DESCRIPTION: Thanks to their deported cohorts such as Charles Luciano, Dominic Roberto, Serafino Mancuso and Frank Coppola, during the 1950's the American Cosa Nostra managed to establish one quite lucrative narcotics trafficking operation, which involved the production, transport and the selling of heroin. The product mainly came from Lebanon or Syria in a form of a raw opium, and then it was transported to Turkey where usually it was processed into morphine base and from there, the product arrived either in Greece or southern Italy and Sicily, and in the end it arrived in Marseilles, France. The thing was that during the late 1940's and early 50's, the Italian Mafia didnt have the power or the right number of laboratories to create huge quantities of the final product which was heroin, and so with the help of their French and Corsican underworld contacts, they managed to receive the right amount and to transport it to the U.S. There were allegedly three main ports, one being Canada, the second being Florida and the third being New York.

For example,the New York crime families distributed the heroin all around the East Coast but some of the factions also acted as the main transporters or suppliers of heroin for some of the main Midwest crime families such as the Chicago Outfit. It was allegedly decided that Outfit was going to distribute the product to all Midwestern cities of secondary importance within the network of the narcotics traffic web, such as Omaha, Tulsa, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Iowa, Los Angeles, Houston, Denver and Phoenix. The main overseers of the Midwestern narcotics trafficking were Raphael Quazarano, John Priziola, and Paul Cimino of the Detroit faction, Anthony Giordano of St. Louis and Giacomo Ammirato a.k.a. James Emery for the Chicago Outfit. One of the main suppliers for the Outfit at the time was the Bonanno crime family which was headed by Joseph Bonanno and his drug trade was being overseen by one Carmine Galante, while Chicago bosses Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana financed the whole deal with Outfit money.

The deal was for the Northwest Indiana faction, which was under the jurisdiction of the Chicago Heights crew under Emery, to receive a large amount of the product once a month that was destined for the Chicago market, and to transport it to the Chicago heights or Calumet City areas. They transported the product with the help of their legitimate enterprises such as pizza shops and restaurants or food markets. These guys represented themselves as legitimate businessmen by owning pizza shops with locations around Gary and Hammond. But before transporting the shipment, the Indiana boys also kept some of the product for their part of the deal and distributed it around their own territory. So when the product arrived, Chicago Heights members George Tuffanelli, Joe Guzzino and Frank LaPorte were appointed as main overseers for the distribution of the narcotics shipment all around the Chicago area, including one third of the shipment for the Near North Side, Taylor St, Elmwood Park, Melrose Park, the South Side areas, while two thirds went to the rest of the cities around the Midwest. According to one government informant, since Emery was considered the main overseer of the operation in Chicago, during the operation he also appointed Guzzino and LaPorte as the main “couriers” between him and Dominic Roberto in Italy. In the end, there were even additional suppliers for the Chicago Mob such as members or associates from other New York families such as the Lucchese, Gambino and Genovese groups or even members from the Detroit faction, but the final point is that the main product arrived from the Bonannos. (click on photo and zoom)

Nice work Toodoped

Awesome chart buddy

Nice!

Great chart T, but that estimated yearly income, shouldn't that be 300 - 500 million instead of 300k - 500k?

I'm wondering who was in the heroin trade in Philly, Boston and New Jersey.

Great work again my man....

This is pre- 57 Palermo meeting right?

great job as always toodoped !

I don't think so, 500k per year in the 50s would be millions today.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your support.

@BillyB as Hollander said, 400K in 1950 was about 4 million dollars.

@Cabrini this was before, during and after the Palermo meeting.

@Regoparker I dont know much regarding Philly but I think there was one Jewish mobster known as Harry "Nig Rosen" Stromberg who was heavily involved in the dope business together with the Mafia. For example in 1959 he was arrested together with Anthony Mirra and a bunch of other gangsters regarding the French Connection.

And yet FBI agent Roemer insisted Accardo and the chicago outfit was never in the junk trade..I believe this article more then Roemer !!

Wouldn't FBI agent Roemer have in a better position to know?

@DiLorenzo thanks.

