If it's true, and it looks like it is, it shouldn't surprise anyone. I've always suspected certain top bosses of being top echelons if they appeared themselves to have a narcotics operation, however secret or discreet. Why? Because everyone knows "the G" is behind most if not all of the top drug dealers. Therefore any boss, no matter how legendary, if he appeared to have any narcotics connection, even if it was off shored and outsourced to foreign criminal conspiracies and groups in other countries, that boss likely received immunity from the CIA. You can be a top echelon that the police or DEA don't even know about, it's just that when they go to arrest you, someone always interferes who has higher jurisdiction. I have no proof, but do I believe Carmine Persico was a drug dealer, ultimately? Yes.