Buffalo/Ontario Mob Acitivity

[Lupara]

Thanks for this. He could very well have been a members but then again we have seen how important associates back in the 1960s were listed as members or suspected when they weren't. Seems strange that the Feds wouldn't have gotten confirmation on his membership in 30 years. Especially if he were important enough to be considered for a leadership position in 1997.


Pogo

I think their intel on the Canadian members is limited to begin with. Only a handful have been listed as members by the FBI over a period of decades of the Canadian Buffalo and Bonanno factions even when we know there have been many more.

[Pogo The Clown]

The FBI only included members as confirmed if a member source or wiretap explicitly called them a member.

Was it not two independent sources? Using only one informant for confirmation is a bit dubious.

Here is the criteria recently posted by Snakes. Looks like confirmation from Associate CIs also qualified if they were "highly reliable".

In the Summer of 1982, the FBI implemented major revisions in how they determined LCN members. Since 1964, they had only utilized two criteria towards determining whether or not an individual was "made," or a member of an LCN family. As the FBI was still relatively inexperienced in handling LCN families at this time, acceptance of information was often liberal, simply to grasp some type of an idea about the number of members in each family.

Fast forward to 1982 and they realized that they now needed a tighter and more reliable system for determining members. Essentially starting from scratch the FBI developed four defining criteria for classifying an individual as "made:"

1. That he be identified by another member (either a confidential informant or cooperating witness).
2. That two documented members identify another member in conversation as such in the presence of an undercover agent.
3. That an individual be identified as a member by two "highly reliable" CIs or CWs, independent of each other.
4. That electronic surveillance (wiretaps, listening devices, etc.) capture a member discussing their own or others' status as members.

Furthermore, the above criteria was to be implemented by field offices in such a fashion that there should be no doubt as to the status of a member once classified by the FBI as such.

In the case of many offices, including that of Chicago, members were "grandfathered in" based on previous intelligence that still managed to meet the new criteria.

[Lupara]

The FBI only included members as confirmed if a member source or wiretap explicitly called them a member.

Was it not two independent sources? Using only one informant for confirmation is a bit dubious.

Here is the criteria recently posted by Snakes. Looks like confirmation from Associate CIs also qualified if they were "highly reliable".

In the Summer of 1982, the FBI implemented major revisions in how they determined LCN members. Since 1964, they had only utilized two criteria towards determining whether or not an individual was "made," or a member of an LCN family. As the FBI was still relatively inexperienced in handling LCN families at this time, acceptance of information was often liberal, simply to grasp some type of an idea about the number of members in each family.

Fast forward to 1982 and they realized that they now needed a tighter and more reliable system for determining members. Essentially starting from scratch the FBI developed four defining criteria for classifying an individual as "made:"

1. That he be identified by another member (either a confidential informant or cooperating witness).
2. That two documented members identify another member in conversation as such in the presence of an undercover agent.
3. That an individual be identified as a member by two "highly reliable" CIs or CWs, independent of each other.
4. That electronic surveillance (wiretaps, listening devices, etc.) capture a member discussing their own or others' status as members.

Furthermore, the above criteria was to be implemented by field offices in such a fashion that there should be no doubt as to the status of a member once classified by the FBI as such.

In the case of many offices, including that of Chicago, members were "grandfathered in" based on previous intelligence that still managed to meet the new criteria.

Thanks for providing this!

[B.]

The FBI only included members as confirmed if a member source or wiretap explicitly called them a member.

Was it not two independent sources? Using only one informant for confirmation is a bit dubious.

I recall them using individual sources if they were highly-placed (i.e. Scarpa and his ilk) but would have to check the protocol again. Either way, their standards were strict for IDing members even in the 1960s. As Ed talked about in his Rat Trap article, the FBI requested an exception that had to be approved by their superiors when using LaTorre's sons as sources for identifying members in Pittston. LaTorre's sons weren't members but their high-ranking father had been shelved and began speaking openly about the organization to the sons. The FBI superiors approved this as an exception given the unique situation, though in general the standards of identification remained strict.

There is an interesting Philly list/chart from the 1960s where they list every identified member (dead or alive) followed by several columns indicating which sources identified their membership. In some cases you have only one source, while others there are multiple confirmations. In some cases, it is only Harry Riccobene who identified certain members (some of them deceased) given his long-standing tenure with the group.

With Canada it has been a nightmare to get even single sources to identify membership. After learning that the Montreal Bonanno decina had ~20 members in the 1960s, the FBI sent a request to the RCMP asking for suggestions on who these members may have been, but the RCMP sent them a list that included 20+ names of men who were close to the Cotronis, though many of the names were non-Italian and even some of the Italians were likely not members. The RCMP was approaching "membership" based on the operational relationships of the Cotroni crew, while the FBI was approaching it from the perspective of formal affiliation. Operations and formal affiliation do overlap, but as we've learned they are often not synonymous. The RCMP's info was still valuable, but they were talking about the Cotroni "crew" while the FBI was looking for leads on the membership of the Bonanno Montreal "decina".

While the RCMP no doubt has caught up on what these affiliations mean, there has been a deficit in inside member sources who can identify Canadian members of the Buffalo and Bonanno families. Few sources on the American side have been able to provide this info and we are lucky that Sal Vitale and Frank Lino were able to fill in some gaps during their visit, though even then we didn't get a full list of names. Thanks to Lino we know the politician Gagliano is a Montreal Bonanno member -- I don't think anyone ever could have guessed that without an inside source.

