we can assume Sal Montagna's father is a Castellammare del Golfo family member

In the summer of 2016 Antonino Mistretta a Bonanno family member visited Domingo. Mistretta is a close associate of Baldo Amato. Mistretta's boss is now named Joe.
Michele Domingo brother of Francesco lives in NY and he is part of the group.
Another subject who visited Domingo is Giovanni Carollo identified by the FBI as a Bonanno family member, another one is Giuseppe Vultaggio from Alcamo who is a mafioso active in the USA

Thank you, my friend! We have another thread going about the articles that have come out regarding Sciacca boss Dimino's ties to the Bonannos, plus these recent Domingo / Asaro cases in Castellammare, but we were missing many details which you have provided.

- Joe Cammarano Jr. was the acting boss of the Bonanno family circa summer 2016, so it is probably referring to him as "Joe". Cammarano's father-in-law is Vito Grimaldi who was a captain at the time and described by Capeci as influential with the Bonanno "zip faction".

- Antonino Mistretta and Sal Montagna were both associates of Baldo Amato dating back to the early 1990s. The old Bonanno member Frank Mistretta had Castellammarese heritage and if I have the right records, his grandfather in Castellammare was named Antonino, would could suggest common ancestry with the current Antonino Mistretta.

- I am not surprised to see that Antonino Montagna is a Sicilian mafia member. The Montagnas are very close to the Domingos in the US and when I saw that Franco Montagna (Sal's brother) traveled to Sicily with Stefano Turricano of the Castellammarese family, I began to suspect the Montagnas go deeper in the mafia than we were previously aware. This changes much of the previous discussion about Montagna.

- As mentioned in this thread's original post, the old time Bonanno member Santo Vultaggio's mother was an Asaro, so we see these names again.

[CabriniGreen]

[snip]
Here is a controversial question:

If the Bonannos are traveling to Sicily and meeting with the boss of Castellammare and asking for favors, including meetings with other members of the Castellammare-Alcamo mandamento, doesn't it seem likely they still have connections to their decina in Montreal?

- We know from the Dimino case that Sciacca boss Accursio Dimino has associates connected to the Bonannos in NYC and he's also up to date on the Ribera family's business with the Cattolica Eraclea group in Montreal.

- Leonardo Rizzuto visited Sicily and stayed in Sciacca during a period where American Bonanno members have ongoing contact with boss Francesco Domingo in Castellammare, who himself is said in this new investigation to have met with Dimino of Sciacca.

- We still don't have any concrete knowledge that the Montreal crew are officially recognized as anything except Bonanno members. Five years ago Buffalo underboss Domenico Violi offered to introduce NYC-turned-Canadian Bonanno member Enzo Morena to several of the Montreal crew members/associates, suggesting there is no bad blood.

It's unlikely to me in the small, interconnected world of the mafia that these events are completely disconnected. At the very least, the mafia network is alive and international in scope.

I'll even take it one step further. If the Bonanno and Gambino families are meeting with Sicilian mafia bosses, keeping each other up to date, and conducting activities together and the Ribera family has a slot machine partnership with the Bonanno crew in Montreal, it shouldn't be difficult to believe Joe Todaro in Buffalo has contact with the New York mafia bosses like his underboss Violi said.

I have no idea what the future holds, but I think we have to reconsider the narratives we've had about the US mafia for the last twenty years. They are keeping the network alive as best they can. Fifteen years ago I never would have believed that Bonanno members are meeting directly with the sitting boss of Castellammare and discussing mafia issues with him.

B.,

You had previously written more than two years ago that "Bonanno informant Vincenzo Morena was inducted in Canada but it's not clear if he was at all associated with the "traditional" Montreal wing of the family." (viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3592&p=79832)

When Domenico Violi offered in September 2016 to introduce Morena to Frank Arcadi, Tony Mucci, and Frankie Cotroni (son of Frank Cotroni Sr.), Violi was apparently a Buffalo soldier (having been inducted in January 2015 according to Violi and Morena), and Morena had been a made Bonanno at that point for what we all estimate to be between eight and 10 months (having been inducted in November 2015).

