Can you tell me why they FBI should have knowledge about a thing that they don't believe it exists? I give you a short historical example. Hoover gainsaid that a national wide group don't exist. From 30's to 1957 they can work mostly in the shadows. After Appalachian Meeting the FBI start to change his minds.
To start off, I said in my first post that I believe there is still activity in Buffalo and that the bread and butter traditional LCN rackets are still being operated. I just don't believe they are a formally structured family with all of these unknown members that have been able to completely stay off of the radar from ALL of law enforcement. Maybe I will be proven wrong about Violi when more information comes out in the future, I just don't believe him when he claims Todaro made him the underboss. That's my personal opinion, it doesn't mean that either one of us is right or wrong. To your question, why should the FBI (or local law enforcement) have that information? Simply put, they have organized crime squads for that very reason. How do they know what they know about New York, or Philadelphia, or New England? Because they have agents assigned to investigate organized crime activity - it is their job to find out what is going on so they can bring cases and get convictions. If Buffalo was still a functioning LCN family with a hierarchy and 35-40 made guys out on the streets do you really think the FBI and local PD in Buffalo would just ignore it and claim that it has gone extinct? No, they would want the accolades of taking it down, just like LuanKuci said.
And Hoover was stubborn when it came to investigating the mob. They were able to work in the shadows because Hoover allowed them to by denying it's existence even though he knew it was there. He wanted to go after the Communists instead and he only wanted to focus on crimes that were easily solvable, such as auto theft and bank robberies. He wanted high conviction rates with easy cases. He knew mob investigations were too time consuming, too drawn out, and did not always end with an easy conviction like he liked. He was also worried about his agents being bribed and corrupted by gangsters. There was a great write up about this by Selwyn Raab in his book Five Families.
Ligambi went old school under the radar and no reason Buffalo and Detroit didn't do the same. There's money to be made, the mob knows how to make it. Just my opinion.
Not saying you are wrong because we all are entitled to our own opinions, and I agree with you on Ligambi. He restructured and rebuilt the family and did it low key, under the radar like the Bruno regime. My counter to that would be that the Philly PD and the FBI knew that Ligambi became the boss shortly after Merlino went away to prison and they still continued to investigate them. I don't think anyone in law enforcement declared the family dead or ignored them - it just took them until 2011 to actually bring an indictment against Ligambi. If Buffalo was functioning why would the FBI or Buffalo PD stop investigating them or declare them extinct just because Todaro went under the radar? Like I said, I'm sure there are guys on the streets making money with book making, gambling, loan sharking, and drugs and it's definitely possibly that Todaro is still active and involved with all of that. I just don't see them being a fully functioning LCN family with a hierarchy and all of these active made guys on the streets and somehow not be a priority for Buffalo PD or the FBI.
