In his book
Iced Schneider indicated the police believed the Violi brothers were being groomed for leadership positions in the local Todaro crew. He writes:
A few years later, two other mafia-wannabe brothers were having their own problems. In April 1995, twenty-eight-year-old Domenic Violi and his twenty-four-year-old brother Giuseppe were among eight people arrested in what the Hamilton-Wentworth deputy police chief called the city’s “most significant drug bust involving organized crime†in more than a quarter century. Domenic and Giuseppe were the sons of deceased Montreal mobster Paolo Violi and his widow, Grazia, herself the daughter of Giacomo Luppino, the long-time leader of the Hamilton wing of the Magaddino Family. She had moved back to her hometown following the 1978 death of her husband and raised her two boys in Hamilton, where police believe they were being groomed for leadership positions within the local Magaddino crew. The eight men were accused of conspiring to smuggle cocaine from Colombia to Ontario via the U.S. The police operation culminated with the seizure of more than 100 kilos of cocaine in Joplin, Missouri, and four kilos in Toronto. Along with four others, Giuseppe pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import a narcotic, although charges were withdrawn against his brother Domenic.
In addition Schneider recounts an incident where Buffalo News Mob Reporter Lee Coppola talks to the media about the Johnny Pops hit speculating the Musitano’s were acting on their own because Buffalo was too weak to sanction the hit. His statement seems to indicate the Violi’s brothers were Magaddino/Buffalo members. Coppola said:
“for all intents and purposes, the Buffalo mob —as it once was when Magaddino actually ruled that part of Toronto and the Papalias and Violis were under him —is all diminished and has been diminishing over the last couple of decades to a point now where there is no leadership, there is no structure, and there certainly is not power.â€
I should note that Schneider goes on to indicate 2 more possible scenarios for the Pops hit.
1. Montreal (Rizzuto) wanted moving in on southern Ontario and had aligned themselves with the Musitanos. Police saw Pat meeting with Vito in October of ‘97 after the hit.
2. Buffalo wanted Pops out of the way because they were enraged he already giving up some gambling rackets to the Musitano’s. Or that because he was just too old. Schneider writes:
Papalia had turned over some of his gambling and protection rackets to the Musitanos (which either may have infuriated Buffalo mob bosses enough to have Papalia killed or perhaps because they pressured Papalia to relinquish control because he was getting too old). Either way, a mob hit on Papalia would first have to be cleared by Buffalo. Police intelligence collected during Project Windfall uncovered at least one meeting between the Musitanos and made members from the Magaddino Family, which supports this particular theory.
Of course we now have a copy of a conversation between Pat Musitano and Johnny Catz of Buffalo that shows the two families were still tight and working together—indicating Buffalo did order the hit on Pops.
Questions:
1. Does this make it more likely that the Violi brothers who were arrested in the Otremens Operation are the ones being referred to as the Todaro family members by the FBI and Canadian journalists?
2. Does the evidence that Buffalo had the power to order the Papalia hit in ‘97–when American journalists believed they were too weak, penniless, and without any leadership to do so—indicate American journalists may have it wrong now as they said the mob is all but dead in WNY.
3. Does this lend credibility to Edwards’ recent article suggesting Buffalo is playing a role in the mob war that has been going on in Hamilton for a while now.
4. What do you think of rumors that the Violi’s have fallen out of favor with Buffalo because of their recent arrests.,