Are you still of the opinion that there is a "traditional" Montreal wing of the Bonanno Family? Or did you mean that there are still a scant number of members of the Montreal Mafia that are likely or probably made Bonannos? I count five: Arcadi, Mucci, Tony Volpato, Tony Van(n)elli, and the aforementioned Cotroni. (I do suspect that Frankie is a made member.)

Why do you currently think that Violi's offering to introduce Morena back in September 2016 to three likely or probably made Bonanno members suggests that there was no bad blood in Montreal's Italian underworld?

Violi might not have had a chance to introduce anyone to Arcadi at that time or for most of 2016 -- Arcadi was released to a halfway house in February 2016, Lorenzo Giordano was killed shortly after on March 1, and Arcadi was put back in prison shortly after Rocco Sollecito's murder in late May. I'll have to double check whether Arcadi was put back in prison after Giordano's murder; I know that Francesco Del Balso was. I may be wrong about how many times Arcadi was on parole in 2016; so there is indeed a chance that Violi could have introduced Morena to Arcadi in September 2016, though I'm not quite sure why Arcadi would risk his freedom for such an introduction.

Keep in mind too that in mid-June 2016, an innocent man was killed in Montreal's Ahunstic neighbourhood because he was mistaken for Tony Van(n)elli.

My reservations about Violi's claim to being underboss of the Buffalo Family and beating out 30 made members of that family have boiled down to 1) there being no corroboration of what he said -- Viol's claim, alone, to being made meets two of the three's FBI requirements but not this very important third one, and 2) whether Joe Todaro Jr., not Violi, was the one essentially exaggerating, i.e., he told Violi about beating out 30 other (made) guys because Violi might very well have had no idea of the size of the Buffalo Family. Re-examining what Violi claimed he could do for Morena in September 2016, and given the turbulence in the Montreal Mafia in 2016 in general, my gut feeling that Violi tends to exaggerate is stronger than it was before. The FBI and RCMP may very well have the corroboration of Violi's made status by another source close to Violi; however, we posters do not.

One of the reasons Morena became an RCMP informant, not an FBI informant as a number posters on here keep getting wrong, is the RCMP's Operation J-Tornado, which culminated in mid-August 2014. I have previously opined that Morena was living somewhere in Quebec between Laval and Drummondville prior to his arrest back then but I don't know for how long. Rightly or wrongly, I'm of the opinion he was a Bonanno associate at the time of his arrest. If he had been in Quebec for at least three or more years before then -- I haven't see any evidence of this, though, but again I could be wrong -- then I could see him possibly having had contact with Sal Montagna himself.

The closer one looks at Domenico and Giuseppe Violi's drug-conspiracy case from the mid-1990s, the easier it is to see that they consorted with Italian-Canadian criminals in Quebec as far back as that decade. The Violis were no stranger to that province.

If Morena did not make contact with made Bonannos in Quebec before or after he became an RCMP informant, the question is why?

I have yet to see evidence that remaining members of the old Cotroni-Violi group who are made -- Volpato, Van(n)elli, and Mucci -- have hostility toward Stefano Sollecito and Leonardo Rizzuto; or vice versa. We don't have evidence that Sollecito and Rizzuto are made members of an American LCN family such as the Bonannos, let alone are made. And yet these two individuals, along with perhaps others in Montreal's Italian underworld, have put made members like Arcadi and possible made member Francesco Del Balso in their place ("According to a joint statement of facts presented to Quebec Court Judge Robert Marchi by prosecutor Simon Lacoste and defence lawyer Anthony Francischiello on Thursday, Del Balso told the prosecutor 'that he was in the Italian Mafia. That he was a lieutenant in the Rizzuto clan,' and that he was upset over the publication of the photo of his family’s home." -- see the December 6, 2018 article at https://montrealgazette.com/news/local- ... a-reporter.)

So when you write "We still don't have any concrete knowledge that the Montreal crew are officially recognized as anything except Bonanno members," do you mean that a Montreal decina of five or so Bonanno members is the only Italian organized-crime group officially recognized by American LCN families, Sicilian CN families, and the 'ndrangheta? that all of the individuals who were listed in the 13 cells that were part of the investigation done this past February constitute 1) a Montreal crew, and 2) are Bonanno members/associates?

There is evidence that, in Montreal, being a high-ranking made Bonanno in the Rizzuto camp did not insulate one from being targeted for murder; same with Montagna. When you have usurpers like Andrew Scoppa ordering the murders of Rocco Sollecito and Giordano, or Vittorio Mirarchi being somehow very involved in trying to depose the Rizzutos and then to kill Montagna, did the usurpers have sanction from very high-ranking individuals in another Italian organized-crime group to which Scoppa and Mirarchi were respectively attached? If yes, where is the sanction that permitted these high-ranking individuals to become so interested in killing Nick Rizzuto Sr., Paolo Renda, and Agostino Cuntrera? Or was the sanction from Montagna himself because he was the acting boss of the Bonanno Family?

If we argue that Nick Sr., Renda, and Cuntrera were killed because they were rogue Bonannos, do we also consider Di Maulo, Volpato, Van(n)elli, and Mucci rogue Bonannos for not supporting Montagna in his plans? I suspect that being made was still important to Di Maulo, Volpato, Van(n)elli, and Mucci if it insulated them from murder but that being a made Bonanno had lost its importance. I'm no longer entirely convinced that Di Maulo was killed on Vito Rizzuto's orders, given Di Maulo's frosty relationship with brother-in-law Raynald Desjardins, and as already alluded to, Angelo D'Onofrio was killed because he was mistaken for Van(n)elli.

In my humble opinion, I don't think that Vito Rizzuto, his father, and others in the old Montreal Mafia hierarchy (i.e., Arcadi, Sollecito, and Renda) thumbed their nose at their fellow made Bonannos in the Montreal Mafia who were loyal to that hierarchy. In the Montreal area alone, there have historically been made members that were not part of the Montreal decina, with such individuals belonging to the Sicilian CN (the Caruanas and Cuntreras, for example) and the 'ndrangheta (I count Vincenzo Melia as one such member).

In addition, and very importantly, depending on how you interpret Emanuele Ragusa's admission in a parole hearing without his having been prompted -- "Here, it’s paesani all from the same village, maybe fifteen or twenty people” -- in Quebec there may be a Cattolica Eraclea cosca or, according to one interpretation by the Mafia inc. co-authors, a group of made Sicilian CN members with ancestry from Cattolica Eraclea, Siculiana, and other nearby comuni.

In the 1970s, some of these made Sicilian CN members transferred to the Bonannos' Montreal decina and back, and in the case of Nick Rizzuto Sr., a very strong argument could be made that he quite probably transferred from the Montreal decina to the Caruana-Cuntrera Family and then back to the Montreal decina.

Historically, in Quebec, you also have examples of Italians or Italian-Canadians who were perhaps not made but had ties to American LCN families -- one of the best examples of such an individual would be Giuseppe Napolitano ("Jos), who had ties in the 1970s to the Gambino Family and Colombo Family.

I do think that the old Montreal Mafia hierarchy developed a contempt for the Bonanno Family of New York that started in the early 2000s. Not all individuals in the orbit of the Montreal Mafia felt that way, as Montagna was even able to find individuals with ancestry from Cattolica Eraclea who were eager to become made Bonannos and to see the Montreal Mafia forge closer bonds with the Bonanno Family of New York.

