Buffalo/Ontario Mob Acitivity

[Wiseguy]

Questions:
1. Does this make it more likely that the Violi brothers who were arrested in the Otremens Operation are the ones being referred to as the Todaro family members by the FBI and Canadian journalists?

Yes, they have always been the most likely Buffalo LCN members out of those that were charged.

2. Does the evidence that Buffalo had the power to order the Papalia hit in ‘97–when American journalists believed they were too weak, penniless, and without any leadership to do so—indicate American journalists may have it wrong now as they said "the mob is all but dead in WNY?"

Seriously?

LIUNA Local 210 had been put under oversight just a year before in 1996 due to mob control. So obviously there wouldn't be a question of the Buffalo family's viability at that point.

But to try and draw some parallel from over 20 years ago and today is quite a stretch and shows you're not looking at this objectively. Though, having read your ongoing posts on GBB, I'd give you an A+ for effort. You're just trying to draw water from an empty well.

[Frank]

Also isn't it possible that the Viola Bros are Bonanno members

[NickleCity]

2. Does the evidence that Buffalo had the power to order the Papalia hit in ‘97–when American journalists believed they were too weak, penniless, and without any leadership to do so—indicate American journalists may have it wrong now as they said "the mob is all but dead in WNY?"

Seriously?

LIUNA Local 210 had been put under oversight just a year before in 1996 due to mob control. So obviously there wouldn't be a question of the Buffalo family's viability at that point.

But to try and draw some parallel from over 20 years ago and today is quite a stretch and shows you're not looking at this objectively. Though, having read your ongoing posts on GBB, I'd give you an A+ for effort. You're just trying to draw water from an empty well.

It was Buffalo journalist Lee Coppola that said it was too weak to have sanctioned the hit at that time as he spoke to media. About it he said:

“for all intents and purposes, the Buffalo mob —as it once was when Magaddino actually ruled that part of Toronto and the Papalias and Violis were under him —is all diminished and has been diminishing over the last couple of decades to a point now where there is no leadership, there is no structure, and there certainly is not power.”

So you are saying he was wrong and they were strong enough to have to be consulted and give permission for the hit on Johnny Pops?

Coppola said the had: 1. No leadership, 2. No structure, and 3. No power at that point. To me it sounds like Coppola is saying they were not viable by that time. Help me if I’m wrong.

[B.]

I'm reading ICED: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada By Stephen Schneider as it was mentioned by a poster in one of the threads about Canada.
I found this very interesting passage in the chapter about Stefano Magaddino titled 'The Undertaker, The Three Dons, The Enforcer and Other Tales of The Mafiosi in Ontario'

Thanks for sharing. Matches the recording transcript from Magaddino's office in the 1960s where he appears to call Luppino a "Camorrista". Historically the Calabrian 'ndrangheta was referred to as Camorra just like the Neapolitans, from what I've been told. It also fits with the idea that we've seen in Sicily where members/leaders of mainland organizations can join the Sicilian group as subordinates and it looks like Luppino did this in Canada as a subordinate to the largely Sicilian-American Buffalo family.

One thing that differs from that account you shared, if I'm interpreting it right, is in the Magaddino transcripts he appears to feel that Luppino was siding with Bonanno, vaguely referring to Luppino as being "with" Bonanno and meeting with him. Violi's membership in the Bonanno family and his close relationship with Cotroni, who remained loyal to Joe Bonanno throughout the war, also adds some interesting angles to Luppino's relationship with Magaddino in the 1960s.

Would be helpful all around if we knew the identities and locations of the Ontario-based Bonanno members who had apparently been inducted by the mid-1960s without Magaddino's approval. That could affect theories surrounding the Papalia murder, too, since as posted above one theory is that the Montreal Bonannos were branching into that part of Ontario. If there had already been members of the Bonanno family in Ontario since the 1960s at the latest, that could add another dimension to the issue.

