Some of the Nelson Silva Cantellops Testimony's bout the distribution of drugs in the 1950's...

government witness Nelson Silva Cantellops testimony about Las Vegas trip
In March, 1955 Cantellops attended a meeting at Al's Luncheonette at 34 East 4th Street, New York, with Charles Barcellona, Ralph Polizzano, Carmine Polizzano, Joseph Di Palermo and Anthony Colonna. Cantellops agreed to transport narcotics to Las Vegas for $1000. At the airport bus, while Barcellona was talking to Cantellops, an unidentified man handed Cantellops a package which he took to Las Vegas. In Las Vegas Carmine Polizzano met him and introduced him to Fiano to whom he gave the package later that evening. For this delivery of narcotics Cantellops was paid $1000 by Barcellona.

government witness Nelson Silva Cantellops testimony about Florida trip
In June, 1955 Cantellops made a trip to Florida to pick up a shipment of narcotics. Carmine Pollizzano gave him a bus ticket and money and he went to Miami where he met Carmine Polizzano and drove to Tampa. When the rendezvous in Tampa was unsuccessful, Cantellops and Carmine Polizzano drove to Key West where outside the La Concha Hotel an unidentified man took a suitcase out of his pushcart and placed it in the back seat of the automobile in which Cantellops was waiting (the drugs came from Cuba). After driving to Miami Cantellops took the train and delivered the narcotics to Ralph Polizzano at the 'plant' at 36 East 4th Street, next to Al's Luncheonette, as Carmine Polizzano watched from across the street. For this trip Joseph Di Palermo and Carmine Polizzano paid Cantellops $600 and later he also received an ounce of heroin as a tip.

government witness Nelson Silva Cantellops testimony about Chicago trip
Cantellops' third trip in August, 1955, took him to Chicago. Carmine Polizzano instructed him about the trip and gave him a package of narcotics from the trunk of a car parked in front of Al's Luncheonette. Cantellops took a bus to Chicago and the day after his arrival met Carmine Polizzano at a bar on Division Street where he was introduced to a man who picked up the narcotics in the booth where Cantellops had placed them. Cantellops and Carmine Polizzano then drove back to New York and, at Joseph Di Palermo's direction, Carmine Polizzano paid Cantellops.

government witness Nelson Silva Cantellops testimony on Ralph Polizzano
Following the Chicago trip, in August and September, 1955, Cantellops distributed narcotics for Ralph Polizzano.

Cantellops
Cantellops testified that in the middle of September, 1955 he delivered narcotics to Rodriquez near the Progresso Bar in the Bronx. Rodriquez pointed out the person to whom Cantellops was to make the delivery and when they walked past each other he delivered the narcotics.

Cantellops affirmed testimony given by him before the grand jury to the effect that he first delivered narcotics to Rodriquez in the spring of 1956.

government witness Nelson Silva Cantellops testimony about Florida trip
In October, 1955 Carmine Polizzano asked Cantellops to pick up narcotics in Miami. He told Cantellops that if narcotics were not available in Miami he might have to go to Havana to see certain people. Cantellops went to Miami and at the La Concha Hotel met Charles Di Palermo who introduced him to a man named 'Cuba.' The three men then drove to the La Concha Hotel in Key West and the next day, upon directions from 'Cuba' they picked up a suitcase of narcotics in 'Cuba's' hotel room and brought the narcotics to New York by train. Back in New York Cantellops delivered the narcotics to Ralph Polizzano at the basement entrance of Al's Luncheonette upon directions from Carmine Polizzano. For this trip Cantellops was paid $250 by Joseph Di Palermo and $350 by Carmine Polizzano, who also arranged for his assistant, John Russo, to give Cantellops an ounce of heroin as a tip.

government witness Nelson Silva Cantellops testimony
In October, 1955, upon Carmine Polizzano's directions, Cantellops explored the policy banks in the Eldridge Street area on Manhattan's lower East Side to find out whether these banks might be used as a front for narcotics distributing plants. After Cantellops had explored the policy banks, Carmine Polizzano invited him to a meeting at Ralph Polizzano's apartment on East 4th Street. This meeting was attended by Ralph and Carmine Polizzano, Joseph Di Palermo, John Russo, John Ormento and Benjamin Levine. The group discussed taking over and operating policy banks as a cover for the distribution of narcotics. Cantellops reported that it would cost between $100,000 and $150,000 to purchase the banks in the Eldridge Street area. The group reached no final decision as it was stated that the matters would have to be discussed with 'The Right Man,' who, as Cantellops' testimony later developed, turned out to be appellant Vito Genovese. The meeting also discussed the possibility of importing narcotics through Puerto Rico because of turmoil on Cuba and recent misfortuness respecting two shipments by boat. Cantellops suggested the use of the Island of Vieques, off Puerto Rico, as a distributing point.

government witnesses Nelson Silva Cantellops (and Rosario Colletti) testimony
During the early part of 1956, at the request of Joseph Di Palermo and Carmine Polizzano, Rosario Colletti delivered narcotics to Cantellops who in turn delivered them to John Gonzalez, alias Guayamita, at Gonzalez's apartment at 793 Ninth Avenue, where they were diluted for resale. In June 1956 Cantellops took over Gonzalez' operations and Joseph Di Palermo and the two Polizzanos arranged for Ralph Polizzano to supply Cantellops with the narcotics necessary to expand this business in the Spanish speaking market. Cantellops called Ralph Polizzano when he needed drugs and he picked them up from Russo at Al's Luncheonette or nearby places. While picking up narcotics at the East 4th Street plant Cantellops saw Ralph Polizzano and Charles Di Palermo diluting narcotics. On two occasions during 1956 when Cantellops was in the East 4th Street neighborhood, he saw Vito Genovese talking to Carmine Polizzano and on one of these occasions when Cantellops approached, he was told by Carmine Polizzano 'never to interfere when he was talking to 'The Right Man." In the summer of 1956 Cantellops, at Ralph Polizzano's request, made other local deliveries of narcotics.