Now as for Leonardo Rizzuto's having spent some time in Cattolica Eraclea last August with his mother, wife, kids, sister (Bettina), Bettina's husband, and Bettina's kids before continuing their vacation in Sciacca, there is nothing remarkable about this. By this I mean that there are individuals in Montreal's Italian underworld, allied with the Rizzutos, who have also made trips to Sicily and other parts of Italy just in the last decade -- sometimes on business; sometimes for other reasons. As an example of the former, there is evidence that Stefano Sollecito went himself to talk some sense into Juan Ramon Fernandez ("Joe Bravo)" when the latter was in Bagheria, a comune known for having a history and ties with the Rizzutos. Conversely, there are individuals in Sicily, other parts of Italy, and New York that have visited the Montreal area in just the last few years, as individuals have done over the decades because of their ties to the Rizzutos -- sometimes on business; sometimes for other reasons.

A few points.....

• antimafia - Thanks for posting that part about Montreal being 13 crews, I dont think it was EVER one crew alone....

• Those Sicilian mafiosi Ragusa referred to.... Were these Nick Rizzutos imported sicilians? With them being from all over Agrigento province, is it a possibility, that Nicolo recruited from Agrigento with the blessings from Settecassi? And that these were some of the men Violi refused to acknowledge?

• Violis words about the old divisions being gone came up before.

Me and Lupara were kinda discussing it when that article came out saying Montreal had a cellular structure.

I asked the question, When he said everyone gets along, or whatever, did they KNOW about the Scoppa hits? Because at the same time they were saying this, the Scoppas were hitting people, the TOP people. Antimafia did a good job pointing this out.

Now Luparas take was that, when Violi said the old divisions were gone, that this was a reflection of a fractured Montreal. That the reason the Violis were able to make these intros, was because Montreal was, at the time I guess, split into cells, which changed after the Scoppas were murdered, and then the article came out about the Sicilians being back in charge.

So it's possible the Violis being friendly with the old Cotroni regime, may not have been an indicator of their relationships to the other " Cells" at that time.

Basically, if the Violis DID know about the Scoppa hits, and when he said everything is calm or whatever, I think they expected the Rizzutos final demise to be imminent.
They wouldnt be talking about peaceful interactions in the middle of a series of murders, unless they expected the murders to be over soon. ( Still the question of who told em about the Musitano hit..)
This would indicate a hostility towards the Rizzutos.

Now, if they DIDNT KNOW what the Scoppas were doing, they still had to be aware of the hits on the Rizzuto people. But they wouldnt know WHO OR WHY, right?

I'm starting to think Antimafia is right about them exaggerating.

It also came up, why are the Buffalo guys needed to make the Intros between Bonnanos in the same family?

[antimafia]

B.,

You had previously written more than two years ago that "Bonanno informant Vincenzo Morena was inducted in Canada but it's not clear if he was at all associated with the "traditional" Montreal wing of the family." (viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3592&p=79832)

When Domenico Violi offered in September 2016 to introduce Morena to Frank Arcadi, Tony Mucci, and Frankie Cotroni (son of Frank Cotroni Sr.), Violi was apparently a Buffalo soldier (having been inducted in January 2015 according to Violi and Morena), and Morena had been a made Bonanno at that point for what we all estimate to be between eight and 10 months (having been inducted in November 2015).

Are you still of the opinion that there is a "traditional" Montreal wing of the Bonanno Family? Or did you mean that there are still a scant number of members of the Montreal Mafia that are likely or probably made Bonannos? I count five: Arcadi, Mucci, Tony Volpato, Tony Van(n)elli, and the aforementioned Cotroni. (I do suspect that Frankie is a made member.)

Why do you currently think that Violi's offering to introduce Morena back in September 2016 to three likely or probably made Bonanno members suggests that there was no bad blood in Montreal's Italian underworld?

Violi might not have had a chance to introduce anyone to Arcadi at that time or for most of 2016 -- Arcadi was released to a halfway house in February 2016, Lorenzo Giordano was killed shortly after on March 1, and Arcadi was put back in prison shortly after Rocco Sollecito's murder in late May. I'll have to double check whether Arcadi was put back in prison after Giordano's murder; I know that Francesco Del Balso was. I may be wrong about how many times Arcadi was on parole in 2016; so there is indeed a chance that Violi could have introduced Morena to Arcadi in September 2016, though I'm not quite sure why Arcadi would risk his freedom for such an introduction.