@Jace during the late 1940's the captain of one of the largest territories Melrose Park known as Rocco DeGrazia was arrested together with his brother Andrew on dope dealing charges and on top of that, both were heavy users. This was during the reign when Accardo became the boss and from that point on he allegedly has forbidden for his underlings to get DIRECTLY involved in the racket, but instead they used associates or middlemen. Later during the early 1950's Joe Iacullo was one of Accardo's main runners, including Anthony Pape, and when they both got arrested by FBN agents in 1954, the investigators pulled out files that before his arrest Iacullo was seen going in and out of Accardo's house more than 20 times. So Accardo was scared of the publicity from the dope business and immediately posted the $25,000 bonds for all who were indicted and began eliminating them one by one.

This is just one example in a time period which was before the feds began bugging these guys and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was the only government organization who was after these guys at the time. In plane words Roemer didnt know shit. On top of that, sometimes he even invented stories such as Accardo being the shooter at the St Valentines Day Massacre or the crazy family pact. I mean what to do expect from a guy who later also wrote a fictional book on the Outfit. There were other agents at the time who were way more credible than Roemer

Well said Toodoped!!!

Pre 1960s' the Feds were really clueless, only thing was that the FBN wasn't entirely informed on Mafia politics. But they knew a lot of the players, where they did business, who they associated with ecetera....

Thats right, the FBN mainly followed the street players, who after being caght, they usualy began singing about their higher ups. The interesting thing was that all of the dope runners previously felt quite protected while doing business, but after getting caught they immediately began fearing for their lives, which might prove the alleged rule deal but dont get caught. Also people dont realize that the Outfit had more informers than some of the prominent crime families but they were very well protected by the government and rarely went in the open

OK understood, but you're talking about net profit here right?

I look at the situation like this....the Mobs main rackets after Prohibition were gambling, unions and prostitution. So all of those rackets brought millions and the dope biz was something inevitable and became just another side project, same as the gay bars etc. So the Mob at the time failed to predict the future and kept the dope biz to a limited extent

Yes made 3 milions/5milions a year in 2017 very few for a big city like Chicago.

I'm curious to know if Mark Polchan is still the liason between the Outlaws MC and the Outfit.... I could be wrong but didnt Mark Polchan and Sam Volpendesto have a relationship in some fire bombings some years back ....I know Sam has a son named Anthony and goes by Tony V.....just wondering if Polchan is still the go to guy or if somebody else has been replaced as well as for the Outfit.... I wanna say Sam passed away since that last fire bombing occurred and I almos wanna say Michael Sarno had some involvement as well.

http://gangsterreport.com/outlaws-b...or-witness-at-chicago-mob-trial-in-2010/

Around a decade ago, the 62-year old James and some of his biker buddies tried to prevent mafia associate Vincent Dublino, the star witness in then-acting Chicago mob boss Michael (Fat Mike) Sarno’s extortion and racketeering trial from testifying by trying to intimidate him with a show of force at Dublino’s bar located in a western suburb, per the records. One of those buddies was Sarno’s co-defendant, Mark (Pork Chop) Polchan, at that time the treasurer of the Outlaws chapter on the Northside of Chicago, the same chapter James served as president of.

The bullish scare attempt, the final of several, failed to work and Dublino took the stand anyway: Sarno and Polchan were both convicted in December 2010, hit with 25 and 60 year prison sentences respectively. Dublino even echoed the name “Big Pete” in his testimony.

Once closely aligned, Dublino and Sarno feuded in the early 2000s over video poker machine distribution routes – Dublino’s C&S Coin Operated Amusements was providing machines to the 47th Street Grill in Lyons Township, Illinois, part of a route belonging to Sarno, who was the capo of the Outfit’s Cicero crew back then before rising to the crime family’s acting boss post in 2005. Sarno and Dublino had been partners in an ATM business.

“Hey you fucking punk, stay the fuck away from 47th Street,” Sarno shouted at Dublino outside a local tavern in January 2003.

A month later, the C&S Coin Operated Amusements’ office and warehouse in Berwyn, Illinois were firebombed. Octogenarian Outfit soldier and explosives expert Sam (Master Blaster) Volpendesto was convicted of manufacturing the firebomb that blew Dublino’s storefront to bits. Volpendesto died behind bars in 2013 at 89.

