just look at all the silver/white hair in that photo to know the average age of members.

i am of the belief that they still exist as a separate family. however to what extent and involved in what crimes we would need a new indictment to show that info.

as previously posted not too long ago the family cannot have more than 30 active members on the street. that number is only an estimate for those not imprisoned and still active. with that criteria the number may fall lower.

also no one likes to mention the fact that the family only operates in NJ. i realize they once had a crew that operated in NY but c'mon. the territory in NJ is being swallowed up by a myriad of different OC groups and we are to believe they still scratch out something in NY? in NY a city far greater in size, with a far greater amount of criminal groups working the rackets. somehow the decavs are still running a crew? i doubt it. this family does not even have total control of its own state let alone other territories out of state.

lastly i have said it before and will do again there is no more connect back to ribera,sicily in a criminal sense. do sicilians possibly continue to come over and settle in NJ? sure but there is no evidence proving that said sicilians are doing so to rebuild the decav family. citing a 2006 article that stated a connection still exists is not enough proof in 2023 of such a claim.

I believe your viewpoints are largely incorrect Vito.

1) The family always hovered around 30-40 members, plus additional associates. Today, I don't doubt they have an even smaller footprint. But thats no different than all remaining crime families in the U.S., even NYC's Five Families. (But as far as quality goes in NJ, and even elsewhere for that matter, well thats another conversation altogether)

2) As far as operating in NJ, and having to contend with a myriad of competitors, thats no different than NYC where there are tons of other OC-type gangs, of many ethnicities.

3) As far as not having total control of any one state. Just look at the state you speak of? NJ is a vibrant state that has always had at least 7 separate Mafia families operating on its turf, and all of them made a ton of money through the years. If the DeCav's are not making money in NJ, its due more to a sign of the times we live in, rather than NJ per se.

4) As far as maintaining connections back to Ribera, Sicily. Even in 2023, this group still maintains some ties to their homeland. In fact, the DeCavalcante crew is one of the very few crews that did keep ties. A fact that greatly aided them through the years. (But remember, every Mafia faction in America has fewer ties, if any, nowadays to their ancestral birthplace - thats just a fact of life in the American underworld). The mob all across America has been "Americanized."

to point 4 first i guess we need to clarify or establish what "ties to sicily" means in this context.

do we mean ties like the gambino family obviously has ties back to sicily through the inzerillo,gambino families amongst others. in that case there has been several fairly recent arrests on both sides of the ocean proving this connection. that is what i mean when i say there is no ties back to ribera for the decavs in that type of gambino family context. no one on here can state those type of strong ties exist for the decavs in present day.

we can disagree about the scope of criminality of this family that is fine. not having any current intell on family since 2015 doesnt help the matter. its possible they have gone quiet and continue to grind out rackets in nj on a small scale. its possible they have ceded territory or partnered up with other families to maintain some control of traditional rackets in the state. we may never know was only posting my un educated opinion.

always good to debate said topics ny mafia. you are one of a few on here who continues to keep an eye on present day MAFIA as well as a vast knowledge of MAFIA families from the past. with that being said is there any validity to charles majuri and liborio bellomo being related? i have never come across this connect before wonder if you know.

Good morning VC,

There are "familial" ties (at the very least), between the blood families of those in the U.S. and back in Ribera. And if in fact, mafiosi still exist in Ribera (which they do). Then it only stands to reason that if any of them decide to immigrant to the U.S., NJ's blood relations would come into play. Whether thats yesterday, today, or next year. Having said that, because they are such a small presence and have always been, you will never see the level of Sicilian/American activity like a family such as the Gambino's who number into the hundreds.

The same goes for their level of criminal activities. They are on the down low, as are each of the Five Families, and whatever out of state families still exist in America.

One only has to review the amount of indictments among NYC's Five Families in recent years (or the dismal lack thereof) to realize that. These families are massive compared to the DeCav's, yet, there have been very few arrests and cases. When I was a kid, there were literally hundreds and hundreds of cases annually. Multiple arrest nearly every week. Today? It's down to a trickle.

