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Real Life Organized Crime News

Posted By: Don Cardi

Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/22/06 05:14 PM

I thought that it may be a good idea to start a topic where we can continuously post and read up on any real life organized crime related news.
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Opening Statements Begin in Gotti Retrial
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Feb 22, 5:27 AM ET


NEW YORK - Jurors were presented with two portraits of John "Junior" Gotti on the first day of his retrial on federal racketeering charges — a ruthless mobster and a reformed family man.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joon Hyun Kim told jurors during opening arguments Tuesday that Gotti was like his father, former Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, a merciless, violent mobster.

But defense lawyer Charles Carnesi said the son was out of the mob and ready to start a new and honorable legacy for the Gotti family's legacy.

A jury last fall acquitted Gotti, 42, of securities fraud but deadlocked on racketeering counts. If convicted, he could face 30 years in prison.

The most serious charge he faces relates to the 1992 kidnapping of radio host Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels crime fighting group, allegedly was targeted by Gotti because of his on-air rants against Gotti's father.

Kim said Gotti instructed underlings in the Gambino mob family to kidnap Sliwa and beat him.

On June 19, 1992, Sliwa got into a cab at dawn outside his Lower East Side apartment only to discover that the rear doors and windows were inoperable from within and that a gunman had been hiding on the front passenger floor.

He was shot twice and critically injured but managed to catapult into the front of the cab and out a window. "That was the price John Gotti made Curtis Sliwa pay for exercising his right to free speech," Kim said.

Carnesi said Gotti never ordered the kidnapping and beating of Sliwa.

Sliwa recovered and resumed his radio show and his attacks against the Gotti family. He is scheduled to testify.

Kim said Gotti joined the century-old Gambino family in the 1980s, climbing the mob's ladder from associate to soldier to high-ranking captain to street boss after his father was put in prison.

But Carnesi argued the government's case was built on the testimony of mob killers who made up lies to avoid life prison sentences and knew that Gotti's name could win them the best deal.

"If you're willing to say the name Gotti you can get almost anything," he said.

Carnesi said Gotti initially was under the spell of his larger-than-life father, but decided to reject organized crime when he pleaded guilty to other racketeering charges in 1999, serving five years in prison and giving up $1.5 million.

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Don Cardi
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/22/06 07:22 PM

Thanks, DC!
Hard to tell what's going to happen to Gotti. As George V. Higgins, the outstanding crime novelist wrote in "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," "a jury'll do funny things." Gotti Sr. beat one misdemeanor and two felony raps, to the seeming cheers of New Yorkers. But, despite his folk-hero status, he was convicted in the Castellano murder trial--even though Castellano himself wasn't exactly a pillar of the community, and that the top witness against him was Da Bull, second-in-command turned rat, and a confesses "serial murderer" to boot. Go figure...
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/23/06 03:53 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Turnbull:
the top witness against him was Da Bull, second-in-command turned rat, and a confesses "serial murderer" to boot. Go figure...
You know what always got me about "Da Bull?" I remember following the trial when he was testifying against Gotti, he once said ( and I am paraphrasing here ) " I lost respect for John when he brought his own son into the life. What father would willingly bring his own son into this life?"

Then years later, when he was in the witness protection program and living in Arizona, what happens? He gets busted for running an ecstacy drug ring and who does he have involved in the distribution? His son. What a hypocrite.


Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/23/06 02:59 PM

Sinatra photos aired in Mafia case retrial


A 1970s picture showing Frank Sinatra with a collection of mobsters in the largest US mafia family was entered into evidence yesterday in the racketeering retrial of John "Junior" Gotti.

The photograph was introduced by Assistant US Attorney Michael McGovern as the prosecutor questioned Gotti's one-time closest confidant, Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo.
DiLeonardo, considered a key prosecution witness, took the stand in New York City a day after the government in its opening statement promised to uncloak the mob of the romanticised image some people possess of it.

Yet McGovern introduced the photograph showing Sinatra with former Gambino crime family head Carlos Gambino, who led the family until he died in 1976.

DiLeonardo, who said he was inducted into the Gambino family with Gotti on Christmas Eve 1988, said Gotti was put in charge but told to keep a low profile after his father was sent to prison in 1992, where he died a decade later.

DiLeonardo estimated Gotti received at least $100,000 from an extortion of a strip club, and said he'd paid Gotti up to $2.7 million that the Gambino family extorted from the construction industry.

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Maybe I am missing something here, but what in the world does an old picture of Carlo Gambino, other hoods and Sinatra have to do with this trial and John Gotti Jr.?


Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/24/06 02:25 AM

Reputed Genovese Crime Boss Charged
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
Thu Feb 23

NEW YORK - The reputed acting boss of the city's most powerful Mafia family and 31 other alleged mob figures were charged Thursday with a host of underworld crimes, including a hit that prosecutors say was ordered by the don from behind bars.
The charges deliver "an absolute body blow" to the Genovese family, said FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon. He said 30 people had been arrested.

The indictment accuses the defendants of engaging in money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion, gun running and murder for more than a decade.

Liborio S. "Barney" Bellomo, who prosecutors say became boss upon the 1992 arrest of Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, was accused of authorizing from prison the 1998 killing of mobster Ralph Coppola. Bellomo is serving a 10-year sentence for extortion.

Prosecutors disclosed Thursday that the message sanctioning the hit was carried by Bellomo's lawyer, Peter J. Peluso. Peluso pleaded guilty last summer to racketeering and has agreed to cooperate against his former client.

The arrests follow a three-year investigation into the family's activities in the Bronx, Harlem and the Westchester County suburbs north of the city.

Gigante, the former Genovese family boss, was dubbed "The Oddfather" for wandering the streets in a ratty bathrobe and slippers in a crazy act that kept him out of prison for many years. He died in December at age 77 of natural causes.

The charges were unsealed in the same courthouse where John "Junior" Gotti, son of the late boss of the Gambino family, was on trial. He is accused of having radio host and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa kidnapped in retaliation for Sliwa's on-air rants against Gotti's father.

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Sure is a lot of Mafia news coming out of New York these days.


Don Cardi
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/24/06 03:14 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Don Cardi:
[You know what always got me about "Da Bull?" I remember following the trial when he was testifying against Gotti, he once said ( and I am paraphrasing here ) " I lost respect for John when he brought his own son into the life. What father would willingly bring his own son into this life?"

Then years later, when he was in the witness protection program and living in Arizona, what happens? He gets busted for running an ecstacy drug ring and who does he have involved in the distribution? His son. What a hypocrite.


Don Cardi
Yeah, Da Bull--a regular Paragon of Virtue and Family Values. :p
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/24/06 03:17 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Don Cardi:
[b]Sinatra photos aired in Mafia case retrial


A 1970s picture showing Frank Sinatra with a collection of mobsters in the largest US mafia family was entered into evidence yesterday in the racketeering retrial of John "Junior" Gotti.

Maybe I am missing something here, but what in the world does an old picture of Carlo Gambino, other hoods and Sinatra have to do with this trial and John Gotti Jr.?


Don Cardi [/b]
That photo has been published more often than Washington Crossing the Delaware. :rolleyes:
The funny thing is, there were probably more gangsters in the ringside seats of a typical Don Rickles or Dean Martin nightclub appearance than in that famous Sinatra pose.
Posted By: Don Jasani

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/25/06 06:43 PM

From today's Toronto Sun:

"Canadian Cops: Pair Had No Mob Links

Rob Lamberti
Toronto Sun

The Woodbridge couple murdered in a tony Mexican resort were not known to organized crime invesigators in Canada.

Police sources say they have never heard of Domenico Ianeiro, 59 and his wife Annunziata, 55, until they were murdered in their hotel room at the Barcelo Baya Beach Resort.

'Nothing, nothing at all,' the source said of the amount of information Canadian police have on the victims, who have no records.

Mob expert Antonio Nicaso, with risk consulting company Soave Strategy Group, agreed the slayings aren't related to organized crime.

Nicaso fears Mexican authorities, who have been telling reporters that the slayings were a planned hit, are following the wrong paths in their hunt for suspects.

'I don't think this is a mob hit,' he said. 'Why did they use a kitchen knife? The Mafia is capable (of getting) a gun down there and killing them.'"
Posted By: The Iceman

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/26/06 05:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Turnbull:
[quote]Originally posted by Don Cardi:
[b] [b]Sinatra photos aired in Mafia case retrial



A 1970s picture showing Frank Sinatra with a collection of mobsters in the largest US mafia family was entered into evidence yesterday in the racketeering retrial of John "Junior" Gotti.

Maybe I am missing something here, but what in the world does an old picture of Carlo Gambino, other hoods and Sinatra have to do with this trial and John Gotti Jr.?


Don Cardi [/b]
That photo has been published more often than Washington Crossing the Delaware. :rolleyes:
The funny thing is, there were probably more gangsters in the ringside seats of a typical Don Rickles or Dean Martin nightclub appearance than in that famous Sinatra pose. [/b][/quote]You've got a point there Turnbull I've seen that infamous photo more times than I can count. Like Don Cardi stated earlier I also have no idea what a photo that's at least over 20 years old has to do with the modern day trial of Jr Gotti.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/26/06 02:10 PM

COSTA'S TARTAN MAFIA
Feb 26th

Some of Scotland's major gangsters have fled to Spain seeking sanctuary.

RICHARD HAYES

HAYES, 56, is the self-styled Godfather of the Costa's Tartan Mafia. He built a huge fortune from his Fuengirola base.

Chief Inspector Francisco Lara, of the local drugs squad, said: "He is as clever as they come. He lives and breathes drug smuggling."

In 2002, Hayes was nabbed by police over a £3.6million cannabis bust.

JAMES RAE

RAE is a former mercenary who grew too big for Scotland.
The 56-year-old - known as Missile Jim - spent 10 years carving out a drugs empire from his penthouse in Fuengirola. He fled Britain in the mid-80s to escape car theft and weapons charges. Rae smuggled drugs and guns across the world using luxury motors as a cover.


TONY McVEY

McVEY was the ruthless leader of one of Scotland's biggest supply rings before fleeing to Spain. The scar-faced 44-year-old now spends his time in his luxury villa near Palma Nova on Majorca. He built a crime empire on Glasgow's club scene. In 1994, he was named in a High Court trial as the Mr Big behind a £14million heroin seizure.

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Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Jasani

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/27/06 06:05 AM

Wow, haven't heard too much about the Scottish Mafia. I knew there were some Syndicate types in England and whatnot and Northern Ireland with the IRA operating as a type of Mob, but not Scotland. Alright, how many countries is that now? Either Italian or Indigenous/multi cultural organized crime groups operate in Italy, The United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, England, Spain, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Japan, China, South Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey, Israel/Palestine, Australia...probably many more countries too.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/28/06 10:43 AM

Lie detector tests for 'Mafia Cops' witness at issue


BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO
NEWSDAY STAFF WRITER

February 28, 2006


A key witness against the "Mafia Cops" gave deceptive and troublesome answers in lie detector tests, and defense attorneys will be allowed to raise questions about the issue in the trial to start next week, according to court records.

Information about problems in the lie detector results for the witness, convicted drug smuggler Burton Kaplan, 71, was disclosed Monday in a letter filed by prosecutors in Brooklyn federal court. The letter indicated that Kaplan harbored a desire to hurt or intimidate someone who testified against him but gave "deceptive" or "inconclusive" answers when questioned about it by the FBI in 2005.

The document was originally filed under seal but was revealed Monday during a pretrial hearing in the case of ex-detectives Louis Eppolito, 57, and Stephen Caracappa, 64. Both are under indictment for being paid hitmen for the Luchese crime family in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors argued that the polygraph results weren't admissible under federal law. Judge Jack B. Weinstein agreed and ruled Monday that test results couldn't be introduced, but he is allowing defense attorneys to question Kaplan on the witness stand about his desire to intimidate or threaten the witness.

Defense attorneys Bruce Cutler, who is defending Eppolito, and Edward Hayes, who is representing Caracappa, couldn't be reached for comment on the ruling late Monday.

Kaplan, who was sentenced in early 1998 to 20 years in prison for his conviction on a marijuana smuggling conspiracy, decided to become a federal witness in 2004 and gave evidence against Eppolito and Caracappa. When Kaplan was about to be brought into the federal witness security program, he was put through three polygraph interviews by the FBI. But, according to the court records, problems developed when the FBI examiner questioned Kaplan about whether he was entering the program to locate, harm or threaten any other witness.

Though Kaplan responded in the negative, the FBI examiner found that on two occasions during a Feb. 25, 2005, examination, Kaplan's answers were "inconclusive" regarding deception, the government letter said. Then on March 4, 2005, the same questions drew answers that the examiner said were "indicative of deception," prosecutors said.

After the February examination Kaplan admitted that he held a grudge against Robert Molini, a witness who he said testified falsely against him in the 1997 trial, prosecutors said. On April 5, 2005, Kaplan was given a final exam by the FBI and passed, court records show.

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In case anyone doesn't know or remember, Louis Eppolito had a bit part in the movie "Goodfellas."


Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Zadjali

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/28/06 12:13 PM

What do you think about them Don Cardi?

Do you believe that Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito are guilty?
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/28/06 01:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Don Zadjali:
What do you think about them Don Cardi?

Do you believe that Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito are guilty?
From what I've read about this, yes I do. However what I think based on the media stories and what transpires in that courtroom are two totally different things.


Don Cardi
Posted By: plawrence

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/28/06 01:48 PM

You're off the jury then, DC.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/28/06 02:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by plawrence:
You're off the jury then, DC.


Truthfully Plaw, if I was being considered as a juror for this trial, I would ask to be excused because I really do feel that these guys were rogue cops who were involved with the mob.


Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/28/06 02:27 PM

Here is an article giving an account of Curtis Sliwa's testimony At John Jr. Gotti's trial

Sliwa's gripping tale of survival

BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER


When all had seemed lost, a whoosh of air gave Curtis Sliwa hope that he just might live.
He'd already been shot, once in the leg and again in the abdomen, after a masked gunman popped up from the passenger seat of the cab he'd just hailed, pointing a silver-plated .38 revolver at him.

"Take this, you son of a bitch," the gunman screamed.

The handles to the cab's rear doors had been ripped off and the windows were rigged shut. But as the yellow cab sped down an East Village street in the early morning of June 19, 1992, it turned violently, thrusting the Guardian Angels leader against a rear door. He felt a gust of air come from the front passenger-side window.

Using the back seat as a launching pad, Sliwa lunged for the window, elbowing alleged gunman Michael Yannotti out of the way.

"I felt that was my only chance or I would die in that cab," he told jurors yesterday at John A. (Junior) Gotti's retrial on kidnapping and extortion charges in Manhattan Federal Court. "I didn't have much energy left. That was it, do or die for me."

Halfway out the window, Sliwa felt a tugging at his belt as the gunman tried to keep him inside. Just then the bumper of a parked car caught his red and white Guardian Angels shirt and pulled him out, his head banging against the pavement, he testified.

"I felt like the straw man from 'The Wizard of Oz,'" Sliwa said.

Prosecutors say Gotti sent two thugs to silence Sliwa after the morning radio host made nasty on-air comments about his father following the Dapper Don's April 1992 federal murder conviction.

This time on the witness stand, Sliwa, wearing a three-button blue suit, was more subdued than he had been when first called to testify at Gotti's last trial, which ended in a hung jury in September.

"I had a lot of anger after 13 years," Sliwa said later, surrounded by a sea of red-jacketed Guardian Angels outside the courthouse. "That anger isn't there."

Gone were the confrontations with Gotti's first attorney, Jeffery Lichtman. At one point, Sliwa poured Gotti's current lawyer, Charles Carnesi, some water after Carnesi said he felt parched.

Under questioning, Sliwa, 51, was forced to admit that over the years he had staged a number of publicity stunts to get media attention for the Guardian Angels, founded in the late 1970s while the Brooklyn Prep High School dropout was working as a night manager at a Bronx McDonald's.

He said he once had his older sister pose as a mugging victim whose purse was returned to her by a Guardian Angel - $300 still inside. He claimed he'd been kidnapped and abandoned in a Jones Beach parking lot by a transit cop - a hoax he said he hoped would stop police from harassing his subway security patrol.

"It was the dumbest thing I ever did in my life," Sliwa said.

Sliwa also claimed that as he lay bleeding a cop mocked him, saying "Look at Superman now."

But Detective Steven Hayden, one of the first cops to come to Sliwa's aid, said it wasn't cops but passersby who were making the comments.

Gotti's mother, Victoria Gotti, took another swipe at mob informant Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo, who testified last week that her husband had a secret family and a love child. She wondered why DiLeonardo was offered a plea deal of 17 years in prison after he admitted his role in three murders while her son was facing 30 for a kidnapping.

She begged off questions about the alleged infidelities of her husband and son. "I think there's going to be a lot of truths revealed in the next couple of weeks," she promised.

Originally published on February 28, 2006

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I don't know here. He cannot postively identify the two guys in the front seat, and after being shot in the leg and the stomach, at point blank range, he was able to "launch" himself from the back seat through the front side window? Hmmmm.


Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Zadjali

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/03/06 04:31 PM

GREAT POST Don Cardi
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/04/06 10:43 PM

She made Gotti gush

Don called love child real 'doll'

BY MAUREEN SEABERG AND DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS


Gotti grandkid Victoria Gotti at Uncle John's retrial.

John (Dapper Dan) Gotti spoke glowingly about his alleged love child in taped jailhouse conversations - calling the girl a "doll" and a "precious little kid," it was revealed yesterday.
The imprisoned mob boss ordered his brother, Peter, to keep an eye on the girl, whom they said was blessed with the Gotti family's good looks, leading mob expert Jerry Capeci reported on his Ganglandnews.com Web site.

"I ain't seen her in seven years, but she's a doll, a precious little kid," John Gotti said while serving time at the maximum security Marion Federal Penitentiary in January 1998, Capeci reported.

"You saw [her]? Cute kid, eh?" Gotti added. "Good kid. She look like I told you?"

Peter Gotti agreed that anyone could see that the girl belongs to the Gotti clan.

"I thought she was my daughter or a bigger version of my granddaughter," Peter Gotti said on the tape. "She's a nice kid."

Capeci reported the late don chatted about the supposed love child during a string of federally monitored visits with relatives as he served a life sentence for racketeering and murder.

The jailhouse chats came to light nearly a week after a mob rat testifying at the Manhattan Federal Court trial of John A. (Junior) Gotti claimed the Dapper Don had a secret kid.

Sources have identified the suspected love child as 19-year-old Meagan Grillo, the daughter of Gotti's alleged mistress, Shannon (Sandy) Connelly.

Connelly contends Meagan was fathered by her now ex-husband, convicted Gambino soldier Ernest Grillo - and says she and Gotti were just "friends."

Even though Gotti doesn't refer to Meagan by name in the tapes, there is little doubt that he is talking about a daughter from his alleged affair with Connelly, which was common knowledge among wiseguys and lawmen alike, Capeci said.

"When you know all the history, it's not too hard to put together," he said.

In the jail tapes, Gotti's gentle tone about the girl is a startling contrast to the bile he spews toward her mother, whom he calls a "pee-pee brain."

Seconds after John Gotti asked his brother to look out for his secret daughter, he orders him to convince Connelly, and the girl's grandmother, Rosemary Connelly, to stop pestering him for cash.

"When you see that other person again, that Rosemary," he said. "The daughter annoys me with these f------ letters and cards. She thinks we're like boyfriend and girlfriend again, you know what I mean?

"You tell her, 'Listen, I don't know if you know who he is or what he is, but he's a busy guy, this guy. He knows his obligations. He tries to meet his obligations, and all that. In his heart, he feels what he's supposed to feel in his heart.' She's disappointed. Where does she think this f------ money grows? You gotta tell her."

"I feel bad I can't do the right thing, but what am I going to do?" Gotti added.

Rosemary Connelly, 77, the longtime mistress of the late Gambino underboss and Gotti mentor Aniello (Neil) Dellacroce, came to the door of her Staten Island home yesterday and tore up a note left by a reporter asking for comment.

Minutes later, Connelly returned and slowly ripped up a newspaper containing an article about the supposed "love child."

Originally published on March 3, 2006

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I can't understand, for the life of me, what this all has to do with prosecuting John Junior! What does his father's extramarital affairs have to do with his breaking the law and being on trial for it?

All that this story has done is bring much uneeded attention on this poor girl's life. It's not her fault that her mother had an affair with John Gotti and that she was the result of their affair. I feel really bad for this young girl. They are dragging her name through the mud just to sell papers.

IMO she doesn't deserve this.


Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/07/06 02:46 PM

Suspected Israeli Mob Boss Extradited
By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer
Mon Mar 6, 5:32 PM ET



JERUSALEM - The extradition of a suspected Israeli mob boss to face drug charges in Miami and New York is drawing new attention to Israel's increasingly brazen underworld, where gangsters have bombed busy streets and fired anti-tank missiles.

Israel's mob turf is so dangerous that the State Department has issued a travel advisory warning Americans of the dangers of the infighting.

One top gangster, Zeev Rosenstein, was extradited to the United States on Monday for involvement in a drug ring that allegedly distributed more than 1 million Ecstasy pills in Miami and New York. He's expected to be arraigned in federal court in Miami on Tuesday.

U.S. prosecutors have called the short, squat Rosenstein one of the world's most wanted drug traffickers, and he's long been called No. 1 on Israel's most-wanted list.

The best known of Israel's underworld kingpins, Rosenstein has eluded convictions except for a single stretch in prison.

Showing footage of Rosenstein boarding an El Al Israel Airlines plane early Monday, Channel 10 TV called the extradition "the end of an era of Israeli crime" and "the final chapter in a 20-year cat-and-mouse game between Rosenstein and Israeli police."

Rosenstein, 51, has survived at least seven assassination attempts. Bystanders were not so lucky. In December 2003, rivals set off a bomb on a Tel Aviv street, aiming for Rosenstein. He escaped with scratches, but three passers-by were killed and 18 were wounded.

Accustomed to violence with its Palestinian neighbors, Israelis had traditionally felt relatively safe from violent crime. But in recent years, the mob wars also have people fearing for their lives.

Israeli Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi compared the mob families to Palestinian militant groups who have killed hundreds of Israelis in shooting and bombing attacks in recent years.

"The criminal organizations' activities have escalated and certainly undermine the public's feeling of security," Karadi wrote last year. "Our approach to these organizations needs to be exactly like our approach to terror groups."

A travel advisory issued by the State Department last week cited an October 2005 incident in which a bomb destroyed a Tel Aviv apartment building, killing three people and wounding five. "Such incidents in the past have involved the use of bombs, grenades, anti-tank missiles, and small arms fire," the statement said.

Arieh Amit, a former top police commander and currently an international security consultant, said violent crime in Israel is at its most dangerous point ever.

"There has always been organized crime, it's just that the level of their professionalism has developed. They are much wealthier, much more violent and much more daring than ever before," he said.

Amit said the Israeli police force has gotten smaller and weaker in recent years and has found it difficult to keep up with the sophisticated criminals.

Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said authorities have set up a joint task force of detectives, justice officials and tax authorities, in an attempt to catch the criminals on tax violations — the way Eliot Ness ultimately took down Al Capone.

"This is a long-term battle that requires plenty of patience. It won't be decided by 'knock out,' but rather by points," he said.

Most of the violence in recent years has allegedly revolved around rival families battling for control of lucrative gambling operations. Israel, with a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union, is also considered a major outpost of Russian organized crime.

The most public feuds, and most heavily reported, have pit Rosenstein and his ally, Assi Abutbul, against two rival clans — the Abarjils and the Alperons.

On Dec. 22, gangsters fired an anti-tank missile at Abutbul's car, next to his home in an upscale neighborhood near the coastal city of Netanya. The missile missed its target but frightened neighbors.

The saga that has captured the most public attention in recent months, though, has been the "Alperon affair."

On Jan. 2, an arbitration summit in the lobby of a hotel north of Tel Aviv turned violent as knives and guns were drawn, forcing hotel guests to flee in terror. Amir Mulner, an up-and-coming star in Israel's underworld, emerged from the encounter with a stab wound to the neck.

The alleged assailant, Yaakov Alperon — known informally as "Don Alperon" — quickly disappeared, along with his teenage son, Dror, who reportedly came to his father's rescue in the lobby. Police searched the country for two months before both Alperons struck a deal to turn themselves in.

Both father and son have since been questioned and released on bail, but the mob wars seem far from over.

"If the families don't resolve their dispute, scores will definitely be settled," Amit said of the Alperons.

Rosenstein's case is not the first time Israel has kicked out a wanted man. The late U.S. crime figure Meyer Lansky, who had a lucrative mob career in casino gambling and money laundering, was expelled in 1972, two years after he fled to Israel to avoid U.S prosecution on tax charges.

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Don Cardi
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/09/06 06:08 PM

I dunno..."Don Alperon" doesn't have the same cachet as "Don Corleone."

Actually, there's evidence that Lansky sincerely wanted to retire to Israel and become a citizen--not just to escape prosecution by the Justice Department. A good account is found here:

http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/lansky/israel_9.html

Lansky's case was political. Israel's Law of Return doesn't necessarily bar a person with a criminal record from becoming a citizen--only those who are likely to become a public danger. Lansky had been convicted only once--a minor gambling rap in Saratoga Springs, NY, in the early Fifties, for which he served a few months in the local lockup. The US Justice Department put heavy pressure on the Israeli Government to deny Lansky citizenship. They succeeded by greatly embellishing his record and by portraying him as a "threat" to Israel. But, as the article points out, Lansky had the last laugh on Justice.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/10/06 11:38 PM

Gotti jury deadlocks in NY Mafia mistrial
By Christine Kearney


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A judge declared a mistrial in the case of suspected Mafia boss John "Junior" Gotti on Friday after deadlocked jurors were unable to reach a verdict for the second time in six months.


Prosecutors immediately said they would seek a third trial on racketeering and other charges against Gotti, whose late father was one of New York's most notorious crime bosses.

Judge Shira Scheindlin called the jury's day-and-a-half of deliberations "surprisingly short" but said "the jury has spoken" after it had sent her two notes saying the 12-member panel was hopelessly deadlocked.

A hearing was called for Monday at which a new trial date could be set.

Gotti's defense focused on the claim that he had given up mob life. He hugged his lawyers upon hearing of the mistrial and left the courthouse surrounded by a gaggle of reporters.

"I want to raise my children," he said. "That's all I wanted in life."

A previous trial also resulted in a deadlocked jury, forcing the retrial. The second trial rekindled New York's obsession with the Mafia and Gotti's infamous father, revealing accounts of bloody shootings and secret mob codes.

Gotti, 42, was accused of leading the Gambino crime family, extorting construction companies, loan-sharking and ordering a brutal attack on Curtis Sliwa, the founder of New York's Guardian Angels anti-crime patrol, because of his critical comments about the Gotti family on his radio show.

Sliwa did not believe Gotti had withdrawn from the Mafia, telling reporters, "There's only one way to withdraw from the mob and that's to be at room temperature."

The defense said excerpts from a videotape of a 1999 prison conversation between Gotti and his father proved the younger Gotti wanted to leave the mob.

Gotti's father, John "The Dapper Don" Gotti, ran the Gambino crime family, one of New York's "five families," until the law caught up with him. The older Gotti went to prison in 1992 and died there 10 years later.

Prosecutors allege Junior Gotti took over as the Gambino family street boss, but Gotti's lawyers said he withdrew from the Mafia upon pleading guilty to separate racketeering charges in 1999, for which he spent five years in prison.

Gotti remained in jail throughout the previous trial but was freed on bail once the first mistrial was declared in September.


------------------------------------------------------------

For some reason I just don't think that they are ever going to convict this guy on these charges. Two trial now where the jury could not reach a verdict on these charges.

Now they are going to go for trial number 3?


Don Cardi
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/11/06 02:01 AM

Hmmn.....Either he got to one or more jurors both times, or he's managed to generate some sympathy. Going for a third trial has to be bad for the prosecution. Junior's lawyers will accuse them of a "vendetta" (no irony intended ). But potential jurors will be discouraged from serving, knowing that two mistrials preceded them. The voir dire for a third trial, if there is one, is going to be crucial--certainly the basis of an appeal if he's convicted.
Posted By: Tony Love

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/11/06 02:57 AM

I subscribe to TIME and came across this article while reading it today:

Sunday, Mar. 05, 2006

Growing Up (Not) Gotti

A courtroom revelation thrills Mob watchers: Did the most notorious godfather have a love child?

By LISA TAKEUCHI CULLEN

Mob trials turn on family, with insiders spilling secrets they once vowed to take to the grave. The parade of turncoats in the racketeering trial of John Gotti Jr. have told of cold murder and dirty money and a celebrity kidnapping. But when Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo took the stand, he aimed his bombshell directly at gangland's most famous and famously tight-knit family. The defendant's father, he said--the legendary Mafia boss John Gotti Sr.--had a secret second family.

That statement, which drew gasps in the stately chambers of the federal courthouse in New York City, has triggered a frenzy among Mob watchers. One might think that the revelation of a love child belonging to a Mafia kingpin--four years after his death, no less--would inspire little more than a shrug. But this being John Gotti, obsessive subject of umpteen books, movies and tabloid tales, the mere existence of a hot scoop buried for so long is nothing short of miraculous. The peerlessly aggressive New York tabloids quickly ferreted out an attractive Staten Island mother of three comely daughters, the youngest of whom they speculate carries the Gotti genes. MORE BADA-BING THAN "SOPRANOS"! shouted the New York Daily News. RANDY DON'S RENDEZ-RUSE! whistled the New York Post.

The media feast was served up by prosecutors trying Gotti Jr., 42, on broad racketeering charges. Made the acting boss of the Gambino crime family when his father, known as the Dapper Don, was jailed for life in 1992, Gotti Jr. insists he has lived on the straight and narrow ever since he was sent to prison for five years in 1999 for racketeering. But U.S. Attorneys think otherwise. That's where DiLeonardo comes in. The convicted Gambino capo-turned-government informer claims Gotti Jr. continued to orchestrate Mob affairs from behind bars. He also fingered Gotti Jr. for ordering the 1992 kidnapping and beating of radio personality and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa in a New York City cab.

A courtroom-battle tactic led to the love-child revelation. When the defense claimed DiLeonardo's philandering had caused him to lose favor long ago with his family-focused boss, prosecutors lunged. Had not Gotti Jr. kept a secret girlfriend well into his marriage? Had not Gotti Jr. sought to emulate his father, who though revered as a family man kept a longtime lover with whom he had a secret daughter?

Gotti relatives have reacted mostly with fury and disbelief. "This is 100% ridiculous," Gotti's daughter Angel, 49, told TIME. "I'm not going to say if my father fooled around or not--I don't know. But he did not have a daughter the same age as his granddaughter." That granddaughter, UCLA freshman Victoria Gotti Albano, 18, is more tempered. "If it's true, she's my grandfather's blood, and she's welcome in my family."

For the alleged goumada (Mafia mistress) and her daughter, the suggested ties are anything but welcome. Until last week, Shannon Connelly, 49, lived quietly in a modest two-family house on Staten Island, a floor above her mother. Speaking to the reporters who stake out the house dawn to dusk, the divorcé denied that Gotti had ever been anything more than a "friend," begged for privacy and expressed distress for her daughter, a 19-year-old college freshman. But Connelly is no stranger to wiseguy connections. In their 1996 book, Gotti: Rise and Fall, Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain identified her as the don's girlfriend. Connelly's ex-husband Ernesto Grillo was her alleged paramour's underling. And her mother Rosemary has long been identified as the goumada of Gotti mentor Aniello Dellacroce--with Connelly as their supposed love child.

The oddest twist in the tale may be that DiLeonardo was apparently referring to an entirely different Gotti lover and love child. But the media circus is unlikely to move on just yet, what with such juicy new acts as a jailhouse videotape uncovered by Capeci of a 1998 conversation between Gotti and his brother Peter. On the tape, the Mob boss talks wistfully of Connelly's "precious little kid." "She look like I told you?" he asks his brother. "I feel bad I can't do the right thing, but what am I gonna do, you know what I'm saying?"

As Shakespeare sort of said, it is a wiseguy that knows his own child. But with Gotti in the grave, the only thing for certain is that he is still the main attraction. "They just won't let my husband rest in peace," fumes his widow Victoria. A godfather with secrets never does.
Posted By: plawrence

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/11/06 12:40 PM

The idea of a third Junior Gotti trial seems ridiculous to me.

His guilt or innocence shouldn't even be the issue anymore.

If the government couldn't get a conviction after two trials, it seems highly unlikely to me that the will in a third, which will then wind up being nothing more than a huge waste of taxpayers money.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/14/06 01:48 AM

Mob-Link Trial Opens for NYC Detectives

By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer
Mon Mar 13, 5:17 PM ET



NEW YORK - Two retired detectives accused of moonlighting as hit men for the mob went on trial Monday, with prosecutors saying the men used their gold shields to kidnap and kill victims picked out by a Mafia underboss.
But a defense attorney said Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa were honest public servants targeted by mobsters intent on staying out of jail.

The mobsters "called each other tough guys, goodfellas, until the jail door shut," said attorney Bruce Cutler, best known for his defense of Gambino boss John Gotti, during a theatrical opening statement in federal court. "Then they wet their pants and called mommy — the government."

Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, are charged with racketeering, conspiracy and other charges for allegedly going on the payroll of Luchese family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso.

"The two men were not traditional mobsters," prosecutor Mitra Hormozi told the jury. "They were better. They could get away with murder because these two men were New York City police detectives."

The men allegedly were involved in eight murders while working for Casso. In return, they helped him avoid arrest, warned him of impending investigations and committed killings for up to $65,000 a hit, Hormozi said.

The defendants listened intently during opening statements. The heavyset Eppolito leaned back in his chair, while the thinner Caracappa — known while on the job as "The Stick" — sat with a pen in hand for taking notes.

Hormozi told the jury how the detectives arrested a mobster named Jimmy Hydell in 1986, then turned him over to Casso for execution and a $30,000 payoff.

That same year, the pair allegedly also provided the underboss with information to locate Nicholas Guido, a mobster involved in a murder plot against Casso. The inaccurate tip led to an innocent man with the same name; he was killed in a hail of gunfire on Christmas Day 1986, authorities say.

Prosecutors say Casso referred to the former detectives as his "crystal ball."

Lawyer Edward Hayes, representing Caracappa, rubbed his client's shoulders like a cornerman at a fight while addressing the jury. The courtroom was filled with reporters, the public and the defendants' family, and Hayes said his client welcomed the scrutiny.

"The government is trying to humiliate him. ... Good! Bring it on," he said.

Caracappa spent 23 years with the New York Police Department, helping establish its nerve center for Mafia murder investigations before retiring in 1992.

Eppolito actually grew up in a mob family: His father, grandfather and an uncle were members of the Gambino family. The contrast between his police work and his "family" life was detailed in his autobiography, "Mafia Cop: The Story of An Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob."

The partners retired to Las Vegas but were arrested a year ago.


------------------------------------------------------------


Don Cardi
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/14/06 03:31 AM

Y'know, DC, Cutler used to be a prosecutor before he became the Mob's favorite lawyer--and in this case, the defender of crooked cops. Not unusual at all for former prosecutors to turn to defending criminals: the experience is essential. Cutler's good at making colorful statements that newspapers print. But if I were a big-time crook, I'd have gotten Johnnie Cochran before he passed away, or Barry Slotnick now.
Posted By: Don Zadjali

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/14/06 11:30 AM

GREAT POST Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/14/06 02:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Turnbull:
Y'know, DC, Cutler used to be a prosecutor before he became the Mob's favorite lawyer--and in this case, the defender of crooked cops. Not unusual at all for former prosecutors to turn to defending criminals: the experience is essential. Cutler's good at making colorful statements that newspapers print. But if I were a big-time crook, I'd have gotten Johnnie Cochran before he passed away, or Barry Slotnick now.
Well according to several lawyer friends that I know, becoming a defense lawyer is where the real money is.

Funny that you should say that about Cochran. After the O.J. trial, my wife was livid and was disgusted with Cochran. I remember saying to her " I'll tell you what, if I ever got into any legal trouble I'd hire Cochran in a second!"

While one may not have agreed with his courtroom tactics and antics, the bottom line is that he got the job that he was paid to do, done.


Don Cardi
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/14/06 04:47 PM

One of my lawyer friends once told me that there was no money in doing criminal law because 99 percent of defendents are deadbeats and s***heels who never pay anyway. That's one of the reasons, I guess, that only a small handful of lawyers--Slotnick, Cutler, Shargel, Kuby, Kreiger, and not many others--seem to be associated with big-time Mob cases.
I believe that Cochran was known as one of LA's top criminal lawyers--if not the top--before the OJ case. But OJ catapulted him to national prominence, which is why he moved to NYC.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/15/06 02:00 PM

This article was written on March 9th in USA Today.

The mafia is on shaky ground
By Richard Willing, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — The Sopranos returns to HBO television Sunday night with a dark story line: The indictment of a Mafia associate in New York threatens the family business in New Jersey. But the problems of Tony Soprano's fictional crew are small compared with the woes facing what's left of the real Mob.
The storied Italian-American Mafia has been diminished by relentless prosecutions and by a weariness of Mob life that has led some younger members to consider what would have been unthinkable in previous generations: getting out.

The Mafia remains active in various criminal enterprises. However, wiretap transcripts and other court filings, as well as interviews with former mobster Michael Franzese and historians of organized crime, reveal how its influence is dwindling:

• Cosa Nostra, once a nationwide organization of Italian-American mobsters, is down to one outfit in Chicago and New York City's five organized crime families — the Bonannos, Colombos, Gambinos, Genoveses and Luccheses. They are "about all that's left," Mob historian Selwyn Raab says.

• During the past eight years, men alleged to have been the bosses or acting bosses of all five crime families in New York have been convicted and imprisoned.

John "Junior" Gotti, son of the late "Dapper Don" John Gotti, is being tried here on federal racketeering charges, including the kidnapping and shooting of radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa in 1992. Another accused acting boss — Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano of the Bonannos — is being tried on racketeering charges that include murder. At least 64 alleged Cosa Nostra members or associates are awaiting trial on federal charges.

•Omertà, the Mafia's code of secrecy, isn't what it used to be.

Since 2002, the lengthy prison sentences that federal racketeering convictions can carry have led at least a dozen "made" mobsters to agree to testify against colleagues in return for recommendations of leniency. Court records say that in January 2005, Bonanno boss Joseph "Big Joe" Massino wore a concealed recorder to collect evidence against his alleged successor, Basciano, while the men visited in jail.

Two Mafia leaders in their 40s who grew up in what mobsters call "the life" — Gotti and Salvatore "Tore" LoCascio, a Gambino family capo, or crew leader — have said in court pleadings that they have retired from organized crime and are pursuing legitimate careers. A wiretap transcript in court records suggests that Basciano also was considering a career switch when he was arrested in November 2004.

And Franzese — now a writer and public speaker — simply walked away from organized crime after leaving prison in 1995.

Although Mafiosi swear to an oath to remain gangsters until death, none appears to have suffered a reprisal.

Meanwhile, some of the Mob's most vaunted traditions seem shopworn.

When Franzese was inducted into the Colombos in 1975, he says, there was a solemn ceremony followed by a banquet. In the mid-1990s, when "Little Joe" D'Angelo was "straightened out" (Mob slang for inducted) by the Gambinos, he got a hamburger in a Queens diner, D'Angelo testified last week at the Gotti trial.


He said the Mob bosses who inducted him, including "Junior" Gotti, didn't bother to burn a picture of a saint in D'Angelo's hands, as ritual required. Instead, someone wrote "saint" on a piece of paper and drew a cross.

"The new (Mafia) guys are less professional and less focused" than their predecessors, says Robert Castelli, a detective for the New York State Organized Crime Task Force from 1984-95 who teaches at Iona and John Jay Colleges.

However, "they're like your grass. You keep cutting it, and it keeps growing back."

An enduring mystique

Cosa Nostra was founded in 1931 by legendary gangster Charles "Lucky" Luciano to impose order on the nation's violent criminal rackets. The structure he set up for each family — boss, underboss, consigliere (counselor), capos and soldiers — helped the Italian-American Mob become a permanent feature of the underworld landscape.

"There were Irish gangs before (the Mafia), and certainly Russians and Jamaicans and what-have-you since," says Raab, author of Five Families, a history of the Mafia in New York City. "But they all fade when the individual in charge goes." Only Cosa Nostra, he says, has been able to "re-create itself"' from generation to generation.

The Mafia's traditions — besides secrecy, members' vow to defend their family's honor — along with books and films such as The Godfather series fostered an enduring mystique that has helped make The Sopranos a ratings hit.

"It's a lifestyle that has as much to do with ignorance and pathology as anything else," says Randy Mastro, a federal Mob prosecutor in the 1980s and later New York City's deputy mayor. But "they still have media allure."

Recent indictments suggest that Cosa Nostra continues to make much of its money through unglamorous crimes such as labor racketeering, bookmaking and lending cash at exorbitant rates.

At Junior Gotti's trial, D'Angelo, the Gambino soldier, testified that the family used a Laborers Union local it had corrupted to permit contractors to hire non-union help.

The contractors then kicked back part of their savings to the Gambinos. Contractors also provided no-show jobs for people such as himself who were "with the Gambinos," D'Angelo told the court.

