Chicago Outfit Narcotics Trade 1950's Chart

DESCRIPTION: Thanks to their deported cohorts such as Charles Luciano, Dominic Roberto, Serafino Mancuso and Frank Coppola, during the 1950's the American Cosa Nostra managed to establish one quite lucrative narcotics trafficking operation, which involved the production, transport and the selling of heroin. The product mainly came from Lebanon or Syria in a form of a raw opium, and then it was transported to Turkey where usually it was processed into morphine base and from there, the product arrived either in Greece or southern Italy and Sicily, and in the end it arrived in Marseilles, France. The thing was that during the late 1940's and early 50's, the Italian Mafia didnt have the power or the right number of laboratories to create huge quantities of the final product which was heroin, and so with the help of their French and Corsican underworld contacts, they managed to receive the right amount and to transport it to the U.S. There were allegedly three main ports, one being Canada, the second being Florida and the third being New York.

For example,the New York crime families distributed the heroin all around the East Coast but some of the factions also acted as the main transporters or suppliers of heroin for some of the main Midwest crime families such as the Chicago Outfit. It was allegedly decided that Outfit was going to distribute the product to all Midwestern cities of secondary importance within the network of the narcotics traffic web, such as Omaha, Tulsa, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Iowa, Los Angeles, Houston, Denver and Phoenix. The main overseers of the Midwestern narcotics trafficking were Raphael Quazarano, John Priziola, and Paul Cimino of the Detroit faction, Anthony Giordano of St. Louis and Giacomo Ammirato a.k.a. James Emery for the Chicago Outfit. One of the main suppliers for the Outfit at the time was the Bonanno crime family which was headed by Joseph Bonanno and his drug trade was being overseen by one Carmine Galante, while Chicago bosses Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana financed the whole deal with Outfit money.

The deal was for the Northwest Indiana faction, which was under the jurisdiction of the Chicago Heights crew under Emery, to receive a large amount of the product once a month that was destined for the Chicago market, and to transport it to the Chicago heights or Calumet City areas. They transported the product with the help of their legitimate enterprises such as pizza shops and restaurants or food markets. These guys represented themselves as legitimate businessmen by owning pizza shops with locations around Gary and Hammond. But before transporting the shipment, the Indiana boys also kept some of the product for their part of the deal and distributed it around their own territory. So when the product arrived, Chicago Heights members George Tuffanelli, Joe Guzzino and Frank LaPorte were appointed as main overseers for the distribution of the narcotics shipment all around the Chicago area, including one third of the shipment for the Near North Side, Taylor St, Elmwood Park, Melrose Park, the South Side areas, while two thirds went to the rest of the cities around the Midwest. According to one government informant, since Emery was considered the main overseer of the operation in Chicago, during the operation he also appointed Guzzino and LaPorte as the main “couriers” between him and Dominic Roberto in Italy. In the end, there were even additional suppliers for the Chicago Mob such as members or associates from other New York families such as the Lucchese, Gambino and Genovese groups or even members from the Detroit faction, but the final point is that the main product arrived from the Bonannos. (click on photo and zoom)

Nice work Toodoped

Awesome chart buddy

Nice!

Great chart T, but that estimated yearly income, shouldn't that be 300 - 500 million instead of 300k - 500k?

I'm wondering who was in the heroin trade in Philly, Boston and New Jersey.

Great work again my man....

This is pre- 57 Palermo meeting right?

great job as always toodoped !

I don't think so, 500k per year in the 50s would be millions today.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your support.

@BillyB as Hollander said, 400K in 1950 was about 4 million dollars.

@Cabrini this was before, during and after the Palermo meeting.

@Regoparker I dont know much regarding Philly but I think there was one Jewish mobster known as Harry "Nig Rosen" Stromberg who was heavily involved in the dope business together with the Mafia. For example in 1959 he was arrested together with Anthony Mirra and a bunch of other gangsters regarding the French Connection.

And yet FBI agent Roemer insisted Accardo and the chicago outfit was never in the junk trade..I believe this article more then Roemer !!