With a tiny membership, naturally the DeCav arrests are reduced proportionately. Correct? It's only common sense.
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And as for Majuri and Bellomo, I've never heard of any blood relations between them. I'm not saying it's not possible. But personally, I'm not aware of any.
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And lastly, I thank you for the compliment Vito, and the feeling is mutual. Its always nice to interact with nice posters (which is what I consider you).

Liborio Bellomo's grandmother on his mother's side was sisters with Charlie Mujuri's grandmother making Liborio Bellomo's mother Giovanna DiGiglio and Charlie Mujuri's father Frank Mujuri first cousins. One of Giovanna DiGiglio's sisters married into the Mujuri family.

Charlie Mujuri is half Riberese and Half Corleonese.

Why not ask the guy who said it

sorry didnt scroll back to check who made comment. was looking for another opinion is all.
it does make for a interesting familial connection and possible other connect to genovese. begging the question to whom do the decavs fall under gambinos and genovese?

history tells us the gambinos and is probably correct, however the genovese have the largest presence in NJ for any of 5 families at least as current activity, indictments and overall crews in state would suggest.

it may also be a time to note that according to most available intell senior member and possible admin member/leader philip abramo is brother-in-law to alan longo of the genovese.

NYMafia and Vito, you guys made my point better than I could or did.

[quote=NYMafia]I believe your viewpoints are largely incorrect Vito.

NY- I agree with almost everything of what you said however,
At some point in time American LCN, was so powerful and strong they didn’t need to maintain ties to Italy.

For what did they need Italy for during that point in time.

Fast forward today it is essential for the future for many of these LCN families to sustain and survive.

I’n 1988 Gotti has a meeting with John Riggi at the funeral home during Rotundo Sr’s wake.

At the meeting Gotti/Gambino’s officially took over the DeCalvs.
So that puts that to rest.

And it was because they had a lot of money making rackets at the time.

This is when the family was still very strong.
So it had nothing to do with them being defunct.

This was before the Weiss hit that Joe Wattts couldn’t get done and the DeCalvs were able to get done.
Afterwards supposedly they were respected a little bit more.

GOTTI WHACKED MY DAD: CANARY

By Kati Cornell Smith
August 17, 2005 4:00am
A mob turncoat testified that he blames John Gotti for his father’s murder, but denied that he is seeking revenge by taking the witness stand against the late Gambino boss’ son John “Junior” Gotti.

Anthony Rotondo, 48, a former mob capo, testified yesterday that he believes that the Dapper Don and the heads of the other four New York mob families ordered the 1988 murder of his father, a powerful capo in New Jersey’s DeCalvacante family.

“You don’t much like the Gotti family, do you, sir?” asked defense lawyer Marc Fernich, who represents “Junior” Gotti at his racketeering trial.

“Neither here nor there,” Rotondo replied during cross-examination.

“Isn’t it true that you’re testifying here to exact revenge against the entire Gotti family? In particular, you want to avenge your father’s murder by jailing the son of his suspected killer. Isn’t that a fact?” Fernich pressed.

“Nothing’s further from the truth,” Rotondo insisted.

Earlier in his testimony, Rotondo told the Manhattan federal jury that his father, Vincent “Jimmy” Rotondo, was shot to death in his car in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn.

“He was murdered in front of our house,” Rotondo testified.

During his father’s wake, John Gotti Sr. turned up with about 20 Gambino members in a “show of strength” and called DeCalvacante boss John Riggi into an office in the funeral parlor for an hourlong meeting, the turncoat testified.

When Riggi came out he “looked like he saw a ghost” and announced that the DeCalvacante crime family would from then on be “a family within a family” answering to Gotti.

“Do you believe the Mafia ruling commission in New York felt your father was too powerful?” Fernich asked.

“Yes,” Rotondo said.

Rotondo has fingered Junior Gotti for running the Gambino crime family while his father was behind bars, but yesterday said he knows very little about the relationship between the two.

“I know his father loved him very much. That I know,” the turncoat said.

There are plenty of reports that state Cleveland and Pittsburgh are defunct

1) L.E.
2) The “EXPERTS”
3) Even Wikipedia says it.