There was big money in other forms of labor racketeering. Mastro says that Mob control of New York City's private trucking industry inflated the cost of hauling garbage to $1.5 billion annually by the mid-1990s. By eliminating this "Mob tax," through oversight and a series of prosecutions, Mastro says city officials have shaved $600 million a year off hauling costs.

James Jacobs, a New York University law professor and author of Mobsters, Unions and Feds, says Mafiosi were hired by union organizers in the early 20th century to combat company toughs. Now, he says, they specialize in "selling the rights of workers."

The baby boomer generation of mobsters added some wrinkles to the Mafia's methods. Two decades ago, when he was with the Colombos and in his 30s, Franzese moved in on a scheme hatched by a Romanian-born criminal that used shell corporations to defraud the U.S. government of taxes on retail gasoline sales. The scam netted $150 million over two years, a presidential commission on organized crime later found.

Per family rules, Franzese says, he kept some of the money and "whacked up" the rest to his Mob superiors. He pleaded guilty to racketeering and was jailed in 1985. Franzese was released on parole in 1990, then returned to prison in 1991 for a parole violation. He finished his sentence in 1995.

Now 54 and based in Los Angeles, he speaks regularly to athletes and business groups about Mob life and his conversion to Christianity, which he says occurred while he was imprisoned.

The Mob's Internet scams

In recent years, mobsters also have used technology in their moneymaking schemes. A Gambino family soldier, Richard "Richie from the Bronx" Martino, ran a telephone and Internet scam whose profits dwarfed Franzese's take, court records say.


New York Daily News
Martino

Martino, born in 1959, lured users with offers of free sex chats and pornography. Sophisticated software then tagged their phone and credit card numbers with unauthorized charges.

The scheme, which ran from 1996 to 2002, exploited changes in telecommunications law to boost profits by adding local fees, a federal indictment alleged.

The take: $230 million, according to Roslynn Mauskopf, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn.

The scheme was run through incorporated businesses that had offices and professional staffs. The corporate culture could be unorthodox, however. Court records say that in 1991, a salesman for a firm that Martino believed had cheated him was abducted from a Manhattan street, beaten and shot in the groin with a stun gun.

Per Mob rules, Martino shared his receipts with Salvatore LoCascio, his capo in the Gambino family, the indictment charged. LoCascio pleaded guilty to participating in the fraud but argued at his sentencing that the money he received — $10 million — was a royalty for helping to set up what he believed was a legitimate company.

LoCascio, a community college dropout also born in 1959, later agreed to sell some of his property — a home in Scarsdale, N.Y., and two homes and a shopping mall in Naples, Fla., valued at more than $10 million — to settle a $4.7 million forfeiture ordered by the court.

Then, through his attorney, LoCascio did something remarkable for a man who'd sworn to be loyal to the Mafia until death: He admitted he had been a member of organized crime in New York City, but argued that he had dropped out of the Mob after moving to Florida in 2000.


LoCascio said he became a stay-at-home dad who takes care of his wife, Diane, a multiple sclerosis patient, and coaches Little League baseball. "I have made a genuine effort to start a life ... (and) will continue to remain a law-abiding citizen and be productive in my community," LoCascio said.

U.S. District Court Judge Carol Amon sentenced LoCascio to 2½ years in prison, a relatively lenient punishment that Amon said was largely because of Diane LoCascio's illness. Martino, who also pleaded guilty, got nine years.

Nightclubs and easy money

Is it really possible to say arrivederci to Cosa Nostra and live to tell the tale?

Franzese, who is writing a book on the perils of sports gambling, believes the Mafia "let it go" in his case because he relocated to California and didn't testify against family members. Franzese says he expects more defections as Mob life becomes more difficult.

"The life has major attractions — friends everywhere, doors opening to a million rooms, all the Mob lore," he says. "You don't think about the consequences right away. (Eventually) you find out it's just the opposite of everything you thought."

Meanwhile, prosecutions and untimely deaths continue to thin the ranks.

Wiretap transcripts filed in the Basciano case indicate that the Bonannos have fewer than 100 soldiers, about half their historical strength. Jim Margolin, spokesman for the FBI in New York City, says the other four families are similarly afflicted.

However, as Castelli suggests, would-be "wise guys" apparently keep coming. In 2002, the Bonannos were considering whether to induct about 10 prospective family members, according to information gathered by a defector, James "Big Louie" Tartaglione, federal court records say.

Joseph Coffey, who tracked the Mafia for more than 30 years as a detective for New York City police and the state anti-Mob task force, predicts Cosa Nostra will continue to attract recruits no matter how many leaders are imprisoned.

"It's the high life, the nightclubs, the bimbos, the easy money," Coffey says. "It's always been that."

Don't tell that to D'Angelo, the Mob turncoat. In court papers, he estimated that during his 20 years in organized crime, he made about $600,000 — or only about $30,000 a year.

Last July, when he agreed to plead guilty to racketeering, D'Angelo said he had $259 in cash, a mortgaged house titled in his girlfriend's name and thousands of dollars in uncollectible street loans.

Through the years, D'Angelo said, he ignored advice from more senior mobsters such as Junior Gotti, who warned him before his induction that "it's not an easy life."

Now, having confessed in court to two slayings, stock fraud, illegal gambling, labor racketeering, construction fraud and extortion, D'Angelo is in federal custody awaiting sentencing. He agreed to testify against Gotti in hope of receiving a lenient sentence, he said. Asked by a prosecutor what sentence he could get, D'Angelo answered correctly: "Up to life."

And what sentence is he hoping for? "Like everybody in prison," D'Angelo told the prosecutor, "I'm hoping to go home yesterday."


____________________________________________________________


Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/17/06 12:35 PM

Here's the latest update on the trial of the two Mafia Cops.


Witness: "Mafia Cops" laughed about murder

By Anthony M. DeStefano
NEWSDAY STAFF WRITER
Posted March 16 2006


Just before he was murdered, James Hydell begged his killers to dump his body on the street so his mother could get money on his life insurance policy, the key witness in the "Mafia Cops" trial said Wednesday.

In the second day of his dramatic testimony in Brooklyn federal court, witness Burton Kaplan, tied the defendants, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, to 12 gangland hits and murder plots.
Kaplan, a longtime associate of the Luchese crime family, choked up twice as he told of Hydell's final plea. Hydell was kidnapped after Eppolito and Caracappa tracked him down, Kaplan testified, after a request by former acting Luchese boss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso.

" 'I know you are going to kill me, Anthony,'" Hydell said, according to Kaplan. " 'I want you to promise me one thing, that you throw my body in the street so my mother can get the insurance policy.' "

Casso promised to grant Hydell that request, but hid the body, Kaplan said. Hydell was killed because his name was on a list provided by Eppolito of people suspected of taking part in an aborted attempt to murder Casso, Kaplan testified.

Hydell is one of the eight gangland homicide victims allegedly tied to Eppolito and Caracappa in the racketeering case. Prosecutors contend the two men worked as hitmen for the Luchese family and provided sensitive law enforcement information to the mob in exchange for thousands of dollars. The court is allowing evidence of uncharged homicides allegedly involving them to be presented to the jury.

During a full day of testimony under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Henoch, Kaplan, who is currently serving 27 years for a drug charge, said he regularly requested information from Eppolito and Caracappa, to pass on to Casso.

But in one twist, Kaplan seemed to help the defense on one of the murder allegations. Prosecutors have charged that an innocent man named Nicholas Guido was killed in a case of mistaken identity based on information provided by the defendants.

However, Kaplan testified that while Casso learned through Eppolito that a man named "Nicholas Guido" was involved in the attempt on Casso's life, Casso got the wrong victim's identity through a contact at a utility company. Casso was angered when Eppolito asked for a $4,000 payment for that information, Kaplan said.

During a break outside the courtroom, Eppolito angrily told Newsday such testimony showed he wasn't involved in Guido's death and railed against the use by newspapers of crime scene photos of the dead man in his car on a Brooklyn street.

Kaplan said he initially used Eppolito's cousin, Frank Santoro Jr., as an intermediary between Eppolito and Caracappa. But after Santoro died in 1987, he dealt with the two detectives directly.

He also said he and the two detectives laughed as they talked about the contract murder of a Manhattan jewelry merchant who was killed because Kaplan feared he might turn informant.

The victim, Israel Greenwald, had been part of a plan to fence a stolen U.S. Treasury bill, said Kaplan. Greenwald was kidnapped by Santoro, Eppolito and Caracappa and shot dead by Santoro, said Kaplan, for $30,000. Kaplan explained that while he paid Santoro $30,000 for the hit, Eppolito and Caracappa only got $25,000.

"We all laughed at that," said Kaplan, explaining that he and the cops figured during a meeting at a Staten Island cemetery that Santoro secretly pocketed the extra $5,000.

Trial testimony continues Thursday before Judge Jack Weinstein.

------------------------------------------------------------


Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/23/06 11:05 AM

Att'y burns 'Mafia cops'

Backs middleman claim

BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A topnotch defense attorney turned prosecution witness yesterday at the Mafia cops trial, backing up ex-client Burton Kaplan's claim he was the middleman between the mob and two allegedly crooked detectives.
In an unusual move, lawyer Judd Burstein went to prosecutors last year and suggested they ask Kaplan to waive his attorney-client privilege now that he was the government's chief witness in the Mafia cops case.

He agreed, paving the way for Burstein to corroborate Kaplan's testimony linking ex-cops Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa to numerous gangland killings when they were on the force.

The lawyer said he began representing Kaplan in 1985.

"It never even crossed my mind that he had a propensity toward violence," said Burstein, a noted defender who has handled mob, white-collar and big-money divorce cases.

Then after published reports in 1994 that Luchese crime family capo Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso was spilling his guts about two dirty cops on his payroll, Kaplan revealed a dark secret to his lawyer.

"He said, 'This is a big problem for me,'" Burstein said. "'I was the go-between for Casso and these two cops.'"

Kaplan adamantly refused to cooperate - even after he drew a 27-year sentence for drug trafficking - until 2004, when he thought Eppolito or Caracappa was going to rat him out.

Eppolito lawyer Bruce Cutler suggested Burstein came forward because he had read media reports last summer that the judge might toss the case on a legal technicality.

Another government witness, Steven Corso, testified yesterday how Eppolito was so desperate to raise cash for his screenplay business he was willing to launder drug money and involve his son Anthony in a drug deal.

Corso, a crooked accountant working undercover, wanted to buy designer drugs for some investors he claimed were coming to Las Vegas, where Eppolito and Caracappa had moved after retiring from the NYPD.

"Tony can handle that for you," Eppolito told Corso, who even recorded Eppolito in a hospital where the ex-cop was recovering from heart surgery.

Where the money was coming from was of no issue to Eppolito, according to recordings played yesterday.

"Do you care what [the investor] does for a living?" Corso asks Eppolito on one tape.

"If this is the biggest drug dealer in the United States, I don't give a f--k," Eppolito responds, adding, "If you said to me, 'Lou, I wanna introduce you to Jack Smith, he wants to invest in this film,' [and] he says '$75,000 comes in a f-----g shoebox,' that's fine with me, I don't care."

-----------------------------------------------------------


Don Cardi
Posted By: Chancre

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/27/06 12:46 AM

Europe -- The Times March 27, 2006

Mafioso shoots sister over 'dishonour'
Report by Richard Owen

An old Sicilian tradition is revived as a young woman who had a child out of wedlock is shot.

ITALY was shocked at the weekend by a revival of the Mafia tradition of “honour killing” after a member of a Calabrian Mafia clan shot his sister for having a child by her lover.

Giovanni Morabito, 24, nicknamed “Ringo”, gave himself up to police in Reggio Calabria after confessing that he had shot his sister, Bruna, 32, four times in the face at Messina in Sicily and left her for dead.

He told police with what officers described as “terrifying calm” that he had tried to kill her because she had had a son, Francesco, two weeks ago by “a man who was not her husband”.

Witnesses said that Bruna fell to the ground, her pink woollen hat lying near by in a spreading pool of blood.

Doctors in Messina later said that she was gravely ill after two bullets were extracted from her head.

Police said that Giovanni had shown no remorse, admitting: “I shot her, I shot my sister . . . She had a child by a man she was not married to.

“It is a question of honour. I would have shot her in the back, but she turned round. I am not sorry. On the contrary, I am proud of what I did.”

He said that he had waited until she had had her baby because under the Mafia code “you don’t kill pregnant women”.

Police said that Bruna and Giovanni came from a powerful clan in the Calabrian Mafia, the ’Ndrangheta. Their uncle is Peppe (Giuseppe) Morabito, 72, known as “Don Peppe u Tiradrittu” (“Don Peppe the Straightshooter”), the acknowledged head of the Morabito clan in the village of Africo in Calabria.

Don Peppe was arrested two years ago near Reggio Calabria after 15 years on the run. Investigators are still unravelling his clan’s lucrative trade in cocaine and its links with Colombian drugs gangs.

Investigators suggested that Bruna had been targeted not only because of the child but also because she had tried to distance herself from her Mafia family. After taking a law degree she had found a job as a government lawyer in Messina. She had separated from her husband and begun a relationship with a civilian employee at the Messina police station, whom she had hoped to marry after obtaining an annulment.

Police said they believed that Giovanni, who had a police record for petty crime, had acted on instructions from more senior members of the clan offended by her “betrayal”.

Giovanni, however, insisted that he had acted alone because of the “dishonour”. He was stunned when told his sister was still alive, declaring: “But she was supposed to die.”

Corriere della Sera, the newspaper, said that the murder attempt was “reminiscent of the kind of things that happened a hundred years ago in the darker corners of Sicily”.

Mario Centorrino, deputy rector of Messina University and an expert on the Mafia, said: “Anyone who thought the ’Ndrangheta were too busy with the lucrative drugs trade to revive their archaic codes of behaviour will have to think again.”

Times Article Link
Posted By: YoTonyB

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/27/06 01:23 PM

From Sunday\'s Bright One, the Chicago Sun-Times, is this interesting article about Joey "Doves" Aiuppa and his alleged record-setting catch of a muskie up in Wisconsin (ya hey dere...). There is a sidebar running inside the main article and that is also posted after the first article.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/outdoors/cst-spt-bowman26.html

The case of the world-record muskie
March 26, 2006
BY DALE BOWMAN STAFF REPORTER


They were on the lam.

At least the late Joseph "Joey Doves'' Aiuppa, who became the reputed Chicago crime lord, was on the lam in Wisconsin's North Woods.

"He was always on the lam,'' said James "Pepsi'' Buonomo, who, as usual, was running with Aiuppa.

Their run in the fall of 1949 become part of the murky fishing lore swirling around Louis Spray's much-disputed all-tackle muskie record of 69 pounds, 11 ounces.

"Every time they were looking for [Aiuppa], I had to leave right then and there,'' said Buonomo, who kept a bag of clothes always packed. "When I used to go with the old man, Uncle Joe, I did all the driving. I have been in places I cannot believe where the hell we've been.''

Their runs often became hunting and fishing trips in northern Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Canada or Mexico.

Buonomo might be 91, but the wiry man retains his appetites --eggs, bacon, fried potatoes and buttered toast were his breakfast at Riviera Restaurant in Northlake last week -- and his memory.

From Al Capone to Betty Loren Maltese, fishing and hunting in northern Wisconsin has a storied history with those connected to the Chicago mob.

"A lot of guys liked to hang out, I say all the hoodlums,'' Buonomo said with a laugh.

In the fall of 1949, Buonomo went grouse hunting while Aiuppa went muskie fishing.

Here I pick up part of the story as told to Spence Petros. The Hall of Fame angler ran into Aiuppa and Buonomo while crappie fishing in the northwest suburbs years later.

"[Aiuppa] said, 'I used to love to muskie fish. It was great. You could shoot them,''' Petros recalled. "After talking a little while, he said, 'I caught the world-record muskie.'''

Aiuppa meant Spray's muskie.

Petros made a sarcastic crack back, but Aiuppa responded, "I caught the record muskie below the Winter Dam.''

"I said, 'It's illegal to fish there,'" Petros said.

To which Aiuppa said, "I know. That's why it's so good.'"

There was another good reason for Aiuppa not claiming the record: He was on the lam.

Petros remembered Aiuppa saying he sold the muskie to Spray for $50, but Buonomo said Aiuppa ended up not taking the money.

"That was how the fish story started,'' Buonomo said. "Joe told [Petros], 'I caught the biggest muskie.' And it's true. He don't lie. I tell you the truth. He didn't have to lie about nobody. He told the truth. That's the truth. He did catch that fish. That's it.''

Petros told the story to the late John Husar, who wrote a column in the June 19, 1991, Tribune. At that point, Spray's muskie was not the record. Art Lawton's 69-15 muskie was. Lawton's fish from the St. Lawrence River was disallowed in 1992.

Search for Pepsi

On Oct. 20, 2005, the World Record Muskie Alliance filed a protest against Spray's record. On Jan. 16, the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame, in Hayward, Wis., vehemently denied the WRMA protest.

In an off-hand discussion about the decision in January, Petros reiterated the Aiuppa story. He had bumped into Pepsi at an outdoor show several years ago.

He suggested I put a notice in my column that I was trying to find Pepsi. A host of readers, including a nephew of Aiuppa, set up contact.

Neither Aiuppa, who died in 1997, nor Buonomo had been talked to by Husar, the Hall or the WRMA.

"I wish he was here, sit there and talk to him,'' Buonomo said. "Just like me and you want to talk.''

500 doves

Aiuppa earned his nickname when busted with some 500 doves in his vehicle. Buonomo admitted both men passionately loved shooting doves and quail.

"He would shoot, but he protected, too,'' said Buonomo, who told of Aiuppa feeding quail in winter. "He was not a meat hog or anything like that. I wish he was alive. I would have him sitting right here with you. You never find a man like him.''

Buonomo was dedicated to Aiuppa.

"One day we're up in Canada, and they're trying to get his mother to go to the court in his place,'' Buonomo said. "He called in. 'Peps, I'm going home.' He said, 'They ain't gonna take Mama in.' I drove 27 hours from Canada.

"He was the greatest. No copper in the city of Chicago can talk bad about him, either. Nobody. He was a straight shooter.''

Aiuppa was sent up on conspiracy charges. He was suspected of ordering several spectacular mob hits, since fictionalized in the movie "Casino.''

"He went to jail for nothing,'' Buonomo said. "They didn't have nothing on him at all.''

A restless angler

As a fisherman, few had anything on Aiuppa, either.

"I'd row the boat, and he would cast,'' Buonomo said. "If you went with him, five or six days you had to cast. We caught a lot of fish.''

They would go to the Hayward area or Wollaston Lake in Canada. Aiuppa was a restless fisherman, a lure changer.

"He would have four poles in the boat,'' Buonomo said. "If he had one on, he gave it to the guide. Then cast [another] one out.''

Buonomo could not remember with what lure Aiuppa caught the big muskie.

When asked about Spray, Buonomo shrugged, "Louie Spray was, I don't know. He had the place, the tavern, and I've been there a couple times.''

Spray's muskie disappeared in a fire in 1959. Asked if there was a picture of Aiuppa with the muskie, Buonomo said no.

"I wish I could tell you more about that fish," he added.

So do I.


http://www.suntimes.com/output/outdoors/cst-spt-bowside26.html

When it comes to muskie saga, I'm buying Pepsi
March 26, 2006
BY DALE BOWMAN


Every big fish story has holes. They're like jury trials: Whom do you believe?

Did Louis Spray catch the all-tackle record muskie?

Spence Petros believes the late Joseph "Joey Doves'' Aiuppa's tale of catching the world-record muskie, then selling it to Spray. It was Petros who introduced the story of Aiuppa and the trophy muskie on "The Outdoor Writers'' on ESPN in 1991.

Petros is a former bail bondsman and nephew of an old-style Chicago precinct captain. He has a b.s. detector a city-block long.

Aiuppa passed his believability test. "He had the strongest aura of anybody I've ever met,'' Petros said.

He's cynical enough that after he first heard the story, he went home and double-checked the dates Aiuppa gave for catching his muskie. They matched the Oct. 20, 1949, time frame when Spray claimed to catch his 69-pound, 11-ounce muskie from the Chippewa Flowage in northern Wisconsin.

Whom do I believe? Of the three major players in this saga -- Aiuppa's longtime outdoor companion, James "Pepsi'' Buonomo; the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame, and the World Record Muskie Alliance -- I find Buonomo the most believable.

That's not proof; that's a gut response.

On Oct. 20, 2005, the WRMA filed a 93-page protest against Spray's record (worldrecord muskiealliance.com). I think some WRMA members have axes to grind, but they made their case, and parts of it I'd even call iron-clad.

By comparison, the Hall has zero credibility with me when it comes to defending Spray's record. On Jan. 16, officials at the Hall gave such a fatally flawed response (freshwater-fishing.org) to the WRMA protest as to be a joke.

The story lives.


tony b.
Posted By: Chancre

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/28/06 03:03 AM

Mafia drugs submarine siezed

Calabrian mob ordered vessel to shift Colombian cocaine

(ANSA) - Rome, March 27 - Mafia drug traffickers were building a submarine to bring cocaine from Colombia to Italy, Italy's anti-Mafia chief said Monday.

Speaking after on his return from the South American country, national anti-Mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso said the Calabrian mafia, known as the 'Nrangheta, was dealing in such huge amounts of drugs that it could afford to have such an expensive mode of transport built.

He said they had chosen a submarine in order to beat coastal radar systems which detect incoming ships. "The 'Ndrangheta brings in 400 kilos of cocaine a year," Grasso said in an interview on Italian TV.

"The submarine, which was under construction in Colombia, has been impounded".

"They were going to use the sub to elude radar controls".

Grasso said cocaine costs just 3 dollars a gramme in Colombia and had a street value of 50-100 euros per gramme in Italy, depending on the quality.

He said Italian and Colombian police were trying to stop the trade in every way, including destroying crops, but efforts needed to be made to stem demand.

"We have to ask ourselves why demand keeps on rising".

Action was needed, he said, to stop people turning to cocaine to make themselves more efficient and productive.

Most experts agree the 'Ndrangheta, which specialises in drug smuggling from South America, is now more powerful and more dangerous than Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia.

The Calabrian mob is believed to generate an annual turnover of some 35 billion euros, more than Calabria's entire legal economy.

The Italian government launched an unprecedented campaign against the 'Ndrangheta in the wake of the October 16 murder of top local politician Francesco Fortugno.

It bolstered police and prosecution forces in Calabria and appointed a top police officer to lead the murder hunt and try to wrest swathes of the region from the mafia's grip.

The operation led to a series of successes and finally, last week, the arrest of Fortugno's killers.

Police are now using turncoat testimony to try to find out who ordered the murder.

Meanwhile the drive to re-establish full state rule continues.

Since 1995, 30 town councils have been dissolved because they were deemed to be controlled by the 'Ndrangheta. Last year, dozens of local administrators received threats.
Posted By: bogey

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/03/06 02:54 PM

8 from Gambino crime family plead guilty
Targets of FBI undercover operation admit to racketeering


NEW YORK - Eight members and associates of the Gambino organized crime family, including an acting underboss, have pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, authorities said Friday.

The eight were among 11 people charged with racketeering in a prosecution aimed at taking down current and future leaders of a crime family more than a century old.

In all, more than 30 people were arrested on various charges.

The arrests stemmed from a probe in which an undercover FBI agent infiltrated the mob during a three-year period with an act so convincing he was considered for membership, authorities said.

The eight defendants, including acting underboss Anthony Megale, entered their pleas in recent days in federal court in Manhattan. They had faced trial in May; three others still face trial.

The pleas were "significant additional steps in the steady march toward reducing the influence of organized crime," said Mark Mershon, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York office.

In his plea, Megale admitted extorting money from a Greenwich, Conn., restaurant; a New Jersey trucking company; and from the owners of a Westchester County construction company.

"I have never threatened anybody for anything," Megale said. "But, it could be by me talking to them, I could be implying a threat to them without them realizing it."

The eight agreed to forfeit a total of about $550,000 for their roles in a decade-long racketeering scheme including assaults, extortion, loansharking, union embezzlement, illegal gambling, trafficking in stolen property and fraud.
Posted By: XDCX

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/04/06 10:04 PM

Ex-FBI agent charged in four mob slayings

From CNN.com

NEW YORK (AP) -- It was at one of their weekly meetings in 1992 that FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio allegedly made it easy for his favorite mob informant to kill a gangland rival.

Prosecutors say DeVecchio told the informant, Colombo crime family captain Gregory Scarpa Sr., where the rival lived in Brooklyn.

He said the man always paused to unlock his front gate of his driveway when leaving for work every day at 4 a.m. -- confidential information honed from FBI surveillance.

The man was later gunned down, on his driveway, at 4 a.m.

Nearly 14 years after the slaying, DeVecchio was charged on Thursday with that killing and three others involving Scarpa in what prosecutor Michael Vecchione called "one of the worst cases of law enforcement corruption in the history of this country."

The 65-year-old former agent pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and was released on $1 million bond after agreeing to electronic monitoring. He did not speak at the hearing, where one of the two alleged mob hit men behind the slayings was denied bail. The second suspect was in Florida, awaiting extradition.

Prosecutors argued against bail, saying that the defendant's many supporters in law enforcement could help him flee the country. The comment drew angry murmurs from dozens of former FBI agents packed into the courtroom.

Defense attorney Douglas Grover told a judge his client had been an honest investigator who played a key role in the war on organized crime. He said that the agent already was cleared in previous investigations, and he accused prosecutors of relying on evidence from convicted mobsters eager to lie in exchange for leniency.

DeVecchio "was and always will be a man of the law," he said.

At an earlier news conference, District Attorney Charles Hynes said the case stemmed from the unusually close relationship between DeVecchio -- then head of the FBI's Colombo crime family squad -- and Scarpa, a shadowy government informant and Colombo captain nicknamed "The Grim Reaper."

The pair met each week during the 1980s and 1990s and discussed a bloody civil war within the Colombo family. DeVecchio "counseled Scarpa to protect himself by eliminating imminent threats," Hynes said.

DeVecchio warned Scarpa in 1984 that the girlfriend of the Colombo consigliere was cooperating with authorities, Hynes said. As a result, he said, she was shot and killed in a Brooklyn social club -- a pattern prosecutors said was repeated in the three other killings.

In return, Scarpa gave DeVecchio weekly cash payments and enhanced the agent's reputation within the FBI by helping him solve important cases, the district attorney said.

The corruption allegations weren't the first against DeVecchio.

At a 1996 hearing, DeVecchio's supervisor testified that four years earlier he had ordered the agent to cease having contact with Scarpa after other agents alleged the informant was still committing crimes. He said he later learned DeVecchio was still keeping in touch with him through Scarpa's longtime girlfriend, Linda Schiro.

The Department of Justice declined to prosecute DeVecchio after an internal probe, and the agent quietly retired in 1996 and moved to Sarasota, Florida. Scarpa died in prison in 1994.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/06/06 04:37 PM

Staten Island Home Is Searched for Evidence of Mob Murder

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: April 6, 2006

Acting on information provided by a cooperating witness, F.B.I. agents yesterday searched for evidence of a mob murder inside a Victorian mansion on a Staten Island hilltop, according to several law enforcement officials.

Late in the afternoon the agents halted their work at the house, the landmark Kreischer mansion at 4500 Arthur Kill Road in the Charleston section, said several officials, who were granted anonymity because the investigation is continuing. One agent was seen carrying three large plastic garbage bags from the house.

The F.B.I. lab will conduct forensic tests on evidence removed from the building, one of the officials said.

The search was by members of the F.B.I. squad that investigates the Bonanno crime family, several officials said, but they would not disclose the identity of the suspected victim.

Futher details about the case were not available. A woman who came out to the mansion's wrought-iron gate and would not comment or give her name referred questions to the F.B.I. A spokesman for the agency, James Margolin, confirmed the search but would not say whether agents had concluded that a murder had been committed in the mansion.

The Bonanno crime family, which for roughly two decades resisted the government's efforts to get its members to become witnesses, has been riven by defections in recent years.

Among the turncoats were the family's boss, Joseph C. Massino, who began cooperating with federal authorities in 2004, and his brother-in-law and underboss, Salvatore Vitale, who did so in 2003.

In fact, the Kreischer mansion, which was built by Balthasar Kreischer in 1885 for his son Charles, high on a hill overlooking the older man's brickworks, for many years housed a restaurant that was used for meetings by another man identified by the authorities as a Bonanno mobster.

That man, John Zancocchio, 48, who federal authorities have identified as a Bonanno soldier, met with other Bonanno figures and a Gambino family captain at the restaurant in early 1998, according to testimony of F.B.I. agents and a federal probation officer in an unrelated federal case.

Mr. Zancocchio, the son-in-law of the former underboss of the family, is serving a federal prison term after pleading guilty to charges in a 2002 indictment in Miami that also led to the conviction of his father-in-law.

At the time, according to the testimony, the establishment was owned by Joseph and Andrea McBratney. Mr. McBratney, whom the authorities called a Bonanno associate, is the son of James McBratney.

The elder McBratney was slain on Staten Island in the late 70's by John Gotti. The killing earned Mr. Gotti membership in the crime family that he went on to run until his conviction in 1992 on murder and racketeering charges and his death in prison 10 years later.

Nate Schweber contributed reporting for this article.

-----------------------------------------------------------


Don Cardi
Posted By: MistaMista Tom Hagen

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/06/06 07:20 PM

'Mafia cops' convicted of murder
NYPD detectives moonlighted as mob hit men, jury finds

Thursday, April 6, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two decorated former New York City police detectives were convicted Thursday of murder while on the payroll of a Mafia underboss in one of the most astounding police corruption cases in city history.

The federal jury deliberated for two days in the case against Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa, who spent a combined 44 years on the force and once worked as partners.

They face up to life in prison.

Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, were accused of leading a double life for years: respected city detectives who moonlighted as hired killers for Luchese crime family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Wenner described the case against the so-called "Mafia cops" as "the bloodiest, most violent betrayal of the badge this city has ever seen."

The defendants showed no visible reaction, while Eppolito's family wept as the verdict was read.

The men were accused in eight murders, with prosecutors charging that the two used their positions as crime fighters to aid the crime family -- at a price of $4,000 a month.

Their salary increased when the detectives personally handled the killing, authorities said; they earned $65,000 for the slaying of a mobster during a phony traffic stop.

Casso also referred to the pair as his "crystal ball," providing inside information on law enforcement interest in the mob world, authorities said. Caracappa, who retired in 1992, helped establish the city police department's office for Mafia murder probes.

Eppolito, the son of a Gambino crime family member, was a much-praised street cop -- although there were suggestions that some of his arrests followed tips provided by mobsters. The contrast between his police work and his "family" life was detailed in his autobiography, "Mafia Cop."

Eppolito also played a bit part in the classic mob movie "GoodFellas." After retiring in 1990, he unsuccessfully tried his hand at Hollywood script writing.

Since their March 2005 arrests, the men have said they are innocent. But neither one took the stand to refute charges in the trial that began March 13.

The key prosecution witness was Burton Kaplan, an acknowledged drug dealer who spent four days on the stand linking the pair to an assortment of murders between 1986 and 1990. Kaplan testified that he served as middleman between Casso and the detectives.

Casso, known as one of the most brutal mobsters in the city, was reportedly involved in 36 murders himself.

Both sides considered calling him as a witness, but ultimately decided Casso came with too much baggage -- even after he wrote a letter from prison insisting the detectives were innocent of several crimes.

The details of the alleged killing spree were chilling. The detectives allegedly "arrested" a mobster named Jimmy Hydell in 1986, but instead delivered him to Casso for torture and execution.

That same year, the pair allegedly furnished the underboss with information to locate Nicholas Guido, a mobster involved in a planned hit on Casso. Their inaccurate tip led to the slaying of an innocent man who was having Christmas dinner at his mother's house.

The detectives also were charged with killing Gambino family member Eddie Lino during what began as a routine traffic stop, and finished with Caracappa allegedly shooting the mobster.
Posted By: Dominic Corleone

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/14/06 07:25 PM

Anti-mafia raids net 46 suspects
Italian police in anti-mafia raid
Police have been cracking down on mafia across Italy
Police in Sicily have arrested 46 people suspected of helping a fugitive mafia boss.

Anti-mafia investigators in Palermo said those detained had helped Bernardo Provenzano stay in contact with the mafia during his 41 years on the run.

Some are also accused of murder, extortion and having arms and drugs.

About 1,000 police took part in the raids, which are the latest attempt to squeeze the Italian mafia, and follow dozens of arrests in Naples.

Mr Provenzano, nicknamed The Tractor, is said to have succeeded Toto Riina as the head of the Sicilian Mafia after his arrest in 1993.

Those held include Francesco Pistoia, who allegedly passed commands from Mr Provenzano to his lieutenants.

[QUOTE] Taps reveal plot[QUOTE]

A statement from investigators said the arrests were ordered because some of the most dangerous suspects were planning to flee, and because they continued to plan criminal activities.

Some Italian news reports say police phone taps had unearthed a plot to kill an Italian judge.

The arrests follow a crackdown on mafia activity in Naples, where violence between rival gangs has left about 100 people dead in the past year.

Last week a 45-year-old man was found decapitated and burned in his car in apparently the latest mafia-linked attack in Naples.

****On Friday, Cosimo Di Lauro, son of alleged mafia godfather Paolo Di Lauro, was arrested in the city.

Further south in the Calabria region, in the "toe" of Italy, where there has been a spectacular rise in mafia activity, there have been dozens more arrests.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/21/06 01:38 PM

Gambino? What's a Gambino?
Thomas Zambito
Originally published on April 21, 2006



Arnold (Zeke) Squitieri didn't get past seventh grade, but the acting boss of the Gambino crime family knows enough not to admit the existence of the Mafia.
Squitieri waved off Federal Magistrate Michael Dolinger yesterday when the judge asked whether he was pleading guilty to being part of a criminal enterprise known as the Gambino crime family.

Attorney Gerald Shargel jumped to his feet saying, "Mr. Squitieri makes no concession to the name of the enterprise."

Dolinger read the charges again, this time editing out the Gambino name. But the 70-year-old mobster wanted to be sure he had it right. "With the Gambino name out of it?" he asked.

Squitieri then pleaded guilty to racketeering charges that include shaking down construction companies in New Jersey, Westchester and Long Island.

Afterward, he turned to his wife, Marie, sitting in the front row of the courtroom with the couple's two daughters and son, and said, "I did it for you. I pleaded guilty because of you."

A third daughter, Ginger, a practicing attorney, sat at her father's side and assisted Shargel in the case.

Her dad is among a dwindling number of mafiosi reluctant to break the old mob code that denies the existence of the secret society.

Under a plea deal, Squitieri faces up to nine years in prison when sentenced July 28.

Squitieri took over the top post in the Gambino hierarchy after Peter Gotti's 2002 racketeering arrest. He had been named underboss by Dapper Don John Gotti himself.

------------------------------------------------------------


Don Cardi
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/21/06 05:47 PM

I heard the Gambinos have contacted Office Temps Inc. about hiring a new Don. :rolleyes:
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/21/06 05:51 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Turnbull:
I heard the Gambinos have contacted Office Temps Inc. about hiring a new Don. :rolleyes:


Maybe they should offer it to Curtis Sliwa!


Don Cardi
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/21/06 10:44 PM

Great idea, DC! I can hear it now: "The Gambino Hour on WABC Radio--live and in person with Don Curtis Sliwa!" He gets on the air and says, "Today I'm wearing my Brioni beret. I'm announcing that the Guardian Angels are now being called the Guardian Angelos. From now on, they're gonna be selling protection to subway riders, not giving it away. And instead of shaking down sports bars, we're gonna shake down Yankee Stadium. I tell you, the Gambinos will rise again!"
Posted By: Don Jasani

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/25/06 08:55 AM

Just a point of fact here, there are at least 30 countries with Mafia or Mafia type organizations of various different ethnic/religio-cultural backgrounds. I believe.
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/26/06 01:42 PM

Sure! Anywhere in the world where suckers are lining up to be fleeced, where people's greed and lust overcome reason and law, you're going to have organized criminals ready, willing and able to accommodate them. I will bet that almost every country in the world--large and small, advanced and "underdeveloped"--has some form of organized crime.
As has been noted here before: "Mafia" has become a generic name for organized crime gangs and even would-be gangsters, whether or not they're Italian or in any way connected to the real Mafia. The morons who shot up Columbine High School called themselves the "Trench Coat Mafia."
In fact, "Mafia" is so generic that it has been applied to almost any group that's supposedly organized and powerful. John F. Kennedy used to refer to his group of lifelong close advisers (Dave Powers, Kenny O'Donnell, Larry O'Brien, his brother Bobby) as his "Irish Mafia."
Posted By: Turi Giuliano

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/27/06 09:11 AM

And what about the Velvet Mafia!
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/27/06 10:59 AM

.....and Elvis's Memphis Mafia!


Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/27/06 01:35 PM

Nobody saw nuttin', so no jail in shoot

BY MAUREEN SEABERG and TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS WRITERS


Charges were dropped yesterday against an ex-cop accused of shooting a reputed mobster at Staten Island's Top Tomato market after all the witnesses - including the victim - clammed up.
Retired NYPD Officer Patrick Balsamo won't be going to jail, but whether Gambino henchmen are shopping for a pair of concrete shoes in his size is an open question.

"The families are talking and everything seems to be okay, [but] I'm gonna take a low profile," Balsamo, 49, told neighbor Isabella Busacca, 58.

Asked outside court if he's scared, Balsamo was noncommital. "I don't know," he said.

But he defended his actions.

"Look at my record. I was never arrested before. I was a highly decorated cop," he said. "I have my family to look out for."

Balsamo was arrested in December for allegedly plugging reputed Gambino capo Carmine Sciandra in the gut after accusing Sciandra's brother of groping his 18-year-old daughter, a cashier.

The shooting wasn't caught on video, and Sciandra says he didn't see his assailant, so prosecutors had no choice but to dismiss the charges.

"Whether he didn't see him or doesn't want to say, I don't know," said Bill Smith, a spokesman for the district attorney.

Originally published on April 27, 2006

-----------------------------------------------------------

I don't think that we've seen the last of the " Tomato Wars."


Don Cardi
Posted By: marco's lover

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/01/06 03:18 PM

It has been ages that I have posted here...

In a Belgian newspaper I spot this weekend that in Sicily shopowners are fed up with organised crime. Coming friday will be their day of liberty; they'll chose not to pay the pizzo anymore.

Apperantly, 80 procent of shop- and restaurant owners participate under constraint in this long time extortion, which can led to 5% of the profit for the mafia.

Those who had the courage not to pay the pretection money, saw their businesses go up in flames and the wrong-doers where never caught.

Since Bernardo Provenzano has been caught, some tradespeople have gained the courage to stand up to the maffia. Some extortions were taped with secret camera's and those maffiosi are locked behind bars for the next four years. This only adds the new found courage and gives more elan to the anti-pizzo movement.

On Friday the 5th of May the anti-pizzo movement will organise a 'pizzo-free day' by selling their products in open air. "De open air is from everybody and no-one can claim protection money for that" is the notion behind the idea.

The movement calls itself 'Farewell Pizzo' and says: "People who pay protection money are a people without dignity. The newspaper La Repubblica talked about a small but significant revolution.

---- Most prolly I have made grammical errors, sorry for that!! ----
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/01/06 03:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by marco's lover:

In a Belgian newspaper I spot this weekend that in Sicily shopowners are fed up with organised crime. Coming friday will be their day of liberty; they'll chose not to pay the pizzo anymore.
They must have watched last night's episode of The Sopranos!


Don Cardi
Posted By: JRCX

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/02/06 05:12 AM

Going back to the 1980s, one of the most funny things (in an odd way), is that pizzerias were actually opium smuggling chains... sure, they served good pizza, but much of that flour going in, that white powder was not flour but actually heroin/opium, who could tell?? How did it get there? They say 1 in every 5 Alitalia flights (Italy's #1 airline) carried the stuff out of sicily and into the USA. "Oh how can i scam thee, let me count the ways".
Posted By: Struck By the Thunderbolt

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/09/06 01:57 PM

Associated Press
Reputed Miami Mafia Boss Pleads Guilty
05.06.2006, 06:00 PM


The 76-year-old reputed godfather of an organized crime family has pleaded guilty during his federal racketeering trial because of declining health, his lawyer said
Jose Miguel Battle Sr. is awaiting sentencing for serving as the boss of "The Corporation," a crime ring that authorities said operated in New York, Florida and Latin America over four decades.

But Battle suffers from kidney and liver failure, diabetes and cardiac problems, his lawyer said.

"He's just very sick," said attorney Jack Blumenfeld. "This way, he can die at home rather than in jail."

Battle faces 20 years to life in prison for racketeering conspiracy if he lives long enough to be sentenced. He was set to be released from a federal detention center on a $1 million bond.

Battle and five others were accused of committing five murders, four arson attacks resulting in eight deaths, and more than $1.5 billion collected from drug trafficking, bookmaking and numbers rackets.

Battle pleaded guilty on April 27; his trial began in March.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/09/06 03:25 PM

Two stories related to John, Jr. Gotti :

Gag the teflon mom? No way!

She's Gotti right to talk, judge sez

BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

No one puts a muzzle on Mama Gotti. Not even a federal judge.
Prosecution complaints that the Dapper Don's widow flaps her lips too much didn't register with Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin yesterday.