Keep in mind too that in mid-June 2016, an innocent man was killed in Montreal's Ahunstic neighbourhood because he was mistaken for Tony Van(n)elli.

My reservations about Violi's claim to being underboss of the Buffalo Family and beating out 30 made members of that family have boiled down to 1) there being no corroboration of what he said -- Viol's claim, alone, to being made meets two of the three's FBI requirements but not this very important third one, and 2) whether Joe Todaro Jr., not Violi, was the one essentially exaggerating, i.e., he told Violi about beating out 30 other (made) guys because Violi might very well have had no idea of the size of the Buffalo Family. Re-examining what Violi claimed he could do for Morena in September 2016, and given the turbulence in the Montreal Mafia in 2016 in general, my gut feeling that Violi tends to exaggerate is stronger than it was before. The FBI and RCMP may very well have the corroboration of Violi's made status by another source close to Violi; however, we posters do not.

One of the reasons Morena became an RCMP informant, not an FBI informant as a number posters on here keep getting wrong, is the RCMP's Operation J-Tornado, which culminated in mid-August 2014. I have previously opined that Morena was living somewhere in Quebec between Laval and Drummondville prior to his arrest back then but I don't know for how long. Rightly or wrongly, I'm of the opinion he was a Bonanno associate at the time of his arrest. If he had been in Quebec for at least three or more years before then -- I haven't see any evidence of this, though, but again I could be wrong -- then I could see him possibly having had contact with Sal Montagna himself.

The closer one looks at Domenico and Giuseppe Violi's drug-conspiracy case from the mid-1990s, the easier it is to see that they consorted with Italian-Canadian criminals in Quebec as far back as that decade. The Violis were no stranger to that province.

If Morena did not make contact with made Bonannos in Quebec before or after he became an RCMP informant, the question is why?

I have yet to see evidence that remaining members of the old Cotroni-Violi group who are made -- Volpato, Van(n)elli, and Mucci -- have hostility toward Stefano Sollecito and Leonardo Rizzuto; or vice versa. We don't have evidence that Sollecito and Rizzuto are made members of an American LCN family such as the Bonannos, let alone are made. And yet these two individuals, along with perhaps others in Montreal's Italian underworld, have put made members like Arcadi and possible made member Francesco Del Balso in their place ("According to a joint statement of facts presented to Quebec Court Judge Robert Marchi by prosecutor Simon Lacoste and defence lawyer Anthony Francischiello on Thursday, Del Balso told the prosecutor 'that he was in the Italian Mafia. That he was a lieutenant in the Rizzuto clan,' and that he was upset over the publication of the photo of his family’s home." -- see the December 6, 2018 article at https://montrealgazette.com/news/local- ... a-reporter.)

So when you write "We still don't have any concrete knowledge that the Montreal crew are officially recognized as anything except Bonanno members," do you mean that a Montreal decina of five or so Bonanno members is the only Italian organized-crime group officially recognized by American LCN families, Sicilian CN families, and the 'ndrangheta? that all of the individuals who were listed in the 13 cells that were part of the investigation done this past February constitute 1) a Montreal crew, and 2) are Bonanno members/associates?

There is evidence that, in Montreal, being a high-ranking made Bonanno in the Rizzuto camp did not insulate one from being targeted for murder; same with Montagna. When you have usurpers like Andrew Scoppa ordering the murders of Rocco Sollecito and Giordano, or Vittorio Mirarchi being somehow very involved in trying to depose the Rizzutos and then to kill Montagna, did the usurpers have sanction from very high-ranking individuals in another Italian organized-crime group to which Scoppa and Mirarchi were respectively attached? If yes, where is the sanction that permitted these high-ranking individuals to become so interested in killing Nick Rizzuto Sr., Paolo Renda, and Agostino Cuntrera? Or was the sanction from Montagna himself because he was the acting boss of the Bonanno Family?

