60-2010 top NY fam running drugs

[Charlie]

Back in the mid to late 80's and early 90's the bonannos were big in heroin, especially in the Bronx.
Basciano was probably one of the biggest heroin guy in all of New York, he used to wholesale BLUETHUNDER.
His crew fought non stop for a couple year for some of the most lucrative drug spots, they dropped a lot of bodies...He had everything from 155th to 157th and Melrose, 170th and Morris, 175th and Crotona Park, he had guys uptown, Lower East Side, Yonkers...dealers from out of town bought from him.
And these were not white neighborhoods...

[Lupara]

So

60s- Genovese

70s- lukes w the French connection ???

80s- Bonanno Zips

90s- Lukes?

2000s - Gambinos ????

also you know what i found interesting is that Brasco was asked twice about making sure he wasnt involved with drugs. Rabito and Santora both were in the crew... these busts came way later but im sure they were doing something back then as well.

what roll could be said about the zips w the 3 capo war?
at first they supported sonny red side and then switched to massino/Napolitano side making them win.

I think the predominant families in narcotics:

Pre-1960 Genovese

1960s Lucchese

1970s & 80s Bonanno & Gambino

[Villain]

I have infos that all five families were involved in the dope biz even before the 60s, or should i say from the early 50s with the Genoveses and Bonannos being the dominant

[JIGGS]

Also, Matty Madonna supplied Nicky Barnes... Which I believe was the 70s. Was the purple gang around in the 70s?

The East Harlem Purple Gang fell apart in the early 80s IIRC

I don't mean to be rude guys. So please don't take any offense to my comment. There was no Purple Gang. The Purple Gang is media lore more than anything else. It's one of the things I give the thumbs down to Jerry Capeci over because he tacitly condones it by referencing people like Leo and even Bellomo as being part of "Purple Gang" in his articles over the years. It's a complete misconception. Not that those guys had nothing to do with junk because most anyone 'on the street' were (not much of a choice in those days because of how pervasive it was to the 'economy' of the 'life.') But implies they were part of some organized entity. Like the Tanglewood or Springville boys. Even if the latter didn't call themselves such they all knew each other and 'moved' together. Matthew Madonna did not 'move' with Gigi the Whale or Cirillo with Frankie boy [Caserta], nor Leo with Joe Meldisch. I've even read references of Vinny gorgeous being ex-Purple Gang. Total bullshit. Again, it's all mediahype.

I'm aware of a 1976 DEA Report devoted to this 'gang'. But a lot of these reports from that era and especially before (particularly those that include contributions from Det. Ralph Salerno or Remo Franceschini, the biggest sensationalist of all) imo are blown out of proportion or are 'in the ballpark' close but no cigar. With regards to specific things that aren't reality.

I strongly recommend to anyone who subscribes to this media creation to read it and go into it with the thought process that it's not an actual organized gang per se. You'll realize that the 'motts' that it offers is based on a handful of guys. It starts and ends with them. You don't see any of the mob bosses today who are ID'd as PGN appear in the report. None of the guys profiled amounted to a 'future' in Cosa Nostra.' Bellomo who is often cited as ex-Purple Gang was not even around when Frankie, Fats, and Rocco emerged. It's all Mafia Encyclopedia bullshit fueled by the DEA report that claimed there were 127 members. (Ha!) Steer clear from anything written by Carl Sifakis. Worst than Volkman.

Just some friendly 2 cents from JIGGS

[JIGGS]

Back in the mid to late 80's and early 90's the bonannos were big in heroin, especially in the Bronx.
Basciano was probably one of the biggest heroin guy in all of New York, he used to wholesale BLUETHUNDER.
His crew fought non stop for a couple year for some of the most lucrative drug spots, they dropped a lot of bodies...He had everything from 155th to 157th and Melrose, 170th and Morris, 175th and Crotona Park, he had guys uptown, Lower East Side, Yonkers...dealers from out of town bought from him.
And these were not white neighborhoods...

The spanish and blacks (George Rivera, George Calderone, Ruben "KC" Rios, Bob Lemon) were some of the principal guys buying from Vinny's people who had their own people working those corners in the Bronx and E. Harlem (122st). George apparently rebranded "Blue Thunder" into "Obsession." Lemon who was part of Rivera's crew rebranded it as "Street justice." They all got arrested. Calderone got blown away if memory serves me. Amazingly, it was the one racket Vinny Gorgeous didn't go down for.

JIGGS

[B.]

