Colletti was born in Lucca Sicula, Sicily, Italy in 1897. After arriving in the United States he had several arrests in the New York City and New Jersey area before moving west and settling in Pueblo, Colorado. In 1920, while still residing in New York he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Around 1953, Colletti became the boss of the Denver mob after mafia boss Charlie Blanda was sent to prison and later retired from organized crime. In 1957, Colletti attended the ill fated Apalachin Conference in upstate New York and was one of the men that was arrested in the subsequent raid, outing him as a mobster. Up until the Apalachin fiasco, Colletti had only minor arrests such as for drunkenness, vagrancy and disorderly conduct.