Wouldn't FBI agent Roemer have in a better position to know?

@DiLorenzo thanks.

@Jace during the late 1940's the captain of one of the largest territories Melrose Park known as Rocco DeGrazia was arrested together with his brother Andrew on dope dealing charges and on top of that, both were heavy users. This was during the reign when Accardo became the boss and from that point on he allegedly has forbidden for his underlings to get DIRECTLY involved in the racket, but instead they used associates or middlemen. Later during the early 1950's Joe Iacullo was one of Accardo's main runners, including Anthony Pape, and when they both got arrested by FBN agents in 1954, the investigators pulled out files that before his arrest Iacullo was seen going in and out of Accardo's house more than 20 times. So Accardo was scared of the publicity from the dope business and immediately posted the $25,000 bonds for all who were indicted and began eliminating them one by one.

This is just one example in a time period which was before the feds began bugging these guys and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was the only government organization who was after these guys at the time. In plane words Roemer didnt know shit. On top of that, sometimes he even invented stories such as Accardo being the shooter at the St Valentines Day Massacre or the crazy family pact. I mean what to do expect from a guy who later also wrote a fictional book on the Outfit. There were other agents at the time who were way more credible than Roemer

Well said Toodoped!!!

Pre 1960s' the Feds were really clueless, only thing was that the FBN wasn't entirely informed on Mafia politics. But they knew a lot of the players, where they did business, who they associated with ecetera....

Thats right, the FBN mainly followed the street players, who after being caght, they usualy began singing about their higher ups. The interesting thing was that all of the dope runners previously felt quite protected while doing business, but after getting caught they immediately began fearing for their lives, which might prove the alleged rule deal but dont get caught. Also people dont realize that the Outfit had more informers than some of the prominent crime families but they were very well protected by the government and rarely went in the open

OK understood, but you're talking about net profit here right?

I look at the situation like this....the Mobs main rackets after Prohibition were gambling, unions and prostitution. So all of those rackets brought millions and the dope biz was something inevitable and became just another side project, same as the gay bars etc. So the Mob at the time failed to predict the future and kept the dope biz to a limited extent

Yes made 3 milions/5milions a year in 2017 very few for a big city like Chicago.

I'm curious to know if Mark Polchan is still the liason between the Outlaws MC and the Outfit.... I could be wrong but didnt Mark Polchan and Sam Volpendesto have a relationship in some fire bombings some years back ....I know Sam has a son named Anthony and goes by Tony V.....just wondering if Polchan is still the go to guy or if somebody else has been replaced as well as for the Outfit.... I wanna say Sam passed away since that last fire bombing occurred and I almos wanna say Michael Sarno had some involvement as well.

http://gangsterreport.com/outlaws-b...or-witness-at-chicago-mob-trial-in-2010/

Around a decade ago, the 62-year old James and some of his biker buddies tried to prevent mafia associate Vincent Dublino, the star witness in then-acting Chicago mob boss Michael (Fat Mike) Sarno’s extortion and racketeering trial from testifying by trying to intimidate him with a show of force at Dublino’s bar located in a western suburb, per the records. One of those buddies was Sarno’s co-defendant, Mark (Pork Chop) Polchan, at that time the treasurer of the Outlaws chapter on the Northside of Chicago, the same chapter James served as president of.

The bullish scare attempt, the final of several, failed to work and Dublino took the stand anyway: Sarno and Polchan were both convicted in December 2010, hit with 25 and 60 year prison sentences respectively. Dublino even echoed the name “Big Pete” in his testimony.

Once closely aligned, Dublino and Sarno feuded in the early 2000s over video poker machine distribution routes – Dublino’s C&S Coin Operated Amusements was providing machines to the 47th Street Grill in Lyons Township, Illinois, part of a route belonging to Sarno, who was the capo of the Outfit’s Cicero crew back then before rising to the crime family’s acting boss post in 2005. Sarno and Dublino had been partners in an ATM business.

“Hey you fucking punk, stay the fuck away from 47th Street,” Sarno shouted at Dublino outside a local tavern in January 2003.

