“The Mafia put out a $500,000 contract on Pistone and kicked the Bonanno family off the Commission. FBI agents visited Mafia bosses in New York and advised them not to murder Pistone. The contract was dropped by Paul Castellano, who headed the Commission, because he thought killing a federal agent would "attract too much attention""
Got this quote directly from Wiki based on Joseph "Donnie Brasco" Pistone. My quesstion is, isn't mafia job a crime? Yet the FBI knew the ones involved (they certainly knew if they visited them) and didn't do anything about it (like arresting them, surely mafias did crimes right?), only going to persuade them from killing Joseph.
You can see Paul Castellano, named cleanly and clearly, yet I dont find any charges against him (at least, for putting a bounty on someone's head). It's as if maybe they had a treaty with the Police at the time.. Or the police had lack of substantial evidence of their activities to prosecute? I'm not an American so I'm still lacking much info on this, please help me out. Thanks!
And even if someone is caught in the act they have no reason to cooperate with the police. They know they are getting the best lawyers, and even if they go to jail they'll have a comfortable time inside and their wife and kids will be taken care of.