 Stefano Magaddino, source of 1922–1974 name Magaddino crime family | |
| Founded | c. 1910 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Angelo Palmeri |
| Founding location | Buffalo, New York, United States |
| Years active | c. 1910–present |
| Territory | Primarily the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area and Southern Ontario, with additional territory throughout Upstate New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania as well as Las Vegas |
| Ethnicity | Italians as "made men" and other ethnicities as associates |
| Membership (est.) | 30 made members (2018)[1] |
| Activities | Extortion, bookmaking, drug trafficking, loan-sharking, gambling, racketeering, labor racketeering, conspiracy and murder |
| Allies | |
| Rivals |
|
The Buffalo crime family, also known as the Magaddino crime family, Buffalo Mafia, The Arm, the New York State crime family, the Upstate New York Mafia, and the Todaro crime family,[4] is an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in Buffalo, New York. Criminal investigators assert that the family operates throughout Western New York, Erie, Pennsylvania, and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.[5][6] The Buffalo family is purported to hold strong connections with the Hamilton-based Luppino and Papalia families.[7] According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the current boss of the Buffalo crime family is Joseph A. "Big Joe" Todaro Jr., having assumed the role after his father, Joseph E. "Lead Pipe Joe" Todaro Sr., retired.[8][9]
In the early 1900s, Angelo Palmeri emerged as the first Mafia boss in Buffalo, New York.[10] By 1912, Palmeri stepped down, assuming the role of underboss which allowed Joseph DiCarlo to become the family's new boss.[10]
In 1921, Stefano Magaddino, an influential member of the Castellammarese clan, fled to Buffalo to avoid murder charges in Avon, New Jersey related to the death of Camillo Caizzo, the man who had killed Magaddino's brother Pietro.[11][12] Magaddino had first immigrated to New York City from Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, in 1902,[13][14] and joined the Castellammarese clan in Brooklyn. The Castellammarese clan consisted of mobsters originating from Castellammare del Golfo, which included the Magaddino brothers and their cousins the Bonanno brothers. In 1922, Buffalo's crime family boss Joseph DiCarlo died and Magaddino quickly succeeded him as the new boss.[11]
The Buffalo crime family continued to gain power during the Prohibition era through bootlegging. In 1931, the family boss, Stefano Magaddino, became an original member of The Commission, the governing body of the American Mafia. Magaddino's strongest ally on the Commission was his cousin Joseph Bonanno; the two Mafia bosses were from the same Sicilian town of Castellammare del Golfo.[15] The Commission decided in 1931 that Stefano Magaddino and his Buffalo family would control Ontario, Canada, and that Joseph Bonanno and his Bonanno family would control Quebec, Canada.[15] The Buffalo family remained strong and relatively united until his leadership was challenged in the 1960s and split into factions.
Magaddino's empire began to crumble in 1968, when police found $500,000 stashed away in Magaddino's funeral home and his son's attic. "At that time, Magaddino had been telling his underlings that money was tight, and he could not afford to pay them Christmas bonuses," Hartnett said. "People began to stop trusting him when we found all that money."[16]
The internal war continued after Magaddino's death from natural causes on July 19, 1974,[13][17] but ended in the early 1980s when Joseph Todaro Sr. became the boss.[18]
When Todaro Sr. took over the Buffalo family many members had been operating within the Laborers' International Union of North America Local 210 for years, while avoiding police scrutiny and continuing to operate illegal activities. In 1989, Joseph Todaro Sr. and his son Joseph Todaro Jr. were identified in an FBI gambling investigation as the leaders of the 45 made member Buffalo Mafia family.[19] The FBI investigation claimed that Joseph Todaro Sr. and Joseph Todaro Jr. were in control of various criminal activities that included labor racketeering, bookmaking, loansharking and narcotics trafficking.[19] It was also claimed that Joseph Todaro Jr. was running the Mafia family on behalf of his semi-retired father Joseph Todaro Sr. who was splitting time between his Tonawanda and Florida homes.[19] The FBI stated that local 210 member Leonard F. Falzone controlled a loansharking operation for the Todaros and brothers Victor and Daniel Sansanese who were also members of local 210 controlled a bookmaking operation for the Todaros.[19] It was also revealed that during the investigation the FBI had planted a recording device in Falzone's union-owned car in 1988, but that recording device was unable to provide any evidence linking the Todaros to any illegal gambling.[19]
The information provided by the listening device planted in Falzone's '87 Buick was responsible for the dismantling of Torina drug ring which was doing "more than $2 million in street sales of cocaine annually in the Buffalo area." Special Agent George Preston, chief of the DEA's Buffalo office told reporters, "This is a mob-controlled drug ring." G. Robert Langford, special agent in charge of the Buffalo FBI office said, "Conversations overheard in the car of Leonard Falzone indicated that this drug operation was being directed by the mob hierarchy in Buffalo," although there was not enough evidence to charge Falzone or Todaro in the ongoing investigation at that time. Early arrests in this case included known mob associates: Joseph "Pepe" Cannizzaro, Albino "Sha-Sha" Principe, and Salvatore "Sam Naples" Napoli.[20]
