What do you mean top-heavy? There are still a vast amount of soldiers and capos beneath them.
The Colombo's have a boss, acting boss, street boss, underboss, acting underboss and consigliere all for a family of 85 made members.
Oh, I see. Too many admin members got it. On the streets, however, the Colombos just have a street boss and underboss right?
And a consigliere. Those three have got to report to the three jail birds - Carmine, Allie Boy and Sonny.
3 guys on the street running things plus taking orders from their jail bird bosses. Must get real fucking chaotic at times with the back and forth communications considering it is difficult getting messages in and out of prison I'd imagine.
If you're talking about Sonny Franzese, he's been out for about a year now and I doubt anyone's getting his permission on things.
As for Carmine and Allie: I don't think Andy Russo or whoever is in charge is going back and forth to either of them. The 2011 bust proves that, in any capacity, Andy Russo and his admin (Sonny Franzese then Ben Castellazzo, and Richie Fusco) were running things independently, settling sitdowns on their own, and inducting guys on their own. For example, a list of proposed members might be passed to Carmine, but a guard or somebody on the inside would have to be behind something like that. And that's a big risk considering Carmine is trying to get paroled. As well as this, Carmine has been behind bars since 1986 - I doubt he has anything to say about the guys recently getting inducted.
For Little Allie Boy it's a bit more uncertain as to how much of a role he plays today but it is confirmed that he was behind Ralph DeLeo being put in as acting boss/street boss. I'd say him and Carmine probably choose whose in charge on the streets and it's up to that person to decide how things are run.
Also, acting underboss Donnie Montemarano is back in LA I think. His role was only interim until the other guys got recently. Andy Russo's got no risk of violating supervised release since those restrictions are over, and Ben Castellazzo has (as of this year) been allowed back into New York (he was barred from travelling to NY for three years following his release from prison).
Tom Farese's short reign as "acting consigliere" ended when he was indicted (even though he was acquitted) since he moved back down to Florida after that.
Any thoughts on who is consig nowadays? Or maybe this topic should go back to being about the Luccheses...