Back in the mid to late 80's and early 90's the bonannos were big in heroin, especially in the Bronx.
Basciano was probably one of the biggest heroin guy in all of New York, he used to wholesale BLUETHUNDER.
His crew fought non stop for a couple year for some of the most lucrative drug spots, they dropped a lot of bodies...He had everything from 155th to 157th and Melrose, 170th and Morris, 175th and Crotona Park, he had guys uptown, Lower East Side, Yonkers...dealers from out of town bought from him.
And these were not white neighborhoods...

Cicale mentions Basciano getting drugs from the Montreal crew in the 2000s and that Massino specifically reached out to Basciano after the Sciascia hit to feel him out, as he said Basciano and Sciascia had been close. Curious if Basciano was distributing heroin from Montreal earlier on as well given they were part of the same family and had drug ties later.

[JeremyTheJew]

was Vinny actually packaging up the bags and stamping them?

i allways assumed that they were involved in the WHOLESALE end of selling dope.

but if he was known for different stamps that would imply he was actually bagging the dope

[TommyNoto]

The people he sold to were stamping it

Vinny was strictly wholesale

Not a lot of info on this area so great info Charlie and Jiggs and would love to hear more about Vinny heroin racket and the guys he sold too . Was Vinny hands off with those guys or did he help them solve some street problems ? You can get close to longtime big customers and sometimes you might have to kill em . Curious how Vinny handled his area.

After the pizza connection fizzled out it seems Montreal picked up some of the leftovers in the US dope trade .

The dope business has obviously slowed down for wise guys but there is certainly activity and I’ve always wondered who the supplier is today , Montreal , Calarbrians or Sicialians or a combo of all 3?

Do the Calabrians feel strong enough to enter the huge US market as they already have routes to Canada so the US must be very tempting , do the Sicialians need to enter to offset a bad island economy ? Wish we had that info

[JeremyTheJew]

The people he sold to were stamping it

Vinny was strictly wholesale

Not a lot of info on this area so great info Charlie and Jiggs and would love to hear more about Vinny heroin racket and the guys he sold too . Was Vinny hands off with those guys or did he help them solve some street problems ? You can get close to longtime big customers and sometimes you might have to kill em . Curious how Vinny handled his area.

After the pizza connection fizzled out it seems Montreal picked up some of the leftovers in the US dope trade .

The dope business has obviously slowed down for wise guys but there is certainly activity and I’ve always wondered who the supplier is today , Montreal , Calarbrians or Sicialians or a combo of all 3?

Do the Calabrians feel strong enough to enter the huge US market as they already have routes to Canada so the US must be very tempting , do the Sicialians need to enter to offset a bad island economy ? Wish we had that info

it seems that the Calabrians/Ndrangheta is not into HEROIN as much as cocaine.
from what the streets say the country is broken up by different kinds of dope from different regions. for example:
WEST COAST is all black tar heroin that comes straight from Mexico.
then Mid West is said to be "Afghan dope" it's a brown rocky type.
East Coast, specifically NYC is weird bc they have switched the major type of dope. for example, it use to be called CHINA WHITE and it was a pure white dope. That was back in the day tho. Assuming it probably comes from Canada.
Detroit is known for the stronger dope through county.
down south is pills.

back to Purple Gang, is there a list of said members? i dont think vinny was said to be purp.
Danny Leo, Cirillo, Bellomo and then I heard a lot went to the lucchese

[TommyNoto]

From my understanding Mexico has a huge Midwest Operstion and dominate the Chicago trade which is probably the key distribution center that spokes out to surrounding large mid western cities in the area.

Generally speaking I’ve seen the heroin map but NY/NJ area is home to dope from all over the globe. Curious if Italian trafficked dope still has a home in NYC

[JIGGS]

Not a lot of info on this area so great info Charlie and Jiggs and would love to hear more about Vinny heroin racket and the guys he sold too . Was Vinny hands off with those guys or did he help them solve some street problems ? You can get close to longtime big customers and sometimes you might have to kill em . Curious how Vinny handled his area.

Vinny and no made or 'connected guy' [ex. Meldisch] ever got involved with the street level politics. A fish Wholesaler doesn't give a shit if Whole Foods market fire bombs a Trader Joe's because it's offering lower prices to the consumer. "Blue Fish" only cares about filling those orders every month. No matter who is left standing. The drug business is every ONE for themselves. You have interference on your end? Don't cry for me Argentina. What was it that Ray Liotta said in "Goodfellas?"

'&%$# you. Pay me.'

