Was there any boss that 100% shunned drugs?

I know about the myth that existed but I wonder if there really was a boss that 100% stayed away from making money from drugs?

I have heard that acting boss Orena was 100% against drugs but am not totally sure. Persico may have been involved with them and if he collected for him, he would be just as guilty.

I also believe that Scarfo was against them but read that he collected from the chemical that created meth.

I know Castellano seemed to be against them but, if he was collecting from Ruggiero and Gotti, he is just as guilty.....Isn't it a bosses responsibility to know exactly how his army of men are earning their money? Ignorance is not an excuse.

So, does anyone know if ANY boss stood their ground and refused to earn from drugs directly or indirectly?

Angelo Bruno and Scarfo was against drugs but received the money from Martorano 's drug empire; Carlo gambino and Castellano with the deal drugs and die rule , the Smaldones of denver banned drugs so the Outfit was the only lcn family to real ban drugs.

Good question IIM
and good answer FURIO .
Since there weren't mandatory minimum or stiff sentences for drug traffickers until relatively recently, on what grounds would LCN frown upon dealing drugs back in the day?

Bruno also took drug money off the cherry hill gambinos , this was one of the reasons that got him killed , he forbade his own men from proffiting from the drug trade but was getting rich taking drug money off the cherry hill gambinos

its an "infamnia" lol
i wonder if any felt that way? that dealing would give them a undesirable reputation?

I think I've read that Al Capone was against drugs . Frank Costello and Carlo Gambino were reportedly against drugs as well , though I think one of Carlo's close confidantes ( Joe " Piney " Armone ) dealt drugs without any repercussions .

This might be off topic , but to my knowledge the Velentzas crime famiy of NYC never engaged in drug trafficking . They weren't/aren't LCn though .

For the hundred-and-first time,the Outfit wasnt 'the only family that never dealt drugs'!!! They had high profile members that were involved up to their necks in the narco biz.Try to remember that,please

The no-drugs rule was oftentimes flouted, so it's more likely to be "deal drugs & avoid being pinched". Luciano, Gambino, Bonanno, Genovese, etc. had crews that were dealing junk. Gotti did it, so did Scarfo and the Luccheses.

Even the bosses couldn't avoid getting a cut of the loot despite the so-called "drug ban."

In addition to extorting drug dealers, Scarfo and his guys were involved in acquiring and selling POP (precursor for meth). And Castellano took drug money from the Gambinos and Patsy Conte. Probably others as well. And the Outfit had guys trafficking as well, including when Accardo was boss.

Castellano accepted the drug money from the DeMeo guys as well. So, there's that.

Don Zaluchi of Detroit:

"I also don't believe in drugs. For years I paid my people extra so they wouldn't do that kind of business. Somebody comes to them and says, «I have powders; if you put up three, four thousand dollar investment - we can make fifty thousand distributing.» So they can't resist. I want to control it as a business, to keep it respectable. I don't want it near schools - I don't want it sold to children! That's an infamia. In my city, we would keep the traffic in the dark people - the colored. They're animals anyway, so let them lose their souls."

Scarfo hated drugs he may have been tricked or told half truths but no way was he involved in flat out drug dealing.

I would not doubt that the street drug tax was the only thing that he thought he was near but that was taxing criminal activity.

The guy would bust everybody's balls when they would have more then a drink or two ..or if you were seen going in the bars around town other then to do business or have a drink or two...

The guy detested drugs and the people and the live that came with .

You can read about the bust they were involved in below. Maybe Scarfo felt their level of involvement was far enough removed to justify it. Yes, they were acquitted but so was OJ.

http://articles.philly.com/1987-06-19/ne...y-phil-leonetti

http://articles.philly.com/1987-06-18/news/26186308_1_indictment-crime-family-kingpin-statute

Hi Serp, if Nicky hated drinking he must have loved Chuckie Merlino. Lol

I really don't think so. Maybe Chicago. But even big Paul and chin and Tony ducks they all had there kingpin guys that had legit biz. So they could say hay they kick up came from there. Like Sammy bull said kinda when john gotti became boss he sent Sammy to pat conte to say hay I'm not stupid kick up what you have paul to me. Chin boss Barney got pinch or entraped for heroin in late 80tys. They all wanted some of the pizza guys dope money.