The investigation into the Torina drug ring revealed Todaro and Falzone were "involved in a Las Vegas-to-Buffalo pipeline for cocaine and other illegal activities." On March 20, 1990, Las Vegas police arrested three Buffalo natives Louis Giambrone, Joseph Amoia and Lawrence Panero, all three were identified as associates of the Buffalo mob.[21] Charles Torina, a Buffalo native who was described as a key link in the drug pipeline from Buffalo to Las Vegas, had previously worked as a pit boss in a Las Vegas casino.[21]
In 1990, Canadian police arrested 14 suspects in a drug ring that had connections to organized crime in Buffalo and Niagara Falls. According to a law enforcement official who spoke under the condition of anonymity, "Any drug activity or any organized-crime activity in St. Catharines, Hamilton and Niagara Falls must be approved by the Buffalo family." The mob families in those cities, and in Toronto, answer to Buffalo." Those arrested were described as associates of a Niagara Falls, New York, businessman named John Anticoli, who was serving a 10-year term in federal prison. Law enforcement told reporters that "two of the suspects are considered high-ranking members of a Hamilton organized-crime family under the indirect control of the Buffalo mob." Anticoli was described by the FBI as "one of the biggest drug dealers ever arrested in Western New York." He pleaded guilty to possessing 270 pounds of marijuana, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, tax evasion, and failure to pay taxes on cocaine profits. Of the 14 suspects arrested, Carmen Barillaro, Nicodemo Bruzzese, and Dominic Vaccaro were said to be "made members" of a Hamilton-based Mafia family that reports to Buffalo organized crime leaders.[22][23]
In 1996, Joseph Todaro Sr. and his son Joseph Todaro Jr. were listed among 24 alleged organized crime figures who were accused of influencing the Laborers International Union of North America since the 1960s.[24] The Laborers local 210 forced Joseph A. Todaro Jr., Frank Bifulco, Salvatore Cardinale, John Catanzaro, Leonard Falzone, Sam Frangiamore, Bart Mazzara, Robert Panaro, Donald Panepinto, John A. Pieri, Joseph R. Pieri, Charles Pusateri, Joseph Rosato, Danny Sansanese Jr., Victor Sansanese, Louis Sicurella and Vincent "Jimmy" Sicurella out of the union.[25][26]
In late 1996, the Buffalo family, along with the Los Angeles crime family, joined forces to take over a loan sharking and auto insurance fraud racket in Las Vegas controlled by Herbert Blitzstein, a Chicago Outfit associate.[27] The L.A. Underboss Carmen Milano, along with L.A. soldiers Stephen Cino and Louis Caruso and L.A associates Johnny Branco and Peter Caruso, originally planned to rob and steal Herbert Blitzstein's jewelry.[27] After robbing Blitzstein, the L.A. mobsters planned to have Buffalo family soldier Robert "Bobby" Panaro fence the stolen jewelry.[27] Carmen Milano decided that Buffalo family boss Joseph Todaro Sr. would receive a piece of Blitzstein's Las Vegas rackets.[27] The job of robbing Blitzstein was given to Peter Caruso, but Caruso changed the plan and decided to murder Blitzstein and take over his Las Vegas operations.[27] On January 6, 1997, L.A. associates Antonio Davi and Richard Friedman shot and killed Blitzstein in his own home.[27]
In 1997, the Buffalo family's Canadian faction boss Johnny Papalia and his lieutenant Carmen Barillaro were murdered by Kenneth Murdock.[28] When the police arrested Kenneth Murdock in 1999, he decided to become a government witness.[28] Murdock told authorities that he was ordered by brothers Pasquale "Pat" Musitano and Angelo Musitano of the Musitano crew to murder both Johnny Papalia and Carmen Barillaro.[29] According to Murdock, the Musitano brothers had been fed up with being a satellite (crew) of the Buffalo family and having to pay tribute money to the family.[29] Murdock also claimed that he was waiting for Pat Musitano to approve the murders of four Luppino crew members, Natale Luppino and Vincenzo Luppino (the two sons of Giacomo Luppino) and Domenic Violi and Giuseppe Violi (the two sons of Paolo Violi).[29] Also revealed by Murdock was that Pat Musitano had discussed with Quebec Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto and Gaetano Panepinto about Rizzuto investing in Ontario.[29] The Canadian intelligence agencies had observed meetings in October 22–23, 1997, between Pat Musitano and Vito Rizzuto, which become more significant after the deaths of Johnny Papalia and Carmen Barillaro.[29] Eventually, these agencies were convinced that the Musitano brothers did not act alone in the murders of Johnny Papalia, Carmen Barillaro, and Enio Mora.[29]
In 1998, these factors led Lee Coppola, veteran organized crime reporter for The Buffalo News, to write an article titled "The Withered Arm". In it he stated: "Today's Buffalo mob—disorganized and all but penniless—is a far cry from its heyday" and that the "last visible remnants of mob power in Buffalo disappeared."[30] However, Coppola's pronouncement was premature.
A 1999 article reported that Canadian intelligence indicated a new "crime lord" linked to the "powerful Todaro crime family" had been installed over the Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario. According to CISC intelligence, the new, yet unidentified, Buffalo boss had a strong relationship with outlaw bikers, unlike his predecessor Johny Papalia, who refused to work with them. As a result of this new, yet shaky, alliance, organized crime expert Detective Sergeant Peter Polcetti of the CISC said: "The Todaro family now controls Niagara, Hamilton, Toronto and Montreal."[31] Gerald "Skinny" Ward was a locally powerful criminal in the Niagara Peninsula who purchased his cocaine from the Magaddino family, and in 1998 began his alliance with the Hells Angels.[32] In 2000, Ward and his gang joined the Hells Angels. The police estimated in 2008 that Ward and the Niagara chapter of the Angels were responsible for selling about 75% of cocaine in the Niagara region.[33] After the Hells Angels national president Walter Stadnick was arrested in 2001, Ward became one of the co-leaders of the Canadian Hells Angels.[34]
In 1999, Joseph E. Todaro Sr. along with his son Joseph A. Todaro Jr. and 16 others were named in a civil racketeering lawsuit for controlling local 210 through the years by various racketeering acts.[35] The court complaint identified Joseph E. Todaro Sr. as boss and his son Joseph A. Todaro Jr. as underboss of the Buffalo family and the owners of La Nova Pizzeria.[35] Todaro Sr., never belonged to local 210, but his son Todaro Jr. served as Local 210 business manager in 1990 before resigning.[35] The charges were based on the testimony of Ronald M. Fino, a former business manager of Local 210 before he became an FBI informant.[35]
Over the course of the later part of the 20th century and the first part of the 21st, the Buffalo crime family declined in influence. Factors included older members slowly turning away from the organization, younger Italian-Americans showing no interest in its operations, an 11-year federal operation that forced the family out of Local 210 between 1995 and 2006, introduction of the New York Lottery depriving the family of a major revenue source (illegal gambling revenue), and the rise of Joe Todaro Jr.'s legitimate pizzeria business.[8]
Todaro Sr. allegedly retired in 2006, leaving many in law enforcement to believe Leonard Falzone had taken his place.[36] However, others thought Falzone was only acting as the "front boss" for the Todaros and that Joseph Todaro Jr. was the acting boss while his father became the senior statesman for the family.[37]
The FBI continued to release the crime family's organizational charts until at least 2006.[38] The Niagara Falls Reporter indicated Leonard Falzone was promoted to the top spot after Joe Todaro Sr. reportedly stepped down in 2006.[36] After the deaths of Todaro Sr. in 2012[18] and Benjamin "Sonny" Nicoletti in 2013,[39] rumors swirled about who would lead the family.[36] In 2012, Matt Gryta, crime reporter for The Buffalo News, said that many believe the family had "expanded into the new millennium through telemarketing, pump and dump stock scams and internet pornography with the 'family' expanding its operations nationwide."[5] That same year, Dan Herbeck wrote an article about Ronald Fino called "Life after Local 210 for the FBI's inside guy." The article indicated Fino was "skeptical of the Justice Department's claims that mob influences were totally removed from Local 210 and the Laborers international." Ronald believed the federal trusteeship the government established to clean the union "didn't go far enough."[40] Additionally, The Toronto Star's organized crime reporter Peter Edwards indicated that in 2013 the Buffalo Crime Family was seeking to revive itself from recent losses through loansharking at the Casino Niagara in Canada on the American border.[41]
In the late 2000s news broke about a homeowner association (HOA) scam alleged to have ties to the Buffalo mob. A witness told the FBI that the Silver Lining Construction company was controlled by the New York Mob and that its owner, Leon Benzer, thought of himself as a "Soprano" because of his association with attorney John V. Spilotro the nephew of Vegas mobster Tony Spilotro. "Investigators also disclosed a key player in one of the HOA takeovers," was Paul Citelli, who "was known to have ties to the Buffalo mob."[42] According to George Knapp I-Team reporter for CBS news affiliate KLAS NewsNow channel 8 in Vegas the FBI said Citelli "is affiliated with the Buffalo mob."[43] Joseph Bravo, another defendant in this HOA scam, was indicted with Paul Citelli for being a part of a Las Vegas to Niagara Falls cocaine trafficking ring run by the Buffalo mob from the late 1980s to mid 1990s when it was considered "the dominant La Cosa Nostra family on the streets of Las Vegas."[21][44][45]