I'll tell you another thing as someone who was on the ground and was dealing with addiction. A lot of that shit is a bit overblown. The heroin market. At least as far as NYC went. Although I have to believe every large metropolis with a ghetto runs the same course. They (Vinny) had it locked down because the kids in the ghetto selling the shit didn't have any 'international' connections. But just as big in my opinion, if not bigger, were the folks involved in the crack wars. It sounds crazy because of what TV shows the public. But all those guys associated with 'Pleasant Avenue' (not the street) who were doing wholesale from around '62-'73 (around when 'H' went 'down.' in nyc) were still living in city shitholes and driving around in automobiles older than them. A street guy dealing in "H" might have 40k stashed in a cupboard. But the kids working the crack angle in the '80s *looked* the kingpin part. The kids had millions. One of them, a P.R. named "K.C." , who was retailing Blue thunder early on, abandoned it altogether for Crack. In the 1980s Crack was 'King.' At least as far as the "market" went. The heroin market was and is still always 'there' but Crack spiked in '82 and by the time the Pizza connection trial came about, it had already supplanted "H" (which had made a brief 'comeback around '79-'80) on street demand. Smack had been around a whole lot longer and there were already medical or social programs set up for it since way back. (I went to my first program in '68). Crack was something 'new', it was cheaper and easier to last and sell. Programs got eliminated by the feds. You didn't have to deal with Cosa Nostra. You could get it direct from kids. That's how pervasive it was. Everyone was either using it, selling it or investing in a 'package' to multiply it 3-4 times over. Most of your night life in nyc was fueled by the coke/crack drug culture. It was raining money during the crack era. K.C. had his people selling $5 bottles for $3. Sometimes even $2. There were lines for it. Like those old depression-era photos of people waiting to get into a soup kitchen. Media never really zeroed in or connected the mob to it because of what crack was associated with. It didn't fit the stereotype. They had the mob as being against narcotics ha! But I was pretty sure they weren't ignoring it. Crack I mean. A few years ago I seen this this video on the youtube network that showed made guys were working the crack landscape as wholesalers AND on the street level retail. This kid "Froggy" from Staten Island [Galione]. Made tons of cash pushing crack. I can't prove it. But I KNOW there were a whole slew more. There HAD to be. They just got lucky and didn't get busted. Look at Vinny? All them years and he never went down for any significant amount of time pushing 'H.' They were locking up everybody else. Doctors, lawyers, the fuckin' mayor of D.C. for christ sakes. The Meldisch brothers should have done 25 years in prison just for all the junk they moved alone. Mike Meldisch might still be alive if the feds or dea been serious and gone straight to the movers and shakers providing it to the street. They went after gangs instead. Street punks. With no sources of their own. Lock em' up and a new crew filled the void. Guiliani becoming mayor ended all of that.

After the pizza connection fizzled out it seems Montreal picked up some of the leftovers in the US dope trade .

Then there's the Chinese. Colombians. Mexicans. I could tell you as a cold hard fact that, back in the day, the social clubs in NY (and I don't mean 'Mob', but after-hours places that were unlicensed, had music, dancing, drugs, booze, women) where you could score a bag was courtesy of the Cali Cartel. This was 1984. A few years prior to the city closing them all down.

That's just ONE experience and not THE experience across the country. I'm just sharing another angle that was as pervasive but inclusive to all criminal activists. Not just traditional organized crime, you know?

[The dope business has obviously slowed down for wise guys but there is certainly activity and I’ve always wondered who the supplier is today , Montreal , Calarbrians or Sicialians or a combo of all 3?

Do the Calabrians feel strong enough to enter the huge US market as they already have routes to Canada so the US must be very tempting , do the Sicialians need to enter to offset a bad island economy ? Wish we had that info

Beats me. Good luck figuring that one out. Pull my coat tail when you do.

JIGGS

[Wiseguy]

From my understanding Mexico has a huge Midwest Operstion and dominate the Chicago trade which is probably the key distribution center that spokes out to surrounding large mid western cities in the area.

That's true. Chicago is a major hub for 3 of the 6 major Mexican cartels.

Generally speaking I’ve seen the heroin map but NY/NJ area is home to dope from all over the globe. Curious if Italian trafficked dope still has a home in NYC

The 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment reported heroin as being a drug trafficked less frequently by both LCN and IOC (Italian) groups. It does happen occasionally but we see a lot less mob busts involving heroin than cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, and prescription drugs. While the mob has been marginalized in the drug trade, it has managed to become diversified. Anyway, obviously most of the heroin in NYC is coming from Mexican, Colombian, and Dominican suppliers.

[UTC]

Naturally, a large number of people in South America are of Italian extraction, but that's a whole other story.

[CabriniGreen]

Chicago is indeed a cartel city..... this was in the SunTimes not long ago...3 weeks?

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/killi ... boss-said/

[CabriniGreen]

@Jiggs


You are seriously my new favorite poster.... Great post my man !!