Domenico Violi is a salesman, husband, father of two and a popular figure in the Italian community that makes up much of Hamilton, Ont. Violi is also the self-described underboss of the Buffalo Mafia.

Just four years ago, the FBI chief in Buffalo said the Mafia here was all but dead. “Some of the individuals who were leaders of the Mafia are still around,” said Adam S. Cohen, then special agent in ...

Standing over a boiling pot of pasta in the kitchen of his popular La Nova restaurant on Buffalo’s West Side, Joseph A. Todaro dipped his manicured hand into the water and fished out a piece of pasta.