Again, if the DOJ didnt consider them an active family they wouldnt have worded it the way they did. And again the FBI report listed the Canadian as in tact in 06. You cant compare Buffalo to any of the defunct families you listed, thats not logical thought. The Papalia murder was done by the Musitanos who never were aligned with the Violi/Luppino group, they were a modest sized crew then and still are (hanging on for dear life). Many Canadian guys came over for Falzone and Capitanos funeral. Still lots of respect going back decades.
Preface: I still don't believe that the family is active.
With that being said - in your opinion, how did the Canadian wing survive following the assassinations of the crew's capo and second-in-command (and maybe more). Facing pressure from the Musitano crew and the Luppino crew, wouldn't they have dissipated quite quickly after that?
Cause the Luppinos never broke off from Buffalo. Giacomo didn't break off from the family even during the factions split or when Natale good friend Paul Volpe was killed. While Vincenzo Jimmy Luppino was the Boss of Hamilton, he still had meetings with Bifulco, Falzone, Miceli, Nicolettis, but no known meetings with the Todaros during the 1990's. Jimmy was slated to be killed by the Musitanos, but Murdock did not have an opportunity as Luppino always had at least one heavy hitter around him who served as his bodyguard or chauffeur. The Luppinos were still intact and the Musitanos could not capitalize on Hamilton, plus a cop on the Luppinos pay said that arrests were coming soon on the Musitanos and their associates, so the Luppinos did nothing to the brothers. The Papalia crew never recovered and is currently a pasteurized crew, hardly active with the exception of Joe Pugliese.
I don't know enough about the situation to comment on everything you said, but it is interesting nevertheless.
Here is an excerpt I used from Hamilton newspaper 'The Spec' to base my post: "In their heyday, the Musitanos, the Papalias and the Luppinos each staked out territory here and sometimes killed over it."