The judge said she doubted even Victoria Gotti's son or his defense lawyer could persuade her to put a sock in it.

"I bet neither of them could control her," Scheindlin said as John (Junior) Gotti and attorney Charles Carnesi shared a knowing chuckle.

The outspoken matriarch's habit of speaking her mind became a topic of debate during a pretrial hearing in her son's racketeering case. Defense lawyers were complaining about law-enforcement leaks — and prosecutors pointed out that their client's mother hasn't exactly taken the vow of omerta.

True enough.

She shared diaries about her husband and son with the Daily News last summer and regularly chatted up the press during her son's last two trials.

When mob snitch Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo testified that late Gambino boss John Gotti had a love child with a mystery woman, his wife had plenty to say.

"If anybody finds this other family, we could use some cash," she said sarcastically after the bombshell.

"DiLeonardo is a vile and vicious man," she fumed. "He needs to be spiteful. ... John Sr. is an easy target. He is not here to defend himself."

Scheindlin said it was clear that Mrs. Gotti was "furious" about DiLeonardo's testimony — and that nobody should have expected her to hold her tongue.

The judge also pointed out that since she wasn't on trial, she wasn't bound by any of the gag orders that affected other parties to the case.

Junior's first two cases ended in mistrials, and prosecutors are putting him back on trial — much to his mama's chagrin.

In a March interview, she accused prosecutors of trying to railroad her kid and described one assistant U.S. attorney as "foaming at the mouth."

She also took aim at Curtis Sliwa — the radio talk show host Junior is accused of putting a hit on — calling him "a sick puppy in need of serious therapy."

Junior's new trial starts July 5, and defense lawyers are trying to quash more than a dozen subpoenas sent to his relatives and alleged associates.

They claim prosecutors are trying to intimidate defense witnesses so they'll clam up before they can take the stand for Gotti.

Scheindlin ruled that prosecutors must wait until the new trial is over before they can haul two of those witnesses, Gotti's brother Peter and pal Steve Dobies, in front of a grand jury.

which brings us to this story :

Judge Warns Feds To Stay Away From Gotti Brother, Pal


NEW YORK -- A judge on Monday warned the government to steer clear of John "Junior" Gotti's brother and a close friend in a grand jury mob probe until after Gotti's third trial on racketeering charges in July.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin commented after defense lawyers accused the government of letting its agents tell prospective grand jury witnesses that they can thank Gotti for their subpoenas. Scheindlin said that "to say that's who you can blame, that's almost the government sending out an attack dog."

Gotti lawyer Charles Carnesi said cavalier comments by federal agents were not made for a legitimate purpose.

"It's done to generate some sort of anger at Mr. Gotti," he said during a hearing before the July 5 start of Gotti's third racketeering trial.


Defense lawyers said the government has sought to put Gotti's younger brother, Peter Gotti, and a friend, Steven Dobies, before a grand jury looking into new information about the Gambino crime family.

Both men testified as defense witnesses for Gotti at his last trial, which ended in March with a deadlocked jury.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor Hou told the judge that the comments by agents would be inappropriate but not illegal.

Since the end of Gotti's last trial, prosecutors have sent grand jury subpoenas to Gotti's relatives and suspected Gambino crime family members and associates.

-2006 by The Associated Press

___________________________________________________________

Looks to me like the Federal Government may be a bit fustrated here and are basically trying to do whatever it takes to get Junior put in jail.

I'm not saying that Junior is a model citizen who does not deserve to be put in jail. But to try and use the tactic of telling prospective witnesses that "they can thank Gotti for their subpeonas," tells me that they are stepping over the line beause of their fustration and embarassment of not being able to put this guy away.


Don Cardi
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/17/06 01:42 PM

FBI Agent Says Gambino Captain Wanted Him To Become Made Man

NEW YORK -- As an undercover FBI agent, Joaquin Garcia infiltrated the mob with remarkable ability. He befriended an ailing Gambino captain, dined in style and was introduced to wiseguys.

Garcia testified Tuesday that he was so persuasive that the captain -- on trial in Manhattan court -- recommended he become a made man.

"We had discussions that he was going to propose me to La Cosa Nostra," Garcia testified at the racketeering trial of Gregory DePalma. "So he was going to put my name on the list."

Prosecutors played a Nov. 5, 2004, tape of conversations between Garcia and DePalma in a car and a restaurant in which the agent said he was grateful for the chance to join the family. "I'm honored for that," Garcia said. "You know that I will never let you down."

The tape is among 5,000 hours of conversations the government says were recorded when Garcia started working for DePalma shortly after the Gambino captain finished a prison sentence for racketeering in February 2003. Garcia said he posed as Jack Falcone, or Big Jack, until 2005.

DePalma was arrested again before Garcia could be inducted into the family.

For a second day, Garcia testified in a courtroom ordered closed to protect his identity. Reporters listened in a nearby room to an audio feed of the proceedings.

The trial is unusual because Garcia lived in the belly of the mob for so long and because the defendant is an ailing 74-year-old man who prosecutors claim has tried to exaggerate his illnesses to win leniency from judges.

The government played a tape of a conversation in which DePalma, who sits in court with an oxygen tube in his nose and a blanket over his lap, could be heard boasting of his acting ability after he was sentenced in 1999.

"The judge said, 'I never sentenced a man in my life that was this sick,"' DePalma is heard saying on the tapes. "He says, 'How can I give this man time?"'

DePalma said he wore an oxygen mask and did not shave for a week before the court appearance, according to the tape.

"Oh, I got the global award, the Academy," he said. "I got the Emmy."

Garcia testified there was some truth to DePalma's frailty.

"Greg DePalma's an ill man," Garcia told the jury. "Make no mistake about that. He's had a series of heart attacks, diabetes. He has half a lung."

The agent also called DePalma a "strong man."

He added: "I used to joke with him, 'You're just like a cockroach. You could survive a nuclear attack."'

On Monday, jurors listened to secretly taped conversations in which DePalma boasted of his power and prestige after he was freed from prison. DePalma's defense lawyer told the jury last week that his client was a great exaggerator trying to be something he was not.

-AP

------------------------------------------------------------


It looks like we may have another "Donnie Brasco" type of a book/movie coming out.


Don Cardi
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/17/06 03:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Don Cardi:

The government played a tape of a conversation in which DePalma, who sits in court with an oxygen tube in his nose and a blanket over his lap, could be heard boasting of his acting ability after he was sentenced in 1999.

"The judge said, 'I never sentenced a man in my life that was this sick,"' DePalma is heard saying on the tapes. "He says, 'How can I give this man time?"'

DePalma said he wore an oxygen mask and did not shave for a week before the court appearance, according to the tape.

He must have been watching "Casino."


It looks like we may have another "Donnie Brasco" type of a book/movie coming out.


Don Cardi
Pistone will have to take another course in "Literary Embellishments."
Posted By: Donatello Noboddi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/23/06 05:46 PM

The buzz word in Chicago as of late is "clout". In the wake of the city's political patronage and hired truck scandals the Chicago Sun-Times is running a series about the Roti family and their ties to The Outfit and City Hall.

Roti
http://www.suntimes.com/special_sections/roti/roti.html

More items in the Sun-Times' Special Sections folder -
Clout
http://www.suntimes.com/special_sections/clout/index.html

Crime Inc.
http://www.suntimes.com/special_sections/crime/index.html
Posted By: XDCX

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/30/06 09:58 PM

From CNN.com

Quote:
Trials can turn goodfellas into sickfellas

Feds: Reputed Gambino capo is latest to use 'Sicilian flu' defense


NEW YORK (AP) -- And the Oscar goes to ... Gregory DePalma?


In 1999, the Gambino family captain showed up in court unshaven with an oxygen mask, claimed to be desperately ill and convinced a judge to reduce his prison sentence from 13 years to six.

Later, though, the FBI secretly recorded him boasting of his acting ability: "Oh, I got the global award, the Academy. I got the Emmy."

DePalma, now 74, is on trial again in another mob case, reasserting his claim of ill health as he spends his days in a courtroom with an oxygen tube up his nose and his feet resting on a stool.

Trying to dodge prosecution through illness -- or coming down with the "Sicilian flu," as federal agents once derisively called it -- is a long-standing Mafia defense, so familiar it has inspired plotlines on "The Sopranos" and "Law & Order."

The most famous case of all involved Vincent Gigante, the "Oddfather" who avoided conviction for nearly three decades with his well-documented crazy act.

Gigante shambled through his Greenwich Village neighborhood in bathrobe and slippers, whether it was time for breakfast, lunch or dinner. FBI agents serving him with a subpoena once found him standing naked in a running shower, clutching an open umbrella.

Gigante was found guilty in 1997 of racketeering and murder conspiracy, and finally admitted his ruse six years later. He died in prison last year at 77.

"Gigante got a lot of exercise walking around the Village," said mob expert Howard Abadinsky.

The majority of cases run to heart problems rather than head cases.

Joe Bonanno, one of the founding fathers of New York City's mob, was summoned to testify in 1985 at a federal prosecution of the Mafia's ruling commission. He was 80, retired and living in Arizona at the time, and his lawyer, William Kunstler, argued that the mobster was so ill that the stress of testifying would be too much for him.

Bonanno served 14 months for contempt, coming out of prison in 1986.

He died ... 16 years later, at the ripe old age of 97. Kunstler had died seven years earlier at 76.

Another mobster, Buffalo boss Stefano Maggodino, once claimed after an arrest that he was too sick to get fingerprinted. At a bedside arraignment, he told the assembled authorities, "Take the gun and shoot me. That's what you want!" He survived for another five years.

Not everyone lived as long as they did. Aniello "Neill" Dellacroce was arraigned by telephone in April 1985 from his Staten Island home, where he was laid up with heart disease and cancer. Dellacroce was dead before the end of the year.

"When you start to think of the lifestyles these guys live, there's a good chance it's not going to be so healthy," Abadinsky said. "One of the things that always fascinated me is that these guys didn't die earlier."

At his current trial, DePalma's attorney described him as a "broken-down man" who is missing a lung and suffers from an assortment of serious illnesses, including diabetes and heart disease.

But federal prosecutor Scott Marrah said surveillance photos will show DePalma "on the move, an energetic, active man."
Posted By: Walter Mosca

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/05/06 12:07 PM

http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2006/01/giving_michael_.html
Posted By: hova4ever9

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/05/06 07:14 PM

I read the article but was he a lobbiest bribing people??? and he looked rediculous in that trench coat.
Posted By: Walter Mosca

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/05/06 08:29 PM

I don't know but it's not effecting me much.
Posted By: Donatello Noboddi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/07/06 01:18 PM

The first I have heard of a formal ceremony for Outfit members....

Tapes reveal mob's secrets
June 7, 2006

BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter

In secretly tape-recorded conversations, alleged mob hitman Frank Calabrese Sr. talks about having his finger cut for a mob oath, spreading lime to dispose of a corpse and how shotgun ammo tore up the body of another victim, according to newly released transcripts.

"Them will f------ tear half your body apart," Calabrese Sr. allegedly said in a 1999 conversation secretly tape-recorded by his son.

Transcripts of the conversations came to light Tuesday as prosecutors filed a motion to keep the 69-year-old Calabrese Sr. behind bars as he awaits charges with other reputed mobsters in one of the most significant cases ever against the Chicago Outfit. Calabrese Sr.'s attorney, Joseph Lopez, wants Calabrese Sr. out of jail, saying he presents no risk. Lopez likely will argue in front of a federal judge next week that the recorded conversations are taken out of context.

Calabrese Sr. is charged with killing 13 people for the mob. The feds say he's a danger to the community, especially for the witnesses against him, which include his brother, Nick, who allegedly participated in some of the killings with him, and his son, Frank Jr., who sources said no longer has anything to do with the Outfit.

Nick Calabrese was spurred in part to cooperate with the feds after he learned that his brother had been secretly tape-recorded allegedly giving the go-ahead to have him killed if he cooperated with the feds.

Frank Calabrese Sr. said he "would send my blessing" to Outfit members, so they would know there would be no retaliation for Nick Calabrese's death, according to the transcripts.

Frank Calabrese Jr., who is not charged in the current case involving his father, put his life on the line by secretly recording the elder Calabrese in the prison yard where they both were, on another case in 1999. Frank Calabrese Jr. wore earphones and a tape-player which the FBI secretly equipped with a bug. The younger Calabrese apparently decided to cooperate to ensure his father remained in prison for the rest of his life because the son received nothing from the government for his help, law enforcement sources have said.

On the tapes, Calabrese Sr. allegedly talks of participating in several killings.

Frank Calabrese Sr. "has been a serial murderer for the Chicago Outfit," stated the government filing by prosecutors Mitchell A. Mars, John J. Scully and T. Markus Funk.

The 'Dahmer of Elmwood Park'?


Lopez scoffed at the prosecution line.

"That's the most ridiculous characterization I've ever heard of my client," Lopez said.

"Is he the Jeffrey Dahmer of Elmwood Park?" Lopez said.

Referring to one murder, the 1970 slaying of mob associate Michael Albergo, Calabrese Sr. talks to his son about putting lime on the body to help it disintegrate, the transcripts say.

"We put lime that eats," Calabrese Sr. allegedly said. "There was no clothes on the person."

The feds contend Calabrese Sr. worried that Albergo could implicate him in loan-sharking, and lured him to the murder site where Calabrese Sr. and two other men strangled him to death. Albergo was stripped, then buried in a Chinatown construction site, which later became a White Sox parking lot.

In another conversation, Calabrese Sr. allegedly admits to being in the lookout car during the murders of William Dauber and Dauber's wife, Charlotte.

The couple was killed in 1980 because mobsters believed that William Dauber was cooperating with law enforcement, authorities said. His wife was killed simply because she was at the "wrong place at the wrong time," Calabrese Sr. allegedly said on tape.

Another man in the wrong place at the wrong time was Arthur Morawski, who was murdered along with Richard Ortiz in 1983 outside a bar in Cicero, officials said. The feds contend Ortiz was killed by Calabrese Sr. and other mobsters because Ortiz had committed a murder not sanctioned by the Outfit. Ortiz's family has long argued he was never involved in any crimes.

Allegedly talks of mob induction


Calabrese Sr. allegedly describes how he blocked Ortiz's car while his brother Nick and another accomplice fired shotguns at Ortiz and Morawski.

Calabrese Sr. describes how he instructed the two killers to do the job and how the ammunition tore up the bodies of the victims, according to the transcripts.

"Oh, yeah," Calabrese Sr. said. "Tore 'em up bad. Them'll tear your body up. They're called double-oughts. And you want me to tell you something? The Polish guy that was with him was a nice guy. Okay? But he happened to be at the wrong place. . . . It was said, no matter who's with him, want it done. Now if you back away and you have that opportunity and you don't, then you look like a f------ a------."

By allegedly talking about the murders, Calabrese Sr. violated a strict Outfit code of never speaking of killings after they were done.

In another violation of the code, Calabrese Sr. allegedly describes how he was inducted into the mob.

"Their fingers get cut and everybody puts the fingers together and all the blood running down, then they take pictures. Put them in your hand. Burn them," Calabrese Sr. says, according to the feds.

"Pictures of?" his son asks.

"Holy pictures," Calabrese Sr. explains.

As they burn, you don't want to move your hand, Calabrese Sr. says.

If you move, "then it shows your fear," he says.


MOB TALK Allegedly talks of mob induction Allegedly talks of mob induction

Here are excerpts from transcripts of secretly recorded statements in 1999 of alleged mob hitman Frank Calabrese Sr.

On urging two reluctant mob assassins to get out of the car to go kill two victims in Cicero in 1983:


"I was the one talkin' to them . . . 'All right, guys, here's what you gotta do here. Okay now out. Out. Out. Get out . . .' [He laughs.] Yeah, they were like hesitant for a minute. 'Out. Now, now, now, now.' "


On what the shotgun ammo did to the bodies of the two men:


"Bigger ones . . . Big, big bearings. So them, them will f------ tear half your body apart. Oh yeah. Tore 'em up bad. Them'll tear your body up. They're called double-oughts."


On his pride of getting his fellow mobsters to talk in code:


"You know who started all that rigga-ma-talk-talk? I did. They never talked like that. They didn't know about talkin' like that."
Posted By: Donatello Noboddi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/08/06 01:39 PM

Mob's Eto dies long after surviving hit

By Jeff Coen and Rudolph Bush, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporter Matt O'Connor contributed to this report
Published June 8, 2006


A noted Chicago mob figure who ran gambling operations for the Outfit, survived a botched hit and turned government informant and witness has died after a long stint in the federal witness-protection program, a federal official confirmed.

Ken Eto turned on the mob after he survived being shot in the head in a Northwest Side parking lot in 1983 and went on to testify against mob boss Ernest Rocco Infelice in 1991. After a news report Wednesday on WLS-TV Ch. 7 that said Eto died in Atlanta in 2004 in his 80s, federal officials in Chicago said they had been aware of his death, which had not been reported by the media before Wednesday.

First Assistant U.S. Atty. Gary Shapiro, who for years headed the U.S. Justice Department's Chicago Organized Crime Strike Force, said Wednesday that he knew of Eto's death, but he did not know when he had died.

Eto, known as "Tokyo Joe," survived three gunshots in the head in February 1983 in an attempted assassination that came after he was convicted of a gambling charge and the mob feared he would become a turncoat.

Former FBI agent Jack O'Rourke said Wednesday that Eto was a gambling expert who for decades ran games and books for the mob's North Side crew.

Eto learned gambling in the service while riding a troop train to Alaska during World War II. After returning to Chicago, he took up with the mob and handled not only their games and books, but also paid bribes to police, O'Rourke said.

In 1983, the mob turned on Eto and ordered him killed.

Inside a car parked along Harlem Avenue on the North Side, two men fired three shots into Eto's skull. The men, whom Eto later identified to federal agents as mob soldiers John Gattuso and Jasper Campise, then left him for dead, O'Rourke said.

But Eto didn't die, and after awaking from unconsciousness, dragged himself to a nearby pharmacy, where he called 911, O'Rourke said.

FBI agents and then-Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeremy Margolis rushed to the hospital where Eto was taken, O'Rourke said.

During his recovery, Eto agreed to "flip" for the feds, O'Rourke said.

"He really had nowhere else to go," O'Rourke said

Eto not only fingered Gattuso, a Cook County sheriff's officer, and Campise, as the gunmen, but he also provided intelligence about mob activity to the FBI.

O'Rourke said he learned that soon after the shooting, the mob planned to murder Gattuso and Campise. O'Rourke said he and then-U.S. Atty. Dan Webb tried to persuade the men to cooperate with the government, but they refused.

On July 14, 1983, their bodies were found in the trunk of car in Naperville. Eto, meanwhile, was placed in the witness-protection program, O'Rourke said.

In 1989, Eto testified against a state legislator implicated in the Operation Greylord investigation. Eto was 72 when he testified in 1991, telling the court he had spent 40 years in the Chicago Outfit.

"I've never seen a witness like him," Shapiro said. "Completely unflappable."
Posted By: XDCX

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/21/06 02:12 AM

CNN.com - \'Mafia cops\' say their lawyers blew it

Quote:
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wearing sharply tailored suits and sharing "Godfather"-style kisses in the courtroom, attorneys Bruce Cutler and Edward Hayes appeared a formidable defense team for two ex-NYPD detectives accused of moonlighting as hit men for the mob.

Now, two months after Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were convicted of eight slayings, the former cops are charging that their lawyers botched the case -- and asking a federal judge to throw out the verdict.

Both Cutler and Hayes were disappointed by the allegations from their one-time clients, saying Eppolito and Caracappa were desperate men motivated by the life sentences awaiting them if their appeal fails.

"I was just so personally offended," Cutler said. "One day you're begged to come in, and the next day you're knocked by the client, who to me is delusional in a certain respect. He's certainly ungrateful and shameless."

The defendants' new lawyers were unsparing in their assessment of their predecessors.

New lawyers critical

"Hayes' indifference to Mr. Caracappa's defense, both in terms of preparation and understanding, was apparent throughout the case," Daniel Nobel, who now represents Caracappa, said in court papers.

Joseph Bondy, the new attorney for Eppolito, said Cutler "spent the majority of Mr. Eppolito's closing argument speaking about himself, including that he lost over 14 pounds during trial, loved Brooklyn as a borough of bridges and tunnels, and was an admirer of the great Indian Chief Crazy Horse."

A hearing is set for June 23 on the defendants' allegations of ineffective counsel.

The allegations against Cutler and Hayes are at odds with their reputations.

Cutler, a burly, swaggering figure, is best known for defending Mafia boss John Gotti, employing a loud and merciless style of cross-examination known as "Brucifixion." And Hayes, author of the recent memoir "Mouthpiece," had a client list that included Sean "Diddy" Combs and Robert De Niro; he was the model for the impeccably tailored, street-smart defense attorney in Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities."

When the two decorated former detectives were convicted April 6, Hayes shared a tearful courtroom hug with Caracappa. Their rapport has since vanished.

Cutler 'rankled and angry'

"He's desperate -- who else can he attack?" Hayes said. "I am surprised, however, since I didn't think he was like that."

"They started off blaming the government and the prosecutors, blaming this and that," Cutler said. "Who's left? Us. I am rankled and angry."

Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, were found guilty of committing or facilitating eight killings while on the payroll of both the NYPD and Luchese family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso.

Their new lawyers charged that Cutler and Hayes failed to attack a possible flaw in the government case: That the alleged racketeering enterprise did not continue once the defendants retired and moved to Las Vegas. That would mean the five-year statute of limitations had expired and the convictions would be invalid.

The court filings also included complaints that Cutler and Hayes ignored their clients, that Eppolito was denied his right to testify, and that cross-examination of prosecution witnesses was improperly handled.

Neither Eppolito or Caracappa took the witness stand, though Cutler probably will at the hearing this month.

"I don't want to hurt Lou, and I certainly don't want to hurt Steve," Cutler said. "But I will be heard."
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 07/03/06 05:45 PM

Well, here's a story about the "traditional" vs. "new" Mafia from today's NYTimes:
Story covers yet another :rolleyes: Bonanno Family trial triggered by informants. On trial is the "old Mafia" guy, Baldassare Amato, 54, born in Castellemmare del Golfo, Sicily--a stone killer described by the Times as "hard-eyed." One witness, after experiencing one of Amato's stares, stated: "I ain't testifyin'." Amato sits "impassively" next to his lawyer, "saying little."

Contrast him to "new Mafia" guy Anthony Basile, 36, one of the defendants. Here's how the Times portrayed him:

But it was Mr. Basile's case that seemed to present the most stunning departure from the old-world Mafia mores. His lawyer, Ms. Laser, sought to portray him in her opening statement as a young man swept away by the romance of the gangsters he saw in his Bensonhurst neighborhood, men with money, cars, women and respect. As a result, she said, he made a mistake and associated with the wrong people.

Perhaps because she did not want the jury to confuse her client with a tough guy, let alone a killer, she painted a picture of him that must have rankled the traditional Mr. Amato.

"He is terrified," she told the jury, "that he finds himself in this enormous, intimidating courtroom with all of these lawyers, with these F.B.I. agents, with the court and, of course, all of you, judging him, as he sits here, fighting for his life, for what will be for him the rest of his life."
Posted By: Donatello Noboddi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 07/24/06 08:06 PM

Calabrese wants his trial to be 'family affair'

July 22, 2006

BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter



Reputed Outfit killer Frank Calabrese Sr. calls the government's criminal case against him involving 13 murders a family affair.

After all, the two star witnesses at trial will be his son and brother.

That's why Frank Calabrese Sr. wants to be tried alone and not with the 11 other defendants in what's been called the most important federal prosecution of the mob in Chicago history.

"This case is really a family affair rather than a multi-defendant prosecution," Calabrese Sr.'s attorney, Joseph Lopez, wrote in court papers filed Friday. The trial is set for May.

"The Calabrese Trio should be able to battle out in their own arena," Lopez wrote.

The filing makes clear that part of the Calabrese Sr. defense strategy will be, in effect, to put his own family on trial.

In the motion, Calabrese Sr. calls his son, Frank Jr., a lowlife, "a social misfit" and contends he broke into the family vacation home.

Sources familiar with the Calabrese family, though, point to the father as the malignant influence, contending he brought the same brutality he used on the streets into his family home.

The accusations from Calabrese Sr. come in sharp contrast to the expressions of love he expressed for his son just last month when Calabrese Sr. was trying to get a federal judge to set a bond so he could get out of jail.

'Strictly business'


Federal prosecutors had warned trial witnesses would be in jeopardy if Calabrese Sr. were released. But the elder Calabrese, through his attorney, expressed nothing but love and adoration for his son.

The judge kept Calabrese Sr. in jail.

On Friday, Lopez saw no contradiction between the statements of love and such phrases as lowlife.

"Love's got nothing to do with it," Lopez said. "It's business. It's strictly business in the courtroom."

Frank Calabrese Jr. is not charged in the current case but is providing key evidence for prosecutors.

He secretly recorded his father while both were in prison in 1999 on another matter in Milan, Mich., catching his father allegedly talking about mob murders and other Outfit business. The son made the recordings at risk to his life, law enforcement sources have said.

Calabrese Sr. also wants to be tried separately because he expects to come under attack from the other defendants.

"The one's family who is causing the problems is the one who gets the brunt of the finger-pointing," Lopez argued.
Posted By: Signor Vitelli

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 08/25/06 04:12 AM

Due to the Weekend Sitdown in Philadelphia, I was a little lax in going through my newspapers.

This was in the NY Daily News on Friday, August 18, 2006:

*************************

Mobster cops to '84 slay of capo

By Jose Martinez, Daily News Staff Writer

A former Bonanno crime family underboss pleaded guilty yesterday to the 1984 killing of a Sicilian-born capo whose remains were found inside oil drums at a New Jersey glue factory.

In a brief appearance in Brooklyn Federal Court, Louis (Ha Ha) Attanasio, 62, copped to killing Cesare Bonventre, who was Carmine Galante's bodyguard when the Bonanno boss was gunned down in 1979. Attanasio was arrested in December 2004.

*************************

Those among us who have read Donnie Brasco will immediately recognize the name of Cesare/Caesar Bonventre as one of the "zips" (assassins) imported from Sicily.

Signor V.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 09/03/06 02:46 AM

'Son for a son'

Dapper Don threatened to kill Gravano's kid - witness

BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Dapper Don John Gotti made a deal with his personal devil.
As long as mob snitch Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano agreed not to squeal about son John A. (Junior) Gotti's mob doings, the Dapper Don vowed not to kill Gravano's only son, Gerard.

"It was a son for a son," mob informant Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo testified yesterday at the mob scion's racketeering trial in Manhattan Federal Court.

"Leave my son out," DiLeonardo paraphrased the Dapper Don as saying. "Don't get him pinched, leave my son alone, and we won't kill your son or hurt your family."

It's unclear whether the pact between the don of the Gambino crime family and his underboss was struck before Gravano turned on Gotti in 1991 or after.

DiLeonardo said Junior Gotti told him the story when they were still friends, before the Gambino capo became the highest-ranking member of the crime family since Gravano to betray his fellow wiseguys.

The Dapper Don kept up his end of the bargain.

Gerard Gravano, 28, is still alive and serving a 15-year federal prison stretch for his role in a Phoenix-based drug ring he ran with his father's help.

But assuming DiLeonardo's account is true, Gravano broke his promise in Peter Maas' 1997 biography, "Underboss," in which he outs Junior Gotti as a mobster by recalling a sitdown between the Dapper Don and the Colombo family boss, Vincent (Chin) Gigante.

"One thing I'll never forget from that meeting was John telling Chin in sort of a proud way that his son John Junior had just been made," Gravano says. "Instead of congratulating him, Chin said, 'Jeez, I'm sorry to hear that.'"

Gotti, 42, was inducted into the Mafia on Christmas Eve 1988 - the same night DiLeonardo was inducted. Gravano also failed to live up to his promise of keeping his son away from the life of crime he led.

"I wanted my son to be legitimate, to have nothing to do with what I did," he says in the book.

Prosecutors expect to wrap up their case against Gotti by early next week.

Gotti is accused in a wide-ranging conspiracy that includes ordering thugs to silence radio host Curtis Sliwa for his repeated on-air attacks on the Gotti clan following the Dapper Don's 1992 racketeering conviction.

DiLeonardo said that Gravano, while admitting to 19 murders, failed to implicate members of his own crew in crimes and suggested that federal prosecutors let him get away with it because they wanted to convict the Dapper Don.

"John was the golden goose," DiLeonardo testified.

Originally published on September 2, 2006


============================================================

If this is true, then I'd have to believe that the deal was made between Gotti and Gravano immedeatly AFTER Gravano turned rat. What reason would Gotti have to make a deal like that and threaten the life of Gravano's son while Gravano was still in the good graces of Gotti?

To me it just wouldn't make sense for Gotti to even bring up that kind of a deal before Sammy turned rat.


Don Cardi
Posted By: Struck By the Thunderbolt

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 09/06/06 11:10 PM

Nod to founding godfathers
Las Vegas' mayor gained fame and fortune defending mob titans. Now he wants a museum celebrating their role in building Sin City.

By Michael Martinez
Tribune national correspondent
Published September 5, 2006


LAS VEGAS -- Mayor Oscar Goodman, the flamboyant, gin-sipping, sports-gambling, showgirl-squiring executive of Sin City, is caught in a contradiction.

For years he had told the world, "There is no mob." That was when he was a defense lawyer who represented mobsters and even had a cameo playing himself in Martin Scorsese's "Casino." Goodman said there were no mobsters--just alleged mobsters.

Now, as mayor, he wants to take a National Historic Landmark, the old federal courthouse where he tried his first case, and turn it into a mob museum--and there's no alleged about it.

Many of Goodman's constituents and some former FBI agents are appalled by the idea, but Goodman insists he's just recognizing Vegas' founding fathers. Or godfathers.

"The mob founded us, and I never apologized for them because I represented them, and they made me a rich man," he said.

Goodman, 67, who recalled representing an alleged mobster at Chicago's criminal courts complex known as "26th and Cal," is winning all verdicts in the political arena these days. He was re-elected in 2003 to a second term as mayor of Las Vegas with more than 85 percent of the vote.

If Goodman wants it, he gets it. And he wants a mob museum.

"As long as I'm mayor," Goodman asserted, "we're going to keep on smiling at ourselves at how the mob founded us."

One of the most prominent founders was Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, a maverick underworld mastermind who was the boss of West Coast gambling for the crime syndicate and who opened the Flamingo hotel in 1946 on a forlorn patch of highway that eventually became known famously as the Strip.

Some wonder whether the museum will end up as a monument to Goodman's legal career and his extensive list of old clients: Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro of Chicago, Jimmy Chagra, Nick Civella, Vinny Ferrara, Frank Rosenthal, Meyer Lansky, Natale Richichi and Nicky Scarfo.

That compilation was made by author and Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith, who wrote a book about Goodman, including how he despised mob snitches, in "Of Rats and Men: Oscar Goodman's Life from Mob Mouthpiece to Mayor of Las Vegas."


Notorious client list

"Oscar's client list would fill any mob museum," said Smith, 46. "You know, he has represented members of various organized crime families literally from coast to coast. He's most known locally and in Chicago, of course, for his representation of Tony Spilotro."

Spilotro allegedly crushed the skull of one victim in a vise and later turned up dead in an Indiana cornfield in 1986.

"Most locals here know him as a killer, but [Goodman] says he was a gentleman. . . . Of course Oscar never went on any long rides with Tony Spilotro, or he wouldn't have come back," Smith said.

The notion of a mob museum annoys the FBI agents who were Goodman's legal adversaries.

"In my estimation, his purpose would be to glorify them," said Joe Yablonsky, 77, who retired as agent in charge of the FBI's Las Vegas office in 1984. "The only reason that he gets away with this is that he's in Vegas. If he was in some normal American city, he'd never make it."

Yablonsky, who spent the last four years of his FBI career in Las Vegas and now lives in Lady Lake, Fla., said many Vegas residents don't remember the violent days of mob-influenced casinos because most of them weren't living there then. The population of Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County is 1.8million, four times what it was in 1980.

"If it were told truthfully, it would be OK, how we ridded the place of them and what they were really like," Yablonsky said. "They milked the place for all these dollars they took in the skim and . . . Spilotro was a hit guy, and we figured him for 22 whacks and that was supposed to be his role as enforcer. How is [Goodman] going to make him look good?"

The museum, which doesn't have a formal name yet, would be housed downtown across the street from City Hall in the old federal courthouse and post office, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, said Deputy City Manager Betsy Fretwell.

The city awarded a $7.5 million contract this month for an architect to design temporary and permanent galleries. The museum and cultural center is expected to cost $30 million.


Entertaining venue envisioned


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City officials have yet to decide how the museum, which would open in 2008, will depict the Mafia, but Fretwell said it will be entertaining enough to hold its own against the stiff competition for which Vegas attractions are renowned.

City officials now refer to the building as the POST Modern, a word play on how they want a modern use for the old post office, which opened in 1933.

The building's sole courtroom is perhaps best known as one of the sites used in 1950 for the U.S. Senate's televised Kefauver hearings, in which suspected crime figures were interrogated.

Because the museum is to address the history of organized crime in Las Vegas, exhibits could very well bear upon the mayor's career as a defense lawyer.

"The mayor has a rich history as an attorney and may have things to contribute in terms of collections or oral history," Fretwell said.

An advisory board including local media members, a former chief of the Las Vegas FBI office and tourism officials has been formed, and a panel of historians also is being assembled, Fretwell said.

While a recent city-commissioned survey showed that out-of-town visitors preferred a mob museum in the old courthouse, locals more often preferred a museum devoted to "vintage Vegas," its architecture and entertainment evolution.

One resident, Wayne Haag, 45, a garbage collection driver, thought the mayor's idea cast a negative light on Las Vegas.

"A Mafia museum--in a way, he's related to it. It's an old post office. Why [a Mafia museum]? To me, it's m-o-n-e-y," Haag said.

----------

mjmartinez@tribune.com

- - -

Who might be included?

Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro

Known as the Chicago mob's overseer in Las Vegas, Spilotro, 48, was brutally slain in 1986 along with his brother, Michael. Their bodies were found in an Indiana cornfield and the slayings were part of the movie "Casino."


Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel

The boss of West Coast gambling for the crime syndicate and an original member of Murder Inc., he came to Las Vegas in 1945. A year later, Siegel opened the Flamingo hotel on a dusty stretch of highway that soon would become known as the Strip. A shrewd businessman with an explosive temper, Siegel was executed in 1947 in Beverly Hills before he could see his Las Vegas dream come to fruition. More than 40 years later, Warren Beatty brought the gangster back to life in "Bugsy."


Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo

Accardo rose from Al Capone's bodyguard to become the reputed boss of the Chicago crime syndicate. Under his leadership, the Chicago mob was the secret power behind Las Vegas casinos, skimming millions. He also was known as "Joe Batters," apparently a reference to his prowess as a mob enforcer. Though he had a long arrest record, he was never convicted of a felony and boasted that he had never spent a night in jail. Accardo died in 1992 at age 86.


-- Chicago Tribune and news services
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 09/07/06 03:54 PM

As much as I may enjoy reading about the mob, watching movies about the mob, talking the mob and learning all that I could about the mob, the thought of paying tribute to these people, who are really nothing more than murderers and criminals, by giving them a museum, seems outrageous.


Don Cardi
Posted By: Signor Vitelli

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 09/08/06 03:40 AM

From today's NY Daily News:

********************

11 Years For Gambino Big

By Tom Zambito

The No. 2 man in the Gambino crime family was sentenced yesterday to 11 years and three months in prison on racketeering charges that included the shakedown of a Connecticut restaurant owner.

Anthony (The Genius) Megale pleaded guilty in April to extorting the owner of Valbella, an Italian eatery in Greenwich that attracts a celebrity clientele, as well as a New Jersey trucking company and a Westchester County construction firm.

Prosecutors say Megale served as acting underboss from 2002 to 2004.

********************

The Genius?? Insert your own jokes here, folks; I've got nothing further to say.

Signor V.

--------------------
"He's not in dis stove!!"
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 09/08/06 04:16 AM

" 'The Genius'...hah-hah...yeah, Senatah, da Gambino Family had a lotta geniuses..."
--Junior
Posted By: Donatello Noboddi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 09/19/06 05:05 PM

Posted today on CNN.com -

Gotti tapes: Modern mob full of punks, rats and weasels
POSTED: 12:04 p.m. EDT, September 18, 2006
NEW YORK (AP) -- As he languished in a federal prison in 2003, John "Junior" Gotti had plenty to worry about.

The jail, he told visitors, was crawling with informants. He had money problems. Old friends were getting indicted. Other members of the Gotti clan were stealing his money.

But at the root of his troubles was this: The modern mob, he lamented, was losing its manliness.

"Now are we men? Or are we punks or rats or weasels? You tell me," he angrily asked one friend while serving a racketeering sentence.

Gotti's conversations were routinely recorded before his release from prison last year, and the tapes have played a central role in his current racketeering trial in Manhattan. A jury was to begin deliberating the case Monday.

Among other things, the son of the legendary mafia boss "Dapper Don" John Gotti is accused of ordering an attack on Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who was shot twice by would-be kidnappers in 1992.

Prosecutors contend that "Junior" Gotti was involved in mob affairs even after he was imprisoned in 1999.

The defense says the recordings, made at the federal prison at Ray Brook, New York, show that Gotti had developed a distaste for mob life and retired.

In any case, the tapes provide an inside look at the gangster's code, particularly its obsession with "being a man" at all costs.

Lesson No. 1: Men fight.

"If a guy wants to get all fancy and prancy, if he picks his hands up to you, you pick your hands up back. You're not a punk," Gotti explained in one recorded discussion.

"No hiding behind fences," he said during another conversation. "Take our coats off like gentlemen. Now, let's see. Let's see who the tough guy is. No knives. No guns. Like gentleman. ... Let's see who the real man really is."

Lesson No. 2: Men tolerate no assault on their character.

Gotti is firm on this point when he discusses two uncles who diminished his leadership role in the gang by badmouthing him to his father in 2001, a year before the elder Gotti's death from cancer in prison.

"If any of them ever come here, I'm telling you, I swear it to you, on my dead brother and my dead father, I swear to you, I will meet them by that (prison) door, with two padlocks in my hands and I will crack their skulls, I promise you that. I promise you that. This I take as a solemn oath as a man."

Lesson No. 3: Manliness is in the blood.

"You're a real man," he told longtime friend John Ruggiero. "You wanna know why, John? Not only for who you are. But for who your father was. You got his genes, you're a man."

A person who isn't a man, he added, can't simply become one by acting tough.

"These ain't men you're dealing with, you're dealing with frauds," he said. "It's like a kid who gets (unintelligible) all his life ... and he gets his milk money taken. What does he grow up to be? A cop. He's got a gun and a badge. That's, that's his equalizer. Got a gun and a badge, now he's a man. Well, that's how all these guys are, John, they're no different."

Lesson No. 4: A man spends time with family.

"Listen, I love my brother," Gotti said. "But my brother's a bum. That's all he is. No more, no less. He doesn't spend a moment with his own children. I have a hard time respecting any man who doesn't spend any time with his wife and kids."

Lesson No. 5: Men can do prison time.

"Some guys are made for this. Some guys just aren't," Gotti said of his life behind bars.

"Gravano was an example," he said, speaking of Gambino crime family turncoat Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano. "I mean he was a legendary soldier in the street. Brooklyn, he was a legend in Brooklyn. He got to jail, he fell to pieces."

Lesson No. 6: Real men don't snitch, but if they do, they don't make stuff up.

"Bottom line is, if you're gonna become a rat, become a rat: Tell the f------ truth. Don't go out of your way to hurt people," he said.

This is Gotti's third trial on the latest racketeering charges. The first two ended when jurors deadlocked on the charges, in part because of the defense argument that he became disenchanted with the mafia and retired long enough ago that the legal deadline for prosecuting him for old crimes had expired.

Which brings us to Gotti's Lesson No. 7: Mafia life stinks.

"So much treachery ... My father couldn't have loved me, to push me into this life," he lamented to friend Steve Kaplan.

"Oh ... I'd rather be a Latin King than be what I am," he said, referring to the Hispanic street gang. "I swear to you, Steve, and I, I mean it on my father's grave. I'm so ashamed. I am so ashamed."

In jail in 2003, John 'Junior' Gotti was taped lamenting that the modern mob was losing its manliness.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Real Life Organized Crime News - 12/12/07 03:33 AM

Plan to open Las Vegas 'mob museum' gains FBI support

December 11, 2007

By KEN RITTER
Associated Press Writer


LAS VEGAS (AP) - The town that has always had a wink and a nod relationship with founding fathers like Bugsy, Lefty and Meyer plans to open a mob museum to capitalize on its early ties with organized crime.

"Let's be brutally honest, warts and all. This is more than legend. It's fact," said Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former defense attorney whose clients once included mobsters Meyer Lansky and Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro. "This is something that differentiates us from other cities."

The project has gained the support of the FBI and is guided by a retired FBI special agent. They say they are involved because you can't tell the stories of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, his ally, Lansky, casino boss Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal and others without telling the story of the lawmen who pursued them.

"This is a way to connect with the public and show the results of our work," said Dan McCarron, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington.

