stubbs wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2019 7:06 am
My guess is it’s a mix of both sides:
The Buffalo family was pretty weak in the early to mid 2000s, and there were maybe less than 10 made guys left. They were only involved in gambling and some smaller rackets and kicked up to Todaro, who sat back and collected envelopes while essentially being almost 100% legit, selling pizzas and occasionally meditating disputes. So, roughly the size like New Orleans in the early 90s before their casino bust or Tampa around year 2000.
But instead of Buffalo dying out through attrition like most other smaller families, massve changes happen: the Rizzutos broke away from the Bonannos, then the Rizzutos had a massive power vacuum starting around 2006 due to the Project Colisee bust, and Sal Montagna got deported to Canada while Vito Rizzuto was away.
So the Bonannos naturally wanted to reclaim their turf and get Montreal back in line. While Montreal and Quebec are under historically under the Bonanno flag, Ontario has historically been under the Buffalo flag.
So the Bonannos reached out to Todaro roughly around 2010-2014 or so and told him to beef up his family. Buffalo needed new members to strengthen their hold over Ontario, which increases the Bonannos control and hold over Quebec more powerful. This is why that Bonanno guy was in Canada and meeting with everyone, including Dom Violi.
Guys like Dom Violi gets made in 2015 to Buffalo and a lot of other guys get made too. And most of the people made by Buffalo are already heavy, like the Violis who are mafia legacy. So Buffalo was making people who were already big time earners, who just so happened not to be made formally in LNC.
But it’s the Bonannos behind the scenes in Buffalo/Ontario directing everything, telling Todaro to beef up his family. Sort of like the Binos being the power behind the DeClavacantes in Jersey.
This aligns with the Musitanos getting eliminated: They were aligned with the Rizzutos and the new players in Ontario want to take back control under the Bonanno and Buffalo flags. Hamilton is a proxy war for everything else going on across Canada.
To me it reminds me of Philly roughly 89-92: They should’ve been finished after the Scarfo busts and all of the rats like Leonetti. Or, at least devolve into a small-time street gang of punks. But somehow in the 90s Ligambi was able to rebuild everything and now the family is in a relatively good position.
So Wiseguy and Pogo aren’t wrong, there havent been busts for a long time in Buffalo because Buffalo was almost defunct, but the Bonannos pushed them to rebuild. Which is why we saw the huge Violi bust recently. The biggest question that remains is how many people are made and active in Buffalo area verses in Canada? I think it’s very telling a Canadian like Violi was made underboss.