He later became an enforcer for Profaci crime family mobster, Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo, in Brooklyn.[5] In the early 1960s, the Gallo brothers declared war against longtime crime boss, Giuseppe "Joe" Profaci and the old Profaci faction of the family, because Profaci cut into Gallo's profits. Amuso would allegedly kill several members of the Profaci faction, but was sent to prison sometime in the early 1960s, along with Joey Gallo and a dozen others, for extortion charges.

After Joe Gallo's release from prison in early 1971, he continued his war against the family on June 28, 1971, when boss Joseph Colombo was shot. Months later on April 7, 1972, Joe Gallo was shot to death in Little Italy Manhattan, New York, while he was celebrating his 43rd birthday. Many Colombo crime family members, especially those from the old Gallo crew, defected to other crime families. Amuso went to the Lucchese family sometime during that year, as an associate in the crew of Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari.