In light of the recent Colombo bust, my observations.

[desertdog]

Capo Dennis Delucia has just flipped probably going to see his whole crew indicted soon

Looks like another 2011 for the Colombo’s

Good deal...Exterminate the cockroaches...

[MightyDR]

Does anyone know if Valachi said anything about the Genovese member taxing its members from 1931-1962? Can't recall. He did say Tony Bender took all of the profits from an "off the record" drug deal, but this appears to have been done because Valachi and co. were technically breaking the rules and Bender felt he could abuse the situation.

Valachi testified to the effect that he had to go out and make a living on his own, but being a member of Cosa Nostra meant that no one would step on his toes and the family would help him out should there be issues with his business. Senator Javits summed it up as “mutual protection” and Valachi agreed. He said he wasn’t required to share any proceeds with his captain and never did, but many soldiers go to their captain and include them in business deals.

Then you have Vincent Cafaro, testifying 25 years after Valachi, who said that in the same family, a captain could demand 10 percent of the profits from any illegal business a member had.


I feel everyone is on the same page here. Cosa Nostra isn’t a business, it’s a secret society that people join because they believe it can help them financially or give them status. As has been mentioned, some bosses demand tribute, some don’t. Sometimes members are assigned rackets, sometimes they are stripped of rackets, but you are not automatically given a racket as a member. Michael Franzese explained it best with his “paper bag full of money” story.

I would argue that it is inherently criminal, but not necessarily made up of your usual gangsters, hoodlums etc. I’m reminded of Rochester member Angelo Monachino, who testified that he already had a successful construction business, but ingratiated himself with mobsters and eventually became a member only because he thought it would be good for his construction business (it wasn’t).

[SonnyBlackstein]

Good post MDR

[B.]

Good post MDR

100%

[CabriniGreen]

I would add, in Italy, there has been a failure to establish a monopoly on the use of violence.

In America, first with Prohibition making them liquid, then right after the Great Depression, I would say the Government failed to establish a monopoly on the use of CAPITAL.

Liquor money wasnt made toxic to the same degree as drug money. I suspect many politicians took money from, and forged relationships with mafiosi they otherwise wouldnt have....


In Sicily it's different, it's more about power, but in the states, I absolutely believe business took them to the next level, more than anything...

[Angelo Santino]

This is a great thread and I appreciate all the discussion but we've gone down a tangent from how Mafia's internal ranks work to a debate on what constitutes criminality.

My initial point was that Mafia positions are centered around the affairs of Mafia members more than it is directing criminal affairs in the same way an organization purely joined for one criminal endeavor would. Mafia positions are a bureaucracy among its members, a self-governing system more than it is a gang-leader post. Sometimes it can be that but most often it's not. In fact, one doesn't have to hold a rank to be a gang leader, take into account the DeMeo Crew. DeMeo was a Soldier under Nino Gaggi, yet DeMeo had an entire group of non-made guys under him. Back in the 60's Benny Squint Lombardo was suspected of being very high up in the Gen organization due to his level of insulation and the FBI were rather surprised that he was "just" a soldier.

[Pogo The Clown]

Back to the point on Bonanno family tribute. Massino was taking monthly tribute from a select group of Captains. His earnings from his testimony. If I remember right Gigante was the same way in that he only took tribute from a few selected captain. Seems it was more a security meassure against indictment than a no tribute policy in the family.

His sports book was making 10,000-12,000 a week (so some weeks it was less) = 480,000-576,000 max (split with Vitale and likely others)

8,000 a month from video poker machines = 96,000 a year

4,000 a year from that electrician (split with member Anthony Mannone) = 2,000 a year

150,000-160,000 Christmas tribute

Capo monthly tributes:
Coppa = 2,000-6,500 = 24,000-78,000 a year
Cantarella = 1,200-1,500 = 14,000-18,000 a year
Urso = 500-600 = 6,000-7,200 a year
DeFilippo = 2,000 = 24,000 a year

Yearly total = 1,228,000-1,393,200

Adjusted for inflation in 2000 dollars = 1,841,000-2,088,000 today. Though of course it will be a lot less since we know that sports betting and loansharking money was being split with Vitale and possibly others involved.