government witness Nelson Silva Cantellops testimony about Cleveland trip
In July, 1956, Cantellops made his fifth out-of-town trip, this time to Cleveland at the behest of Ormento and Carmine Polizzano. Carmine Polizzano in troduced Cantellops to appellant Vincent Gigante who drove Cantellops to Lorain, Ohio. During the trip Gigante named a number of the alleged conspirators and asked whether Cantellops was acquainted with them. Cantellops complained to Gigante about the risks he was taking in dealing in narcotics. Upon arrival in Lorain, Gigante told Cantellops to get the 'stuff' from behind the spare tire and take a bus into Cleveland. At Lorain, Cantellops took the narcotics from behind the spare tire in the automobile trunk and then took them by bus to Cleveland. In Cleveland he and Charles Di Palermo delivered the narcotics to an unidentified woman in a taxicab. After Cantellops returned to New York Carmine Polizzano arranged for him to meet Ormento and in Mazzie's presence Ormento paid Cantellops for the trip.


government witness Nelson Silva Cantellops testimony on drugdealersmeeting with Genovese and Pappadio
At the end of August, or early September 1956, Cantellops attended a meeting at Mazzie's home at 2332 Seymour Avenue in the Bronx where plans were made for extending the distribution of narcotics. Earlier in the evening Cantellops drove to a German restaurant on East 86th Street with Evola, Ormento, Galante and Andimo Pappadio. After Ormento made a telephone call, they all drove to the West Side Highway and met another car. Cantellops and Ormento entered the other car which was driven by appellant Gigante. Ormento introduced Cantellops to Genovese, who was sitting in the back seat, saying to Genovese 'This man is doing a good job for us. He is helping us and doing a good job for us.' Ormento told Cantellops 'This is the Right Man.' Genovese said to Cantellops that they 'were going to a meeting where territorial control was to be discussed,' that the people at the meeting were counting on Cantellops to help them and that Cantellops could earn some money by doing so. The two automobiles drove to Mazzie's home and everyone entered except Genovese and Gigante who stayed outside. Evola, Mazzie, Ormento, Pappadio, Galante and Cantellops discussed the distribution of narcotics in the Spanish market in the East Bronx by use of policy banks and sealing off the area to eliminate competing narcotics peddlers and policy banks so that they could control the narcotics traffic in this area. Evola and Pappadio thought that the plan would take a month or a month and a half to complete and the others agreed. After twenty or thirty minutes Genovese came in. He wanted to know 'what was the decision in the plan, what they had in mind.' When he was told about the discussion which had taken place, Genovese said that he needed this information because he wanted to know when to send his men into the area. Later, in the presence of Evola, Ormento, Pappadio and Galante, Cantellops was advised that he would be the contact man for the distribution of narcotics in this area. Cantellops later delivered narotics in this area at Ormento's request.

source...Gangstersinc.nl

You can tell that was early days of their involvement. I doubt anyone would accept $1000 these days for muling drugs like that across the country. It seems like genovese was taking a pretty hands on approach with regards to narcotics.

It seems that they may have been having trouble distributing the stuff locally and found it easier to sell in bulk to other cities, which is why they decided to take over the policy banks so they had somewhere they could sell large quantities of it in new york and have a more organised infrastructure.

Genovese was a drug lord at the time,that was his prime business,as for the 1000$ in thouse days(1950's) were somethin like 10000$ these days

who would have been genovese rivals in the drug trade at the time?

From the testimony he seemed to be working with galante. I know the luchesses were heavily involved with the french connection.

Didnt they also have an open air drug market in east harlem as well in an italian neighbourhood called pleasant avenue which was much later run by the purple gang.

Cantellops' testimony put Genovese away for what became a life sentence. I've always been a little doubtful about that testimony. Why would Genovese be directly involved with a small-time drug runner?

No one,maybe Anastasia at some time but he was out of the picture,so his allies were(for some time at least) the Gambino's and the Bonanno's ofcourse

This was discussed in a previous post bout Lucinao vs Genovese,it was a set up made by the other bosses to get rid of Genovese(Costello,Luciano,Lansky,The Outfit and Gambino who played on both sides) and the goverment wanted Vito cuz he was potrayed at the time as Top Boss

....and Accardo's comment:" None of the bosses of the national crime syndicate made appearances. When Chicago boss Tony Accardo was asked why he had not attended Genovese’s funeral, he replied: “That guy? Hell, I didn’t even send a card.” -source:crimerack.com

I share your suspicions, TB. Cantellops was most likely paid to mention Genovese´s name and fingerpoint him in his testimony. I also read somewhere that Costello insisted on Cantellops fingerpointing Gigante as well, as a revenge for the murder attempt on his life. But If it´s true, I don´t know.

A posting at http://z14.invisionfree.com/GangstersInc/ar/t135.htm
says Carmine Polizzano was A capo?

Everywhere else I've read says this guy was only a Genovese associate. Anyone know?