Buffalo/Ontario Mob Acitivity

[NickleCity]

Sorry jumped the gun... Edwards article doesn't mention that he is underboss...

[NickleCity]

From the Globe & Mail article:

To this day, according to Project OTremens court documents, the Violis’ uncles Natale and Rocco Luppino are both “made” (that is, official) members of Buffalo’s Todaro family.

Though Mr. Violi was also a made member, he and his brother, Giuseppe (Joey), kept a low profile in Hamilton before their arrest last year, straddling two worlds and apparently surprising some of even their closest friends when their criminal lives were exposed.

Shortly before his arrest, according to wire transcripts filed in court, Mr. Violi divulged to the police agent that he had been promoted to underboss of the Todaro family – the No. 2 man in charge of the “whole thing.”

It was a prestigious role, he said, and he had beaten out 30 other people for the position.

“This one guy … he goes, ‘Domenic, you know you made history.’ I said, ‘I made history?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, nobody ever in Canada got this position,’ ” Mr. Violi told the agent.

Open this photo in gallery
A Quebec provincial police officer shows Paolo Violi (foreground) the way to Bordeaux jail.

“[Expletive], I’m happy for you Dom, that’s good. You know what? That’s gonna change a lot of things for us here,” the agent said. “We could do a lot of good things here.”

“Big time,” Mr. Violi replied.

In this new role, Mr. Violi was to “assume control over the operations of the Luppino-Violi crime family and solidify his power base with further and greater collaboration with the New York-based Mafia families.”

But despite Mr. Violi’s promotion, his younger brother remained torn about his own path in the underworld, according to the transcript excerpts. Joey wondered whether he should follow his brother and uncles into the Buffalo crime family or uphold his father’s legacy by going with the New York-based Bonanno family. He feared he’d be forced to choose.

In the meantime, the documents allege, Joey ran his own “criminal crew” and paid “tribute” (a portion of the profit) to his brother.

[Confederate]

Looks like it's crow for dinner.

The National Post is run by CEO Paul Godfrey of Post Media who is an Anti-White Jew. In 2006 a big article was written by the National Post about Iran forcing minorities to wear badges. The article was called " IRAN EYES BADGES FOR JEWS". The article circulated and other World Leaders questioned it being a completely false story. The Canadian Prime Minister had to intervene because of the outrage at the "fake news" story. About a month later the Publisher at National Post submitted a written apology about the Article being FALSE and said that the National Post had not exercised caution or checked enough sources. They are no different than the National Enquirer as far as reporting "Stories".

So, you can eat your own crow for dinner and believe them and I'll believe the F.B.I.

[gohnjotti]

Canada's largest newspaper, the Globe and Mail, is corroborating the National Post article and goes into even more detail into what Violi told the undercover Bonanno soldier, who is obviously Vincenzo Morena. Regardless of Paul Godfrey's political views, I don't see any agenda behind this article or the Globe and Mail's. It definitely appears that the Buffalo mob is active. Here's what we know so far:

1. The family made a resurgence in 2014 as boss Leonard Falzone was ailing (National Post).
2. The family has 30 members (Globe and Mail).
3. Joseph Todaro Jr. is the family's boss, with Domenico Violi the underboss (Both articles corroborate this).

And I think the biggest news here that everybody has overlooked (if true) is that the Commission is apparently still a thing, directly quoted by Violi. Which comes to my next points:
4. Michael Mancuso, as well as members of the Genovese and Colombo families, were alerted to the promotion of Domenico Violi as underboss (National Post).
5. John Zancocchio alerted the Buffalo mob to the induction of Vincenzo Morena, showing that there's regular communication between the two families (National Post).
6. Giuseppe 'Joey' Violi was wrestling between the decision to become a Buffalo member or Bonanno member, showing that the Bonanno family's presence in Canada goes beyond Vincenzo Morena, whom I previously reasoned was inducted because he was a longtime New York-based wiseguy (Both articles corroborate this).


