“The mafia of two worlds”: 17 arrests between Palermo and New York – THE NAMES
The key man is an 81-year-old "godfather".
THE BLITZ
by Riccardo Lo Verso
NOVEMBER 8, 2023, 10:57 AM
2' READ 0 Comments Share
PALERMO – Rivers of money accumulated through drugs, sports betting and the import-export of agricultural products flowed along the Palermo-New York bridge . Not even the “Game Over” blitz of 2018 stopped relations between Sicilian and American mafiosi. Today the Palermo District Anti-Mafia Directorate is writing a new chapter . The investigations of the policemen of the Central Operational Service of Rome, of the Palermo flying squad and of the FBI reveal the names of those who managed the business, controlled the illicit trafficking and imposed the extortion money.

Seventeen people were arrested for criminal association, extortion, arson, conspiracy and auction rigging. Ten measures were carried out in New York, seven in Sicily. The investigation focuses on the mafia families of Partinico, Borgetto and Torretta. The latter was involved in the 1980s in the Pizza Connection investigation conducted by Giovanni Falcone which reconstructed the relationships between the mafias of the old and new continent.

It is the Gambinos who hold the strings in America, where the "heirs" of Frank Calì, murdered in 2019 in front of his home on Staten Island, move.

There was great excitement on the day of the crime. He spent some time before realizing that it was not a mafia murder, but the work of a thug. The victim had married Rosaria Inzerillo, sister of Pietro, one of those who escaped to America during the mafia war wanted by the Corleonesi. On January 14, 1982, a New Jersey police officer received an anonymous phone call. A voice told him to go to the Hilton hotel in Mount Laurel because there was a bomb in a car. And instead in the trunk they found the frozen body of Pietro Inzerillo, Frank Calì's brother-in-law.

The key man in Sicily would be Francesco Rappa, 81 , who was arrested in New York in the 1970s. Little money for protection money, but huge requests. In this the Americans accepted the advice of the Sicilians of Partinico. Bureau agents have uncovered dozens of extortion cases involving construction companies in the Big Apple. To collect the money and intimidate those who don't pay, the American bosses use the labor of local gangs.

The investigation is coordinated by the Palermo prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia, the deputy Marzia Sabella and the deputy Giovanni Antoci.

The names of those arrested in Palermo
Those arrested in Palermo are Francesco Rappa, born in Palermo (81 years old), Giacomo Palazzolo, born in Balestrate (77 years old), Giovan Battista Badalamenti, born in Torretta (69 years old), Salvatore Prestigiacomo, born in Palermo (50 years old), Isacco Urso, born in Verbania (40 years old), Salvatore Prestigiacomo, born in Palermo (54 years old) and Maria Caruso, born in Palermo (39 years old).

Italian police, FBI hit Palermo and New York mafia families
17 suspects detained in Italy and United States

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 8 - Italy's State police and the FBI on Wednesday staged a series of operations to detain 17 people suspected of belonging to, or being linked to, mafia families active in Palermo and New York, sources said.
The suspects are accused of a variety of crimes, including mafia association and extortion.
Investigators said the probe that led to the arrests showed that the Gambino New York crime family continues to do business with Sicilian mobsters, especially Palermo's Torretta, Partinico and Borgetto clans.
They said they had uncovered evidence of American mafiosi getting 'training' from their Sicilian "cousins" in using a softer, less violent approach, which includes demanding smaller amounts from extortion victims so they are less likely to turn to the State for help.
The investigators said drug trafficking continues to be a business that links the crime families across the ocean. (ANSA).

Very good article Hollander. Frank Rappa became a notorious mafioso in the states back in the 70s. He was deeply involved in the heroin traffic.

Here is an early arrest of his from 1974. This is from The NYTimes...


