Sometime during the 1920s, Magaddino relocated to Buffalo to escape the inter-family warfare that had been exported to Brooklyn and which led police to suspect his involvement in the murder of several Buccellato Family members. Once in Buffalo, he became the largest bootlegger in western New York, importing most of his liquor from Ontario. He consolidated his power on both sides of the border through his unflinching use of violence. Some believe he was behind what the newspapers of the day called the “Good Killers,” a group of enforcers and hit men who systematically eliminated competitors in western New York, Southern Ontario, northern Pennsylvania, and eastern Ohio. Following the repeal of Prohibition, he put together his own mafia family and moved into loansharking, extortion, labour racketeering, fraud, theft, gambling, and drug trafficking. Illiterate, but with a strategic mind and a ruthless demeanour, Magaddino’s wealth and power were recognized when he was awarded a seat on the mafia’s ruling commission. As part of the partitioning of North America by the commission, Magaddino was granted jurisdiction over much of Ontario, which he jealously guarded until his death in 1974.