[CabriniGreen]

I see alot of talk about this being the end of the Colombos. It would be if this were purely a criminal organization. I know that sounds insane, the mafia revolves around crime from an outside perspective. Yes and no.

Let's compare any Mafia Family to another group- the cartels or even a black drug gang. With the latter they are joined together purely for one unified criminal endeavor- drugs. To run a drug gang you need leadership, lieutenants, enforcers, crew leaders, sellers, runners, lookouts all the way down the line, because the business is drug distribution. Each person has a specific job to play. A mafia family doesn't work that way. It's not primarily focused on anything, there's never been a drug Family, a casino Family, a Union family and so forth.

I had to revisit this, because in that article I posted, you can find glaring examples, from the 1st, 3 months of this year, of everything you are saying doesnt exist.

Mafia families composed of blood relatives who primarily deal drugs, the whole Zen family is basically a drug gang. Drug gangs in Messina, Catania. Turf wars. These things exist in the cradle of the mafia.


Question, what was the Caruana- Cuntreras if not a drug family? Another question, I know you say there hasn't been a " Casino family", but take away the Vegas skim, and it seems like half the midwest families had no REASON to continue or exist. So were those " Casino" based borgatas?


In Leonforte in the province of Enna: drugs and extortion vanquished by anti-mafia operations
April 21, 2021: 30 arrests.

The “Caput silente” operation , which triggered 30 precautionary custody orders in prison, is the natural continuation of the 2014 investigation called “Homo Novus” . Then that investigation revealed the birth of a new Cosa Nostra family in the northern area of ​​the province of Enna, in Leonforte, headed by Giovanni Fiorenza and his children.

With this new round-up, not only was a huge quantity of drugs seized, but a severe blow was given to this traffic that the Fiorenza family managed under a monopoly regime. But above all, the extortion phenomenon has been contained . In the course of .....





Eastern Sicily
In particular , Messina stands out , who has nothing in the province of "babba" , quite the contrary. It "makes use" of young twenty-year-olds who peddle quietly in Taormina and Giardini Naxos, and boasts rival gangs who shoot themselves fiercely in the Giostra district of Messina.


In Catania, gang war with raids and punitive expeditions
One repentant and 14 arrests

April 20, 2021: 14 people arrested.

Alessio Bertucci , affiliated with the Catania mafia clan of the Cappello, repents and sheds full light on the shooting of 8 August 2020.

His story begins when Melo Di Stefano, of the "Milanese Cursoti" , in via Diaz takes a member of the Cappello family with a helmet . The affected clan meets urgently and a few hours later organizes the revenge raid. As many as 14 motorbikes and scooters thus head towards Librino, the stronghold of the Cursoti. After a few empty laps in the neighborhood, the final clash between the two gangs takes place in Viale Grimaldi. Two deaths is the result of the brutal showdown. Bertucci, who took part in the conflict, is wounded, and pretending to be dead manages to avoid the coup de grace of the opposing killers.

This direct testimony from Bertucci triggered Operation Centauri which brought 14 people to prison.




Massimiliano Ingarao
But the central figure, of thickness, that emerges from the two investigations of October 2020 and March 2021, is undoubtedly that of Jari Massimiliano Ingarao . Son of Nicola, killed on June 13, 2007 by the Lo Piccolo family on suspicion of treason, he is also the nephew of Angelo Monti, head of the Borgo Vecchio family, of which he would have taken over in recent months.

The young Ingarao, in addition to taking an interest in ensuring that there were no clashes and fights at the stadium and organizing the feast of Sant'Anna al Borgo through Buongiorno, above all, had in hand, together with the other two brothers, the entire drug trafficking in the neighborhood .

