The drug cases involving the Outfit have been relatively few and far between but there have been some over the years. In the 1950's, Sam "Teets" Battaglia and Fifi Buccieri were both into drugs. In 1956, Turk Torello and Rocky Infelise were busted for being in possession of $100,000 worth of heroin. In the 1960's, Americo DiPietto and Rocky Infelise were busted for drug trafficking. Then in the 1970's, Infelise was busted for drug trafficking again. In 1986, 10 kilos of cocaine were seized during a raid of a sports betting operation run by Marco D'Amico. Then in the early 1990's you had Joe DiFronzo's in-house marijuana growing operation. In the late 1990's you had associate, Ronnie Jarrett, who was involved in cocaine trafficking with the Satan's Disciples street gang. May have been one reason he was killed, among other things. Then, in 2001, associate Anthony Giannone was busted for marijuana trafficking. It seems that, contrary to the 100% "no dealing" rule that many have thought, it was more like Castellano's rule in the Gambino family. You couldn't deal...unless you had permission. If you did deal without permission, that's when you were in trouble.

Also, for the record, there were some fairly big indictments in Philadelphia between 2002 and last year. In 2008, you had the 24 people, including Michael Lancellotti and Anthony Nicodemo, charged in the $60 million Borgata sports betting case. That same year, you also had 17 people, including Lou Monacello, busted in "Operation Delco Nostra." And there were other smaller cases here and there during those years, including when about 50 video poker machines were seized from several locations in South Philly.

I'd still put the DeCavalcantes ahead of Detroit. The feds do. How far ahead is the question. We've talked before how the hits they took in the late 1990's and early 2000's would be devastating for a smaller family like that. And then they had their union - Laborers Local 394 - put under federal trusteeship in 2006. No wonder there have only been a handful of cases over the past decade. I'm not ready to write them off yet. There could eventually be another big case around the corner. But one starts to wonder the more time goes by. They seem to have been running on fumes in recent years.

To be honest, looking at the cases I've compiled for these remaining smaller families remaining outside New York; New England, Philadelphia, and Chicago are pretty comparable. With the DeCavalcantes coming afterward.