If we argue that Nick Sr., Renda, and Cuntrera were killed because they were rogue Bonannos, do we also consider Di Maulo, Volpato, Van(n)elli, and Mucci rogue Bonannos for not supporting Montagna in his plans? I suspect that being made was still important to Di Maulo, Volpato, Van(n)elli, and Mucci if it insulated them from murder but that being a made Bonanno had lost its importance. I'm no longer entirely convinced that Di Maulo was killed on Vito Rizzuto's orders, given Di Maulo's frosty relationship with brother-in-law Raynald Desjardins, and as already alluded to, Angelo D'Onofrio was killed because he was mistaken for Van(n)elli.

In my humble opinion, I don't think that Vito Rizzuto, his father, and others in the old Montreal Mafia hierarchy (i.e., Arcadi, Sollecito, and Renda) thumbed their nose at their fellow made Bonannos in the Montreal Mafia who were loyal to that hierarchy. In the Montreal area alone, there have historically been made members that were not part of the Montreal decina, with such individuals belonging to the Sicilian CN (the Caruanas and Cuntreras, for example) and the 'ndrangheta (I count Vincenzo Melia as one such member).

In addition, and very importantly, depending on how you interpret Emanuele Ragusa's admission in a parole hearing without his having been prompted -- "Here, it’s paesani all from the same village, maybe fifteen or twenty people” -- in Quebec there may be a Cattolica Eraclea cosca or, according to one interpretation by the Mafia inc. co-authors, a group of made Sicilian CN members with ancestry from Cattolica Eraclea, Siculiana, and other nearby comuni.

In the 1970s, some of these made Sicilian CN members transferred to the Bonannos' Montreal decina and back, and in the case of Nick Rizzuto Sr., a very strong argument could be made that he quite probably transferred from the Montreal decina to the Caruana-Cuntrera Family and then back to the Montreal decina.

Historically, in Quebec, you also have examples of Italians or Italian-Canadians who were perhaps not made but had ties to American LCN families -- one of the best examples of such an individual would be Giuseppe Napolitano ("Jos), who had ties in the 1970s to the Gambino Family and Colombo Family.

I do think that the old Montreal Mafia hierarchy developed a contempt for the Bonanno Family of New York that started in the early 2000s. Not all individuals in the orbit of the Montreal Mafia felt that way, as Montagna was even able to find individuals with ancestry from Cattolica Eraclea who were eager to become made Bonannos and to see the Montreal Mafia forge closer bonds with the Bonanno Family of New York.

Now as for Leonardo Rizzuto's having spent some time in Cattolica Eraclea last August with his mother, wife, kids, sister (Bettina), Bettina's husband, and Bettina's kids before continuing their vacation in Sciacca, there is nothing remarkable about this. By this I mean that there are individuals in Montreal's Italian underworld, allied with the Rizzutos, who have also made trips to Sicily and other parts of Italy just in the last decade -- sometimes on business; sometimes for other reasons. As an example of the former, there is evidence that Stefano Sollecito went himself to talk some sense into Juan Ramon Fernandez ("Joe Bravo)" when the latter was in Bagheria, a comune known for having a history and ties with the Rizzutos. Conversely, there are individuals in Sicily, other parts of Italy, and New York that have visited the Montreal area in just the last few years, as individuals have done over the decades because of their ties to the Rizzutos -- sometimes on business; sometimes for other reasons.

A few points.....

• antimafia - Thanks for posting that part about Montreal being 13 crews, I dont think it was EVER one crew alone....

• Those Sicilian mafiosi Ragusa referred to.... Were these Nick Rizzutos imported sicilians? With them being from all over Agrigento province, is it a possibility, that Nicolo recruited from Agrigento with the blessings from Settecassi? And that these were some of the men Violi refused to acknowledge?

• Violis words about the old divisions being gone came up before.

Me and Lupara were kinda discussing it when that article came out saying Montreal had a cellular structure.

I asked the question, When he said everyone gets along, or whatever, did they KNOW about the Scoppa hits? Because at the same time they were saying this, the Scoppas were hitting people, the TOP people. Antimafia did a good job pointing this out.