“Pork Chop” Polchan ran a fencing operation for stolen jewelry out of his pawn shop in Cicero where Sarno was known to hang around and send his heist teams, like the one Volpendesto’s son, Anthony (Baby Blaster), headed. The Outfit and the Outlaws have a longstanding relationship. Per Chicago Crime Commission documents, Polchan was the biker club’s liaison to the Italian mafia.

In 2007, the feds convened a grand jury to investigate Sarno’s activities. Dublino was called and appeared in front of the “GJ”, much to the dismay of powers in the Outfit and Outlaws. In the weeks that followed, he received harassing phone calls at his home and multiple visits from Polchan, his then-boss Big Pete James and their cronies at his Berwyn watering hole.

On one occasion, an unnamed Outlaw approached Dublino behind the bar and threatened that his “clocks would run backwards” if he continued his cooperation with authorities and testified at Sarno and Polchan’s upcoming trial. On another, Polchan and Big Pete themselves came into Dublino’s establishment with a half dozen fellow bikers in tow and started to cause a commotion.

When he finally took the witness stand, Dublino recalled a man identifying himself as “Big Pete” leading the ruckus, going into the bar’s restrooms, men’s and women’s, and kicking open stalls with patrons in the process of using the facilities, which caused complaints and had people flooding to the exits. James admits he “loves” Polchan and categorized him as a “confidant” in a recent interview he did with the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.

Fat Mike Sarno will turn 59 next month. He is considered a suspect in ordering the 2001 slaying of Cicero crew solider Anthony (Tony the Hatchet) Chiaramonti and the 2006 kidnapping and murder of Outfit underboss Anthony (Little Tony) Zizzo. Sarno and Zizzo were allegedly fighting over video-poker machine distribution routes as well.

Thanks Furio I remember reading a similar article back then I'm positive Big Pete is retired now and I know the NorthSide Chapter moved clubhouses to the Westside as well shocked they couldn't get Dublino to budge why they couldn't physically touch him is kind of confusing If he wasn't Made then he should of got more then some verbal threats and visits....seems like once Sarno got sentenced both parties washed there hands of the situation and left it alone they should of went and got Dublino after the trial atleast.

Same for me,why don't pay a hitman that this bullies ? Sarno get 25 y because doesn't found in the outfit or out an hired gun ? If sarno would give 50 bucks to a black guy he for sure would kill Dublino.

Or pay some out of town shooters to get the hell bak out of town after the hit haha... I assume Dublino is walkin the streets today and still has some vending machines around?

We can't be sure who to believe. Even in the 1960-1970 decades informers said to FBI agents that Accardo was as Roemer presented. It comes down to which informants were the more accurate, and that we can never know for sure without wire taps to back it up.

I believe the facts.

In 1930 agents arrived at his hotel apartment, they found a slight, shrewd-looking, sallow colored little man in the company of a hot and beautiful blond girl, and so the agents couldn’t believe their eyes because it was the infamous Capone member Willie Heeney. During the search of his room, the cops found a dozen of cans filled with opium and when they took him to the station, one of the cops pulled up Heeney's sleeve and trouser leg, thus revealing his skin which was marked by dozens of scars made by the dope addict’s hypodermic needle. One of the G-man asked Heeney "Willie, were you under dope when you killed your first man?" In a flat voice Heeney allegedly replied "Why else would you kill somebody you never saw before?" Than the agent said "You gotta be full of dope. How about the next one?" and then Heeney again replied "After the first one it ain't so hard."

In March, 1946, the narcotics bureau in Chicago issued so-called secret warrants against Rocco DeGrazia and Mike Stacey, thus charging them with extortion, illegal transportation and concealing of narcotics. The two gangsters were quickly arrested after one Maywood druggist charged that he supplied a large opium ring with thousands of ounces of opium and morphine under the fear of death. Rocco’s brother Andrew was also arrested since he was named by the druggist as a member of the ring and later both brothers, including Stacey, were released on $5,000 bond each. Everything about the case went slow but a year later, Rocco again managed to get himself in trouble by getting caught with few ounces of opium and smoking paraphernalia and so he was quickly convicted and sentenced to one year and one day in prison.