A month later, the C&S Coin Operated Amusements’ office and warehouse in Berwyn, Illinois were firebombed. Octogenarian Outfit soldier and explosives expert Sam (Master Blaster) Volpendesto was convicted of manufacturing the firebomb that blew Dublino’s storefront to bits. Volpendesto died behind bars in 2013 at 89.

“Pork Chop” Polchan ran a fencing operation for stolen jewelry out of his pawn shop in Cicero where Sarno was known to hang around and send his heist teams, like the one Volpendesto’s son, Anthony (Baby Blaster), headed. The Outfit and the Outlaws have a longstanding relationship. Per Chicago Crime Commission documents, Polchan was the biker club’s liaison to the Italian mafia.

In 2007, the feds convened a grand jury to investigate Sarno’s activities. Dublino was called and appeared in front of the “GJ”, much to the dismay of powers in the Outfit and Outlaws. In the weeks that followed, he received harassing phone calls at his home and multiple visits from Polchan, his then-boss Big Pete James and their cronies at his Berwyn watering hole.

On one occasion, an unnamed Outlaw approached Dublino behind the bar and threatened that his “clocks would run backwards” if he continued his cooperation with authorities and testified at Sarno and Polchan’s upcoming trial. On another, Polchan and Big Pete themselves came into Dublino’s establishment with a half dozen fellow bikers in tow and started to cause a commotion.

When he finally took the witness stand, Dublino recalled a man identifying himself as “Big Pete” leading the ruckus, going into the bar’s restrooms, men’s and women’s, and kicking open stalls with patrons in the process of using the facilities, which caused complaints and had people flooding to the exits. James admits he “loves” Polchan and categorized him as a “confidant” in a recent interview he did with the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.

Fat Mike Sarno will turn 59 next month. He is considered a suspect in ordering the 2001 slaying of Cicero crew solider Anthony (Tony the Hatchet) Chiaramonti and the 2006 kidnapping and murder of Outfit underboss Anthony (Little Tony) Zizzo. Sarno and Zizzo were allegedly fighting over video-poker machine distribution routes as well.

Thanks Furio I remember reading a similar article back then I'm positive Big Pete is retired now and I know the NorthSide Chapter moved clubhouses to the Westside as well shocked they couldn't get Dublino to budge why they couldn't physically touch him is kind of confusing If he wasn't Made then he should of got more then some verbal threats and visits....seems like once Sarno got sentenced both parties washed there hands of the situation and left it alone they should of went and got Dublino after the trial atleast.

Same for me,why don't pay a hitman that this bullies ? Sarno get 25 y because doesn't found in the outfit or out an hired gun ? If sarno would give 50 bucks to a black guy he for sure would kill Dublino.

Or pay some out of town shooters to get the hell bak out of town after the hit haha... I assume Dublino is walkin the streets today and still has some vending machines around?

We can't be sure who to believe. Even in the 1960-1970 decades informers said to FBI agents that Accardo was as Roemer presented. It comes down to which informants were the more accurate, and that we can never know for sure without wire taps to back it up.

I believe the facts.

In 1930 agents arrived at his hotel apartment, they found a slight, shrewd-looking, sallow colored little man in the company of a hot and beautiful blond girl, and so the agents couldn’t believe their eyes because it was the infamous Capone member Willie Heeney. During the search of his room, the cops found a dozen of cans filled with opium and when they took him to the station, one of the cops pulled up Heeney's sleeve and trouser leg, thus revealing his skin which was marked by dozens of scars made by the dope addict’s hypodermic needle. One of the G-man asked Heeney "Willie, were you under dope when you killed your first man?" In a flat voice Heeney allegedly replied "Why else would you kill somebody you never saw before?" Than the agent said "You gotta be full of dope. How about the next one?" and then Heeney again replied "After the first one it ain't so hard."