[Wiseguy]

2. Does the evidence that Buffalo had the power to order the Papalia hit in ‘97–when American journalists believed they were too weak, penniless, and without any leadership to do so—indicate American journalists may have it wrong now as they said "the mob is all but dead in WNY?"

Seriously?

LIUNA Local 210 had been put under oversight just a year before in 1996 due to mob control. So obviously there wouldn't be a question of the Buffalo family's viability at that point.

But to try and draw some parallel from over 20 years ago and today is quite a stretch and shows you're not looking at this objectively. Though, having read your ongoing posts on GBB, I'd give you an A+ for effort. You're just trying to draw water from an empty well.

It was Buffalo journalist Lee Coppola that said it was too weak to have sanctioned the hit at that time as he spoke to media. About it he said:

“for all intents and purposes, the Buffalo mob —as it once was when Magaddino actually ruled that part of Toronto and the Papalias and Violis were under him —is all diminished and has been diminishing over the last couple of decades to a point now where there is no leadership, there is no structure, and there certainly is not power.”

So you are saying he was wrong and they were strong enough to have to be consulted and give permission for the hit on Johnny Pops?

Coppola said the had: 1. No leadership, 2. No structure, and 3. No power at that point. To me it sounds like Coppola is saying they were not viable by that time. Help me if I’m wrong.

I don't know why Coppola said what he did at that point in 1997.

As I pointed out, just a year earlier the government felt mob control of Local 210 was a big enough issue to put it under oversight. In fact, I recall one article from Parade Magazine entitled "Who is the Mob Today?" It had Gotti on the cover. It was from the mid-1990s and it quoted one FBI official talking talking about the state of different families. Regarding Buffalo, it was said they remained strong with their stranglehold over a local construction union. Obviously they were referring to 210.

In the late 1980s/early 1990s, the family was said to have 45 members. Couldn't be too far off from that six years later. And they still had a structure and leadership at that point.

Anyway, what I'm saying is, while he was mistaken, you can't really draw a correlation between a comment made in 1997 and one 20 years later. A lot of changes have taken place with the Buffalo LCN over the past two decades.

[NickleCity]

Wiseguy, totally get what you are saying. My only point is this: For some reason the Buffalo News journalist overstate the Buffalo family’s demise in ‘97. He continued to overstate it in his ‘98 article “The Withered Arm.” With this being know, I can’t fully trust what Herbeck write in his article “The Mafia is all but dead in WNY”—especially given recent arrests and the Edwards article and blog that stated “The Buffalo mob isn’t dead despite recent media reports.” To me he was drawing aim on Herbeck’s piece and the Canadian piece based on Herbeck’s called “The Last Rites for The Buffalo Mob.”

[Wiseguy]

Wiseguy, totally get what you are saying. My only point is this: For some reason the Buffalo News journalist overstate the Buffalo family’s demise in ‘97. He continued to overstate it in his ‘98 article “The Withered Arm.” With this being know, I can’t fully trust what Herbeck write in his article “The Mafia is all but dead in WNY”—especially given recent arrests and the Edwards article and blog that stated “The Buffalo mob isn’t dead despite recent media reports.” To me he was drawing aim on Herbeck’s piece and the Canadian piece based on Herbeck’s called “The Last Rites for The Buffalo Mob.”

But you don't need to rely on one or two articles.

You can look at the relative lack of cases over the past 20 years. The recent bust alone no more proves the existence of an active, structured family than the 2010 gambling in bust in Kansas City did there.

And that brings up the question of what is the hierarchy in Buffalo today? Especially considering they're likely under 20 living members now.

We also haven't seen Buffalo on any official list of remaining families in over 20 years.

All of this can't just be overlooked because a couple Buffalo members were involved in what was mainly a Canadian OC bust.

[antimafia]

Below I have linked to a long article by Nicole O’Reilly that is a very good read. It touches on the connections between the murders of Angelo Musitano and Albert Iavarone but is also of interest to Canadian mobwatchers in general.

