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?
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.
