The 1950’s and 60’s was the era when America's Cosa Nostra was deeply involved in the narcotics trade and many crime families across the country were connected between each other and formed some type of so-called “drug cartel”. Many researchers believe that the infamous Chicago crime family, also known as the Outfit, was allegedly always against the narcotics trade but the reality is completely different. Yes, there was a certain time period when the selling of narcotics became a huge “thorn in the eyes” of the government and also brought large prison sentences, thus creating potential informants and so some of the bosses decided to place a permanent ban but the problem is that same business always was and probably still is too tempting for the bosses or the low-level soldiers and associates.

The first two Outfit crews which brought the narcotics trade to another level around the Chicago area at the time, were the Chicago Heights group and the leading West Side mob. According to the government, by the early 1950's the main “overseers” of the Midwestern narcotics trade were allegedly Raphael Quazarano, John Priziola, and Paul Cimino of the Detroit crime family, Anthony Giordano of St. Louis, Giacomo Ammiratto a.k.a. James Emery from Chicago and capo for the Chicago Heights crew, followed by Sam Giancana from the West Side. For example, some of these representatives like Emery often travelled to Italy where they usually met with some of their deported cohorts, such as Emery’s predecessor Dominick Roberto. In fact, there’s one photo of Emery and Roberto in the company of New York’s narcotics “kingpin” Charles Luciano, while being in Itay.


Jim Emery


Emery, Dom Roberto and Charles Luciano in Italy

Tony Accardo was the official Outfit boss at the time and Giancana was his underboss, and one of their prime overseers regarding the narcotics trade was Joe Mendino who in turn mainly lurked around the Northwest Side, including Giancana's Taylor Street area. Mendino’s New York connections were allegedly some "unknown" high level members from New York’s Bonanno and Lucchese crime families. Mendino received his shipments mainly through one pizzeria business which was located on Taylor Street and was owned by one of Mendino’s associates.


Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana

In March 1954, FBN agents arrested eleven Outfit associates on narcotics charges, including Joe Iacullo, Frank Coduto and Tony Pape and quickly took them into custody. Both Sam Giancana and Tony Accardo personally knew all three individuals which made one fatal mistake by bringing an undercover agent into their crew and that kind of a mistake in the eyes of the bosses was punishable by death. In fact, Accardo was the one who was knee deep in shit, because several months before the arrests, Iacullo was seen going in and out of Accardo’s home for more than 20 times. So naturally the Mob boss was scared from the bad publicity given by the narcotics trade and avoided any government heat that might jeopardize his vast gambling operations, meaning Accardo was ready to eliminate anyone at any time if things went out of control.


Tony Pape

Immediately, “someone” posted the $25,000 bonds for seven members and they were released. On the day of their release, April 10, 1954, Tony Pape together with his brother James got into their car and drove home. While driving down Flournoy Street, suddenly another car with two masked men blocked their path. James Pape, who drove the car, apparently made a wild effort to elude the hit squad by turning his car around. During the car chase, the hit squad managed to get near their target and that’s when one of the assassins managed to fire few shotgun blasts, thus hitting James in the head and also fatally wounding his brother Tony in the head and shoulder. Their car went out of control, struck the corner of a building and crashed on the sidewalk. James’ body was found sprawled face down in mud with his brain missing and with his legs still under the steering wheel, while Tony was quickly taken to the Garfield Park hospital in a critical condition and died two days later. On May 14, 1954, while parking his car near his house, Frank Coduto was shot to death by being hit three times in the back of the head and once in the shoulder.


Frank Coduto

So, after the Coduto murder, in June 1954 the government finally decided to take the remaining defendants to trial. As expected, the “star witness” was the undercover agent who gave the jury every possible situation in which he was involved in, all in clear details. He testified before the grand jury that he received heroin packages from the late Coduto and Pape, who in turn gave certain amount of money to Iacullo. In August 1954, Chicago Heights member Albert Roviaro was also taken to court on narcotics charges and he was represented by Mob attorney Carl Walsh, who in turn by “coincidence” was a personal friend of Outfit boss Tony Accardo. Although the prosecutors argued for a 6-year prison term, in the end Roviaro received only two years in prison, thanks to his quite experienced criminal lawyer.


