Detroit Partnership

This article is about the organized crime group. For the University of Michigan organization, see The Detroit Partnership.

Detroit Partnership
Joseph Zerilli and William Tocco
Foundedc. 1908; 116 years ago (1908)
FounderPietro Mirabile
Founding locationDetroit, Michigan, United States
Years activec. 1908–present
TerritoryPrimarily the Detroit metropolitan area, with additional territory throughout Michigan as well as Windsor, Toledo, San Diego, Tucson, South Florida, Las Vegas and Partinico[1]
EthnicityItalians as "made men" and other ethnicities as associates
Membership (est.)40–50 made members (2011)[2]
ActivitiesRacketeering, illegal gambling, murder, loan-sharking, narcotics trafficking, smuggling, fraud, money laundering, labor racketeering, sports betting, bookmaking, bootlegging, police corruption, pornography and prostitution[3]
Allies
Rivals
  • Purple Gang
  • and various other gangs in the Detroit area

The Detroit Partnership (also known as the Detroit crime family, the Detroit Combination, the Detroit Mafia, the Zerilli crime family (Italian pronunciation: [dzeˈrilli]), and the Tocco–Zerilli crime family) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in Detroit, Michigan. The family mainly operates in Detroit and the Greater Detroit area, as well as in other locations including Windsor, Ontario; Toledo, Ohio; and Las Vegas.

Italian organized crime in Detroit originated in Black Hand extortion rings, which preyed upon the southern Italian and Sicilian immigrant communities in the city. After a series of gang wars between various Mafia factions for control of Italian lottery and extortion rackets during the early 20th century, a period of stability followed under the control of Salvatore Catalanotte.[9] During the Prohibition era, a gang of Detroit Mafiosi known as the River Gang smuggled Canadian beer and liquor into the United States from Ontario and controlled most of the bootlegging market in Southeast Michigan.[10] The Detroit Mafia also formed close links with Toledo, a major hub for bootlegged whiskey.[11] Following another period of internecine warfare in the Detroit Mafia known as the Crosstown Mob Wars in 1930 and 1931, the modern Detroit Partnership was formed, led by Angelo Meli, Joseph Zerilli, William "Black Bill" Tocco, John Priziola and Peter Licavoli.[10]

The Partnership consolidated power in the Detroit–Windsor region throughout the 1940s and 1950s.[10] The organization's membership peaked at approximately 100 "made men" in the 1960s.[2] Utilizing its close links with the Sicilian Mafia, the Partnership became a major distributor of heroin in North America after World War II.[4][12] During the 1960s and 1970s, the Detroit family infiltrated the casino industry in Nevada, "skimming" profits from The Frontier and the Aladdin in Las Vegas, and the Edgewater in Laughlin.[13] Other pivotal operations of the organization included horse race betting and illegal sports betting. After decades of avoiding major prosecutions by law enforcement, in part due to its secretive nature, the Partnership was weakened when the organization's leaders were indicted under the RICO Act as part of the FBI's Operation Gametax in 1996.[2][10] Despite numerous convictions which resulted from the Gametax investigation, the Detroit family continues to operate in the 21st century.[2][14] As of 2011, the Partnership consists of an estimated 40 or 50 "made" members.[2]

As a result of an edict issued in 1931 by William Tocco and Joseph Zerilli, that members of the organization must marry the daughters, sisters, nieces or cousins of other members, in a measure to ensure loyalty, the Detroit Partnership has been affected significantly less by defections, law enforcement infiltration and infighting than other Mafia families in the United States.[2][15] Only one "made" member of the Partnership has ever testified against the organization.[2] The crime reporter Scott Burnstein has called the Detroit family "the picture of success, stability, functionality and diversification".[11]

  1. ^
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "Organized Crime In Detroit: Forgotten But Not Gone". CBS Detroit. James Buccellato and Scott M. Burnstein. June 24, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2016. Archived March 26, 2023, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^
  4. ^ a b Heroin & The 20th Century Detroit Mafia Scott Burnstein, The Gangster Report (July 12, 2014) Archived October 19, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ The Detroit Mafia & The Buckeye State: Toledo, Other Ohio Towns Long Fell Under Michigan Mob's Thumb Scott Burnstein, The Gangster Report (February 24, 2016) Archived October 20, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^
  7. ^
  8. ^ Whitey Bulger & The Detroit Mafia: Boston's Winter Hill Gang Came To Motown To Fix Horse Races Scott Burnstein, The Gangster Report (November 2, 2018) Archived October 19, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Burnstein 2006, p. 7.
  10. ^ a b c d Burnstein 2006, p. 8.
  11. ^ a b Organized crime: Then and now in metro area Lisa Brody, Downtown Newsmagazine (April 24, 2018) Archived October 1, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Buccellato, James (November 30, 2015). Early Organized Crime in Detroit: Vice, Corruption and the Rise of the Mafia. History Press. ISBN 9781467117548. Internationally, the organization played a pivotal role in facilitating the global heroin trade.
  13. ^ In Detroit, mob is down but is it out? Chicago Tribune (March 2, 2003) Archived May 28, 2024, at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ Buccellato, James (November 30, 2015). Early Organized Crime in Detroit: Vice, Corruption and the Rise of the Mafia. History Press. ISBN 9781467117548. The new godfather encouraged his lieutenants to marry off their children to sons and daughters of other Mafiosi. Zerilli bargained that members of the crime family were less likely to rat on one another if they were related. His intermarriage policy also reduced the likelihood of infighting within the organization. Zerilli's strategy paid off, and Detroit's mafia family was a pilar of stability, dominating organized crime in Detroit during the 1940s and '50s.