1957 Rule by Carlo Gambino

Carlo Gambino said that drugs = death but a lot of people say that with Castellano the rule stay and he received money from drugs. It's true? Castellano was an hypocrite or is bullshit? What about Carlo Gambino? He received drug money?

They all say, deal in drugs and die. The problem is they are all too willing to accept those stuffed envelopes while turning their heads. They don't ask questions as to where it came from. If they get caught dealing junk it's another thing. That's why Castellano wanted those tapes that Gotti didn't want to turn over.

The rule, in reality, is don't get caught dealing drugs.
All of the Bosses know the sources of the fat envelopes,but their main concern is not appearing to sanction that sort of activity. This way,no testimony or wiretap evidence will ever surface to incriminate a Boss. Every soldier and capo on the street knows to keep their dope activity on the QT.
The severity of the penalties,as well as the public outrage guarantees that anyone who is stupid enough to even mention drugs while handing over an envelope would not live to see the next sunrise.

The mob has always been big in drugs and especially heroin . East Harlem basically invented the dope trade .

It was sold pretty much out in the open until the 50s when the deal you die rule but as we all know this was BS and probably for public misinformation and possibly a way for the bosses to restrict this trade to their most trusted people . Now made guys were killed for dealing but other factors were probably in play .

Usually a family's big dealer(s) were people the boss could absolutely trust and is a reason why some of the mafias most successful members were dealers . John Oremento, Genovese , Galante , Casso , Conte, Gambino etc . However I really don't know any big Columbo wholesaler , but the Luchesse and Bonnano were neck deep in powder .

Today it's high end weed which actually has big margins and from a risk : reward standpoint is probably the wholesale biz to be in but there are still some big heroin wholesalers out there , I don't know who but somebody is still moving that Montreal product .

Most of the bonanno and lucchese bosses and underbosses during the 1960's were drug dealers. The rule was don't deal drugs unless the boss gives you permission

The rule was don't get caught dealing drugs. Some families were outright against dealing drugs, but greed is a power on to it self.

Carlo and his brothers were suspected of large scale drug trafficking by LE in the 40's. Brought a lot of zips over to Brooklyn when he was boss and they were all selling dope for him.

Didn't Carlo Gambino get heroin from JFK Airport? I read that.

So, basically, the rule was "don't get caught dealing drugs". I was thinking that when I posted, thanks.

Every family had capos and soldiers get busted for dealing and nothing ever happened to most of them. The rule was selectively enforced. How many hundreds of mobsters were convicted for dealing drugs from 1960 to 1990? The only family with a strict rule was probably Chicago.

Back in those days when the Commission would meet up, or there was some big summit in Sicily or wherever, no doubt it was to discuss new anti drug laws in the United States and to strategize about how to get around that.

I suspect that Carlo Gambino himself as a top echelon informant (with a degree of immunity) and bosses like him got wind of the law directly from the case agents handling them in whatever intelligence agency they were secretly married to.

[quote=Alfa_Romeo
I suspect that Carlo Gambino himself as a top echelon informant (with a degree of immunity) and bosses like him got wind of the law directly from the case agents handling them in whatever intelligence agency they were secretly married to. [/quote]


Are you claiming that Carlo Gambino was informant? I have never heard such an allegation against him before, unless you are referring to the supposed framing of Genovese on drug charges . . . .

Surely trolling?

Carlo Gambino a snitch? LMAO! Alfa even said he suspects him being a TE informant too. Wow.

Paoluzz..was his brother who handled the h connection with the mother land.. carlo was never an informant.. seems lombardozzi was dellacroce was now carlo was. chin next? remember L.E. puts out a lot of smoke..they would love to taint gambino's name

I wish I was trollin, being as Carlo is such an icon and all.

I base my comment on hearing what someone said on the Donahue talk show years ago. This lady said that Carlo had a relationship with the CIA that was reciprocal. It involved him doing assassinations for them when they needed it. Memories are sometimes hazy, but that is how I remember it.

Now if you are a CIA asset, and they have been documented as the top traffickers in the United States, it would help you as a mafia boss with a Sicilian crew, no?

CIA routinely used CN for hits in the 50s and 60s

Domestic hits that is , it gave the CIA plausible deniability

So your basing it off a woman talking on a show? Cool, I guess you think Dellacroce was an informant too then, just because some idiot wrote a stupid article about it.

I think it's pretty ridiculous to say someone can't suspect a thing. That's pretty extreme.

The guy in your photo was a rat

I think it's ridiculous to call Gambino an informer with no evidence.

Carlo Gambino an informer? I had to laugh at that, there is no evidence of him ever ratting someone out in his life. Gambino took a page from Tommy Lucchese, in that he let others do his work for him, while he climbed and maintained his position in his family.

There are all kinds of information. I do not mean to imply that Gambino was an informer in the Massino sense. What I mean is that if you are in any way an intelligence asset, which I suspect Carlo Gambino of being, it is very likely that at some point you become a brain trust for someone trying to get information from you.

