Thread by @MobBuffalo

Philip La Rosa and Andrea Aiello: Two Immigrants Tied to The Buffalo and Sicilian Underworld

Philip La Rosa is described in news articles as prolific informant on Buffalo’s underworld including the heroin trafficking operation of Andy Aiello.

La Rosa Arrives in Buffalo in 1961
Sicilian born Philip La Rosa arrived at Buffalo in 1961 and quickly became involved in Buffalo’s underworld. With Italian being his first language Philip was described by law enforcement as speaking broken English.

Joins Local 210
Upon moving to Buffalo he quickly became a laborer in mob controlled Local 210 and by 1964 we was receiving disability pension payments from the local for a supposed injury he had incurred.

Gambling Arrest
La Rosa’s first know arrest was in 1966 after a raid on a mafia run gambling center located at 858 Prospect Ave. in Buffalo.

A number of those who were arrested included known members and associates of the Magaddino family.

Pat Natarelli
Dan Sansanese (Sr.)
Nick Rizzo
Albert Billiteri
Benny Spano
Sam Frangiomore
Nick Fino
Billy Sciolino
Sam Todaro
Domenic Nigro

Counterfeiting Ring Arrest
In 1982 the government found over $100K in counterfeit fifty dollar bills in the roof of La Rosa’s car. Law enforcement indicated he was a middleman in an international counterfeiting ring. The fifty dollar bills were believe to be printed in Montreal.

La Rosa’s codefendant, Giuseppe Rizzolo, of Lewiston was the currier who picked the counterfeit money in New York City, presumable from Carlo Cusenza who was another codefendant from the Bronx.

Cusenza then transported the fake money to the Metro Transit Terminal in Buffalo where it was picked up by La Rosa and Betulia D’Agostino.

No Prison
La Rosa received no prison time for his involvement in this counterfeiting ring. In 1984 he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to three years probation.

Becomes an Informant
A few year later information surfaced that La Rosa had become a government informant. Defense attorneys, for those whom Philip had informed against, speculated his informer status was the reason he received no jail time.

Andrea Aiello & La Rosa
Shortly after La Rosa’s arrest for counterfeiting, another Sicilian born Buffalonian named Andrea Aiello was arrested for his involvement in a large scale heroin trafficking network.

Aiello came from Sicily to Buffalo in 1961,
Aiello came to the US the same year as La Rosa. Andrea first entered the US via Miami in May on a visitors visa. He later left the country and re-entered the US through New York City as a permanent resident in December of the same year.

He became an naturalized citizen in 1972 and was described as having family roots in Buffalo.

Just like La Rosa, Andy Aiello began working in the mob controlled Local 210 shorty after arriving in Buffalo.

In 1979 he opened a ceramic tile store in an old warehouse on Delaware Avenue in Niagara Falls.

Aiello Heroin Ring Arrest
On September 20, 1983 Andrea Aiello’s home in North Buffalo and tile businesses in Niagara Falls were subject to and early morning raid by authorities.

At his arraignment later that day Aiello was described as the kingpin of a large heroin trafficking network. Prosecutors asked for bail to be 15 million dollars but was set at 2 million. In broken English Aiello denied knowing anything about the heroin.

When asked about the Aiello’s after Andy’s arrest his neighbors were tight lipped saying they “preferred not to answer.”

A Random Search?
The FBI indicated that Aiello’s heroin arrest was the result of a random search at Port Newark. During this search where enforcement authorities found and intercepted a shipment of heroin that had been aboard Italian ship Abler Maersk.

The Heroin was packed in wood pallets surrounding a shipment of granite headed to Aiello’s tile store.

Weeklong Surveillance Results in Arrests
The weeklong surveillance operation caught Andy sighting seeing in Niagara Falls with 3 individuals from New York City.

This surveillance operation resulted not only in Aiello’s arrest but the the arrest of 6 others: Lorenzo Scaduto of Long Island, Salvatore Bartolotta of Queens, Angelo Golio of Bronx, Michael Altamura of Queens, Fillipo Ragusa of Queens. Peter Graffeo & Domenico Logalbo of Sicily

Aiello and The Sicilian Connection
Later that week authorities indicated the drug route was part of the Sicilian connection and tied to the Gambino mafia clan of Palermo Sicily.

Italian authorities indicated Filippo Ragusa had previously been charged along with 74 others in the Sicilian connection that had shipped an estimated $600 million worth of heroin into the US from Palermo, Sicily.

Mr. Galluzza a journalist from Italy who is recognized as a expert on Italian organized crime told the Buffalo News through and interpreter that Ragusa was “very big in the Sicilian mafia.”

Family & Social Connections
Those arrested in NY City were said to h numerous familial and social connections to each other. In fact, Andy Aiello’s brother Joseph and nephew Michael Ducato were arrested for their alleged involvement a few months later.

Joe Aiello, Andy’s Brother
Joe Aiello, got caught talking to Andy about the 3 pound heroin shortage in the shipment that had been under surveillance. He was never did time. Like his brother he was part of Local 210.

In the mid to late '80's Joseph became a union steward and worked for paving and bridge construction companies that utilized laborers from local 210. During the 80’s steward positions were often no-show jobs for members and associates of the Buffalo mob and their family.

Jospeh Aiello married Rose Sciortino on August 26, 1964. Their son John J. Aiello married Lina DeLuca on Saturday, June 6, 1992 at All Souls Catholic Church in Hamilton, Ontario. Her parents were Salvatore and Matilde DeLuca of Stoney Creek.