In March, 1946, the narcotics bureau in Chicago issued so-called secret warrants against Rocco DeGrazia and Mike Stacey, thus charging them with extortion, illegal transportation and concealing of narcotics. The two gangsters were quickly arrested after one Maywood druggist charged that he supplied a large opium ring with thousands of ounces of opium and morphine under the fear of death. Rocco’s brother Andrew was also arrested since he was named by the druggist as a member of the ring and later both brothers, including Stacey, were released on $5,000 bond each. Everything about the case went slow but a year later, Rocco again managed to get himself in trouble by getting caught with few ounces of opium and smoking paraphernalia and so he was quickly convicted and sentenced to one year and one day in prison.

On March 16 and 17, 1954, FBN agents arrested eleven members of the crew on narcotics charges, including Joe Iacullo, Frank Coduto and Tony Pape and quickly took them into custody. Back in the old days, Pape used to terrorize the streets together with many Outfit guys, thanks to his older brother Frank Pape who in turn allegedly was a member of the old 42 gang. As for Iaculo, he and Frank DeMarie were closely connected to Outfit member and prominent narcotics peddler Joe Mendino and on top of that, according to the investigators, Iacullo was also directly connected to Outfit boss Tony Accardo. The main problem for the gang was that they managed to bring in and undercover agent Harry Mattera who brought the whole group to trial. So all of the bonds were posted and Pape together with his brother were killed, including Coduto, while the rest of the gang were sentenced to jail.

In June, 1957, four federal narcotics agents led by two other agents John Ripa and Jack Love were conducting an undercover operation on Carlo Urbinati in a roadhouse known as Triangle Inn Tavern, which was in fact Urbinati’s headquarters. Urbinatti was married to the sister of another Outfit duo known as the Inglesia a.k.a. English brothers, Sam and Charles, and he was their most active operator. He owned many clubs and other forms of joints around the Elmwood Park area, which in fact was Accardo’s territory. The deal was for the two undercover agents to buy $9000 worth of heroin from Urbinati, and after the transaction, the plan was for one of the agents to alert the rest of the group and stage a raid. In May, 1958, Urbinati and two other associates, each received 5 years in federal penitentiary for selling narcotics.

In 1962, Tony Dichiarinte was arrested with few other associates on narcotics charges with the investigators having a start witness against the group. Dichiarinte’s main assignment in the Mob was to gather the betting money from Outfit higher ups such as Sam Battaglia, Fiore Buccieri, Phil Alderisio and Chuck Nicoletti, thus slowly becoming one of their most prominent narcotics peddlers. The problem was that the main witness against him suddenly died of a hear attack and so the court battle continued for three years and in 1965 the two defendants were dismissed from all charges but later that same year, the feds managed to sent Dichiarinte to 6 years in jail on tax evasion charges.

Sam Giancana's personal friend Carl Fiorito was one of the most professional burglars in Chicago’s criminal history but the thing was that he also controlled his own drug peddling crew. Some of his best associates in the drug business were his long time partner in the burglary business Ted DeRose and William “The Saint” Skally, ex-bootlegger and another personal friend of both Giancana and Accardo mostly because he controlled a multi-million dollar counterfeit ring for the Outfit. At the beginning of Dichiarinte's trial in 1965, the prosecutors mentioned that the defendants in fact worked for Fiorito and Skally, who in turn worked for Giancana. And of course, from that point on many government officials and newspaper reporters became interested in the connection, thus forcing some of the main “middle men” to make mistakes which in the end, proved to be quite fatal for their health. That same year Skally managed to sell $15,000 worth of pure heroin to an undercover agent and so he began giving up secret and dangerous information. . So the information regarding Skally’s decision to “rat” was placed on the table by one of the Outfit’s most infamous Mob lawyers known as Mike Brodkin, who in turn was a very close with the syndicate’s top hierarchy and was also considered one of the best political corruptors for the organization. In other words, Brodkin knew that Skally and Giancana knew each other and so he sent word directly to Giancana, who in turn sent for Carl Fiorito. Since Skally worked under Fiorito, in Giancana’s eyes it was Fiorito’s problem. So according to a wiretapped conversation between Brodkin and the so-called “King of Fixers” Murray Humphreys, the Mob lawyer told the “Hump” that one day he took Fiorito to see “Moon”, which was a reference for Giancana, and during the meeting the boss personally authorized Fiorito to take care of the Skally problem, or in other words, Fiorito received the murder contract and Skally was later eliminated.

