I'll take the blame for the Sicilian mafia tangent in a thread about the Philly family's thriving Boston faction but I can't stop now...
Wiseguy wrote: ↑Tue Dec 29, 2020 9:21 pm
First, you trying to draw parallels between New York and any other family is where the problem starts.
Drawing parallels between active mafia organizations who maintain ties to each other isn't a problem, it's how we understand the overall organization they're part of. They like to network and expand their interests... so they network and (try to) expand their interests.
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From the Sicilian investigations:
- It came out of the recent Accursio Dimino investigation that the Sciacca family in Sicily had slot machines in NYC through a Sicilian Bonanno associate and this was part of an international operation involving multiple Sicilian families and N.American mafia contacts in NYC and Montreal. The same Sicilian Bonanno associate was surveilled in 2013 at a Bonanno social club with many Bonanno leaders (acting boss Tommy DiFiore, capodecina Vincent Asaro, acting capodecina John Spirito Jr., etc.).
- It came out of the recent Castellammare case that a Bonanno boss "Joe" (Cammarano?) sent a Bonanno soldier to ask the Castellammare boss Francesco Domingo for a favor. Domingo's brother travels between the US and Sicily as a liaison. Another Bonanno soldier arranged a meeting with Domingo for another issue. The investigation also showed that the Bonanno members were arranging contact with mafiosi in Alcamo and had some contact with Sciacca boss Accursio Dimino, mentioned above for his Bonanno ties. One of those arrested with Domingo was a US-based Sicilian mafa figure who had earlier traveled to Sicily with Sal Montagna's brother.
- Frank Cali was born in America but was named in discussions between two Palermo mafia bosses as their main man in the US. He's a relative and product of the Sicilian Gambino clan and served a very "Sicilian-American" role between the groups. To simply call him an American is dismissive of his role. The recent arrest that included Joe's son Tommy Gambino also included the boss of Passo di Rigano, an Inzerillo related to the Sicilian figures in the Gambinos.
Point being, those initial rumors of NYC families restoring Sicilian ties have developed into evidence of significant networking between NYC and Sicily that not even I would have expected five years ago, let alone 10+. You weren't the only one giving major pushback to the article at that time, so I'm not trying to single you out, but I'm glad to see you've accepted the evidence that certain NYC and Sicilian families have strengthened ties. It's big of you to walk back some of those earlier hardline opinions, which admittedly were a long time ago now.
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Where this gets back to Philly-Boston is that they have a made member in Boston who visits South Philly and maintains ties to the Borgesis. It wouldn't be a major leap to think that South Philly might try to gain more momentum in Boston through their made member(s) who lives there. I'm reserving judgment on these references to a captain and new members in Rhode Island, but it's not difficult for me to believe Philly would give their New England interests another push.
It's more believable to me that Philly would make another go in NE than it is that the Bonannos would have direct contact with bosses in Sicily after their own boss flipped, yet the latter happened. A new Philly-Boston angle is completely within the realm of possibility.
