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"We still feel the LCN (La Casa Nostra) is a viable and visible threat to Western New York," says Virgil D. Woolley, acting head of the Buffalo FBI office. But he admits the Buffalo mob has a weak pulse and resuscitation seems unlikely without strong leadership and profitable criminal enterprises. - The Withered Arm of the Buffalo Mafia Is All About Losing Its Old Fashioned Values and Falling Behind the Times, The Buffalo News (Lee Coppola), 1998
Today, despite rumors that what was once the Magaddino family still operates here, federal organized crime investigators say those tales just aren’t true. They say small numbers of loosely associated individuals may still get together to commit what once were Mafia style crimes, but it’s not like the old days. - End of Organized Crime in Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Niagara Gazette, 2006
“A 10-year, government-enforced cleanup of Local 210 ends today with the retirement of John J. "Jack" McDonnell as the union's court-appointed liaison officer. McDonnell, a former FBI special agent, gave the union a clean bill of health in a recent report to U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara. He said he believes the current leaders of the local are ready to run the operation themselves, with no government supervision.” - Local 210 Gets Clean Bill Of Health 10-Year, Government-Enforced Cleanup Of Union Ends Today With The Retirement Of Its Overseer, The Buffalo News (Dan Herbeck), 2006
“There’s a few of the old-timers still around in Buffalo, but that’s about it,” one current federal inmate told the Niagara Falls Reporter. “There’s really nothing left to organize.” - Mob May Be Dead But Not Forgotten, Niagara Falls Reporter (Mike Hudson), 2012
"Even the most optimistic observers say the old Magaddino outfit has but 20 made guys left at most, and the majority of them have long since qualified for Social Security." - Who Will Lead Now That Todaro, Nicoletti Are Gone, Niagara Falls Reporter (Mike Hudson), 2013
“Some of the individuals who were leaders of the Mafia are still around. But their organized crime activities don’t exist anymore. Some of them have legitimate businesses that we know of.” - Adam S. Cohen, SAC Buffalo FBI; The Mafia Is All But Dead In Western New York. So What Killed It? - The Buffalo News (Dan Herbeck), 2017
“The Mafia, and the way of life that fostered the Mafia, is pretty much gone,” said Lee Coppola, 73, a former federal prosecutor and news reporter who grew up among mobsters and their families on Buffalo’s West Side. - The Mafia Is All But Dead In Western New York. So What Killed It? - The Buffalo News (Dan Herbeck), 2017
Today, both Cohen and Coppola estimate that there are no more than a handful of surviving mob members in the area, with no viable organization to unite them, and no leader. - The Mafia Is All But Dead In Western New York. So What Killed It? - The Buffalo News (Dan Herbeck), 2017
“There are a few remnants of the mob that still exist in Buffalo,” said Ronald Fino, a former union leader who helped the FBI investigate the local mob, “but it’s not the same.” - The Mafia Is All But Dead In Western New York. So What Killed It? - The Buffalo News (Dan Herbeck), 2017 (changed his tune in 2021)
“Once we got them out of Local 210, that was the beginning of the end for the Buffalo mob,” said Andrew Goralski, a former Buffalo FBI agent who retired in 2007. “That was their power source in Buffalo.” - Andew Goralski, Former FBI - The Mafia Is All But Dead In Western New York. So What Killed It? - The Buffalo News (Dan Herbeck), 2017
(Answering the question if he believes there is still a Buffalo mob) "Being away from it for 3/12 years it's difficult for me to give a really good answer. I don't think so. I don't know where this information is coming from. Because when I left the U.S. Attorney's Office, if there were any made members of the Mafia around they were literally on life support. And there wasn't any plans that I knew of to take on new members. So I don't think there's much there, if anything at all. - Tony Bruce (Assistant US Attorney Western District NY, Organized Crime and National Security Division), 2019
(Answering the question if he believes there is still a Buffalo mob) "Well I have two initials for the Canadian mobster's claims about the Buffalo mob - BS. I'm certainly not a reporter anymore but am still familiar with the actors and late actors in the mob, and I simply say, where's the revenue? If there's no revenue then there's no mob. And there's nothing of organized criminal activity that you would related to the Arm, the old Buffalo Mafia existing. Certainly there's crime, don't get me wrong, but it's criminal enterprises of different ethnic groups or start-up criminals, nothing related to an organized criminal family that has a head, has lieutenants, has a consigliere, and soldiers, things of that nature. It just doesn't exist in Buffalo or throughout basically Magaddino's empire, except there is a criminal enterprise going on in Canada because when Magaddino lost his grip of the Buffalo Arm or the Buffalo Family, the Canadians took over with fervor." - Lee Coppola, former Buffalo News reporter, 2019
(Answering the question if he believes there is still a Buffalo mob) "I think it's akin in the business world going from a company, that employed a lot of people up and down the line, to independent contractors. You hire independent contractors, you do business with independent contractors, on an as-needed basis." - Salvatore Martoche (retired NY Supreme Court, former NY State Commission of Investigation, former US Attorney Western District of NY)
"What happens a lot of times is, there are criminal elements, people who commit crimes or people who are investigated for crimes, and if they happen to have a last name that ends in a vowel the tendency is to say 'Oh, there's a crime family, La Cosa Nostra, the Mafia is thriving and growing;' I have trouble believing that." - Lee Coppola (former Buffalo News reporter), I 2019 (I-Team: Is Strip Club Raid A Sign of Buffalo Mafia Resurgance?, WKBW TV)
"There's a difference between an organized criminal syndicate, like the Mafia, and those who are just committing crimes. - Peter Ahearn, Former SAC Buffalo FBI (Federal Investigation of Buffalo Mob Resurgence Heats Up With New Indictment, WKBW TV, 2021)