And it seems like the pleasant ave guys didn't go e a fuck about slinging it threw a pizza front they were selling kilos to whoever.

But the days of Italians and dope kingpins are done don't even ask me how a little island like domincans republic surplus the whole east coast it don't make sense.

There are examples with all of them.

As I said above, Castellano took drug money from the Gambinos and Patsy Conte. Chin went down in a drug bust himself in the 1950's. And he made Bellomo, who trafficked in heroin himself, the acting boss. Corallo? Amuso and Casso, known drug traffickers, succeed him. Chicago? Guys like Fifi Buccieri and Turk Torello were involved in the drug trade before becoming Outfit leaders. So was Rocky Infelise.

Perhaps when these guys reached the upper levels they no longer needed to be involved in drugs and worried more about the risks because they had more to lose. But a concrete, across the board ban doesn't seem to be the case. Some may have been stricter than others but it seems more a case of they didn't want anyone dealing without permission.

Before Corallo even. Matty Madonna was one of the largest traffickers New York if not the East Coast when he supplied Harlem. If you think about when he was operating between busts, this meant he was without question kicking money direct to Tommy Brown and the Tony Ducks. But this is one of those rare scenarios where Matty got the racket from his brother Frank. But theoretically without being made until he got out in '03 after his 30 year bid, Madonna must have been kicking up direct as a soldier privately trafficking.

Similar with Dom Cataldo and Sal Polisi with the Colombo's. They were said to have been kicking direct to Brancato when he was acting boss after the Colombo shooting. That money must have been going to Joe C. before that.

Also Bruno took loads of cash off the Riccobene's who dealt heavily and Scarfo although he may have shunned the practice started a war with the RIccobene's not because they wouldn't recognize him as boss but because they balked at his street tax, which in there case was a cut of their drug action as that served as their primary business

I would put Frank Costello up there as a strong anti-drug guy. Vito Genovese and Luciano were drug dealers. Which may be the reason why Costello got shot? I know Valachi had the same theory.

The Outfit had far fewer drug dealers who were made compared to NY. Even the FBI states that the Outfit has traditionally stayed away from drugs. All of the NY bosses had powerful capos that specialized in dealing. Of the NY families, the Colombos probably had the least involvement. In Philly both Martorano and the Riccobene crews were deep in drugs. The real rule is don't deal unless you have permission.

It doesn't make sense, until you understand that the Dominican Republic is or was a transshipment point in the Caribbean for cocaine. Combine the huge ethnic enclave in the cities most dense borough, and the fact that they speak Spanish...
It's similar to why you see Nigerians dealing Coke in Europe, the Coke comes through their country, so they get a piece...
It's either that, or the Colombians gotta move the shit themselves, and they tried that, they had too much DEA heat and whatnot...

Strange thing, It seems the drug trade in the Midwest was controlled by Detroit, who had their own pipeline, transportation( Teamsters), production in Sicily, (This is a big reason why you see Zaluchi speak in the Godfather BillyBrizzi...) and network to move it...
But a lot of the trade also was in the hands of Kansas City, Nicola Impastato, I read he got narcotics from Genoveses pipeline when he was in Europe. This is like 30s and 40s, pre French Connection...
Someone enlighten me because the reason escapes me, when did Montreal gain prominence, 50s to like late 70s under Cotroni?

For sure we cannot compare the Outfit's involvement in the narcotics trade with the New York crime families but I really dont want to sound like a broken record so heres a small history on the Outfit's involvment in the narcotics trade...

During the late 1920's and early 30's Al Capone's cheif of security Willie Heeney was a junkie and was also heavily involved in opium peddling. When the goverment started raiding Capone's hideouts, they caught Heeney throwing cans filled with the narcotic and later also found dozens of cans in his possession filled with it. Also Jack McGurn used to work for Heeney as a street peddler, especially when he fell out of the organization.

Another of Capone's close associates and boss of the Melrose Park area Rocco DeGrazia was also heavily involved in the opium trade.On occasion he and his brother were arrested for threatening a Melrose Park pharmacist to provide them with opium and morphine. In the mid 1940's, during Accardo's reign, DeGrazia was again arrested for smuggling opium.The cops also found a smoking pipes which indicates that he was also a user. Now if Accardo was so much against the selling and the use of narcotics, this guy was going to be killed. So instead he remained in the position of area boss untill 1957.