When the Outfit's top boss Paul Ricca died in 1972, Accardo took his position and out of various reasons, such as informers, he tried to influence the other top members in prohibiting the dope deals. After Giancana’s death in 1975, the dope peddling racket managed to divide the Chicago crime syndicate in two factions, including the opposing faction with Accardo and Gus Alex on one side and on the other, Chuck Nicoletti, Frank Caruso, James Catuara and possibly Dominick DiBellla, the crime boss of the North Side. So this time, the guy in the middle was Joey Aiuppa, who in turn had the final word on everything. But according to the feds, Aiuppa had close connections to Hyman Larner who in turn inherited every possible international operation, which the late Sam Giancana previously started. So story goes that Aiuppa stayed “open minded” in regarding the dope racket, and I believe that the main reason for that was obviously the drastic diminished income from bookmaking and loan sharking in the Chicago area. During this period one old member from the Bonanno crime family decided to visit Chicago for the second time, regarding the same agenda. In January, 1974, New York mobster Carmine Galante was released from prison and according to some sources, he was the main player in bringing all those Sicilian Mafiosi into the U.S. and importing loads of Italian heroin. So according to one Chicago Tribune article, Galante arranged two meetings, one in Chicago and one in Florida, with the Outfit’s dope opposing faction headed by Accardo.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=138470&relPageId=4&search=aiuppa_narcotics

In no time, some members of the old Melrose Park crew, which by now I believe was led by Nicoletti and probably by one of Aiuppa’s underlings Sam Carlisi, and also associates of the Chicago Heights crew and the North Side faction, continued supporting the dope business in full effect. One of Nicoletti’s and DiBella’s old associates from the North Side was Salvatore “Sam” Canzoneri, a former officer of Chicago’s Police Department, magazine publisher and close friend of the late Giancana. His father John Canzoneri was a Cosa Nostra member, with roots from the Corleone village back in Sicily, and belonged to the Los Angeles crime family but was also very close connected to former Outfit heavyweights such as the Fischetti brothers. The dope connection also goes way back to the mid 1960’s when Sam Canzoneri still worked as a cop and was closely associated with Sheldon Teller, the previously mentioned corrupt officer who was involved in high level dope peddling operations. Back in those days, both Teller and Canzoneri owned a joint known as the Rivoli Club which in fact was a rock and roll spot on the city’s North Side. In fact, Canzoneri managed to loose his job as a cop when he was identified as half-owner of the infamous joint which was connected to large scales of narcotics and prostitution operations. After the imprisonment of his partner in crime, Canzoneri’s new associate became Dominic Santarelli, another wealthy builder-developer and also dope dealer, who spent considerable time in Miami, Florida. In reality, Santarelli was the main overseer of the Florida port for thee new smuggling ring. Even though they operated mainly on the North Side, still Canzoneri and Santarelli were also close associates of the Melrose Park faction, including Nicoletti and one Irving Weiner. Months before the forming of the new drug route, there are numerous reports of airplane flights between Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and New York’s LaGuardia or Miami, Florida, of both Canzoneri and Weiner, and also alleged reports of meetings with “unknown individuals” closely connected to the Bonanno crime family, which I personally believe were Sicilian dope smugglers. For example, the main connection between the Sicilians and the Outfit in the Florida area was one of Carmine Galante’s close associates known as Tito Carinci, who in turn was a Miami-based mobster. So the main thing which connected Canzoneri to the newly formed dope racket was his criminal history and above all, his ownership of a pizzeria business known as the Pizza Crisp International and Panhandle Pizza Inc., which obviously was one of the fronts for the national “Pizza Connection”.

Those are stories not facts. Part has to be true. You took a story and then combined it with a MaryFarrell document. There are others on MaryFarrell saying otherwise regarding Accardo. I think it often comes down to people deciding to believe what they like to believe rathe than examining information and keeping an open mind. Remember, new information can always surface pushing the story one way or another.

