Nope. Fino doesn't believe the family is active either. The 2017 article that I linked previously has Fino saying the family is not active.
But, you know what, you make a good point. Fino, in 2017, said the family is not active, and I have cited this previously. But in 2012 he was saying they do exist and operate more clandestinely. And when he first flipped, he was outed as a bullshitter when he jumped on the OJ Simpson bandwagon and tried to make up some stories about him.
Fino is not really in a position to know any "street knowledge" regarding the Buffalo mob from 1990-onwards, when he publicly flipped.
But, if we are putting him down as a reliable source, then we can comfortably say that, as of 2017, he does not believe the family is active and seems to have changed his mind from 2012-2017.
Herbeck does not state that that Fino says "the family is not active." He writes:
Quote
“There are a few remnants of the mob that still exist in Buffalo,†said Ronald Fino, a former union leader who helped the FBI investigate the local mob, “but it’s not the same.â€
This is constant with his letter to the Buffalo News in 2012 were he writes:
Quote
Many if not most of the leaders on Western New York Mafia family have hunkered down and try to carry on an image and air of respectability. This in no way means that they do not exist and make money from illegal operations. They know that they are being watched and now operate more clandestinely.
In other words the Buffalo family "still exists, because there continues to be a "remnant of of the mob" in Buffalo. (A remnant just means a smaller remaining quantity.) It is "not the same," because it is smaller. This smaller LCN, they "have hunkered down and try to carry on an image and air of respectability and this in no way means they don not exist and make money from illegal operations.... They operated clandestinely."
Here is the deal... We both read into these statements based on our presuppositions. So I don't think you can definitively say that is what Fino believes. Further, I would make a wager that if someone had a chance to discuss this issue with Fino, he would agree with my presupposition. But like that is ever going to happen. So who knows, maybe your right. I just doubt it.
