another thought or 2 about albert vena. we know he has been grand avenue capo since death of james v. cozzo 2007. cozzo was sick for awhile leading up to death so possible vena was acting capo for a period of time. i think the narrative of vena succeeding joe lombardo as capo of crew therefore is rubbish.

grand avenue crew
capo
albert vena (2007-

it has also been alleged that vena was close to mike sarno for a period of time when both were on street. both vena and sarnos crew were involved in robbery and both had connections to street gangs; vena as a former member of c-notes and sarno with connects to 12th street players. i think this is important as the outfit moved into 2010s because of a growing reliance on some street gangs to aide in crimes.

now according to multiple sources the outfit was in somekind of leadership transition in time period (2012-2014). sarno is sentenced feb.8 2012 to 25 years in prison, the cicero crew is taken over by james inendino at this time as capo, perhaps after a stint as acting capo (2010-2012). it is also around this time that word begins to come out that john difronzo is 'retired', is sick, has gone legit etc. so i think there begins the change, not from difronzo stepping down as boss, because i dont think he was THE BOSS, but difronzo leaving post of senior advisor in favor of marco d'amico.

(2012-2014)
senior advisor=john difronzo
advisor=joseph andriacchi
boss=marco d'amico
underboss=salvatore delaurentis

with this transition taking place it would involve delaurentis as underboss to assume role of acting boss. there is reports on this and discussion across multiple threads on this site and others. with delaurentis moving to acting boss i think albert vena was then promoted to acting underboss, giving rise to articles and chatter about him being 'street boss'. i also believe this is a very similar situation sarno was in that gave rise to belief he became overall outfit boss at some point. i think for a period of time sarno was acting underboss and continued as capo of cicero. vena then would have been acting underboss and capo of grand avenue sometime in the 2012-2014 timeline. in 2018 following death of difronzo there was a local chicago channel (nbc, abc cant remember) that reported delaurentis as new boss with albert vena as the #2, charged with day-to-day control of outfit=UNDERBOSS.

this scenario also jives with the outfit alternating boss and ub positions between cicero faction and ep/grand ave faction. now as to 'if' vena continues to hold rank of UB and when he may have stepped down or relinquished or who knows been promoted that remains to be seen.

transition admin (2012-2014)
senior advisor=john difronzo (retired due to health)
advisor=joseph andriacchi (alleged to have aided in transition)
boss=marco d'amico (promoted to new senior advisor)
acting boss=salvatore delaurentis (sitting underboss, promoted to boss)
acting underboss=albert vena (grand avenue capo)