From: News and Views | Crime File |


Drugs Poison to Mob
Narcotics traffic opened door to feds

By MIKE CLAFFEY and MICHELE McPHEE
Daily News Staff Writers

In the upstate home of mobster Joseph Barbara, a watershed event for the Mafia was about to take place.

It was Nov. 14, 1957, and all the bosses and top luminaries of all five crime families were at Barbara's stately stone house in Apalachin. The Dapper Don of the '50s, Joseph Bonanno, was there. So were Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino.

They were there to lay down an edict: La Cosa Nostra and drugs should never mix.

Eugene (Bubsie) Castelle
Nearly a half-century later, modern-day mobsters are ignoring their no-drugs decree — a trend that is slowly killing the Mafia.
Drug trafficking prosecutions are gutting four of the five major crime families in New York, sweeping scores of wiseguys off the streets.
Law enforcement — which for decades had been frustrated in attempts to nail even the most ruthless of mobsters — was suddenly making significant arrests, and drugs were the key.

Federal prosecutors have been "extremely successful in using the drug laws as a tool to break the back of these LCN [La Cosa Nostra] families," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Walden, a veteran mob prosecutor. "As long as mobsters continue to peddle drugs openly on our streets, they make it easier for us to catch them."

Last week, reputed Luchese underboss, Eugene (Bubsie) Castelle and his alleged capo, Joseph (Joey Flowers) Tangorra, were busted along with five underlings and accused of running a cocaine network that flooded south Brooklyn with drugs.

Tangorra, 51, allegedly had been selling drugs since 1987 out of a flower shop on 13th Ave., earning him his nickname. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Gurin charged at a bail hearing last Thursday that Tangorra sold quantities of more than five kilos at a time, moving into a supervisory role in the Luchese family following the busts of other leaders. Castelle, 40, started off as a small-time pot dealer in the neighborhood but also moved quickly up through the Luchese ranks due to the vacancies created at the top by law enforcement action.


Joseph (Joey Flowers) Tangorra
Both men have been ordered held without bail.

The Mafia always had dabbled in the drug trade, but it didn't become a major player until the 1980s, experts said. The first major bust involving the mob and drugs was the infamous Pizza Connection case in the early 1980s that snared mobsters for dealing heroin out of city pizzerias.

Since then, virtually every don has quietly okayed drug dealing — as long as the bosses were getting a cut. "It's always been done with a wink and a nod," said a veteran mob lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It was always, "Don't do it, I don't want to know about it.' [Gambino boss Paul] Castellano just winked. [John (Dapper Don)] Gotti just winked."

The one exception is the Genovese family, which mostly has abided by Vincent (Chin) Gigante's old-school beliefs, law enforcement sources said.

And lately, the mob has deepened its ties to drugs, law enforcement sources said. To wit:

In 1998, alleged Gambino family soldier Frank Fapiano was busted along with 20 other low-level gangsters on federal drug charges. All pleaded guilty.
In 1999, alleged Colombo soldier Frank Guerra pleaded guilty to drug charges. Guerra allegedly dealt drugs for Theodore Persico Jr., a nephew of the former Colombo boss.
Last Wednesday, alleged Bonanno soldier Joe Chilli was among six reputed mobsters busted on drug conspiracy charges. Last year more than two dozen members of a Bonanno-affiliated organization, the Bath Avenue Crew, were arrested for drugs in a sweep that also snared capo Anthony Spero on murder conspiracy charges.
And arrests frequently lead to more arrests.

Because of the Rockefeller drug laws and stiff federal racketeering statutes, gangsters who deal drugs almost always are assured of hefty sentences behind bars — giving them an incentive to sing for the feds.

"When the hats drop on these guys for a drug sale charge, the first words out of their mouth is "Officer, what can I do for you?'" said one law enforcement source.


James (Froggy) Galione
A 1996 Luchese case — in which 38 Luchese gangsters and associates, including reputed soldier James (Froggy) Galione, pleaded guilty to drug charges — eventually helped authorities get enough evidence to nail Castelle and Tangorra last week.

In that case, two of Galione's underlings, Ronald (Messy Marvin) Moran and Michael (Mikey Flattop) DeRosa, began cooperating with the government, giving up enough information to lead to last week's indictment, sources said.

And when mobsters and drugs mix, it makes law enforcement's job easier. All of the Mafia drug crew takedowns over the last five years started on the streets with investigations by NYPD detectives, prosecutors said.

"Drugs are going to break the mob," said Special Agent Lewis Rice, who heads the Drug Enforcement Agency's New York office. "The NYPD, DEA and FBI is a strong and unstoppable team, and drugs are always going to help us bust down the mob," Rice said.