BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP)
Buffalo FBI Agent Infiltrated Sicilian Crime Families
By Darren Dopp
December 2, 1988
The key to an FBI sting operation that led to drug trafficking charges against more than 200 people was a savvy undercover agent who knew the customs of Sicilian organized crime, authorities said Friday.
″He was schooled in the rules of the Sicilian-Italian underworld - who to talk to and how to show respect to the elders. He was able to gain the confidence of the Sicilian Mafia,″ said J. Ronnie Webb, a supervisory agent in the FBI’s Buffalo office.
Authorities announced Thursday that they had smashed a major heroin and cocaine ring by charging more than 200 people in the United States and Italy, including Sicilian Mafia figures and associates of the Gambino crime family in New York. Officials said Friday that 60 people had been arrested in the United States and 24 in Italy, and the others were still being sought.
Code-named BUSICO for Buffalo-Sicilian Connection, the FBI operation got its start in 1983 during the arrest of Andrea Aiello of Buffalo on charges of trying to import some 50 pounds of heroin. At the time, it was called the largest heroin seizure ever in the United States.
In the course of the Aiello investigation, the undercover agent learned of the desire by Sicilian crime figures to ship heroin to the United States through Buffalo.
Despite the attention the Aiello case drew, the Buffalo agent remained undercover and was able to cultivate underworld contacts for several years.
Steven Naum, an FBI public affairs officer, said the agent, whose identity is being kept secret, was skilled at passing himself as a drug dealer.
″It was Acting 101 for him sometimes,″ Naum said.
The investigation speeded up in 1985 with the so-called ″Pizza Connection″ arrests in New York City and other cities. After that, Webb said, the Sicilians considered New York ″too hot.″
Buffalo was targeted by smugglers because it is close to Canada and 400 miles away from New York City and its large number of narcotics agents, authorities said.
In the spring of 1986, the FBI set up a phony international trading business, dubbed BSC Partake Wholesale, in a Buffalo suburb. The idea was to import heroin concealed in jars of tomatoes and olive oil.
Although the operation never developed as a narcotics distribution point, it did allow the undercover agent to broaden his contacts among drug dealers in the United States and Italy.
The agent went to Sicily, where he was able to win the confidence of the Sicilian ″family″ running the smuggling operation.
When he returned in 1987, BSC Partake Wholesale made ″dry run″ to test the route. The Sicilian organization sent the Hamburg company 744 cases of tomatoes.
In July, the cases of tomatoes arrived in Buffalo undisturbed. FBI agents and local U.S. Customs agents had notified customs in New York City, and officials quickly sent the shipment through, Webb said.
At the same time, undercover agents flew to Chicago, San Francisco, New York City and Rockford, Ill. Using ties to the Sicilian family, they met international drug smugglers with global operations.
″The investigation mushroomed from there,″ Webb said.
BUSICO spun off a number of undercover operations in other cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Miami and Newark, N.J. Authorities were reluctant in give details of those operations because they were continuing.
In New York, however, U.S. Attorney Rudolph Guliani said a related investigation revealed that members of the Gambino crime family were importing heroin in wine bottles from Sicily and distributing it to buyers through pizza parlors.
The Gambino organization swapped cocaine for the heroin. Cocaine has a higher street value in Italy, Guliani said.
The deal is evidence of the increasing role of the Mafia in cocaine trafficking, he said. Previously, cocaine trafficking was mainly the business of South American drug lords.