An example is Osama Bin Laden. Was he an intelligence asset to the CIA? Yes. Could he have given over information? He had to have. An intelligence agency will not let any asset go to waste. You might have been recruited to help them move smack, guns, whatever. But at some point you will probably be milked for information. Might I be wrong. Of course.

But he was good at it.

I notice you have no photo. Honestly, what mobster photo could you choose that someone couldn't find fault with?

Name a guy.

Even if he was connected to the CIA that doesnt make him an informer.An informer is the one that works for the FBI and give up mafia secrets and put guys in jail.The FBI and CIA are two very different organizations.

Plenty of mobsters who were apparently gentlemen, non-violent. The guy from my username for example.

you can not tell, rat on anyone even a martian..that is cosa nostra..

How can you be so sure about that though? Do we know Tommy Gambino never hurt anyone?

Hence the term 'apparently'

Yea some people will tell you Carlo was just an old grandfather that never hurt anyone either. I'm not sure there are any gangsters I can say they didn't hurt anyone. If you were extorted out of your company that's just as bad as getting your legs broke in my opinion.

don carlo was as brutal as any don. he was just a bit more clever. and Dixie you are correct. don carlos family extorted hundreds of companies. Gambino was as shameless as any of them. he was just better at p.r.

It was a decision decided by the mob as a whole, more or less, and not just Gambino that narcotics were prohibited. Of course, history has shown that there was plenty of mob involvement in the drug trade before and after 1957. Even the bosses who were supposedly tough on drug involvement (Gambino, Corallo, Accardo, Castellano, Gigante, etc.) had subordinates who were involved in it. Some of which ended up reaching high level positions in their crime families. Besides "Don't get caught," the unofficial rule seems to have been, "Don't deal unless you have permission."

I think it's pretty obvious there was no narcotics ban. The Commission met when the new drug laws went into effect and decided to outsource the trade to the Sicilians except that their personal investment was involved. You might have a few capos in a family that report directly to the boss and move the junk (Joe the Blonde?). Everyone else was instructed to stay away due to the draconian laws passed against trafficking. When it was time for a new boss, the guy selected was likely the "drug capo" all along. Carlo Gambino was always connected to the Sicilian mafia long before becoming boss.

it was more of you deal and get caught by the cops you die.

Yes, obviously. That's called tying up loose ends.

My original point on this thread was not to get into Carlo's relationship to CIA. It was really to call attention to the major mafia meeting that occurred right about the same time as the new draconian drug laws went into effect. At that major mafia summit is when the "don't deal drugs" rules of Cosa Nostra were decreed. But it really meant..."Only we bosses profit from narcotics by having illegal alien Sicilians (aka "Zips") dealing them for us by proxy. Everyone else in the families (unauthorized made men) cannot touch babania."

Yes, absolutely Alfa

"The Mob and the City" has a pretty extensive chapter about the mobs narcotics policy (or in reality the lack of it) and the various myths surrounding the business.

Carlo Gambino wasn't made a Don until 1957, after Vito Genovese arranged for Albert Anastasia's assassination and Frank Costello's "retirement." Vito Genovese called the famously aborted Apalachin meeting of 10/57 to approve Gambino's Donship of Anastasia's family, and to approve drug trafficking, which he strongly advocated. Gambino was in no position to "decree" death to drug dealers in 1957.

As everyone else has posted: the official Mafia doctrine is death for those caught dealing drugs. Otherwise, the bosses look the other way when the money makes its way upstairs.

Was it Genovese or Gambino who arranged the Anastasia hit? So many conflicting accounts. My sense from my readings is that it was Gambino who arranged it, giving the assignment to his men Joseph Biondo and Stephen Armone. Or is this a "mystery" that shall go forever unsolved?

There's no definitive answer because no one ever confessed or was arrested for Anastasia's murder. Gambino was the obvious beneficiary. But, the finger points to Genovese. When he returned to the US from Italy after WWII, he thought he should have been Don of the family that Frank Costello headed. But, Costello was protected by solid alliances with stone killers--first Willie Moretti and then Anastasia. So, Genovese thought that, by killing Costello's strongest ally, he could force Uncle Frank to step down.

Some writers claim that Joe Profaci ordered the Anastasia hit, probably because Crazy Joe Gallo, who was in his family at the time, was one of the shooters. But, Profaci had no obvious reason to order the assassination.

I think the Gallo link more or less comes down to somebody bragging about it in a bar, and that taking on a life of its own (and of course, Persico bragging on top of that).

I thought Costello had already stepped down before Anastasia's death. The murder attempt by Gigante was five months prior.

According to one account I read (and I'm not vouching for its accuracy), Costello didn't formally step down until the Apalachin meeting. Then again, the conferees did not take minutes or publish a proceedings in a scholarly journal.