BENJAMIN “SONNY†NICOLETTI, THE BONNANOS, MONTREAL, VIOLI’S & HAMILTON
I recently reread The Niagara Falls Reporter Sept. 11, 2012 article on Nicoletti titled Falls’ Benjamin “Sonny†Nicoletti; Part of the Falls’ unique character by Mike Hudson. After the Bonanno making ceremony, Violi/drug trafficking arrests, and the mention of the Todaro Crime Family in the Hamilton area of Canada the following quote strikes me as interesting. Hudson writes:
Quote
A mobbed up former inmate who served with Nicoletti at the Loretto Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania during his 1993 bid said Sonny was a quiet guy and a gentleman who only cared about football and taking bets. “Everyone knows he wasn't a saint, but he was very respected through the country,†the former inmate said. “And of course he was old school.â€
Nicoletti was held in high regard from the guys in New York and Rochester. Sonny was close with Rochester capo Frank Frassetto, who thought the world of Nicoletti, and members of the Bonnano family of New York such as caporegime Joey Chille said he was well respected from Montreal to Manhattan
Also his Rochester B team buddy Frank Frassetto was arrested for Heroin trafficking in 2006, if I remember correctly.
QUESTIONS 1. Could this indicate what was left of Buffalo was absorbed by the Bonannos?
Very possible. Everybody knows about the longstanding ties, but it's interesting to hear about Jerry Chilli too, who was still a high-ranking member until his recent death.
Originally Posted by NickleCity
2. If rumors that he was Buffalo’s underboss were true, did he use his respect and relationships to forge work across family lines and reinvigorate the drug trafficking triangle established by Magaddino and his cousin Joe Bonanno?
Woah now. Nowhere in the article does it allude to that.
I get the article nowhere allude to his working to reinvigorate the trafficking triangle... but no were in the article does it allude to the Buffalo Crime Family being absorbed by the Bonannos. Both notions are arrived at via inductive reasoning. They are just backed by different presuppositions.
If the family is active and organized (yes, I know the argument against) Nicoletti had the connections to reinvolve the family in this drug trafficking triangle. His friend Frassetto and his sons were know to distribute heroin in Rochester during the mid to late 2000's. Sonny was respected in Montreal, close to Bonanno Capo Chilli, and had a long established working relationship with the Violi Brothers, the Luppino's, and Papilia's who were all alleged to have strong connections to Buffalo. Just saying, if he was the underboss of Buffalo as is alleged by several unverified sources over the years, he could have played a decent role in the precursors to the Otremen stuff.
