Ive already said this around 100 times and so ill say it again.

The Cicero/South Side and Chinatown crews were in close alliance with each other since the days of their "Godfather" Fiore Buccieri. In fact, both groups were "born" from the same crew and thats why they were/are usually represented by one boss with one or two capos beneath him. When Skids retired back in 1977 and completely relinquished his crew, it was for Buccieri's and Torellos guy LaPietra to take over the Cicero/Chinatown aka South Side faction, with Ferriola as capo in Cicero, but still both were under Torello. The tradition or the close connection between the two crews continued during the 80s, 90s and so on. When LaPietra (Chinatown) was imprisoned, his crew was succeeded by his brother but the main rep for the two crews was Ferriola (Cicero, hence the info which investigators thought that Ferriola is the new overall boss). Later Monteleone (Chinatown) became the overall boss, followed years later by Sarno (Cicero). Years later we have Solly D (Cicero) etc. On top of that we have Cicero guys made into the Chinatown crew, or the other way around...such as Nick Ferriola (Cicero) who was made in Caruso Jr.'s or Chinatown crew.

My point is that after the downfall of the Marcello/Tornabene/Melrose Park crew and also the DiFronzo/Elmwood Park/Grand Av crew (yes, the EP and Grand crews had/have the same close connection as Cicero/Chinatown) becoming more legit, the Cicero/Chinatown faction became more powerful and probably took control over the top admin (even today), especially after the deaths of the EP leaders and thats why I personally believe that Vena is possibly the main remaining and still powerful West Side leader.

Now, regarding today...as I already said that some of my sources say that the Cicero/Chinatown group is allegedly still holding the top spots and Im not trying to sound like Scott B here but if my source give me the green light, ill mention his name.

Story goes that two Cicero fellas Lenny DeGrado and Frank DiPaolo are currently two of the main fellas on the streets for the Cicero/South Side group. DeGrado is allegedly a thief who runs a jewlery store and did time back in the early 90s for a larger Outfit-run cartage theft ring. He was allegedly close to Mike Sarno, while DiPaolo I was told is actually from Rockford but works for Caruso Jr and Nick Ferriola (Cicero/Chinatown always had close ties to Rockford, hence Gumba Saladino). Again, my sources say that Caruso Jr (Chinatown) is allegedly the original heir-apparent now for Sarno (imprisoned) and Solly D, while Cautadella (Cicero) is allegedly under Caruso as his number two guy or underboss.

Just my "two cents" lol