I think it's a stretch to say that both the National Post & the Globe and Mail are coordinating lies about the Violis. They both seem to be taking their information directly from court proceedings and documents and they definitely corroborate each other.

[gohnjotti]

At least we know that Ed Scarpo of Cosa Nostra News was 100% as to the Buffalo crime family. Scarpo claimed that Todaro Jr. was indeed retired, that Joey Violi - the unmade brother of Domenico - was the Buffalo underboss, and that the family had 40 members, with Frank Bifulco as the boss. So anybody who was quoting Scarpo as fact or trying to back up his information with their own street talk (here's looking at you The_Rooster) can pretty much be confidently exposed as a bullshitter.

[Pogo The Clown]

This is not passing the smell test. Here we have the head of the FBI Buffalo office saying there is no family, no leader, no structure, no real OC activity and only a few remaining members most of whom are involved in legit businesses. They also said that Joe Todaro Jr. Is retired. Moreover the Feds haven't recognized a family in Buffalo for over a decade.


Now we are supposed to believe that the Buffalo family is back in action with Joe Todaro Jr. naming an UnderBoss, several Capos and reaching out to the "Commission". The whole thing reads like some GBB fantasy. Like I mentioned up top it also telling that none of the articles when this bust happened made any mention of this. Neither does the indictment as I recall. You would think the indictment of an UnderBoss would have been mentioned.

Direct from the head of the Buffalo FBI office.

The local FBI once had a large squad of agents working full time on mob cases, but the agency no longer considers the Mafia a presence in this region, according to Adam S. Cohen, special agent in charge of the Buffalo FBI office.

“Some of the individuals who were leaders of the Mafia are still around,” Cohen said. “But their organized crime activities don’t exist anymore. Some of them have legitimate businesses that we know of.”

Though several local men succeeded Magaddino as leaders following his death, no one leads what is left of the mob in this region, Cohen said. Several retired state and local law enforcement officials who specialized in Mafia investigations agreed.

Today, both Cohen and Coppola estimate that there are no more than a handful of surviving mob members in the area, with no viable organization to unite them, and no leader.

https://buffalonews.com/2017/03/19/fbi- ... perations/

[NickleCity]

This is not passing the smell test. Here we have the head of the FBI Buffalo office saying there is no family, no leader, no structure, no real OC activity and only a few remaining members most of whom are involved in legit businesses. They also said that Joe Todaro Jr. Is retired. Moreover the Feds haven't recognized a family in Buffalo for over a decade.


Now we are supposed to believe that the Buffalo family is back in action with Joe Todaro Jr. naming an UnderBoss, several Capos and reaching out to the "Commission". The whole thing reads like some GBB fantasy. Like I mentioned up top it also telling that none of the articles when this bust happened made any mention of this. Neither does the indictment as I recall. You would think the indictment of an UnderBoss would have been mentioned.

Direct from the head of the Buffalo FBI office.

The local FBI once had a large squad of agents working full time on mob cases, but the agency no longer considers the Mafia a presence in this region, according to Adam S. Cohen, special agent in charge of the Buffalo FBI office.

“Some of the individuals who were leaders of the Mafia are still around,” Cohen said. “But their organized crime activities don’t exist anymore. Some of them have legitimate businesses that we know of.”

Though several local men succeeded Magaddino as leaders following his death, no one leads what is left of the mob in this region, Cohen said. Several retired state and local law enforcement officials who specialized in Mafia investigations agreed.

Today, both Cohen and Coppola estimate that there are no more than a handful of surviving mob members in the area, with no viable organization to unite them, and no leader.

https://buffalonews.com/2017/03/19/fbi- ... perations/

Cohen was replaced as the special agent in charge of the Buffalo field office shortly after the Otremens operation came to light. Here is an article from the Niagara Gazette: https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/lo ... 966b9.html

And Coppola has been saying the family is dead since '98. We know it wasn't dead then. Here is what Coppola said according to Schneider in the book Iced:

Lee Coppola, a former reporter from western New York who covered the Magaddino Family for more than two decades, told the media in 1998 that a Buffalo-sanctioned hit “is a very unlikely scenario. I don’t think there is enough organization, structure, power or authority in the Buffalo mob to have any input or sanction into a murder in Canada.” Coppola, who was the dean of the journalism school at St. Bonaventure University in New York State when he made these comments, was adamant that “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.”

