Born in the Sicily in 1899, Frank Coppola arrived in Detroit in 1926 and established himself as an invaluable member of the Detroit underworld. Coppola masked his criminal activities by establishing a string of successful legitimate enterprises. A reknowned womanizer, Frankie Fingers struck up a relationship with a young attractive member of the Teamsters union clerical staff by the name of Sylvia Pagano. Pagano was familiar with several Detroit underworld figures as her late husband Sam Scaradino was a fringe player. Pagano had recently ended an affair with an up and comer in the labor business known as Jimmy Hoffa. Pagano introduced Hoffa to Coppola who arranged an introduction with Santo Perrone, Angelo Meli and other highly placed members of the motor city underworld during the early '30s. With the help of Perrone "then the foremost strikebreaker in the area," and Coppola Hoffa was able establish the Teamsters as a powerful labor union on a par with the AFL-CIO. In exchange for their help, Jimmy offered up Detroit's trucking industry to the mob. Coppola was instrumental in Hoffa's rise through the labor ranks offering support once again when the Teamsters made their big push forcing the AFL-CIO out of Detroit in 1941. Frank's fringe involvement with the violence surrounding the labor battles fought by the unions was enough to earn him the attention of federal officials who placed on their list of undesirable criminals. Coppola became one of the first members of the Detroit outfit to be deported when he was shipped back to his birthplace near Partininco, Sicily in 1948. Coppola's departure from the motor city provided the outfit with a golden oppurtunity to expand their influence and involvement in the sale and importation of heroin.
Coppola in Italy
Frank's arrival in Italy followed that of Lucky Luciano the head of the Americain Mafia and a fellow Detroit racketeer by the name of Salvatore Vitale. Vitale was a relative of Coppola's friend and business partner John Priziola and was heavily involved in the importation of heroin from Italy to the states. Upon his arrival in Italy Coppola took note of the operation and made a move to shove Vitale aside. Being that Coppola's position within the outfit was much higher than that occupied by Vitale, Coppola naturally asumed he would have no trouble out of Vitale. Coppola was surprised and dismayed when Salvatore balked at given up control of the operation which included delivery points in Windsor, Ontario Canada, Chicago, New York, Tiajuana, Mexico and San Diego. The Detroit faction of the Partininco connection was headed by Papa John Priziola and included key figures Onofrio Minaudo, Joe Catalanotte and Rafaelle Quasarano. This group oversaw the landing of the heroin and arranged for key distributors to be placed in each location. The operation grew to include at least 4 seperate crime families. In each case the contact man in each of these families was somehow related to one of the Detroit leaders. Unhappy with being shoved aside in the drug trade, Vitale set up his own operation and attempted to compete with the Coppola group but was no match for the experience, influence and cunning of his superior. Vitale soon found himself at odds with Coppola and solicited the help of Lucky Luciano to intervene on his behalf. Inspite of Lucky's support, Vitale's argument fell on deaf ears and he was forced to stand down in the face of insurmountable odds. Under Coppola's guidance the operation shipped it's product into the motor city through Peter Gaudino Import Co and a fish store owned by Peter Tocco, a nephew of Angelo Meli. On the opposite end of the country, the ring smuggled the drugs into San Diego from Tiajuana, Mexico where Tony Mirabile held sway over the rackets. The San Diego faction also included several members of the Matranga family who were related to both Papa John Priziola and Salvatore Vitale by marriage. Angelo Meli arranged for shipments to be sent on to New York where his son-in-law Frank Livorsi and Big John Ormento of the Luchesse family handled dispersement to the 5 families of New York. The Partninco operation used any method available at their disposal to ensure delivery of a steady supply to their customers. The ring was known to use planes, ships and illegal immigrants to ferry their wares. At one time the ring disguised a shipment of narcotics in sardine cans. The key contact man for each of the state side delivery points was Rafaelle Quasarano. Quasarano was dealt directly with Livorsi and Ormento providing Papa John and Angelo Meli a layer of protection.
Trouble
The smooth run of the ring was interupted in April 1952 when authorities intercepted a green trunk as it arrived in Detroit from Coppola in Italy. When the trunk was seized and searched, drug enforcement agents found $80,000 worth of heroin hidden beneath some old clothes. This seizure prompted a trip by Quasarano to Italy where he met with Salvatore Vitale and who relayed the message to Vitale that the heat was on in the states and a new route of transportation would have to be used. Reading between the lines, Coppola promptly disappeared from his usual haunts leaving Vitale to conduct business in his abscense. The appearance of Quasarano in Italy in May of 1951 had been facilitated by an early unsuccessful trip by Anthony Giordano of St. Louis and Tony Cimino, Quasarano's right hand man who had failed in an attempt to locate Vitale in hopes of passing the same message. During the ensuing investigation Italian authorities arrested Coppola aides Serafina and Rosario Mancusco and launched a massive manhunt which failed in locating the deported smuggler. Inspite of their failure at catching the elusive Coppola, a phone book and several notes were discovered linking St.Louis crime figures Shorty Caleca, Tony Lopiparo, Anthony Giordano and John Vitale to the operation out of Detroit. It would be a year before Frankie Fingers would turn himself in but the charges were dropped shortly thereafter. During his time as a fugitive, Coppola had taken over the mafia famiy in Partininco arranging for the assassination of it's former leader. Coppola had also entered the kidnapping business and was wanted for the murder of two men who bungled one assignment and ended up killing a grandfather and his 13 year old grandson. In the end Frank Coppola beat off the attempts of law enforcement on both sides of the Atlantic to lock him up and in the process continued to operate in highly visible manner. Coppola was seen meeting with several American gangsters at the Grand Hotel des Palmes shortly before the murder of Albert Anastasia. While law enforcement can only surmise that the meeting concerned the high profile elimination of the mad hatter, the true topic of the meeting between Joe Bonanno, Carmine Galante, Vito Vitale and Lucky Luciano has never been determined. Eight years would pass before Coppola would make headlines again when he was arrested on August 2, 1965 in the company of several famous mafia figures such as Giuseppe Genco Russo, Giuseppe Maggadino, Calogero Orlando, Joseph Cerrito, Tom Russo and Gaspare Magaddino. In addition to several individual charges for smuggling, kidnapping, bombing and murder, the group was hit with meeting to commit crime. The charges in this case as with so many others folded shortly thereafter and Coppola continued to operate as openly as before. Following the death of Lucky Luciano in 1962, Frank Coppola was often called the most powerful mafia figure in Italy and was accused of every major crime committed in the country including plotting the bombing of Angelo Mangano an Italian investigator who develved into the operations of the mafia. Coppola was arrested in June of 1975 and charged with attempted murder. After a lengthy trial the aging mob leader was acquitted and lived quietly untill his death at the age of 83 after a bout with lung cancer. Coppola had engaged in the sale, manufacture and exportation of narcotics and phony currency since his arrival in Italy 34 years earlier but had managed to slip by every drag net setup to trap him.
