Milazzo was a loyal ally of the Bonanno-Magaddino-Bonventre clan of Castellammare, which in the early 1900s was at war with the equally powerful Buccellato clan over rights to control their area of Castellammare in the province of Trapani. The war between the two Castellamerese Mafia clans followed the many Castellamarese immigrants and Mafia members who found their way across the Atlantic to the large American cities like New York City, Chicago and Detroit where they settled and continued to participate and organize Mafia activities.