A particularly disconcerting case emerged during the investigation. A man not only made his partner prostitute, but established appointments for her, rates, methods of meeting. She even prepared the underwear to wear. And if she was tired, he insisted that she continue her "work". An endless abjection.

The shooting in the ZEN district in Palermo and the anti-mafia operations
Two families compete for the neighborhood. March 30, 2021: 6 arrested.

On Tuesday, March 23 at the ZEN in Palermo, one of those episodes of the “Gomorrah” series that can be seen on TV for some time happened in reality .

Two family groups, the Colombo and the Maranzano , orphans of their leader Giuseppe Cusimano arrested on January 26, fought for domination over the neighborhood with kicks, punches and pistol shots . A young mafia family that of Zen-Pallavicino, which remained without command gives rise to clashes for the succession.
I'm sorry, but this is a drug gang...



The novelty, however, is that the wall of silence that always surrounds these mafia facts has been broken . And it was a woman , Giuseppe Colombo's partner, who first spoke , then dragged her partner to take the decisive step to stop the spiral of violence.




The shooting in the ZEN district in Palermo and the anti-mafia operations
Two families compete for the neighborhood. March 30, 2021: 6 arrested.

On Tuesday, March 23 at the ZEN in Palermo, one of those episodes of the “Gomorrah” series that can be seen on TV for some time happened in reality .

Two family groups, the Colombo and the Maranzano , orphans of their leader Giuseppe Cusimano arrested on January 26, fought for domination over the neighborhood with kicks, punches and pistol shots . A young mafia family that of Zen-Pallavicino, which remained without command gives rise to clashes for the succession.

The novelty, however, is that the wall of silence that always surrounds these mafia facts has been broken . And it was a woman , Giuseppe Colombo's partner, who first spoke , then dragged her partner to take the decisive step to stop the spiral of violence.





The twentysomethings of the shop. Dismantled a capillary network in the Ionian coast of Messina
April 28, 2021: 13 arrested and 13 under house arrest.

The historical allies of the Cosa Nostra, the Brunetto di Giarre clan , and the representatives of the Cappello di Catania, the Cintorino di Calatabiano , had reached an agreement and divided up the selling of cocaine, hashish and marijuana from one place to another. A widespread and efficient organization that made use above all of very young unscrupulous pushers .

It is the repentant Carmelo Porto, a top man of the Cintorino clan, who revealed the agreements between the clans and the drug trading network in trendy night clubs.

The territory affected by the "Alcantara" investigation is that of the Sicilian Ionian Riviera: from the "rich" centers of Taormina and Giardini Naxos , to the less famous towns of Francavilla di Sicilia, Motta Camastra, Graniti, Malvagna, Roccella Valdemone, Mojo Alcantara, Gaggi , Fiumefreddo.

Of course, anyone who couldn't pay for drugs was beaten up and anyone suspected of being a police confidant was beaten up. All according to the usual script of the mafia clans of eastern Sicily.



The "Gomorra" of Messina
In the Giostra district, war between clans and drug sales, as in Scampia. May 4, 2021: 28 arrests, 11 under house arrest, 13 with signature obligation.

The clan war began in 2016. Shooting in bars, fires of cars, attacks on people. The Bonanno and Arrigos fought over the popular Giostra district of Messina to control the huge drug traffic that was operating day and night, moving hundreds and hundreds of vendors, pushers, consumer-drug dealers.

"It was the Scampia di Messina" said the collaborator of justice Giuseppe Minardi. The neighborhood was monitored centimeter by centimeter by cameras directly connected in the bosses' houses, by the lookouts placed on street corners, by the signals between the various condominiums, by the same customers-consumers who warned the possible arrival of the police. In addition to entire families, the wives of the Arrigo and Bonanno bosses also dealt with the distribution of drugs and retail .

The “Market Place” operation documented over 1,000 episodes of drug sales activities in public housing in via Seminario Estivo, thus making the Giostra district a real “dealing center”.

The disproportion between declared income and assets owned by some of the suspects led to the preventive seizure of apartments, garages, cars, motorcycles and current accounts.