Italy Charges 24 In Major Smuggling Of Heroin Into U.S.
March 29, 1974

ROME, March 28—A coin laundry in a Roman suburb was the cover for the operations center of a Mafia ring that had been smuggling large shipments of heroin to the United States, court officials say.
An investigating magistrate has issued 24 warrants for alleged members of the gang. Four of those charged with drug trafficking and related crimes are in United States penal institutions.
Seven persons were arrested in Rome and Palermo while five warrants were served on alleged mafiosi who are in Italian jails on other charges. Eight wanted persons have disappared; and Italy has asked Interpol, the international police organization, to trace them.
The court actions followed 30 months’ investigative work by United States and Italian police agencies. The inquiry started in September, 1971, when American customs agents seized 200 pounds of heroin, then worth $40?million, in a Ford Galaxie with New York license plates that had been taken into the United States aboard the Italian liner Raffaello.
The auto was the property of Joseph Giacomazzo, a 38?year?old native of Sicily, who is one of the four in prison in the United States who are wanted by the Rome Criminal Court. The three others are Lorenzo D'Aloisio, 37, and Francesco Rappa, 32, both Sicilian?born, and Richard Verdin, 35, a native of France.
[In Washington, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration said that the three men had been jailed in the 1971 case.]
About 750 people, including reputed mafiosi, were questioned during the inquiry. The records fill 100,000 pages.
According to police sources here, the boss of the international ring was Gerlando Alberti, a 47?year?old Sicilian who has been implicated in many other Mafia rackets. He is in the Palermo jail awaiting trial On charges of criminal conspiracy unconnected with the drug case.

No news yet about the 10 arrests in New York.

Ok. I'm curious who got pinched.

But Rappa is a top player and has been for over a half-century now. Keep us posted, ok.

Hollander, so the names listed were only the guys in Italy who were arrested?

these cross ocean arrsts are always intriguing. gambinos still working hand in hand with palermo based families. correct that a group or faction inside the gambinos is doing likewise with sicilian members. this faction inside gambinos would constitute the core leaders i imagine. boss, ub and some capos.

Yes, still no info on who was arrested in New York.

Sources at the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York confirmed to AFP that ten people there had been arrested on racketeering charges.

They are accused of being members and associates of the Gambino family, one of five major Italian-American mob organisations in the northeastern United States.

Italian police said the investigation with the FBI, which began in April 2021, confirmed the "robustness" of US-Italian crime links and highlighted "the American interest in the organisational affairs of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra".

In addition, the inquiry revealed details of extortion in New York, from the construction trade to moves against restauranteurs of Sicilian origin as a way of pressuring their families back home, the statement said.

Mafia, the blitz of the seventeen and the "godfather" who comes from the past
The key man is Don Ciccio Rappa, 81 years old
THE INVESTIGATION
by Riccardo Lo Verso
NOVEMBER 8, 2023, 4.59PM
3' READ 0 Comments Share
PALERMO – Elderly, authoritative and cautious. He looks to the past at the mafia of a slice of the province of Palermo to control the territory between Partinico, Borgetto and Torretta, and maintain contacts with the American Cosa Nostra.

The choice would have fallen on Francesco Rappa , one of the seventeen arrested on orders of the Palermo Prosecutor's Office . The criminal record is solid. A portion of his 81 years of life was spent in prison serving three mafia convictions. Already in the Seventies he was involved in drug trafficking between Sicily and the United States. Furthermore, he is the father-in-law of the boss Francesco Nania, arrested in America in 2008, convicted of mafia, returned to prison in 2018 and convicted again for the big Cosa Nostra sports betting business.

81 kilos of cocaine were found on board the car in which Francesco Rappa disembarked from the ship that took him to New York . A crime for which he served 18 years in prison. In the nineties, his relationships with the Madonias of Resuttana and above all with Leonardo and Vito Vitale, powerful mafia leaders of Partinico, emerged . Thus came a new twelve-year sentence, which he finished serving on November 13, 2014. Since then he has shown that he has not severed ties, especially with the Americans. In particular, the Gambinos of New York. His son, Vito Gabriele Rappa , currently lives in the Big Apple and is considered the point of reference overseas.

The FBI agents, who developed the American front of the investigation, intercepted his conversations with his son and with Francesco Vicari, another person on whom the investigators are focusing. Disagreements had arisen, it was better to resolve them at the table: "... you have to come up, Brother, when we have this meal" . Vicari was disappointed: "... I don't want to see anyone anymore because they have no respect ... I want to stay calm, I want to enjoy my family, you come and our brother iddu comes... I do whatever it takes, understood... when I see your father I'll give it to him your father's satisfaction."

Vicari spoke of someone who paid "six a month... I get 1,500 a week... but I said security, I gave it to him because I have to give it to people, we have to give security my brother". The hypothesis is that the amount, in dollars, was nothing more than protection money. When there were delicate matters to be resolved for the USA, an emissary of Rappa left, a mysterious character, of whom only his nickname is known: "Your father's word was right to give us a helping hand ... limiuni (lemon ed.) he wanted to send it immediately." And instead the departure was postponed until Christmas. Rappa's word was decisive: "... he called me Vito with a lot of politeness and he came... your father told him do the right thing" .