On March 16 and 17, 1954, FBN agents arrested eleven members of the crew on narcotics charges, including Joe Iacullo, Frank Coduto and Tony Pape and quickly took them into custody. Back in the old days, Pape used to terrorize the streets together with many Outfit guys, thanks to his older brother Frank Pape who in turn allegedly was a member of the old 42 gang. As for Iaculo, he and Frank DeMarie were closely connected to Outfit member and prominent narcotics peddler Joe Mendino and on top of that, according to the investigators, Iacullo was also directly connected to Outfit boss Tony Accardo. The main problem for the gang was that they managed to bring in and undercover agent Harry Mattera who brought the whole group to trial. So all of the bonds were posted and Pape together with his brother were killed, including Coduto, while the rest of the gang were sentenced to jail.

In June, 1957, four federal narcotics agents led by two other agents John Ripa and Jack Love were conducting an undercover operation on Carlo Urbinati in a roadhouse known as Triangle Inn Tavern, which was in fact Urbinati’s headquarters. Urbinatti was married to the sister of another Outfit duo known as the Inglesia a.k.a. English brothers, Sam and Charles, and he was their most active operator. He owned many clubs and other forms of joints around the Elmwood Park area, which in fact was Accardo’s territory. The deal was for the two undercover agents to buy $9000 worth of heroin from Urbinati, and after the transaction, the plan was for one of the agents to alert the rest of the group and stage a raid. In May, 1958, Urbinati and two other associates, each received 5 years in federal penitentiary for selling narcotics.

In 1962, Tony Dichiarinte was arrested with few other associates on narcotics charges with the investigators having a start witness against the group. Dichiarinte’s main assignment in the Mob was to gather the betting money from Outfit higher ups such as Sam Battaglia, Fiore Buccieri, Phil Alderisio and Chuck Nicoletti, thus slowly becoming one of their most prominent narcotics peddlers. The problem was that the main witness against him suddenly died of a hear attack and so the court battle continued for three years and in 1965 the two defendants were dismissed from all charges but later that same year, the feds managed to sent Dichiarinte to 6 years in jail on tax evasion charges.

Sam Giancana's personal friend Carl Fiorito was one of the most professional burglars in Chicago’s criminal history but the thing was that he also controlled his own drug peddling crew. Some of his best associates in the drug business were his long time partner in the burglary business Ted DeRose and William “The Saint” Skally, ex-bootlegger and another personal friend of both Giancana and Accardo mostly because he controlled a multi-million dollar counterfeit ring for the Outfit. At the beginning of Dichiarinte's trial in 1965, the prosecutors mentioned that the defendants in fact worked for Fiorito and Skally, who in turn worked for Giancana. And of course, from that point on many government officials and newspaper reporters became interested in the connection, thus forcing some of the main “middle men” to make mistakes which in the end, proved to be quite fatal for their health. That same year Skally managed to sell $15,000 worth of pure heroin to an undercover agent and so he began giving up secret and dangerous information. . So the information regarding Skally’s decision to “rat” was placed on the table by one of the Outfit’s most infamous Mob lawyers known as Mike Brodkin, who in turn was a very close with the syndicate’s top hierarchy and was also considered one of the best political corruptors for the organization. In other words, Brodkin knew that Skally and Giancana knew each other and so he sent word directly to Giancana, who in turn sent for Carl Fiorito. Since Skally worked under Fiorito, in Giancana’s eyes it was Fiorito’s problem. So according to a wiretapped conversation between Brodkin and the so-called “King of Fixers” Murray Humphreys, the Mob lawyer told the “Hump” that one day he took Fiorito to see “Moon”, which was a reference for Giancana, and during the meeting the boss personally authorized Fiorito to take care of the Skally problem, or in other words, Fiorito received the murder contract and Skally was later eliminated.

When the Outfit's top boss Paul Ricca died in 1972, Accardo took his position and out of various reasons, such as informers, he tried to influence the other top members in prohibiting the dope deals. After Giancana’s death in 1975, the dope peddling racket managed to divide the Chicago crime syndicate in two factions, including the opposing faction with Accardo and Gus Alex on one side and on the other, Chuck Nicoletti, Frank Caruso, James Catuara and possibly Dominick DiBellla, the crime boss of the North Side. So this time, the guy in the middle was Joey Aiuppa, who in turn had the final word on everything. But according to the feds, Aiuppa had close connections to Hyman Larner who in turn inherited every possible international operation, which the late Sam Giancana previously started. So story goes that Aiuppa stayed “open minded” in regarding the dope racket, and I believe that the main reason for that was obviously the drastic diminished income from bookmaking and loan sharking in the Chicago area. During this period one old member from the Bonanno crime family decided to visit Chicago for the second time, regarding the same agenda. In January, 1974, New York mobster Carmine Galante was released from prison and according to some sources, he was the main player in bringing all those Sicilian Mafiosi into the U.S. and importing loads of Italian heroin. So according to one Chicago Tribune article, Galante arranged two meetings, one in Chicago and one in Florida, with the Outfit’s dope opposing faction headed by Accardo.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=138470&relPageId=4&search=aiuppa_narcotics