On the contrary, the "story" I took wasnt invented or anything like that but instead it was formed by FBN and FBI documents, combined with some wiretapped convos.

Also can you please show me those docs in which informers stated that Accardo prohibited the dope biz while he was the boss during the late 40's or early 50's, or as a matter of fact, during the 1960's?

The committee investigating the mob in Chicago said so in the 1990's.

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/29/...gure-in-mob-world-dies-in-bed-at-86.html

ok, here you go a 1963 report of 1650 pages regarding the dope trade in the states. You can use Foxitreader and type in the word Chicago or names such as La Pietra or Cordovano or Nicoletti or Jacob Klein or Carl Fiorito, so you wont have go through all of the many pages.

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/119303NCJRS.pdf

Also also this...

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=139846&relPageId=3&search=chicago_narcotics

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc...icago_narcotics#relPageId=4&tab=page

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=136494&relPageId=2&search=chicago_narcotics

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=138477&relPageId=3&search=chicago_narcotics

Great research TooDoped - the myth of Accardo and others being against drugs has always been a myth and nothing else.

It all comes down to which report you want to believe. There was a drug trade in Chicago, and there still is. Accardo being involved is the question. A crime commission came to a conclusion after studying everything and said Accardo pushed his men out of it, street informers and some researchers say otherwise. It's an evolving study if you keep an open mind. If a person chooses to believe he had himself and his men out of the drug trade as reports state, they believe that. If they want to believe he was in the drug trade, which is very possible, then they believe that. I like to keep an open mind and study all side, and unless there is evidence that trumps all other evidence then it is impossible to say one way or another.

Thanks ChiTown and yeah, people tend to forget that the Outfit was a part of Cosa Nostra and it has a chain of command, meaning there are no independent criminals in the organization and everyone who is involved in something illegal has to kick up to his bosses. For example Accardo was the boss from 1947 until 1952 or 53 when he briefly stepped down and later was brought back again in 1955 when Capezio died unexpectedly. My point is that during that period the Outfit had a top boss (Ricca), senior adviser (Campagna), boss (Accardo) and underboss (Giancana). So if the underboss was financing and at the same time making income from dope deals, all of that same cash went up the ladder, meaning they were all taking dope money.

The main problem is that people also forget to learn the old history of the organization, so they can understand what happened during the 70's and 80's. For example during the 1960's the Outfit's operations were on the downfall because of the many hidden informants and so during the 1970's both Accardo and Alex were scared of being closely involved in the dope biz and they left many examples down the road, but even with that the dope biz continued to thrive among the Outfit's members, especially the ones from the Grand Av and Chicago Heights crews. And if Accardo really prohibitied the dope biz, then why the brother of his successor and crew member No Nose DiFronzo got caught with whole farm for marijuana during the early 90's?!

Joe DiFronzo is who got the pot charge correct?

Yes

Another interesting thing to note is that during the mid 1980's, when Accardo was still the top boss of the Outfit with Aiuppa in jail and Carlisi as the acting boss, the Outfit was still financing dope deals. According to court and FBI investigations at the time, Joey Bonavolante was a member of the Melrose Park crew who in turn was an alleged “lieutenant” under Tony Zizzo, while this guys was a lieutenant for Marcello and Carlisi. So Bonavolante’s main role was financing the cocaine purchases with Outfit money, in return for a share of the resale profits, and this crew was led by his brother Frank and another associate known as Victor Plescia, who in turn were the two main individuals who distributed their product mainly around the Cicero, Berwyn, Bridgeview and Riverside areas. Plescia, according to the feds, oversaw the wholesale and retail drug operation which was mainly the distribution of cocaine and even though he headed the conspiracy, his main couriers were Nick Rizzato and Tony Grossi, who in turn traveled many times to Miami, from where they purchased dozens of kilos of the product. According to one report, Plescia acquired his product from a Colombian source which was connected not the the MP crew but instead to the Grand Av group. As I previously said, this was Cosa Nostra meaning no matter what is happening down there, something must come up or else lol

In October, 1989, when the feds finally had established the roles and identities of the individuals involved in the conspiracy and had sufficient evidence against them, all of the suspects were arrested, indicted, tried and convicted, including Vic Plescia, Nick Rizzato, Lee Lizzio, Kevin Geiger, Frank Bonavolante, Camillio Grossi, Anthony Grossi, Norman Demma and many others.