In the investigation documents there are very recent conversations. Some from the end of October. Rappa's shadow man would have been Giacomo Palazzolo, 77 years old. They went around together. Palazzolo organized some meetings with the Vitale relatives. He talked about lace, this time without too much shielding. A construction material seller had refused to give in to the extortion demand. Palazzolo wanted to take the hard way: "It would be like making him shit on himself... I go there and tell him: 'Give me the money, give me the money... u pizzu'". Rappa would have sent Palazzolo ahead of him. On the other hand, his boss said that he was "too burned " due to previous arrests and preferred to be "delicate" . In the sense of out of the way, better not to attract attention.

Tags: Mafia

So we can assume Francesco Vicari and Vito Gabriele Rappa are among the arrestees in NY.

Frank Rappa is truly a piece of mafia history: the head of the Palermo flying squad, Boris Giuliano, had investigated him a few months before he was killed in 1979, when he was outlining a map of contacts between the American and Sicilian mafias, around the drug business. “We are faced with a vast organization that operates in the international field – wrote the investigator in the report of 7 May 1979 – adopting considerable means, making use of the most advanced techniques and taking advantage of complicity and connivance”. Today Rappa is being investigated by the SCO, a branch of the Central Anti-Crime Directorate of the State Police, which is directed by Boris Giuliano's son, Alessandro, a highly experienced policeman, like the new police commissioner of Palermo, Vito Calvino, who took office on October 1st.

In July 2019, the flying squad, the SCO and the prosecutor's office stopped the reorganization of the Inzerillo clan in Palermo, a few months ago heavy sentences were issued by the court. The protagonists of the new criminal season are the "escapees" of the past, those who the old tyrant of the Sicilian mafia Salvatore Rina had sent into exile in the States at the beginning of the 1980s. At the time, the Italian-American bosses in Palermo were considered unfaithful to the new course: the Inzerillos, the Bontates, the Gambinos were the enemies of the Corleonesi. The leaders were exterminated, others were driven out of Sicily. And they remained distant until 2017, when Riina's death marked a return to the past. Many Italian American bosses have thus returned to Palermo: in 2018, the new regent of the Cupola, Settimo Mineo, would have also wanted to involve them in the reconstituted provincial commission of Cosa Nostra, Francesco Inzerillo refused, sending a representative of him anyway. The godfathers of the old mafia prefer a low profile, mainly linked to business. In the old investigation, investigators had intercepted the bosses while they were talking about American credit cards given to their Sicilian cousins. For what business? For which investments?

What remains is the mystery of the treasures never seized from the "escapees" of the past, which today constitute the strength of their reorganization.

https://www.alqamah.it/2023/11/08/m...un-vecchio-padrino-dettava-le-strategie/

The defendants are Joseph Lanni, also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino,” an alleged captain in the Gambino organized crime family, Diego “Danny” Tantillo, Angelo Gradilone, also known as “Fifi,” and James LaForte, alleged Gambino soldiers, Vito Rappa, alleged U.S.-based Sicilian Mafia member and Gambino associate, Francesco Vicari, also known as “Uncle Ciccio,” alleged U.S.-based Sicilian Mafia associate and Gambino associate, and Salvatore DiLorenzo, Robert Brooke, Kyle Johnson, also known as “Twin,” and Vincent Minsquero, also known as “Vinny Slick,” alleged Gambino associates.One individual remains at large.

JOSEPH LANNI (also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino”)
Age: 52
Staten Island, New York

DIEGO TANTILLO (also known as “Danny” and “Daniel”)
Age: 48
Freehold, New Jersey

ROBERT BROOKE
Age: 55
New York, New York

SALVATORE DILORENZO
Age: 66
Oceanside, New York

ANGELO GRADILONE (also known as “Fifi”)
Age: 57
Staten Island, New York

KYLE JOHNSON (also known as “Twin”)
Age: 46
Bronx, New York

JAMES LAFORTE (also known as “Jimmy”)
Age: 46
New York, New York

VINCENT MINSQUERO (also known as “Vinny Slick”)
Age: 36
Staten Island, New York

VITO RAPPA (also known as “Vi”)
Age: 46
East Brunswick, New Jersey

FRANCESCO VICARI (also known as “Frank” and “Uncle Ciccio”)
Age: 46
Elmont, New York

Joe Lanni no suprise lol..

Nice pull Strax!

Good post!

Here's the official release by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of NY of the indictment and the particulars.
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Ten Members and Associates of the Gambino Crime Family Arrested in Coordinated U.S.-Italian Takedown
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York

A 16-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging 10 defendants with racketeering conspiracy, extortion, witness retaliation, and union-related crimes committed in an attempt to dominate the New York carting and demolition industries. All ten defendants are in custody and are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr. In connection with the arrests, federal authorities executed search warrants, one of which resulted in the seizure of multiple firearms from an associate of the Gambino crime Family.

