Gambinos and Canada Today

[CabriniGreen]

was reading this, it mentions Frank Cali having connections to Canada......


https://books.google.com/books?id=d5NOD ... li&f=false

Any ideas as to whom hes connected to up there?

[CabriniGreen]

The book is Mafia Life by Federico Varese....

[CabriniGreen]

The link I posted gives a long recap of Gianni Nicchis trip to NY to re-establish the pipeline with the Gambinos....

[Lupara]

If I had to guess I'd say that Cali was one of those NY reps who attended the Toronto meeting in October 2012. I think it's only logical that he is the laison between the Gambinos and the Sicilians in Canada.

[slimshady_007]

Good read. Interesting how it mentioned how frank had an affair while with his wife and how the feds arrested frank at his mistress’s house. Im sure tall pete wasn’t happy with that. Anyway about Canada, it could be possible that frank still does business in Canada.

[Wiseguy]

Interesting reading on what would lead to Operation Old Bridge.

As a side note, I'm not sure why the author says there's no evidence of Mafia involvement of immigrant smuggling in Sicily. There's been several articles about they and the other Italian syndicates being involved.

[DPG]

Interesting reading on what would lead to Operation Old Bridge.

As a side note, I'm not sure why the author says there's no evidence of Mafia involvement of immigrant smuggling in Sicily. There's been several articles about they and the other Italian syndicates being involved.

Every morning when I get up I search 'mafia' on Google news. I read an article that said the Mafia was making more money off illegal immigrants than drugs. Said they put them to work for a couple dollars a day. Didn't mention any specific groups from what I recall, just used the same umbrella terms.

[CabriniGreen]

Yeah, hes WAAAY off there....

It's really funny to me how often that happens with these authors. How or why he could have made a mistake like that, I find somewhat confusing...

[CabriniGreen]

This excerpt actually makes Gianni Nicchi look like an aggressive, forward thinker. He pushed to reestablish the US relations.

I found it also somewhat confirms what was said in New Bridge, that the Gambinos brought," South American contacts to bear.."

I dont want to turn the thread left already, because I want others to post their opinions too, but these Venezuela connections, I'm pretty sure they came from John Gambino.

I think this is why to investigators over there, they saw Gambino as a top guy. It's kind of a Euro- centric view, but from their perspective, I think the assumption was pretty logical, even if wrong...

[CabriniGreen]

Also, it highlights it was THE ENTIRE cosa nostra that wanted to get involved.

It's why I find this particularly fascinating. THE STRUCTURE, how does this even work?

When they come into NY, I mean.

It leaves a lot of questions unanswered...

[CabriniGreen]

One last point, then I'll wait for others to post....

In Diego Gambettas Business of Private Protection, he described the Sicilian heroin trade as mostly small operations.

He says it was Salvatore Inzerillo who was in charge of shipping to America, and those with access to America made the most money.

It's interesting that this was STILL the case.....

[Wiseguy]

Also, it highlights it was THE ENTIRE cosa nostra that wanted to get involved.

It's why I find this particularly fascinating. THE STRUCTURE, how does this even work?

When they come into NY, I mean.

It leaves a lot of questions unanswered...

I'm not sure this goes to your point but it seems like they went about it the same way they did with heroin decades ago, i.e. a consortium of clans go in together to finance large shipments. Obviously they pick a couple guys to represent their collective interests.

One last point, then I'll wait for others to post....

In Diego Gambettas Business of Private Protection, he described the Sicilian heroin trade as mostly small operations.

He says it was Salvatore Inzerillo who was in charge of shipping to America, and those with access to America made the most money.

It's interesting that this was STILL the case.....

Was he talking about heroin sales in Sicily itself? I imagine it would be infinitesimal to the American market.

[CabriniGreen]

Yes, he meant in sicily, I hope this link works


https://books.google.com/books?id=y3bv3 ... ne&f=false

There are a few interesting points;
1. He explains how when the Italians learned how to refine opium into morphine base, it liberated them from having to rely on smugglers from Naples and their network of high speed boats because morphine weighs much less than opium.

2. He explains the effect of drug trafficking on the families membership numbers, as well as the need to do business with non mafiosi.

3. It's page 242, where he says Inzerillo was in charge of trafficking to the US.

[CabriniGreen]

The way he explained it, access to America was not widespread amongst the families. This wasnt the French Connection, rather a kind of free for all....