Also in 1943 Outfit member Charles Nicoletti and his associate Ernest Sansone were arrested by the Chicago police for peddling narcotics. Nicoletti was sent to Midland, Michigan to serve 18 months.

As for Accardo, during the early 1950's when the west side bloc of the Chicago Outfit became stronger then ever, he kept a closed eye on a huge crew that was involved in a huge heroin ring. The crew was led by west side hoodlums Tony Pape, Joe Iacullo and Frank Coduto. According to FBI reports Iacullo was seen going in and out of Accardo’s home for more than 20 times. So a man has to be very naive to belive in the story the the notorious boss of the Outfit, which was Accardo himself, warned Iacullo more then 20 times to stop dealing.Thats just unacceptable. But when the cops arrested these guy regarding the narcotics trade, Accardo killed them all because was he scared from the bad publicity which was given by the narcotics trade and avoided any government heat that might jeopardize his vast gambling operations. But previously he never rejected a full envelope from the narcotics trade.

Tony Pape was also a close friend of another big time Outfit hoodlum who went by the name of Teets Battaglia. When Battaglia was recognized as a number two men within the Outfit, he also tolerated a narcotics crew which was led by Americo DePietto, Rocky Infelice and Cowboy Mirro. They imported heroin from France through Canada and also from South America. Also on one occasion Turk Torello and Infelice were caught with $100,000 worth of narcotics. During the mid 1960's the top echelon of the Outfit,including Giancana, Battaglia and other were subpoenad regarding the narcotics racket which was led by the crew. No one was punihsed because of the attention that was brought upon them.

During the early 1970's the Arziona mob, in which the Outfit also had its own crew, was funneling drugs from Mexico into the Chicago area through its territory. The main guys for the Outfit were Tony Spilotro and Paul Schiro i think. The gang was a mixed crew of burglars and dope peddlers, including Phoenix-based Frank Moreno and Fred Pedote, Arden Lee Smith, a heavy narcotics dealer who fled to Mexico to escape a jail term, and Brian “The Mad Pineapple” Ho, a weapons and drug dealer who worked in a Phoenix service station. Spilotro wasn’t much of the time around so Schiro ran day to day operations.

When Joey Aiuppa became boss of the Outfit at first he stayed open minded about the narcotics trade and supported Nicoletti's involvment in the business. But later Accardo and Gus Alex changed his mind and so he refused to give the Nicoletti faction consent to become involved.

Other prominent Outfit members involved or at least took a cut from the nracotics trade were Paul Ricca(possible connection was the Genovese family in NY), Nick DeJohn(Tom Buffa from the St.Louis mob), Leonard Calamia(San Fransisco connection), Ross Prio(Ken Eto's connection with black gangs), Fifi Buccieri(Torello, Infelice), Phil Alderisio(DePietto), Richard Cain, Lenny Patrick(connection with Nicoletti and possibly Fred Morrelli) and Dave Yaras(worked as a smuggler in south Florida and transported narcotics up to New York).

I think that the only Outfit boss who really shunned drugs in his whole life time, was Gus Alex. Theres not even one speck of FBI or newspaper information or even rumour about his involvment in the trade.I can say the same thing about his previous mentors such as Bruno Roti, Murray Humphreys, Eddie Vogel and Jake Guzik.

U lot are completely wrong about Scarfo

According to Nicky crow- Scarfo would not let anyone openly deal drugs for that matter BUT got around the rule by either extorting drug dealers OR funding the operation

He had no problem with his guys loaning drug dealers money & that makes Nicky Scarfo 100% for drugs as to opposed

It's no different to paying someone to whack so & so, just because u didn't pull the trigger.... U following?!

.

Bean how you been ?

Chuckle was not always the outward bubbling drunk that tried to bribe the cop down here .

John LaRocca, Pittsburgh. Unfortunately Michael Genovese changed all that ;-(

John: Not from a major city but still the boss of an LCN Family.

Both sides of the island,Haiti and Dominican Republic, have been "hubs" for cocaine trafficking for decades.

The advantage that Dominicans in America had in early crack era and the 70s era of coke was that there was no extradition agreement between DR and the US .I think that has changed since then.

