There has long been a myth that most or all organized crime bosses eschewed the “dirty business” of drug trafficking. Giving added credibility to such nonsense was the famous, if not always lucid, testimony of informer Joe Valachi. He told one tale that, as former Chicago Crime Commission head Virgil Peterson has noted, “was viewed with skepticism by many knowledgeable law-enforcement officers.”
Valachi declared that under Tony Accardo the Chicago Cosa Nostra paid its soldiers $200 a week to stop dealing in narcotics. Later, apparently in light of inflation, this weekly stipend was increased to $250. According to Valachi, this caused considerable problems in New York City where mobsters were ordered out of the racket with no compensation whatsoever.
In fact many New York mobsters in various of the five crime families were deeply involved in drug trafficking with and without approval from above. Many members of the Lucchese and Bonanno family engaged in narcotics dealings. Joe Bonanno insisted in his autobiography, A Man of Honor, that “My Tradition outlaws narcotics. It had always been understood that ‘men of honor’ don’t deal in narcotics. However, the lure of high profits had tempted some underlings to freelance in the narcotics trade.” In point of fact, Bonanno’s underboss, Carmine Galante, was convicted on a narcotics charge.
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In 1948 Frank Costello, the caretaker-head of the Luciano family after Charlie Lucky was deported, ordered the family to stay out of drugs. Of all the bosses, probably Costello was the most genuinely opposed to dealing in dope. Since he operated mainly through cooperation with the political power structure on such matters as gambling, he understood that narcotics was the one activity he often could not square—the politicians would be too frightened of public outrage.
However, Costello’s edict applied only to the Luciano family while others ignored it or paid it no more than lip service. Vito Genovese, who finally wrested control of the family from Costello, issued the same edict while actually keeping up a lifelong activity in dope. Genovese did have a few underlings murdered for violating the no drugs rule, but took a different attitude if he himself was cut in for a major portion of the profits. Indeed, Genovese died in jail for narcotics dealing.
It was estimated by informers and law enforcement officials in the 1970s that of the 450-some members of the Genovese crime family at least 100 remained, many to this day, involved in the dope racket. The statistics are probably similar in other crime families—with or without a no narcotics rule.