In no time, some members of the old Melrose Park crew, which by now I believe was led by Nicoletti and probably by one of Aiuppa’s underlings Sam Carlisi, and also associates of the Chicago Heights crew and the North Side faction, continued supporting the dope business in full effect. One of Nicoletti’s and DiBella’s old associates from the North Side was Salvatore “Sam” Canzoneri, a former officer of Chicago’s Police Department, magazine publisher and close friend of the late Giancana. His father John Canzoneri was a Cosa Nostra member, with roots from the Corleone village back in Sicily, and belonged to the Los Angeles crime family but was also very close connected to former Outfit heavyweights such as the Fischetti brothers. The dope connection also goes way back to the mid 1960’s when Sam Canzoneri still worked as a cop and was closely associated with Sheldon Teller, the previously mentioned corrupt officer who was involved in high level dope peddling operations. Back in those days, both Teller and Canzoneri owned a joint known as the Rivoli Club which in fact was a rock and roll spot on the city’s North Side. In fact, Canzoneri managed to loose his job as a cop when he was identified as half-owner of the infamous joint which was connected to large scales of narcotics and prostitution operations. After the imprisonment of his partner in crime, Canzoneri’s new associate became Dominic Santarelli, another wealthy builder-developer and also dope dealer, who spent considerable time in Miami, Florida. In reality, Santarelli was the main overseer of the Florida port for thee new smuggling ring. Even though they operated mainly on the North Side, still Canzoneri and Santarelli were also close associates of the Melrose Park faction, including Nicoletti and one Irving Weiner. Months before the forming of the new drug route, there are numerous reports of airplane flights between Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and New York’s LaGuardia or Miami, Florida, of both Canzoneri and Weiner, and also alleged reports of meetings with “unknown individuals” closely connected to the Bonanno crime family, which I personally believe were Sicilian dope smugglers. For example, the main connection between the Sicilians and the Outfit in the Florida area was one of Carmine Galante’s close associates known as Tito Carinci, who in turn was a Miami-based mobster. So the main thing which connected Canzoneri to the newly formed dope racket was his criminal history and above all, his ownership of a pizzeria business known as the Pizza Crisp International and Panhandle Pizza Inc., which obviously was one of the fronts for the national “Pizza Connection”.

Those are stories not facts. Part has to be true. You took a story and then combined it with a MaryFarrell document. There are others on MaryFarrell saying otherwise regarding Accardo. I think it often comes down to people deciding to believe what they like to believe rathe than examining information and keeping an open mind. Remember, new information can always surface pushing the story one way or another.

On the contrary, the "story" I took wasnt invented or anything like that but instead it was formed by FBN and FBI documents, combined with some wiretapped convos.

Also can you please show me those docs in which informers stated that Accardo prohibited the dope biz while he was the boss during the late 40's or early 50's, or as a matter of fact, during the 1960's?

The committee investigating the mob in Chicago said so in the 1990's.

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/29/...gure-in-mob-world-dies-in-bed-at-86.html

ok, here you go a 1963 report of 1650 pages regarding the dope trade in the states. You can use Foxitreader and type in the word Chicago or names such as La Pietra or Cordovano or Nicoletti or Jacob Klein or Carl Fiorito, so you wont have go through all of the many pages.

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/119303NCJRS.pdf

Also also this...

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=139846&relPageId=3&search=chicago_narcotics

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc...icago_narcotics#relPageId=4&tab=page

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=136494&relPageId=2&search=chicago_narcotics

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=138477&relPageId=3&search=chicago_narcotics

Great research TooDoped - the myth of Accardo and others being against drugs has always been a myth and nothing else.