So in drug industry...lot of times people have to be hit....DR dude could go hit somebody.....go to JFK....catch direct flight to DR....and there was nothing that American law enforcement could do...even if they had the shooting on video tape.

That's true. Relatively speaking, the Outfit has had much less involvement in the drug trade than the NY families. And that's still the case today. However, the point was that even Chicago has plenty of examples. Speaking of which, good write up by Toodoped.

Don't recall Valachi saying that. Valachi's reason for Costello's murder attempt was to permanently get him out of the way and have guys respect Genovese as boss. It's right in the Valachi Papers, he says even while Genovese was the official force on the street, and Costello began to fall back into a forced retirement, guys were still meeting with Costello and asking him for advice on specific matters, when Genovese was at that point known as the true boss. So he wanted him whacked.

Thanks Ivy. I don't know how true is this but once I read somewhere that the Chicago Outfit was in close connection, if not under the jurisdiction of the Genovese crime family in the narcotics business, especially during the Ricca and Giancana eras. Ricca was close to Luciano and according to numerous fbi surveillances Giancana was close to Eboli and Catena and also to Tommy Lucchese and his guys like Tramunti and Ormento.

I'll add that the Mexico link goes back to the 40s, Costa nostra sent Virginia Hill there to manage the narcotics traffic..
In 1942-43, Luchesse, LAnsky and Costello financed a ring importing opium from Mexico, had their own heroin refinery in New York, but it didn't last long, maybe three years...
There is a theory in The Strength Of The Wolf, that Busgsy was hit because he tried to muscle into the mobs CIA protected Mexican-west coast drug operation....
Here is one link, but the book is better...
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/05/25/cosa-nostra-smuggled-mexican-drugs-post-war-period/
In the late 50s-60s, I would say yes, the Outfit got narcotics from the Luciano connect, something that was always unclear to me was whether or not Genovese had his OWN direct connect to the Corsicans, or if LUciano exerted greater and greater control...
The Mexican connect would have been crucial, because it would have given Chicago more autonomy, less dependence on the French connect, plus Chicago was, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but they weren't really connected in Sicily like that, so having their own source of supply would have been an attractive alternative...

You start to delve into this topic, and trust me, it takes you to some strange places...

This link has a lot of excerpts from the book, The Strength Of The Wolf....
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SomeUnknownUSHistory/conversations/topics/93

The heroin that came from Mexico didnt had the same quality as the the one that came from Turkey or China through France or Sicily. The heroin that the New York and Detriot mobsters received was more pure and stronger.From my experience, i imagine that the Chinese heroin(previously processed) was white and the Mexican heroin was brownish, which indicates that it was previously mixed with other stuff. The pureness of the narcotic makes the better quality and higher profits on the black market, because they had the chance to mix it by themselves and make bigger amounts for the sale.

Also dont forget that Luciano wasnt the only mob boss exiled in Italy.He was accompanied by mobsters from other cities such as Chicago's Dominic Roberto the boss of the Chicago Heights.

There's even an existing picture of Outfit guys Jim Emery, Dominic Roberto & Lucky Luciano directly behind each other at some race track in Italy. Roberto & Luciano reportedly dealt with each other a lot during their exile.

Thats right SinatraClub.

Heres the photo...


Jim Emery,Dominic Roberto and Charles Luciano

This photo was taken from Matthew Luzi's Chicago Heights Mafia book.

Oh, for sure, the black tar being inferior quality is common knowledge, it just shows the lengths these guys went to in order to secure their own supply, and hence independence...
This Time period, was like In between the Chinese connection and the French/Sicilian connection, so you could say Mexico was a placeholder, so to speak...
You had Frank Coppola in Mexico as well, managing a pipeline, Giancana had interest there as well...
My thinking is Mexico was so corrupt, the border so accessible, and the heroin so cheap, that it while not measuring up to the number 4 or China white, would still be very profitable, and having control over your own supply is always attractive..
It's like take the Luchesses in the 40s, they got pure dope from Detroit, most likely not even stepped on, yet it didn't stop them from trying to set up their own supply line from Mexico, which undoubtedly was of lesser quality, control is a big thing...

