Two different cases, I think my point was obvious. It is that maybe Conte was not as involved, or no longer involved, with drugs, and had moved on to other Mafia activities. Him pleading guilty to a murder, but not the drug charge, leads me to believe that is what it was. You seem to disagree, I'm sure some others might, that's fine. Thing to realize is that FBI has put out wrong information in past, and they do control what informers say to a certain extent.
The problem with that thinking is that it's basically gives a free pass for anyone to disagree with the feds anytime they feel like it. Now, if they have good reason to disagree, with demonstrable evidence, then fine. But you seem to have just started from the position that Conte hadn't been involved in drugs for a long time but without any reason for believing so.
Anyway, when Gravano approached Conte, he told him the Gotti administration wanted the same arrangement he had with Castellano. Conte's response was that he had been out of the business for a while, after which Gravano instructed him to start back up again. So, yes, Conte did stop dealing for a while but it wasn't before he gave a lot of drug money to Castellano. In fact, that's why Gotti had Gravano approach him in the first place, i.e. the money he heard Conte had passed up to the old boss.