Ellen Knowlton, who retired in 2006 as FBI agent in charge in Las Vegas and now chairs the not-for-profit museum organization, said FBI officials have offered to share photographs, transcripts of wiretaps and histories of efforts to contain and eradicate organized crime in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

"Despite the sort of edgy theme, this museum will be historically accurate and it will tell the true story of organized crime," Knowlton said. "The plan is to give people a kind of gritty taste of what it would have been like to be not only a person involved or affiliated with organized crime, but also what it would have been like to be in law enforcement."

Organizers know visitors will arrive with experiences of their own and Hollywood images from movies like "Bugsy," "The Godfather" and "Casino." They also realize documenting the mob's history sometimes requires a leap of faith.

"If anybody out there finds a memo saying: 'To the boys, from Meyer. Re: Bugsy. Kill him,' We'd love to have it," said Michael Green, a College of Southern Nevada history professor who is researching exhibits for the museum. "But we doubt it's there."

"Because of that, you have to do a lot of reconstructing, inferring and implying," he said. "There's a lot of winking we're going to have to do."

Lansky, who Green characterized as "the banker for organized crime" in the post-bootlegging years of the 1930s and 40s, was said to have partnered with Siegel in the El Cortez hotel before investing in Siegel's grand plan to build the Flamingo hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

"Lansky and Siegel got organized crime interests to invest in Las Vegas," Green said. Siegel spent $6 million before opening the vastly over-budget Flamingo in December 1946. His legend grew following his unsolved slaying in June 1947 in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Spilotro and Rosenthal were associates in the 1970s, when Rosenthal ran several casinos including the Stardust. Spilotro was banned from casinos by Nevada gambling regulators in 1979, and faced several indictments stemming from FBI investigations before he was killed in 1986 and buried in an Indiana cornfield.

"What really cracked the mob was they got to the point they thought they were untouchable," Green said, adding that organized crime was shoved out by FBI prosecutions, state crackdowns and casino purchases by corporate interests.

"The old timers were behind-the scenes guys. They wanted to fit into the town," Green said, pointing to stories about Moe Dalitz, a Cleveland businessman who rescued the Desert Inn and Stardust casinos in the 1950s and 60s and built a hospital, golf courses and shopping centers.

"Was he tied to the mob or involved with the mob? Yes," Green said. "A mobster? Harder to explain."

Dennis Barrie, who directed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the popular International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., said he will design the as yet unnamed Las Vegas museum to show how organized crime and the fight against it shaped modern life.

"Whether it's running the casinos in Las Vegas, or controlling cigarette sales or numbers or trash collection in any city, organized crime is part of the American culture," Barrie said. "Everybody has a mob story or a brush with the mob world. Or they at least say they do."

Officials expect to open the museum by 2010 in a postcard brick federal building that was the centerpiece of a dusty town of 5,100 residents when it opened in 1933.

Seventeen years later, in November 1950, the three-story combination courthouse-post office hosted a one-day hearing by Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver's traveling Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce.

The committee came to the city where gambling was legal to question Flamingo casino executive Moe Sedway about his ties to Siegel and Lansky, Green said, and state officials Bill Moore and Cliff Jones about whether they should also own casinos.

"The courtroom is one of the central focuses of the museum," Barrie said, outlining plans to recall "the sensation that it created with a national audience when television brought organized crime into people's living rooms."

Organizers say paying visitors might be asked to decide as they arrive which side of the law they want to be on, and then be given a story line tracing the life of a famous lawman or mobster or a street cop or numbers runner.

"Were you a hit man? Were you a prosecutor? What choices do you have to make?" Green said. "We're telling a story of things that are multisided."

Organizers hope to have an area where visitors "can sit down in front of a camera and say, 'I knew Bugsy,' or 'I saw Meyer,' or whatever," he said.

Goodman has pushed the idea of a mob museum since was elected in 1999. He brokered a deal for the city to buy the building in 2000 for $1, with the understanding it would be restored and renovated as a cultural center. Officials expect the final cost including renovations and retrofitting to reach almost $50 million.

About $15 million has been raised through grants, city funds, contributions and the sale of commemorative license plates that marked Las Vegas' centennial in 2005.

Barrie said he thought about half the 40,000 square feet of floor space could be devoted to exhibits - about the same size as the Spy Museum, which opened in 2002 and draws about 750,000 people a year.

Knowlton compared the Las Vegas museum with the Black Museum of Scotland Yard in London and the New York City Police Museum.

"There are crime museums and various kinds of collections that departments have," Knowlton said, "but I have not seen or heard of anything of this nature."


Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Las Vegas Mob Museum - 12/12/07 05:29 PM

Interesting story, DC. Thanks for posting it! \:\)

The museum would fit right in with the wackiness of Vegas. Only Vegas would elect as mayor the lawyer who defended Lefty Rosenthal and The Ant--and played himself doing so in "Casino." And only Vegas would enthusiastically host a museum of the Mob. Fits right in. ;\)

The lesson I take away from legalized gambling in Nevada is a familiar one in America: money washes away all sins. The Robber Barons like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and E.H. Harriman were despised in their day for their plundering of America. But the charities, foundations and universities they created and funded cleansed their family names. It's the same in Vegas: Where else could Moe Dalitz, former leader of the Mayfield Road Gang and the biggest Midwestern rum runner during Prohibition, be named "Man of the Year" for building a hospital that his construction company profited from? Where else could Little Moe Sedway, who took over the Flamingo within an hour of Bugsy Siegel's assassination, become the first chair of the United Jewish Appeal?

A couple of years ago we visited the Liberace Museum in Vegas (well worth the visit, BTW: a 10,000-calorie slice of Americana). They had a small exhibit on Vegas's gangster years. One of the exhibits was the 1956 Las Vegas High School yearbook. The book was open to the spread on that year's Homecoming Queen: none other than Terry Siegel, Bugsy's daughter.
Posted By: Mignon

Re: Las Vegas Mob Museum - 12/12/07 05:57 PM

I have to wait till 2010 to see this? That sucks.
Posted By: chopper

The Real Mafia Thrives - 12/12/07 10:32 PM

What do you think?


There was a time when the capture of a major mafia leader in Sicily with ties to the American Cosa Nostra would have prompted considerable media attention. Old-fashioned criminal terrorism, however, has been downgraded by Islamic jihadism. Nonetheless, life goes on apace for the oldest continuing terror organization in the West.

Unfortunately for the Sicilian mafia, they now have to work on a new compromise candidate to be a unifying leader among their "families." Until that is accomplished, the deadly struggle for ascendancy among the dominant clans will return to what it was prior to the relatively peaceful period of Pax Mafiosa of the last capo di tutti capi, Bernardo Provenzano.

Provenzano, now aged 74, was finally found and arrested in April 2006, having taken over from the legendary Salvatore Riina in 1993. Provenzano had hid for many years in his home farming region of the town of Corleone, a community well known to fans of The Godfather. Provenzano had been instrumental in bringing about a relatively peaceful period during which Sicilian criminal enterprises returned to profitability after the bloody terrorist years of "Toto" Riina. Riina's murderous regime had resulted in the deaths of top-ranked anti-mafia police officers and judicial magistrates in Rome, Milan and Florence -- and brought down the wrath of an outraged Italian public.

With the steadying hand of Provenzano gone from the scene, the struggle for supremacy quickly grew as Palermo and Corleone groupings battled for control of Palermo's metropolitan area. Salvatore Lo Piccolo headed the indigenous Palermo faction and Nino Rotolo had taken over as the principal Corleone family boss. What followed was a return to the sanguinary days before Provenzano's successful peace making. A key mafia boss of Corleone connection was assassinated in June 2007 and all sides "went to the mattresses." The traditional gang violence had returned.

Meanwhile, Lo Piccolo's Palermo organization that earlier had had close ties to the Gambino crime family of New York succeeded in rejuvenating these contacts post-Gotti. With the aid of the Americans, Palermo's families, now effectively under the direction of Salvatore Lo Piccolo, expanded their drug operations throughout the U.S., Canada, and the Dominican Republic. Lo Piccolo was on his way to eventually assuming the power once held by the now jailed Bernardo Provenzano. However, Lo Piccolo's strictly Palermo base worked against a consensus in his favor among the other Sicilian families.

It would appear that Lo Piccolo and his Palermo allies had long been laundering their drug profits through various business operations in New York, e.g. real estate, food processing, and other trading mechanisms. The Corleone families wanted to participate in this activity and moved to agree to the return to Sicily of a hated rival family, the Inzerillo's, in exchange for a piece of the new action in the Caribbean and North America. After a few more purposeful deaths, the situation has appeared to be moving toward settlement with the usual theme of "the business of organized crime is business."

The sums involved are enormous. To begin with, it's estimated that the Sicilian mafia employs directly and indirectly through its criminal operations and ancillary commercial activities about 10% of the Sicilian population. Interpol has now reported the spread of mafia operations, along with accompanying violence, from Italy to several European countries, including Germany.

An annual income of about 30 billion euro makes the Sicilian mafia revenue about one third of the bottom line of 90 billion euro estimated for all Italian criminal enterprises as calculated by the Italian business association, Confesercenti. If the income from arms and drug trafficking is included, the National Anti-Mafia Prosecution Office estimates the final sum to be closer to 135 billion euro. This figure constitutes the gross revenue of the Sicilian mafia, the 'Ndrangheta of Calabria, the Camorra of Naples and the Apulian Sacra Corona Unita from, among other things: loan sharking, extortion, public works skimming, protection rackets, and...investments in the American and European stock markets.

A few weeks ago on November 5th Salvatore Lo Piccolo and his son, Sandro, were arrested along with two of their top capos in a house on the outskirts of Palermo. The long negotiated promotion to "boss of bosses" of the elder Lo Piccolo, now 65 years old, thus has been canceled and the expectation is for a possible return to the bloody battling to name a new unifying chief.

At this time, the leading candidate is the still-at-large Matteo Messina Denaro, 45, the son of the famous Don Ciccio (Francesco M. Denaro), an ally of the Corleone tribal grouping going back to both Toto Riina and Bernardo Provenzano. Matteo Denaro is said to be in the mold of the late John Gotti in terms of personal flamboyance and a past replete with murder and mayhem.

To the question as to whether or not Italy's organized crime, and the Sicilian mafia in particular, would ever do business with Islamic extremists, their answer is obvious. Business is business and there's nothing personal involved!
Posted By: chopper

Garden State mob - 12/25/07 11:26 PM

The New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice provided the outline for a new Garden State mob saga last week when more than two dozen reputed wiseguys - including three alleged leaders of the Lucchese organized-crime family - were charged in a $2.2 billion gambling, money-laundering and racketeering case.
Based on a 16-month investigation in which hundreds of conversations were secretly recorded, the probe offered an inside look at what authorities allege was one of the biggest gambling operations ever uncovered.

The conversations, from wiretaps on phones and from listening devices planted in homes and cars, also provided a personal view of La Cosa Nostra more typical of New Jersey's best-known, albeit fictitious, mob family, The Sopranos.

Who's in and who's out?

Who can see the boss and who can't?

Whose word can you trust and who will stab you in the back?

That kind of unguarded talk provided a rich backdrop for investigators as they put together a massive case that tied the mob to an international gambling operation with a wire room in Costa Rica, and included what New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram called an "alarming alliance" between traditional wiseguys and a member of the Bloods street gang to smuggle drugs and cell phones into a state prison.

Piles of cash, fancy cars and luxury homes were seized when authorities shut down the high-tech bookmaking ring that allegedly generated tens of thousands of dollars in profits weekly for some crime-family members.

But though passwords, Web sites, and the wire room in Central America defined the new-age gambling operation, old-school intimidation and threats of violence were still part of the collection process.

"Go and find this kid . . . and make an example now . . . bust his head."

That's how one reputed wiseguy suggested they deal with a gambler called "Boo" who was balking at paying a $12,000 debt.

Later, he suggested they lay in wait outside Boo's house.

"I don't give a [expletive] if it's 3 in the morning. . . . I don't care if you gotta break his front [expletive] door down to get this little [expletive]. . . . You get him out of his [expletive] house . . . and you bring him to me."

The conversations were just two of dozens cited in a 195-page affidavit filed by Christopher Donohue, an investigator in the case, to support the arrest warrants.

The affidavit included two Philadelphia references.

One involved mob associate Michael Ramuno, who is charged with providing thousands of dollars in bets per week to the organization, even though he was living in a prison halfway house in Philadelphia in the fall, working off the final months of a 10-year drug sentence.

The other was an account of how Nicky Scarfo Jr., son of jailed mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, was "demoted" within the Lucchese organization because of media reports about his alleged underworld operations at the Jersey Shore.

Scarfo has not been charged in the current case.

Dubbed Operation Heat, the investigation targeted what Milgram termed the "command structure" of the organization.

Those arrested included reputed New York mob leaders Joseph DiNapoli and Matthew Madonna, both 72, who were described as part of the ruling triumvirate of the Lucchese organization.

Also charged was Ralph V. Perna, 61, a capo, or captain, who allegedly supervised the New Jersey branch of the organization.

Perna's three sons, Joseph, 38; Ralph M., 35; and John, 30, also were arrested.

Wiretaps on phones used by the Pernas, bugs placed in one of their homes, and a listening device and global positioning system hidden in Joseph Perna's black Infiniti M35 provided details of the criminal activity alleged in the arrest warrants.

On Nov. 10, authorities were watching and listening when Joseph and John Perna were formally initiated into the crime family during a "making ceremony" at Joseph Perna's home in Toms River, N.J.

Most of the ranking members of the organization, including DiNapoli and Madonna, attended the ceremony, according to the affidavit.

Afterward, investigators heard Joseph and John discussing mob protocol while riding in the car. At one point, Joseph explained that made members refer to one another as amico nostro - "a friend of ours."

Some members, Joseph said, use the English, but DiNapoli "likes it in Italian, so do it that way."

Perna also told his brother not to put too much trust in DiNapoli.

"People have their ways," he said. "Don't ever believe for one second that if it's something serious that Joey will always protect you."

The two brothers then discussed the hierarchy of the organization, their father's position, and the fact that no one in the New Jersey faction could go to see the leaders in New York "without Daddy's knowledge."

Ralph V. Perna's rise to the top spot and Scarfo's demotion were the topic of conversations the brothers had in August, according to the affidavit.

Investigators were watching Aug. 9 when Ralph Perna and his son, Joseph, met at a diner in the Bronx with DiNapoli.

And authorities were listening minutes later when Joseph called his brother John to tell him that their father had been tapped to replace Scarfo as head of the New Jersey branch of the crime family.

"He's the new captain," Joseph Perna told his brother, adding, "Tomorrow I'm going down to tell the other kid he's demoted."

John, laughing, said, "I bet you're all broken up about that."

The brothers then referred to media reports raising the possibility that Scarfo Jr. might make a move against those controlling the Philadelphia crime family his father Nicodemo once headed.

That was part of the reason he was being demoted, they said.

Two days later, investigators used the GPS hidden in Joseph Perna's Infiniti to track him to a meeting on the Garden State Parkway with Scarfo Jr.

During that meeting, according to the affidavit, Scarfo was told he was being demoted.

Asked to comment about the references to his client, Scarfo Jr., lawyer Donald Manno said last week, "Obviously, there is no criminal involvement by him and everything else is just outlandish speculation."

Criminal charges of gambling, extortion, loan-sharking, money-laundering and racketeering were filed against most of those arrested. Those charged in a jail contraband scam also face drug charges.

In addition, authorities moved to seize real estate, freeze bank accounts, and confiscate automobiles owned by several of those charged.

Joseph Perna's finances offered a typical example of a cash flow that appeared to exceed legitimate income, authorities said.

His targeted assets included five bank accounts in which cash deposits totalling $329,531 were made between July 2005 and August 2007.

This, the affidavit noted, was during a period when Perna and his wife claimed income of $63,836.

Authorities placed liens against 16 properties, including Perna's $712,500 house in Wyckoff, N.J., and the Toms River house where the making ceremony allegedly took place.

The cars subject to seizure orders included Perna's Infiniti M35, a 2007 Jaguar, a 2008 Mercedes-Benz SUV, a 1993 Chevrolet Corvette, a 2006 Lincoln Navigator, a 2007 Cadillac STS, and a 2007 Cadillac CTS.

All were allegedly purchased with what authorities called "a torrent of illicit income" from the gambling operation


http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20071224_Probes_detailed_view_of_mob_life.html
Posted By: chopper

New England Mafia boss - 12/26/07 05:11 PM

Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme’s play to get sprung from prison has been whacked with a lump of coal a federal judge left in the former New England Mafia boss’ Christmas stocking.

Salemme, 74, hoped to dismiss charges he faces for obstruction of justice and making false statements in connection with the unsolved 1993 disappearance of Stephen DiSarro, 43, of Westwood by persuading U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns he was wrongly interrogated by government agents in 1999 without an attorney present.

In a surprise move last August, Stearns granted Salemme an evidentiary hearing on the complaint. But on Friday, Stearns nixed the hearing because Salemme is refusing to provide a sworn affidavit supporting his motion to suppress statements he made without counsel.

“He’s disappointed, but not discouraged,” Salemme’s defense attorney Steven Boozang said yesterday.

Boozang declined to say why Salemme won’t provide the affidavit, but according to a court filing, Salemme is concerned he could face a potential perjury charge should his former attorney, Anthony Cardinale, provide conflicting testimony.

Boozang said the Boston mobster will tell his side of the story at trial. He said Salemme “100 percent denies any involvement whatsoever” in the vanishing of DiSarro, manager of The Channel rock club in South Boston.

“He’s a lot of things,” Boozang said of Salemme, “but he’s not a liar.”

Federal prosecutors, however, have built their case against Salemme on “misrepresentations he made to investigators during a proffer session on Nov. 2, 1999, regarding the disappearance and presumed murder of” DiSarro, according to court documents. It’s the government’s contention that Salemme not only saw DiSarro killed, he helped bury the body.

Prosecutors say Cardinale explained to Salemme what he was walking into during the 1999 confab, and that Cardinale arrived at the meeting in time for the questioning about DiSarro.

Boozang argued yesterday that Salemme was on his own that day for nearly five hours and the feds should have “said, ‘Time out.’ ”

“I’m sure they weren’t asking Frank what his favorite color was,” Boozang said.

Two of the men at the proffer session, assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian Kelly and Fred Wyshak Jr., are now prosecuting Salemme. Salemme is incarcerated in witness protection while he awaits trial.

Salemme pleaded guilty in 1999 to racketeering charges and admitted participating in eight mob hits in the 1960s. In 2003 a judge ordered him released from his 11-year sentence as a reward for his cooperation against corrupt FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. Later that year, he was hit with the latest charges.


http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1062793
Posted By: Don Cardi

Real Life Organized Crime News - 12/27/07 03:07 PM

 Originally Posted By: chopper
The New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice provided the outline for a new Garden State mob saga last week when more than two dozen reputed wiseguys - including three alleged leaders of the Lucchese organized-crime family - were charged in a $2.2 billion gambling, money-laundering and racketeering case.
Based on a 16-month investigation in which hundreds of conversations were secretly recorded, the probe offered an inside look at what authorities allege was one of the biggest gambling operations ever uncovered.

The conversations, from wiretaps on phones and from listening devices planted in homes and cars, also provided a personal view of La Cosa Nostra more typical of New Jersey's best-known, albeit fictitious, mob family, The Sopranos.

Who's in and who's out?

Who can see the boss and who can't?

Whose word can you trust and who will stab you in the back?

That kind of unguarded talk provided a rich backdrop for investigators as they put together a massive case that tied the mob to an international gambling operation with a wire room in Costa Rica, and included what New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram called an "alarming alliance" between traditional wiseguys and a member of the Bloods street gang to smuggle drugs and cell phones into a state prison.

Piles of cash, fancy cars and luxury homes were seized when authorities shut down the high-tech bookmaking ring that allegedly generated tens of thousands of dollars in profits weekly for some crime-family members.

But though passwords, Web sites, and the wire room in Central America defined the new-age gambling operation, old-school intimidation and threats of violence were still part of the collection process.

"Go and find this kid . . . and make an example now . . . bust his head."

That's how one reputed wiseguy suggested they deal with a gambler called "Boo" who was balking at paying a $12,000 debt.

Later, he suggested they lay in wait outside Boo's house.

"I don't give a [expletive] if it's 3 in the morning. . . . I don't care if you gotta break his front [expletive] door down to get this little [expletive]. . . . You get him out of his [expletive] house . . . and you bring him to me."

The conversations were just two of dozens cited in a 195-page affidavit filed by Christopher Donohue, an investigator in the case, to support the arrest warrants.

The affidavit included two Philadelphia references.

One involved mob associate Michael Ramuno, who is charged with providing thousands of dollars in bets per week to the organization, even though he was living in a prison halfway house in Philadelphia in the fall, working off the final months of a 10-year drug sentence.

The other was an account of how Nicky Scarfo Jr., son of jailed mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, was "demoted" within the Lucchese organization because of media reports about his alleged underworld operations at the Jersey Shore.

Scarfo has not been charged in the current case.

Dubbed Operation Heat, the investigation targeted what Milgram termed the "command structure" of the organization.

Those arrested included reputed New York mob leaders Joseph DiNapoli and Matthew Madonna, both 72, who were described as part of the ruling triumvirate of the Lucchese organization.

Also charged was Ralph V. Perna, 61, a capo, or captain, who allegedly supervised the New Jersey branch of the organization.

Perna's three sons, Joseph, 38; Ralph M., 35; and John, 30, also were arrested.

Wiretaps on phones used by the Pernas, bugs placed in one of their homes, and a listening device and global positioning system hidden in Joseph Perna's black Infiniti M35 provided details of the criminal activity alleged in the arrest warrants.

On Nov. 10, authorities were watching and listening when Joseph and John Perna were formally initiated into the crime family during a "making ceremony" at Joseph Perna's home in Toms River, N.J.

Most of the ranking members of the organization, including DiNapoli and Madonna, attended the ceremony, according to the affidavit.

Afterward, investigators heard Joseph and John discussing mob protocol while riding in the car. At one point, Joseph explained that made members refer to one another as amico nostro - "a friend of ours."

Some members, Joseph said, use the English, but DiNapoli "likes it in Italian, so do it that way."

Perna also told his brother not to put too much trust in DiNapoli.

"People have their ways," he said. "Don't ever believe for one second that if it's something serious that Joey will always protect you."

The two brothers then discussed the hierarchy of the organization, their father's position, and the fact that no one in the New Jersey faction could go to see the leaders in New York "without Daddy's knowledge."

Ralph V. Perna's rise to the top spot and Scarfo's demotion were the topic of conversations the brothers had in August, according to the affidavit.

Investigators were watching Aug. 9 when Ralph Perna and his son, Joseph, met at a diner in the Bronx with DiNapoli.

And authorities were listening minutes later when Joseph called his brother John to tell him that their father had been tapped to replace Scarfo as head of the New Jersey branch of the crime family.

"He's the new captain," Joseph Perna told his brother, adding, "Tomorrow I'm going down to tell the other kid he's demoted."

John, laughing, said, "I bet you're all broken up about that."

The brothers then referred to media reports raising the possibility that Scarfo Jr. might make a move against those controlling the Philadelphia crime family his father Nicodemo once headed.

That was part of the reason he was being demoted, they said.

Two days later, investigators used the GPS hidden in Joseph Perna's Infiniti to track him to a meeting on the Garden State Parkway with Scarfo Jr.

During that meeting, according to the affidavit, Scarfo was told he was being demoted.

Asked to comment about the references to his client, Scarfo Jr., lawyer Donald Manno said last week, "Obviously, there is no criminal involvement by him and everything else is just outlandish speculation."

Criminal charges of gambling, extortion, loan-sharking, money-laundering and racketeering were filed against most of those arrested. Those charged in a jail contraband scam also face drug charges.

In addition, authorities moved to seize real estate, freeze bank accounts, and confiscate automobiles owned by several of those charged.

Joseph Perna's finances offered a typical example of a cash flow that appeared to exceed legitimate income, authorities said.

His targeted assets included five bank accounts in which cash deposits totalling $329,531 were made between July 2005 and August 2007.

This, the affidavit noted, was during a period when Perna and his wife claimed income of $63,836.

Authorities placed liens against 16 properties, including Perna's $712,500 house in Wyckoff, N.J., and the Toms River house where the making ceremony allegedly took place.

The cars subject to seizure orders included Perna's Infiniti M35, a 2007 Jaguar, a 2008 Mercedes-Benz SUV, a 1993 Chevrolet Corvette, a 2006 Lincoln Navigator, a 2007 Cadillac STS, and a 2007 Cadillac CTS.

All were allegedly purchased with what authorities called "a torrent of illicit income" from the gambling operation


http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20071224_Probes_detailed_view_of_mob_life.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 12/28/07 11:33 PM

An Italian mafia boss was gunned down by unknown assailants on Friday, police said.

Francesco Verde, 58, headed the Verde clan which is active in northern Naples and thrives on drug trafficking and extortion like much of the Camorra -- the Neapolitan version of the mafia.

Verde was returning home with his nephew, when at least one motorcycle approached their car and fired more than 30 shots, killing the mafia boss and seriously wounding his nephew.

He had been released from prison in September, but was required to register with the police everyday. Police said it was too early to identify who the assailants might have been.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 12/28/07 11:35 PM

Europe is fast overtaking the U.S. as the leading destination for the world's cocaine, and a single Italian mafia is largely responsible.

The 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate, a ruthless and mysterious network of 155 families born in the rough hills here in southern Italy's Calabria region, now dominates the European drug trade. By establishing direct ties with Colombian producers and building a multibillion-dollar empire that spans five continents, the syndicate has metamorphosed into one of the craftiest criminal gangs in the world, authorities say.

" 'Ndrangheta is king," said Sabas Pretelt de la Vega, a former Colombian interior minister who is his country's ambassador to Rome.

The 'Ndrangheta (pronounced en-DRAHN-geh-tah) peculiarly combines the modern skills of multinational-corporation high finance with a stubborn grip on archaic rural traditions. Some members live in garishly opulent villas outside Madrid and invest in bustling restaurants and hotels in Germany, whereas others, including key bosses, remain in the dreary, closed Calabrian mountain villages of their birth. It is a mafia of businessmen in Dolce & Gabbana, of sheepherders in scruffy woolens.

Its success stems from moving early and unwaveringly into cocaine trafficking while avoiding the kind of public limelight (and police crackdown) focused on its better-known Sicilian counterpart, the Mafia, or "Cosa Nostra."

Working from "the toe of Italy's boot," a region historically neglected and ignored, the 'Ndrangheta maintains a hard-as-stone code of silence that repels most penetration efforts by police and other authorities. And because each family is a cell cooperating only loosely with other families and without a central hierarchy, the capture of a leader here or there does not even dent the organization.

Over the last two decades, the syndicate has deployed its members to strategic locations along trafficking and distribution routes, in Colombia and Venezuela, Canada, Africa, Spain and as far as Australia. It takes orders from buyers in Europe (including other mafiosi) and brokers deals with the suppliers in Colombia.

The 'Ndrangheta gained the confidence of the Colombians, eliminated the middlemen and dealt as readily with the leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as with the right-wing paramilitaries of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, two groups that exercise major control over cocaine production in Colombia.

The personal contact, the guarantee of secrecy and the reliability of the business transactions all have made the 'Ndrangheta mobster an appealing partner for the Colombians.

"He is seen as a man of his word. He pays in cash. He pays immediately," said Renato Cortese, a regional commander of the state anti-mafia police. "And he never talks."



Expanding market

For income, the 'Ndrangheta has chosen a lucrative and expanding market.

By some estimates, including that of Pretelt de la Vega, the Colombian diplomat, the amount of cocaine being shipped to Europe exceeds that going to the United States, a reversal of the historical pattern. Italian authorities give lower figures, saying cocaine shipments are divided half-and-half between Europe and the United States, and U.S. officials cite older statistics that show more cocaine flowing to American shores.

Whatever the amounts, no one disputes that the cocaine market in the United States has stabilized, whereas that of Europe is growing. Seizures of cocaine in Europe have doubled in the last five years, although they remain a small portion of global interceptions, according to the latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Usage of cocaine in Europe, meanwhile, has skyrocketed, up by a million users last year, to 4.5 million continent-wide, according to the European Union's drug-monitoring center in Lisbon. Leading the pack are Britain, Spain, Denmark and Italy.

"The decline in the United States is offset by alarming increases in some European countries," the U.N. said.

Although Cosa Nostra has dominated international headlines and popular culture for a generation, it has been eclipsed by its Calabrian counterpart in terms of power and wealth, said Nicola Gratteri, the region's top anti-mafia prosecutor.

The 'Ndrangheta, which is thought to have business assets worth at least $50 billion, grew as a protection racket in impoverished southern Italy after World War II and then began to make big money with kidnappings (including the abduction and grisly mutilation of the grandson of oil billionaire J. Paul Getty in 1973). The name comes from a Greek word meaning "virtue" or "heroism."

Eventually the group shifted to drugs and weapons trafficking, and by the '90s was awash in cash, which it began laundering through real estate and other businesses.
The fall of the Berlin Wall was a turning point, recalled Piero Grasso, Italy's senior anti-mafia prosecutor. In conversations recorded by police, members of the Calabrian mob plotted a mad buying spree in the newly available former Soviet bloc. "Buy everything!" was the watchword.

"And today they know no borders," Grasso said.

Here in Calabria, they also enjoy access to the Gioia Tauro port, one of the largest and busiest of the Mediterranean. Authorities say it is a transshipment point for unmeasured pounds of cocaine. Of the estimated 3,500 40-foot cargo containers that arrive daily, only about 25 are opened for inspection, so finding drugs is as much luck as skill, police say.

Suspicions were raised recently about a Uruguayan shipment to Greece marked "lemons." Why would a Mediterranean country like Greece need to import lemons from Uruguay? Inside a batch of rotting lemons, inspectors found 220 pounds of cocaine.

"Drugs are burying us," said Col. Francesco Gazzani, regional head of the Italian finance police.

In their investigations, Italian police and prosecutors working with Colombian, Spanish and U.S. authorities have recorded thousands of telephone calls and documented meetings and other communication between the 'Ndrangheta and Colombian traffickers.

In one photographed surveillance stakeout, four people from Latin America and Calabria can be seen sitting in broad daylight at one of Milan's most fashionable outdoor cafes, against a backdrop of rose-colored marble columns and the Duomo cathedral. They discuss a cocaine deal, then one of them casually walks to a nearby pay phone and places the order.

In another surveillance, a suspected 'Ndrangheta gangster telephones a number in Colombia, a person with a Calabrian accent answers and then simply whistles, and the caller says, "I understand." Authorities say it was a signal that a shipment had departed.

One of the strongest links between the 'Ndrangheta and the Colombians, investigators say, was Roberto Pannunzi, an alleged mafia chieftain who was one of the top cocaine brokers in the syndicate when he was arrested in 2004 as part of Operation Zappa, a five-year investigation named after a gangster code word for "gun."

"Every important criminal figure went to him," said Diego Trotta, a member of an elite police squad that captured Pannunzi.

Pannunzi, 59, married his son Alessandro into a notorious family from Colombia's Medellin cartel as a way to cement the bonds. At the height of his activities, authorities say, he was buying 3,300 to 4,400 pounds of cocaine a month. He boasted of the ease and confidence with which he handled his Colombian suppliers.

"The fact is, Barba [a Colombian trafficker] will give us everything without even a lira," Pannunzi told alleged 'Ndrangheta operative Paolo Sergi, the target of another long-running probe, according to a confidential wiretap made available to The Times.

"What do you think -- is the same amount available like the last time, or maybe less?" Pannunzi's interlocutor wonders.

"Barba, at least, told me that he has 3 million [3,000 kilograms, or 6,600 pounds, of cocaine] and I'm thinking 500 or 700," Pannunzi responds, using a numeric code for the price.

A beefy man with dark wavy hair, Pannunzi amassed such an enormous fortune, investigators say, that he at one point simply threw away millions of dollars worth of liras because the bills had been stacked so high and for so long that they became moldy.



Back to ancestral home

Perhaps one of the most surprising features of the 'Ndrangheta is that despite its fortunes, its members always come back to their ancestral home in Calabria, almost as a spiritual touchstone. Though they form clones of their home villages the world over, an internal code obliges them to report back to the mother ship, said Gratteri, the top regional ant-mafia prosecutor.

"You have to look at what this place gives them. Each top 'Ndranghista is an emperor," said Gratteri, whose work has earned him round-the-clock bodyguards and transport in an armored car.

"He has the perverse pleasure to be able to decide the life or death of 3,000, 5,000, maybe 10,000 people. He decides who lives. He decides who is going to be mayor. He decides who is going to win the state contracts. For the perverse mind, this is very gratifying."

Each family assigns a member to a certain criminal enterprise; if a son is good in math, he might get the loan-shark business, whereas an engineer would handle the acquisition of lucrative state building contracts, a major area of corruption.

The tightness of the family network also has thwarted efforts by authorities to infiltrate the crime gang. Several years ago, when the government offered reduced jail time to mafiosi who would inform on their cohorts, hundreds of Cosa Nostra operatives 'fessed up. But only a few people associated with the 'Ndrangheta agreed to become turncoats, and most of these were such minor figures that they had little to offer.

"Every clan is a little Sparta," militarized and willing to fight to the end, often egged on by the women of the family, said anti-mafia prosecutor Alberto Cisterna.

Through the years, most killings by the 'Ndrangheta have been the result of internal feuds or have targeted relatively low-level officials, inspiring little public outrage. That changed last summer with a bloody ambush outside a pizzeria in Duisburg, Germany. At least two gunmen from one 'Ndrangheta family killed six members of a rival clan, shocking Italians and Germans because of the brutality of the attack and the extent to which the mafia had settled in Germany.

The slayings were the latest explosion of a long-running internal feud that had at its root a power struggle over territory and business, investigators say.

In the more than four months since the Duisburg massacre, Italian and German police have arrested about 40 suspected mobsters, men and women. But no one has any illusions that this represents a setback for the Calabrian mafia.

" 'Ndrangheta are the leader in Europe when it comes to trafficking cocaine," Gratteri said, "and their trafficking is getting stronger all the time."


http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition...lines-frontpage
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 12/28/07 11:37 PM

An appeals court in the Sicilian city of Palermo has sentenced Giuseppe Salvatore Riina, youngest son of jailed mafia boss Toto Riina, to eight years and 10 months in prison for mafia association. The court reduced the 14 year jailterm originally handed down to Giuseppe in 2004.

Palermo judges ruled that Giuseppe must serve his sentence behind bars, as must two other convicted mafia members, Antonino Bruno and Illiano Baiamonte, sentenced to 7 years and four months, and 5 years respectively, the Giornale di Sicilia newsaper reports.

Giuseppe Riina was jailed for his leading role in an extortion and money-laundering gang that controlled public works contracts.

His father Toto, nicknamed "the Beast" for his brutality, was arrested in 1993 and has been convicted on more than 100 counts of murder.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Riina and mafia associates from his hometown of Corleone waged a ruthless campaign of violence against both rival mobsters and the Italian state which culminated in the assassination of two anti-Mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and his colleague Paolo Borsellino in 1992.

Falcone and Borsellino's murders sparked widespread public revulsion towards the mafia and led to a major crackdown by the authorities, resulting in the capture and imprisonment of Riina and many of his associates.

Mafia arrests are ongoing in Italy. Toto Riina's successor as the mafia 'Godfather', Bernardo Provenzano, was arrested last year after over 40 years on the run.

Provenzano's replacement, Salvatore Lo Piccolo, and his son Sandro, were arrested in early November as they attended a meeting of the Cosa Nostra 'cupola' - or the governing body of the Sicilian mafia - in an isolated villa outside Palermo.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1713353245
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 12/31/07 07:59 AM

Just before Christmas, former Colombo crime family father-and-son capos Sonny and Michael Franzese were in Ohio. They didn't get to share any holiday cheer.

Born-again son Michael addressed the Ohio State football team, recounting his life (of crime) story as a warning to the Big Ten champions before their national championship game against LSU.

Jailed-again dad Sonny remained inside the federal penitentiary at Elkton, Ohio, his new home after another of his sons ratted him out.

The Franzeses, once a tightly knit clan with major gangland clout, are as dysfunctional as the 21st century Mafia itself this holiday season.

Sonny can't see his seven grandkids, son John is hiding out, and Michael wonders if his brother will resurface to put their 90-year-old dad behind bars for the rest of his life.

"I know there's talk about that, and it's not pleasant to think about," said Michael Franzese, once ranked by Fortune magazine as No. 18 on its list of the nation's 50 most powerful mobsters. "It's in all of our thoughts. We're waiting to see if the other shoe drops."

Michael - a made man at 24 - and brother John followed their dad into the Colombos, where the old man was known as a standup guy who would always do the time and never drop a dime.

The elder Franzese, a contemporary of family namesake Joe Colombo, was reportedly among the investors in the infamous porno movie "Deep Throat."

Despite his advancing age and years behind bars, the Brooklyn native stayed involved with the mob into the new millennium, the FBI says.

Sonny's legendary Mafia career was interrupted by a 1967 bank robbery conviction and jail term - a crime many believe he didn't commit. He was paroled after doing 11 years.

There's no denying Sonny returned to La Cosa Nostra. He was jailed five times in the past 25 years for parole violations after consorting with mobsters.

When he wasn't doing time, he was a regular fixture at downtown get-togethers to watch Pay-Per-View boxing matches. He was part of a crowd that included - though not necessarily all at the same time - a top police official, a retired FBI agent, a former boxing champion and some great and not-so-great writers.

His most recent parole violation was in May, when Sonny was popped for sharing breakfast pastries with reputed bad guys.

Michael and his father are aware that John was identified as turning Sonny in to the feds. "He knows that's what the word is, but it's a sore subject," said a Long Island neighbor of Sonny.

While his father never left New York, Michael quit the mob and launched a new life: born-again Christian, father of seven, Little League coach living in California. His time as a mob capo collecting up to $9 million a week was in the past.

Michael, whose age and acumen led to his nickname "The Yuppie Don" during his mob days, tells his don't-follow-in-my-footsteps story to athletes, businessmen, church groups. He's spoken to Major League Baseball players, NBA players and colleges from Nebraska to North Carolina.

Those audiences listen.

His pleas for his dad to embrace a new lifestyle fell on deaf ears.

"He says, 'What do you want me to do? I don't know anyone who's not a felon,'" Michael recounts with a rueful laugh. "He told me, 'Even you're a felon.'"

The pair rely on short but frequent phone calls from prison to stay in touch. Michael is in Los Angeles, while Sonny's cell is 45 miles northwest of Youngstown, Ohio, and in the middle of nowhere.

"My kids are kind of broken up," Michael says. "My 9-year-old asks, 'When am I going to see grandpa again?'

"That's tough."

Not that Franzese wants or expects any sympathy for Sonny: "Who's going to feel sorry for my dad? Nobody, unless it's his family."

Michael spoke of his father's woes to the Buckeye football team. The two couldn't meet before his Columbus appearance because it wasn't visitors' day at Elkton.

Michael is certain of one thing: Sonny Franzese will do his time with his mouth shut. Even if it means Christmas - maybe his last Christmas - behind bars.

"Look, he's strong," Michael says. "You will never ever see Dad cooperating. It's not even in his thought process. But this time of year, it's tough. I can hear it in his voice."
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 12/31/07 01:56 PM

Yeah, it's very easy, AFTER making $9 Million a week, to tell people NOT to follow in his footsteps!
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 12/31/07 06:14 PM

DYKER HEIGHTS — A construction project that was set in freeze-frame mode a few months ago — because the area of the project was rezoned as it was being built — was given a go-ahead to continue by Community Board 10.

Since the end of July, the developers have been trapped in a “twilight zone,” caught between two sets of zoning rules, unable to finish their project.

At issue is a site where a long-abandoned and vacant building, regarded as a neighborhood eyesore, was demolished a year ago at 1270 Bay Ridge Parkway and then purchased by developers Thomas Gambino and Salvatore Schirippa.

When workers were laying a foundation, their work was forced to an abrupt standstill when zoning was changed this past summer. The rezoning left them in a lurch for their three-story high project: a six-unit residential building with medical and commercial community offices on the first floor.

The Dyker Heights rezoning became effective on July 25 when the new R4-1 rule took hold, allowing for no commercial overlays. This bans commercial use in a residential building such the one that was under construction at 1270 Bay Ridge Parkway, between 12th and 13th avenues. The area was previously zoned under the R4 rule, which allows for commercial overlay.

Community Board 10, meeting recently at the Shore Hill Community Room in Bay Ridge, took an unusual and rare action — the board approved the project even though it does not fit in with the new zoning rules that forbid first-floor commercial space in a residential building. The developers were finally freed from their netherworld zoning twilight zone.

‘Common Law Vested Right’
To allow the exception to the new rule, the developers sought what is termed “a common law vested right” which allows for the construction to continue under the previous zoning regulation. Their previous building permit, allowed under the former zoning rule but not the new, would be reinstated after lapsing under the new rezoning. The project remains within the 35-feet height limit under the new zoning rule.

The board’s approval for the project, which easily passed except for two votes, now heads to the Board of Appeals and Standards for a final decision on Jan. 15. If approved, the project can move ahead.

“The project is on a 60- by 100-foot lot,” said Joanne Seminara, chair of the board’s Land Use and Zoning Committee. In her report, she said this was “a first-time project for the developers,” and they were not looking for loopholes but were trying to get unstuck from a circumstance not of their own making.

