Lucky Luciano in Sicily.

After looking at some of the wonderful pictures Toodped posted of him in exile in Sicily I'm wondering what kind of influence Lucky still held over his family in NY. I've read that he wasn't particularly fond of Vito Genonvese.

Also it was said after his sudden death that the Italian authorities were going to close down on him for a charge of running an international narcotics ring. What are the details of this?

he was slowly losing influence once he left the states. once vito started killing luciano's allies he lost all power. BUT as long as frank was alive luciano still had sway BUT as soon as Apalachin conference was called he had no power.

I guess day to day influence from Sicily is very difficult at that time and technology. I don't think he could have possible been kept very well on the map, and why would the guys in NY take orders from someone who will be permanently in Sicily? I'm sure he was respected and maybe Costello, Lansky etc. listened to him, but he can't enforce anything from Sicily.

I know it's not really the same but if anyone here has say ever sold an illegal substance for example you have all kinds of people calling you all the time all sorts of buddies that will do stuff for you ect ect but once you no longer can provide that thing they desire you are quickly forgotten about. Now I'm sure jus as in my experience he had a core group of actual friends but probly wasn't more than a handful

Also what was the deal with him and Vito? Obviously they at one point had to be on decent terms to work so closely for so long. What was Vito's position in Luciano's inner circle? The ones always mentioned are Costello,lansky Siegel and sometimes luchese,Anastasia,morretti,Adonis

vito just wanted the power in luciano's crime family back. as for where vito stood in that inner circle of luciano's at one time he was luciano's strong arm/hit-man when luciano was coming up in the underworld. the crew that luciano came up with was lansky(jewish the smart 1),siegel(jewish tough-guy), frank costello(italian and knew who to corrupt and kept business running the things lansky couldn't do because he was jewish costello could do) and vito(tough guy/hitman, somewhat of a good earner), now as for these other three guys i know morretti was costello's cousin and probably well trusted/respected by the crew. i believe adonis was on the hit squad for joe the boss which made him a hit-man. as for anastasia he was more strictly an assassin he was loyal to luciano for a while and helped in luciano's power house being loyal to luciano and running murder,inc which murder,inc was the strength behind luciano once ontop. now as for luchesse idk about him and luciano's relationship he was a part of maranzano's faction during luciano's come-up but luchesse was respect and still alive after luciano's rise.
now luciano's inner circle didn't involve all these guys. his inner circle was costello,genovesse,lansky,siegel

This is why I find this stuff interesting, cause to me a lot of it seems really misunderstood;
Like in Luciano's book, he says Lansky and Siegal had the Bugs and Myer gang, like that their job was protecting liquor shipments and doing hijackings.
He almost basically said they were muscle, now I know Lansky was the wiz, but LUcky also said he was pound for pound the toughest guy he ever met, including Anastasia and who ever else. He said BUgsy was the stone craziest.
Joe Adonis had more in common with Costello than GEnovese, but he is known as a killer of masseria, a hitter. Despite him being known as the leader of the Broadway mob, not anyone's underling, yet people always put him, like luckey's lackey. He was every bit as politically astute as Costello.
In his book, lucky says he and LUchesse were close from the old hood, but never played it up in public, he also seems, like, he admired luchesse, maybe more than any of his other contemporaries.
The Vito question is pretty legit; Lucky seemed to respect him, but not like him at all. Vito seems to be the most "in the streets" so to speak of all these guys..

You watched too much of that Making Of The Mob program on AMC. Luciano came up with a lot more Italians than not. He had been involved and working for Masseria since he was a teenager. Meyer & Siegel were close allies of his, but it was never like Luciano was never LCN prior to him becoming an adult and he just ran with Jews all his life. Also while in Sicily, his power wasn't all that failing. He still had allies, like Carlo Gambino & Tommy Lucchese, bosses. And he had enough power still, to alledgely send Vito Genovese to prison for the rest of his life. He had his heroin pipeline, not to mention the allies he'd made among Sicilies Italian top mafioso. He still had enough power to receive business visits from guys from other families, like The Outfits Dominic Roberto & Jim Emery. Sooo, yeah..

I don't think Frank Costello was ever the real boss of the Luciano Family. It was never the Costello Family. I think Lucky was recognized as the boss up until Frank Costello stepped down.

I don't think Luciano exercised so much control over his Family while he was in exile unless it involved really huge decisions, like whacking some major player in his family, or whacking some major player outside of his Family where a vote of bosses was required. Other than that type of thing, I think he was mainly just drawing his portion of the boss' profits in the major ventures the bosses shared, as well as tribute from his family.

The big money probably moved by wire and went to Swiss accounts. From those accounts, the money was probably issued as a tax free loan from some entity, fictitious or real....which was never paid back. The smaller tribute money probably was brought to him as cash.

Luciano was released from prison and deported to Sicily in 1946. He made a big move to regain power by calling a meeting of top NY guys in Havana later that year. But, his presence in Havana was ratted out to the US Justice Dept. (some say by Genovese, but I never saw any proof). The Cuban government sent him back to Sicily and his influence and cut of profits declined steadily after that.