The Corleone crime family is an American Mafia organized crime syndicate that was founded in the 1920s by Vito Corleone, a Sicilian immigrant to New York City. The family took over Little Italy after the murder of Don Massimo Fanucci in 1920, and the Corleones became the most powerful of the "Five Families" after Corleone oversaw the elimination of the Black Hand terrorists, freelance shylocks, and unprotected bookmakers from 1934 to 1937. The Corleones would allow the other families to take over New York during the 1940s for the sake of peace, but Corleone took a stand when it came to the introduction of narcotics to the New York criminal underworld in 1945. Corleone was nearly assassinated by the Tattaglia crime family-backed drug dealer Virgil Sollozzo in December 1945 due to his failure to enter the drug business and extend his political protection to the other families; the other families were jealous of Corleone's power.
The Corleone family would fight against the other families from 1946 to 1955 in the "Five Families War", and the family conquered the other neighborhoods of the city, eliminated the leadership of the other families, and took over all of the rackets in the city. Under Don Michael Corleone, the family made a move to Las Vegas, leaving New York in the hands of Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio's crews. The Corleones made a profit from the casino business in Las Vegas and Cuba, although the family's casino operations in Cuba would end due to the 1959 Cuban Revolution. During the 1960 and 1970s, the family was legitimized, and its criminal activities were confined to New York.