Mob, murder and the Hamilton connection https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9037 ... onnection/

[NickleCity]

Below I have linked to a long article by Nicole O’Reilly that is a very good read. It touches on the connections between the murders of Angelo Musitano and Albert Iavarone but is also of interest to Canadian mobwatchers in general.

Mob, murder and the Hamilton connection https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9037 ... onnection/

Thanks AM-Interesting article.

[NickleCity]

But you don't need to rely on one or two articles.

You can look at the relative lack of cases over the past 20 years. The recent bust alone no more proves the existence of an active, structured family than the 2010 gambling in bust in Kansas City did there.

And that brings up the question of what is the hierarchy in Buffalo today? Especially considering they're likely under 20 living members now.

We also haven't seen Buffalo on any official list of remaining families in over 20 years.

All of this can't just be overlooked because a couple Buffalo members were involved in what was mainly a Canadian OC bust.

I get all of that and I understand I represent the minority opinion. However, it does seem that there are more and more articles indicating the Buffalo Mob is influencing things in Hamilton. I point to the recent article that AM just posted on another thread. It states:

"There are competing theories about why Musitano was gunned down, some revolving around an unpaid debt and rivalries between Niagara mobsters and influence from the Buffalo mob."

Here is the link: https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9037 ... sM.twitter

[Frank]

But you don't need to rely on one or two articles.

You can look at the relative lack of cases over the past 20 years. The recent bust alone no more proves the existence of an active, structured family than the 2010 gambling in bust in Kansas City did there.

And that brings up the question of what is the hierarchy in Buffalo today? Especially considering they're likely under 20 living members now.

We also haven't seen Buffalo on any official list of remaining families in over 20 years.

All of this can't just be overlooked because a couple Buffalo members were involved in what was mainly a Canadian OC bust.

I get all of that and I understand I represent the minority opinion. However, it does seem that there are more and more articles indicating the Buffalo Mob is influencing things in Hamilton. I point to the recent article that AM just posted on another thread. It states:

"There are competing theories about why Musitano was gunned down, some revolving around an unpaid debt and rivalries between Niagara mobsters and influence from the Buffalo mob."

Here is the link: https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9037 ... sM.twitter

Do you think that it's possible that the Viola Bros either were always Bonanno members or transferred to the Bonannos, seeing they attended the Bonanno making ceremony??

[NickleCity]

OK... an another Bulletin Board I posted several articles about an HOA Scam in Vegas being run by Joe Bravo and Paul Citelli who were known drug traffickers for the Buffalo mob in the 90's. The articles indicated that the FBI was looking into their current connections to the Buffalo Mob. This new article again indicates rumors about that Buffalo may be playing a role in the Musitano murder. We can assume all the violence is related to the global drug trade.

Here the interesting part: The HOA scam revealed that Joe Bravo and his Lawyer own and operate a small airport in the Mexican State of Baja Californian, Sur. That is alway were Raneiri was found dead... Here is the quote from the article AM just posted:

Last December, bodies were left hanging from a bridge in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. One was rumoured to be Ranieri. Then came more rumours that Ranieri had faked his own death and ordered associates to spread the false rumour that his was one of the bodies left to hang.

Drug cartels in Mexico often hang bodies of murder victims as a warning to others.

But Ranieri's body was not one of those. He was executed and found bound in a ditch months later. It isn't clear who killed him or why. But police and mafia experts say it may be connected to the ongoing mafia violence in Ontario.

"It's pretty significant that he was bound and hog-tied in the ditch, the cartel has a way of killing people, decapitating, hanging from bridge ... acid in a barrel," Metelsky says. "But this seems like custom to order hit."

The details of Ranieri's death were hard for police to confirm. He had been living under the name Diego Ramirez Diaz. Police in Canada got wind of Diaz's death, but were having trouble confirming Diaz was actually Ranieri.

Police needed to corroborate Ranieri's death, so a team from Project SCOPA flew there this summer. There, they were able to confirm the body was Ranieri's through fingerprints.