Plescia's crew sold coke near the Sportsmans Park in Cicero and they all worked for Sam Carlisi's crew. They would hang out at Tony Zizzo's bar just outside the park taking pages and using the outside phones alongside Zizzo's team of bookies. Vic Plescia is out of prison now - he had some time from his sentence successfully shaved in 2017.

I assume the guys that got Zizzo are still on the street today correct whoever Sarno had lined up to get him

Giancana was probably involved in narcotics in Mexico, his nephew married Miss Sinaloa of 1958.

@toodoped

Do you think any of the 4 known outfit crews have any sub-units reporting to them

Like with cicero and lake county

@cookcounty do you mean like the P-K Crew that was under Vena and consisted of Bobby Pinozzo and Paul Koroluk.

Naw i mean like a whole crew in itself, kinda like how lake county has a crew but reports to cicero

Oh I got ya...ya I'm curious too....what would you consider the C-Notes.... A gang or a farm team or maybe consider them a sub unit sort of speak

I wanna say Bobby Pinocchio son Bobby Jr. was part of the C-Notes I could be wrong tho

Cnotes are a gang that Its most criminally productive members graduate to the syndicate

Plus it probably depends on the area the cnotes are active in (meaning what branch)

Some are near mobsters neighborhoods while others are not

Is there one person that's a liason to the Outfit and the C-Notes....I'm assuming they don't report to a Captain but maybe a Soldier who in part is responsible for them sort of speak or am I way off with the whole perception of them

@ChiTown thats correct, Plescia and the rest of the gang were involved in peddling coke since it was the 1980's and besides the Colombians, the Outfit also dealt with the Hernandez family which was based in Matamoros, Mexico, and through Texas, they managed to send large shipments of cocaine and marijuana all the way to Chicago. According to the feds, the organization was headed by Elio Hernandez and his sons, and these guys were quite dangerous, mostly because they were known for doing ritualistic murders. So besides being drug dealers, they also represented a gruesome cult and sacrificed their victims in such a way, in which they believed was the only way to protect their dope peddling operations and above all, themselves. One of the family’s main representatives in the U.S. was one Mexican drug lord known as Manuel “Poncho” Jaramillo, who settled himself in Mission, Texas, which was a small place near the border. Even though Jaramillo supplied drug dealers around country such as in New York and Miami, according to the government, his main connections were in Chicago. Story goes that Jaramillo’s second job, besides overseeing their dope racket, was money laundering or in other words, he invested drug money in legitimate enterprises. But even for that, he still needed some good underworld connections, and there was no other organization for such “pleasures” if it wasn’t for the Mob. So one thing led to another and next thing you know, Jaramillo made a close relationship with none other than Chicago Heights capo Al Tocco.

@Cookcounty the Outfit always had so-called sub-crews and I wouldnt be surprised if they have few even today, concerning the larger territories that they control these days. Today I would divide the Outfit on West Side crew and South Side crew, since the Chicago Heights went under the jurisdiction of the Southsiders, while the North and Northwest Side went under the Westsiders including the Elmwood Park crew and Cicero, with the second crew being allegedly in charge of the todays Outfit with DeLaurentis holding Riccas or Accardos position.