Al Roviaro

After all of the killings and imprisonments of Mendino's associates, the Outfit placed a lot of pressure over Mendino who in turn started receiving death threats from “unknown” sources and also started living in constant panic and fear. In fact, Mendino already started receiving warnings during the trials and one of them was in the form of a bomb which exploded right in front of Mendino’s huge residence and shattered his attractive house window. Back in 1951, from all of the money that he received from the narcotics trade, Mendino built a $100,000 mansion (or $1,200,000 in today's money) in the southwest section of Lake Forest. The ranch type structure, made of stone, had a huge $3,000 window which was painted with religious pictures. But the problems didnt end with Mendino's expensive window.


Joe Mendino

In June 1957, a team of federal narcotics agents staged a raid on one joint which was owned by one associate of Accardo's personal Elmwood Park crew, known as Carlo Urbinati. One of Urbinati's associates Dominic Argentine pulled out a gun and fired one shot in one of the agents' back. Another agent was also shot in the abdomen by Urbinati, who in turn continued to fire his gun at the rest of the agents. Both Urbinati and Argentine managed to exit the tavern and started fleeing towards their cars. But while entering his car, Urbinati was also wounded in the head by one of the agents who somehow managed to stay close to the assailants and took a shot from his pistol. After that the rest of the agents called for aid and some 100 state, county and suburban policemen rushed to the scene. The police strafed the building in the belief that Argentine might still be inside but later he was arrested without resistance at his home. In May, 1958, Urbinati, Argentine and another associate Tony Matas, each received 5 years in federal penitentiary. In addition, both Urbinati and Argentine owned two clubs known as the Derby Lounge and the Triangle Inn Tavern, which were located around Accardo's Elmwood Park area.


Carlo Urbinati

So according to a Mob informant, by the end of 1958, "coincidentally" one of New York’s main representatives in the narcotics business and at the same time member of the Bonanno crime family, Carmine Galante, visited Chicago regarding few "unknown" problems. Galante was under indictment at the time and was wanted by the government, and so he was on the lam and travelled around the country. I personally dont believe in coincidences, especially when it comes to the Mob, and so I believe that the whole disruption within Chicago's underworld regarding the narcotics trade at the time, was probably the real reason behind Galante's visit to Chicago. Since the Chicago Heights crew were the first Outfit group that entered the narcotics trade, Galante possibly first visited Calumet City and its Outfit leaders, who later introduced Galante to the leading administration under Giancana in Cicero. At the time Calumet City was under the control of the Chicago Heights crew, which by now was led by Frank LaPorte, while Cicero was mostly under the West Side group. And so according to the informant, besides Galante and members from the Outfit, other individuals present on those same meetings were also members from the Genovese crime family, longtime allies of the Chicago Mob. The informant also claimed that during the meeting, the Genovese faction strongly defended the Chicago “family” on the same subject and so in the end, the sitdown between Galante and whoever sat on the other side of the table from the Chicago boys, ended in favor of the Outfit. Even though he did not attend the meeting, the informant also claimed that later Galante allegedly revealed some of the previous information of the meeting but the informant did not want to share all of details with the federal agents.


Carmine Galante

According to the previous information, a conclusion can be made that Galante was probably revolted regarding the disruption of the narcotics trade in the second largest city at the time, and his visit to Chicago to attend a meeting with Mob bosses from two different families, while being on the run from the law, means that it was quite important for Galante. Again, according to the available information, the meeting allegedly ended in favor for the Chicago Outfit which means that whatever Galante was mad about and wanted to know the reason behind it, in the end he lost the battle. This raises the question on whether there was previously a deal between the Chicago Outfit and the Bonannos regarding the narcotics trade in the Chicago area and the shipments from New York, and the whole conflict was because of the killings of some of the so-called "middle men" who previously took care of the shipments and cash, and also protected the bosses from being directly involved in the so-called "junk business". The problem for Galante was that Chicago had the "right" to ask for the lives of those men, mainly because their crews were infiltrated by undercover government agents and so the government was slowly closing in on the Outfit's bosses, a situation which forced the Outfit's top administration to eliminate their contacts and connections. In fact, both Accardo and Giancana quickly disconnected themselves from the whole situation by giving the thumbs down.

