Michael Coppola has been working for the Genovese family since the 1960s. He became a made man in the late 1970s and was part of a notorious Genovese hit team known as "The Fist", according to government documents. This team performed murders ordered by the Genovese administration in the late 1970s and 1980s. Coppola was involved in labor racketeering in the trucking industry and New Jersey docks. Coppola served almost five years in prison from 1979 to 1983 for conspiracy and extortion. Coppola became an acting caporegime (captain) while Tino Fiumara was in prison in the 1980s and 1990s, running the day-to-day activities of the New Jersey faction Fiurama had orders relayed to him.