After being promoted Caporegime during the 1980s by boss Giovanni Riggi, D'Amato became heavily involved in large labor and construction racketeering operations with prominent New Jersey mobsters Giacomo Amari and Girolamo Palermo. D'Amato of the powerful Elizabeth faction of the DeCavalcante crime family, was soon a cooperator of high-ranking members "Big Ears" Charles Majuri and Gaetano Vastola in illegal gambling and loansharking operations.