Exactly MC.

It wasn't the $$$ that The Turk really needed. He even guarantees Vito's investment. He easily could have come up with the money from the other families had money been the only issue.

It was the protection. it was Vito's connections from the local policeman all through the judge right up to the congressman and the senator.

They needed those kinds of connections to get the drug commerce flowing as smoothly as possible. Paying off the right people at all different levels not to interfere with what was going on.

Get the local policemen to turn a blind eye to the local distributing operations that would be set up.

Get a senator or a congressman to vote against a bill that may have called for harsh punishment to those caught distributing and dealing drugs.

Make sure that the judges in Vito's pocket would give a light or even a suspended sentence to someone working for them who may have been arrested by some overzealous rookie cop.



THE TURK :"I need a man who has powerful friends. I need, Don Corleone, those politicians that you carry in your pocket, like so many
nickels and dimes."

VITO :"It's true, I have a lot of friends in politics, but they wouldn't be friendly very long if they knew my business was drugs..."

TATTAGLIA: "Yes, Don Barzini -- he's too modest. He had all the judges and politicians in his pocket. He refused to share them..."

BARZINI : "If Don Corleone had all the judges, and the politicians in New York, then he must share them, or let us others use them."




It was for all the powerful law and political connections that Vito had made during his rise which was needed by Barzini, Tattaglia and The Turk, not the money. The asking for Money was just thrown in there as sort of a distraction, a decoy, a coverup to what they were really looking for from Don Vito: his political connections.