[Angelo Santino]

Still no. What mafiosi do and what their organization provides are two different things. Back in the 1920's perhaps 60% of the American membership were involved in bootlegging and partnerships were made between them. The mafia ranks themselves were not changed or altered to reflect a bootlegging business. Same goes for drugs today.

It is a secret society of members who are willing to engage in crime, any criminal business that develops is a byproduct.

[Pogo The Clown]

It is a secret society of members who are willing to engage in crime, any criminal business that develops is a byproduct.

In the old days one of the requirements for membership was taking part in a murder in some way. Still to this day a requirement for membership is being willing to kill for the organization and covering up for the organizations criminal activity. By definition that is a criminal organization. What you are describing applies more to motorcycle clubs than to LCN.


Pogo

[Uncle Pete]

It is a secret society of members who are willing to engage in crime, any criminal business that develops is a byproduct.

In the old days one of the requirements for membership was taking part in a murder in some way. Still to this day a requirement for membership is being willing to kill for the organization and covering up for the organizations criminal activity. By definition that is a criminal organization. What you are describing applies more to motorcycle clubs than to LCN.


Pogo

A crime by who’s definition? It is not illegal to be a made member of the mafia.

In those cases where the FBI bugged the induction ceremonies has anyone every been indicted for conspiracy to commit murder for taking the oath?

If someone asked you right now if you’d kill for your nuclear family or friends, most people would say yes. That’s not enough to make what you said a criminal act tho right?

[Pogo The Clown]

In and of itself there is no law making it illegal to be a member of the Mafia (I think in Italy there is) but if a member commits a crime on behalf of the organization they get a stiffer sentwnce than if a Joe Blow commits the exact same crime on his own.


If a person were to openly say no I won't kill for you, no I won't break the law and no I won't agree to cover up criminal activity for you by not cooperating with LE. Can such a person still become a member? Would that person even be allowed to hang around as an Associate?


If not than that is by definition a criminal organization.


Pogo

[CabriniGreen]

Still no. What mafiosi do and what their organization provides are two different things. Back in the 1920's perhaps 60% of the American membership were involved in bootlegging and partnerships were made between them. The mafia ranks themselves were not changed or altered to reflect a bootlegging business. Same goes for drugs today.

It is a secret society of members who are willing to engage in crime, any criminal business that develops is a byproduct.

What would you call the Zen borgata?

[Angelo Santino]

There needs to be a distinction between a pure criminal organization which is centered around a specific criminal activity and an organization based on tradition and culture that includes crime in their navigation of the world. Thinking of the mafia as a criminal organization solely is why it keeps regrouping after decades of law enforcement crackdowns.

In the 1930's, the Mafia in NYC was going strong and in Buenos Aires it dissipated. One reason was that in NY the sicilian population were lumped together in ghettos which led to a more stronger and unified mafia. Whereas in Buenos Aires they were even distributed and assimilation occured faster.

---

Cabrini, if you're trying to argue that the mafia is heavily into drugs, you've made your point. If you're trying to liken it to a drug cartel, like I said- no. We as outsiders get to read about the criminal aspect because its documented, we dont see the internal workings of the society because it's a secret one.

[CabriniGreen]

There needs to be a distinction between a pure criminal organization which is centered around a specific criminal activity and an organization based on tradition and culture that includes crime in their navigation of the world. Thinking of the mafia as a criminal organization solely is why it keeps regrouping after decades of law enforcement crackdowns.

In the 1930's, the Mafia in NYC was going strong and in Buenos Aires it dissipated. One reason was that in NY the sicilian population were lumped together in ghettos which led to a more stronger and unified mafia. Whereas in Buenos Aires they were even distributed and assimilation occured faster.

---

Cabrini, if you're trying to argue that the mafia is heavily into drugs, you've made your point. If you're trying to liken it to a drug cartel, like I said- no. We as outsiders get to read about the criminal aspect because its documented, we dont see the internal workings of the society because it's a secret one.

Lol, so what is the Zen borgata?