Im watching the new show about Pablo Escobar, and it got me thinking.... what was the mafias role in the coke frenzy in the 80's. Im assuming that being the dominant crime group in the northeast they would have been involved with distributing the stuff that got smuggled in from columbia.... but if that is the case, did they deal with the columbians directly or were they just a link further down the chain?

They did in many cases. That said, they ( LCN ) knew just how powerful the colombians were and everything was done on the up and up. Very few rip offs.
There was a huge colombian contingent in Queens NY plus LCN did business directly in Miami. Bear in mind this was done under the radar because drugs were outlawed by the bosses .
Remember, if a colombian was ripped off or killed by any mob guy, the cartels would send a very swift and severe message to those involved. They did not fuck around and the wiseguys knew it.
Its a dirty business though. I knew a guy back in the day that was paid $20 grand for driving from California to NY. They shot him in the head because he made the drive so many times they worried he knew too much, true story.
I knew him informally and he was a nice guy, not violent. Just needed the money i guess.
There was an article indirectly related to his killing regarding a car dealership making secret compartments to hide drugs.

The LCN was always marginalized in the cocaine trade because it didn't control the supply like it had in the past with heroin. The Colombians were the source of cocaine for everyone, including the LCN. That, more than fear of a Colombian hit team, is probably why there weren't many rip offs.

i was just reading a old miami article on this guy john peanuts tronolone he was trying to get a gambling debt of a guy who he didnt no was a undercover cop. the miami cop offerd him a kilo of coke and the mobster said no way but took stolen jewelery got busted any way.

I think if they were ripped off and knew who it was then they would go out their way to retaliate i.e demeo crew. I may be mistaken but i think getting robbed every now and then is perhaps considered the cost of doing business for cartels moving tonnes.

The supreme team robbed their columbian suppliers and got away with it unscathed.

In cocaine Cowboys, JOhn ROberts said the COlombians brought their own people over to move the cocaine they smuggled, they had their own distribution.
It seems you could make a place with them if you had transportation in the states, or contacts in markets for distribution that they didn't, mainly cities with low Colombian populations, but then they were likely to deal with either Spanish speaking ethnic groups, (Dominicans) or groups strategically placed like JAmaicans, or both like the Mexicans. But above all if you had the money for a large load, they would deal with anyone, if I'm not mistaken Griselda Blanco was the Medillin top distributor in the states, not sure about who CAli had working New York

According to Max Mermelstein in the early days of the Medellin cartel some of their guys got killed by some LCN types in a rip off.

Only other incidents of LCN ripping off Colombians I can think of are the previously mentioned DeMeo crew rip off which turned into a whole drama, and the Pitera crew incident where things went south because nobody at the scene knew how to drive stick.