Carlo Gambino and Carmine Galante were responsible for bringing the zips over to the United States. Galante had two zips as his personal bodyguards cause he felt safer with them. He was eventually proven wrong when these two zips betrayed him and he was killed. One of the zips was then promoted to capo, I believe his name was Cesare Bonventre. He became the capo of zips in the Bonanno family. They where mostly involved in smuggling heroin from their pizza parlors, which were used as fronts.
Bonventre was bodyguarding Galante and at the table with him when he was assassinated--and "miraculously" didn't get hit by any of the handgun rounds and shotgun blasts that killed his boss.
Another high-ranking zip, Salvatore Catalano, was ready to step in as Don of the Bonannos, but they had a rule that only American-born members could head the family.
