Did Ricca Really Banned Drugs?

It is belived that mob boss Paul Ricca had a long standing policy,that his soldiers were not allowed to run narcotics.Ofcourse same paid with their lives but most of the Outfit’s guys stayed away from the drug business.Some sources even say that during Ricca's reign,some of his top members were paid just to stay out of the drug business.I personally find that hilarious,because a lot of sources say and the fbi also belived that Giancana and some members of his gang were some of the big shots in the narco trafficking and most of em were Ricca's underlings.

So is it really true or is that just another myth?

I personally don't think they were very involved in drugs. The Outfit, particularly back then, was a pretty successful criminal organization--if they had really been involved there would have been large-scale busts as there have been for gambling.

What I heard is that they thought the sentences for drugs were too severe, and would be conducive to people flipping.

During Ricca's period Chicago Outfit crew boss Jim Emery of the Chicago Heights Crew was indicted by Italian government in 1952 for narcotics together with Frank Coppola.Emery was a close friend of Lucky Luciano.Emery met with Dominic Roberto and Lucky Luciano in Italy and rumours are they were there to make a deal about narcotics.Jim Emery, Dominic Roberto and Lucky Luciano attend a horse race in Rome.Theres also a famous picture of the three of em.During that period Emery was close friend with Frank LaPorte,who later ran the South Suburbs.

Story also goes that Sam Giancana was connected with the government from the Philippines and they were on the same side in the opium business.

Those bans are a joke and fairy tale, if a boss says "no dope" that just means he's already doing it and a select few are handling it, nothing more.

Machine gun jack mcgurn was killed because he sold drugs

No, he used his influence to create separate factions that other parts of the family did not know about creating about 3-4 groups that rotated products and clients.

Ricca ban on drugs was only lip service. As Extortion said above, he divided and conquered. He kept rotating the products and clients so most of the rest of the family stayed in the dark. Accardo was against selling drugs. Some bosses will engage in it and some will stay away from it like Costello in New York.

Of course not. The Outfit revel in heroin & cocaine. They were one of the very first enterprises to put opium based drug products onto the streets at wholesale.

There are enough examples in the past to show that even the Outfit didn't completely ban drugs. Like some other families, it seems the policy was more about only certain people dealing who had permission.

That said, it always had relatively less involvement in other major families. And today, their involvement in the drug trade is virtually non-existent.

Bosses did ban drug dealing. Ricca too. And that´s the answer to the original question. That being said, many members still dealt in drugs, ignoring the rule. Some of them were killed when caught. But what do a boss do when finding out half the Family is dealing? Many guys got a pass because they were close, some even close related, to the boss.

Is it true when DiFronzo took one of the top spots that he supported the drug biz?

There was no ban on drugs during Capone's reign and McGurn was killed during Capone's reign. He was directly sponsored by Capone and not well liked by Nitti or Ricca. McGurn was on the outs with the power base and had sunken into alcoholism and taken to bragging. Everyone was going to jail all of a sudden and Jake was talking. Too much knowledge for too lowly a player minus Al Capone's presence.

Any boss, Ricca is no exception who makes or has made "the statement" has done so for Government and public ears. If it's illegal it's mobbed, period. That's what they do, hello!?!

Luciano's entire career was based on drugs, opium, cocaine then Heroin. Anyone assigning some sort of honor to these people concerning dealing drugs or buying into the "ban" in ANY way are sadly mistaken other than of course the mob boss in question wanting to keep it and the money to himself.

Whether you have the street crews doing it direct anymore or whether you're bringing in the big uncut load for someone else to sell or whether you're charging a street tax and providing protection... YOU'RE INVOLVED IN DRUGS.

His brother Peter was in the weed biz so lets say yes.

When Giancana was in Mexico, I always figured that part of his racket was drug related.

And he was clipped, in part, for not kicking up a percentage. If true, then the Outfit was knowingly involved with drugs.

This is all correct 100%

It was actually Joey DiFronzo who orchestrated the botched marijuana grow house operation.

The rule "Deal Drug and Die" is a legend.

In his book, Joseph Pistone, explaining the history of Casso, that after a drug deal had half buried a man, and when he saw that he was still alive had finished him breaking his head with the shovel; saying that'' we the bosses, accept the money derived from the drug, but when you get sentenced to terms too harsh, we make kill you".

Regarding Chicago, I would disagree with you guys.

Show me a bust that would indicate that they were heavily involved in the drug trade.

You could point to dozens of large scale gambling, homicide, racketeering busts they have been caught in over the years.

Where is a single large scale drug bust?

On the other hand there are hundreds of large scale drug busts in the city's history, including cartels busted for transporting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine, etc.

But none of those have ever involved the Outfit.

Cocaine is so lucrative that if they were actively involved in transporting large amounts of cocaine, and taking that risk, that they simply would not need any other rackets.

