Did the Corleone family ever get into drugs?

I happened to be watching GF3 last night and the scene where Mike along with Vincent,Neri, Calo and others go to speak with Don Tommassino there's mention getting back in because of the death of Zasa. Vincent mentions that the Colombians qould move in and I believe Calo was saying something about the Corleones leaving drugs. I always thought that he meant that they left drugs to the other families, but after hearing some news about how Puzo wanted to have vincent go into the narcotics business in a possible GF4, I'm not so sure. Anyone know what was really going on here?

With all-a-due respetto, the ol' time Families did get into drugs, no matter how mythified tha topic mighta have been in the GF. So I think is very possible that the Corleones had ties to financing and protection fees to junk dealers. noa big deal

Well, supposedly Michael is out of the rackets. He's legit, right. So Zasa handles, among other things, drugs. With Zasa dead, is Michael obligated to pick up the drug traffic? Vinnie thinks yes. It's somewhat confusing.

In GFII when Frankie is vissiting Michael, he said Rssato Brothers are in narcotics, the same as Corleone Family. He apologised Michael becouse they were sending drugs to kids. So I think the Corleone were in the bussines

In GF, when Vito agreed to provide "political protection" for the drugs business, it meant that the Corleones were in the drugs business. Period. Because, without their political protection, the drugs business would never have prospered.

In GFII, it's pretty clear that Frank Pentangeli, as the underboss who runs the NY branch of the Corleones for Michael, is in the drugs business to some extent. Though he bitches about the Rosatos that "...an' everything with them is a babania...an' they leave the gambling for last," I think he's complaining about the emphasis they put on drugs and their neglect of the gambling business. He's not complaining that they deal drugs at all.
So, we can conclude that Michael at least tolerated the drugs business, and certainly supported it through his political protection and his street operations (via Frankie).

This is a correct reflection of the real-life Mafia's attitude toward drugs. While many Dons "officially condemned" drug trafficking, as a practical matter they never questioned where the money came from that was kicked upstairs to them. Their "official condemnation" of drugs was really a test--a kind of Darwinian "survival of the fittest"--for their men. Their attitude (like Clinton's "don't ask/don't tell" policy on gays in the military) was: "Don't get caught." It was meant to discourage the weak and unimaginative among them--people who'd get caught because of their incompetence. The really capable and daring members of their families would deal drugs, not get caught--and continue to kick money upstairs to the Don.

We see this again in GF III where Michael confronts Zasa about whether or not he guarantees that his people are not selling drugs in the old Italian neighborhoods. Zasa dodges the question by saying he makes no such guarantee, but that he would kill anyone he caught doing it.

One of Don Corleone's main objections to the drug trade was that politicians and policemen would not offer protection. However, at the Commission meeting, the Don contradicts this by agreeing to use his connections to ensure protection in the East. There is no evidence in the films that the Corleones' power or political clout was affected by their drug involvement in any way.

My question: Did Don Corleone really believe (mistakenly) that the politicians and police would refuse to protect the drug trade or was he using this argument as a smokescreen for other qualms he had about getting involved in drugs?

Yes, he did believe it then and at the meeting he still believed it, however because of the limitations imposed, I imagine he thought he could keep the politicians and judges in line because the end users are animals anyway.

He certainly saw the drugs business as a threat to the police and political protection he'd put together to protect his gambling and labor rackets. I believe that was his primary motivation in turning down Sollozzo.
But the novel adds a nuance: He tells Tom that "what he [Sollozzo] will propose is an infamia." And, at the end of their conference, the Don tells Tom, "Do you have it in your notes that Sollozzo made his living before the war from prostitution, as the Tattaglias do now? Write that down before you forget." Tom concludes that this bodes ill for the drugs deal because the Don "was notoriously straight-laced in matters of sex."

(BTW: That sentence is another example of Puzo's, uh, sloppy writing. Can you imagine Vito being "notorious" for being straight-laced in matters of sex? How did he get that "notoriety"? I can just picture it now: at the Don's Convention, they're all whispering, "Better not make any Paris Hilton jokes while Vito's around..." )

[quote=Turnbull the Don "was notoriously straight-laced in matters of sex."

(BTW: That sentence is another example of Puzo's, uh, sloppy writing. Can you imagine Vito being "notorious" for being straight-laced in matters of sex? How did he get that "notoriety"? I can just picture it now: at the Don's Convention, they're all whispering, "Better not make any Paris Hilton jokes while Vito's around..." ) [/quote]

I guess that means he and Hyman Roth would hang around the Hotel room in Havana playing cards while Johnny Ola went to the Superman show.

In a deleted scene, young Vito and young Roth prove their piety by extending their religious beliefs to each other. Vito arranges for Roth to have a bath in holy water. Roth reciprocates by arranging for Vito to be circumsized.

I could just see DeNiro's face.

"There's a lotta money in that white powder"!!

Was that before or after De Niro had the moustache?

All those guys on Sopranos are about da' whores, and it makes me feel as if Vito were an exception to the rule. Tattaglia (who was the Anti-Vito in more ways than one) obviously made a life/career out of adultery, and I always imagined that the other Dons would have for the most part been womanizers too like a Tony Soprano or Phillip Tattaglia.

The same could be said for Michael being like Vito when it came to matters of sex, infidelity and womanizing.

Yet Michael did make money off of woman by owning a brothel run by his brother Fredo.


Don Cardi

Hmm...I wonder if Vito had any brothels? When did the Corleones get into da' whores business? Was this part of the move to Vegas ya think?

In both the novel and the movie, it is implied that prostitution in the New York area, was left to the Tattaglias.
However, you're right, by the time they got to Nevada, Fredo was running at least 1 brothel for the Corleones.
So, my guess would be, after the death of Vito but before or during the move to Nevada.

I doubt that Vito was into prostitution.

"Tattalglia's a pimp"


And he says that about Tattaglia in what seems to be a pretty condescending tone.


Michael probably moved into the Prostitution business when the Corleone's went out west. After all it was not illegal out there.



Don Cardi

Yes, and that constitutes a marvelous little example of Michael's definition of "legitimate." Throughout his life, he attempted to be "legitimate," but on terms that he defined. His father abhorred prostitution. But, since prostitution was legal in Nevada, and Michael was a "legitimate" businessman, he could own a brothel and still consider himself "legitimate."

Good point Turnbull. As I've stated before, Michael had his own definition of legitimate.

I wonder if Michael made Fredo pay for banging hookers two at a time.

No, he banged cocktail waitresses. They were freebies.

Thats what i make of it to Don, After Vegas- was when they got into prostitution!