Buffalo Crime Family - Todaro Era

Todaro Era

For years local and national law enforcement and crime writers have maintained that sometime in 1984 or 1985, the leadership of the Buffalo crime family once again changed hands. It is not clear exactly when, but by late 1984 and certainly by 1985, Joseph Todaro Sr. was sanctioned by the American Mafia's National Commission in New York as the new official Boss of the Buffalo crime family. Joseph Todaro Sr. known as "Poppa Joe" to his family and friends was born in 1923 and is the owner of the world famous La Nova Pizzeria and Wing Company located at 371 West Ferry Ave. on Buffalo's West Side. Todaro Sr. has been a prominent Buffalo crime family member since the 1950s and active in labor unions where he may have picked up his nickname and he rose steadily through the ranks of the crime family throughout the 1960s and 1970s until he became the top Boss by 1985. Upon his elevation to Boss, Joe Todaro Sr. promoted his son Joseph "Big Joe" Jr. to be his Underboss while he quickly showed his crime family members that he knew his Mafia politics and named former Underboss, Joe Pieri Sr. as the Consigliere of the crime family to keep the peace and too begin uniting the long divided crime family. Peri Sr., who clearly was not a Todaro Sr. supporter, was demoted in 1987 and retired from active crime family activities, leaving longtime Todaro Sr. ally, Leonard Falzone as the new Consigliere in the Buffalo crime family, Falzone was obviously promoted to the position as a reward for his years of service with the Todaro faction and for his loyalty to its leader. The Buffalo crime family under Joe Todaro Sr. kept its control over the traditional rackets of gambling, loansharking, extortion and narcotics, labor and union rackets, but added new modern rackets such as telemarketing, stock swindles and insurance fraud. The Buffalo crime family has dominated bookmaking activities in Western Yew York for basically a century as the Buffalo area is a hub for bookmaking operations due to the crime families influence in upstate New York, Northern Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio and Southern Ontario. The gambling and loansharking rackets go hand in hand and close Todaro family friend, Leonard Falzone, once known as the "Loanshark King" was chosen as the overseer of loansharking operations from the mid 1980s until he was convicted on loansharking and racketeering charges in the mid 1990s.

The Buffalo crime family still dominated the labor and union rackets well into the 1990s even after informer and former LIUNA Local 210 Business Manager, Ron Fino helped with law enforcement prosecutions in the mid 1990s. After Fino left Local 210 in 1988 for an executive position within LIUNA's national structure crime family associates Sam Caci and then Todaro Sr. son in law, Peter Gerace held the position of LIUNA Local 210 President until the Justice Department filed a 200 page RICO suit against LIUNA Local 210 in November 1994 and eventually expelled eight alleged crime family members who held executive positions within the local in June 1996 due to the help and testimony of FBI undercover operative Ron Fino who had and continued to work for the CIA and became well known for his undercover operations regarding the Russian Mafia and the El Quadia spinoff - Asbat Al Anser. At one time the crime family controlled many New York state LIUNA Locals by placing crime family members in positions of influence. Such New York locals as LIUNA Local 214 in Oswego, New York, LIUNA Local 435 in Rochester along with LIUNA Locals in Utica, Albany and Massena, New York fell under the influence of the Buffalo crime family due to their past association with former LIUNA National President Arthur Coia Sr. and his son Arthur Coia Jr.

Even before Prohibition started the Buffalo crime family was involved in the narcotics trade running local and international narcotics operations under longtime Boss, Stefano Magaddino and some of the crime family's members with close ties to mafiosi from Sicily continued to be involved in the international narcotics trade well into the 1990s due to the close relationship the Buffalo crime family continued to have with Canadian Mafia families from Quebec and Southern Ontario like the Cotroni and Rizzuto crime families of Montreal, the Papalia and Musitano crime families of Hamilton and the Caruana-Cuntrera, Commissio and Cammilleri crime families of Toronto. Since the mid to late 1990s the Buffalo crime family no longer dictates much time to national and international narcotics operations and have given up their local narcotics operations as Hispanic and Black crime organizations have moved into the West and East Side of Buffalo and dominated the areas drug trade since the mid 1990s.

