In 1941 Marco met another young man of about the same age from the neighbourhood by the name of Alphonse Vercetti. He was from the old country too and came to America to work for the newspaper "The Liberty Tree" cleaning the rollers in the printing shop floor – he was also borderline psychotic. His idea of fun was to pack a shotgun with clay and bet an acquaintance to shoot the side of a barn at 20 paces. The gun would explode with predictably unpleasant results.
Like Marco and Antonio, he too craved the power and respect he felt he deserved. The 3 of them clicked in an instant and a plan began to emerge.
In 1942 the government finally caught up with Sindacco. He was charged with Tax evasion and even though he had the best lawyers in the country he was found guilty. By using his political power he only managed to reduce the sentence to a minimum 8 years with no chance of parole. In the summer of 42 he was sent to the west coast as far as possible from Liberty to the now demolished prison of Hellcatraz in San Fierro. News broke out and there was both jubilation and sorrow.
While in a prison it was decided that Luchiano's Consigliore, Joseph Rosenberg, a German banker, be made acting Capo. This was a fatal error; Joseph was nothing like the old man. He didn't have the same ruthlessness, leadership or political power – His under bosses were on no help either, they were not born leaders like Luchiano was - Things started to fall apart, people stopped paying protection money, the illegal gambling dens all over Liberty were being raided by police and Sindacco turf was being fought over daily.
Antonio, Marco and Alphonse seen this opening, they already began to build up their own power and influence but now was their time to strike. With the old man out of the picture they were free to step up and take the city.
They all saw liquor was where the big money was to be made.
Within a few weeks the trio began to muscle in on Sindacco's turf. Vercetti had his gang of equally psychotic men go to work on the illegal breweries all over Portland. Antonio's men began to move in on the Union rackets all over Staunton and the hijacking of Sindacco's liquor trucks was frequent. Marco got to the point where he practically owned all prostitution in Portland. Eventually this sparked the Sindacco Wars of 1944–1950; the streets of Portland flowed with blood,
Business was good for the trio. They were all married within the a few years, the Sindaccos however were fast losing control and with each year Antonio, Marco and Alphonse grew more powerful. Luchiano was helpless to do anything as he received infrequent and often inaccurate reports in prison.
In 1947, although they were making plenty money on selling liquor, Marco soon realized that there was something much more profitable than selling hooch – Narcotics.
Drug peddling considered an "unclean" trade by Sindacco and many of the other old Mafia bosses but there was one crime overlord In Liberty who was interested in expanding into Narcotics, the Jewish Gambler and rackets master Meyer Rothstein.
Rothstein arranged to have the drugs brought into Liberty from Bogota, Columbia through a Military associate known only as Cortez, but he need some muscle behind his hustle. It was agreed that Vercetti and Marco would deal with distribution on the streets and any protection needed.
Antonio was a little old fashioned and was strongly against the selling of drugs. He has build up some political power over the years and didn't want to risk losing it. The politician's seen liquor and gambling as fairly harmless vices but drugs were another matter and there was a risk they might abandon Antonio. Marco and Vercetti refused to stop selling it and it caused tension among the ranks.