At the board meeting, attorney Sheldon LoBella spoke on behalf of the developers, Gambino and Schirippa, who were present. An appeal had been made at a previous meeting at the Board 10 offices with the Land Use and Zoning Committee, where an attorney told the committee that the developers would be forced to reconfigure their project and get a lesser return on their investment.

The developers filed an application under the “common law vested right” provision, and the Land Use and Zoning Committee backed their application by a vote of 6 to 1. At the board meeting, the attorney said, the developers had lots of letters from neighbors in the area supporting the project.

Backers include Assemblyman Peter Abbate, Councilman Vincent Gentile and the Dyker Heights Civic Association, led by Fran Vella-Marrone.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/04/08 02:20 PM

With lifelong friend and confidant the Rev. Joseph F. Sica facing a felony charge of perjury, the stakes have never been higher for junk man turned billionaire Louis DeNaples.


A Dauphin County grand jury is examining whether DeNaples, owner of Mount Airy Casino Resort, lied to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board when he denied having ties to organized crime. Rumors of such ties have dogged the Dunmore businessman for decades.

In pursuing the case against DeNaples, the Dauphin County district attorney alleges the Roman Catholic priest lied about his own relationship with an alleged mob boss, the late Russell Bufalino.

The prosecutor says others who testified before the grand jury may be charged, leading many to speculate whether Assistant District Attorney Francis Chardo is preparing to charge DeNaples.

Such a charge — even if it didn’t result in a conviction — could to lead to the suspension of the slots license that keeps wagers flowing at Mount Airy, the state’s first free-standing casino. DeNaples staked his reputation and a good chunk of his fortune on the $415 million resort. Even a temporary suspension would seriously disrupt the business.

A license suspension is not automatic, however, said state gaming board spokesman Richard McGarvey. The board has broad latitude in how it might act when a license holder is charged with a crime, including revocation, suspension or setting conditions on the licensee, McGarvey said.

“It is the same process we have with all licensees, who include gaming employees, gaming suppliers and others,” he said.

denaples

from page 4

“The board takes the circumstances into consideration and makes a decision,” McGarvey added.

Rumored, but not charged

It is difficult to pinpoint when DeNaples’ name first became associated with organized crime.

He has never been charged with organized crime activity, but Italian-American business people, regardless of whom they associate with, traditionally have found the mafioso stereotype hard to shake.

Some speculation about DeNaples emerged from the muck and sediment of the Agnes Flood in 1972 and his resulting “no contest” plea to fraud, which carries the same weight as a finding of guilt.

After the flood, DeNaples provided heavy equipment to Lackawanna County for deployment in flood cleanup in Luzerne, Tioga and Bradford counties. The federal government challenged the invoices and hours billed and charged DeNaples and three county employees with fraud.

The first trial ended in a mistrial, with one juror holding out for acquittal — a juror who would later come back to haunt DeNaples.

As Deputy U.S. Attorney Sal Cognetti prepared for a second trial, DeNaples and the defendants pleaded “no contest” and the judge accepted the plea over the protests of prosecutors. The defendants were fined and placed on probation.

But it wasn’t the end of the case. The FBI continued its decade-plus investigation using wiretaps and a grand jury. Eventually, it found that a juror’s husband was bribed — with $1,000, a set of tires and a pocket watch — by James Osticco of Pittston, thought to be a leader in the Bufalino family.

Osticco was found guilty of the jury fix and sentenced to eight years in prison. The juror’s husband was sentenced to five years in prison for perjury.

Much of the information about DeNaples’ alleged association with William D’Elia comes from reports of the now defunct Pennsylvania Crime Commission. Critics charged the commission often overreached in its reports, citing casual meetings among figures as evidence of “mob ties” and failing to make specific allegations. The commission was eventually disbanded.

In the late 1980s, Bufalino’s health and influence were fading, according to commission reports. Many associates had died or been put in jail. Organized crime figures from New York and New Jersey began to move into Northeastern Pennsylvania, according to the reports.

A 1987 report described a meeting between DeNaples and Salvatore Avellino Jr., of Long Island, N.Y., a purported member of the Lucchese crime family. At the meeting, Avellino wanted to discuss “problems” with dumping fees DeNaples was charging at Keystone, according to the report.

Avellino and others were looking at opening a landfill in Northeastern Pennsylvania, a move that would have posed a competitive threat to DeNaples. In 1991, Lucchese boss Victor Amuso was arrested in Dickson City as a fugitive from justice.

D’Elia continued to handle the affairs of Bufalino, maintaining contact with other bosses in neighboring states, the report alleged. It also said DeNaples and D’Elia struck a deal — D’Elia would sell space at the Keystone Landfill and receive a commission from DeNaples.

One theory posed in a 2001 federal affidavit from unidentified informants held the Keystone payments amounted to “protection” money to keep the out-of-state bosses at bay as Bufalino’s influence waned and left a vacuum. DeNaples was never charged for such a claim.

D’Elia is in jail awaiting trial for charges of money laundering, witness tampering, kidnapping and solicitation to commit murder. He testified in July before the grand jury investigating DeNaples.

Sica is free on $20,000 bail as he awaits a Jan. 25 preliminary hearing.

Success led to giving

Since his legal troubles in the 1970s, DeNaples has become phenomenally successful — and wealthy.

He is widely believed to be the richest man in the region. In a 2006 interview with Times-Shamrock Newspapers, DeNaples said his assets total more than $1 billion.

With DeNaples’ success came widespread philanthropy, once very quiet and behind-the-scenes but now more public. In recent years, more edifices bear the DeNaples name at the campuses of two of his favorite beneficiaries, Scranton Preparatory School and the University of Scranton, both Jesuit institutions.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/04/08 03:28 PM

Interesting. Mount Airy Casino & Resort only opened recently and word is that it's doing extremely well so far.


Does anyone remember when it was MOUNT AIRY LODGE, one of the most popular resorts in the eastern region?

Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/04/08 04:42 PM

by Pete Price, Liverpool Echo

SINCE writing my autobiography last year I have been thinking more and more about my biological father.

All I have is a photograph of him. I know he is Sicilian and was a prisoner of war but I would love to find him or any family.

It sounds mad but a friend, who can speak Italian, suggested I write to Sicilian Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano who is in prison in northern Italy to see if he can help me trace him.

He is in his seventies a bit younger than my father who would be in his 80s.

The Mafia must have the best information network in the world so I figure that if Mr Provenzano gives the word the Mafia in Sicily could circulate the picture of my father and someone would be bound to recognise him.

My mother told me for the first time 10 years ago that my father was a Sicilian man who was held in a detention camp near Warrington during World War II. She used to work in the camp and that was how she had an affair with my father.

She could not remember his name and, in fact, her memory is now worse than it was 10 years ago.

I was the result of their affair, but in those days there was so much stigma attached to being an unmarried mother that she went away from home to give birth to me in North Wales.

When I was born I was put up for adoption and taken in by Hilda Price, who I will always think of as my real mother.

I have tried to trace my father through British government departments and the Italian Embassy in London, always without success.

It's an unanswered question and I'd really like to find out who he was.

I've probably got hundreds of blood relatives in Sicily and I'd like to trace them.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/liv...00252-20309774/
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/09/08 10:25 PM

Following eight weeks of trial, a federal jury in Central Islip, New York, returned a verdict last week convicting Colombo organized crime family acting boss Alphonse “Allie Boy” Persico and administration member John “Jackie” DeRoss of murder in aid of racketeering and witness tampering.



Specifically, Persico and DeRoss were found guilty of orchestrating the May 26, 1999, murder of Colombo family underboss William Cutolo, Sr.


The evidence at trial established that Persico and DeRoss murdered Cutolo because they believed he was about to take control of the Colombo family from Persico, and to serve as retribution for Cutolo’s actions during the bloody Colombo family war in the early 1990s.


During the war, Cutolo, on behalf of the faction loyal to Vic Orena, tried to wrest control of the Colombo family from Alphonse Persico and his father, the family’s official boss, Carmine “The Snake” Persico. As part of the murder plot, Persico summoned Cutolo to a meeting on the afternoon of May 26, 1999. That afternoon, an auto mechanic dropped Cutolo off at a park near 92nd Street and Shore Road in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, the designated place for the meeting with Persico. Cutolo was never seen or heard from again, and the government’s evidence indicated that Cutolo’s body most likely was dumped into the Atlantic Ocean.


That evening, DeRoss kept watch over Cutolo’s crew at the Friendly Bocce Social Club in Brooklyn, where the crew was awaiting Cutolo’s arrival for their traditional Wednesday evening dinner. When Cutolo failed to show up, DeRoss feigned surprise and directed Cutolo’s son, William Cutolo, Jr., to telephone his father. Early the next morning, May 27, DeRoss, on Persico’s orders, arrived at Cutolo’s home and began questioning Cutolo’s widow, Marguerite Cutolo.


Persico and DeRoss were also found guilty of tampering with witnesses Marguerite Cutolo (Cutolo’s widow), Barbara Jean Cutolo (one of Cutolo’s daughters), and William
Cutolo, Jr. The trial evidence included a recording William Cutolo, Jr., secretly made of DeRoss threatening the Cutolo family in March 2000, several months after it was publicly disclosed that Persico was a target of the FBI’s investigation of the Cutolo murder.


During the meeting, DeRoss ordered the Cutolo family to provide false, exculpatory information to a private investigator hired by Persico. DeRoss told the Cutolo family that, if they did not assist Persico, Marguerite Cutolo could be “hurt,” as could the “little . . . kids,” referring to Barbara Jean Cutolo’s seven and five-year-old daughters.


Marguerite and Barbara Jean Cutolo both testified at trial that, as a result of DeRoss’s threats, the Cutolos withheld information about the murder from law enforcement authorities for years, including Cutolo, Sr.’s statement to Marguerite Cutolo on May 26, 1999, that he was going to a meeting with Persico.


Persico is the second acting boss of a La Cosa Nostra crime family convicted this year of murder charges in the Eastern District of New York. On July 31, 2007, Bonnano organized crime family acting boss Vincent Basciano was convicted of racketeering murder and is awaiting sentencing.


“Law enforcement’s campaign against organized crime will continue until our communities are free from its corrupting influence,” said United States Attorney Benton J. Campbell. Mr. Campbell praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the agency that led the government’s investigation.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/09/08 10:27 PM

For us, rubbish is gold," is how one Italian gangster explained the mafia's involvement in waste trafficking to an investigating magistrate in Naples.

Areas of the southern city have ground to a halt this week because of piles of rotting rubbish and sometimes violent protests about what to do with it, and Italians are questioning whether organized crime is to blame for the emergency.

The Camorra, the Naples equivalent of the Cosa Nostra mafia of Sicily, has been turning filth into cash for decades in the city, says Michele Buonomo, president of environmental campaign group Legambiente Campania.

"Before 1994 they controlled the entire waste cycle," he told Reuters in an interview. He estimates Mafia involvement in crimes against the environment yield a turnover of 6 billion euros ($8.8 billion) a year.

Fourteen years ago, Italy appointed a special commissioner to take charge of waste disposal and pry it away from Camorra-run companies.

By undercutting legitimate operators, these companies won a host of local authority contracts and ended up in charge of the region's then-privately owned landfills.

"The Camorra isn't actually that interested in household waste but it is interested in controlling the waste cycle, controlling the dumps," said Buonomo.

The Camorra filled the dumps, not just with household trash but also with industrial waste trucked in from around Italy. This traffic remains one of organized crime's most lucrative activities rivaling, and possibly exceeding, narcotics for profitability.
state of emergency, declared in 1994, was meant to tackle the problem by taking waste dumps into public hands and defining a coherent waste strategy. But six successive trash tsars have been unable to banish the Camorra from the sector.

The gangsters still make fortunes in waste transport and, as they no longer run the dumps, by dumping and burning toxic refuse in the countryside - a major source of pollution blamed for higher than normal rates of certain cancers in the region.

Camorra gangs have also bought land at knock-down prices from intimidated small landowners and sold it at a huge profit to companies involved in stocking bales of waste, said Buonomo.

These bales are destined to be burned in a giant incinerator which is still being built.

But mafia-watchers are not convinced the current garbage crisis was orchestrated by the Camorra.

Just as much to blame are political opportunism, cronyism and the willingness of many legitimate companies to employ shady, but cheap, operators to handle their waste, they say.

"It absolutely was not the Camorra that created this emergency," said Roberto Saviano, author of "Gomorra", a bestselling book on the Naples mafia.

"The Camorra doesn't like emergencies and doesn't need them. It keeps profiting from waste, come rain or shine."

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0830577220080109?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/10/08 11:05 AM

Seven firefighters were injured outside Naples in an attack near a toxic dump at the centre of an ongoing waste disposal crisis.

Some 30 assailants, described by the domestic ANSA news agency as hooligans, hurled powerful firecrackers into a firetruck, where they exploded, injuring the seven firefighters.

Masked men also hurled stones at a police car, ANSA said.

Since the waste disposal crisis developed late last month, with more than 100,000 tonnes of uncollected garbage accumulating in Naples' Campania region, protests have turned violent on a nightly basis in and around the Pianura dump in the western suburb of Pozzuoli.

Press reports say small groups of protesters or hooligans have begun gathering at other sites on the outskirts of Naples seeking confrontation with security forces.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi yesterday unveiled a campaign to bring a definitive end to a recurring overload of the region's dysfunctional waste disposal system.

Troops will be deployed to help clean up the hardest hit areas, and rubbish will be trucked to landfills in other regions under the four-month plan.

Many of the landfills in Campania are controlled by the regional Camorra mafia, who make a lucrative business out of subverting waste handling procedures and shipping in industrial waste from the north.

Since 1994 when the government decreed an "emergency situation" in the region, several dumps infiltrated by the mafia have been closed and companies investigated, though none has been convicted.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/12/08 02:06 PM

The head of the Sicilian Mafia, Bernardo Provenzano, has been put under tighter security amid suspicion that he is directing the mob from his cell.
Italian prison guards say they suspect he was using his Bible to communicate in code with his men on the outside.

Provenzano was arrested in 2006 after 43 years on the run.

During that time the Cosa Nostra boss had shunned all normal methods of communication, other than coded messages on pieces of paper.

FBI code-breakers brought into help think they were encrypted using a mysterious system of biblical references.

The Bible found in Provenzano's isolated hut at the time of his arrest in 2006 contained dots, arrows and notations.

Communication cut off

Provenzano is subject to the tightest surveillance at the high security Novara prison in Piedmont, northern Italy.

Under rule 41 - the law which governs the imprisonment of Mafia bosses - he is held in permanent isolation.

His letters, his phone calls and any permitted visits are closely monitored.

And yet it appears that the so-called Godfather still exerts his influence over the operations of the Cosa Nostra, the BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome says.

Police think he is communicating via his Bible which he had been given according to basic human rights.

The prison authorities say they are now cutting off all Provenzano's communication, partly to improve morale within the prison where inmates believe he is still in control.

After his arrest Provenzano was believed to have handed the reins of the Cosa Nostra to a younger man, Salvatore Lo Piccolo.

He was arrested in November and police are still not sure where the mantle boss of bosses now lies.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/12/08 04:34 PM

 Originally Posted By: chopper
Seven firefighters were injured outside Naples in an attack near a toxic dump at the centre of an ongoing waste disposal crisis. Some 30 assailants, described by the domestic ANSA news agency as hooligans, hurled powerful firecrackers into a firetruck, where they exploded, injuring the seven firefighters. Masked men also hurled stones at a police car, ANSA said.......


No doubt doubt in my mind that the Mafia, aka The Camorra in Naples, is behind this.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/14/08 09:14 AM

I tried to post a link for this as it is so long,but for some reason it wouldnt let me do it,so be prepeared it's a long article


When it came down to business, Cosa Nostra could always count on fear. No more. In a rebellion shaking the Sicilian Mafia to its centuries-old roots, businesses are joining forces in refusing to submit to demands for protection money called "pizzo."

And they're getting away with it, threatening to sap an already weakened crime syndicate of one of its steadiest sources of revenue.

The Mafia has a history of bouncing back from defeat, but this time it is up against something entirely new: a Web site where businessmen are finding safety in numbers to say no to the mob.

At the same time, businessmen ranging from neighborhood shopkeepers to industrialists are being emboldened by arrests of fugitive bosses, and the discovery in raids of meticulous Mafia bookkeeping on who paid the "pizzo" and how much.

"This rebellion goes to the heart of the Mafia," said Palermo prosecutor Maurizio De Lucia, who has investigated extortion cases for years. "If it works, we will have a great advantage in the fight against the Mafia."

These latest gains build on other successes in the fight to break Cosa Nostra's stranglehold on Sicily. In the last two decades, the syndicate has been battered by testimony from turncoats, who helped send hundreds of mobsters to prison in the late 1980s, and a fierce state crackdown a decade later after bombs killed two Palermo anti-Mafia prosecutors.

The number of rebels on the Web site is still tiny compared to Palermo's businesses overall, but their movement has helped to chip away at the Mafia's psychological hold on Sicilians long conditioned to believe that defiance would bring ruin or a death sentence. And any consistent crumbling of that culture of fear could ultimately lead to Cosa Nostra's undoing.

The businesses are openly defying the Mafia by signing on to a Web site called "Addiopizzo" (Goodbye Pizzo), which brings together businesses in the Sicilian capital that are resisting extortion.

The campaign was launched in 2004 by a group of youths thinking of opening a pub. They started off by plastering Palermo with anti-pizzo fliers, reading "An ENTIRE PEOPLE WHO PAYS THE PIZZO IS A PEOPLE WITHOUT DIGNITY," and eventually brought their campaign online where it struck a profound chord with Sicilians fed up with Mafia bullying.

Confindustria, the industrialists' lobby, has also boosted the movement with a threat to expel members who pay protection money. Its Sicilian branch has gone through a list of pizzo-paying companies found in a raid on a top Mafia boss' hideout, and this month began summoning heads of those companies to demand to know if they indeed had been paying and should be drummed out of the politically influential lobby.

one case, the director of a private clinic said her institution wound up on Cosa Nostra's list because a mobster was treated there, although it apparently was unclear during his hospitalization that he was a Mafioso.

At the same time, authorities are ratcheting up the pressure on business owners, aggressively prosecuting those who refuse to testify against the Mafia in clear-cut cases of extortion. Under Italian law, a businessman who denies paying up despite flagrant evidence such as being caught on a surveillance tape can be charged with "aiding and abetting" Cosa Nostra.

"Now it is a bigger risk for us to pay than not to pay," said Ugo Argiroffi, an engineer who recently added his Palermo construction company, C.O.C.I. to Addiopizzo's list (http://www.addiopizzo.org in Italian with an English link).

While the nearly 230 businesses on the list are only a fraction of Palermo's thousands of stores, offices and factories, a similar group has sprouted up in Catania, Sicily's second-largest city.

Perhaps most significant, the rebellion has taken root in strongholds of the most ruthless Mafia clans places such as Gela, a drab, industrial coastal town. Some 80 Gela businessmen in recent months have denounced extortion attempts.

It is a dramatic turn since the early '90s, when a Gela merchant who denounced extortion was slain by the Mafia, and a Gela car dealer, whose showroom was repeatedly torched, had to move his family and change his name after he testified in court.

In another prominent case, Libero Grassi, who had a Palermo clothing business, was gunned down by the Mafia in 1991 after he made a futile public plea for other merchants to join him in denouncing extortion.

Prosecutors trace the extortion rebellion back to the scramble for power after Bernardo Provenzano, the alleged "boss of bosses," was captured last year near his hometown of Corleone.

For years, Provenzano who reputedly took the helm of Cosa Nostra in 1993 had employed an extortion strategy of "let them pay a little but make everyone pay," according to Piero Grasso, a former Palermo prosecutor who is now Italy's national anti-Mafia prosecutor based in Rome.

The Mafia chief feared excessive greed and violence would draw a fierce police crackdown, Grasso said in an interview.

But in the struggle to succeed Provenzano, Palermo area boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo ruthlessly dispensed with the low profile.
Under Lo Piccolo, according to Grasso, the small army of henchmen who shake down merchants was doubled, from 500 to 1,000 men, judging from entries in confiscated extortion ledgers.

The extortionists received monthly "salaries" worth $3,000, generous by Sicily's standards, plus an extra month's pay as a Christmas bonus, Grasso said.

A rash of arson attacks on businesses this past year apparently reflected Lo Piccolo's determination to press extortion demands.

The strategy appears to have backfired: The harder the Mafia squeezed, the more their victims resisted. Crucially, no businessmen or their relatives have thus far been killed for their defiance, although some may have lost Mafia-wary customers.

In one high-profile case, Vincenzo Conticello, owner of Antica Focacceria San Francesco, a landmark Palermo restaurant that specializes in sandwiches stuffed with calf's spleen and lung, spent $1.8 million buying supplies from "friends" of a gangster who had elbowed into his business.

Eventually the restaurateur got fed up and went to police. At the trial, he pointed out the three gangsters who had extorted him and in November they were jailed for 10 to 16 years. Conticello was granted police protection.

When Mafia boss Lo Piccolo was arrested in November outside Palermo, police found a list of hundreds of names of those who paid the "pizzo" plus a breakdown of how the money was divvied up a treasure trove of information on how the mob operates.

In December, police scored another coup when they shot dead Daniele Emmanuello, the reputed boss of the Gela area's extortion rackets, as he fled from a farmhouse hideout.

Emmanuello didn't take time to change out of his pajamas, but he did swallow some handwritten notes. Authorities are examining them for more information on the pizzo racket.

Until now, the money figures had been largely guesswork. But taking advantage of the confiscated Mafia ledgers, Antonio La Spina, a University of Palermo sociology professor, has pieced together the clearest picture for a report given to The Associated Press before its publication this week in a book called "The Costs of Illegality."

His researchers calculate the pizzo payments averaging $1,200 a month add up to nearly $260 million in Palermo province alone.

"For a street vendor, 'pizzo' ranges from 50 to 100 euros a month, a neighborhood bread store 150-250 euros, a simple clothing store 250 euros, a jewelry store, 1,000 euros, your local mini-mart 500 euros," said Attilio Scaglione, one of the researchers. A euro is worth roughly $1.50.

These days, the Mafia appears to be trying to pick symbolic targets rather than punish the pizzo-refusers en masse.

At Rodolfo Guajana's company, a wholesaler for hardware stores across Sicily since 1875, attackers this summer punched a hole in the roof, poured in gasoline and torched the warehouse.

Guajana believes the Mafia attacked him because it was known that his family had a history of refusing to pay.

"What happened here was the Mafia was saying to all merchants: `What happened to Guajana can happen to you if you don't pay,'" said Guajana.

Across the island in Agrigento, industrialist Salvatore Moncada described himself as proof businessmen can stand up to mobsters.

He has repeatedly refused demands made of his 180-employee company, Moncada Costruzioni Srl, Italy's fifth-largest producer of wind energy. In one case, Moncada's testimony helped jail a mobster who demanded $7,500.

At one point, Moncada wore a wire to a meeting with a mobster. "I was sweating a little bit," he recalled. But no threats were made and the gangster wasn't arrested.

But Moncada said he can understand why some businessmen decide it pays to pay off the Mafia.

A pizzo of 2 percent of a contract's value is a lot less than the price of a 24-hour guard, he said. "In the end you say, 'Sorry, I'll pay and that's that.'"



By FRANCES D'EMILIO Associated Press Writer
PALERMO, Sicily Jan 13, 2008 (AP)
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/15/08 10:40 PM

NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Steven Seagal and his former business partner have agreed to settle a long-running legal battle, a lawyer and a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The dispute between Seagal and movie producer Julius R. Nasso included allegations of contract breach and Mafia extortion.

Seagal and Nasso had worked together for years, forming Seagal/Nasso Productions and producing movies including Marked for Death,Out for Justice and On Deadly Ground.


Then the two had a falling out. Nasso sued Seagal for $60 million, accusing the actor of backing out of a four-movie deal.

Beginning in 2004 Nasso served one year in federal prison after admitting he plotted to have the mob shake down Seagal.

Anthony "Sonny" Ciccone was convicted of racketeering in the case along with Peter Gotti, brother of the late mob boss John Gotti. At a New York steakhouse, Ciccone and other Gambino crime family enforcers demanded that Seagal keep working with Nasso and pay him $150,000 a film, Seagal testified at Peter Gotti's trial.

Afterward, Nasso told Seagal, "If you would have said the wrong thing, they would have killed you," the actor said.

Surveillance tapes later captured Ciccone's crew chuckling over how "petrified" the actor looked.

"I wish we had a gun with us," one said. "That would have been funny."

The out-of-court settlement included Nasso dropping the suit and Seagal agreeing to pay Nasso an undisclosed amount of money and write a letter supporting Nasso's application for a pardon, said Nasso's lawyer Robert Hantman.

"After six years of litigation, any misunderstandings between Mr. Seagal and Mr. Nasso have been resolved and (Nasso) looks forward to his future and making movies," Hantman said.

Nasso spokeswoman Emma Rosenbloom said in a statement that the men had resolved the dispute.

Neither Seagal nor his lawyer could be reached by telephone for comment Wednesday evening.

Seagal and Nasso, a former Brooklyn pharmacist, once lived next door to each other in Staten Island.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-01-09-seagal_N.htm
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/15/08 10:50 PM

From mob mouthpiece to livery cab driver.

That's the sad trajectory of 62-year-old attorney Larry Bronson's professional career - his disgrace complete yesterday after pleading guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court to illegally structuring money transactions for a client, then begging the judge to release him from house arrest so he can earn some money driving a cab.

"I just want to be able to put some money on the table for my wife," Bronson said.

But prosecutor Roger Burlingham argued for keeping the defendant under electronic monitoring, expressing skepticism that the only work a lawyer could find would be driving a cab.

"You don't want him to go back and practice law, do you?" shot back Judge Nicholas Garaufis.

Bronson was indicted in 2005 on racketeering and money-laundering charges in which he was accused of using his status as an attorney to assist the Mafia and obstruct justice.

He allegedly hosted meetings in his lower Manhattan law office where Bonanno gangsters Louis (Louie HaHa) Attanasio and James (Big Louie) Tartaglione could secretly meet to discuss organized crime business in violation of court orders, according to court papers.

The government agreed to drop the racketeering charges in exchange for yesterday's guilty plea.

"Larry is very pleased that this nightmare is finally coming to an end, pursuant to a deal that is far fairer than were the original allegations against him," Bronson's lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, said.

Bronson says he is struggling financially. He completed a real estate course, but the market slowdown has limited those prospects.

He told the judge that he has lined up a job with a car service that appears promising, if he could only get rid of his ankle bracelet.

The judge agreed to give Bronson a chance, as long as he would be working for a reputable car service approved by the government.


http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/broo...wyer_turns.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/16/08 01:59 PM

A scheme to turn waste paper into green paper resulted in two Fairfield County men going to prison.
Senior U.S. District Judge Alan H. Nevas sentenced Ronald A. Lupica, 63, of Norwalk, to 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Lupica also agreed to repay ARC $1.4 million as well as $249,111 plus interest to the IRS for taxes on unreported income made through the fraud.

Last month, Nevas sentenced Daniel Arciola to a year and a day in prison for tax evasion.

Lupica and Arciola, a former quality control specialist for ARC, diverted waste paper collected by ARC to paper mills for recycling. Lupica created Empire Trucking, a nonexistent company. From mid-1999 to August 2002, the pair issued invoices to the mills claiming the nonexistent Empire Trucking was an ARC subsidiary. The mills paid Empire $1.4 million during the time.

To conceal this income, neither man reported it to the IRS.

Lupica received $323,727 from the scheme in 2000 but failed to file a tax return that would have required him to pay $104,124 in taxes. He pleaded guilty to tax evasion, mail fraud and bankruptcy fraud.

ARC is owned by James Galante, the Fairfield County trash magnate, who is under federal indictment for violating racketeering laws. That case involves evidence that the Genovese Crime Family helped Galante control trash hauling in Fairfield and Westchester County.

Galante has maintained his innocence.


http://www.connpost.com/ci_7937900?source=most_emailed
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/16/08 02:00 PM

Palermo, 16 Jan - Thirty-nine leaders and members of the mafia organization under Salvatore Lo Piccolo were arrested over the night in a police operation in Palermo. The name Addio Pizzo was given to the raid which dismantled the leadership of the San Lorenzo and Porta Nuova groups and led to the identification of the heads of the Partanna Mondello, Cruillas and Altarello "families". Over 200 members of the flying squad took part in the sweep-up operation, which also led to the bringing to light of many members of the Brancaccio, Pagliarelli, Noce, San Lorenzo and Partanna Mondello families.
Some of those arrested are being held in jail, whereas others have been formally arrested. The charges range from mafia-related criminal association, extortion and arms possession. The investigation was for the most part based on the deciphering of 'pizzini' (small slips of paper used by mafia-type groups to communicate) and other documents seized from Salvatore Lo Piccolo and his son Sandro at the time of their arrest on 5 November in a Giardinello villa about thirty kilometres from Palermo. Investigators also made use of 6 former criminals who collaborated with the justice system.
During investigations, those behind the August burning down on a large hardware and paint warehouse owned by the entrepreneur Rodolfo Guajana were identified, as well as all the shopkeepers and entrepreneurs who paid protection money to Lo Piccolo. The investigation was coordinated by associate prosecutor and Alfredo Morvillo and deputy prosecutors Domenico Gozzo, Gaetano Paci, Francesco Del Bene and Anna Maria Picozzi.

http://www.agi.it/italy/news/200801160939-cro-ren0001-art.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/19/08 03:31 PM

MONTREAL - Five alleged leaders of the Montreal Mafia who have been detained since November 2006 are going directly to trial.

Nicolo Rizzuto, Paolo Renda, Rocco Sollecito, Francesco Arcadi and Lorenzo Giordino have chosen to skip their preliminary hearing. The five men, who were arrested in a widespread police crackdown in Quebec, will have their trial date set Feb. 25.

Crown prosecutor Yvan Poulin said at the Montreal courthouse today that 105 additional charges have been laid against the five men.

The charges include extorsion, illegal bookmaking, and importing drugs and weapons

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hPOYx5x43fhz_W_RLjnMElBzR0CA
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/19/08 03:34 PM

A court in Palermo convicted the governor of Sicily, Salvatore Cuffaro, of helping a Mafia boss by providing him with confidential investigator’s information, sentencing him to five years in prison and banning him from holding public office. Mr. Cuffaro, who was re-elected two years ago, while his trial was under way, said he would continue as governor while an appeal is in progress. In Italy, convictions are not considered final until all appeals are exhausted; the process can take years.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/world/europe/19briefs-mafia.html?ref=world
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/20/08 12:28 AM

Bronx gangster Vincent Basciano must remain in strict solitary confinement because there is evidence he tried to conduct criminal activity - such as murder - while in jail, a federal judge ruled yesterday in Brooklyn.

The decision by Judge Nicholas Garaufis to keep Basciano under tight security at the federal detention center in Sunset Park was another blow against the Bonanno crime captain in his long-running attempt to get free of the restraints.

Under the "special administrative measures" first imposed on Basciano in September 2006, he is now allowed one telephone call a week with his lawyers and two family visits a month. Originally Basciano, known as "Vinny Gorgeous," didn't have family phone privileges or visits under the order.

Basciano, 48, was placed under the tight conditions after federal prosecutors alleged that while in jail he prepared a "hit list" that contained the names of Garaufis, Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Andres and three witnesses. Basciano contended that the list was actually part of a Santería ritual designed to get him good luck at his criminal trials.

Recently Basciano's attorneys disclosed that two additional lists had been found, which contained more than 20 names and a magical incantation - evidence the lawyers said that the Santería explanation was true. Yesterday, defense attorney Ephraim Savitt said he will ask Garaufis to reconsider the ruling.

Savitt said Basciano's solitary confinement was preventing him from helping the defense team prepare for his August death penalty trial.

Garaufis was sympathetic regarding difficulties the jail conditions posed for his access to his attorneys and legal mail.

"If problems persist, defense counsel should so advise the court," said Garaufis.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nymob165539672jan16,0,6439874.story
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/20/08 12:30 AM

As many as 100 new charges have been laid against people accused of belonging to the Montreal Mafia, including alleged boss Nicolo (Nick) Rizzuto, who is still in police custody after a major crackdown in 2006.

The charges were filed in the Montreal Courthouse on Thursday against Rizzuto, 83, and four others accused of belonging to the Mafia.

The additional counts include extortion, bookmaking and possessions of proceeds of crime, specific indictments that are more precise than the first round of charges laid in the 2006 police operation dubbed Operation Colisée, explained Crown prosecutor Yvan Poulin.

"What we did in November 2006 is lay a general account [of charges]," he told reporters outside the courtroom Thursday morning. "Today, we focused on specific events that occurred during the investigation."

More than 100 people were arrested after multiple pre-dawn raids across the greater Montreal region in November 2006, including several people alleged to be high-ranking members of the Rizzuto clan.

Suspects taken into custody were charged with offences ranging from drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering to gangsterism.

The new round of charges include 12 counts against Nick Rizzuto, who renounced his right to a preliminary inquiry on Thursday.

His alleged associates — Paolo Renda, Rocco Sollecito, Francesco Arcadi and Lorenzo Giordino — also chose to skip their preliminary hearing.

All five suspects chose trial by jury instead, to be scheduled at a hearing on Feb. 25.

More than 1 million taped conversations: prosecutor
The case is subject to a publication ban, but Poulin said the volume of evidence is extraordinary, with police submitting more than one million taped conversations obtained by wiretap.

Not all of them will be used in the trial, he said.

"I can tell you that many — about 5,000, 6,000 conversations — have been singled out as pertinent to the eventual trial," he told CBC News. "But in total, throughout the four-year investigation, police officers intercepted more than a million conversations."

A separate trial for several other suspects arrested during the 2006 sweep is scheduled to start Feb. 4 at the Gouin courthouse in Montreal.

Those suspects, all former airport employees, are accused of importing and smuggling cocaine through Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.

Rizzuto and son Vito also wanted in Italy
Nick Rizzuto is also wanted by Italian police, who issued an international warrant for his arrest in October 2007, after they broke up an alleged Italian-Canadian Mafia clan reportedly involved in major drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations.

Italian police allege Rizzuto and his son Vito managed the operations from their respective prisons.

Vito Rizzuto, 61, is currently serving a 10-year sentence in the United States after he was extradited there to face racketeering charges in connection to the murders of three suspected gang leaders at a Brooklyn club in 1981.

Vito Rizzuto, who is alleged to be a member of the Bonanno crime family in New York, pleaded guilty to the charge in May 2007 in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Italian authorities want to extradite both Rizzutos to face charges in that country but they'll have to wait until the father and son finish serving any time owed in North America.

Nick Rizzuto was taken from the Bordeaux detention centre in Montreal to hospital in April 2007 after experiencing chest pains.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/01/17/qc-rizzutonewcharges0117.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/21/08 10:14 AM

Mafia bosses do not come much more brutal than Giuseppe and Filippo Graviano. Among the crimes, for which the brothers have been serving life sentences since 1994 are involvement in the murder of two anti-Mafia judges, the killing of an anti-Mafia priest, the bombing of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and another in Rome that killed 10 people and injured 93.

Yet both have shown an unexpected aptitude for turning their brainpower to a higher purpose: academic study. They recently gained first-class degrees — Giuseppe in mathematics and Filippo in economics.

Prison authorities said that a growing number of imprisoned Mafia killers are taking degrees, and that their motives may not be entirely to do with academic achievement.

“A favourite subject is law,” Giuseppe Giustolisi, an expert on the Mafia, said. “Either they want to find out where they went wrong, or they hope they will get out one day and that detailed knowledge of the law will help them to evade prison in future.”


He said that another motive was that they were allowed to travel to the university where they had enrolled to take exams — and the universities were often in their home towns.

“I am worried that this loophole in the high-security system enables them to somehow communicate with their local henchman,” Sebastiano Ardita, the former head of the Italian prison service, said.

Mafia bosses with first-class degrees include Pietro Aglieri — convicted for killing the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino — who graduated in theology. Aglieri was a lieutenant of Totò Riina, who was arrested after the murders of Falcone and Borsellino in 1992, and Bernardo Provenzano, who was arrested near Corleone in Sicily.

Neither Riina nor Provenzano are known for their interest in reading, apart from the Bible, which Provenzano used as a codebook for cryptic messages to subordinates. Aglieri was known in the Cosa Nostra as 'U Signurinu (the Little Gentleman) for his love of the Greek and Latin classics.

Other mafiosi with degrees include Antonio Libri, convicted of extortion and kidnapping in Reggio Calabria, who studied sociology, and Giuseppe Gullotti, convicted for murdering a journalist, who studied law.

Mr Ardita said: “I do not believe they have changed their ways. There is something more to it.” He said that a display of intellectual superiority helped Mafia bosses to maintain their “supremacy” over clans, and travelling to their home turfs to take exams offered “a loophole in a system that is supposed to isolate them”. Antonio Ingroia, an anti-Mafia prosecutor in Sicily, said: “It does seem absurd to relax a high-security regime intended to ensure they have no contact with the criminal underworld.”

However, Emilio Santoro, a professor at Florence University, said that even Mafia bosses deserved a chance to better themselves. He cited the case of Carmelo Musumeci, a mafioso from Catania, who gained a law degree with a dissertation on “the experiences of prisoners serving life sentences”.

Mafia prisoners are held under a security regime known as 41b, which the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has criticised as excessively harsh. They are allowed only two visits a month and open-air exercise for up to four hours a day.

There is a picture of the two men on the times site if you care to look the link below will take you there.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3221232.ece
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/22/08 04:01 PM

Naples is a nice place to visit if you don't have to smell it. There is a lot of old (and new) rubbish in the southern Italian state of Campania of which Naples is the capital.
And it stinks, both literally and in terms of organised crime.

Apart from the increasing piles of refuse, a feature of the city is the Camorra, one of the most powerful of the five principal Mafia groups in Italy.

The two problems are linked. (The garbage problem has been going on for over 14 years. The Camorra much longer). The connection is that the Camorra make a perfumed profit from the business of disposing waste in illegal dumps. (Regardless of what the republican police attempt to prevent the rottenness ).

This is only an adjunct to the global activity of the Camorra. They provide loans at exorbitant rates to sweatshops that provide many of the the lucrative garments Italy sells abroad.

The import of arms from eastern Europe is also an earner. Associates launder money through businesses from Taiwan to Brno, from Miami Beach to New South Wales and back again. (Call it globalisation.)

Their open-air drug market in Segondigliano in Campania is a side show in terms of revenue.

The group would be worth hundreds of millions of euros if it were listed on the Milan stock exchange.

It is not just the hapless government of prime minister Romano Prodi in Rome that is upset. It is the remaining, aged, godfathers of Sicily who are witness to, and envious of, such an impressive performance.


http://eursoc.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/2233/Something_Rotten_In_The_State_Of_Campania.html
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/22/08 05:59 PM

I read the new book, "Gomorrah," recently, and it spells out just how pervasive and powerful the Camorra is in Naples and surrounding areas. And violent--no holds barred, no "civilians," no restraints.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/22/08 10:15 PM

So did you enjoy the book Turnbull? Is it worth buying?
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/23/08 11:42 AM

A Palermo Court handed out sentences worth a total of over 400 years on Monday to 38 Sicilian Mafia figures.

The majority of convicts were linked to Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenanzo who was captured in 2006.

A total of 52 suspects were arrested during the same year, including the heads of the 13 Sicilian Mafia families.

The heaviest sentences, at 20 years, were handed out to Antonino Rotolo and Franco Bonura, respective heads of the Pagliarelli and Uditore clans.


http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/art...62&NrSection=30
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/23/08 11:43 AM

Palermo, Jan.22 - Gaspare Pulizzi, one of the chief henchmen of Mafia boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo, arrested on 5 November in Giardinello (Paleromo) along with the chief henchman of Tommaso Natale and his son, has started to cooperated with the anti-mafia investigators. Pulizzi is the third boss of the Lo Piccolo clan who decided to cooperate, after Francesco Franzese and Antonino Nuccio.
Pulizzi's relatives have taken away from Carini, the town he lives in. Police had to resort to firmness when taking them away, because the boss' relatives, who clearly didn't support Pulizzi's decision, didn't want the officers to take his wife and kids away

http://www.agi.it/italy/news/200801222022-cro-ren0116-art.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/24/08 01:12 PM

In the 1970s, he was "Sonny," the mobster with a penchant for blowing things up.

In 1980, a judge called Sonny "rotten to the core" and shipped him off to prison for his role in a bombing spree that killed a prominent mob leader and leveled local gambling parlors.

On Wednesday, Dominic "Sonny" Celestino was a very different man from the one involved in the 1970s bloodbath in which two Rochester Mafia factions fought a violent turf battle. A wilting wiseguy, Celestino, 77, is now hobbled by poor health and is nearly deaf and blind.

Nevertheless, he was in federal court again, admitting to yet another crime. Now somewhat more stagger than swagger, Celestino was a far cry from the rebellious hoodlum of a different era.

On Wednesday, Celestino pleaded guilty to a crime that was either breathtaking in scope or just plain goofy. Celestino admitted that he and others plotted almost a decade ago to try to illegally move almost $100 million through bank wire transfers.

