Profaci and Narcotics

Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite books on the mafia, I posted this for two https://books.google.com/books?id=_W6WBg...ate&f=false
One, it explains the thing I'm always harping on, an enterprise vs power syndicate...




Two, it says Profaci was a prolific narcotic trafficker since the 20s...

Any thoughts?

One of the durable myths of the Mafia is that they don't deal drugs, and that the Dons will whack anyone who does. BS! The Mob has been dealing drugs since Don Vito Cascio Ferro started the first drug pipelines from Europe to the US in the early yeas of the last century. For decades, drugs were a small but profitable adjunct to the Mob's regular rackets. And, as long as the traffic was confined to people society didn't care about (like minorities, jazz musicians, etc.), it wasn't very risky.

The explosion of drugs in the Sixties ruined the lives of many nice, white-middle class kids, including sons and daughters of police and politicians. Double-digit sentences became common. "Even a Sicilian facing a 20-year sentence could break Omerta and talk his brains out, endangering higher-ups," as the drug wholesaler Virgil Solozzo told Vito Corleone in "The Godfather" novel. That made a predicament for the Dons: since the Mob is a pyramid scheme, drug earnings from street guys get kicked upstairs. But banning drug trafficking to protect higher-ups would simply drive it underground.

So the Dons created a typical piece of Mafia hypocrisy: they decreed death for anyone caught dealing drugs. That way, what they didn't know about (and wouldn't endanger them) wouldn't hurt. If you dealt drugs, kicked money upstairs--and didn't get caught--you were ok. That applied to Profaci and every other Don. And some, like Bonanno and Genovese, actually encouraged drug trafficking and made big, global deals for drugs.

I have posted about Profaci before. There is some evidence that he did sell narcotics while he was a grocer in Chicago before he moved back to New York. After that only a couple of his closest guys were known drug dealers, and I am sure that he got his cut from those transactions.

Don't get caught is the rule.

@Giacomo


Any other info on Profaci you feel like reposting?
I have had a theory that Profaci was a lot more powerful than he is given credit for.


What effect do you think the Profaci-Zerilli alliance had on the Commision?

I've always felt, and still do, that the only reason and the only way such a tiny boss and such a tiny family would be incorporated onto the original commission was if they were primarily a narcotics operation.

I don't buy into the legend that Luciano split the Maranzano family into halves, appointing Joe Bonnano boss of one side, and Profaci boss of the other. Historians say the Profaci group pre-dated the Commission. Therefore it remains to be explained why such a tiny gang would have their autonomy recognized by the other 4 major families.

Narcotics is really the only viable answer. It might stretch all the way back to Profaci's home village of Villabate.

@ Alfa



Good instincts... Here's this, same book.....


https://books.google.com/books?id=_W6WBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA207&lpg=PA207&dq=profaci+ciaculli+greco's&source=bl&ots=gOBEMtxXmW&sig=M7tpe_ZAZrPAAziTwfX2PqDGVRE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8nOWV4pzLAhVIbSYKHTStDd8Q6AEIIDAD#v=onepage&q=profaci%20ciaculli%20greco's&f=false

And the thing is, during this time period, the Grecos WERE THE CLAN IN PALERMO, so I ask, how powerful was Profaci really?


When you take into account he's family with both Bonnano and Zerilli, add in Detroits connects with Badalamenti, this group looks formidable....

Let's try again....

https://books.google.com/books?id=_W6WBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA207&lpg=PA207&dq=profaci+ciaculli+greco's&source=bl&ots=gOBEMtxXmW&sig=M7tpe_ZAZrPAAziTwfX2PqDGVRE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8nOWV4pzLAhVIbSYKHTStDd8Q6AEIIDAD#v=onepage&q=profaci%20ciaculli%20greco's&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=_W6WBg...cos&f=false




Hopefully now?

God damn, it took me for real like 15 tries, lol




https://books.google.com/books?id=abWhCg...cos&f=false





This is another book, same info basically...
Also note as the chapter progresses, they explain the similarities of Palermo and NY, and the differences between power and enterprise organizations. It keeps popping up on the boards, ( in another thread, a guy compared LA to Tampa, they are two different types of syndicate, but beacause they are both MAFIA affiliated, people tend to see them as the same, they aren't...)

What you helped substantiate, Cabrini, and thanks for it, is that Profaci was probably related to bosses or local mafia chiefs in Sicily before emigrating to the States.

If Profaci needed to move smack across the Atlantic ocean, he had the contacts he needed to do it, his own blood family.

And who can you trust more than your own family?

Biggest olive oil importing business in America.....hopefully that explains itself.

We don't have much on Profaci's olive oil import trade. What you can find is a tidbit about Luciano and Profaci discussing shipping fruits, which later turned out to be decoys filled with heroin.

What more evidence do you need? What your looking for you won't find. International shipping gets it to America then domestic channels take it across America. He would never have to touch a thing. On top of that he could simply charge a price to use the shipping network and never have to even risk investing in the dope. I dunno if that's what happened but its what I would've done.

But if he was never involved in a heroin case I guess that means he never messed with it lol. These guys were knee deep in heroin, one of Lansky's earliest arrests was a heroin beef. I have to look but I think Costello even had an early arrest for heroin, but I may be very wrong.

Of course his oil import business was moving smack, but you can't put it in a bio or text book unless you can prove it.

I'm waiting forr the lol

bio and books about mobsters are 90% bs that can't be proved