Their reception was held at Samuel’s Grand Manor which wis owned by the Pezzino family. Joe Pezzino, a rumored made man in the Buffalo crime family, is alleged by Buffalo lawyer William Iannaccone to have embezzled his father’s money and laundered in a Reno Casino with...

Frank Ciminelli. Pezzino then took laundered proceeds to start Samuel’s Grand Manor. Iannaccone writes:
"Since 1983, I began investigating a million dollar investiment in US Savings Bonds, that rightfully belonged to my father.

I brought the case to Surrogate's Court for an accounting. The evidence of the money trail shows, my Uncle Joe embezzled and was involved in the laundering of those funds in 1972. The funds were taken to Harrah's Casino, in Reno, Nev., and reported as gambled away, ...

under my Soc. Sec. number. Then, under the guise of the proceeds of the sale of Wallace Transport Trucking Co., partially owned by Joe's brother, Sam, the funds were invested into Samuel's Grande Manor in 1978, the year my mother died."

Andy Aiello an Unknown?
Initially the Buffalo News reported that Andrea Aiello was a “virtual mystery man” to local and federal law enforcement. Law enforcement told reporters that he had gone “almost unnoticed.”

One investigator who lived just three block from Aiello said he “almost never heard Aiello’s name on the streets even though he probes underworld activities on a full-time basis. Another investigator called him “Mr. Clean.”

Headlines read, “Authorities Admit Being in Dark on Buffalo ‘Heroin connection.’”

Whistle Blower Discredits LE Reports
However a few days after these headlines a whistle blower contacted the Buffalo News and challenged these law enforcement statements.

The Buffalo News reported that this “source” believed “federal agencies - particularly the DEA - had dragged their feet after obtaining information about Aiello’s part in the Sicilian Connection in 1979.

This source indicated that U.S Customs and the DEA knew that Aiello had suspected Andy’s involvement with heroin trafficking “since at least may 15, 1979.”

The Memo
This whistleblower provided journalist Dan Herbeck of the Buffalo news with a “three-page memo from the U.S. Customs Services printed on U.S. Treasury letterhead dated June 18th, 1979.

It indicated customs officials had placed a “watch notice” on shipments from Italy to Aiellos tile shop. Herbeck wrote, “This documents sheds some doubt on the depiction of Aiello as a “relative unknown” by federal agents…

It also sheds doubts on reports from federal agents that a “routine search” of a shipment of marble tile” destined to Aiello’s shop resulted in law enforcement finding out about this heroin operation. The memo indicates that the U.S.

Treasury was involved because “Aiello and Italian Ceramic Tile were subjects of an investigation regarding alleged currency violations related to the smuggling of Heroin in Italian ceramic articles.”

Aiello’s Linked to Sicilian Scaduto Family
The memo told authorities that Aiello’s tile business was linked with the Scaduto family of Bagheria, Italy who reportedly participated in over-seas heroin trafficking by concealing these narcotics in shipments of ceramic tile.

Aiello Sentenced to 26 Years
In July of 1984 Andrea Aiello was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Lawyers argued for a mistrial because Juror 1 had received “unauthorized communication from a third party.” A summary describes the incident as follows:

Juror number 1 received two anonymous phone calls asking for her by name and inquiring whether she was serving on a jury. During the second call the man said he wanted her to help a friend of his but he did not name anyone.

In both cases, she hung up. Upset and alarmed, she telephoned the FBI and described herself to duty officer Marilyn Luck as "terrified." On the officer's advice, she spent the evening elsewhere without incident. On the following morning, as she was leaving her home, she was...

approached by a man whose voice she identified as the one she had heard on the telephone the day before. When the man, in an accent that "might have been Italian," asked whether she was Natalie, the juror rolled up the window of her car and drove off to the courthouse.

An appeal court ruled the presiding judge was was right in not declaring a mistrial.

Andy’s Release & Death
Prison records indicate Aiello was released in March of 1993. Aiello only lived for a few more years. He died suddenly on January 17, 1997.

Rumors
Rumors around Buffalo suggest Andy’s brother Joe took over his sport book while he was in prison. They also suggest Andrea was a made man and that there was a large party thrown for him when he got out of prison in which he received lots of fat envelopes for doing his time

La Rosa Outed as an Informant
In February ’89 a WKBW newscast outed La Rosa as an federal informant and he was moved out of state by federal authorities.

This move had already been in the works as the U.S attorney’s office had earlier sponsored La Rosa for membership in WITSEC the Federal Witness Security Program because by late ’88 and early ’89 word had his informer status had already begun to spread Buffalo’s underworld.

When questioned various law enforcement officials confirmed that Philip had been a “key FBI informant for over 6 years.”

La Rosa Informed on Aiello
Law enforcement officials also indicated that La Rosa had “led the FBI to the 1983 arrest of Andrea Aiello.”

Indeed these officials stated that Philip was “one of the most productive paid informers in the history of the local underworld.”

Defense lawyers in the BUSICO (Buffalo Sicilian Connection) cases theorized that La Rosa did not serve any jail time for his counterfeiting arrest...

because he had flipped and started informing about underworld activities in Western New York.

La Rosa and BUSICO
The Buffalo News reported that La Rosa helped undercover agents Joseph Clyne and Thomas Thurston establish a bogus import-export business in Hamburg, ...

a Southtowns suburb of Buffalo. Philips activity didn’t stop there. Officials indicated he traveled throughout the US and Italy with these undercover agents introducing them to drug traffickers in both countries. His activity led to over 200 arrests in Italy & the United States.