However, even federal prosecutors acknowledged that Celestino's role was "minimal," and questions had been raised during past court hearings about how aware he was of the criminal goings-on.

Also part of the scheme, prosecutors say, was former Rochester mobster Francesco Frassetto, who in 2006 admitted to a cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors dropped charges against him that were connected to the wire transfer allegations.

The wire transfers never occurred, and federal authorities have said little about the likelihood that the crime could have been pulled off. Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Wydysh, who prosecuted the case, said the criminal participants clearly thought they could pull off a $100 million crime.

Celestino's plea agreement alleges involvement by several co-conspirators who have not been charged. The statute of limitations has expired for most charges that could be associated with the crimes, which authorities allege occurred in 1998 and 1999.

Celestino was indicted in 2004, before the statutory time limit was reached.

"I would think this concludes the investigation," Wydysh said after Celestino's plea Wednesday.

In the plea, Celestino acknowledged that he and several other men, including Frassetto, had planned to move almost $100 million in wire transfers reminiscent of the baseball double-play combination known as Tinker to Evers to Chance. The money was to be routed to the Bahamas, then to a bank in Miami, the plea says.

Celestino said in the plea that he and others knew the money had been "stolen from a bank in New York City." Prosecutors say the initial theft never happened.

Celestino was among people who met with an FBI informant in Rochester in November 1998 to "discuss the execution of the illicit wire transfer," the plea agreement states.

Among others mentioned in the plea are Anthony Lepardo Jr. of Boston, who in 2006 admitted to a role in the scheme and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and another co-conspirator named E. Dawson Roberts.

The plea alleges that the money was to be routed through an account in the Bahamas "associated with" Roberts.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, which are advisory, Celestino faces between 18 and 24 months in prison. The judge could sentence him to less, and Celestino might even avoid prison. Prosecutors agreed that they would recommend that federal parole officials not revoke Celestino's parole and jail him because of his plea.

Celestino's attorney, Lawrence Andolina, said after the plea that he was surprised authorities pursued a case against Celestino, given his health and the small role he had in the crimes.

"This is one of the dumbest cases I've been involved with," Andolina said.

Celestino is scheduled to be sentenced on May 8, and his latest journey through the court system could well be the last such trip for a former Rochester mobster. Some have died, some have committed new crimes and been jailed again, and others are now walking the straight and narrow.

"How are you feeling today?" U.S. District Judge David Larimer asked Celestino after the guilty plea.

"I feel all right," Celestino said. "I'm tired of all this, if you know what I mean."

"Well, yes, I do," Larimer said.


http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/NEWS01/801240356/1002/NEWS
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/25/08 10:00 AM

A purported member of the Gambino crime family and five other men have been charged in a 42-count grand jury indictment with fraud involving telemarketing and real estate deals, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

The indictment charges that Vincent Artuso, 63, is a member of the New York-based Mafia organization and supervised the others in various fraud and money-laundering transactions.

Some of the charges involve a Deerfield Beach-based telemarketing firm that allegedly sold fraudulent magazine subscriptions nationwide in a scheme to obtain credit card numbers and steal from the victims.

The men also allegedly set up a scheme involving the sale and lease of several buildings that defrauded ADT Security Services Inc. of at least $7 million over five years, according to the indictment.

All six were scheduled to make initial appearances on the charges today in federal court.

The suspects each face at least 20 years in prison if convicted of mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations conspiracy law.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080125/NEWS/801250386/-1/newssitemap
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/26/08 12:04 PM

Here is some more news on Vincent Artuso,


Reputed Gambino crime family member Vincent Artuso found himself in a familiar uniform Friday morning — blue jail scrubs, handcuffs and leg chains — for an appearance before a federal magistrate.

Artuso, 63, who has served federal prison time for heroin and cocaine distribution, now faces a 42-count indictment unsealed Thursday alleging he supervised a South Florida organization involved in various fraud and money-laundering transactions — allegations his attorney called false on Friday.

Some of the charges involve a Deerfield Beach-based telemarketing firm — Atlantic Magazine Service — that allegedly sold fraudulent magazine subscriptions nationwide in a scheme to obtain credit card numbers and steal from the victims. At various times, the marketing firm also was based in Delray Beach and Pompano Beach.

The men also allegedly set up a scheme involving the sale and lease of four buildings in Broward and Palm Beach counties, Illinois and Pennsylvania that defrauded ADT Security Services Inc. of Boca Raton of at least $7 million over five years, according to the indictment.

Coral Gables attorney Michael Tein, who represents Artuso, said there was no merit to the allegations.

"Mr. Artuso is innocent, he will be pleading innocent and he looks forward to proving his innocence at trial," Tein said.

Tein also denied allegations in the indictment that Aruso is a member of the "Gambino Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra."

Mafia turncoat Sammy "The Bull" Gravano testified at John Gotti's 1992 murder and racketeering trial that Artuso was one of four gunmen tapped by the ambitious Gotti to hit then Gambino boss Paul Castellano so he could take over the crime family.

Castellano and his underboss died in a hail of bullets on Dec.16, 1985, in front of Sparks Steak House on East 46th Street in midtown Manhattan, but Gravano testified Artuso's gun jammed and that he didn't fire any shots.

When the Dapper Don died in prison of cancer in 2002, New York newspapers reported the names of some of the more notorious mobsters — including Vinnie Artuso — who paid their tributes during Gotti's two-day wake.

Tein said Artuso was not involved in the Castellano killing. "That's 100 percent ridiculous and false," he said.

Artuso was the first of the defendants to appear Friday morning before U.S. Magistrate Anne Vitunac.

Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Brian McCormick told the judge that prosecutors were initially willing to let Artuso be released on $750,000 bail. But since Artuso wouldn't give federal probation officials any information on his finances, McCormick asked that Artuso be detained at Palm Beach County Main Jail until a bail hearing can be held.

Another defendant is a former vice president of ADT who allegedly sold the buildings for prices well under market value to companies set up under Artuso's direction, which then leased the buildings back to ADT, according to the indictment.

The suspects each face more than 20 years in prison if convicted of mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and racketeering charges.

Vitunac set bail hearings at 10 a.m. Wednesday for Artuso and four other defendants — Artuso's son, John Vincent Artuso; Gregory Orr; Robert M. Gannon; and William L. Horton, the former ADT vice president. A sixth defendant, Philip E. Forgione, is in custody in Pennsylvania, where he also faces charges in two separate federal indictments.


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpgambino0126pnjan26,0,2376851.story
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/26/08 12:06 PM

Salvatore Battaglia, a/k/a “Hotdogs,” former president of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union has pleaded guilty to racketeering based on the extortion of two bus company owners whose employees were members of the union and a third bus company owner whose employees were not union members.

During the guilty plea before United States Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck, Battaglia admitted that, as president of Local 1181, he engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity including extorting three different bus company owners whose employees were members of the union.

Battaglia faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for May 16.

From approximately 2002 to 2006, Battaglia was president of Local 1181, a union that represents approximately15,000 school bus drivers and school bus escorts who work for companies that contract with the New York Department of Education to provide school bus transportation to public schools throughout New York City.

Prosecutors say the Genovese Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra has influenced and controlled Local 1181 since the 1970s, and Battaglia was proposed for membership in the Genovese Organized Crime Family in 2000. Battaglia allegedly collected and received illegal payments of tens of thousands of dollars from bus company owners and operators whose employees were members of Local 1181,using both his union status and his organized crime status to induce payment.

The indictment against Battaglia was the product of along-term investigation, and charged a total of 20 defendants– all of whom were named as members or associates of the Genovese Organized Crime Family or of other LCN crime families -with wide-ranging racketeering crimes and other offenses spanning more than a decade, including extortion, labor racketeering, loan sharking, illegal gambling, and obstruction of justice.

Battaglia is the third high-ranking union official to be convicted for crimes committed during their times in office. On Aug. 31, 2006, Julius Bernstein, a/k/a “Spike”, who was an employee and officer of Local 1181 for over 30 years, during which time he rose to the position of secretary/treasurer, pleaded guilty to participating in the affairs of the Genovese Organized Crime Family from the 1950s to 2006, and committing crimes during that period including labor racketeering, extortion, robbery, gambling, and obstruction of justice.

On Aug. 11, 2006, Anne Chiarovano, an employee of Local 1181 for over 40 years, during which time she rose to the position of director of the Employees’ Pension and Welfare Fund, pleaded guilty to the obstruction of the FBI’s investigation into the connection between Local 1181 and the Genovese Organized Crime Family. 1-24-08


http://www.northcountrygazette.org/news/2008/01/24/bus_company_extortion/
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/28/08 07:58 AM

This really suprised me \:o

Aberdeen revealed as the British power base for Italy's most deadly crime family.

THE prospect of waking up with a severed seagull's head on your pillow may not be as chilling as the grizzly equine warning issued by the Corleone clan.

But Aberdeen has been revealed as the UK power base of the deadly Neapolitan mafia.

Undercover journalist Roberto Saviano infiltrated the all-powerful Naples-based Camorra and his account of his time with the mob has sold more than one million copies in Italy alone.

His book, Gomorrah: Italy's Other Mafia, has now been translated into English and makes the sensational claim that the Granite City was – and may still be – the focus of the crime clan's British operations.

Saviano alleges that from the 1980s, Italian gangsters ran a network of lucrative businesses in the oil-rich city as well as many illegal rackets.

The 29-year-old, who now lives in hiding under police protection, also claimed that a native Scot was the first non-Italian to become a kingpin of the criminal fraternity – said to have killed more people than any other terror group in Europe.

But the suggestion that the city remains in the grip of mobsters has been strongly denied by Italians in Aberdeen, who say it is an insult to the city's 600-strong Italian community.

Saviano claims he went to Aberdeen and worked in a restaurant run by Camorra crime lord Antonio La Torre, who was arrested in 2005 and jailed in Italy for extortion and racketeering.

Former Aberdeen restaurateur Michele Siciliano, who is said to have looked after La Torre's finances following his extradition, reportedly gave himself up to anti-mafia prosecutors the following year.

Another city restaurant boss Ciro Schiattarella is facing 26 years in jail after being extradited to Italy to face mafia- related charges.

Saviano said Scotland's third city, with no history of organised crime, was seen as an attractive safe haven away from the violent inter-gang blood-letting that had engulfed their Italian stronghold of Mondragone, north of Naples. "Aberdeen is the door to Great Britain," he said. "Before the Italian clans arrived, Aberdeen didn't know how to exploit its resources for recreation and tourism. It was dark, dirty and grey with people packed into pubs once a week.

"The Italians infused the city with economic energy, revitalised the tourist industry, inspired new import-export activities and injected new vigour in the real-estate sector. Aberdeen became chic, an elegant address for fine dining and important dealings."

The hub of La Torre's UK empire, Pavarotti's restaurant, now under different ownership, was even feted at Italissima, a prestigious gastronomic fair held in Paris.

Back in Aberdeen, it is claimed the Camorristas operated a system known as "scratch" where they used to step up illegal activities if their legitimate ventures were struggling. He said: "If cash was short they had counterfeit notes printed; if capital was needed in a hurry, they sold bogus treasury bonds. They annihilated the competition through extortions and imported merchandise tax-free."

The young Italian investigator claims that a native Scot, who is not named in the UK edition for legal reasons, made history by becoming the first foreign affiliate.

"La Torre's trustworthy ally, the Scottish Camorrista, effortlessly dissolved any residual relations in order to join the Mondragonesi.

… (He was] unquestionably the number one foreign Camorrista in Italian criminal history."

Saviano claims the tartan mobster continues to receive a monthly salary, legal assistance and protection from the crime clan.

The Camorra, a loose affiliation of family crime networks, is believed to be responsible for more than 3,600 deaths since 1975 – more than the IRA, ETA or their Sicilian counterparts La Cosa Nostra.

But one Aberdeen restaurant worker, who declined to be named, stressed that the Doric dons never resorted to such violence. He said: "

They were able to run all sort of deals because the police here had virtually no experience in dealing with organised crime. Although they broke the law there was never any guns or serious violence. Because they had no real rivals they could concentrate on making money."

Giuseppe Baldini, the Italian government's vice-consul in Aberdeen, said Saviano's exposé was being widely read there.

"His version of events may or may not be true, but it reads like the plot of a crime novel written by John Grisham or Ken Follet," he said. "But what is for sure is that there is no longer, if there ever was, any mafia involvement in Aberdeen. They are gone now. The most painful thing for me is that the entire Italian community in Aberdeen has been labelled as criminals and gangsters.

Why do the rest of us, who are hard-working, law-abiding citizens, have to suffer because of this?

"In other cities the Muslim community is treated with suspicion because of the actions of a tiny minority and I sympathise with them because that is what has happened to us."

Saviano, dubbed Italy's Salman Rushdie for the price on his head, stands by his work and remains unrepentant for standing up to the mob. "I'm not afraid of what could happen to me and I believe that what I've done in writing this books has been worth it," he said.

"I'm nostalgic for all the things that I can no longer do, but I would write it all over again if I were given the choice."

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Dons-on-the-Don.3715394.jp


An offer you cannae refuse

The top 10 Aberdeen-based mobster classics:

• The Codfaither

• Mock Chop and Two Smoking Kippers

• Raging Gull

• Oil Capone

• Don-nie Brasco

• Mean Streets

• Coldfellas

• Buttery Malone

• The Lang Guid Fry-day

• Sairface
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/28/08 11:03 PM

Dunmore man arrested and jailed last week for allegedly extorting money from the company that cleaned pigeon droppings from the Lackawanna County Courthouse has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida with racketeering, money laundering and fraud.


In a 42-count indictment that also names a man identified by prosecutors as a member of the Gambino crime family, prosecutors say Philip Forgione, 65, 1315 N. Webster Ave., and others participated in a scam that bilked at least $7 million from ADT Security.

The Florida indictment, filed last week and unsealed Thursday, put an end to Mr. Forgione’s fight for release from prison while awaiting trial in Scranton.

A detainer has been filed that would send him back to southern Florida should he be released from Lackawanna County Prison. He was jailed last week after being charged with conspiracy, money laundering, and aiding and abetting interference with commerce by threats or violence.

For now, though, Mr. Forgione is a patient at Mercy Hospital. He was admitted Tuesday night for a heart condition, just hours after he told U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Blewitt he could no longer take his heart medication because his blood pressure had dropped significantly.

His attorney, Paul Walker, had no further information on his condition Thursday.

The Florida indictment involves numerous allegations of fraud by Vincent Artuso, who prosecutors say is a member of the Gambino crime family, and William Larry Horton, identified in court paperwork as a vice president of planning and development at ADT Security Services Inc.

According to the indictment, Mr. Horton sold “several properties owned by ADT across the country — including one in Lancaster County — for “far below market value” to Mr. Artuso, Mr. Forgione and others named in court papers. They then leased the properties back to ADT “at a cost substantially above fair market value,” the indictment says.

“The monthly lease payments made by ADT were made to limited liability companies formed by the defendants for the purpose of concealing their ownership interests, including Horton’s,” the indictment reads. “In this way, the defendants defrauded ADT of at least $7 million in a period of five years.”

Prosecutors say the money to buy the properties was obtained through another scam Mr. Artuso and others named in the indictment were involved in, though Mr. Forgione was not a participant. This scam, the indictment says, involved a company that sold magazine subscriptions over the phone and used the credit card information they obtained to make unauthorized charges.

Mr. Artuso is accused of using “his position and reputation as an organized crime member to unlawfully influence and intimidate (people) doing business” with them.

Mentioned in the indictment was CAE Enterprises Inc., a business investigators say Mr. Forgione owned and operated from his home.

That business also came up in the local indictment. Mr. Forgione and Charles Costanzo, the county’s former workers’ compensation fund administrator, are accused of extorting more than $300,000 from Alicon Environmental Inc., which was paid $1.8 million by the county for removing 20 tons of pigeon dung.

From Dec. 14, 2004 to April 4, 2006, Alicon paid Mr. Forgione $94,550, which he deposited into a CAE Enterprises bank account, according to the indictment.

Earlier this week, Mr. Forgione was indicted on federal firearms violations after investigators with the Lackawanna County district attorney’s office searched his North Webster Avenue home and found three guns in the attic.

Mr. Forgione is a convicted felon, and by law cannot possess a gun.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lorna Graham said Thursday the federal charges in Scranton will be handled before Mr. Forgione is returned to Florida to face the charges there.

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19231418&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=6
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/29/08 10:27 PM

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An Eltingville man who was the co-owner of a Brooklyn pharmacy raided by authorities in connection with a multistate probe into illicit drug use, was found shot dead last night on a floor above the Bay Ridge store.

The body of John Rossi, 56, part-owner of Lowen's Pharmacy, 6902 Third Avenue, was discovered shortly before 7 p.m. by a store employee.

Rossi had a single gunshot wound to his head. However, police believe Rossi took his own life using a .380 caliber handgun found near his body. The medical examiner planned to perform an autopsy today.

Authorities recovered a suicide note at the scene that sources said mentioned the high-profile steroid investigation.

At the time of Rossi's death, police were investigating who his customers were and his level of involvement in dispensing steroids, according to a report in today's Newsday. The report also said the Brooklyn district attorney's office was close to bringing the case to a grand jury.

The Advance reported last fall that a Staten Island doctor, a local gym chain and a wellness center were targets of an ever-widening probe into the shadowy underworld of illegal steroid trafficking.

A massive, multistate investigation -- which began with Orlando, Fla.-based Signature Pharmacy -- began to turn in the Island's direction in October with a raid of Lowen's Pharmacy in Bay Ridge that netted $7.5 million worth of human growth hormone and anabolic steroids, and a list of prescriptions for the illicit muscle-bulking drugs.

A common name on those scripts: Dr. Richard Lucente, an osteopath with medical offices in Dongan Hills and Bay Ridge, and a wide range of clients, including NYPD officers, bodybuilders and local high school athletes, several sources familiar with the ongoing investigation said. It was Dr. Lucente who wrote the prescriptions for muscle-bulking drugs for several of the six cops who are under investigation by the Police Department, sources said.

Dr. Lucente has not been charged with a crime and has not been disciplined by the state Health Department.

Lowen's Pharmacy took on a greater role in the illegal steroids market after Signature Pharmacy was shut down in February, according to Albany District Attorney P. David Soares, who began the investigation into Internet prescription drug sales.

It is not illegal in New York for pharmacies to dispense steroids and human growth hormone for valid medical purposes, but their activities are tightly regulated and it is a crime for a doctor to prescribe drugs without examining the patient.

Lowen's is housed in a building co-owned by Rossi and Julius Nasso, a pharmacist-turned-movie producer who was sentenced to prison in 2003 for conspiring with Gambino crime family members to extort money from actor Steven Seagal. Nasso's attorney said his client has nothing to do with the drugstore or its day-to-day business.

In May, the state Bureau of Economic Enforcement raided the Bay Ridge drugstore and seized medical records and nearly $200,000 worth of steroids and human growth hormone. The state Health Department's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement seized several million dollars more last October.

In a statement sent to the Advance at that time, however, Lowen's law firm rebutted that information.

The law firm added that Lowen's continues to cooperate with state officials. A representative of the Brooklyn district attorney's office said the case will be presented to a grand jury.


http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1201611609285291.xml&coll=1
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/30/08 10:33 PM

Police charged a reputed international crime boss with tax evasion Wednesday, pursuing prosecution of a man wanted in the U.S. and suspected of playing a key role in Russia's lucrative natural-gas trade with Europe.

Semyon Mogilevich, long sought by the FBI, had been living freely near Moscow until his arrest last week on a street outside the city's World Trade Center.

Some observers say that, by removing Mogilevich, the Kremlin may be seeking to strengthen the hand of President Vladimir Putin's chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev, who chairs the board of Gazprom, the state gas monopoly.

Police investigators charged Mogilevich in the Moscow jail where he is being held, according to his lawyer, Alexander Pogonchikov.

The charges are connected to alleged tax evasion at a Russian cosmetics store chain, whose majority owner was arrested with Mogilevich on Jan. 23. Mogilevich, who denied the charges, has no interest in the business, his lawyer said.

"He is acknowledged as a financial genius all over the world and never deals with fake companies," Pogonchikov said.

U.S. officials have accused Mogilevich, 61, a Ukrainian-born Russian citizen, of running an organized crime ring in the 1990s, initially headquartered in Budapest, Hungary.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said in a speech in 2005 that Mogilevich's organization engaged in "drug and weapons trafficking, prostitution and money laundering, and organized stock fraud in the United States and Canada in which investors lost over $150 million."

Mogilevich was considered such a key figure that the FBI for several years operated a task force in Budapest to investigate his organization.

He has been wanted by the FBI since 2003, accused of manipulating the stock of a Pennsylvania-based company, YBM Magnex Inc., which collapsed in 1998.

The U.S. Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section has been investigating Mogilevich's suspected ties to the trading company that has a monopoly on gas sales to Ukraine and supplies gas to Europe, a Justice Department official confirmed this week.

Russia has no plans to hand over Mogilevich for prosecution in the U.S., said Anzhela Kastuyeva, a police spokeswoman. "He is a Russian citizen and we do not intend to extradite him," she said.

The Swiss-registered company, RosUkrEnergo, which is owned jointly by Gazprom and two Ukrainian businessmen, has come under growing scrutiny since it was formed four years ago.

The company played a controversial role in the settlement of a dispute between Russia and Ukraine over gas prices, which led to a brief shutdown of supplies to Ukraine in January 2006. The cutoff was also felt in Western Europe.

The arrest of Mogilevich came after Yulia Tymoshenko was named Ukraine's prime minister in December. She has called for Russia and Ukraine to scrap the gas deal, charging it is corrupt.

"I stress my position once again — Ukraine and Russia don't need any kind of intermediaries," she said Wednesday at a news conference in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.

Tymoshenko said she believed Mogilevich was linked to RosUkrEnergo, although she acknowledged she had no hard evidence.

Ukrainian law enforcement officials investigated possible ties between RosUkrEnergo and Mogilevich in 2005, during an earlier period when Tymoshenko was prime minister. But the case was closed after Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko fired her later that year.

Vladimir Milov, president of the Institute of Energy Policy, said Mogilevich's arrest most likely was linked to Tymoshenko's planned visit to Moscow in February and Medvedev's bid to win the Russian presidency on March 2.

"I think that the goal ... most likely was to protect Medvedev, to remove an undesirable witness to all the various suspicious operations connected to RosUkrEnergo," Milov said in a radio interview.

Some others observers said they saw the arrest as part of a power struggle among Kremlin factions, with supporters of Medvedev pursuing the case against Mogilevich to weaken hard-liners who oppose his candidacy. Mogilevich's removal could also strengthen Medvedev's control over Gazprom, they said.


http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hk7C9xrwYQ0-V88kTdkgK4tqaA2AD8UGCP0O0
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/30/08 10:36 PM

Few insiders bet against Scranton-area businessman Louis DeNaples when he bought the shuttered and decaying Mount Airy Lodge resort for $25 million and declared his intention to enter Pennsylvania's budding slot-machine casino industry.



DeNaples, 67, had just about everything going for him: He was powerful, wealthy and a household name in northeastern Pennsylvania. He had given lavishly to politicians of all stripes. And his main competitor for a highly coveted slots license was an interloper from New Jersey.

So it was hardly unexpected when the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board gave its unanimous approval to DeNaples in December 2006, awarding him a license after what it called an "extensive investigation" into his background.

But now that a grand jury has accused DeNaples of lying to the board about his relationship with a pair of reputed mobsters, the owner of the $412 million Mount Airy Casino Resort is under fresh scrutiny _ as is the process by which Pennsylvania was supposed to shield its newest industry, slots, from organized crime.

"This particular license has been fraught with problems from the very beginning," said Rep. Doug Reichley, R-Lehigh, a slots critic. "It has raised a lot of concerns about the manner in which the license was awarded."

The gaming board has said that its background investigation of DeNaples turned up nothing to indicate he was of "unsuitable character" to own a casino.

Indeed, he came with a sparkling resume.

From humble beginnings (his family couldn't afford to send him to college), DeNaples built an empire that includes two landfills, an auto parts store, and interests in banking, real estate, garbage disposal, heavy equipment and scores of other businesses.

He has said he owns and operates nearly 100 businesses. His land holdings are vast. He's held seats on a number of boards, including Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

DeNaples is also a philanthropist, donating large sums to Scranton Preparatory School _ where he sent his seven children _ the University of Scranton, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton, the United Way and many other charitable and nonprofit institutions.

The lone blemish on his record, a felony conviction from 1978, did not disqualify him from getting a casino license under state gaming law because it was more than 15 years old. Gambling regulators did not even take note of it when they filed their official "adjudication" explaining their reasons for giving DeNaples a license.

But that case has long provided fodder for speculation about DeNaples' alleged ties to the underworld.

Prosecutors said DeNaples, who supplied heavy equipment to Lackawanna County to clean up damage from Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972, plotted with three county employees to falsify records to obtain $525,000 in federal reimbursements.

DeNaples was tried for fraud, but the trial ended in a hung jury when one juror _ whose husband had been bribed by a reputed mobster _ held out for acquittal. DeNaples subsequently pleaded no contest to a conspiracy count, paid a $10,000 fine and spent three years on probation.

An FBI investigation later revealed that James Osticco, alleged underboss of the Bufalino crime family of northeastern Pennsylvania, bribed the holdout juror's husband with $1,000, a set of tires and a pocket watch to influence his wife's vote.

Osticco was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison. DeNaples himself was never accused of wrongdoing and he denied having any knowledge of jury tampering.

DeNaples told The Times-Tribune of Scranton in June 2006 that he "got caught up" in a bad situation in the Agnes case, but that he decided to enter a plea on the advice of his lawyer.

"I didn't have a choice," he said. "I was 30 years old. I had kids at home. I had no money. The lawyer wanted another $10,000, and I didn't have it."

DeNaples' supporters say he has long since redeemed himself for a 30-year-old mistake.

Sal Cognetti Jr., the former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted DeNaples, recently acted as a character witness on his slots application.

"Mr. DeNaples has, since 1978, been a magnificent community activist for the betterment of all people in northeastern Pennsylvania," Cognetti said.

"You judge a man by his whole life, not something that happened 30 years ago and I think when you judge Mr. DeNaples by his whole life, he is an honorable person," Cognetti told the gaming board in October.

But while DeNaples has been able to put his Agnes woes behind him, he has been less successful at shaking persistent rumors about the mob.

Some of the information connecting DeNaples to the Mafia is contained in old reports by the Pennsylvania Crime Commission. The state agency investigated organized crime and public corruption, but wielded no prosecutorial power and was disbanded in 1994 amid criticism that it treated rumor and hearsay as fact.

Commission reports from the 1980s said that William D'Elia, a reputed member of the Bufalino crime family of northeastern Pennsylvania, sold space at DeNaples' Keystone Sanitary Landfill. Informants later alleged that DeNaples paid "protection money" to D'Elia to keep other mobsters away from the landfill.

According to a 2001 federal affidavit, one informant claimed that DeNaples and D'Elia met weekly for many years and that "DeNaples has become a rich man through D'Elia's contacts in New York and New Jersey."

While under law enforcement surveillance, D'Elia was twice spotted visiting DeNaples Auto Parts in Dunmore, according to the affidavit, which was filed in support of a search warrant for D'Elia's car and home. DeNaples was not charged, nor were his properties targeted for searches.

DeNaples' spokesman, Kevin Feeley, has said the claims in the affidavit about DeNaples and organized crime are "flat wrong."

DeNaples told the gaming board that he did not have any ties to D'Elia, who is in federal prison awaiting trial on charges of money laundering and solicitation of murder. That denial, made under oath, formed the basis of the perjury charges filed Wednesday.

Prosecutors said DeNaples also lied to the gaming board when he denied any connection to the late Russell Bufalino, a notorious mob boss from Scranton who died in 1994 at age 91.

Bufalino was said to have helped organize the infamous 1957 summit of Mafia bosses in Apalachin, N.Y., which was broken up by police. A Senate subcommittee once called him "one the most ruthless and powerful leaders of the Mafia in the United States." D'Elia, who once served as Bufalino's driver, allegedly took control of the remnants of Bufalino's organization in the early 1990s.

Beyond what DeNaples told gambling regulators about D'Elia and Bufalino, he has consistently denied any involvement in the Mafia, and he has never been charged with a mob-related offense.

While declining to comment on the grand jury's work, regulators have said they awarded DeNaples a license based strictly on the merits of his application.

Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks, minority chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee and an outspoken gambling critic, suspects there is more to it.

Campaign finance reports show that DeNaples has given heavily to Republicans and Democrats alike, pouring more than $500,000 into Pennsylvania politicians' coffers in 2004 and 2005 alone. DeNaples, who as a casino owner is barred from giving to politicians, has likened his campaign contributions to "building a customer base and spreading goodwill."

Among the recipients of his largesse was Senate Democratic Leader Robert J. Mellow of Lackawanna County, who twice appointed people to the gaming board with at least indirect ties to DeNaples.

"I always thought that this was a done deal, that the politics behind the closed doors had already made a determination that Louis DeNaples was going to be the recipient," Clymer said.

The gaming board said it weighed every applicant equally, and that DeNaples' proposal was superior to a competing proposal from New Jersey developer Greg Matzel.

But there's no denying that DeNaples himself was confident about his chances. He began construction on his glitzy new casino in July 2006 _ a full five months before gambling regulators announced their decision to award him a license.

http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=366097
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/31/08 09:16 AM

The RICO Act isn't just for mob bosses anymore. The U.S. attorney's office has used it to charge 14 members of a Miramar-based chapter of the Bloods gang

Last spring, Miramar police picked up career criminal Earnest Copeland on felony gun charges.

Ever since, Copeland, 36, has been in jail awaiting trial, but investigators said it hasn't slowed his business.

Using his wife as an intermediary, Copeland has continued to run the Miramar chapter of the notorious Bloods gang, which is responsible for dozens of violent offenses, including attempted murder, kidnapping and extortion, the U.S. attorney's office said Tuesday.

Copeland and 13 other high-level members of the Bloods have been charged with racketeering under the RICO Act, which is a tool created more than three decades ago to battle the mob.

A FIRST

This is the first time U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta has used RICO -- the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute -- to go after alleged gang members.

''RICO is used to go after criminal enterprises,'' Acosta said at a press conference announcing the indictment Tuesday. ``A gang is just that. It is a criminal enterprise. It has a hierarchy. It operates like a business.''

The joint operation, which included help from Miramar police, the Broward Sheriff's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Coast Guard, also resulted in the arrest of other high-level operatives of the Bloods' Miramar chapter, or set.

The indictment named Earnest and Sharlene Copeland, 33; Raymond Edward Desinor, 24; Alfred Jerome Allen, 23; Alden Bert Budhoo, 29; Randolph Dercival Barrow, 20; Michael M. Petty, 19; Omeal Anthony Lee, 22; Willie Lee Ellis, 18; Jeffrey Byrd Jr., 20; Amr Kahlil Ramson, 24; Linus S. Bridgelal, 19; Tyrone Doolam, 21, and Daquan Thomas, 20.

Additionally, alleged gang member Raeshoun Lavi Washington was charged with robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. It is unclear if he is a member of the Bloods or some other gang in South Florida.

The RICO Act allows authorities to prosecute any person who commits multiple crimes with a similar purpose or results -- more specifically, for money. The penalty is up to 20 years in jail and a $250,000 fine per count.

While the influence of La Cosa Nostra has waned in recent years, gang activity -- particularly in South Florida -- has been on the rise.

Last year, federal authorities in South Florida prosecuted 307 alleged gang members, up from 224 in 2006.

''Almost every day in South Florida, we witness the deadly consequences of gang and gang-related violence,'' Acosta said. ``Gang violence spills into our neighborhoods, killing innocent victims, destroying entire families and poisoning the future and the welfare of our children.''

OTHER CASES

While this is the first time Acosta's office used RICO against gang members, his counterparts across the country have employed it with relative success.

Last September, the leader of the notorious MS-13 gang in Maryland was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted in federal court on racketeering charges.

Likewise, members of the Vineyard Boys -- a San Fernando Valley, Calif., gang believed to be responsible for the shooting death of a police officer -- also went to prison on RICO charges.

In this particular Bloods gang, Miramar police began noticing a pattern in their investigation of various crimes and felt reaching out to the U.S. attorney's office was the best approach, said Chief Mel Standley.

''I would love to be able to say that we took down the entire Bloods gang organization, but I can't say that,'' Standley added. ``There are others in South Florida and others around the state.''

It is believed the Bloods' rival street gang, the Crips, also have a presence in South Florida.


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/398977.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/31/08 09:19 AM

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday claimed Vincent Artuso's participation in the 1985 assassination of Gambino crime boss Paul Castellano was one reason the alleged mobster should be kept off the street following his indictment last week on racketeering and money laundering charges.

At times Artuso, 63, who lives in an oceanfront condo on Palm Beach, smiled and laughed as prosecutors sought to keep him behind bars until his trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Brian McCormick argued that Artuso was dangerous, a flight risk and could seek to intimidate witnesses in the case.

McCormick also said Artuso was one of four gunmen selected in 1985 by John Gotti to hit then Gambino boss Paul Castellano outside a Manhattan steak house so the ambitious Gotti could take over the crime family.




"He was at the scene participating in the actual murder," said McCormick, but he said prosecutors never had enough evidence to charge Artuso.

Artuso and five other defendants face a 42-count indictment unsealed last week alleging he supervised a South Florida organization involved in various fraud and money-laundering schemes. His attorney, Michael Tein, has denied the allegations and said his client is innocent.

McCormick outlined some of the evidence in the prosecution case for U.S. Magistrate Linnea Johnson, saying Artuso has been an active member of the Gambino crime family for decades and that he directed the South Florida frauds.

Some of the charges involve a Deerfield Beach-based telemarketing firm - Atlantic Magazine Service - that allegedly sold fraudulent magazine subscriptions nationwide. At various times, the marketing firm also was based in Delray Beach and Pompano Beach.

The men allegedly set up another scheme involving the sale and lease of four buildings in Broward and Palm Beach counties, Illinois and Pennsylvania that defrauded ADT Security Services Inc. of Boca Raton of at least $7 million over five years, the indictment says.

Johnson said she was mindful of the allegations that Artuso is a member of organized crime and that he served federal time in the 1980s for drug distribution and parole violations, but she determined that Artuso is entitled to bail.

"I don't find the evidence overwhelming to this defendant," Johnson said, noting the defendants have been aware of the investigation for about two years and had not fled.

Johnson set Artuso's bail at $225,000 and ordered him to report to probation officials in person twice a week, wear an electronic monitoring device and surrender his passport.

She also set lesser bails for four other defendants - Artuso's son, John Vincent Artuso; Gregory Orr; Robert M. Gannon; and William L. Horton, a former ADT vice president. Attorneys for the men entered not guilty pleas Wednesday and said they would prove their clients' innocence at trial.

A sixth defendant, Philip E. Forgione, is in custody in Pennsylvania, where he also faces charges in two separate federal indictments.


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-0130artuso,0,1356983.story
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/31/08 12:01 PM

A Bonanno crime family soldier who allegedly ordered the grisly butchering and burning of another mobster at a "haunted" mansion on Staten Island is looking to cut a deal with the government, court filings show.

Gino Galestro, accused of ordering the 2005 hit on Robert McKelvey, 39, is in talks with the Brooklyn US Attorney's Office on a proposed plea; it wouldn't come before Feb. 11, the filings indicate.

The hit was ordered because McKelvey owed Galestro money and had a "big mouth," sources have said.

Galestro allegedly paid gangster Joseph "Joe Black" Young $8,000 to whack McKelvey inside the Kreischer Mansion.

According to papers, Young allegedly lured McKelvey there and tried to strangle him.

When McKelvey broke free, Young allegedly stabbed him, dragged him to a pond and drowned him.

On Galestro's orders, Young then allegedly hacked the body into pieces and burned them in the mansion's furnace. Young has also been charged in the case.


http://www.nypost.com/seven/01312008/news/regionalnews/deal_eyed_in_haunted_mob_slay_778576.htm
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 01/31/08 12:41 PM

Five men were convicted on charges they stole 53 million pounds ($105 million) from a Securitas AB depot after kidnapping the manager and his family in the largest cash robbery in U.K. history.

The five men were convicted at London's Central Criminal Court today after a seven month trial, a court official said in a telephone interview. Two other men were acquitted of charges related to the crime.

Prosecutors claimed the group, who all denied wrongdoing, masterminded and carried out the February 2006 theft from the depot in Tonbridge, England, which stored money for the Bank of England and other businesses. Police recovered 21 million pounds and are searching for the remaining 32 million pounds.

Stuart Royle, Lea Rusha, Jetmir Bucpapa, Ermir Hysenaj and Roger Coutts will be sentenced tomorrow.

The defendants were charged with conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to possess a firearm.

Authorities said robbers disguised as police abducted the depot manager at gunpoint and forced him to open the building. Police recovered firearms, flak jackets and a 7.7-ton truck they said was linked to the robbery.

``This was a meticulously organized crime,'' Nigel Pilkington, a Crown Prosecution Service official in the county of Kent, said in a statement. Police will continue to work to recover the robbers' ``ill-gotten gains,'' he said.

A sixth man, John Fowler, was acquitted on all counts today, the court spokeswoman said. A final defendant in the case, Keith Borer, was acquitted of handling stolen goods.

``I am ecstatic. I am just glad to get on with my life,'' Borer said in an interview outside the court.

Michael Boardman, the lawyer for Hysenaj, wasn't in his office and couldn't be reached to comment. Craig Rush QC, Fowler's lawyer, also wasn't immediately available to comment.

Gisela Lindstrand, a spokeswoman for Securitas Group, said the company needed to examine the court documents and that it was too early to comment.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=agpsgIYJymRM&refer=uk
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/04/08 09:50 AM

Andrea Bonaccorso, fingered by supergrass Gaspare Pulizzi as one of the assassins of Nicola Ingarao, the boss who was gunned down in the streets of Palermo the 13th of June 2007, is now working with justice authorities.
Arrested some two weeks ago, Bonaccorso had been charged for the murder because of revelations made by Pulizzi. He has now decided to tell all. According to his statement it was Sandro Lo Piccolo who pulled the trigger. This information apparently confirms statements made by Pulizzi. Relatives of Bonaccorso have already been placed under state protection. The news has been confirmed by both police and judiciary sources. Bonaccorso allegedly drove the motorcycle used by the task force that killed Ingarao in via Pietro Geremia. The man had just come out of the Zisa police station, where he had to show up because of special surveillance impositions. In addition to speaking about the Ingarao murder, Bonaccorso, who belongs to the Brancaccio mafia, admitted to playing an important role within Cosa nostra. Thanks to his part in the Ingarao murder he gained regency of a family located in central Palermo. The assassination of Ingarao represents a strategic murder thanks to which Salvatore Lo Piccolo, father of Sandro, gained leadership of Palermo's families and districts.

http://www.agi.it/italy/news/200802012109-cro-ren0106-art.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/04/08 09:53 AM

reputed low-level gangster on trial for killing a high-level mobster in a Bronx street brawl is expected to take the witness stand Monday.

Frank Santoro, 59, is on trial for the July 11, 2002, murder of Thomas Pennini, who authorities said was acting as a good Samaritan trying to break up a street fight involving three women - including Santoro's girlfriend.

Bronx Assistant District Attorney Dan McCarthy said Santoro was a man who settled grudges with a bad temper and gun. Santoro's lawyer says his client shot in self-defense because he thought Pennini had a gun.

Santoro's jury trial is being presided over by state Supreme Court Justice David Stadtmauer.

Pennini was gunned down outside a doctor's office in Pelham Bay after he tried to stop a fight that a woman and her daughter were having with Santoro's girlfriend, authorities said.

In the midst of the battle, the girlfriend called Santoro, known as a neighborhood bookmaker, loanshark and leg breaker, on her cell phone.

"Santoro walked up to [Pennini] and pistol-whipped him across the face with that .45-caliber, semiautomatic pistol so hard that bystanders on the street could hear it," said McCarthy during opening statements.

However, according to McCarthy, Pennini "didn't go down, he tried to grab for the gun."

He said Santoro shot Pennini in the stomach and the bullet went through his abdomen and hit every major blood vessel. McCarthy said Santoro "left Pennini dying on a sidewalk."

Authorities said the 6-foot, 280-pound Santoro jumped back into his Chevy Blazer and fled. He was captured nearly two weeks later after a tip from a Daily News reader.

Santoro's lawyer Jack Litman said there is no debate that Santoro shot Pennini, but the shooting was self-defense. He said his client shot "Pennini once in the abdomen" because he thought the shiny blade Pennini had in his hand was a knife.

"But it turned out to be a pair of scissors," said Litman. "He acted instinctively to save his own life. Frank Santoro, before July 11, 2002, had never seen Thomas Pennini. "Never met him, never talked to him and didn't know what he looked like."

Authorities described Pennini, 54, a local businessman, as a high-level independent mobster who worked for the Luchese, Genovese, Bonanno and Gambino crime families. He was particularly close to the Gotti family after having served an eight-year prison term for heroin trafficking a decade ago.

Litman said Santoro called 911 when he found out that the women had gotten into an altercation. He said the shooting was a justifiable and noncriminal killing.

