Cant believe Id forgotten that, Nicky. Good one.

There are plenty of cases of mobsters from around North America and mainland Italy being involved in the staples (drugs and money laundering) in South America, and in some pretty profitable rackets, but as m2w stated (who is right in this case) there were never enough criminally inclined Italians to form "homegrown" cells.

Having said that, more and more cases of millionaire mafiosi hiding out in Latin America are always coming to light, where their ill-gotten funds greased the right palms in local corruption to afford them virtual safehavens.

The Rizzuto's had massive interests in Venezuela, as did the Cauruana/C.untrera groups, though also in Brazil.

Leonardo Badalamenti (one of Don Tano's sons) was a good example, based in Venezuela he was involved in selling fraudulent securities to foreign banks and made millions.
On another note, his brother Vito is alleged by some sources to be hiding out in either Brazil or Australia.

Another recent example of mobsters with operations in Latin America would be Ndrina Vincenzo Roccisano, who was recently sentenced to 46 months for illegaly re-entering the US. Known as a major trafficker in the 80's, he is alleged to be one of the architects of the "barter system" between Ndrine and the cartels, where heroin from the Middle East is swapped for cocaine.