Another so-called “coincidence”, were the many urgent travels and meetings with deported mobsters which occurred right after the Galante meeting, something which indicates that there was obviously some kind of problem or a new type of deal was made. For example, Accardo and one of his long-time buddies and also Police lieutenant, Anthony DeGrazio took an alleged European trip, which quickly ended in Rome, Italy, where they met with Dominic Roberto. Proof for their meeting were the names of the hotel rooms in which they stayed, since right across Accardo’s room was the apartment of “Dominic Roberts” which was Roberto’s alias. Shortly after Accardo’s visit, Chicago Heights heavyweights Joe Guzzino and Frank LaPorte again travelled to Italy, but this time they took a flight from New York, instead of Chicago and had a meeting with their former and exiled capo Dominick Roberto.


Joe Guzzino


Frank LaPorte

And again, according to the informant, Galante went straight back to the east coast, where he was arrested in June 1959, by New Jersey State Police officers after stopping his car on the Garden State Parkway close to New York City. In May 1960, Galante was indicted on a second set of narcotics charges and in the end, he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

By the early 1970's the top leadership of the Chicago Outfit was in huge dilemma on whether to give official approval for their capos and soldiers to be involved in the narcotics trade. One group headed by the Outfit's underboss at the time, Charles Nicoletti, wanted to take over the trade before some other criminal organization was able to control it, while one part of the Outfit's leadership represented by Accardo and Gus Alex were firmly against it. In the end, Accardo and Alex prevailed and the ban on narcotics was officially established within Chicago's crime syndicate and in fact, lots of members and associates were killed during that same decade mainly because they continued dealing with the "forbidden fruit".

In January 1974, Carmine Galante was released from prison and according to some sources, he was the main player in bringing some Sicilian Mafiosi into the U.S. and importing loads of Italian heroin. So according to one Chicago Tribune article, Galante visited Chicago for the second time and allegedly arranged two meetings, one in Chicago and one in Florida, with the Outfit’s “junk” opposing faction headed by Tony Accardo and Jack Cerone who in turn was released from prison the previous year. Same as Accardo and Alex, sources say that Cerone was also one of those bosses who opposed drug dealing.


Accardo (second from left), Jack Cerone (third from left) and Gus Alex (first from the right)

There's no information on what was discussed during the meetings but I’ll presume, mostly according to the following events, that the Chicago Outfit was used as “transportation link” and nothing more. During this period the Outfit was still considered as one of the most important links in the whole Cosa Nostra “chain” across the U.S., and so if the New York Mob asked for some support from their Midwest cohorts, they expected to receive it. According to numerous government reports, samples of the so-called Sicilian heroin showed that it was processed in the Middle East from opium sources in Asia, and were smuggled into Chicago for inspection, much-in the same way as legitimate businesses display merchandise to potential buyers. Also, laboratory analysis later found that the Sicilian heroin had purity level of 90 per cent, far higher than the Mexican or "Brown Mud" heroin, which was now saturating the market. Besides that, the Outfit's ban on narcotics for its membership and close associates was still quite active and they were still killing people, left and right, and that's why mobsters from other cities also weren't allowed to sell the product in the Chicago area. But instead, they were able to establish themselves out of the Chicago area, in some nearby cities such as Oregon, Illinois.


Brown and White Heroin

In July 1979, Galante was shot to death in a New York restaurant, allegedly on the orders from members of his own crime family and the Mafia commission. Galante's murder didnt disrupt the narcotics connection between Italy and the U.S. but instead, it largely caught the attention of the FBI and the government. By the early 1980's the so-called "Pizza Connection" was completely dismantled by the government and most of the New York crime families were shaking in their boots at the time, while the Chicago Outfit remained completely untouched during the investigations and trials regarding the Mafia's narcotics trade. In fact, this was Tony Accardo's "legacy" and last act of keeping the order within his organization, mainly because by the mid 1980's the old man also had a lot of problems with the government and was slowly taking a step back by becoming senior advisor for the Outfit's new leadership. This gave the opportunity for some of the Outfit's members and associates to continue financing many "dope deals" with numerous gangsters from different ethnic background.

