At least 26 people with ties to the Trafficante family and the New York-based Mafia have been convicted in Central and South Florida since Trafficante's death, federal court records show. Author Scott Deitche reported that Santo Jr. was involved with the CIA to plot assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. By the late 1800s to early 1900s, Italian immigrants from Sicily were drawn to the City of Tampa and a tight-knit Little Italy-type community soon developed. Frank had many connections in the political arena which helped his influence in the underworld. August 12, 1993 Trafficante Legacy Sunday: A native Sicilian whose father was a "ranking" mobster allegedly controls a third generation of the so-called Trafficante crime family. From 1951 until 1967, he was the boss of the Lucchese crime family, one of the Five Families that dominate organized crime in New York City. [1] During the 1950s, Trafficante Jr. maintained a narcotic trafficking network with Tommy Lucchese, the boss of the Lucchese crime family in New York City. Trafficante had now not only lost an ally but a significant portion of his income as his casinos were closed by the Marxist revolutionary. . The war ended in the 1940s with Ignacio Antinori being shot and killed with a sawn-off shotgun. Are they left over from the Trafficante days? [8] As the new boss LoScalzo maintained control of criminal interests in illegal gambling, prostitution, narcotics, union racketeering, hijacking and fencing stolen goods. - Lyssna p Episode 92: Narco Journalist Ioan Grillo av The Sit Down: A Crime History Podcast direkt i din mobil, surfplatta eller webblsare - utan app. The activities of this crew included money laundering, racketeering, narcotics distribution, and illegal gambling. Santo, Jr. never spent a day in jail, and he died of natural causes in 1987. Their plans ranged from simply shooting him to having him smoke poisoned cigars or drinking a tainted milkshake. The Tampa mob made a lot of money in Cuba, but never achieved its ambition of making the island part of its own territory. After this look at Santo Trafficante Jr., read the gruesome story of the murderous American dentist, Benjamin Salomon, of World War II. [11] Evidence from the 2004 and 2006 trials of John Alite, Ronald J. Trucchio, and Charles Carneglia connected Gotti Jr. and others to criminal operations in Tampa, Florida. A A One of the oldest Italian crime groups to ever operate in the United States was the Santo Trafficante Family of Florida. The war between the two continued on for years, until October 23, 1940, when Ignacio Antinori was shot and killed by a shotgun blast to the head at the Palm Garden Inn in Tampa. In the mid-2000s, he would say he was a legitimate businessman, citing his ownership of a car dealership, and employment at various restaurants and night clubs over the years. The CIA came to Trafficante, and asked for his help in enlisting the Mafia to assassinate the Cuban leader. [9], As of November 25, 2007, Vincent LoScalzo was in his 70's and considered a semi-retired mobster and just a "regular Joe" according to Scott Deitche, author of Cigar City Mafia. In Trafficante Sr.'s adult life he portrayed himself as a successful Tampa cigar factory owner. Trafficante enjoyed life in Cuba, developed a relationship with its strongman, the dictator Fulgencio Batista, and helped the Trafficante Crime family garner even more profits from its legitimate gambling operations there. Harris & Ewing/Library of Commons/Wikimedia CommonsCuban leader Fulgencio Batista in Washington, D.C. in 1938. Mamone disappeared into the witness protection program almost two decades ago, after becoming a witness against his colleagues in the Mafia, a wide variety of them, including members of the Trafficante, Gambino, Colombo, and Bonanno families. It is considered by most crime historians to be the earliest organized crime summit held in the US. 19201940 Santo Trafficante, Sr. promoted to boss. Jeff is welcomed today by Ioan Grillo, one of the best journalists in the game today on narcos and drug cartels. However, LoScalzo was nonetheless able to expand the families criminal reach into new locations across Florida, and took advantage of alliances with other Mafia families to ensure the mob maintained its hold on criminal activities. The glamorous casino in the Hotel Nacional De Cuba in Havana in 1958. The hotel was constructed as a casino hotel in 1957 by a consortium owned by American mobster Santo Trafficante Jr. Anthony Samuel Carollo was an American mobster, boss of the New Orleans crime family and son of the mob boss Silvestro Carollo. Deitche, Scott. The Trafficante crime family, also known as the Tampa Mafia, is the only original Mafia crime family in the state of Florida History Tampa's underworld Tampa crime started with Charlie Wall who, in the 1920s, controlled a number of gambling rackets and corrupt government officials. This was proven in 1953 when he eliminated the last contender to the Tampa mob throne: Joe Antinori, son of the late Ignacio. Many of the familys gangsters were in prison, or too old to be effective. [10], On August 5, 2008, the Tampa and New York FBI indicted John A. //