Now Luparas take was that, when Violi said the old divisions were gone, that this was a reflection of a fractured Montreal. That the reason the Violis were able to make these intros, was because Montreal was, at the time I guess, split into cells, which changed after the Scoppas were murdered, and then the article came out about the Sicilians being back in charge.

So it's possible the Violis being friendly with the old Cotroni regime, may not have been an indicator of their relationships to the other " Cells" at that time.

Basically, if the Violis DID know about the Scoppa hits, and when he said everything is calm or whatever, I think they expected the Rizzutos final demise to be imminent.
They wouldnt be talking about peaceful interactions in the middle of a series of murders, unless they expected the murders to be over soon. ( Still the question of who told em about the Musitano hit..)
This would indicate a hostility towards the Rizzutos.

Now, if they DIDNT KNOW what the Scoppas were doing, they still had to be aware of the hits on the Rizzuto people. But they wouldnt know WHO OR WHY, right?

I'm starting to think Antimafia is right about them exaggerating.

It also came up, why are the Buffalo guys needed to make the Intros between Bonnanos in the same family?

^^^^
Over the next few days I'll try to fully reply to B.'s response and to your post just above.

In short:

- One of the topics of the famous Reggio Bar tapes was transfers by Sicilian Cosa Nostra members to the Bonanno decina in Montreal; in one conversation between Paolo Violi and Giuseppe Carmelo Cuffaro (from Montallegro), Cuffaro might have been probing about whether he could be accepted as part of the Bonanno decina -- this is the interpretation of writer Diego Gambetta, and I'll check my books to see whether Pino Arlacchi and Alexander Stille have similar interpretations. In another part of the conversation, Violi expressed his displeasure because a Caruana-Cuntrera member had transferred to Montreal and then transferred back but without advising the appropriate people in Montreal of such plans.

- Other topics on those tapes indicate that the leadership of the Bonanno decina in Montreal, under Vic Cotroni and Paolo Violi, was very well aware of well-known Sicilian mafiosi at the time who were from Siculiana, Ribera, Montallegro, etc.

- Gerlando Sciascia was made in Sicily. He had to have transferred to the Bonanno Family.

- If Agostino Cuntrera was a made Bonanno, he had to have transferred from the Caruana-Cuntrera Family, which is the only blood family in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.

- Gennaro Scaletta had stated that the Rizzutos were under the Caruana-Cuntrera Family at a certain point in the 1970s when Nick Sr. and his family lived in Venezuela -- later I'll find the exact quote from Business or Blood. I will also check whether Scaletta stated as much in the Bloodlines book.

- I also wrote in my reply to B. that, insofar as Joe Todaro Jr. had a conversation with Domenico Violi in late October or early November of 2017 regarding promotion to underboss, perhaps Todaro was the one embellishing.

- In Adrian Humphreys's article from the other day about Pat Musitano's murder, Humphreys wrote "[Domenico] Violi complained in 2017 that Musitano was still supporting Sicilian mobsters in Toronto, according to summaries of wiretaps submitted in court." Last August, I purchased an August 12 behind-a-paywall article by Italian journalist Rocco Muscari from which I learned that the murdered Cece Luppino was a nephew of Giuseppe Macrì of Siderno, who was caught on tape discussing the murder of Luppino with an individual who months later made a trip to Ontario -- the comings-and-goings of this individual (Vincenzo Muià) and a colleague (Giuseppe Gregoraci) were part of the Project Sindacato / Canadian 'Ndrangheta Connection investigations.

- Sometimes I do understand that the Calabrians-stick-with-Calabrians mindset plays a factor in alliances -- maybe Domenico Violi was in league with Andrew Scoppa? -- but a lot of the time I see that Sicilians and Calabrians in one faction are butting heads with Calabrians and Sicilians in another factions. And in Quebec and Ontario -- especially in the former -- you have lots of people in the Italian underworld who descend from regions other than Calabria and Sicily.

I really did try to keep the above brief, as I could go into so much more detail than I did.