That's actually something I always wondered, what is it in the Mexican poppies that make the heroin brown?

http://www.talkingdrugs.org/the-many-faces-of-heroin


The quality of the heroin depends not on the opium poppies but of the process in the making of the heroin.The Asian heroin is usually white, powdered, highly water soluble and acidic and more pure as for the Mexican heroin is dark brown to black, solid, vaporisable, of lower purity and despite its acidity, requires heat to go into aqueous solution. The heroin purity has limits by form like the black tar heroin(Mexican) seems its about 25–30% pure, which has a purity limit based on manufacturing, as for the China white it may go up to 80% pureness.

As additional info, during the Giancana era, the Chicago Outfit was smuggling raw opium from the Philippines with the help of Hyman Larner. Also according to numerous fbi files, Richard Scalzetti aka Dick Cain was sent to Madrid, Spain to establish contacts with heroin dealers and to arrange heroin shipments from Madrid to the U.S. Giancana also had two more associates in the heroin business, Sam Canzoneri also known as Sammy C and Dominic Santarelli.Sammy C was a former narcotics agent. They brought the heroin through the Miami area.

Also another point on the dynamics of drugs, if you control a majority of distribution, quality doesn't matter as much.
It's why you need pure supply to control something like NewYork, it's too big to control all distribution on a street level, but you can do it if you control supply.
That was the Luchesses strength at first, they had I believe the biggest Italian controlled open air drug market, but as the demographic of Harlem became more Hispanic, they got their supply line in order with the French Connection, and made money wholesaling.
This dynamic was demonstrated really well on the show The Wire...
Basically I'm saying in Chicago, they had no competion, so whether the dope is 70% or 90%, it you wanted to sell dope, you had da take what they had...

Thats absolutely right. But the thing was that the Outfit never had their own members or high profile associates as street dealers, so if the guys that dealt heroin on the streets of Chicago wanted a high quality heroin they supplied it from other cities. So to me it seems that Giancana always tried to find his own source with high quality narcotics so their black market wont depend on the other crime families.

But the biggest mistake that the Italian Mafia in the U.S. made was that they sold the heroin in pure form and they didnt had their own street dealers. So the street gangs, like the black gangsters, bought it and then mixed it and made bigger ammounts of the drug and also made more money then the suppliers themselves. The street gangs made millions and so they found their own sources and became more powerfull than the cosa nostra families in the narcotics business around the U.S. The Chicago Outfit extorted unions, legitimate business, gamblers and pimps, they rarely, if ever, extorted drug dealers and never had total control over the narco biz in their own city.

Yeah, it seems the Outfit did their calculations, and figured they would simply take a cut of the action, instead of trying to control it all; Chicago is a transit hub, and big local market, it seems they took advantage of those strengths..
The thing with Larner and Southeast Asia is very interesting isn't it? Looks like they took advantage of the connection to Luciano,but were determined to not be dependent on him, and just bypassed the Sicilian/French connection.Think about it, Detroit is not far from Chicago. They coulda just got it from there right? But then what happens is slowly, over time is another crime syndicate takes more and more power. It's like they would rather have 100% control of lesser quality dope, than say 50% control of better dope.
Also the scenario your described, where the distributor gets more power is a perfect explanation of what happens not just I the mafia, but drug syndicates in general, great example is the DiLauro- Amato war in Naples..

“The sums Di Lauro’s managers turned over were still astronomical, but getting progressively smaller. Over the long term this sort of practice would strengthen some and weaken others, and eventually—as soon as a group gathered enough organizational and military force—they’d give Paolo Di Lauro the shove. Not just some stiff competition, but the big shove, the one you don’t get up from, a shove with lead in it. So Cosimo ordered everyone be put on salary. He wanted them all to depend on him. The decision ran counter to his father’s ways, but it was necessary to protect his business, his authority, his family. No more loose ties, with everyone free to decide how much to invest, what type and quality of drugs to put on the market. No more liberty and autonomy within a multilevel corporation. Salaried employees. Some were saying 50,000 euros a month. An extraordinary amount, but a salary nevertheless. A subordinate role. The end of the entrepreneurial dream, replaced by a manager’s job. And the administrative revolution didn’t end there. Informants testify that Cosimo also imposed a generational turnover. Immediate rejuvenation”

Excerpt From: Roberto Saviano & Virginia Jewiss. “Gomorrah.” Picador, 2007. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/
The point I always make, is that no real gangster is going to accept a subordinate role like that, it's why I get confused when people think Luciano was all powerful. It's like when he is in Italy his power is directly proportionate to his ability to supply families with dope. Now what happens if a family gets their own supply? Would you still need him?