@Hollander Giancana established a drug route which went though Mexico but it wasnt supplied with the Mexican product. You see according to some reports, the connection was established with the help of several underworld Chinese syndicates from Macao and Hong Kong areas who operated independently from the Triads. The plan was for smugglers from the Philippines to ship raw opium to a small island on the Pacific Ocean known as Guam, which in fact it’s an island on U.S. territory in Micronesia, in the Western Pacific. The transportation process was carried out mainly by individuals who were paid by the Asian crime syndicates, until they brought it in Mexico, where it was usually welcomed by local gangs who were on Giancana’s payroll. His “voice” in the Mexico area was his main attorney know as Jorge Castillo who in turn also worked as Giancana’s front man and contact with local Mexican authorities and criminal gangs. This “landing” point was obviously chosen mainly because of the constant raids on U.S. soil and because of that, now the main smuggling route extended along the Arizona-Mexico border and was mainly controlled by members of Cosa Nostra in alliance with some of the Mexican criminal factions such as the Savela brothers and one Chinese born criminal Hector Mar Wong who in turn was the main dope smuggling contact between Mexico and the Asian criminal factions

Thanks for the response, Mexico was just an entry point to the USA, like Cuba and Montreal, for H from Southeast Asia.

No problem.

The Outfit had several drug routes from.Mexico at the time since Giancana wasnt the only exiled mobster who circled the country and at the same time being involved in illegal operations. Another example would be the Circella brothers, Nick and August. In fact, August only acted as a bagman between Chicago and Mexico City, and as for his brother Nick, he was previously exiled from the U.S. and deported to Argentina, which was his original birthplace, and later established himself in Mexico. Nick Circella was an old time member of the Outfit who back in the days was imprisoned together with the top criminal echelon such as Paul Ricca and Louis Campagna, but by now he still had few interests on Chicago’s North Side through his brother and also controlled few illegal and legitimate operations around the Mexican territory. In reality, Circella was another desperate gangster who desperately wanted to return to the states and so he was always opened for “new adventures” such as the current one, meaning transporting narcotics. The useful thing was that Circella controlled a large shrimp boat business along the Pacific Coast and his boats were often overloaded and barely seaworthy, slipping through the darkness and hidden from the watchful radar of the American patrols. Sometimes, the boats didn’t even have to hide in the night since Circella was already legally exporting shrimps into the U.S., and so the product was easily being moved by sea off the San Diego coast, and later was welcomed by factions of the California crime families, who in turn transported the product mainly on Chicago’s North Side and around the Midwest. 

There was even a direct line to Chicago, but this time it came straight from London, England. Their main smugglers were two elderly women from Barcelona, Spain, identified as the Munoz sisters, Catalina and Rafaela, and one Corsican Mob associate known as Antonio De La Cruz. In fact, the Munoz sisters worked for the Armada clan and as for De La Cruz, he obviously worked for Giancana’s new business partner Francisci. Their route usually started from Barcelona to London and from there with a direct flight to O’Hare International Airport. These so-called European smugglers were known for transporting over 20 pounds of heroin, which was destined for the Chicago market, during one trip.

When the war on the Far East was over, somehow Chinese heroin found its way and arrived on America’s soil but in smaller amount. At this point, most of the Asian narcotics found its way to the U.S. through Belgium or the Netherlands, which made the city of Amsterdam the main shipping point for Asian heroin. From this point, drug trafficking from Mexico expanded and the cultivation of opium poppy fields increased and the so-called “Mexican mud” or “Mexican brown” was suddenly in great demand. From 1975, criminal groups from Mexico dominated the heroin trade and supplied an ever-increasing demand for marijuana, while the Colombian cartels slowly began to take over the cocaine market. 

Good stuff Toodoped, also interesting they had direct contacts with the Chinese. The Chinese traffickers have been in the Chinatowns in Holland for 100 years, sailors and merchants.

Well the so-called opium conflicts during the 19th century brings out the whole story

The Kansas City family also set up a heroin pipeline from Cuba to Tampa to Kansas City and other Midwest metropolitan areas. One of the first cooperating witnesses, Carl Caramusa, from Kansas City led to the exposure of the narcotics ring that was dealing about 12 million a year.

On June 21, 1945 Carl Carramusa's 16-year-old daughter watched in agony as her father's head was blown off outside his North Side Chicago home. Carramusa had moved his family to Chicago in the wake of his appearance as a federal informant in a Kansas City drug trial. His relocation worked for several years before the KC mob put a hit on him while he awaited his family in a Chicago driveway.