He worked as a laborer and then as a seller of fruit and vegetables, before entering the mob.
To someone who goes around robbing banks, it can happen that he loses his fingers.He was a major drug trafficker with strong ties to the Detroit Partnership with Angelo Meli and the St. Louis crime family particularly Anthony "Tony" Giordano.
He settled in Ardea, near Rome, where he invested all the money accumulated, in real estate.
In Italy, he allegedly dealt with clean business, however according to the judicial authorities, he was at the center of large drug trafficking operations.
In the last period of life because of poor health, Coppola was hospitalized for over a year in an Aprilia clinic.