In a coordinated operation, Italian law enforcement today arrested six organized crime members and associates who are charged with, among other crimes, mafia association and connected criminal offenses. One individual remains at large.

The defendants are Joseph Lanni, also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino,” an alleged captain in the Gambino organized crime family, Diego “Danny” Tantillo, Angelo Gradilone, also known as “Fifi,” and James LaForte, alleged Gambino soldiers, Vito Rappa, alleged U.S.-based Sicilian Mafia member and Gambino associate, Francesco Vicari, also known as “Uncle Ciccio,” alleged U.S.-based Sicilian Mafia associate and Gambino associate, and Salvatore DiLorenzo, Robert Brooke, Kyle Johnson, also known as “Twin,” and Vincent Minsquero, also known as “Vinny Slick,” alleged Gambino associates.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, James Smith, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent-in-Charge, Northeast Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Edward A. Caban, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), and Elizabeth Crotty, Commissioner and Chair, New York City Business Integrity Commission (BIC), announced the charges.

“As alleged, for years, the defendants committed violent extortions, assaults, arson, witness retaliation and other crimes in an attempt to dominate the New York carting and demolition industries,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace. “Today’s arrests reflect the commitment of this Office and our law enforcement partners, both here and abroad, to keep our communities safe by the complete dismantling of organized crime.”

Mr. Peace expressed his appreciation to the New York Waterfront Commission, the Office’s law enforcement partners in Italy, including the Prosecutor of Palermo, the Polizia di Stato, the Servizio Centrale Operativo, and the Squadra Mobile of Palermo.

“These defendants learned the hard way that the FBI is united with our law enforcement locally and internationally in our efforts to eradicate the insidious organized crime threat. Those arrested are alleged to have taken part in a racketeering conspiracy in an attempt to control the carting and demolition industries in the city. The FBI will continue to lead the fight against organized crime and ensure that individuals willing to cross the line face punishment in the criminal justice system” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Smith.

“Today’s arrests should serve as a warning to others who believe they can operate in plain sight with apparent impunity – the NYPD and our law enforcement partners exist to shatter that notion,” stated NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban. “And we will continue to take down members of traditional organized crime wherever they may operate.”

“An important part of the mission of the Office of Inspector General is to investigate allegations of fraud involving labor unions and their affiliated employee benefit plans. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate these types of allegations,” said DOL-OIG Special Agent-in Charge Jonathan Mellone.

“Investigating these matters is at the heart of BIC’s mission to ensure the industries under our regulation do not pose a risk to public safety. These arrests demonstrate that the influence of organized crime will never go unchecked,” stated BIC Commissioner and Chair Elizabeth Crotty. “BIC thanks the NYPD, FBI, EDNY, and our other agency partners for their collaboration and excellent work on this case.”

As alleged in the government’s court filings and summarized below, members and associates of the Gambino crime family used violent extortions, fraud, theft and embezzlement schemes to infiltrate the carting and demolition industries to enrich themselves and the Gambino crime family, including by laundering criminal proceeds. For example, in the midst of a financial dispute between Tantillo and the owners of Demolition Company 1, Tantillo and Johnson coordinated a violent hammer assault on the dispatcher for Demolition Company 1, which left the dispatcher bleeding and seriously injured.

Extortions Related to the Carting and Demolition Industries

Tantillo, Rappa, Vicari and Johnson engaged in a violent extortion conspiracy relating to the demand and receipt of money from John Doe 1, who operated a carting business in the New York City area. The extortion scheme involved threatening John Doe 1 with a bat, setting fire to the steps to John Doe 1’s residence, attempting to damage John Doe 1’s carting trucks, and violently assaulting an associate of John Doe 1. In addition, Tantillo and Vicari were captured on judicially-authorized wiretaps discussing threats they made to John Doe 1 and John Doe 1’s father-in-law. On one call, Rappa stated that Vicari “acted like the ‘Last of the Samurai,” describing how Vicari picked up a knife and directed John Doe 1’s father-in-law to threaten to cut John Doe 1 in half in order to get John Doe 1 to make extortionate payments. After John Doe 1 ultimately made a payment of $4,000 to Vicari, Vicari and Rappa met and sent Tantillo a photo of Vicari raising a small champagne bottle, as in a toast.