Coppola believed that if the Musitanos were responsible for the killings of Papalia and Barillaro, they were probably acting on their own.

Notice he says there is 1. No Organization; 2. No Structure, 3. No Power in the Buffalo mob in '98. We know that is wrong in '98, the FBI still had charts on Buffalo till at least 2006.

[CabriniGreen]

Interesting stuff, I've been waiting for info to come out of the courts on this..... A few points...

1. It never would have occurred to me that there would be one brother in both families, Buffalo and Bonnano. I would have never thought that...


2. It reaffirms Joe Violi introducing BOTH crack and fentanyl to the city.....

3. @gohnjotti


on your sixth point, I always interpreted it as the Bonnanos trying to REBUILD thier presence in Canada , one.

Two, I always viewed, to me it looked like the Bonnanos trying to acquire a direct source for narcotics, THROUGH the Violis and their connections.

4. At least twice in history, the whole Sicilian mafia has gone dormant. Just a thought.... What I'm saying is that a mafia family could survive a period of dormancy unlike probably any other criminal organization. Also, the role Canada plays in global crime means the territory is still a valuable commodity to control.

5. So, if this is true, exactly WHY were the Violis at the induction then?

6. So, for clarification..... Were the Violis acting in concert with Montagna, at the direction of Mancuso? Had to ask....

[CabriniGreen]

Oh, a couple other points....


1. These guys are the real deal, pled out for the drugs, as long as they didnt admit they were in the mafia. This AFTER being caught on tape.....

2. I think this might have.had.something.to.do with.why thi.sstuff.didnt come out when the arrest were announced, how they were vague about the family affiliations...

[NickleCity]

Something to think about: The Buffalo Field Office of the FBI told the Buffalo News the Mob in WNY was dead in March of 2017. This Otremens operation began long before that (wasn't it a 3 year operation?)...

Supposedly the FBI and RCMP were working together during this operation.

So, ... what does that say about the Buffalo FBI, at least at that time?

[antimafia]

Interesting stuff, I've been waiting for info to come out of the courts on this..... A few points...

1. It never would have occurred to me that there would be one brother in both families, Buffalo and Bonnano. I would have never thought that...

[snip]

5. So, if this is true, exactly WHY were the Violis at the induction then?

6. So, for clarification..... Were the Violis acting in concert with Montagna, at the direction of Mancuso? Had to ask....

1. People who attended Giuseppe Violi's one-day hearing in Milton, Ontario on June 1 of this year--I did not--know that there was some discussion in court about the two brothers not necessarily being on the same page, i.e., one was believed to be a made member of a particular American LCN family; the other brother was believed to be either a made member of a different American LCN family or was leaning toward becoming a made member of this different family.

5. Good question that raises questions about into which American LCN family the brothers were inducted. The three largest Canadian newspapers--the National Post, the Toronto Star, and The Globe and Mail--have each published one article about Domenico Violi's guilty plea and sentencing yesterday, and two of the articles significantly mention the Crown's withdrawal of charges against Violi for criminal organization. The dropping of the charges leaves me with some doubt about Violi's affiliation, as well as his brother's. (Is another possibility, then, that the Violi brothers were Bonanno members but Domenico, at least, transferred to the Buffalo Family?)

6. One question to ask is what was the Violi brothers' status between April 2009 and November 24, 2011, i.e., the significant period that Montagna was in Canada? Another question to ask is whether the New York Bonannos still wanted, after Montagna's murder, to wrest control of the Montreal Mafia--Montagna's death wouldn't necessarily be a reason to abandon plans.

