Carlos, Meet Frank. Frank, Meet Carlos. An Alliance is Formed

The involvement in the bar, know as the "Brown Bomber," allowed Carlos to expand his world of friendship to reach upper levels of the Black Hand. The bar offered gambling halls and whorehouses, drug dens and bars that stayed open all hours and catered for anyone, of any age. It soon established a reputation as a good place to score drugs, drink and gamble around the clock. As it grew the bar brought many of the Mafia members into contact with Carlos. By the age of twenty-five, Carlos was a "made" member of the Mafia. He had linked up with Frank Todaro, a capo or crew chief, in the Matranga crime family and was sponsored by him into the Mafia. The northern Mafia organizations were constructed along strict lines of management control. They had created a structure of power that worked down from a family boss to the street soldiers. To avoid problems and mediate on territorial disputes, these Mafia clans answered to a ruling body called the commission, a kind of court made up of the heads of the more powerful families. The organization of the Louisiana Mafia was different. It was an organization of individual entrepreneurs, linked sometimes by family ties, but not always. In many ways it more resembled the Sicilian Mafia than its American counterparts. The only one operating in the area, it did not have to worry about territorial disputes. Many members of the Louisiana Mafia operated their own businesses and ran with a degree of freedom and individuality that did not exist in other crime centers of America. This freedom and lack of strict territories allowed Carlos and his brothers to set up a pinball and jukebox-distributing business. They soon were forcing their way into bars and restaurants throughout the area. Profits began to roll in, but this taste of money only made Carlos hungrier for even larger profits. The business that displayed the level of profit he wanted to obtain was found in the sale and distribution of illegal drugs. He saw the huge profits to be made in drug trafficking. Starting in a small way in 1935, by the end of 1937, he and four partners had built up what the Federal Narcotics Bureau described as the major marijuana ring in the New Orleans area. Carlos began making huge profits from the drug trade, but was arrested on drug charges and faced a long prison term and fine. Pulling the political strings he held so firmly in his hands, he dealt with the fine and sentence by paying only a four hundred dollar fine and receiving a release from his sentence, al due to intervention by the state governor.

Go To Page: 1 2