 They started with petty larceny and murder and raised themselves to become prominent leaders of a new generation of mafiosi in the 1950s and 1960s who made their fortune in real estate transactions, cigarette smuggling and heroin trafficking.The brothers were bent on transcending the indignities of their poverty.Angelo la Barbera became the protégé of a local Mafia boss, and by 1952 they had organized a building supply company.