If convicted, Santoro faces 25 years to life in prison.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime..._slay_tale.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/04/08 12:50 PM

Mr. DeNaples is entitled to the American Constitutional presumption of innocence pending resolution of the case. But assuming the evidence presented as part of the indictment is credible, one can only ask how Mr. DeNaples ever got his slots gambling license from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board with so little apparent scrutiny — or, at least, good judgement.

DeNaples says he barely knew, or didn't know at all, the four Philadelphia and Scranton people the grand jury says DeNaples was deeply involved with. Hence the four charges of perjury.

The grand jury presentment says that DeNaples' relationship to William D'Elia — reputed head of a Scranton area organized crime family — was so close that after DeNaple's father died, DeNaples gave his father's rosary beads to him. Prosecutors say DeNaples was actually a guest at the 1999 wedding of D'Elia's daughter, and that DeNaples' unlisted phone number was found in an address book in D'Elia's car.

Yet DeNaples told the state gaming board that he knew D'Elia only as a customer at his bank and auto parts store.

A deceased alleged former Scranton crime boss — Russell Bufalino —once gave DeNaples the ring he was wearing, according to the grand jury, in addition to three suits of clothes. DeNaples told the gaming board he only knew Bufalino by name.

DeNaples also got the slots license despite a 1978 no-contest plea in a scheme to defraud the federal government. He pleaded no contest following a trial that ended in a hung jury, and was given probation. The spouse of a holdout juror was bribed by a Bufalino crime family underboss, according to an FBI investigation, was convicted, and sentenced to an eight-year term. DeNaples said he knew nothing about it.

Dauphin County prosecutors brought the perjury case to the grand jury after reviewing information provided by the state police. Gov. Rendell brokered an agreement whereby the state police were supposed to provide the same information to the gaming board as part of the slots application review, but the politically connected gaming board awarded the license to DeNaples anyway.

DeNaples' political campaign contributions are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to press reports, and senior political leaders appoint the gaming board members. Senate Democratic Leader Robert J. Mellow of Lackawanna County, who twice appointed people to the board, is one of the many DeNaples donation recipients.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080203/NEWS04/802030356
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/05/08 02:47 PM

Victoria Gotti says her ex-husband is a deadbeat dad.

The daughter of the late Gambino crime boss John Gotti says she hasn't gotten a penny in rental income from commercial properties owned by her former husband, Carmine Agnello.

That money is supposed to pay the $25,000-a-month in alimony and child support she was awarded in 2003.

"I didn't get anything from that man," Gotti said in an exclusive interview with the Daily News. "I got a house riddled with debt. His obligation to the kids? Nothing."

With income from media jobs and book deals, she's picked up the tab for the upkeep on her mansion in Old Westbury, L.I., health insurance and sizable tuition bills for the private schools their three sons attend.

"Everything I own, I earned, I bought," she said. "It makes me crazy when others are quick to label me a 'princess' or 'spoiled,' as I am neither."

Gotti said she's conflicted about outing Agnello, but the gloves are coming off as the feds intensify efforts to seize and sell commercial properties he owned to satisfy an $8.7 million debt to the government. She's back in federal court today for legal arguments. In the divorce judgment, Agnello authorized Gotti to collect rent on the properties.

Agnello's lawyer refused to comment.

Gotti insists the tenants have refused to pay her, but she wouldn't say who she thinks is getting the rent money.

Asked whether Agnello would get away with ignoring his family obligations if her father was alive, Gotti said, "I would bet the farm [he wouldn't]."

"He always tried to impress my father about a house he was buying, or a property or a brand new car," she said. "It was always to let my father think he was a sport."

Agnello, 47, who was released from prison last month after serving nine years for racketeering, once operated a car shredding business worth millions and will be successful again, Gotti predicted.

"My father used to say, 'Give him a 10-dollar bill, come back and he'll turn it into $100.'"


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/02/05/2008-02-05_victoria_gotti_says_ex_a_deadbeat_dad.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/05/08 10:37 PM

An Italian court has seized the financial assets of six Sicilian Mafia clans. These assets include companies, real estate, bank accounts and expensive cars and are valued at 300 million euros.

In the past few yeas, the Italian authorities have scored a number of victories in their fight against the Cosa Nostra. The Cosa Nostra boss of bosses Bernardo Provenzano was arrested in 2006; his successor Salvatore lo Piccolo was arrested at the end of 2007

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5629725/Italian-court-seizes-Mafia-assets
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/06/08 10:23 AM

Louis Eppolito, a former New York police detective dubbed “Mafia cop” in media reports, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court this morning to one count of filing a false tax return.

Eppolito, who is in federal custody awaiting trial on money laundering and drug distribution charges in New York, appeared with his Las Vegas lawyer, Thomas Naylor, before U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt.

In July 2006, a federal jury in New York convicted the 57-year-old Eppolito and his former partner, ex-New York detective Stephen Caracappa, of participating in eight mob-related killings, but a federal judge later dismissed the case. The government is appealing.

Both men, who retired from the New York City Police Department and moved to Las Vegas in the early 1990s, were accused of working for the Lucchese crime family while they were police detectives.

Eppolito, who wrote the 1992 autobiography, “Mafia Cop: the Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob,” appeared in several movies after his retirement and embarked on a career of writing movie scripts.

Eppolito’s son, Anthony Eppolito, is scheduled to stand trial in U.S. District Court here on March 4 on charges of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine.

The elder Eppolito and his wife, Frances Eppolito, were scheduled to stand trial Feb. 25 on three charges of filing false tax returns.

Naylor said Frances Eppolito is expected to avoid trial by entering a federal pre-trial diversion program which, if completed, will result in the dismissal of the charges against her.

The government, Naylor said, has agreed not to oppose giving Louis Eppolito credit for time served behind bars. He has been in custody for 31 months.

He faces a sentence of maximum of 14 months in prison on the tax charge.

According to Louis Eppolito’s plea agreement, he acknowledged owing the Internal Revenue Service $102,108 for the tax years, 2000 through 2002.


Sentencing is set for May 9.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/cops/2008/feb/05/mafia-cop-pleads-guilty-filing-false-tax-return/
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/07/08 12:28 AM

The Target 12 Investigators take you inside the mafia, revealing a partnership you might not expect, the mob and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

The Target 12 Investigators uncover secrets from decades ago. Documents shedding light on an historic partnership between the mob and outlaw motorcycle gangs. But does that relationship still thrive?

At first glance, any relationship between the rough exterior of an outlaw motorcycle gang member and the image of a dapper Italian mobster may appear strange. But it's a loose partnership that has survived for decades.

Motorcycle gangs and La Cosa Nostra; strange bedfellows in the world of organized crime.

Supervisory Special Agent Sallet: "It's a cooperative relationship..."

Here in Rhode Island, the partnership was forged, decades ago.

Major Steven O'Donnell, Rhode Island State Police: "Raymond Patriarca Senior pushed them aside, but had his thugs around him kind of embrace them, where they would pay tribute."

Known simply as "The Man," Raymond Patriarca Senior ran the powerful New England crime family, and nothing happened without his 'OK'.

Major Steven O'Donnell of the Rhode Island State Police says Patriarca looked the other way when bikers committed crimes-of-profit, including moving and manufacturing drugs. The Target 12 Investigators obtained a classified DEA report from that era. In it the feds, in 1979, called it a "marriage of convenience... It allows the [motorcycle gang] To continue its activities without interference from organized crime and in return pays a percentage [to the mob.]"

Supervisory Special Agent Jeffrey Sallet of the FBI Providence, says wiseguys view outlaw biker gangs as valuable in a very specific area.

Supervisory Special Agent Sallet: "Create fear. And I think that's something outlaw motorcycle groups specialize in, is creating fear."

Outlaw bikers were an effective tool in making someone, pay-up. But does that relationship exist today?

Major O'Donnell: "Yes, without question."

Investigators say wiseguys still turn to outlaw bikers as a tool for intimidation. O'Donnell cites a recent case when an associate of the Patriarca crime family, David Achille, was caught on a police wiretap. He was discussing the use of a Hell's Angels member for a classic shakedown.

Major O'Donnell: "They'd have him take a ride and go see one of these people that were affecting the bottom line at their job."

Achille was scooped up by police before anything went down. Special Agent Sallet says for a victim of an extortion case, an outlaw biker is a scary presence.

Supervisory Special Agent Sallet: "They advertise who they are. That's how they generate their fear."

Advertising, like this: gang jackets, patches, tattoos. These pictures are part of a federal criminal case against Jeffrey Dillon. A man the government says is the head of the Fall River motorcycle gang The Sidewinders.

Dillon is facing charges for weapons possession and intent to deal drugs. Prosecutors are using the photographs of Dillon's "one percent" tattoo, as evidence. O'Donnell says the tattoo boasts they are the one percent of biker's that proudly, break the law.

Major O'Donnell: "That puts you in a higher regard in the biker world, which is a warped regard."

The U.S. Attorneys office hasn't linked Dillon to any faction of the Patriarca crime family. Dillon's defense attorney Jack Cicilline, says his client is an avid hunter, and that Dillon was unaware as a convicted felon, he was not allowed to possess firearms.

Dillon's trial is set to begin next month. O'Donnell is quick to point out there is a world of difference between the everyday motorcycle enthusiast and those considered an outlaw. He says the bad guys represent about one percent of the biker population.



http://www.wpri.com/Global/story.asp?S=7825221
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/07/08 12:32 AM

Big" Billy D'Elia is making a lot of people in the underworld very, very nervous these days. They're wondering whether the reputed boss of the Scranton crime family is thinking about talking to the feds about his close relationship with the Mafia in both Philadelphia and New York.

D'Elia's been a good friend to the Philly mob for several decades, including a close relationship with reputed crime boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi. But Big Billy's been sitting in jail for more than a year while awaiting trial on federal charges of soliciting murder, money laundering, witness tampering and 15 other counts.

ADVERTISEMENT

"Some guys get tired of waiting," a mob associate tells City Paper. "You got to wonder if he's flipped."

Despite the worries, a source close to D'Elia says the crime boss is Mr. Omerta all the way. "He isn't talking to anyone about anything," the source says. "Billy is old-school. They even dragged him before a grand jury in Harrisburg and he didn't say a damn word."

To be sure, lots of people are hoping that D'Elia keeps his mouth shut. Last year, he was called to testify before a Dauphin County grand jury about his relationship with multimillionaire businessman and Mount Airy Casino Resort owner Louis DeNaples. Since grand-jury testimony is secret, no one really knows if Billy blabbed, but last week DeNaples was indicted for allegedly lying about his relationship with D'Elia and Russell Bufalino, the upstate mob boss who died in 1994. (D'Elia is said to have taken over after Bufalino's successor, Edward Sciandra, grew too old to run the family.)

DeNaples is also charged with perjury for supposedly fibbing to casino license investigators about his relationships with the late Ron White and Shamsud-Din Ali, who was found guilty of public-corruption-related charges. The Dauphin County district attorney claims that Ali and DeNaples discussed using DeNaples' landfill to accept debris from demolished houses in Philly and that Ali arranged for DeNaples' daughter to get a prime parking space at Temple University. The DA also alleges that DeNaples met with White and former Mayor John Street in 1999 when Street was running for mayor. The men supposedly got together at the Radisson Hotel in Scranton where DeNaples allegedly gave White $50,000.

Law enforcement photographed D'Elia visiting DeNaples at his auto parts store in a Scranton suburb, and Pennsylvania Crime Commission reports allege that in the 1980s, D'Elia was a salesman for DeNaples' Keystone Sanitary Landfill. In 1977, DeNaples and three Lackawanna County employees went on trial for fraud; they were charged with falsifying records to obtain $525,000 in federal reimbursements for the 1972 Hurricane Agnes flood. Their trial ended in a mistrial when one of the jurors voted to acquit.

However, DeNaples decided to plead no contest to conspiracy, pay a $10,000 fine and spend three years on probation. Five years later, the feds convicted Scranton mob underboss James Osticco of bribing the lone holdout juror in the DeNaples case.

The 1978 felony conviction didn't disqualify DeNaples from getting a casino license because it happened more than 15 years ago. Now, DeNaples is banned from his own casino while gaming officials argue with Pennsylvania State Police about why they chose not to share information that DeNaples allegedly lied about mob contacts to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

"The staties [state police] have been following around D'Elia and his pals for decades," one law enforcement source tells City Paper. "They have photos of him with politicians and businessmen. They have photos of D'Elia meeting with Philly mobsters on Main Street in Manayunk, in South Philly and on Jeweler's Row. They just wouldn't share their info with the gaming commission. They think they should be doing the background checks, so it's a pissing contest between the state police and the commission."

http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/02/07/rat-trapped
Posted By: BDuff

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/07/08 02:30 AM

He was in Philly a year ago talking with Joe Ligambi. I doubt he flips, he has the John Stanfa demeanor.
Posted By: SC

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/07/08 12:58 PM

Don't have any of the details yet but one of the local tv news stations is reporting a VERY large roundup of Gambino Family members today. At least 50 of them are being arrested.

EDIT: From the WABC-TV website:



NEW YORK - WABC -- A large number of reputed members of the Gambino crime family -- as many as 50 -- are being busted by federal agents this morning.

Law enforcement officials are calling the biggest mafia roundup in more than 20 years.

Eyewitness News has learned they were nabbed in a multi-agency federal, state and local operation that includes the FBI, ICE, NY State Police, the office of the Attorney General and the NYPD.

Officials say they face charges that include murder, racketeering and extortion. Previously unsolved homicides are also expected to be cleared by the charges.

The arrests were reportedly made in New York City, New Jersey and Long Island.

Details will be released at an 11 a.m. news conference at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Downtown Brooklyn.
(Copyright ©2008 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
Posted By: pizzaboy

Gambino Family Bust - 02/07/08 03:42 PM

Huge Gambino Family bust here in New York this morning.

Gambino Family Bust
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Gambino Family Bust - 02/07/08 04:44 PM

They've been trying to bring D'Amico down for years.


Thanks for sharing SC & PB.
Posted By: pizzaboy

Re: Gambino Family Bust - 02/07/08 04:50 PM

 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
They've been trying to bring D'Amico down for years.



Well, I'll say this--the Feds have longer memories than elephants!

D'Amico is the one guy from Gotti's inner circle that evaded long term prosecution, and they resented him for it. Looks like they got him now. We'll see.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/07/08 05:21 PM

"...John Gotti Sr.'s brother, Vincent, and his nephew, Richard Gotti Jr."


Two more Gotti's huh?
Posted By: pizzaboy

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/07/08 05:55 PM

 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
"...John Gotti Sr.'s brother, Vincent, and his nephew, Richard Gotti Jr."


Two more Gotti's huh?


Yeah, I guess so. Vicki's kids better be sure to stay in the tanning bed business.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/07/08 06:23 PM

 Originally Posted By: pizzaboy
 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
"...John Gotti Sr.'s brother, Vincent, and his nephew, Richard Gotti Jr."


Two more Gotti's huh?


Yeah, I guess so. Vicki's kids better be sure to stay in the tanning bed business.



Those kids are too stupid to even get themselves arrested!
Posted By: J Geoff

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/07/08 08:17 PM

 Originally Posted By: pizzaboy
Huge Gambino Family bust here in New York this morning.
Gambino Family Bust

More:

Mass arrests in anti-Mafia sweep in U.S., Italy
 Quote:
By Edith Honan
1 hour, 18 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Police in the United States and Italy arrested 77 suspected members of the Mafia on Thursday, including some of its most wanted leaders, for an array of crimes going back more than 30 years.

The three-year joint investigation sought to prevent organized crime in New York and Sicily reuniting their drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations, officials in both countries said.

U.S. authorities rounded up 58 suspects with the help of an informant deep inside the Gambino crime family. Police said the source helped nail the three top Gambino members not already in jail.

A U.S. grand jury indicted 62 suspects with charges including murder, extortion, loan-sharking, gambling, cocaine and marijuana distribution, money laundering, bribing labor officials and embezzling union funds, U.S. and New York state officials said.

"Organized crime still exists," New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told a news conference. "We like to think it's a vestige of the past. It's not. It is as unrelenting as weeds that continue to sprout in the cracks in society."

The U.S. investigation focused on the Gambino family once run by the late John Gotti. The indictment charges one Gambino family soldier, Charles Carneglia, with at least five murders dating to 1976.

Associates of the Genovese and Bonanno families were also arrested.

More than 300 Italian police were mobilized, mostly in Sicily, in an operation code-named "Old Bridge," arresting 19 suspects and filing new allegations against four others already detained for separate crimes.

Italian prosecutors said the operation sought to block the re-establishment of the New York-Palermo axis, which ran drug trafficking in the 1980s.

"There was an attempt to rekindle ties between Cosa Nostra in Palermo and New York because the Sicilian Mafia wanted to get back into drug trafficking in a big way," top anti-Mafia prosecutor Francesco Messineo told reporters in Rome.

The joint probe focused on the Inzerillo family, which was forced to leave Sicily in the 1980s after a Mafia turf war and rebased in the United States. They became known as "the runaways" and there was a split in the Sicilian Mafia over whether they should be allowed to return.

Among those arrested were suspects linked to Salvatore Lo Piccolo, who was arrested on November 5 in Sicily. He had become the new "boss of bosses" after the arrest in 2006 of Bernardo Provenzano, who had been on the run for 43 years.

Caretaker Prime Minister Romano Prodi praised what he called a "brilliant operation against organized crime."

In what appeared to be a separate operation in Naples, police arrested a suspected leading figure of that southern city's criminal underworld on Thursday.

Vincenzo Licciardi, 42, purportedly a boss of the Camorra crime group, was arrested in a Naples suburb. He had been on the run since 2004 and was one of Italy's 30 most wanted criminals, police said.

(Writing by Daniel Trotta; Additional reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio in Rome, Wladimir Pantaleone in Palermo and Laura Viggiani in Naples, editing by Vicki Allen)
Posted By: BDuff

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/08/08 02:17 AM

http://www.wnbc.com/download/2008/0207/15242429.pdf

Here is the indictments

30 "made" Gambinos indicted
1 "made" Banannos indicted
31 various NY Mafia associates indicted
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/08/08 04:56 PM

HOLY SHIT JUST SEEN THIS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/09/08 03:57 PM

Another article on this


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-bc-ny--mafiaarrests-opti0207feb07,0,2699832.story
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/09/08 04:01 PM

When fans or players vent their frustrations at NBA referee Bob Delaney, the 21-year veteran usually has no problem shrugging them off.

That's because the calls he makes on the hardwood pale in comparison to the ones he had to make as a New Jersey state trooper who went undercover to expose the Mafia in the mid-1970s.

Those days are brought to life in a new book, "Covert: My Years Infiltrating the Mob," by Delaney and writer Dave Scheiber.

A contemporary (and later friend) of Joe Pistone, the undercover officer who was the inspiration for the 1997 film "Donnie Brasco," Delaney had told his story piecemeal over the years, giving savvy fans material for some creative barbs.

"I was doing a Washington Wizards game when Michael Jordan was making his comeback and it was late in the game and the home team was losing," Delaney said Friday. "I made a foul call and there was a lull and suddenly, a guy gets up and yells, 'Hey Delaney, after that call they should put YOU in the Witness Protection Program!'"

The nearly three years Delaney posed as a crooked operator of a trucking business in northern New Jersey were no laughing matter. He and another state trooper and three FBI agents set up the bogus company to gain insight into the mob's infiltration into legitimate businesses.

Nicknamed Project Alpha, it was the first joint operation of the FBI and the New Jersey State Police aimed at organized crime and it resulted in the arrests of numerous members of the Genovese and Bruno crime families.

Delaney recalled with no small degree of amazement how the mob moved in soon after the company was started and eventually started taking 25 percent of company profits in exchange for steering lucrative contracts and guaranteeing peace with the labor unions.

It didn't stop there, however.

"Pretty soon they'd start billing you for other things, like having you pay for rental cars for their girlfriends or vacations for their families," he said. "Eventually they'd just wipe you out."

Delaney and his fellow officers benefited from the help of Patrick Kelly, a consigliere of the DiNorscio faction of the Bruno crime family who turned informant. Giacomo "Jackie" DiNorscio, who was imprisoned at the time, later served as the inspiration for the 2006 Vin Diesel movie "Find Me Guilty."

The danger of exposure was constant for Delaney, who took the name Robert Covert for the operation and frequently wore a recording device while meeting with mob members.

More lasting was the psychological strain of inhabiting another persona, and Delaney recalled becoming physically ill on numerous occasions. It took him several years after he returned to regular police work before he felt comfortable in his own skin.

"I'd go on investigations and I'd be acting like I was still a mob guy," he said. "It took quite some time because when I look back, a lot of it I repressed. I wouldn't even share my own feelings with other people."

Delaney found solace in basketball, refereeing middle school games in southern New Jersey and eventually working the Jersey Shore summer pro league and earning an invitation to the Continental Basketball Association. He became an NBA referee in the late 1980s and has worked more than 1,200 games, including the 1999 NBA All-Star game.

He declined to discuss details of the recent gambling scandal involving former NBA referee Tim Donaghy other than to express his disappointment that elements of the world he'd once inhabited had resurfaced.

"I've lived through police corruption cases with the New Jersey State Police, and the idea of being painted with the same brush hurts," he said. "It happens in many walks of life, and unfortunately we experienced it. But we'll get through it."


http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/ne...nfiltrator.html
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/09/08 04:44 PM

Indictment provides glimpse of colorful mob nicknames
2/7/2008, 1:59 p.m. EST
The Associated Press

(AP) — Colorful nicknames are sprinkled throughout Thursday's 170-page indictment of dozens of reputed members or associates of the Gambino crime family. Here is a sample.

• Vincent "Elmo" Amarante.

• Thomas "Tommy Sneakers" Cacciopoli.

• Domenico "The Greaseball" Cefalu.

• John "Jackie the Nose" D'Amico.

• Vincent "Vinnie Hot" Decongilio.

• Joseph "Joe Gag" Gaggi.

• Anthony "Buckwheat" Giammarino.

• John "Johnny Red Rose" Pisano.

• Richard "Fat Richie" Ranieri.

• Michael "Mike the Electrician" Urciuoli.


Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/09/08 04:56 PM

Amazing
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/09/08 04:59 PM

NEW YORK POST

GAMBINO KIN'S DIAL AND DASH
By MURRAY WEISS, STEFANIE COHEN and ERIC LENKOWITZ
February 9, 2008 -- Bada-brrrrring.

Reputed Gambino capo Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo was able to elude the feds' rubout of more than 100 of his associates Thursday - allegedly thanks to a timely, heads-up phone call from his daughter, who had just watched her mobster husband hauled away in cuffs, sources told The Post yesterday.

Vincent "Skinny" Dragonetti was busted as he walked out of his Bellmore, LI, home a few minutes ahead of the early-morning synchronized sweep. That gave his wife, Bernadette, enough time to warn her dad, who lives a few blocks down the same street.

Corozzo was so quick in fleeing that he left behind his wallet, sources said.

Bernadette refused to answer a Post reporter's questions yesterday, slamming the door in his face.

Corozzo remained on the lam as new details emerged about the historic mass arrest - which involved charges of murder, corruption, extortion, drug dealing and loan-sharking from the city to Sicily.

Its central figure, Staten Island truck-company owner Joseph Vollaro, wore a wire for more than two years.

The ex-con provided intricate details of the Gambino crime family's inner workings at meetings and meals with top bosses, sources said.

Vollaro, who had been staring at a life sentence after he was pinched with two kilos of cocaine in 2004, made the deal in exchange for his freedom and entry into the witness-protection program.

His wife has decided not to join him in the program, which he entered last week as the feds were putting the finishing details on Thursday's massive bust, sources said. The couple has no kids.

As valuable as Vollaro was in bringing down one of the city's biggest crime syndicates, the feds apparently didn't know what to expect when he first agreed to help with their large-scale investigation.

Vollaro, who shared a federal prison cell with Corozzo and began doing business with the Gambinos when he got out in 1999, was initially expected to help with a multifaceted national drug investigation. But he cozied up to the "family" so well over the next few years that he was even on the verge of becoming a made man when the hammer fell on the organization, the sources said.

Vollaro's sweetheart deal sickened the rogues gallery of thugs he ratted out.

"Everybody thought he was a nice guy," said Joel Winograd, the lawyer for Leonard "The Conductor" DiMaria, who, among other things, is charged with money laundering, stealing union benefits and gambling.

"He's probably in Hawaii on the beach spending his illegally obtained drug-dealing money right now."

The evidence obtained by Vollaro was a key building block for many of the extortion and racketeering cases.

The multiple murder charges - for crimes that date back as far as 30 years - were brought with extensive wiretap evidence gathered by longtime Gambino associate Peter Zuccaro, 52.

Zuccaro was a key member of one of Corozzo's biggest crews run by Ronnie "One Arm" Trucchio. He and several other associates cut a deal with the feds after his conviction in Tampa, Fla., in 2005 on extortion and other charges.

Zuccaro, a trusted member of the late John Gotti's inner circle, provided a treasure trove of damning evidence - including information on the murder of court officer Albert Gelb, which was allegedly committed by hit man Charles Carneglia.

------------------------------------------------------

Staten Island Advance

Dirty dealings alleged at NASCAR site
By JOHN ANNESE and PETER N. SPENCER
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE


STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Lots of Staten Islanders looked at the proposed NASCAR track and saw a traffic disaster barreling their way.

The Gambino crime family saw a gravy train. The mobsters found a couple of corrupt officials working for the track's developer, set it up so that one of their favored companies would be the only firm laying dirt on the property, then waited for what they expected would be millions of dollars' worth of kickbacks.

That scenario was spelled out in hundreds of pages of federal court documents released yesterday to support one of the largest organized crime roundups in decades and expose the purported grip the mob has had on one of the largest construction markets in the United States.

As a result of the three-year investigation, two former employees of the track developer have been indicted alongside the hierarchy of the Gambino crime family.

The heads of several Staten Island contractors, including a controlling partner in Andrews Trucking Co., the Travis-based carter hired to bring dirt fill to the property for five months in 2006, also were indicted. Agents swarmed the Andrews' lot in Travis Wednesday and took away trucks, computers and financial records.

Had International Speedway Corp. -- NASCAR's sister company and the developer of several of the circuit's racetracks -- succeeded with its controversial proposal to build a raceway on the West Shore, it would have needed roughly 3.8 million cubic yards of clean fill to raise the elevation of the property and cap off an environmental cleanup job.

The Gambinos got a piece of the project in January 2006, the feds allege, when Recine Trucking, a company controlled by Gambino family acting underboss Domenico Cefalu, became one of the first companies hired to bring fill to the site.

And once they had their foot in the door, they kept it there.

Ernest Grillo -- a Gambino soldier and the ex-husband of John Gotti's reputed goumada, Shannon (Sandy) Connelly -- acquired "exclusive dumping rights" for an unnamed businessman who had been paying the Gambinos extortion money for years, according to federal documents. That same businessman made kickbacks to the Gambinos in exchange for permission to run and later sell a cement company on the Island and operate a portable cement plant on the Liberty View Harbor construction site, the feds allege. He also allegedly helped Grillo compile a list of construction companies that would be required to pay tribute to the family.

Over the next five months, the feds allege, Cefalu and four other Gambinos -- three captains, Leonard DiMaria, Nicholas Corozzo and Frank Cali, and a soldier, Vincent Dragonetti -- worked out the details of how much the businessman would have to kick back to the family. They settled on 50 cents per yard of fill for Corozzo and DiMaria, and another 50 cents per yard for Cefalu and Cali. The deal fell through, and a new one was worked out, putting $1 per yard of fill into Corozzo and DiMaria's pockets.

ISC's financial officials had predicted the company would shell out close to $20 million to place the fill on the 675-acre site. The Gambinos would have gotten a $3.8 million slice of that, based on the allegations.

Although the documents don't reveal the name of the fill company being extorted by the Gambinos, ISC hired Andrews Trucking Co. in May 2006, the same month the court papers say the mobsters finalized their kickback arrangements.

CONTAMINATED DIRT

By September, ISC lost its permits to lay fill on the site, after the state Department of Environmental Conservation learned Andrews had been using contaminated dirt.

The developer was slapped with a $562,500 fine last May, and agreed to remove all 44,000 cubic yards that had been placed.

The unnamed businessman also was forced to pay $9,000 to Todd Polakoff, construction manager at the site for an ISC subsidiary, on behalf of his boss, William Kilgannon. Polakoff, 30, and Kilgannon, 49, were both indicted yesterday alongside the entire organizational structure of the Gambino crime family.

Scott Matter, a spokesman for ISC, said both men had worked for North American Testing Company, a design and construction subsidiary of the speedway giant, in 2005 and 2006. Both left the company in December 2006 "for other employment," Matter said.

Matter said ISC first learned of the allegations yesterday, adding that no one from the company or any of its subsidiaries had been questioned by any of the agencies in the probe.

"ISC has not been contacted by law enforcement agencies as part of the investigation leading to today's announcement but stands ready to cooperate in any way possible if asked," he said.

Michael Printup, ISC's project manager for the track proposal and the public face of the speedway developer on the Island, did not return a phone call seeking comment last night.

Although he's not listed as the owner of record for Andrews Trucking, the feds claim Huguenot resident Joseph Spinnato was actually pulling the strings for the trucking firms, along with Master Mix and Dump Masters of N.Y.

Spinnato and Sarah Dauria, the principal of S.R.D. Contracting in Graniteville, then set up "no show" jobs for Gambino associates and looted tens of thousands of dollars from the Teamsters Union's health and pension funds.

The federal documents detail at least a half-dozen alleged conversations between the unnamed businessman mentioned in the NASCAR plot, Ms. Dauria and Spinnato about falsifying company records ahead of audits by Teamsters Local 282 during the past three years.

--------------------------------------------------------






Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/09/08 05:10 PM

A paragraph from another one of the articles that I just read :

Meetings at a nursing home
Some of the defendants allegedly tried to avoid scrutiny by holding meetings at the bedside of the comatose son of a mobster at a nursing home in New Rochelle, N.Y.


This is classic!

Ala SOPRANOS?
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/09/08 05:20 PM

It wouldnt suprise me if they actually took that from the Sopranos,mobsters arent the most imaginative people
Posted By: BDuff

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/09/08 05:49 PM

All but 15 made bail, Corozzo being one of the 15.

If you read up on Vollaro, the guy seems like a real scumbag anf appears to be the type that would flip.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/09/08 06:07 PM

They're ALL scumbags! ;\)
Posted By: BDuff

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/09/08 10:06 PM

 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
They're ALL scumbags! ;\)


But when scumbags rat on scumbags...they look even worse...not sure why...
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/10/08 05:17 PM

 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
A paragraph from another one of the articles that I just read :

Meetings at a nursing home
Some of the defendants allegedly tried to avoid scrutiny by holding meetings at the bedside of the comatose son of a mobster at a nursing home in New Rochelle, N.Y.


This is classic!

Ala SOPRANOS?


a la "Casino"--bring on the oxygen tanks!
Posted By: BDuff

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/10/08 07:00 PM

 Originally Posted By: Turnbull
 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
A paragraph from another one of the articles that I just read :

Meetings at a nursing home
Some of the defendants allegedly tried to avoid scrutiny by holding meetings at the bedside of the comatose son of a mobster at a nursing home in New Rochelle, N.Y.


This is classic!

Such an underated movie, that was classic

Ala SOPRANOS?


a la "Casino"--bring on the oxygen tanks!
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 09:20 AM

The mob rat whose secret recordings devastated the Gambino crime family abandoned his pregnant wife without a word about his double life - or his future plans.

Trisha Vollaro, who's carrying twins, learned about her husband's FBI undercover work only after word of the sweeping indictment became public last week.

By then, he already had betrayed her.

"If you woke up one morning and this bomb was dropped on you, how would you feel?" Trisha Vollaro's sister asked Saturday.

Joseph Vollaro walked out on his wife without any luggage, conversation or compassion, his sister-in-law said. "He said, 'I'm leaving' - and he left," she said.

Trisha Vollaro remains unsure of her husband's whereabouts. He could be under federal witness protection; but if so, he opted to go without his wife and unborn children.

The Staten Island trucking company owner disappeared more than a week ago. Before taking off, he sold a cement business for $1.8 million, records show.

The couple lived in a large house, its front yard enclosed behind an ornate iron fence inscribed with the letter V. Joseph Vollaro loved singing and speedboating, and owned a 40-foot craft dubbed "Cat in the Act."

Last year, the Vollaros won the Best Dressed Crew award at a Florida speedboat competition. In a photo, they appear happy.

But Vollaro also had served 16 months in a New Jersey jail in the late 1990s and did 37 months in federal prison on extortion charges, meeting Gambino capo Nicholas Corozzo behind bars.

Vollaro began doing business with the Gambinos when he got out of prison, then flipped on them about three years ago after he got involved in a drug deal.

He will emerge someday to testify against acting boss John (Jackie Nose) D'Amico, consigliere Joseph (JoJo) Corozzo, Nicholas Corozzo and others.

He may also have to face his disgusted wife. His sister-in-law, who declined to give her name, said despite his misdeeds there was never any spillover into his domestic life.

"The truth is he was one of the best people I know," she said. "There wasn't one thing I could ask for that he wouldn't do for me."

She said her family was rallying around Trisha: "Good, bad or otherwise, we will stand together and be as strong as we can."

She insisted the couple had been happy and that her sister was unaware of her husband's secret life - a claim reinforced by a family friend.

"She doesn't know nothing about nothing," the man said before driving Trisha Vollaro off in a red Corvette. "You think wiseguys tell their wives anything?"

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime...own_leavin.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 09:22 AM

Gambino Case Is Expected To Fall Short of Mega-Trial

http://www.nysun.com/article/71081



Endless Task: Keeping Unions Clean

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/nyregi...ce75&ei=5087%0A
Posted By: Beth E

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 01:28 PM

Vollaro comes out of hiding to make seafood run.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02112008/news/regionalnews/rat_goes_for_see_food_696694.htm
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 08:07 PM

"This is Staten Island - I could swing a dead cat around my head, and every fifth person I would hit is organized crime." - Curtis Sliwa

Fuck him! What a pair off balls to make that kind of stereotypical statement about Staten Island and it's people.

Fucking moron.
Posted By: pizzaboy

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 08:19 PM

Shit, I was just going to pm that to you, DC.

Sliwa's an asshole. If he was the slightest bit likeable, Gotti would have been convicted. The problem was that there's not 12 men or women in New York who could sympathize with Sliwa. Like Staten Island doesn't have just as many cops, fireman and blue collar workers as the other boroughs.

Fuck him again.
Posted By: BDuff

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 08:56 PM

What an asswhole
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 09:37 PM

 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
"This is Staten Island - I could swing a dead cat around my head, and every fifth person I would hit is organized crime." - Curtis Sliwa

Fuck him! What a pair off balls to make that kind of stereotypical statement about Staten Island and it's people.

Fucking moron.




That's unbelievably iggnorant
Posted By: SC

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 09:45 PM

 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
"This is Staten Island - I could swing a dead cat around my head, and every fifth person I would hit is organized crime." - Curtis Sliwa

Fuck him! What a pair off balls to make that kind of stereotypical statement about Staten Island and it's people.

Fucking moron.


Of course he's a moron. Everyone knows its one in SIX people there that is connected.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 09:48 PM

I heard on long island it's 1 in 3 ;\)
Posted By: SC

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 09:50 PM

 Originally Posted By: chopper
I heard on long island it's 1 in 3 ;\)


You heard wrong.

Its one in two.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 09:51 PM



ok fair enough
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/11/08 10:35 PM

The son of a reputed Genovese crime family gangster, and owner of a well-known Italian restaurant in Queens, has pleaded guilty to a federal drug charge.

Anthony Federici Jr., 25, copped to misdemeanor possession of cocaine before Magistrate Judge Robert Levy last week in Brooklyn Federal Court, according to court records.

Federici Jr., the son of reputed Mafia capo Anthony (Tough Tony) Federici, who owns the Parkside Restaurant on Corona Ave. in Corona, holds no position in organized crime himself, according to a law enforcement official.

Federici Jr., a former Boston University student and aspiring lawyer, was indicted by the feds last year along with 25 others charged in a major cocaine conspiracy and distribution ring.

Two sources familiar with the case said Federici became snared in the investigation through his friendship with two of the co-defendants.

"He was not part of a conspiracy, and he was never a seller or a buyer of cocaine," one source said.

"The plea speaks for itself," said Federici Jr.'s defense lawyer Gerald Shargel, declining to comment further.

Federici Jr. was stabbed and nearly died during a brawl in August 2000 in the parking lot of the now-shuttered Metropolis nightclub in College Point, Queens.

He testified in Queens Supreme Court against his assailant, Nicholas Gambino.

"Everything went in slow motion," Federici Jr. testified at the time.

"My intestines were exposed. I was holding them in my hand," he said.

Gambino claimed he was acting in self-defense and a jury found him not guilty of the attack.

But Gambino pleaded guilty to stabbing two others, James Mastronardi and Salvatore Loria, during the wild melee.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime..._drug_plea.html
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 01:12 AM

 Originally Posted By: SC
 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
"This is Staten Island - I could swing a dead cat around my head, and every fifth person I would hit is organized crime." - Curtis Sliwa

Fuck him! What a pair off balls to make that kind of stereotypical statement about Staten Island and it's people.

Fucking moron.


Of course he's a moron. Everyone knows its one in SIX people there that is connected.


That's much better.

But this kind of a statemnet from a man who once admitted that when he was trying to promote his Guardian Angels, in order to attract favorable media attention for them, he had fabricated a series of criminal incidents "that clearly had not taken place"

Just like the cab incident that he claimed took place on Gotti's orders.
Posted By: Beth E

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 01:26 AM

It's obvious that's a lie. He'd be swinging around a dead rat, not cat. \:\)

So DC, if you're in a room with 5 friends should we try to guess who the Don is?
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 02:00 AM

 Originally Posted By: Beth E

So DC, if you're in a room with 5 friends should we try to guess who the Don is?



"I'm just a retired investor, living on a pension."
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 07:52 AM

charred body believed to be that of Mafia boss Giovanni Bonanno was found in a cemetery, believed to belong to the Mafia's LoPiccolo clan.

Bonanno had been missing since January 2006 and was reportedly a victim of 'lupara bianca' a practice when the victim's body is deliberately hidden.

A 'pentito' or turncoat Mafia member Gaspare Pulizzi, colleague of Mafia boss Salvatore LoPiccolo, showed Italian police the site of a cemetery unearthed in the city of Villagrazia di Carini, 10 kilometres from the southern Italian city of Palermo.

The LoPiccolos were arrested in early November as they attended a meeting of the Cosa Nostra 'cupola' - or the governing body of the Sicilian mafia - in an isolated villa near Palermo, together with Pulizzi and other senior Mafia figures.

Salvatore Lo Piccolo is believed to be Bernardo Provenzano's replacement.

Bernardo Provenzano, the head of the Corleone Mafia clan, and the 'boss of bosses' of the entire Sicilian Mafia,was arrested in 2006 after over 40 years on the run

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1865729138
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 07:53 AM

Cosa Nostra from Sicily and their New York cousins in organised crime were seriously hit by combined US-Italian police operations last week. But analysts and insiders questioned whether the media had themselves been the victims of an overhyped blitz.

In Rome, police officials and prosecutors from both sides of the Atlantic staged a well-rehearsed press conference close to Thursday evening deadlines. Comparisons were made with the two big transatlantic anti-Mafia operations of the 1980s, Pizza Connection and Iron Tower.

A simultaneous, but more low-tech, news conference was held in New York where state and federal indictments were levelled against 87 people, largely aimed at the Gambino mob. Charges included seven murders, of which three dated back more than 25 years, as well as racketeering, construction extortion and state gambling charges. "Unprecedented" was how John Pistole, deputy director of the FBI, and Benton J. Campbell, the prosecuting attorney, described the busts.

But Mafia experts said that given the decline of Cosa Nostra over the years both in Sicily and in New York, and the parallel rise of far more powerful organised criminal gangs from Russia, China and eastern Europe, the importance of the arrests was overplayed. One expert, who declined to be named, said Italian and US police were under pressure to justify their transatlantic co-operation programmes against Cosa Nostra.

"The imminence of an election in Italy always makes me suspicious," commented Vittorio Zucconi, who writes for Italy's La Repubblica newspaper. However, Francesco Grattieri, the senior police official who led the Rome press conference, strongly denied suggestions of hype.

Francesco Messineo, prosecutor for Sicily's regional capital, Palermo, said the "important" operation had broken an attempt by "exiled" Mafia leaders in the US to return to Italy to fill a power vacuum left by internal wars and police operations. But Mr Messineo also agreed that the operations of the 1980s were far more important.

Analysts said the Gambino prosecution in New York emphasises the continued reliance of the Italian Mafia in the US on its traditional crime networks: the construction industry, unions and illegal gambling.

However, other prominent crime organisations in the US have emerged in recent years to rival or even exceed the importance of Italian organised crime. The Latin Kings, the Bloods and the Crips, which started out as local street gangs on the west coast and the Midwest, have assumed an important role in national US drugs trafficking, according to the US Department of Justice. Meanwhile Russian mobsters are involved in arms trafficking and cyber-crime.

"The Russian mafia are the most feared group," said Paulo Alteri, a criminal justice professor at Jefferson Community College in New York. He said the very size of the prosecution was a sign of the weakening of the Italian Mafia in the US. "A hit like this would never have gone down 50 years ago."

