According to the testimony provided by Vincent Palermo, the later Acting Boss of the DeCavalcante crime family, Amari was a prominent and ruthless captain before being promoted to the acting Underboss after the imprisonment of longtime family boss, Giovanni Riggi, who had been put on trial for racketeering and extortion charges after developing a great influence inside most of the unions in New Jersey together with Amari. Amari was reportedly a powerful labor racketeer of Newark, New Jersey during the 1980s, and was almost charged with Riggi in extorting the unions into ripping of their welfare and pension funds in the early 1990s.