It was kinda covered in the Sixth Family; He " Accepted " membership in the Bonnanos, because this facilitated his drug trafficking, but he was always loyal to his father, and their own family interest.
I'm a little baffled, cause I thought I explained all this, I feel these guys are too stuck on the " Boss" , " Capo" , ect..... They are ignoring the key component, drug trafficking, like wtf?
The Rizzutos are no different than the " Spaniards" from Naples, or the Nuvolettas, or the DiLauros, all families, that started out as crews in bigger organizations, but were pumped with the organizational steroid that is drug trafficking. That's why I gave them as examples. Like the Sicilian mafia is for Sicilians only right? So how the fuck are the Naples based Nuvolettas one of the top families? Like how the fuck they even get made? Answer, the Cupola admitted them cause it was in their interest to do so, they do this a lot more often than people realize...
Saying the Rizzutos are still part of The Bonnanos is to ignore the core tenant of their organization, narcotics, you can't do that. You can't say the Zetas are still part of the gulf cartel, you can't say NewJalisco is still subservient to Sinaloa, how many cartel s came outta Arellano organization or the Fuentes organization. You can't say DiLauro is still under LaMonica, can't say HIS lieutenants that broke away, the Spaniards, are still under him just cause that's where they started,can't say Gennaro Licciardi was still a lieutenant of the forcella boss. The Nuvolettas, Caruana-Cun-trera, Rizzutos, the Gambino-Spatola-DiMaggio-Bontade clan, all these clans operated basically the same, as huge narcotics holding companies, ruled by blood families.
Look at the Cherry Hill Gambinos. Dope family, blood relations. Now John was made in the Gambinos, because this gives him authority in America when dealing with OTHER MADE MEN. But this clans actual loyally was to the Inzirillo- Spatola-DiMagio-Bontade clan. Rosario was made in Italy and that's who he took orders from. So John handles the American end, and Rosario was answerable to Sicily. Now is John a Gambino member' sure. But his JOB, was managing the heroin trade for the mafia, not whether or not so and so is encroaching on someone's bookmaking racket.The Bonnanos made Vito cause it was in their interest to do so, Sonny Red basically took the Sicilians dope and said fuck you, I'm going to be the new boss soon, you ain't gettin paid. And he wasn't going to cut in the other crews, he was basically picking up where Galante left off.
This thing like, are they LCN, are they not, do they have a "Boss, Under, 15 Capos, a consigliere, 100 soldiers" , all that shit is designed to control territory, Rizzutos were mainly concerned with controlling narcotics.


In the book Cosa Nostra, the author has a theory of a " Power syndicate" and an " Enterprise syndicate". Understanding the difference between the two will clear up a lot of confusion here.
You are the boss of the " Luca Brasi" family in Palermo. There are dozens of families operating around you, similar to the dozens of crews operating in New York. You are all in competition with another, within the same sphere of influence, and a lot of the times, competing for the same rackets. You have 50 made men in your family, you are involved in extortion of local businesses, construction, you have several businesses that supply the local markets (let say you supply cheese and whatever, you control the trucking for all the citrus). You need your 50 made men concentrated in your territory because you need to show your military power to your rivals. You control a specific territory and extract revenue from legal and illegal businesses in said territory. You are in control of a " Power Syndicate".

I am the boss of the "Sollozzo Rossatto" family from, let's say......fuck it Agrigento, okay? My town is not Palermo. It's not the city, it's rural. I have 35 soldiers in my family. The economic opportunities are limited for men of honor here. But I have connections in Turkey, with a prominent Turkish crime family, and I have "Family" in, let's say Florida, and they are well established, as well as some family in NewJersey. Now, I can make 100 guys, that is not going to help me facilitate the drug trade in Agrigento. It's also not going to automatically create opportunities to make money, just increases the size of the pie in my little rural area.Whereas the Brasi boss concentrates his strength in his territory' I send my made men out in a DIASPORA, all over, some in Florida, some in Jersey, some in other strategic cities and locations. I can now operate a super narcotics ring, But am unconcerned with controlling territory, I am in control of an "Enterprise Syndicate". Now, can you see how the difference creates almost opposite needs in the organization?
Also in the book, the author makes a point of illustrating that while in NY, Luciano was in control of a power syndicate, cause he controlled territory that he extracted legal and illegal revenue from,but in Italy, it was an enterprise syndicate, because he was involved in all kinds of illegal trafficking, but didn't have the authority to control Sicily or Naples themselves.
Remember in the Sixth Family when Violi told Nick Rizzuto that any arriving Sicilian made men had to wait FIVE YEARS, before they could basically do anything. This was him excersicing control over his " power syndicate" . It wasn't until Violi took that stance that they even felt they NEEDED to control Montreal.
I could really go on and on with examples and shit, but consider this; The Godfather movies predicted ALL this shit. From the first one with the " keep the traffic amongst the coloreds" , then think about Pentagalies rant about the Rossatos, " They recruit Spicks, ni**ers, everything is dope, everything else is last".... but what is ground zero for moving dope in the streets, the poor black and Hispanic neighborhoods, now think Fernandez or Wooley, see? How bout Joey Zaza, " Sure I take in the blacks and the Spanish", likely cause that's where he moves the most dope. He likely can't compete with the established families, he NEEDS the drug trade, and he NEEDED access to those neighborhoods more than he needed more made men. Think about how they said the rules, or Michael, or his lack of prestige, all these things stopped him from rising up. All of this shit is a consequence of a focus , long term, on narcotics... So the Godfather movies predicted all of this as an eventuality of organizations that focused on drugs. Oooooh boy, see I'm not Italian, and didn't grow up in the mafia or New York, but I did grow up in a narcotics entrenched crime family, so a lot of these moves are just instantly familiar to me....