I really don't think they have ever been involved in it in a significant way.

Ralph Pierce continued recruiting black lieutenants for drug selling purposes CONTINUING the work Murray Humphreys started, Jimmy Emery (as sited earlier) was under indictment by the Italian government for heroin trafficking... all under Ricca and Accardo.

Ive also heard about that but theres another story(dont know if its true) that in 1935 McGurn approached Ricca with the idea of approaching Lucky Luciano to back them in a international drug smuggling ring.McGurn knew about Ricca's good working relationship with Luciano and Lansky.Frank Nitti was the "boss" back than but Ricca was the rising star.But in 1936 McGurn was dead and Luciano went to jail.

As I stated before Ricca sent Emery to the boot to set things up and I would imagine pay tribute both literal and figurative to Luciano and ended up getting indicted.

Drug ban's were NOT an issue in McGurn's time of activity and never were. Bans are Public Relations and nothing else.

From right to left:Luciano,Dominic Roberto and Jim Emery in Rome

Al capone did ban his guys from selling drugs he said so in an interview, mcgurn got killed while capone was in jail for taxes, tony accardo sponsored mcgurn, nitti and ricca warned mcgurn about selling drugs but he did'nt listen

^^^^^
Like I said PR. Obviously it worked. In this country perception is EVERYTHING when dealing with the public. Make a statement true or false and if someone writes it down somehow it magically becomes true.

"I used to think all that stuff in the history books was true but I just went in there and lied and made history." ~ Santo Trafficante after testifying about mob efforts to kill Castro.

Lol @ "he said so in an interview"

Capone (obviously) said a lot of stuff that was bullshit in his "interviews". I never heard of McGurn being killed over drugs, either.

McGurn was Accardo's sponsor. Not the other way around.

I know that the thread topic involves Ricca. But is accepted that Nitti was actively involved with narcotics? I read that Luciano and Nitti nearly had a war over who had access to the lucrative narcotics market in Hollywood/LA. And that Lucky made an attempt on Nitti's life over that territory.

I'm not 100% sure of the source, but I believe it was from the Johnny Roselli bio, All American Mafioso.

Ur right capone sponsored mcgurn, do anybody have proof people sold drugs under capone????? And I have a question, being that capone sponsored mcgurn did the outfit have to get capone permission jail to whack him? I read somewhere that capone sent flowers to mcgurn funeral

Capone was on the Rock when McGurn got offed; I doubt anyone asked permission. If Nitti thought it was the right thing to do (if it was him), I doubt Capone would have disagreed.

Cool info,ive never heard of that before.It would've been better if we knew the time period because it could be possible.Ricca and his underlings didnt really respected Nitti that much.Nitti also had problems with Rocco Fischetti.Also Ricca and Luciano were close allies and thats how Ricca got the backing of the Mafia Comission.

There is evidence that Detroit and St Louis imported the narcotics on behalf of and with the blessing of the Outfit during the 40's and 50's.

Tony Lopiparo, John Vitale, Frank "Three Fingers" Coppola, and Ralph "Shorty Ralph" Caleca of St Louis were reported to be working with Luciano and Coppola. Coppola had been involved in the drug trade in Detroit and New Orleans, as well as St. Louis when he was a member of the Green Ones gang, before being deported to Italy.

In 1950, Tony Giordano served as a drug courier for the St. Louis family. It is unknown how many trips he made to Italy, but law enforcement officials observed three of them. Each time Giordano met with Frank Coppola, who was working with Lucky Luciano in the drug trade there. Giordano was under the surveillance of Narcotics Bureau Agent Charles Siragusa. On the first two trips, Giordano and Detroit mobster Paul Cimino were unsuccessful in negotiating a heroin purchase. Cimino went back alone in the spring of 1951 and purchased 20 kilos of heroin, bringing it back in a steamer trunk with a false bottom according to Siragusa.

To the surprise of both Cimino and Coppola, the heroin had been diluted prior to the sale and Coppola needed to make good. Tony Giordano returned to Coppola's farm in Anzio to pick up the shipment. Upon arriving, an Italian newspapers broke the story of a major international drug smuggling ring bust in San Diego. The article spooked Giordano and he returned to the US empty handed. Years later, Siragusa wrote that Giordano was under surveillance and had he tried to return with the heroin he would have been arrested and almost certainly given a long prison term.

All of these guys had close relationships with Chicago. I have newspaper article or government report somewhere that indicates that Detroit and St Louis imported the drugs, which were then couriered to cities throughout the midwest, including Chicago. I have attached one article from the Post Dispatch that discusses Vitales's involvement.

Thanks a lot for the info TonyG.

Frank "Three Fingers" Coppola ran the Sicilian "Partinico Clan" with his Detroit allies John "Papa John" Priziola, Angelo Meli, and Rafaelle Quasarano who then shipped the narcotics around the country.

The source is Luciano's bio by Tim Newark.