Oh, a couple other points....

[snip]

2. I think this might have.had.something.to.do with.why thi.sstuff.didnt come out when the arrest were announced, how they were vague about the family affiliations...

We knew that Domenico Violi's lawyer was going to try to suppress that information when it was time for Violi's trial to get underway. I was surprised to read, just like everyone else did yesterday, that Dean Paquette represented Violi, as Violi had first retained another very high-profile lawyer.

[gohnjotti]

Something to think about: The Buffalo Field Office of the FBI told the Buffalo News the Mob in WNY was dead in March of 2017. This Otremens operation began long before that (wasn't it a 3 year operation?)...

Supposedly the FBI and RCMP were working together during this operation.

So, ... what does that say about the Buffalo FBI, at least at that time?

They were supposedly "separate but parallel" investigations. I heard that term thrown around a lot. I think the "parallel" comes from the fact that they shared the same informant, Vincenzo Morena. But it could easily be that they didn't actually share information since it doesn't appear like the arrests in NY (Damiano Zummo, etc.) were connected with the Violi drug operation.

[CabriniGreen]

@antimafia

Good post, a few more questions, if you guys dont mind....

The one day hearing.... and the revelations about the brothers possibly being in different families, that DEFINITELY wasnt reported on the boards, right?
I feel like the discussion- conversation would have went differently.

On the point of the brothers affiliation, two points here...

1. I've said previously that if in fact they were Bonnano members, it MUST have happened recently. Like within the last 3-5 years. No one on the boards really would have known that, it's why I found it strange when everyone insisted they MUST be Bonnano members. Like, how would you possibly KNOW for sure?
I had the Bonnano possibility third, after Buffalo or an Ndrangheta ndrine....



2. What would be the advantage exactly for Domenico to transfer from the Bonnanos to Buffalo?

And if one were.to say something like " Greater control in Canada", I gotta ask.. Arnt the Bonnanos supposed to already have a Canadian crew active?
Why wouldn't they just make him the Canadian crew capo? ( This could have been precisely what Joe Violi was torn between, being the Bonnanos Canadian capo, or operating probably mostly autonomously under his brother..)

I think if anything, you might have it backwards, they might have been trying to transfer from Buffalo TO the Bonnanos, maybe. What were the tweets you posted?
That the brothers might have lost standing BECAUSE they were at a Bonnano induction?


3. Do you think the Canadians would surrender the contruction rackets, and the sportsbook to the Bonnanos? Thi goes to whether or not the Bonnanos want to control Montreal.

4. CAN you control Montreal WITHOUT either major connections to the drug markets, be it distributors ( the hells, the gangs, Scorpions, I.D..soldiers,ect...) or suppliers/importers, Or a signifigant physical presence in the province?

[CabriniGreen]

@gohnjotti


That was pretty much my take from the beginning, that these LE groups wernt in sync.

I even took it as the Buffalo FBI disagreed with the idea of a Buffalo mob. And then got kinda embarrassed, and the RCMP was kinda vague about it in the press, maybe as a compromise so they could save face..

[Lupara]

That is clearly a made up fake article. Regurgitating the usual bullshit that has been spreading on the Internet.


Pogo

This is based on wiretaps so it is something to be taken serious. Besides, it's coming from Humphreys, author of the Sixth Family, who in the book is clearly biased about the remaining influence and activity of the American families in Canada.

You may be thinking about Domenico's younger brother Giuseppe who was, according to Wikipedia and Ed Scarpo listed as underboss of Buffalo, which was most likely bullshit. But the elder brother has long been considered to hold much sway in the local underworld. Why is it that hard to believe that Buffalo's activity has switched to the other side of the border, with Todaro remaining the nominal boss? It doesn't seem far-fetched to me at all and may still correspond with the FBI's statement that the Buffalo mob, on the American side of the border, is more or less defunct.