Friday, November 5, 2010

Bonanno Crime Family

The Bonanno crime family is one of the "Five Families" that controls organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia (or Cosa Nostra). Founded and named after Joseph Bonanno, this family was the first one of the New York families to be kicked off the Commission (the second was the Colombo crime family in the 1990s). The Commission is a council of the bosses that help to maintain order in the Mafia. The unacceptable infractions that lead to the family being kicked off was the allegation that the family was actively dealing heroin and the inner family fighting for control of leadership.
These were unacceptable crimes and the commission members decided to kick out the Bonanno family. Since then the family faced shaky leadership with acting boss Carmine Galante being murdered on the order of imprisoned boss Philip Rastelli. This family has suffered two major indignities. The first came in 1981 when they learned that an FBI agent calling himself Donnie Brasco had infiltrated their ranks. The second time was in 2004 when boss Joseph Massino, who previously brought the family back to respectable stature and back on the commission, became the first-ever Mafia boss in history to become an FBI informant.

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