Scott Burnstein has a good article on the Detroit / St. Louis heroin pipeline here:

http://gangsterreport.com/heroin-the-20th-century-detroit-mafia/

It is a bit off the topic of this thread, but I have been trying to learn more about the Detroit / St. Louis family relationships. The article above provides a lot good background information, although it focuses more on Detroit than St. Louis.

I am still working on the research, and it looks like a lot has to do with blood relations and involvement in the heroin trade. Here are some facts.

Vittorio “Don Vito” Vitale, from Castellammare del Golfo, is believed to be one of the Frank Coppola's original sources of heroin. Raffaele "Jimmy" Quasarano (Detroit) was the son in law of Vittorio Vitale.

Vittorio Vitale's is blood related to Salvatore “Toto” Vitale, from Partinico. Toto Vitale was sotocapo of the Partinico family.

Toto Vitale is cousins with John Vitale, of the St Louis family.

Toto Vitale is also the grandfather of Salvatore 'Good Looking Sal' Vitale, the ex underboss of the NY Bonanno family and mob informant.

Gaetano Badalamenti, involved in the Pizza Connection, was married to Theresa Vitale. I am not certain, but it looks like Theresa was from Castellammare and is related to Vittorio Vitale.

There are a bunch of other relationships between Detroit and St Louis that are not mentioned here (Tocco for example), but those are some of the pertinent ones as it applies to the heroin trade.