Cheers

Good article TD. This was another interesting read. Good job!

You're welcome.

Ditto!

In addition, coming up next week....Tony Pinelli, Chicago Outfit capo for the Indiana crew and another article regarding Outfit boss Tony Accardo filled with lots of new information. ALL FOR FREE and fuck paywalls. Cheers

Excellent piece TD!

Thanks a lot buddy! Stay tuned for more free articles.

Much appreciated brother!

Well done Toodoped.
Thanks for the info and the amount of effort you put into posting it.

Thanks a lot @Lou_Para and you're welcome. Also thanks for your support and as I already said, stay tuned.

Very informative, thank you.

Great read TD did the Outfit have men in Canada?

Accardo aka Big Tuna in Nova Scotia (1939).

You're welcome @Iceveins and thanks for your support. It means a lot.




Thanks @H and to answer your question, I think they had contacts during the days of Prohibition but Im not sure if they still had after that.

Btw, stay tuned for a brand new Accardo article.

Great TD Accardo is one of my favorites lol!

Also, here's one additional pic which I previously forgot to post it regarding one of the main dope dealers, Joe Iacullo, who was allegedly directly connected to Accardo during those days....


Joe Iacullo

...and even though he isnt mentioned in the story, still we must not forget another infamous dope dealer and alleged made guy from Accardo's Elmwood Park crew, James Mirro...


Mirro

Thanks TD. Your articles are always top notch.

You're welcome bud and thank you, too.

@TD, yes during the early days they had ties to the so-called whisky and beer barons in Canada like Harry Low. I can imagine there were still some links after prohibition.

There are some old records (dont have a clue if they are true) regarding some alleged Capone contacts from Canada such some Bronfman brothers (allegedly provided the Capone gang with Canadian whiskey from 1924 until 1932) and also two guys allegedly known as Bob Calandra and Tom Ciampelletti (allegedly provided Chicago’s South Side gangs with Canadian whiskey). Ever heard of these guys? I think I once tried to find at least something but wasnt able to find anything about those "individuals"...

Interesting, doesn't ring a bell.

In 1953, Bonanno sent Galante to Montreal, Quebec to organize the family's drug business and rackets there. He worked with Vincenzo Cotroni.

Thats right, although I think that the Chicago Outfit was always more concentrated on Central and South America, besides their other ventures around western Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Those old guys almost took over the whole world lol

By the 1960s or after Galante's imprisoment and also after the imprisonments and questionings of members from both the Lucchese and Gambino families, the Outfit was slowly making their own connections in the dope trade, meaning they didnt want to depend from the New York crime families. This situation especially occurred when Giancana fled Chicago to Mexico and constantly travelled around the world.

One of their prime heroin connection was in Mexico, a small place known as Telesforo, which was the home-base of a dope peddling gang led by one narcotics trafficker, known only as Parra Lopez. This guy had a huge laboratory which produced large quantities of heroin and was operated by his right-hand man Soto Baldemar who by that time was the principal distributor of heroin into the U.S. through Mexico. The drug route mainly passed through Los Angeles or Tucson, Arizona and ended up directly in Chicago and in most cases, the product was carried by two Mexican drug peddlers, Bernardo Paballelo Reyes and Alfonso Trevino Ramon. These guys previously operated around the New York area but later transferred their operations in Chicago and around the Midwest and became the biggest narcotics traffickers south of the border, "thanks" to the Outfit.

Another connection was created "thanks" to Tampa crime boss Santo Trafficante, who sometimes went by himself on the Far East or sent some of his couriers, while at the same time Giancana also had his own men in the same territory such as John Drew, who was there mainly as Trafficante’s backing. So the new and main production point for the gang became one place known as Yunnan, which is a province in southwestern China with a varied landscape, perfect for growing opium poppies.