The Sicilian Mafia first became involved in the international heroin business in the late 1950s with the arrival of Lucky Luciano from the United States. It wasn’t until the early 1970s, however, that Mafiosi first began engaging in this trade on a large scale.


Following a flurry of arrests in the 1960s the Mafia’s financial situation suffered. It wasn’t until Mafiosi began smuggling tobacco, and later trading in heroin, that this situation improved.

According to Calderone, “When I say there wasn’t any money in those years, that the mafia had no money, I’m not just saying it to exaggerate. After the arrests of 1962-1963 and the Catanzaro trial of 1968, everybody’s money had run out. It had gone to lawyers, prison fees, and the like” .

The enormous profit opportunities offered by the heroin business prompted the Mafia to become seriously involved in this market shortly thereafter.


The heroin businesses’ higher physical and human capital requirements reduced potential competitive pressure in this industry. This pressure in turn reduced the need for collusion and thus organizational hierarchy.

As Sicilian Mafiosi increasingly turned their attention to heroin production in the 1970s they therefore become less eager to employ hierarchical organization as a collusive technology.

Thus, since the 1970s, “there has been . . . a clear trend toward the expansion of individual entrepreneurial autonomy” within the Siclian Mafia’s organization, as our theory predicts.


According to Buscetta, for instance, following the Mafia’s entrance into the heroin business “the cleavages among different families were no longer respected, in the sense that everybody could associate with whoever they wanted”.


As investigating judges of the first antimafia pool put it, “De facto autonomous, but financially linked
structures have been created inside Cosa Nostra, running the different phases making up the complex drug trade, while the ‘men of honor’ who do not have operational responsibilities in the trade may financially contribute to it, sharing profits and risks to different degrees”.


Many Mafiosi operated entirely independently in the heroin business. “The freedom wielded by [its] participants was such that . . . whoever wanted to do so could pick up his share of the processed product in Sicily and arrange distribution independently” . “As a matter of fact, the single mafia families—and . . . increasingly, even the single ‘men of honor’—enjoy full entrepreneurial autonomy, and at the interfamily level, there is no obligation to share illicit proceeds either”. Nor was there an obligation to rely on Mafiosi to conduct business, as there was in the private protection industry. Mafiosi and
non-Mafiosi alike operated freely in the heroin business.


As Buscetta and Salvatore Contorno pointed out, in stark contrast to the private protection business, in the drug business, “family boundaries were irrelevant: everybody was entitled to associate financially or otherwise with anyone else, whether Mafiosi or not.” Involvement in the heroin business didn’t typically require
a boss’ permission. And, “If a license was needed from the family at all, it concerned dealing in general and not how or with whom”.
Further, unlike the private protection business in which private protection supplier had to kick their earnings up to the capo famiglia, in the heroin business earnings remained exclusively in the hands of individual producers.


As Contorno described it, “If I put in some
money and bought some merchandise which turned out to be of poor quality, I alone would lose that money. By contrast, if it was good, I alone would profit . . . . There were many of us receiving [drugs] because there were different laboratories, and if I was the person interested in the shipment, it was up to me to have it processed and turned into heroin”.

Similarly, in contrast to a Mafioso’s activities in the private protection business, in the heroin business only his personal finances were involved, highlighting his autonomy in this market.

According to Buscetta, “I can state very clearly regarding the much publicized position of Giuseppe Calo as the man in charge of the mafia’s assets, if Pippo Calo has any assets, they belong to him alone, not to the mafia. He does not manage mafia assets. Everybody has his own”, in the drug business.

[Rocco]

This excerpt actually makes Gianni Nicchi look like an aggressive, forward thinker. He pushed to reestablish the US relations.

I found it also somewhat confirms what was said in New Bridge, that the Gambinos brought," South American contacts to bear.."

I dont want to turn the thread left already, because I want others to post their opinions too, but these Venezuela connections, I'm pretty sure they came from John Gambino.

I think this is why to investigators over there, they saw Gambino as a top guy. It's kind of a Euro- centric view, but from their perspective, I think the assumption was pretty logical, even if wrong...

Didn't Gianni Nicchi get locked up in Italy shortly after that trip to NY where the photos of him and Cali came from? He got a heft sentence in Italy right? And I believe he was involved in a faction or power vacuum at the time within Sicily?