Vincenzo Cotroni

Prison photo by Vincenzo Cotroni

Vincenzo Cotroni alias Vic "The Egg" Cotroni (* 1920 in Mammola , Calabria , Italy ; † September 16, 1984 in Montreal , Canada ) was considered the head of the Cotroni family , which was a satellite state for the Bonanno family in Montreal .

Early years in Canada

Vincenzo Cotroni was probably born in Mammola, Calabria around 1920, while other sources indicate that he was born as early as 1911. In 1934, when Cotroni was 14 years old, he emigrated with his family to Canada and settled in Montreal. The young Vincenzo soon realized the earning potential that could be obtained through illegal businesses such as drug trafficking , prostitution and gambling . By 1945 he was able to amass a certain amount of reputation , wealth and power in the city and was involved in various illegal activities, while his two brothers Giuseppe and Francesco Cotroni mainly concentrated on the drug sector.

Bonanno's interest in Montreal

Even after its establishment in the 1930s, a leader of one of the Five Families from New York , Joseph Bonanno , noticed the criminal activities in the Canadian city and tried to expand his sphere of influence to Montreal. To this end, one of Bonanno's confidants, Carmine Galante , began to undertake business trips between Montreal and New York and realized the great potential that existed here. Above all, the possibility of drug smuggling turned out to be the main focus for Galante, since in the context of the French Connection forerunners mainly drugs were smuggled via Marseille to New York City. With the end of the Second World War , however, the American ports were more closely guarded, from where Montreal would offer itself as a new and above all safer import route to smuggle heroin for sale to New York City via the transit point Canada . Shortly after the World War, Montreal was approved by the Commission as a kind of satellite state of the Bonanno family. Galante even sought Canadian citizenship as part of gaining control of Montreal in the mid-1950s, but decided against it at short notice after there were indications that Canadian authorities would ask their American colleagues for information regarding criminal suspicions.

Cotroni as head of the family

As a new variant, Bonanno and Galante now established a hierarchy of power consisting of boss and underboss, who were supposed to lead the activities in Montreal, but ultimately had to take account of the Bonanno family. While the Sicilians and Galante partner Luigi Greco was appointed as the underboss , the Calabrian Vincenzo Cotroni came to the fore in the Montreal Mafia family, which from then on would be known as the Cotroni family. (In the context of the Bonanno hierarchy, Cotroni was presumably installed as a capo, who was facing the Montreal crew.) There was always friction between the Calabrian and Sicilian factions in Montreal, but Greco officially subordinated himself to Cotroni according to the regulations. Problems should build up for Cotroni, however, when Galante was indicted in New York in 1960 on suspicion of importing large quantities of heroin, which meant that Cotroni's contact point in New York City was temporarily switched off. In addition to the constant competition with Greco, Cotroni began to train Paolo Violi as his deputy. The clashes with the Greco faction (and thus with the Sicilian Mafiosi) continued, even intensified in the 1960s, while Cotroni increased in power and Greco's reputation was on the decline (this was particularly justified with an indictment in 1962 in the United States, which branded Greco a criminal in the United States and thereby lost value and reputation in New York and Montreal).

Arguments with Nick Rizzuto

On December 3, 1972, Luigi Greco died in an accident in his family restaurant in Montreal. Cotroni then appointed, to the displeasure of the Sicilian faction, Paolo Violi to succeed Greco, who also came from Calabria. Thus the drifting apart of the two groups in Montreal seemed to intensify. Violi's appointment for Nick Rizzuto , a member of Greco's group who had amassed power over the past few years and was considered by many to be the logical successor of Greco, was particularly significant . Rizzuto himself had a mutual antipathy towards Violi and his advancement in rank should be seen as a threat to Rizzuto. Violi and Cotroni themselves did not have a very high opinion of Rizzuto either, as they described him as a loner who did not show them the respect they deserved. Even before Greco's death, Cotroni and Violi began to take action against Rizzuto in a targeted manner by Violi addressing the problem in Italy and New York in order to achieve a possible conflict resolution (in the hope that a decision would be made for Cotroni / Violi). In September 1972, the Bonanno family decided to send representatives to Montreal to hold a sit-down (roughly a clarifying crisis talk). In this case, however, Cotronis' proposal to exclude Rizzuto from the family was rejected, but at the same time Rizzuto had to show more respect. Nick Rizzuto decided to withdraw for the time being, knowing that the matter had not been resolved and he expected attacks by the Calabrians (if only because Cotroni was ready to exclude him). Rizzuto went to Venezuela , where some business colleagues from his homeland were based.

Violi is slowly taking control

In 1974 Cotroni was summoned to court in Quebec for an organized crime investigation, but was sentenced to one year in prison for failing to help. Violi used this situation to contact New York in January 1975 and to achieve a change in the hierarchy. Philip Rastelli , who was head of the Bonanno family at this time, decided to temporarily declare Violi as acting boss and to re-examine the situation after Cotroni's dismissal in order to possibly declare Violi directly as boss. (However, it is possible that Cotroni had already given up a large part of his power and established his successor Violi as street boss .) A little later, however, Violi was also sentenced to imprisonment because he also refused to testify in the investigation.

Defeat Violis and the end of Cotronis

However, Violi's power base crumbled within a very short time when Nick Rizzuto began to attack. Violis Consiglieri Pietro Sciarra was shot dead in the street on February 14, 1976, and Francesco Violi , Paolo's younger brother, was shot on February 8, 1977 when he was shot with a shotgun in a family company. Violi was in jail at the time to serve his sentence, but he had to be aware that the Rizzuto family was taking action against him. On January 20, 1978, Violi was shot dead in his old headquarters, the Reggio Bar , by a masked assailant, also using a sawed-off shotgun ( called Lupara ). With this murder, the power struggle between Violi and the Sicilians over Nick Rizzuto ended. Rizzuto's clan was now in power. Although in fact at the top, it was decided to leave the aging godfather of Montreal formally at the top of the organization. Powerless, Cotroni had to accept that the Sicilians would take over the family and thus the business, especially with regard to drug smuggling, which was Rizzuto's main interest. However, the formal transfer of power did not take place until September 16, 1984 when Cotroni succumbed to cancer. Cotroni was buried in a large procession, with Vito Rizzuto , son of Nick, present as a representative of the mourning Sicilian leaders , who was later to be considered the head of the Mafia in Montreal and Canada and initiated the process that established the connection with the Bonanno -Family slowly separated.

literature

• Lee Lamothe & Adrian Humphreys: The Sixth Family. The Collapse Of The New York Mafia And The Rise Of Vito Rizzuto ; John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. 2008; ISBN 978-0-470-15445-8