Belmont, man, I hear you. in "American desperado" the Columbians paid no mind to the mob families, these guys had money and troops. in the book, john riccobono just laughed when his uncle joe { a Gambino capo} told him to pay him, he ignored him. he tells in the book having seen 400 million in u.s. currency, and,he saw those numbers all the time. the coke lords carried the day in the 70s 80s.
Binnie, wonder if people like John Riccobono sent out word how ruthless these columbians and cubans were and maybe that weighed on the gambinos and others to stay away, but I can't think they were too happy about losing out on any bit of all those billions of dollars being thrown around