Show us where anyone of the above says that about the DeCalvs

Does the FBI agent that went undercover in 2015 say that anywhere?

101, I mean Majicrat
?

How do we know

Where does it say that?

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Hi BH, The main reason why Italy and America kept very close ties all through the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, even 1960s, was because many Italian/Sicilian mafiosi were either first generation or their blood families maintained close ties to blood relatives back in Campania, Calabria, and Sicilia. By the late 1970s forward, we're starting to see second and third generations becoming active. (and just like in the legit world, with Italians, Germans, Irish, Jewish, etc., the more americanized ethnicities lose the connections to their relatives back in their homeland).

So its not so much that they didn't "need" them or want them, I think it's more that the "ties the bound" them became severed.

But remember too, that the "homeland" was the incubator for several generations of mafiosi that staffed all the borgatas throughout America (and elsewhere for that matter).

And to answer the second part of your question about, "For what did they need Italy for during that point in time." My answer is this, for many decades (not years, but decades), Italy/Sicily/and their connections to France, Marseilles, Corsica, and the Middle East, greatly facilitated a multi-zillion dollar transatlantic narcotics pipeline that lined the pockets of many a mafiosi. Thats #!

#2, Then add in multimillion-dollar currency counterfeiting schemes, alien smuggling, and guys looking to avoid prosecution by "going on the lam to Europe (or vice versa) who were given safe harbor and protected by their "brothers" across the ocean, and you start to see just some of the benefits and reasons to maintain close ties and alliances between America and Italy.

Add to that, the fact that many Italian-born hoodlums were later "imported" to America to shore up the ranks of families like the Bonanno's, Gambino's, DeCavalcante's, etc., and there you have it!

Ok and I am not disputing anything you are saying I appreciate the fact that you have done probably as much or more research as anyone at this point.

The way I understood it was that when the Feds announced the end of Prohibition that is when LCN went heavy into Narcotics.

I still feel that in order to survive today a Borgata needs to have established ties to Italy for a couple of reasons recruitment being a major reason.

BH, I absolutely agree you, 100%, on the last point you made about fresh "recruitment" being vital to shore up a sagging "weak" Americanized Cosa Nostra.

Most of the American-born Italians of today DO NOT want any part of organized crime, Cosa Nostra, or otherwise. Young Italians today are generally much better educated than their forefathers and have tremendous opportunities in the legitimate world where they can make as much, and often times, much more money than in the rackets. And not risk jail and death and all the other pitfalls of the "Life."

And most of the young Italian men still drawn to that life today are, generally speaking, not of the same caliber or made of the same fiber as their predecessors. THATS a fact! They generally don't have the intelligence or moxie of a Frank Costello, Lucky Luciano, or Carlo Gambino. In a word, with few exceptions, they're ignoramuses who are looking for a quick fix for their lack of education and drive.

Trust me when I tell ya, that there ain't too many real smart, capable guys going into that line of work nowadays. lol

Grazie majicrat. Glad you approve

Rotondo said years ago the family invested in the orphanage in Ribera as a way to launder money, the Bonanno family was also involved.

It would be nice to find out if Charlie Mujuri's grown influence on the Family and his relations to Liborio Bellomo has played any part in the current politics of the Family. I don't think the Gambino Family has absorbed them and it's known they haven't but I don't think they're running the DeCavalcante Family or pushing them around. The investigation into Charles Stango gave us a picture of a independent Family with their own leadership. The relationship is probably just closeness and cooperation between the Sicilians in the Gambino Family and the DeCavalcante members with close ties to Sicily like the Bonanno Family's and Gambino Family's Sicilians back in the 80s. Charles Stango might just perceive the close relationship as being under them. Or like I said originally it could be that the Gambino Family is or was overseeing the DeCavalcante Family because of the tension that was in the Family at this time.

