Watch now: Is the mob back? Feds probe Buffalo Mafia after calling it all but dead
Read the full story from News Staff Reporters Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck
As featured on
Prosecutors say a respected teacher at Grover Cleveland High School ran a marijuana trafficking ring with connections to Buffalo's organized crime family.
Joseph C. Bella III “is absolutely not a member of any organized crime,” attorney Thomas J. Eoannou said. “I think the government is trying to connect dots that presently don’t exist.”
Federal prosecutors are looking for organized crime activities in a widespread investigation, just four years after the special agent in charge of the Buffalo FBI office said, “Some of the individuals who were leaders of the Mafia are still around. But their organized crime activities don’t exist anymore."
