You make some good points. Andrew Scoppa also said that people thought Vito was rich but it was Alfonso Caruana who was really filthy rich, and Vito "listened to him very closely" or something along those lines. If the Caruana Cuntrera's really stopped/slowed down coke importation, I wonder what the reason really was. That 5 ton seizure would have hurt but at that point they were moving big weight for 15-20 years, heroin too. And that was when the profits per key were much higher than today. I doubt one seizure, as big as it was, would have crippled them and left them in debt.

As far as the Calabrians taking over from the Sicilians, that may have been true partially. I remember in Saviano's book there was a Sicilian broker who got kidnapped by the Colombians and held because of an unpaid debt until the Calabrians stepped in and cut a deal for him to be released.

But that would have been true for the Sicilians in Sicily who were in shambles after the Corleonesi war against the state, that wouldn't have affected the Caruana Cuntrera, who were strictly brokers. They were already established in Venezuela for 20 years, I'm sure they had all the cartel and military contacts they needed.

Without some high level rats I think we'll never have a clear picture of the coke business in North America because crime writers like to exaggerate the importance whatever organization/crew they're writing about and cops do the same about the people they're busting.

As far as the Mexicans go, I could see it going both ways. Yeah they move a lot of weight and have huge revenues but they also have huge expenses. Seizures aside, they pay a lot in bribes to the government, spend a lot to recruit sicarios and buy guns.

I also get the feeling they're not as good at smuggling as the European groups are. I was reading the stuff that came out about CIfuentes' testimony and I got the feeling they were spending a lot in transportation/bribes to bring a load in.

Pound for pound I think the Ndrangheta or Albanian clans that have direct ties to producer countries make more profit per load than the Mexicans because they have less expenses and prices in Europe are higher.