That's one thing I always respected about the bonnanos and also the Sicilian mafia( Rosario and John gambino) they were drug dealers and didn't pretend they were anything but. All the other families were hypocrites in that regard . They were anti drug publicly but none shied away from taking drug money when it flowed up the ladder .
Joe Bonanno, to his dying day, denied involvement in drugs. He even said his trip to Sicily in 1957 to meet with Luciano and Sicilian Mafiosi to set up another drug pipeline was a "vacation."
Hypocrisy is how the Mob rationalizes drug dealing. On the one hand, drug dealing heightens the possibility that a family member nailed by the law will rat out higher-ups. On the other hand, the Mafia hierarchy is a pyramid scheme. If the Dons enforced a ban on drug dealing, they'd be cut out of a lucrative source of income that gets kicked up to them. So they decree death for anyone
caught dealing drugs. That way, what they don't know won't hurt them. It also has a Darwinian effect: the weaker guys (the ones most likely to screw up and be caught) are deterred; the stronger guys (the best and safest earners) do the dealing--and the kicking up of profits to the Don.,
