Buffalo/Ontario Mob Acitivity

[Pogo The Clown]

Capeci was just going by that article. If you read what Capeci actually wrote its is all "according to Humphreys" and "Humphreys wrote".


Pogo

[CabriniGreen]

Dont make it about Humphreys.... like its fiction made up...

The guy just reported on a bust that was made, that's it.

All the other publications are operating from the same pool of information.

Like someone said, it comes down to believing the FBI or Violi.

Time will tell. This thing very well COULD start and end at the Violis. No reason to get bent outta shape, it's just something new to talk about until we get bored again in 2 days, lol

[John W]

Capeci was just going by that article. If you read what Capeci actually wrote its is all "according to Humphreys" and "Humphreys wrote".


Pogo

So basically Pogo you are saying that Violi was lying and talking shit, yes or no?

[Pogo The Clown]

I don't know. All we have is that one Humphreys article that everyone is repeating or going by. We don't know what was actually said or the context. A lot of it just seems to be Humphreys interpretation of it. He wouldn't be the first (or second, third, fourth or fifth) mob writer to vastly overhype his subject matter or misrepresent (intentionally or not) the evidence to fit his narrative. Remember this is the guy who made the Rizzuto Crew sound like the Corleone family circa 1945 with Vito Rizzuto as Don Vito. It does seem strange that in all of the press this bust got when it happened no mention was made of Violi being UnderBoss or this Buffalo family resurgence that Humphreys talked about. I would like to see the actual indictment from this case to see what it says.


Pogo

[John W]

I don't know. All we have is that one Humphreys article that everyone is repeating or going by. We don't know what was actually said or the context. A lot of it just seems to be Humphreys interpretation of it. He wouldn't be the first (or second, third, fourth or fifth) mob writer to vastly overhype his subject matter or misrepresent (intentionally or not) the evidence to fit his narrative. Remember this is the guy who made the Rizzuto Crew sound like the Corleone family circa 1945 with Vito Rizzuto as Don Vito. It does seem strange that in all of the press this bust got when it happened no mention was made of Violi being UnderBoss or this Buffalo family resurgence that Humphreys talked about. I would like to see the actual indictment from this case to see what it says.


Pogo

I completely understand where you are coming from but he only wrote an article because of released “documents and wiretap transcripts, he didn’t make this up out of thin air.

[johnny_scootch]

Some people will try to minimize it and others will try to maximize it. Comes down to the basic facts we didn't know before
Todaro is the Boss, Violi is the underboss, Rocco Luppino is a captain and the family has 30 members give or take a couple some of which may possibly be inactive. That's it, they certainly aren't the Gambino family and on the other hand they certainly aren't the Scranton Family. No one knows anything else, time will tell.

[NickyEyes1]

You guys yap worse than 6 barbers

[Lupara]

Capeci was just going by that article. If you read what Capeci actually wrote its is all "according to Humphreys" and "Humphreys wrote".


Pogo

Since when is Capeci quoting 'unreliable' sources? What would that say about Capeci? Why do you have such a problem with this information anyway?

[Lupara]

Dont make it about Humphreys.... like its fiction made up...

The guy just reported on a bust that was made, that's it.

All the other publications are operating from the same pool of information.

Like someone said, it comes down to believing the FBI or Violi.

Time will tell. This thing very well COULD start and end at the Violis. No reason to get bent outta shape, it's just something new to talk about until we get bored again in 2 days, lol

Exactly. It's exciting if it's really true, because it's all the more intriguing.

I don't understand why some are so hellbend on busting people's balls over this.

This is no picasso bullshit..

[Lupara]

I would like to see the actual indictment from this case to see what it says.


Pogo

We all would, so fair enough.

I think antimafia (or someone else) already explained why this information was made public over now.

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

Capeci was just going by that article. If you read what Capeci actually wrote its is all "according to Humphreys" and "Humphreys wrote".


Pogo

Since when is Capeci quoting 'unreliable' sources? What would that say about Capeci? Why do you have such a problem with this information anyway?

He is fighting tooth and nail not to be wrong.

[Pogo The Clown]

Since when is Capeci quoting 'unreliable' sources? What would that say about Capeci? Why do you have such a problem with this information anyway?

Because Buffalo is not his area of expertise so he is defering to what Humphreys wrote. Not that uncommon. Notice how when he covers Philly he goes with what GA reports. As for this information as I have repeatedly said we have been down this same road several times before so I am always skeptical of new info that contradicts with what the Feds actually report. History has always proven that going with what the Feds actually say is the most prudent course.

I think antimafia (or someone else) already explained why this information was made public over now.

Which doesn't really hold water in this instance.

He is fighting tooth and nail not to be wrong.

Aren't you one of the last holdouts on Detriot? So you have a predisposition to buying into the hype.


Pogo

[antimafia]

James Dubro's comment on my tweet from December 8 in which I linked to the Buffalo News article "Is the Buffalo Mafia dead or alive?":

https://twitter.com/jamesdubro/status/1 ... 3347022848

james dubro @jamesdubro

That they even have to ask this question in the headline says volumes about the decline & relative powerlessness of what’s left today of the old Magaddino mafia family. So if his boast is “true” Violi is underboss of v little

2:40 PM - 8 Dec 2018 from Toronto, Ontario

[antimafia]

In the "Arrests in NY, induction ceremony taped" thread, p. 33, I commented on June 17 of this year to Wiseguy's June 14 post -- see the interaction below, which also includes posts from B. and johnny_scootch.

One thing that's clear is that the Violis seem to have attended a Cosa Nostra making ceremony, which indicates that they are formally affiliated with Cosa Nostra.

However unlikely it seems there is still a chance the Violi brothers are members of the Todaro family. If they aren't Bonannos it makes more sense that they are Todaro family then 'Ndrangheta.

Yep, that's what I meant by that line. If this ceremony info is true, it's clear the Violis recognize Cosa Nostra and are recognized as Cosa Nostra themselves otherwise they would not be at that ceremony. The only two Cosa Nostra families they could conceivably fall under are the Buffalo and Bonanno families unless the Gambino connection goes way beyond anything we imagined. There seem to be some satellite crews of Sicilian mafia families operating in Canada but the idea of them inducting Canadian-born Calabrians into organizations based in Sicily and to have those members then attend a Bonanno ceremony is getting a bit "far out".

Again, we have this press release from U.S. authorities -

In a coordinated operation, Canadian law enforcement authorities today arrested nine organized crime members and associates in Canada, including members of the Todaro organized crime family, who are charged with, among other crimes, narcotics trafficking.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/me ... s-arrested

The 9 that were arrested were -

1. Domenico Paolo Violi, Hamilton
2. Adriano Valentino Scolieri, Richmond Hill
3. Bernardo Luke Rotolo, Woodbridge;
4. Dimitar Dimitrov, Stoney Creek
5. Tran Giang Tang, Markham
6. Kam Tim Tong, Markham
7. Nicholas Valentine, Vaughan
8. Anthony James Arroyo, Waterloo
9. James Lincoln Jablonski, Mississauga.

Then you had these ones captured later -

Giuseppe Violi, Burlington
Massimigliano Carfagna, Burlington
Yin Yun Leong, Markham
Witton Luu, Toronto
Wojciech Grezesiowski, Innisfill


The "members of the Todaro crime family" seems to be in reference to some of the 9 arrested originally, though perhaps it's possible that other ones captured later were among those the feds were talking about. Either way, if the feds were correct, at least 2 of those names in bold are members of the Buffalo family.

The way that I have read the US Attorney's Office press release to which you've linked is that of the nine Canadians arrested last November 9, some are organized-crime members who are or were considered made members of the Buffalo Family, some of those arrested are or were associates of made members of the Buffalo Family, or at least some of those arrested are organized-crime members who are not considered made members of the Buffalo Family. It's possible that Domenico Violi is or was considered a made member of the Buffalo Family but that Scolieri and Rotolo, just like the six remaining individuals on the list of those arrested, are or were merely associates.

If Scolieri and Rotolo were or are made Buffalo Family members, this might be significant because it shows that the Buffalo Family had or has had a presence in Toronto and the surrounding area in, let's say, the last 10 years. Scolieri was 31 years old when he was sentenced in January of this year in relation to the Project OTremens investigation. His relatively young age probably means he was not a made member of any American LCN Family. I have not yet seen an age for Rotolo.

My first reaction to the hypothesis that Domenico and Giuseppe Violi were inducted into an American LCN family would be to argue that they were made into the Buffalo Family, given the history of some of their relatives on their mother's side, i.e., their grandfather and some uncles. But the Violis' presence at the Bonanno induction ceremony has really thrown me for a loop. And is it possible that the Violis were made in the Buffalo Family and then transferred to the Bonanno Family as a result of interaction with Sal Montagna?

What I don't quite get about the US Attorney's Office press release is why the associates who were among the nine arrested seem to be considered associates of current made members of the Buffalo Family. I do understand why a made member of a defunct American LCN family would still be identified in a press release, indictment, or court filing as a member of the family into which he was made, but why not use the past tense to identify associates of such a made member?

Hindsight is 20/20.

None of us knew back in June what the extent was of the conversations recorded by police agent Vincenzo Morena apart from his November 2015 Bonanno induction ceremony, which was also videotaped. We didn't know that Domenico Violi told him in October 2017 about Violi's having been made in the Buffalo Family in January 2015 and having been promoted to underboss in that same month of October.

Based on the details that emerged from the wire transcripts presented at Violi's one-day hearing and sentencing last Monday, December 3, I now understand why, back in June, Wiseguy leaned, absent of such information, toward determining a Buffalo Family affiliation for at least two of the five Project OTremens Italian-Canadian suspects, who had either been arrested on November 9 of last year or were wanted on Canada-wide arrest warrants (http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/news/2017/ ... ime-canada). Even as I reread the DOJ's November 9, 2017 release (https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/me ... s-arrested), I am struck by the fact that Buffalo Famiy is not used but "Todaro organized crime family" is.

Many of us had already assumed that apart from Domenico Violi, that his brother, Giuseppe, was also made in the Buffalo Family, and we had also already guessed that Giuseppe was made between January and November 2015. I had previously posted some snippets of information about Massimigliano Carfagna of Burlington, Ontario, who was no stranger to Niagara Falls on the US side, actually having murdered a man there. In my earlier post from back in June, I commented on Adriano Scolieri's young age and my being unable to find an age for Bernardo Luke Rotolo, both individuals being from the Greater Toronto Area. Some newspaper research I did on the day of the Project OTremens bust yielded some articles between 1965 and 1968 about two Toronto-based heroin traffickers, Bernardo and Ciro Rotolo, who were a father-and-son team. If this older Bernardo Rotolo had Sicilian ancestry, he may be the grandfather of the Bernardo Luke who was arrested November 9 last year.

Perhaps we can start to count how many made Canadians are currently in the Buffalo Family? I am curious about the number for several reasons. For the most part I would avoid the lists that were compiled years ago on the Real Deal because quite a bit of input came from the Jilly Scibetta impostor, Scotty Campbell (https://www.facebook.com/scotty.campbell.547) -- I was fooled by his contributions just as many other posters were.

[antimafia]

Buffalo *Family is not used