As for Buffalo, I'm not sure who has been in a position to confirm Canadian members, past or present. We are lucky a random Bonanno member was a CI, as it took his cooperation to reveal that Violi was a Buffalo member/underboss. We might still be in the dark on that if Morena hadn't been in the right place at the right time with a recorder.

[Stroccos]

apparently he was collecting debts for anthonys Geraces gambling operation
Louis Turchiarelli

anyone know of a guy with the nickname fern ?

http://niagarafallsreporter.com/Stories ... /whil.html

[antimafia]

Lutte contre le crime organisé: unis face à la Ndrangheta

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/just ... ngheta.php

[Pogo The Clown]

Pogo, could you remind me of a couple of those names. I'd like to see if I could find the indictments and compare the language. The superseding indictment for Masecchia and Bongiovanni appears to use a present participle "...Buffalo LCN, IOC group operating in Buffalo and elsewhere." But then it has been a long time since I had an English grammar class, maybe I'm wrong.

It was mentioned when Billy D'Elia in Scranton and Tommy Marotta in Rochester were indicted. Here is a prime example from a 2012 case in Kansas City. This was years after the FBI had considered KC extinct.

According to the filing, the FBI believes “that Vincent Pisciotta is a ‘made member’ of the Kansas City LCN and that Mark Sorrentino is a close associate of that criminal enterprise.”

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... es-to.html

Or when D'Elia was indicted -

"William J. D'Elia has been publicly identified as a member of La Cosa Nostra and the boss of the Bufalino Crime Family in Northeastern Pennsylvania."

This was in 2006 when the family literally had a few members left at most.

And here is an example of them referencing the Clevleand family years after they no longer recognized them. This was when they only had 4 or 5 members (and half were in prison).

According to the indictment, in 2001, unnamed Individual A started a trade show company in Chicago (identified as “Trade Show Company A”) in which purported members of a Cleveland organized crime family, as well as Individual B, a lawyer in Chicago (“the Investors”) invested approximately $350,000 in 2001 and 2002.

https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/chica ... 031210.htm

[VanCity]

Anyone know who this John Palumbo may be? Recently arrested in cocaine bust with some Punjabis and Chinese/Vietnamese.

[antimafia]

^^^^
If you’re wondering about the guy who was charged in relation to Project O Swordtail, are we even sure he has Italian ancestry? Assuming he does, would there be a reason you think he must be formally affiliated with an Italian crime group in Ontario?

[antimafia]

Mafia, outlaw bikers make use of ‘baby gangs’

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toro ... 207008742‬

[BobbyBacala]

There was a car bomb yesterday in kitchiner ontario 1 guy dead https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5687915

[JeremyTheJew]

There was a car bomb yesterday in kitchiner ontario 1 guy dead https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5687915

Did I miss something?? I didnt see anything OC related?

[antimafia]

^^^^
The individual in the vehicle that blew up is believed to also be the person who set off an IED, possibly on purpose while he was still in the car.

[BobbyBacala]

There was a car bomb yesterday in kitchiner ontario 1 guy dead https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5687915

Did I miss something?? I didnt see anything OC related?

My bad I thought it was related to pat musitano looks like its not

[B.]

A missing piece of the puzzle is Dominic Romeo's entry into the Buffalo family.

- Born in Siderno, arrived in Niagara Falls, NY in 1950 as a young adult and married a woman in Ontario.
- Made member of the Buffalo family by 1964 and confidant of Stefano Magaddino, who treats him with more respect than many other members recorded on his office tapes.
- Magaddino also praised Romeo to other members in a conversation where Romeo is not present. Again surprising, given that Magaddino disparages so many people, including his own members. In this conversation he says Romeo was "endorsed by the folks at Cartapedana (ph)," possibly indicating Romeo received recommendation for membership from wherever that phonetic location is (Italy?).
- In conversation with Magaddino, Romeo is very knowledgeable of the Calabrian element in Canada and appears to serve as a liaison to them.
- In 1966, the FBI noted that Romeo and Peter Magaddino (Stefano's son, a made member) traveled to Canada where they met with Bonanno Montreal leaders Vic Cotroni and Paolo Violi, both Calabrians like Romeo. It should be noted in 1964 Stefano Magaddino was recorded giving Romeo extensive details on the Joe Bonanno situation.

Aside from that, Romeo appears to have been a legitimate businessman who was part of civic Italian groups in the Niagara Falls area and he died in 2010. His Buffalo membership is confirmed on the Magaddino tapes.

Questions:

- Is Romeo the only Sidernese underworld figure in the region to be a confirmed as a Buffalo member? It could be an indication that some from the Siderno faction of Ontario also had Buffalo membership.
- Buffalo does not appear to have been widely recruiting members in Niagara Falls during this period, so Romeo's ability to move to the area in the early 1950s as an apparent outsider from Calabria and become a member by his early 30s (possibly earlier) and be held in high standing by Magaddino is interesting. Romeo does not appear to have been significantly involved in criminal activities, so was his induction for political reasons?
- From his conversations with Magaddino, his ties to Ontario and Montreal Calabrian mafosi, and Magaddino's reference to an "endorsement" from an unidentified Italian location, it appears Romeo had ties to both the 'Ndrandgheta and Cosa Nostra.
- Romeo's wife was a Senese, apparently from Ontario. Is that name connected to Calabrian or Ontario underworld figures?