Also why do you suppose Bonanno was in Sicily with Galante staying in the same Palermo hotel as Galante and other Sicilian heroin traffickers while meetings regarding the heroin pipeline from Sicily to the USA were taking place?
There were actually two meetings during Bonanno´s visit to Palermo in 1957. When word got around that Joe Bonanno was in Italy and heading to Palermo, some of the Sicilian Family leaders reached out to him to ask for Bonanno´s help. They arranged a get-together at Spano´s Restaurant.
At the gathering, some of the Sicilian Family leaders approached Bonanno asking for guidence in resolving issues they had with one another, in hopes of putting an end to the Sicilian marketplace killings. The Sicilians knew that in America, at least since 1931, the Commission had been a successfull tool of keeping the peace. They wanted to know how it worked.
In attendence were Santo Sorge from Sicily, representing Lucky Luciano (who, contrary to published reports, was not present); Carmine Galante, John Bonventre, Frank Garofalo, Toto Greco, Joe Bonanno, Tomas Buscetta and other heads of the Sicilian Mafia such as Nino Badalamenti of Cinisi and Toto Riina of Corleone, who were fighting eachother.
At this meeting, the Sicilians suggested a formal alliance between the US Mafia and the Sicilians.
The discussions were informal, so no deciscion was made because Bonanno had no authorization for such a meeting in the first place. But this meeting was an opportunity for a number of people involved to hear some insights and suggestions from someone whose experience might benefit them. Keep in mind that Bonanno functioned as the chairman of the Commission at this time.
Sometime later the second meeting was held at the Grand Hotel. And narcotics was at the agenda. Here´s what Bill Bonanno says about it in his book "The Last Testament":
"At this meeting the Commission´s ban on narcotics trading, was put to a dramatic challenge. It soon became apparent from the Sicilian mafiosi in attendance that many of the Families in the United States considered the ban nothing more than lip sevice...
In an effort to explain to the Sicilians why my father opposed drug trafficking, he addressed the subject directly at the meeting. My father found narcotics and prostitution despicable, beneath the dignity of real men of honor. The Bonanno Family made money from gambling, liquor, the garment industry and other businesses that were not regarded by the politicians as hurting people. If the Families got deep into narcotics, he argued, we would loose the support of the politicians we had cultivated so carefully over the years, and law-enforcement officials would no longer be our silent and forgiving partners.
He informed the Sicilian leaders, "What businesses you elect to engage in is your Family´s decision and will not be interfered with by the Bonanno Family. However, Bonanno will not deal in drugs. And any member of my Family caught doing so will pay the penalty with death.""
Furthermore, Bill Bonanno says:
"Upon my father´s return to New York from Palermo, he called a meeting of all the group leaders in the Bonanno Family. All agreed that no one in our Family would deal in narcotics. His explanation to the Family in that meeting was plain:
"When things become a little hard, about narcotics, I pass[ed] a law in my Family. I don´t have to tell Luciano. Who deal with narcotics, you die. I give you three months of time. Pack up, close, no more business; the benefit of the doubt. Anybody fool me, they´re gonna get killed. Men of tradition approve that. They don´t like. In Charlie [Luciano´s] Family, and in [the] Lucchese Family, look like there was some that didn´t like the idea. My personal law. The cops will come in and they will destroy us and destroy the tradition and the system.""
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