In March 2017, nearly 20 years after Coppola's article "The Withered Arm", Dan Herbeck wrote a similar piece titled "The Mafia is all but dead in Western New York". In it the FBI field office in Buffalo stated that only "scattered remnants that are no longer believed to be active or organized remain." The piece also highlighted many of the same factors that Coppola's 1998 article cited for the decline of the Buffalo crime family.[8]
However, arrests by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Project OTremens indicate the pronouncements about the Buffalo Crime Family's demise were overstated. In November 2017 the FBI and Canadian newspapers indicated the family is still active.[46]
In November 2017, Giuseppe (Joe) and Domenico Violi,[6] who have longstanding ties to the Buffalo Mob, were arrested on narcotics trafficking charges.[41][47] These charges show a continuation of the long-established mafia drug trafficking triangle from Toronto/Hamilton, Ontario to Buffalo and Montreal to New York City established by Stefano Magaddino and his cousin, Joseph Bonanno.[48][49] Michael McGarrity of the FBI said the Otremens operation "unearthed and dug up the roots of a partnership extending from New York City to Buffalo and Toronto to Montreal, proving once again that Italian organized crime groups have evolved far beyond the neighbourhood cliques of days gone by."[50]
Additionally, Peter Edwards in The Toronto Star wrote, "The arrests also hit members of the Buffalo crime family headed by the late Joe Todaro."[51] The US Department of Justice said that Canadian law enforcement authorities had arrested various members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino, and Todaro crime families on charges that include narcotics trafficking.[52] In response to these arrests, Canadian journalist Adrian Humphries wrote:
Among those arrested in Canada are members of the Todaro organized crime family, based in Buffalo, according to U.S. authorities. The Todaro crime group was built by the now-deceased Joseph Todaro Sr., who took over the Buffalo Mafia once led by the influential boss Stefano (The Undertaker) Magaddino.[53]
Further, in September 2018 Peter Edward reported that "the Buffalo Mob isn't dead, despite some media reports."[54] According to his article the Buffalo/Todaro Crime family is strong enough to call the shots in the recent mob war between the Musitano and other crime families in the Hamilton underworld. This article reports:
Reporters allege that Al Iavarone of Ancaster was killed in September 2018 in retaliation for the May 2017 murder of Angelo Musitano. Rumors circulated that the murder was related to "an unpaid debt and rivalries between Niagara mobsters and influence from the Buffalo mob."[56] Revenge was another reason for Angelo's death. James Dubro indicates this hit wasn't just approved by the Buffalo crime family, but ordered by Domenico Violi, later to be revealed as the Buffalo mafia's underboss.[57] Angelo's murder occurred "20 years to the month" after Musitano hitman Kenneth Murdock killed Johnny "Pops" Papalia (the long time Buffalo mob captain and head of the Papalia crime family) and his right-hand man Carman Barillaro (a Buffalo and Papalia crime family soldier).[58][59][60][61]
Additionally, the Toronto Sun claims that the current mob war in Southern Ontario has its roots in the mob conflict that had Paolo Violi and his brothers Francesco & Rocco (Domenico "Dom" and Giuseppe "Joe" Violi's dad and uncles) murdered in Montreal during the late 1970s by the Rizzuto crime family.[62] This was suggested as early as 2010 when Globe and Mail article stated, "A general picture is emerging of the power struggle overwhelming the Rizzutos. It's likely that Calabrese families, largely based in Toronto and backed by big players in New York State, are seizing control after the Rizzutos pushed them aside."[63] In 2019 Brad Hunter explained, "It may have taken years but the Violi family were not going to let sleeping dogs lie." Nicolo Rizzuto Jr. was gunned down on December 28, 2009, followed by the disappearance of his brother-in-law Paolo Renda on May 10, 2010. Renda was the Rizutto crime family consigliere at the time of his murder. Finally, Nicolo Rizzuto Sr. was killed by a sniper on November 10, 2010.[57][64]