Here is one of the articles I posted on the other site:

From Las Vegas Review Journal
Familiar faces show up in HOA probe
June 10, 2012 - 12:59 am


His friends call Joe Bravo an honorable guy and a gifted businessman who has put the mistakes of his past far behind him.

It’s just a coincidence, they say, that he knows some of the defendants and potential targets in the ongoing investigation of corruption inside the local homeowners associations and construction defect racket.

Who is Joe Bravo?

It’s a question some members of local law enforcement have asked for years. For the record, Joseph Angelo Bravo is a convicted drug trafficker who was sentenced to 87 months in 1993 for his role in a cocaine importing ring with ties to the Buffalo mob.

The Niagara Falls-to-Las Vegas distribution network was accused of distributing 400 kilos of cocaine between 1986 and 1990. A lengthy investigation compiled 2,500 wiretap conversations, recordings whose legality was vigorously but unsuccessfully challenged by defense lawyers Oscar Goodman and David Chesnoff. The 16 defendants pleaded guilty before trial.

I was reminded of that old case May 31 when Paul Citelli entered U.S. District Judge James Mahan’s courtroom and took his place among the 14 latest defendants to plead guilty in the HOA scandal. Citelli, a Southern Nevada limousine driver, was one of Bravo’s partners in the cocaine distribution ring back in the years authorities believed the Buffalo mob was the dominant La Cosa Nostra family on the streets of Las Vegas.

At the time of Citelli’s 1993 sentencing, he apologized to U.S. District Judge Lloyd George for his transgression and received a break. Faced with a potential 27-year prison term, Citelli caught only seven.

Fast-forward 19 years to Mahan’s court: With defense attorney David Brown at his side, Citelli pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and admitted his role in the HOA corruption scheme.

After the hearing, Citelli declined an interview request.

Las Vegas real estate agent Anthony Roy Wilson also pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. He’s Bravo’s nephew.

While other targets in the HOA investigation generated headlines, Wilson blended into the crowd of role players in Mahan’s courtroom. His eventual sentence figures to be light, but Wilson was an integral part of the conspiracy.

In his plea agreement, Wilson admitted his job was to find and fill condominiums with participants in the conspiracy with the goal of seeing them placed on HOA boards. He did his job well, locating 17 units for purchase by straw buyers.

Wilson helped those phony buyers with equally fraudulent mortgage applications. He handled the transactions and, according to the plea agreement, generated $117,500 in commissions.

Even if Wilson is a big admirer of his Uncle Joe, Bravo’s friends say that link is just another coincidence.
Business partner Chesnoff defends Bravo as the consummate stand-up guy.

“I have been a lawyer for 32 years, and I have never seen anyone who so thoroughly turned his life around and has been as hard working and honorable with all those people that he has worked with than Joe Bravo,” Chesnoff says.

Consider former Las Vegas Mayor Goodman another of Bravo’s admirers.

“He did his time, and he did it like a man,” Goodman says. “He made no excuses, had no bravado, and I understand, after he came out, that he’s a hard worker. People who know him love him. His word is his bond. I don’t know anybody who says a bad word about him, even the feds. He paid his debt. I think Las Vegas is a place of second chances, so I have no problem vouching for him in that respect.”

And attorney Paul Hejmanowski offers, “I’ve had the privilege of working with him for several years. I consider him a personal friend. I’ve never known him to fail to keep his word in every instance.”

Defense attorneys Chesnoff and Marty Keach are listed in real estate records as partners in land deals with Bravo both locally and in Mexico. Down in Baja California Sur, their friend Joe’s name and criminal history have splashed in the press in association with their Punta Arena de la Ventana resort and the management of a private airport outside La Paz.

What’s a convicted drug trafficker doing managing a Mexican airport?

That’s a question skeptical reporters asked in 2010.

They’ve also wondered about Bravo’s cordial relationship with then-Baja Sur Gov. Narciso Agundez Montano.

I might ask for Agundez to vouch for Bravo’s character, but the former governor was just arrested in late May on public corruption charges.