By the mid 1990s Joe Todaro Sr. was the owner of the multi-million dollar La Nova Pizzeria and Wing Company which had sales in excess of 25 million dollars annually, he was semi-retired and frequently visited South Florida to spend time at his condominium, leaving the day-to-day operations of the crime family in the hands of his son, Underboss and newly promoted Acting Boss, Joseph Todaro Jr., Consigliere Leonard Falzone and Capos, Benjamin "Sonny" Nicoletti Jr., overseer of the Niagara Falls, New York area rackets, Gaetano "Tommy Chooch" Miceli, overseer of the North Buffalo/Hertel Ave. area rackets, Frank "Butchie Bifocals" BiFulco, overseer of the West Side area and labor and union rackets and John "Johnny Pops" Papalia, overseer of the Southern Ontario rackets while top soldiers like John "Johnny Catz" Catanzaro, Bart T. Mazzara. Donald "Turtle" Pinepinto, Vincent "Jimmy" Sicurella, Joseph P. Rosato, Daniel G. Sansanese Jr., Victor Sansanese, Joseph R. Pieri Jr., John A. Pieri, Samuel Lagattuta Jr., Micheal Muscarella, and Matthew "Steamboat" Billiteri. Joseph Todaro Sr. and his son not only held business interests in the food and restaurant business, but they also had investments in the construction, real estate and bar business, they often showed and still do show their humanitarian and charitable side by frequently donating large numbers of pizza and chicken wings to local area charities and even our armed forces. Close family friend, Leonard Falzone helped the family establish "The Feast of St. Joseph Table" where people from all over Buffalo and the surrounding areas are invited to celebrate the Italian feast day with a huge table of free La Nova specialties. The Todaro's can be found operating a booth at the annual Hertal Ave. Italian Festival, and the younger generation of Todaro's, which includes grandson Joseph Todaro III and his sister, Carla Todaro, show their appreciation to the la Nova customers by handing out over 4,000 bottles of champagne during the Christmas and New Years holidays.

The top Buffalo crime family members continued to control the areas rackets into the late 1990s and even made expansion moves in territories like Las Vegas where members were sent to set up gambling and loansharking operations with members of the Los Angeles crime family, Todaro Sr. sent lontime Capo and gambling specialist, Benjamin "Sonny" Nicoletti Sr. to oversee the crime family's gambling operations and the move into the state of Nevada. Buffalo crime family soldier and Todaro family cousin, Robert "Bobby Panaro Jr. was another Buffalo area resident who had an underworld presence on the West coast and reresented the Buffalo crime family's interests in the 1990s. Bobby Panaro Jr., along with former Buffalo area resident and Los Angeles crime family soldier, Stephen "The Whale" Cino were sentenced in September 1999 to 7½ and 15 years in prison for planning the murder of Chicago Outfit associate and Las Vegas loanshark, Herbert "Fat Herbie" Blitzstein in 1997, according to past media reports the two gangsters were allegedly part of a joint effort by the Buffalo-Todaro crime family and the Los Angeles-Milano crime family led by Peter Milano to set up gambling and loansharking operations in Las Vegas. Herbie Blitzstien was a former associate of the previous Chicago Outfit representato in Las Vegas, Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro and ran a large and lucrative loansharking operation that Panaro and Cino allegedly wished to take over. It should be mentioned that before Bobby Panaro Jr.'s arrest in 1997 and eventual conviction in 1999 he had no criminal record, unlike Steve Cino who had a lengthy and well documented criminal record dating back decades. Buffalo crime family members continued to make money from new rackets throughout the 1990s such as, telemarketing, pump and dump stock scams and internet pornography well into the new milleniumm and by all accounts of local and national law enforcement and the media, the Buffalo crime family continues to thrive in North America's underworld.