I knew Don Lupara wanted a private conversation with me. Hopefully it was not to slit my throat! After dinner one night at the “family compound” Don Lupara “invited” me for a chat, just him and me! We had yet another coffee and grappa. Boy those Italians drink coffee like water and just as fast!
Don Lupara got right to the point saying he had wanted to kill me after I “violated” his little “Sugar Cube” namely Ginevra his daughter. Yes sir that made me feel mighty comfortable. But it was clear to him Ginerva was mad about me and for that I would be spared a swim with the fishes.
He then told me about himself most of which Ginevra had already related to me. At a young age he was smuggling cigarettes making contraband runs around the Bay of Naples. As a young teen he was useful to the Camorra as authorities rarely pressed charges against minors. He moved on to starting his “new business” of importing and distributing hashish and cannabis. Then he dropped a bomb saying essentially, we were of the “same blood”? Don Lupara knew my father Paneer Gurdeep as he imported from him super premium hashish the Neapolitans loved. His rivals peddled inferior Moroccan hashish they sold at the identical price and subsequently lost almost all the hashish market. Did Lupara think I was a drug exporter? I made it clear I was not a narcotics exporter and treading on fragile ground I said narcotic importing and distribution were “honourable professions”. This pleased Lupara immensely. Why I said that as in my mind it was cowardly “self preservation” and a portent of fidelity to his little “Sugar Cube” and my sweet Italian plum.
Lupara asked me to join the “family”. Was this an offer I couldn’t refuse? Don Lupara had graduated from moving soft drugs such as hashish and cannabis to cocaine and heroin as the latter were easier to transport and conceal. If I was to join the family what would my role be? I am above all a businessman and not a killer nor a boiled sweets salesman.
Lupara “invited me” on a tour of his operations warning me if I ever double crossed him or his daughter. He would “dispose” of the problem that problem being me! With his track record of murder and assassination and remembering the goat head delivered to me in New York Don Lupara was not to be taken lightly.
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