I think it's pretty obvious there was no narcotics ban. The Commission met when the new drug laws went into effect and decided to outsource the trade to the Sicilians except that their personal investment was involved. You might have a few capos in a family that report directly to the boss and move the junk (Joe the Blonde?). Everyone else was instructed to stay away due to the draconian laws passed against trafficking. When it was time for a new boss, the guy selected was likely the "drug capo" all along. Carlo Gambino was always connected to the Sicilian mafia long before becoming boss.

it was more of you deal and get caught by the cops you die.

Yes, obviously. That's called tying up loose ends.

My original point on this thread was not to get into Carlo's relationship to CIA. It was really to call attention to the major mafia meeting that occurred right about the same time as the new draconian drug laws went into effect. At that major mafia summit is when the "don't deal drugs" rules of Cosa Nostra were decreed. But it really meant..."Only we bosses profit from narcotics by having illegal alien Sicilians (aka "Zips") dealing them for us by proxy. Everyone else in the families (unauthorized made men) cannot touch babania."

Yes, absolutely Alfa

"The Mob and the City" has a pretty extensive chapter about the mobs narcotics policy (or in reality the lack of it) and the various myths surrounding the business.

Carlo Gambino wasn't made a Don until 1957, after Vito Genovese arranged for Albert Anastasia's assassination and Frank Costello's "retirement." Vito Genovese called the famously aborted Apalachin meeting of 10/57 to approve Gambino's Donship of Anastasia's family, and to approve drug trafficking, which he strongly advocated. Gambino was in no position to "decree" death to drug dealers in 1957.

As everyone else has posted: the official Mafia doctrine is death for those caught dealing drugs. Otherwise, the bosses look the other way when the money makes its way upstairs.

Was it Genovese or Gambino who arranged the Anastasia hit? So many conflicting accounts. My sense from my readings is that it was Gambino who arranged it, giving the assignment to his men Joseph Biondo and Stephen Armone. Or is this a "mystery" that shall go forever unsolved?

There's no definitive answer because no one ever confessed or was arrested for Anastasia's murder. Gambino was the obvious beneficiary. But, the finger points to Genovese. When he returned to the US from Italy after WWII, he thought he should have been Don of the family that Frank Costello headed. But, Costello was protected by solid alliances with stone killers--first Willie Moretti and then Anastasia. So, Genovese thought that, by killing Costello's strongest ally, he could force Uncle Frank to step down.

Some writers claim that Joe Profaci ordered the Anastasia hit, probably because Crazy Joe Gallo, who was in his family at the time, was one of the shooters. But, Profaci had no obvious reason to order the assassination.

I think the Gallo link more or less comes down to somebody bragging about it in a bar, and that taking on a life of its own (and of course, Persico bragging on top of that).

I thought Costello had already stepped down before Anastasia's death. The murder attempt by Gigante was five months prior.

According to one account I read (and I'm not vouching for its accuracy), Costello didn't formally step down until the Apalachin meeting. Then again, the conferees did not take minutes or publish a proceedings in a scholarly journal.