[CabriniGreen]

@antimafia

I shall patiently wait for your response then my man... looking g forward to you sharing your thoughts....

[Ozgoz]

Re Violi, is it possible he could have been made into a defunct family (for whatever reason; protocol/ceremonial/tradition/political) and that in a defunct family there is only one member necessary; a boss (Todaro Jnr).

And then this would make Violi, by default, the underboss. And then the beating of 30 guys was not within that obviously defunct family, but 30 other guys within Canada/Bonanno’s/wherever to this new and necessary(?) position?

And that would cover the bragging part.

Todaro Jnr might have been either ‘forced’ or done it of his own violation for taxation/tribute purposes for whatever any Bonanno’s/Sicilians/Canadians were doing through his territory.

I’m well aware that all sounds very loose.

[Ozgoz]

*volition

[johnny_scootch]

Mind-blowing analysis.

[B.]

While social and business relationships can be complicated, mafia affiliation has remained incredibly simple over the years. Members can transfer, be made in territories not traditionally associated with the group they are affiliated with, and there are all kinds of superficial variables, but when it comes to induction and recognition, it has always been straightforward -- you are a member of a specific group and other groups recognize that. We can see from the info in this thread that the Bonanno family is still meeting with the Sicilian mafia based on the same simple protocol they followed 120 years ago. Little appears to have changed except for the people, and even then we see similar surnames repeat themselves.

Even with 'ndrangheta/Camorra members, that is a separate affiliation and in order to be recognized in Cosa Nostra they are inducted like any associate. There might be exceptions but we don't have any examples, only examples of members of non-Sicilian groups being made into Cosa Nostra, not transferring or being otherwise recognized without induction.

I believe outsiders tend to over-complicate affiliation due to the fact that affiliation can often defy close criminal/business/social relationships, politics, and territory/geography. The affiliation itself seems to be easily understood within the mafia despite superficially confusing circumstances.

As for Montreal, I didn't mean to ignite that topic too much here. It's another one of those subjects where there are so many moving pieces and it's difficult to know the true politics of what's happening without member sources laying it out explicitly. In the absence of those sources, I try to simplify what I know (which is limited). I always appreciate Antimafia's take, as his dedication to Montreal is unmatched.

Over the years, I've begun to take mafia politics more and more at face value. I don't believe things are as Machiavellian or complicated as they are often made out to be (partly because of the enduring mafia mystique in pop-culture).

[B.]

Some things that came from the Castellammare case:

- Bonanno member Nino Mistretta wanted Francesco Domingo's help getting municipal approval for Bonanno figure Giovanni Carollo to build a swimming pool at his home in Castellammare. Mistretta also had questions about a man named Gaetano Camarda who had been shelved in Sicily.

- When Mistretta wanted to ask for assistance in Sicily, his boss in the US "Joe" told him to contact the Domingos and only the Domingos. Domingo's brother Michele travels between the US and Sicily and serves as a point of contact for the Castellammare mafia in NYC.

- Bonanno member Mistretta was aware of certain local events within the Sicilian mafia and made a comment that referred to the arrest of a Carini mafia member, Antonino Pipitone.

- Domingo also arranged for a member from Alcamo named Giuseppe Vultaggio to receive a job in the waste sector. Vultaggio is also a US citizen.

- Domingo boasted that he could arrange for Sicilians to move to the US and receive work and lodging.

- In 2016 Domingo met with someone named Salvatore Montana/Montagna, described as the "namesake" of the murdered Sal Montagna in US/Canada. No other info given, so I find this reference strange. Is it referring to Franco Salvatore Montagna, brother of Sal Montagna who we know has his own relationship to Castellammarese mafia figures? It mentions Franco later by his full name, and it says this other Salvatore is the "namesake" of Sal so it must be deliberate. Is there another guy (cousin?) named Salvatore Montagna running around?

- Domingo had "excellent relations" with Salvatore Montagna. Not surprising, as Domingo was sponsored into the mafia by Salvatore's father Antonino Montagna, as Felice also mentioned.