One interesting thing Toodoped, in the Book Strength of the Wolf, it said that Genovese was importing Puerto Rican immigrants into the Bronx and Harlem to move dope for him, I'm guessing this is when the 107th street mob started to lose ground in Harlem to Puerto Ricans. So it wasn't for lack of trying that they didn't have their street dealers. I've read that's what brought Genovese to primacy in NewYorks drug trade in the 60s, he had the best distribution cause the west side had the midtown nightlife scene sewn up, all the hottest clubs to run junk out of...

Hy Larner was the Outfit's "secret agent" and one of the best and elusive international gangsters that the U.S. mob ever produced. He was the main smuggler and financial brain behind the Outfit's activities. Larner smuggled almost everything in and out of Cuba, South America, Europe and even South Korea since the early 50’s. He often changed names,invested in airplane companies and smuggled everything from slot machines to narcotics and weapons. When he left the states he became even more powerful. I remember reading in some FBI document, when Aiuppa became boss he had a hard time in finding replacement for Larner.Larner spent most of his time in Panama and attended his gambling boats in the Carribean so his underling Tommy Russo became his voice in Chicago. Besides gambling, Larner's boats in the Carribean were also fronts for narcotics operations and when i said that at first Aiuppa stayed open minded for the sale of narcotics, i ment that he was financing the drug operations out of desperation in view of the drastic fall of their sources of illegal income such as handbook operations and also juice operations during that period. But the real boss of Larner was Gus Alex and he opposed drugs and thats why Larner's operations fell on smuggling only slot machines and later video poker machines.

Also thanks for the examples and ill try to order " Strength of the Wolf" book because it sounds quite interesting.

But the biggest mistake those street gangs made was probably buying from the mafia in the first place. Your supplier is a confidential informant.

@ CabriniGreen & @TooDoped

I think y'all are forgetting Frank Matthews & Ike Atlinson also was alternative sources for heroin since undoubted they had contacts in the Windy City. No doubt that some of the street organizations got their supplies from them but also through the Nigerians and Chinese/Asians too. The Heroin era of the 70s resulted in peak homicides in major Midwest cities. Everybody recall Chicago hit its peak homicides in 1974 and Detroit in the same year too.

Nobody had the manpower to control all of the drug trade in the country. There was too much money involved, so blood would be flowing in the streets.

You will enjoy it a lot, and by the way, and I feel like an asshole cause it's so long after the fact, but GREAT fuckin article on Teets Battaglia...
If someone wanted to write a book, I'm not sure they coulda done a better job...

For sure Black Fam, I consider that time period the" Era of the independents" so to speak...
It's after the breakdown of the French Connection, but before the Sicilian Pizza connection and before the cocaine explosion, the Superfly era lol..

There's another piece of information i came across in an article or book. It state that the New Orleans family began to step away from the drug trade around the 50s and the Black traffickers fill the void. They would travel up to Chicago for the connect and their was kingpins by the 60s in the big easy.

@Black Fam you're absolutely right.Matthews was the rare example of independency. I dont know much about him but i read that at first he also tried to get with the Italian mob but he was turned down. Is that true?

@mulberry you're right about that, the Italian mob didnt provide the manpower to completely takeover the narco racket and thats why they only worked as wholesalers.

@cabrinigreen thanks a lot man. Im also writing another article on Gus Alex but its going slow a little bit

Toodoped,

Yes.Matthews was seeking financial backing to get a start in the drug racket and was decline. He started out in the Bed-Stuy area in numbers racket and later switch to drug trafficking. Thanks to his latino friend he was able to get the financial start up and build an empire within 5 years (69-73). No doubt he had an effect on the drug market in Chicago but not a monopoly.

No doubt Alfa, the biggest irony is how the drug trade is now popularly referred to as the "TRAP"' no better description...

@BlackFam thanks for the info.

@Alfa nicely said but the street gangs didnt had much choices back then(1950's untill mid 1960's) since the Italian mob was one the biggest, if not the only one, dope importer in the country