You might have doubt of their current links to Sicily and that's a fair assessment but consider the Bonanno Family had a large membership of guys who maintained ties to Sicily but many people believe it died out in the 1990s and 2000s. That was until the Cutrara investigation in Castellammare Del Golfo showed the connection is still there not only with towns in Trapani province but also in nearby Agrigento. Now compare it to the DeCavalcante Family who have always had ties to Ribera dating back to their formation of a Family. The Family's membership has mostly been from Ribera and other towns in Agrigento even to this day. There is at the very least a social link between them and some writers have said they are still criminally active. It's hard to believe the criminal element in these social circles just disappeared. Maybe the DeCavalcante Family just serve as a point of contact and act as middlemen to introduce them to other American Families for their friends in Sicily.

It would be nice to find out if Charlie Mujuri's grown influence on the Family and his relations to Liborio Bellomo has played any part in the current politics of the Family. I don't think the Gambino Family has absorbed them and it's known they haven't but I don't think they're running the DeCavalcante Family or pushing them around. The investigation into Charles Stango gave us a picture of a independent Family with their own leadership. The relationship is probably just closeness and cooperation between the Sicilians in the Gambino Family and the DeCavalcante members with close ties to Sicily like the Bonanno Family's and Gambino Family's Sicilians back in the 80s. Charles Stango might just perceive the close relationship as being under them. Or like I said originally it could be that the Gambino Family is or was overseeing the DeCavalcante Family because of the tension that was in the Family at this time.

You might have doubt of their current links to Sicily and that's a fair assessment but consider the Bonanno Family had a large membership of guys who maintained ties to Sicily but many people believe it died out in the 1990s and 2000s. That was until the Cutrara investigation in Castellammare Del Golfo showed the connection is still there not only with towns in Trapani province but also in nearby Agrigento. Now compare it to the DeCavalcante Family who have always had ties to Ribera dating back to their formation of a Family. The Family's membership has mostly been from Ribera and other towns in Agrigento even to this day. There is at the very least a social link between them and some writers have said they are still criminally active. It's hard to believe the criminal element in these social circles just disappeared. Maybe the DeCavalcante Family just serve as a point of contact and act as middlemen to introduce them to other American Families for their friends in Sicily.

Sonny what’s the beef with the dog?
Do you know him?
Of him?

Mind sharing?

I know in the book he he gave Giovanni a real hard time and the dog thought he sniffed out a rat, it turned out he did.

From what I remember from the book that was the main reason Stagno wanted to kill him.
Stagno at the time used as an excuse that the dog was disrespectful to the admin, I think that was a BS excuse the best Stagno was able to come up with.

What do you know about Cappozzi it seems that a few posters think the DeCalvs have nothing going on so if you personally know some of the rackets he is into please share so we can get a better picture of who and what is going on in the streets.

I thought that one of the issues with The Dog was that he had ingratiated himself to Riggi near the end of his life and that was one of the only reasons that he was made.

Oh well if wikipedia says it, it must be true BH. I never ever said they were defunct (depending on your definition of defunct). I said and maintain they're on life support. Thats a huge difference.

Read for yourself what you wrote.

Being downgraded to same as Cleveland and Pittsburg and/or a mere street crew would mean they were DEFUNCT.

That info is everywhere on the internet not sure what you mean.

I am sure everyone on here agrees Cleveland and Pittsburgh are defunct families.

The “Giovanni Gatto” undercover operation of 2015 shown they are still operating as a functioning and recognized entity, no matter how small or subservient to NY.

There have been zero cases that point to even the slightest LCN activity in Cleveland and Pittsburgh in several decades. Zero. Saying that the DeCavs are on the same level of the Ohio and W. PA families is just ludicrous. Those borgatas are gone, finished.

NJ isn’t, no matter how diminished it unquestionably is.

That’s what I read that as well.
However, the Riggi was the real BOSS, not the acting or anything below but the BOSS, is the BOSS, is the BOSSS…

As Dellacroche said

The other thing is he sniffed out Giovanni’s called him out as a RAT, while Stagno had his head up his ass.

the fact that most of the members are old may be due to the rule that only deceased members can be replaced

I read that the DeCavalcantes have a limit of 75 made men so I dont think that can replace only the decesed members but that they havent many people to induct.

I stand by my comment that NJ is not much more than Pittsburgh or Cleveland at this point in time and the only lifeline they have is being associated with the Gambino's. There's just no major presence.