Very interesting angles CG, reminds of a couple of chapters I recently read of the book 'Mafia Republic' by John Dickie.CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Sat Nov 11, 2017 3:35 am Interesting stuff, let me throw some potatoes in the pot.......
1. Someone said the Bonnanos were known as the most Sicilian family. I would say yes, WHEN BONNANO, GALANTE, GARAFOLO, BONAVENTRE, when these guys were still powers in the family. After they retired or went to Arizona or back to Italy, what Bonnano members, born in America, had the extensive ties to Sicily? More to the point, DIRECT TIES TO SICILY.......
2. @ lupara
When you say the Bonnanos summoned Rizzuto for the three capo hits, why don't you consider the narco-politics that were in play?
The fact that the three capos were at the Bono wedding, they were the trusted American distributors for the Sicilian heroin. Then they went and tried to screw em. So the Sicilians had a vested interest in those hits, I mean they took out Vioil, they didn't do THAT just to turn around and have the SAME situation with Indelicato.
The question has always been, If the Bonnanos control Montreal through the Cotronis, and the Rizzutos control the heroin, DO THE COTRONIS CONTROL THE RIZZUTOS, AND BY EXTENSTION THE HEROIN, AND BY EXTENTION, DID THE BONNANOS CONTROL THE HEROIN. I contend that the Bonnanos came into play when the dope crosses the Atlantic, and it's time to move it into NYC. They were the trusted distributors. I've read that Sciascia didn't even require down payments from a lot of the distributors, it was always, " Just move the shit...pay me later I got more coming.."
Now, why do I think this??
Take a good look at the thread Felice started about the Gambinos.
Notice the documents said the Sicilian mafia requested that their heroin business be enlarged. Not the Bonnano family, the Sicilian mafia.
Cheech Gambino, the Cherry Hill guys, even Felice says that Mannino and his partner were very independent. Scarfo couldn't deal with Rosario Gambino how he wanted to initially because he was Sicilian mafia. I compared the Gambino-Spatola-Inzerillo-Mannino-DiMaggio clan to the Rizzuto-Manno-Renda-Sciascia clan before, to me they are very similar. Technically under the LCN umbrella, but EXTREMELY INDEPENDENT, based on moving a commodity, not territorial control.
It's pretty clear the SICILIANS ran the heroin trade, and on the supply end you had basically Gambino clan members, and the Caruana- Cuntrera clan running two parallel networks. The Gambino one was for Sicilian mafia members specifically. The Bonnano one was supplied by the Caruanas, headed by Catalano, and he was in charge of " The U.S. end of the pizza connection"' which actually means American mafia members allowed to deal heroin, basically Bonnano guys. But there seems to have been Zips sent over to move work too. When Catalano paid up, he was paying Castellano, im not sure, was he paying Napolitano, Massino, kicking up to Rastelli? I'm reminded of Fat Tony caught on Taps saying something like, ” The Bonnanos, they got a crew of 80 guys, all they do is move junk, junk guys...." I'm paraphrasing but you get what I mean.
Essentially, like Cheech Gambino, the Cherry Hill guys, you could say they were Gambino crews, but they did what they did, move dope, with IMPUNITY. That's the question I guess I have, Are you saying the Rizzutos didn't move narcotics with Impunity? That the Bonnanos actually were directing all the traffic internationally? I think that's just plain wrong....
It's just weird to me, how were the Gambino clan independent, but the Rizzutos weren't? Serious question here...
3. On the Violis and Buffalo..
I think they were made into Buffalo for protection,they absorbed whatever was left of the Luppino ndrine, kind of " inherited” control of the Valuable border between Buffalo and Canada, and with their Calabrian origins, have large scale narcotics connections, and are being courted by the Bonnanos in NYC.,who might be tired of playing the role of " Trusted distributors" and are looking to exert the same kind of reach the Gambinos are.
I see Buffalo being valuable for the same reason a town like Elpaso is to the Mexicans. In fact, not long ago there was a bust in Buffalo, a Sinaloa drug operation. It's a big enough town to support criminal activity. Y'all just take this shit personally, lol...
I dunno, this stuff is pretty interesting, let me ask this while everyone is looking, what was the deal with Sciascia and Cotronis son? That thing Ive never got the full story....
He also said that these Trans-Atlantic DTO's were beginning to gain so much power in those days (late 70's/early 80's) that they bypassed the traditonal LCN power structures. In those years we started to see for the first time that the real power was shifting to the people who controlled the product (Caruana-Cutrera-Rizutto) instead of the people who controlled the territory (Violi) like it traditionally always had been.
