By David Amoruso for Gangsters Inc.
If the American mafia had a fame, Santo Trafficante Jr. would be. A legendary figure that ruled Cosa Nostra's operations in Florida, he was involved in all high -level shady transactions that involved the crowd, the CIA and the politicians that are both twisted and honest to the White House. Imagine having to fill your shoes like his successor. Not an easy job. However, exactly the hand Vincent Loscalzo was treated.
Vincent Loscalzo was born on May 6, 1937 in Alesandria della Rocca, Sicily. His family emigrated to the United States and settled in New Orleans before moving to Tampa, Florida. Vincent's brother Antonio remained in New Orleans where he would later forge close ties with the local mafia family led by Carlos Marcello.
In Tampa, it was Angelo Loscalzo, Vincent and Antonio's father, who laid the foundations for their future in organized crime. He became known as “The Hammer” after joining the family managed by Santo Trafficante where he dealt with the problems that needed violence.
Game, bars and fairs
Vincent followed his father in “The Life” and got involved in the game. He learned the strings of Tony Castellana, a runner of figures who also exploited a bar and gave aspiring advice in the operation of this company.
While he expressed himself in Tampa's underground world, Loscalzo met his father's friends as well as in the next generation of gangsters. One of them was Frank Albano with whom he founded a company named Sal Incorporated whom they used in 1976 to buy a bar called Mike's Lounge.
“They used it as a base of operations,” wrote Tampa Mafia Scott Deitche expert in his book Cigar City Mafia. “Mike quickly became a home of criminal activities, with stolen goods, drug affairs and illegal games of chance throughout the bar.”
Become protected from trafficking
Loscalzo had become, at that time, at that time, very close to the boss of the Santo Trafficante family. He was considered by many to be his protégé and frequently acted as a driver for trafficking as he went around the city to check his businesses.
Trafficante was one of the most respected mafia patterns in the United States. His last name returned with the origins of the organization thanks to his father Santo Trafficant senior. Traffic junior himself had seen and did just as well and had worked with all key players, legendary mafiosi as “Lucky” Luciano,, Meyer LanskyTony Accardo, Sam Giancana, Carlos MarcelloThe list continued.
Whenever another Mafia family set foot in Florida, they touched the base with trafficking. This was the case when he obtained a word from the Bonanno crime family In New York, a capo named Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano asked for a meeting to discuss the possibilities that his crew made business in Florida.
As with any other meeting, Loscalzo accompanied trafficking until you sit with the Bonanno Family Wiseguys. He worked as a traffic confident and joined him during negotiations with the New York Wiseguys. The Bonanno crew had already exploited a club named the King Court which had taken up an illegal casino in the city of Holiday, Florida. They had organized a casino evening to rattle in cash and hoped that they could obtain the support for trafficking to extend their business.
After Trafficante gave its blessing, the crew prepared for a big day of pay.
Meet Donnie Brasco
Unbeknownst to Trafficante, Loscalzo and Napolitano, however, the king's court was not really their operation. It was managed by the FBI. At the end of the 1970s, he began a major infiltration operation called Coldwater. The FBI has set up the King court to attract and identify gangsters and document their illegal activities.
The whole operation was funded by the fact that the New York FBI infiltration agent Joseph Pistone could bring Sonny Black's crew to come to Florida and invest in the bar. Pistone had infiltrated the Bonanno family as Donnie Brasco, a jewelry thief, and had come closer to Napolitano and the soldier of Bonanno Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero.
The blessing of a traffisting gave all the operating wings. The Bonannos were impatient to score a big one and organized an evening in Las Vegas at the King's Court. A third of the earnings had to go to Trafficante. It had to be the start of a very lucrative partnership.
But before it happened to this point, the local police went down to the joints. The FBI frightened and pulled its local infiltration agents and ended Operation Tampa. In total, in 1982, 60 gangsters, including trafficking, and the members of the Bonanno and Lucchese Families of crimes were arrested for racketeering, game, perjury, theft, narcotics, extortion and corruption discovered by this investigations and related investigations.
The evidence against trafficking has however proven to be insufficient. In July 1986, the federal judge declared a trial on the seventh day of the racketeering trial against trafficking. He then acquitted the long -standing mafia chief of all accusations.
Now his long life of crime and his constant legal problems were starting to wreak havoc on traffic.
On March 17, 1987, he died at the age of 72.
The king is dead, long live the king
Although there are several men aimed at the crown, Trafficante had indicated quite clearly who was to follow her traces. As Scott Deitche wrote Cigar City Mafia: “The day before the funeral of Santo, the police observed that Loscalzo entered the Italian club Ybor City. The police were not let in and had no idea what was going on. The next day at the funeral, it was learned that a strange show had taken place.
Loscalzo had become the new official boss of the Tampa Mafia family. And with this came a lot of heat. It seemed that Loscalzo was ready for this.
Since the early 1980s, the Mafia Tampa had been in more white -type crimes, which caused the authorities to break them. Such a case revolved around a small Tampa community bank called Key Bank.
The president of the key bank Frank Pupello and several other employees, including Frank's brother, Sam, had close ties to the Tampa Mafia family and the traffic. So much so that the bank has approved several loans without asking questions.
One of the Loscalzo companies was loaned $ 120,000 to buy a jazz club in Tampa called Brother's Lounge. The authorities would claim that Loscalzo received loans totaling more than $ 250,000 in the early 1980s. Although the authorities tried to carry a case against Loscalzo and several other members of Tampa Mafia, including Frank Albano, in 1992, he did not drive somewhere.
Loscalzo had realized that white collar crimes were the way to follow.
In the early 1990s, his name appeared when the authorities envisaged two companies; Transstar and lubrication technologies. “Transtar was located in the same building as the Brother Salon and listed Loscalzo and the alleged gangster Salvatore Carollo as officers of the company,” wrote Deitche Cigar City Mafia.
The authorities have qualified a pyramidal scam companies. Companies would have sold a sophisticated oil purification system for heavy machines. They announced local newspapers asking people to invest. The investors then received a participation in the company and delivered a piece of paper naming them as an actuator. In reality, everything was worthless.
Meanwhile, their money increased the chain in Loscalzo.
In November 1992, the state authorities made a descent into the offices of the two companies, the Brother Fair and other houses and businesses related to the case. It would take some time, but in June 1994, Loscalzo was arrested for fraud and racketeering of accusations related to the program.
Things were going badly for Loscalzo, but again, the prosecutors had a hard time advocating. Faced with these difficulties, the government has agreed to plead agreements. Loscalzo did not argue any competitions for the sale of not registered security and received three years of probation.
Despite his entry into crimes in white collar, Loscalzo showed that he still had a blue collar criminal in him when he was arrested while riding a flight to Tampa international airport in 1992. He had packed a semi-automatic handgun. 380 in his case. It was noticed when the case went through the X -ray scanner and the alarms died.
However, as the 1990s ended, Loscalzo directed a fairly tight ship with regard to families of crimes. He had invested in car dealerships and several bars and salons such as the Rumors, Imperial Liqueurs Fair, and always headed the Salon of his beloved brother.
Increasingly, he has established himself as a businessman above all. He had carried out links with many local politicians who allowed him to distance himself from any street crime. He was also an active member of several civic organizations, becoming an officer of the Italian club and member of the Krewe of Sant Yago du Chevalier.
Things have remained silent for the past two decades because it seemed that Loscalzo had taken a step back – perhaps even withdraw from the crowd. Throughout this time, New York Mafia families started to explore more criminal activities in Florida.
On August 19, 2025, Vincent Loscalzo died. He was 88 years old.
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