Dr. Anna Sergi (lecturer in criminology at the Department of Sociology, University of Essex, United Kingdom, and deputy director of the Centre for Criminology) confirms the Otremens operation which resulted in the Violi brothers' arrests, indicates New York crime families are using drug trafficking routes they established long ago and that these families are being "reinvigorated" by their long established working relationships with the Calabrian mafia in Canada. However, her article calls into question the current affiliation of the Todaro Crime Family in Buffalo. She indicates it is a "Crime Syndicate" formerly aligned with the LCN (La Cosa Nostra) families of New York. See chart in linked article: New York Crime Families Survive and Collaborate.[49]
On December 3, 2018, Domenico Violi was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the mob drug trafficking ring unearthed by Project OTremens.[65] During the investigation, police listened in as the agent and Violi discussed a variety of criminal activity and profit-making opportunities. Violi trafficked approximately 260,000 pills (including PCP, MDMA and meth) to the undercover RCMP agent for more than US$416,000 during which the agent was officially inducted as a "made" member of the Bonanno crime family in Canada.[66] He also received another US$24,000 as his cut of the profit.[1] Wiretaps indicated Violi was made the underboss of the Buffalo crime family by boss Joseph Todaro Jr. in October 2017 in a meeting in Florida; the first Canadian to hold the second-highest position in the American Mafia.[9][67][68] After being promoted to underboss, Violi is heard on wiretaps boasting that "he had beaten out 30 other people for the position," indicating the Buffalo family had at least 30 made men, which included Canadian members such as the Violi brothers' uncles, Natale and Rocco Luppino. In his new role, Violi was to "assume control over the operations of the Luppino-Violi crime family and solidify his power base with further and greater collaboration with the New York-based Mafia families."[1] The wiretaps also revealed the activity of The Commission (the governing body of the American Mafia), as Violi's promotion was so unusual that Buffalo crime family boss, Joe Todaro Jr., consulted with The Commission for permission to promote him as Buffalo's new underboss.[9]
On January 30, 2019, Cece Luppino, the son of Rocco Luppino, and grandson of Giacomo Luppino, was killed at his parents' Hamilton home.[69][70][71] According to wiretaps from the Violi brothers' case, Giuseppe Violi told the undercover agent back in February 2015 that Cece Luppino had been approached about becoming a made member, but Cece had told his father that if he could make money he would be involved, but if not, he doesn't want to be involved; "that there are too many headaches".[72] Hamilton Police have extended their search for Luppino's killer across the Canadian border into the United States, asking Buffalo area police and news agencies to disseminate pictures of the suspect taken from surveillance cameras.[73][74]
An attempt on Pasquale "Pat" Musitano's life was made outside the office of his lawyer, Joseph Irving, in Mississauga on the morning of April 25, 2019. According to reports Pat was shot four times, once in the head.[75] The Buffalo News indicated that Musitano "had organized crime enemies in Montreal and Buffalo" and that crime reporter "Peter Edwards said, he was more convinced than ever that the Buffalo mob was a player in the shooting" after "a source kept repeating 'Buffalo' over and over while talking about the incident."[67] Additionally, the CBC News in Canada reported Buffalo underboss Domenico Violi was recorded by a police informant in September 2017 as saying the murder of Angelo Musitano was meant to be a message to his brother Pat and that before Christmas Pat "would be gone" and that would be "one headache out of the way."[68] On July 10, 2020, Pat Musitano was shot to death in Burlington.[76][77][78]
On October 12, 2020, longtime Buffalo family member Frank BiFulco died in his home.[79]
In 2020, the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported that the murder of Albert Iavarone on September 13, 2018, is linked to the ongoing Mafia war in Hamilton, Canada.[80][81] It was reported that Iavarone had been associated with the Musitano crime family bosses Angelo Musitano and Pasquale Musitano, before they were both assassinated.[81] The investigation revealed that New York City mobsters arranged with the Los Angeles family, boss Tommy Gambino, to induct Iavarone into Los Angeles family in 2017.[80] The New York City mobsters wanted Iavarone to be a liaison between the U.S. and the Ontario crime group which upset members of the Buffalo family who oversee criminal activities in Western New York and Hamilton Canada.[81]
In November 2021, Domenico Violi was granted day parole.[82]
Buffalo faction
Canadian faction
Buffalo faction
Canadian faction
Buffalo faction
Utica faction
Buffalo chapter of the Outlaws
Niagara chapter of the Hells Angels (Canada)