In addition, Tantillo, Brooke and Johnson engaged in two separate violent extortion schemes of Demolition Company 1 and its owners over purported debts owed to Tantillo and a company operated by Tantillo and Brooke. Brooke violently assaulted one of the owners on a street corner in midtown Manhattan. In another instance, as mentioned, Tantillo and Johnson coordinated a violent hammer assault on a dispatcher at Demolition Company 1, which left the dispatcher bleeding and seriously injured. Pictures of the victim dispatcher were then circulated to various people in the carting and demolition industries.

Frauds and Union-Related Crimes in the Carting and Demolition Industries

The defendants also committed a series of crimes to steal and embezzle from unions and employee benefit plans and rigged bids in the demolition and carting industries. As part of one such scheme, DiLorenzo provided Rappa with a “no-show” job at DiLorenzo’s demolition company so that Rappa could receive paychecks and union health benefits, among other benefits. Similarly, Tantillo arranged for Gradilone to receive a “no-show” job at a construction company with which Tantillo was associated, which enabled Gradilone to receive paychecks and union health benefits to which he was not entitled. Tantillo and Johnson also conspired to secure a “no-show” job for Johnson, so that Johnson could similarly receive union health benefits.

Tantillo also embezzled from employee benefit plans by using laborers from a non-union company, Gane Services, Inc., to perform work for union companies operated by Tantillo, and failing to make contributions for such work as required by collective bargaining agreements.

In addition, Tantillo, DiLorenzo and their co-conspirators conspired to rig bids for lucrative demolition contracts in New York City. Among other things, Tantillo and DiLorenzo coordinated that their companies exchange bidding information to secure a project on Fifth Avenue.

Additional Charged Schemes

The defendants also perpetrated a series of other crimes throughout the New York and New Jersey areas from 2017 through 2023. Their pattern of racketeering activity included additional extortions, retaliating against a federal witness, and money laundering, among other crimes, as detailed in court documents. For example, in September 2023, Lanni and Minsquero coordinated an assault on proprietors of a restaurant in New Jersey, including physically assaulting a woman at knifepoint. In addition, LaForte, having previously been convicted of a felony, illegally possessed a firearm in or about May 2023.

The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The defendants variously face maximum sentences between 20 and 180 years’ imprisonment.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew R. Galeotti, Anna L. Karamigios, and Andrew M. Roddin are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Emme Moosher.

The Defendants:

JOSEPH LANNI (also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino”)
Age: 52
Staten Island, New York

DIEGO TANTILLO (also known as “Danny” and “Daniel”)
Age: 48
Freehold, New Jersey

ROBERT BROOKE
Age: 55
New York, New York

SALVATORE DILORENZO
Age: 66
Oceanside, New York

ANGELO GRADILONE (also known as “Fifi”)
Age: 57
Staten Island, New York

KYLE JOHNSON (also known as “Twin”)
Age: 46
Bronx, New York

JAMES LAFORTE (also known as “Jimmy”)
Age: 46
New York, New York

VINCENT MINSQUERO (also known as “Vinny Slick”)
Age: 36
Staten Island, New York

VITO RAPPA (also known as “Vi”)
Age: 46
East Brunswick, New Jersey

FRANCESCO VICARI (also known as “Frank” and “Uncle Ciccio”)
Age: 46
Elmont, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 23-CR-443

Interesting development. LaForte is someone we've discussed before. Big money guy who has the bloodlines

I certainly hope that Diego Tantillo enjoys playing hand ball.

I'm actually very unimpressed with the criminal acumen here. All this for 4 grand and a job and medical coverage?

It's like Jesus Christ, any regular guy can do that. You can sell 4 pounds of terrible weed and get 4 grand.

I can't help recalling Saviano.....


Only beggar clans inept at business and desperate to survive still practice the kind of monthly extortions seen in Nanni Loy’s film Mi manda Picone, or the door-to-door rounds at Christmas, Easter, and on August 15

On another note... the Gambinos are as the kids say " outside" , running up on people with hammers and shit.

This is the Sicilian influence, lmao...

It seems like the Lanni thing wasn't a one-off. The Gambinos were in the streets really pressing people. I thought the like, violence era was kinda over but naaah, apparently not. They got the Sicilians to press relatives in Sicily. They preying on their own....why?

In italy almost all the sicilian clan still do it, but also several camorra and ndrangheta ones

No suprise on Joe Lanni. He was reported as being the one who took over Franck Cali's affairs after his death.

I assume James LaForte is the son of Joseph "Joe the Cat" LaForte. In his podcats last year, Gravano talked about Joe the Cat having his son made.