the bonanno case the one which took down massimo and vitale all of them orginally started as an IRS investigation by the feds targeting Barry Weinberg and Augustino Scozzari both flipped wore a wire on richie cantella and frank coppa both flipped and then massimo and vitale got indicted then vitale flipped
so you could say the IRS investigation into barry Weinberg took down the entire Bonanno family hierarchy
I recently finished a book on Massino...I dont recall those two names being the start of the investigation into Merlino though...it was another guy that he had depositing money for him or laundering or something...and that led them into Massino...but the point of getting the guy was to get Merlino..I dont recall it being these two other guys then they went after Merlino
They brought those two forensic accountants on specifically to target Massino since he was too smart with his counter surveliance
