When you think of Florida and organized crime, it is difficult to avoid conjuring up images of Tony Montana in Scarface, or the heyday of Miami Vice. However, while the Latin American drug trade has figured prominently in the sunshine state’s less savory history, so has the Mafia. In fact, Florida had the dubious distinction of being home to a decades-old Mafia criminal network: the Trafficante Family. And while cocaine-fueled Latin American criminal networks have been a serious problem in Florida for decades, the Trafficante family’s illicit activities were quite infamous as well.
A Crime Family’s Humble Beginnings
In the early 20th Century, Tampa was a small but growing city, and the organized crime it faced was modest. However, by the late 1920s, facing little pressure, Sicilian gangsters began setting up lucrative gambling and narcotics rackets. One small gang, led by Italian immigrant Santo Trafficante Senior, profited from the illegal lottery-style games they ran across Tampa. After a violent mob war left several of Trafficante’s rival’s dead or weakened, his gang rapidly rose to prominence in Tampa.
Trafficante was a ruthless mob boss, and quickly consolidated control over the criminal networks in Tampa. And despite relatively small time beginnings, Trafficante proved to be a shrewd mobster. He worked to expand the crime family’s business holding and territory – he was particularly interested in Cuba as a location for gambling, hotels and night clubs – and worked to cement good ties with his fellow mobsters in New York City. He even sent his son, Santo Trafficante Junior, to New York, to gain a better understanding of how the mafia operated there.
As law enforcement pressure increased on the Mafia in the late 1940s, Santo, fearing
prosecution, fled temporarily to Cuba. Trafficante enjoyed life in Cuba, developed a relationship with its strongman, the dictator Fulgencio Batista, and helped the Trafficante Crime family garner even more profits from its legitimate gambling operations there. Santo Trafficante Senior died in 1954. Afterwards, the son he had groomed to take his place, Santo Trafficante Jr., took the reins of the Trafficante crime family.
The Trafficante Family Under Santo Junior
Santo Trafficante Jr. had long followed in his father’s footsteps, and proved to be an even more effective Mafia kingpin. He maintained all of the lucrative casinos in Cuba, further cemented ties with powerful Mafia families he had established as a young man in New York, and ruthlessly put down any attempts to usurp his territory or power. However, there were events outside of the United States and even organized crime that inadvertently led Santo Trafficante Jr. to put his own peculiar stamp on American history.
After Cuban revolution, the Mafia saw Castro as a threat to their business. And the Trafficante Crime family found out that it had an unusual ally in their concerns about Castro: the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA came to Trafficante, and asked for his help in enlisting the Mafia to assassinate the Cuban leader. While the plot never came to fruition, Trafficante later testified that he did help the CIA recruit other mobsters for the surreal plot. Some people also alleged that Trafficante Jr played a role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy due to his anti-organized crime efforts, but Trafficante Jr. always denied it.
Trafficante Jr. controlled his Tampa-based crime network for over three decades. While he had several close calls with law enforcement – including the famed FBI Donnie Brasco investigation – he never spent a single day of his life in jail. After a lifetime in organized crime, Trafficante Jr. died of national causes in 1987. Following his death, Mobster Vincent LoScalvo took over the Trafficante family’s criminal network in Florida.
Aging Out – The LoScalzo Era
Buy the time LoScalzo took over in 1987, the Trafficante Crime Family was far past its heyday. Many of the family’s gangsters were in prison, or too old to be effective. However, LoScalzo was nonetheless able to expand the families criminal reach into new locations across Florida, and took advantage of alliances with other Mafia families to ensure the mob maintained its hold on criminal activities. Like Trafficante Jr. before him, had many close calls with law enforcement, but always escaped serious charges.
Late in life LoScalzo denied any connections to organized crime. In the mid-2000s, he would say he was a legitimate businessman, citing his ownership of a car dealership, and employment at various restaurants and night clubs over the years. Now in his late 70s or early 80s, LoScalzo is reported to be retired. And as for the rest of the Trafficante Crime family? There are few indicators that the family is still an active crime network. The mafiosos that made up the family are either retired, in prison, or have died due to old age. Other Mafia leaders, as well as newer organized crime networks, took over many of the rackets the family ran throughout the 20th Century.