Back in Las Vegas, the HOA/construction defect investigation grinds on with prosecutors from the Department of Justice’s Fraud Section strongly hinting in court recently that the case remains a target-rich environment.

Bravo’s friends and business partners vouch for his rehabilitated character, but from here to Mexico it’s hard for him to shake his reputation.

Do you suppose he knows more about the structure of the HOA and construction defect conspiracy than meets the eye?

Say it ain’t so, Joe.

John L. Smith’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith. Follow him on Twitter @jlnevadasmith.

[NickleCity]

Do you think that it's possible that the Viola Bros either were always Bonanno members or transferred to the Bonannos, seeing they attended the Bonanno making ceremony??

Anything is a possibility. But I think there is significant evidence they were groomed for leadership in the Buffalo crime family Luppino family faction. The more I think about it, if Buffalo isn't independent, I Believe they must have been absorbed by their Canadian Ndrangheta crews (i.e. the Luppino family run by the Violi's). And my reasoning for that would be Ana Sergi's article indicating the Todaro Crime Syndicate is no longer LCN. ...to me that means they can't be Bonanno but may be Luppino. Make sense?

[NickleCity]

Here is another article on Joe Bravo:

By JEFF GERMAN © 2014 LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
October 30, 2014 - 8:31 pm

...Investigators in 2011 also asked Benzer about possible mob involvement in the HOA takeover scheme.

In one interview, Benzer said he was friends with Joseph A. Bravo, a Las Vegas ticket broker who received an 87-month federal prison term in 1993 for his role in a cocaine trafficking ring with alleged ties to the Buffalo mob.

Benzer said he met Bravo through lawyer John V. Spilotro, the nephew of Anthony “The Ant” Spilotro, the Chicago mob’s infamous overseer of street rackets in Las Vegas until his murder in 1986.

Bravo’s nephew, real estate agent Anthony R. Wilson, pleaded guilty in the HOA investigation. So did limousine driver Paul Citelli, who was convicted with Bravo in the 1993 cocaine case.

Benzer told investigators that he didn’t believe Bravo had mob ties, but admitted that Bravo had loaned him as much as $20,000 and turned him on to hard money lenders as the scheme progressed.

Before sitting down with Benzer, Justice Department lawyers agreed not to use anything he said against him at trial if the negotiations fell through. But they were free to corroborate the wealth of information they got from Benzer with other witnesses....

[NickleCity]

From Excelsior a Mexican Paper

GOOGLE TRANSLATION OF EXCELSIOR NEWSPAPER ARTICLE verifies Bravo owned the airport mentioned above and suggests his lawyer represented several mob figures.

The governor of BCS inaugurated a narco airfield
An American who was imprisoned in his country for trafficking cocaine in Nevada operates the Las Arenas terminal in the municipality of La Paz

03/09/2011 05:00 RAÚL FLORES

MEXICO CITY, March 9 .- In Baja California Sur, the private airport Las Arenas is administered by a US citizen convicted of drug trafficking in the United States.

On February 26, the governor of the entity, Narciso Agúndez Montaño, participated in the re-inauguration of the aerodrome.

The concession to operate and manage the terminal, located in Punta Arena de la Ventana, La Paz, was granted to the companies of Joseph Angelo Bravo, who in 1994 was sentenced to 87 months in prison for conspiring to traffic cocaine, in Nevada.

He served the sentence in a maximum security prison and had to pay a fine of 25 thousand dollars.

The concession was based on the decree of expropriation of the private lands that Agúndez Montaño signed on June 11, 2010.

It was carried out despite the fact that article 22 of the Airports Law states that "persons who have been convicted of an intentional crime that merits imprisonment of more than one year may not be holders of permits.

The same restriction will be applied to the members or members of the administrative body of the concessionaires. "

Here is the link: http://excelsior.com.mx/index.php?m=no ... ota=720673

Link to translations: http://translate.google.com/translate? ... a%3D720673