Such was the publicity given in Rome to the arrests that the unrelated capture in Naples of suspected Camorra crime boss Vincenzo Licciardi went almost unnoticed. Mr Licciardi was on the top 30 wanted list and his arrest was more significant, a police insider said.

But there were signs in the New York indictment that the Italian Mafia was branching out into in new avenues of income. Among those charged was Anthony Delvescovo, director of tunnel operations and project manager for Schiavone Construction Company, who was accused of extorting money from one of the prosecution's key informants.

Last year Schiavone Construction was one of three contractors that jointly entered the only bid for a $1.15bn (€793m, £590m) project to build the No 7 Subway extension on Manhattan's west side for the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Earlier in the year Schiavone had won a $337m contract to help build the tunnel for the 2nd Avenue Subway extension.

These successes came even as Schiavone Construction, as part of a joint venture, is involved in contracts worth $1.3bn to build tunnels for the New York Department of Environmental Protection and after a $261m project to build a Subway station for New York City transit in 2005.

"The department of investigations has advised us that there is no reason to terminate the contracts as things stand," said an environment department spokesman.

The company refused to comment.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f024c602-d90b-11dc-8b22-0000779fd2ac.html
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 02:34 PM

 Quote:
...the parallel rise of far more powerful organised criminal gangs from Russia,.....Meanwhile Russian mobsters are involved in arms trafficking and cyber-crime.

"The Russian mafia are the most feared group," said Paulo Alteri, a criminal justice professor at Jefferson Community College in New York


While I do not discourage the pursuit and apprehension of the Italian mafia and their members, or any ethnic based crime group for that matter, it has troubled me somewhat that we hardly ever hear of any major arrests being made from the rising and powerful Russian mafia. It is basically common knowledge that they have made a name for themselves on the organized crime front here in the tri-state area and are involved in many many illegal activities. The Russian mob has become one of the most prowerful crime organizations over the last decade. Yet we rarely hear of any major progress being made by law enforcement on that front.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 02:41 PM

I agree with you 100% Don Cardi,one of the main reasons i think we havent heard about many major arrests is that the russians are very low key they dont flash there wealth and flaunt there belongings in front of the fbi,also after reading a few articles on them for many years the fbi did realise that the russians were organised and so did not pursue them allowing them to flurish,much like when hoover did the same with the mob back in the day.Another thing is we dont hear to much about murders within the russian mob as with the italian mob bodys used to be left out in the street as an example to others the russians are known for making their bodys dissapear.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 02:55 PM

 Originally Posted By: chopper
.....the main reasons i think we havent heard about many major arrests is that the russians are very low key they dont flash there wealth and flaunt there belongings in front of the fbi


Actually Chopper, here in New York at least, they are really a flashy group who act very arrogantly and do not hide the fact that they are criminals. They are very loud wherever they go, and if they don't get their way or feel that they are not being treated as they want to be treated, they'll think nothing of making a scene. Not to mention that they are brutal cold blooded murderers who'll think nothing of killing your wife and children if you get in their way.

Yet they've basically been allowed to flourish here in New York, especially in Brooklyn, with basically no interference whatsoever from the higher up authorities.

The other ethnic criminal group that is gaining momentum, power and rising very quickly in the organized crime world are the Albanians. They're just as cold blooded as the Russians!
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 03:15 PM

Ok,from what ive read it seems to be the oppisate way round in other countries in England and other parts of europe they keep a low profile,maybe because the u.s is the land of freedom they feel free to act flashy.

Thanks for updating me on the situation in NY it's quite difficult to find things out about the russian mob,reading materials arent as easy to come buy as the cosa nostra info.
Posted By: pizzaboy

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 04:56 PM

 Originally Posted By: chopper
one of the main reasons i think we havent heard about many major arrests is that the russians are very low key they dont flash there wealth and flaunt there belongings in front of the fbi,


Well Chopper, you're a great kid, but next time your family visits New York, ask a cab driver to take you to Coney Island Avenue. The way they flash and flaunt is actually embarrassing, because they do it with no style whatsoever. They're pigs. They love to show off what they have, yet they're some of the cheapest fucking people I've ever met.

In fairness to the Feds, they were making some inroads with the Russians prior to 9/11, then most of the agents got assigned to anti-terror.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 05:05 PM

Thanks for correcting me on that Pizza Boy,i honestly didnt know any of this otherwise i would not have written one of the above posts.
Posted By: pizzaboy

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 05:13 PM

Hey, no problem, how could you know?

DC is right about the Albanians, too. The thing that differentiates them from the Russians is that they're smart enough to try to pass themselves off as Italian. Truth is, they're some of the best pizza makers in New York at this point. Not that that has anything to do with organized crime.

They are a very ruthless bunch.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 05:19 PM

When i first read Chopper reads book a good few years ago,there was a chapter on the albanians and he also talked about how viscious they were and that supposedly the russian KGB used them as hit men obviously i dont know if that is true or not.


But it wouldnt be suprising would it?


Ive never had an albanian made pizza ill try one next time im in NY \:\)
Posted By: pizzaboy

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/12/08 05:23 PM

When you come to NY, message me, I'll take you for pizza.

Can you imagine a Limey, looking for an Albanian, passing himself off as Italian?

It's a scary thought.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/13/08 03:23 AM

 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
"This is Staten Island - I could swing a dead cat around my head, and every fifth person I would hit is organized crime." - Curtis Sliwa

Fuck him! What a pair off balls to make that kind of stereotypical statement about Staten Island and it's people.

Fucking moron.




POLS RAP SLIWA ON ISLAND SLUR




Didn't they fire Don Imus for making a sacial slur? Why not Sliwa? What's the difference? ;\)
Posted By: Beth E

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/13/08 12:39 PM

 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
"This is Staten Island - I could swing a dead cat around my head, and every fifth person I would hit is organized crime." - Curtis Sliwa

Fuck him! What a pair off balls to make that kind of stereotypical statement about Staten Island and it's people.

Fucking moron.






POLS RAP SLIWA ON ISLAND SLUR




Didn't they fire Don Imus for making a sacial slur? Why not Sliwa? What's the difference? ;\)


I guess Al Sharpton hasn't gotten involved yet.
Posted By: BDuff

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/13/08 01:15 PM

 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
"This is Staten Island - I could swing a dead cat around my head, and every fifth person I would hit is organized crime." - Curtis Sliwa

Fuck him! What a pair off balls to make that kind of stereotypical statement about Staten Island and it's people.

Fucking moron.







POLS RAP SLIWA ON ISLAND SLUR




Didn't they fire Don Imus for making a sacial slur? Why not Sliwa? What's the difference? ;\)


I won't even touch that
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/13/08 03:15 PM

Here is a story about the agent who got proposed for mebership in to the Gambino Family ill post the story then the link as there is a interview with him on the main page.

Only one other undercover agent in history has walked in his shoes; played a role to such perfection as to be offered the Mafia's most sacred blessing.

"I am the second law-enforcement officer ever to be proposed for membership into La Cosa Nostra," Jack Garcia told CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian.

The first, immortalized in the movie "Donnie Brasco," tells the tale of FBI agent Joe Pistone who infiltrated the Bonnano crime family back in the mid-1970s.

Now, for the first time on television, a modern-day Brasco, who still works undercover, tells CBS News how he convinced the notorious Gambino crime family he was one of their own.

"You're always so afraid for your life," Garcia said. "And anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. I mean, things can turn like this (snaps fingers)."

His riveting story begins as Garcia, a Cuban-born immigrant turned FBI undercover agent with a gift for creating characters - from a drug lord to small-time mobsters - for 20 years.

Then he went big-game hunting after the Gambinos, posing as Jack Falcone, a Miami wise-guy.

"Jack Falcone was a knock-around guy from Florida who was a jewel thief, he was a hijacker. He was an individual that was surrounded in Miami by the Cuban culture," Garcia said.

It was the spring of 2003 when Jack Falcone, a.k.a., "Jackie Boy," caught the eye of Gambino capo Greg DePalma who controlled loan sharking, gambling and construction rackets in and around New York.

"They wanted me because I was an earner," he said. "You're not a broken-down garbage can. You're a guy who makes money, and that's what the mob is all about."

Falcone eventually earned DePalma's trust by offering an endless supply of stolen goods - likes cigarettes and televisions - all provided by the FBI.

"Jack, there has to be a moment when the door opens and you realize I am in," Keteyian asked.

"I remember that day distinctively," Garcia said. "I met with him, at which time he presented me with a beautiful diamond pinky ring. He told me he put me on record with the Gambino crime family. 'You're under our umbrella.'"

Wearing a court-authorized wire, over the next two years Falcone secretly recorded DePalma - and other bosses - concocting money-making schemes at restaurants, diners, even a Jewish geriatric center … the FBI monitoring almost every meeting.

In a scene straight out of Hollywood, at one point Falcone was called upon to "talk" to a made man not paying the proper respect to DePalma. It was a meeting that took place right in one Bloomingdales' housewares section.

Things turned ugly. Falcone says he watched a mob soldier pick up a solid glass candlestick and bash the guy over the head.

"In the housewares," Garcia said. "Grabs it, hits him right over the head, cracks his head open. You hear like a melon popping; blood all over the place."

In March of 2005, the FBI swooped in and arrested DePalma, his bosses Arnold Squitieri and Anthony "The Genius" Magale along with dozens of underlings, essentially decapitating the family.

All pleaded guilty except DePalma, who insisted on going to trial, where, before his eyes, his "Jackie Boy" turned into FBI agent Jack Garcia…putting DePalma behind bars for 12 years.

Describe the look on DePalma's face, as he's staring at you when you are on that witness stand.

"It was like, if he could only get his hands around my neck," Garcia said.

Is he worried Greg DePalma wants to put him in the ground?

"What the bureau did, they went out and spoke to the heads of all five families and they told them if anything is to happen to Jack Falcone, the reign of terror will fall upon them," Garcia said.

But what motivated Garcia to put these guys away?

"I saw the faces. They're really like wolves in sheep's clothing," he said. "These are not the people that should be revered… as being these great group of guys. They're not. They're criminals."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/12/cbsnews_investigates/main3823627.shtml
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/13/08 04:28 PM

 Quote:
...Then he went big-game hunting after the Gambinos, posing as Jack Falcone, a Miami wise-guy.


Strange. I heard about this story myself on the radio yesterday while riding in my car. When I first heard it, and again now reading it today, the name Falcone and undercover agent rang a bell for me.

Then I thought to myself that several years ago there was a TV show by the same name...Falcone.

So I looked it up and sure enough I was right.

"Falcone" was a TV series that lasted for one season in the year 2000.

It was based on Joe Pistone's Donnie Brasco. Pistone was a co-writer of the show. And the main character was a guy named Joe Falcone who is an agent working undercover to infiltrate a New York crime family. It was based on the life of undercover agent Joe Pistone.



Now isn't it kind of strange, or even a bit risky, that the real life undecover agent ( Garcia ) took the same name as the TV show undercover agent who actually was based on the real life Donnie Brasco aka Joe Pistone?


Anyway, that aside, this new Donnie Brasco like story with this Garcia aka Jack Falcone, should be real interesting.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/13/08 04:30 PM

That's funny i saw this show advertised in the summer last year but never watched it as it was on at about 3 am,was the show good?

Apart from that it is rather strange and risky that a agent would go by that name i dont think i would have taken that chance
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/13/08 09:56 PM

Big mob trial unlikely for Gambino defendants


The case against the scores of reputed Gambino crime family members and associates rounded up last week is so massive that it will have to be broken up or risk running afoul of court rules barring massive trials, defense attorneys said yesterday.

Some of the lawyers also said they are having problems arranging jailhouse visits at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center because the key mob defendants are in solitary confinement and are barred from having contact with each other.

Last night lawyers for reputed Gambino consiglieri Joseph Corozzo filed papers saying he and the other defendants were being held in solitary at the request of Brooklyn prosecutors, and asked for his release from detention. Similar requests were expected to be filed today.
The order means only one lawyer at a time is permitted to visit a client, causing some attorneys to miss client visits altogether, sources said. About 18 defendants, including reputed acting Gambino boss John D'Amico, 73, are being held without bail.

Officials at the detention center in Sunset Park didn't return a telephone call seeking comment. Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn, declined to comment.

Yesterday two defendants who were out of town during the bust received bail after pleading not guilty. Well- known Brooklyn restaurateur and alleged Gambino soldier Joseph Chirico, 63, was freed by U.S. magistrate-judge Robert Levy on a $1 million bond. Reputed soldier Jerome Brancato, 76, was freed on $500,000 bond.

The 62 defendants make the Gambino case unwieldy, said attorney Joel Winograd, who is defending Michael Urciuoli, 46.

"The case has so many charges and so many wiretaps and surveillances that it will not be tried for anybody for one to two years," said Winograd.

After the famed 21-defendant Pizza Connection trial went 17 months in 1987, the U.S. Court of Appeals said judges should split up the case if trials might last more than four months with 10 defendants.

"Most of these things don't belong in the same indictment," said D'Amico's attorney, Bob Blossner of Manhattan. "The court will have to put their hand on it at some point."

Susan Kellman, who is defending reputed Gambino captain Leonard DiMaria, thinks Brooklyn prosecutors will have to come up with a plan to divide the case.

But Diarmuid White, a noted Manhattan trial and appeals lawyer, expects plea negotiations to whittle down the defendants. The problem with breaking up cases means delays for some defendants could violate their rights to a speedy trial, he said.

"The judge has to order serial trials and therefore at end of the line have to wait," said White.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nymob0213,0,4016148.story
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/14/08 01:46 PM

Mob sweep clearing old local murders


In May 2003, Angelo Mugnolo, owner of Sapienza’s Bagels, Deli and Restaurant, currently located on Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach, was shot several times as he was leaving for work, allegedly by Vincent and Richard Gotti and Angelo Ruggiero.

Five years later, the men, classified as “Gambino family soldiers” by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, are charged with conspiracy to murder and attempted murder.

In a stunning international sting, more than 60 mobsters, including the three men, were arrested last week in the United States and Sicily in what is being called the largest Mafia takedown in more than two decades.

Sixty-two members and associates of the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno crime families - including the Gambino family’s acting boss John (Jackie Nose) D’Amico; underboss, Domenico (The Greaseball) Cefalu, 61; and consigliere, Joseph (JoJo) Corozzo, 66 - were indicted on 80 counts of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy, encompassing acts of murder, attempted murder, robbery, extortion, loan-sharking, illegal gambling, distribution of cocaine and marijuana, money laundering, mail fraud, bribery of labor officials, embezzlement of union funds, and theft of union benefits.

“NYPD vice detectives smashed a major Gambino gambling ring, and in partnership with the FBI, our Cold Case detectives tracked down killers whose victims, in some cases, were murdered decades ago,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

According to Cuomo, the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) and its law enforcement partners developed an informant, identified in reports as Joseph Vollaro, owner of Andrews Trucking in Staten Island, who secretly recorded hundreds of the mobsters’ conversations - thousands of hours - that detailed 30 years of crimes, including eight acts of murder, murder conspiracy and attempted murder:


The murder of Albert Gelb by Charles Carneglia in 1976.

On March 11, 1976, Gelb’s body was discovered in the front seat of a car in Ozone Park with multiple gunshot wounds to his face and body, four days before the Brooklyn Criminal Court Officer was expected to testify at Carneglia’s trial.


The stabbing death of Michael Cotillo by Carneglia on November 6, 1977 in Queens.


The murder of Salvatore Puma, Gambino family associate, by Carneglia while Puma played handball in a Howard Beach park.


The murder of Louis DiBono, Gambino family soldier by Carneglia on October 4, 1990.


The December 1990 armed robbery and felony murder of Jose Delgado Rivera, an armored truck guard, who was shot and killed during a robbery while he and a co-worker were delivering money to the American Airlines building at John F. Kennedy International Airport.


The murders of Robert Arena and Thomas Maranga by Gambino family captain Nicholas Corozzo in January 1996. Luchese family associate Arena and Arena’s friend, Maranga were ordered killed in retaliation for Arena’s failure to return marijuana he had robbed from a narcotics dealer and for Arena’s suspected participation in the murder of a Corozzo crewmember.

The indictment also states that the Gambino family profited from extortion related rackets at construction sites in the New York City metropolitan area, including the proposed NASCAR construction site located in Staten Island and the Liberty View Harbor construction site located in Jersey City.

A Howard Beach resident reacted to the mob takedown with apathy.

“Like they’re in or they’re out,” he said. “They’re going to be here all the time. This is Howard Beach.”

Repeated calls to Mugnolo to find out his reaction to the arrests were not returned by press time.

Overseas, 23 mobsters in Sicily, with alleged relationships with the Gambino crime family, were also arrested.

http://www.queenscourier.com/articles/2008/02/13/news/top_stories/news02.txt
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/14/08 01:48 PM

Mafia leader Michele "The Pope" Greco died in Rome at the age of 83 after being hospitalized for weeks, a report said.
The former Cosa Nostra chief was serving multiple life sentences at the Rebibbia hospital in Rome before his death on Tuesday, ANSA reported Wednesday.

Greco was known for his mediation skills between Sicilian Mafia families when he reached the organization's top position in 1978.

Greco was arrested in 1986 as part of a "maxi-trial" against hundreds of organized crime members accused of arranging the murders of 78 individuals.

He was sentenced to life in prison in 1987, let out in 1991 on appeal, and arrested again in 1991 after the court overturned the appeal.

''I am a prisoner. Because of an injustice in the 1980s I have been buried alive and have been in prison for 22 years. The dampness of my cell has destroyed my health and I am truly in a bad way,'' he said.


http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/02/13/michele_the_pope_greco_dies_at_age_83/5351/


83 is not a bad age for a mafiosi and dying a natural death is very unheard of.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/17/08 12:46 AM

IT'S too bad for Joey Vallaro that so many people want him killed. Otherwise he could make a killing himself on the speakers' circuit with his story of how even in adversity there is opportunity.

In Vallaro's case it would be about how he turned a jail stretch for extortion into a career as a Staten Island trucking magnate.

Always a step ahead, so far at least, Vallaro is the Mafia "rat" at the centre of a 170-page indictment against 62 mobsters and crooks, including the bosses of New York's Gambino family, which resulted in 57 arrests last week. It was a crippling blow to one of the city's notorious Five Families.

Twelve years and a lifetime ago, Vallaro became pals with the Gambino captain Nicholas "Little Nicky" Corozzo while they were in the can. Not long before he was jailed Vallaro and a partner had started a trucking company.

Court documents, referring to Vallaro as "John Doe #4", show that on the outside another Gambino captain, Thomas "Tommy Sneakers" Cacciopoli, recovered a debt owed to Vallaro's company "and, in return, demanded monthly extortion payments from that point forward". After his release from prison in 1999 Vallaro made the payments directly to Cacciopoli, 58, and to stay in business he has since handed over more than $US160,000.

In return, the Gambinos sponsored his business: ushering him into exclusive rights at development sites and granting him permission to start a cement company. When Vallaro wanted to sell after a buyer approached him, he first had to obtain permission from the family.

"In keeping with instructions from Gambino family captains Nicholas Corozzo and Leonard DiMaria to consult them before making any decisions concerning his business, John Doe #4 informed DiMaria of the [buyer's] offer. DiMaria later informed John Doe #4 that the family had agreed to allow him to make the sale, provided he pay $100,000 to the Gambino family," court documents show.

Vallaro's partner did not fare so well: "In early January 2008, Gambino family soldier Joseph Scopo approached John Doe #4 on behalf of Gambino family captain Thomas Cacciopoli and instructed him that when the sale of his cement company took place, John Doe #4 should not provide his partner with the more than $300,000 in sale proceeds due to him, and that Cacciopoli would collect the money himself when he was released from prison."

Long before he OKed selling Vallaro's business, Lenny "Fatso" DiMaria, a family member since the 1970s, had unwittingly given investigators an insight into corporate techniques Gambino-style when he was captured on a surveillance audio tape.

"You have to go bother these people for your money," he was heard telling a subordinate. "Rough them up a little. Tell them 'You're a f---ing stiff' … Crack a face. F--- them up. Don't you do it, send a f---ing kid to rough them up, a f---ing joke."

The most senior of those charged is John "Jackie the Nose" D'Amico, who rose from the rank of soldier to acting boss of the Gambinos. Seventy-three years old and facing racketeering and extortion charges, he may well die in prison like an earlier Gambino boss, John Gotti.

Also indicted are D'Amico's underboss, Dominic "the Greaseball" Cefalu, 61, and Joseph "Miserable" Corozzo, 66, the family's counsellor or consigliere. This trio was the Gambino "administration".

"The Gambino family operated through groups of individuals headed by captains, who were also referred to as skippers, caporegimes and capodecinas. These groups, which were referred to as crews, regimes and decinas, consisted of 'made' members of the Gambino family, also referred to as 'soldiers', 'friends of ours', 'good fellows' and 'buttons' as well as associates of the Gambino family," the indictment reads.

"With the assistance of the underboss and consigliere, the boss was responsible for setting policy, resolving disputes between members and associates of the Gambino family and members and associates of other criminal organisations."

Corozzo's brother, Nicholas "Little Nicky" Corozzo, is charged with the 1996 murder of the Lucchese crime family associate Robert Arena who refused to return marijuana he stole from a drug dealer. Arena was already suspected of killing one of Corozzo's crew - Anthony "Tough Tony" Placido - when Corozzo ordered his killing. A friend of Arena's who happened to be with him when he was shot was also murdered. Of the shooter, Little Nicky is alleged to have said he "did good work".

One longtime soldier who was spared the indignity of a physically demeaning nickname - and possibly with good reason - was Charles "Charlie Canig" Carneglia.

Grey-bearded and with an improbable grey ponytail, Carneglia has allegedly been killing for the Gambinos since the 1970s, and not necessarily always while under instruction.

In 1975 Albert Gelb, 25, intervened when he saw a young woman being harassed in a diner by a man who produced a gun before Gelb disarmed him. The man was Carneglia. Gelb was shot dead seated at the wheel of his car shortly before Carneglia's trial.

Carneglia, 61, has been charged with five murders in all and also is suspected of a notorious hit on one John Favara, who disappeared in July 1980. Favara was the unfortunate motorist who struck and killed Gotti's 12-year-old son. The boy rode his bike into the path of Favara's car. Carneglia is suspected of shooting Favara and of disposing of his body in a cement-filled barrel. Favara's body has not been found.

The FBI this week was making a body count of another sort. In the Gambino takedown they counted three family captains, three acting captains and 16 soldiers. "Once ruled by the powerful Carlo Gambino and 'Dapper Don' John Gotti, the Gambino family has been reduced to a shadow of its former criminal self over the years … but it is far from dead, continuing its efforts to infiltrate such industries as trucking and construction," the FBI said. "Still, the investigations and ensuing indictment represent another crippling blow. A total of 25 alleged Gambino mobsters - including each active leader of the family not already in jail - were indicted."

Among those charged are members and associates of the Bonnano and Genovese crime families and figures from the construction industry and unions. The charges span three decades and involve murder, drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion and various scams.

The Labour Department inspector-general, Gordon Heddell, said the scams involved some of New York's biggest building companies. "Many of these construction companies allegedly paid a 'mob tax' in return for 'protection' and permission to operate," he said. "The Gambino organised crime family caused the theft of Teamsters union dues, and of health and pension funds, directly impacting the welfare and future of many workers."

In addition, Carneglia ran marijuana. Other family members dealt cocaine. Corozzo and DiMaria oversaw illegal bookmakers, and acting captain Frank Cali ran illegal poker machines "including approximately four or five machines in Caf Italia in Brooklyn. Cali split a percentage of the gambling profits with the owner of the restaurant, with 10 per cent off the top going to the administration of the Gambino family," court documents reveal.

"In the 1990s, Cali was involved in overseeing the Gambino family interest in the annual Italian Feast on 18th Avenue in Brooklyn. The Gambino family received a percentage of the fees charged for the booths and rides, which generated tens of thousands of dollars each year. Cali split the money with other Gambino family associates, with 10 per cent off the top going to the administration of the Gambino family."

Joey Vallaro was a good earner for the Gambinos. In January 2006 they allowed him to start a new operation, an excavation business. That alone brought in $30,000 in extortion payments.

The New York Post said the crunch came when he was busted with two kilograms of cocaine in 2004. He turned informant rather than face a possible life sentence.

Contrary to expectations, Vallaro apparently did not enter the witness protection program after authorities swooped on the family: some reports claim that Joey stayed around to make a brazen appearance at a sushi bar last Saturday. It was just two days after the arrests, and two doors from the restaurant run by his now-abandoned wife, Trisha.

He is not expected to reappear until his time comes to testify in the looming Gambino trials. That is especially so since Little Nicky Corozzo, the man who ushered him into the fold, was not home when the police came calling. And he is still out there, somewhere.

You have to go bother these people for your money," he was heard telling a subordinate. "Rough them up a little. Tell them 'You're a f---ing stiff' … Crack a face. F--- them up. Don't you do it, send a f---ing kid to rough them up, a f---ing joke."

The most senior of those charged is John "Jackie the Nose" D'Amico, who rose from the rank of soldier to acting boss of the Gambinos. Seventy-three years old and facing racketeering and extortion charges, he may well die in prison like an earlier Gambino boss, John Gotti.

Also indicted are D'Amico's underboss, Dominic "the Greaseball" Cefalu, 61, and Joseph "Miserable" Corozzo, 66, the family's counsellor or consigliere. This trio was the Gambino "administration".

"The Gambino family operated through groups of individuals headed by captains, who were also referred to as skippers, caporegimes and capodecinas. These groups, which were referred to as crews, regimes and decinas, consisted of 'made' members of the Gambino family, also referred to as 'soldiers', 'friends of ours', 'good fellows' and 'buttons' as well as associates of the Gambino family," the indictment reads.

"With the assistance of the underboss and consigliere, the boss was responsible for setting policy, resolving disputes between members and associates of the Gambino family and members and associates of other criminal organisations."

Corozzo's brother, Nicholas "Little Nicky" Corozzo, is charged with the 1996 murder of the Lucchese crime family associate Robert Arena who refused to return marijuana he stole from a drug dealer. Arena was already suspected of killing one of Corozzo's crew - Anthony "Tough Tony" Placido - when Corozzo ordered his killing. A friend of Arena's who happened to be with him when he was shot was also murdered. Of the shooter, Little Nicky is alleged to have said he "did good work".

One longtime soldier who was spared the indignity of a physically demeaning nickname - and possibly with good reason - was Charles "Charlie Canig" Carneglia.

Grey-bearded and with an improbable grey ponytail, Carneglia has allegedly been killing for the Gambinos since the 1970s, and not necessarily always while under instruction.

In 1975 Albert Gelb, 25, intervened when he saw a young woman being harassed in a diner by a man who produced a gun before Gelb disarmed him. The man was Carneglia. Gelb was shot dead seated at the wheel of his car shortly before Carneglia's trial.

Carneglia, 61, has been charged with five murders in all and also is suspected of a notorious hit on one John Favara, who disappeared in July 1980. Favara was the unfortunate motorist who struck and killed Gotti's 12-year-old son. The boy rode his bike into the path of Favara's car. Carneglia is suspected of shooting Favara and of disposing of his body in a cement-filled barrel. Favara's body has not been found.

The FBI this week was making a body count of another sort. In the Gambino takedown they counted three family captains, three acting captains and 16 soldiers. "Once ruled by the powerful Carlo Gambino and 'Dapper Don' John Gotti, the Gambino family has been reduced to a shadow of its former criminal self over the years … but it is far from dead, continuing its efforts to infiltrate such industries as trucking and construction," the FBI said. "Still, the investigations and ensuing indictment represent another crippling blow. A total of 25 alleged Gambino mobsters - including each active leader of the family not already in jail - were indicted."

Among those charged are members and associates of the Bonnano and Genovese crime families and figures from the construction industry and unions. The charges span three decades and involve murder, drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion and various scams.

The Labour Department inspector-general, Gordon Heddell, said the scams involved some of New York's biggest building companies. "Many of these construction companies allegedly paid a 'mob tax' in return for 'protection' and permission to operate," he said. "The Gambino organised crime family caused the theft of Teamsters union dues, and of health and pension funds, directly impacting the welfare and future of many workers."

In addition, Carneglia ran marijuana. Other family members dealt cocaine. Corozzo and DiMaria oversaw illegal bookmakers, and acting captain Frank Cali ran illegal poker machines "including approximately four or five machines in Caf Italia in Brooklyn. Cali split a percentage of the gambling profits with the owner of the restaurant, with 10 per cent off the top going to the administration of the Gambino family," court documents reveal.

"In the 1990s, Cali was involved in overseeing the Gambino family interest in the annual Italian Feast on 18th Avenue in Brooklyn. The Gambino family received a percentage of the fees charged for the booths and rides, which generated tens of thousands of dollars each year. Cali split the money with other Gambino family associates, with 10 per cent off the top going to the administration of the Gambino family."

Joey Vallaro was a good earner for the Gambinos. In January 2006 they allowed him to start a new operation, an excavation business. That alone brought in $30,000 in extortion payments.

The New York Post said the crunch came when he was busted with two kilograms of cocaine in 2004. He turned informant rather than face a possible life sentence.

Contrary to expectations, Vallaro apparently did not enter the witness protection program after authorities swooped on the family: some reports claim that Joey stayed around to make a brazen appearance at a sushi bar last Saturday. It was just two days after the arrests, and two doors from the restaurant run by his now-abandoned wife, Trisha.

He is not expected to reappear until his time comes to testify in the looming Gambino trials. That is especially so since Little Nicky Corozzo, the man who ushered him into the fold, was not home when the police came calling. And he is still out there, somewhere.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/tales-of-the-mob/2008/02/15/1202760599942.html?page=3
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/18/08 06:27 PM

This, in my opinion, is a great article about this whole situation with Vollaro and the effects that he is having on both the mob and the lives of the everyday working class person.

Ripples from mob takedown swamp the working people
The guy who wore a wire against the Gambinos is hardly a hero to his Island ex-employees
Saturday, February 16, 2008
By CORMAC GORDON
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE


STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The original shock waves have begun to settle after the big Gambino arrests on Staten Island last week.

Family bosses Jackie D'Amico and Jo Jo Corozzo are in lockdown at the federal detention center on Third Avenue in Brooklyn.

Joe Vollaro, the Pleasant Plains resident who wore a wire against the Gambinos, is somewhere known only to the people at the federal witness protection program.

And not, as some have suggested, hanging around the Tottenville mall where his wife runs Dock's Restaurant.

Nick Corozzo, the guy who introduced Vollaro to the mob is, as best anyone can tell, on the run somewhere.

In that regard, everyone involved is pretty much where he is supposed to be.

Except for the collateral damage, of course.

When the mob is involved, there is always plenty of that.

This time around, it's not some poor unfortunate caught in the crossfire on some street corner somewhere, thank goodness. And no stories have surfaced yet of cases of mistaken identity, like the one years ago in Travis when a completely innocent homeowner was gunned down in his driveway.

The people out of luck in this case do, however, include the 40 or so blue-collar workers and secretaries and office staff who came to work last Thursday morning at one of Vollaro's Travis businesses, either Andrews Trucking or Mix Master Enterprises, only to find the Chelsea Road site swarming with cops.

Those Islanders are out of a job.

And a paycheck.

The workers among them who hold union cards are back at the hiring hall looking for a shift here or there across the region.

But day work isn't the same as a steady gig, with benefits and some sense of certainty. And those who weren't union truck drivers are simply looking for another place to work.

The former workers aren't happy, obviously. Not about being out of work. And not about some of the media coverage of Vollaro, which has made him out to be a knight on a white horse taking on organized crime.

"Joe is a drug dealer and a loanshark and a gambler," one of the Islanders from Andrews Trucking said the other day in an interview. "He's a bad guy who got caught selling drugs. It's that simple. He's no hero."

Isn't that the truth.

For some reason, there are people who need to make these stories about a sinner looking for redemption. Or, and this is even more twisted, they characterize the informant as the bad guy for working against the mob.

That's just not the way it is. Ever. The list of criminals who woke up one morning, realized their past sins, and decided to turn over a new leaf and cooperate with authorities is about as long in length as the number of people who believe in Roger Clemens and the Easter bunny.

Joe Vollaro turned against the Gambinos after considering all other possibilities. He cooperated with the government reluctantly, and not without considerable fear.

We're glad he did wear a wire.

But let's not erect any statues, please.

"He's been a criminal since he was a kid," said one member of Local 282 of the Teamsters union who worked for Vollaro. "The Mafia didn't come and knock on his door. He went looking for them."

The problem with becoming partners with the mob is they don't take losses. There is no red ink in the Gambino accounting ledgers. They take theirs first. Off the top. They decide what the percentage will be. No one else has a vote.

A lot of guys who went into business with them have found that out the hard way. Maybe Vollaro is another one of them.

But however it went, because of Vollaro's choices, Island mortgage payments are going missing and college tuitions are being overlooked. Company medical coverage is gone, so doctors' appointments are being canceled.

Vollaro liked to hang around his wife's restaurant, where he looked and played the part of someone important.

Now he's in the jackpot.

"He hurt a lot of people," the driver said.

And isn't that always the way.

----------------------------------------------------------

The people out of luck in this case do, however, include the 40 or so blue-collar workers and secretaries and office staff who came to work last Thursday morning at one of Vollaro's Travis businesses....Those Islanders are out of a job. And a paycheck.

.......some of the media coverage of Vollaro, which has made him out to be a knight on a white horse taking on organized crime.

........"He's a bad guy who got caught selling drugs. It's that simple. He's no hero."

........there are people who need to make these stories about a sinner looking for redemption. Or, and this is even more twisted, they characterize the informant as the bad guy for working against the mob.

........That's just not the way it is. Ever......Joe Vollaro turned against the Gambinos after considering all other possibilities.


.........We're glad he did wear a wire. But let's not erect any statues, please.


.........because of Vollaro's choices, Island mortgage payments are going missing and college tuitions are being overlooked. Company medical coverage is gone, so doctors' appointments are being canceled.


.........He hurt a lot of people," And isn't that always the way.



Well said, The writer hits the nail right on the head!

These guys have absolutely no regard for other people and the affects that they have, because of the choices they make, on other people's lives. They simply couldn't give a damn either way.

The bottom line : It's all about themselves.
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/18/08 10:32 PM

 Originally Posted By: Don Cardi


Well said, The writer hits the nail right on the head!

These guys have absolutely no regard for other people and the affects that they have, because of the choices they make, on other people's lives. They simply couldn't give a damn either way.

The bottom line : It's all about themselves.





Absolutely right on the mark! Not only is there no such thing as a victimless crime, but the victims, invariably, are the smallest people in the chain. Every Mob scam costs dearly. No honor among thieves--no heros, either.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/18/08 10:44 PM

Thanks for that Don Cardi,a great article \:\)
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/19/08 08:48 AM

ITALIAN police yesterday captured the top boss of the powerful 'ndrangheta mob, whose clan feuds have bloodied the southern region of Calabria for years.

Pasquale Condello, 57, a fugitive for 20 years, was arrested in an flat in the centre of the regional capital, Reggio Calabria.

Although there was a pistol in the flat, Condello offered no resistance.

In recent years, the 'ndrangheta has eclipsed the Sicilian Mafia in power, especially in cocaine trafficking.

Giuliano Amato, the interior minister, said: "Pasquale Condello was the No 1 boss of the 'ndrangheta. It is the latest, extraordinary operation against organised crime."

Condello was known as "the supreme one" and before his capture had been No 2 on the list of Italy's most dangerous fugitives.

Mr Amato said investigators considered Condello the "Provenzano of Calabria." He was referring to Bernardo Provenzano, the reputed "boss of bosses" of Sicily's Cosa Nostra, who was arrested in 2006 after 40 years as a fugitive.

http://news.scotsman.com/world/No2-on-list-of-.3790251.jp
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/19/08 08:53 AM

Mafia scion John A. (Junior) Gotti dodged the latest roundup that decimated the Gambino crime family, but feds may be aiming to bring a case against him in Florida, Mafia author Jerry Capeci reported yesterday on the Web site Gang Land News.

Two mob rats linked to a Florida case involving a former Gambino capo are tied to last week's drug charges against Gotti's uncle Vincent and Gambino consigliere Joseph Corozzo, Gang Land reported.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/02/15/2008-02-15_city_briefs.html


And a link here to Jerry Capeci gang land site with a good article on Junior

http://www.ganglandnews.com/thisweek.htm
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/19/08 10:26 PM

Thanks for the links, Chopper.
BTW: Do you have the phone number of John Alite's dentist?
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/19/08 10:33 PM

Bad picture isnt it

he definetly needs some work done
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/19/08 10:39 PM

ROME – Italy hailed the arrest of the boss of the Calabrian mafia as a major blow to organised crime, but asked on Tuesday how someone topping the 'most wanted' list for 18 years felt such impunity he didn't even leave his home town.
Investigators believe Pasquale Condello, captured on Monday night in Reggio Calabria on the southern tip of mainland Italy, had directed a bloody feud between clans of the mob, known as the ''Ndrangheta', in which at least 20 people have died.



The 'Ndrangheta has outgrown its more famous Sicilian rival, the Cosa Nostra, largely thanks to its estimated 30 billion euro ($44.17 billion) cocaine trafficking business. It is also involved in widespread extortion and its influence pervades local politics in Calabria.
A clan feud was behind the murder last year of six Italians in Germany, a country where Italian prosecutors say the mob has laundered hundreds of millions of euros since the early 1980s.

Known in local dialect as 'U Supremu' and described by Italy's Interior Minister Giuliano Amato as 'the number one boss of the 'Ndrangheta', 57-year-old Condello has already been given four life sentences for charges including murder.

Police dubbed him 'the Provenzano of Calabria', referring to Bernardo Provenzano, the Sicilian 'boss of bosses' arrested in 2006 near the town of Corleone – a Mafia stronghold made famous in Mario Puzo's novel 'The Godfather'.

From Corleone, Provenzano ran the business via secret messages on scraps of paper called 'pizzini'.

Police said pizzini found in Condello's hideout used such a complex code that it 'made Provenzano look like an amateur'.

Italian politicians congratulated police on Condello's arrest but said the fact that he had not bothered to go further afield than Reggio Calabria, one of Calabria's two biggest cities, suggested he was confident he would not be captured.

'The fact that although Condello was top of the most-wanted list he was hiding in Calabria shows what impunity the mob feels and that there is a secret network allowing mafia bosses to keep running the business as usual,' said Calabrian politician Jole Santelli, a member of parliament's anti-mafia commission.

Another commission member, right-wing deputy Angela Napoli, said it 'shows once more the great protection these criminals enjoy and their ability, despite their legal status, to keep running their illegal business and dominating their turf'.

Police found French champagne and expensive clothes in Condello's hideout. Salvatore Boemi, coordinator of the local anti-mafia unit, said Condello was 'in great shape, elegant and behaving like a true mafia boss'.

Although he was armed and flanked by three people including his grandson and son-in-law, Condello did not try to open fire.

'The 'boss' kept cool and detached and even though he had a gun, he didn't use it,' said Gen. Giampolo Ganzer, head of the special unit of 100 police who carried out the arrest.

Police quoted the moustachioed mobster as telling them before he was flown to a high-security prison that he had 'nothing to do with your investigations or any mafia war'.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080219-0447-italy-mafia-.html


Obviously people the local police and towns people have been bribed and more than likely local politicians there is no way people can survive on the run without people accepting bribes or favours of some sort.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/21/08 08:55 AM

The most powerful and -efficient "holding company" adapting to globalisation is the 'Ndrangheta criminal organisation, Italy's parliamentary anti-Mafia commission warned yesterday.

In a 230-page report intended as a wake-up call to both a domestic audience and Italy's neighbours, commission members said that while Sicily's Cosa Nostra and other regional crime groups had been dealt serious setbacks, the 'Ndrangheta of Calabria, rooted in the "toe" of Italy, was on the rise worldwide.

Its wealth derives from an almost exclusive grip on the import of cocaine into Europe, combined with a systematic infiltration of political and economic life in Calabria, where income is siphoned off through European Union and Italian spending on public works, primarily construction and in the health sector.

"The 'Ndrangheta has met the challenge of globalisation with a most modern -utilisation of ancient planning, through a combination of archaic family structures and an organisation of networks and modules," the commission said, noting a resemblance to the structure of al-Qaeda, the international terrorism network.

Quoting the "scholar of post-modernism, Zygmunt Bauman", the commission said the family's strength derived from being "liquid".

"The international community must understand that the 'Ndrangheta are a menace like international terrorists. Calabria alone cannot deal with it," said Francesco Forgione, the head of the commission.

Globalisation, the fall of the Berlin wall, the enlargement of the EU and the Schengen area had all given impetus to drugs smuggling and the movement of illicit capital, the report said.

Europe could not afford to wake up only to blood in the streets of Duisburg, "having ignored the smell of money" for too long, Mr Forgione said, referring to the murder of six Italians outside a -German pizzeria last August in an inter-clan vendetta. The commission hoped the killings represented a -"systemic crisis" within the leadership.

It also noted with satisfaction the arrest on Monday of Pasquale Condello, a gang leader in the regional capital who had been on the run for more than 20 years. Politicians in Rome asked how he could have stayed so close to home without detection.

In Sicily, strong social movements have raised a collective voice against Cosa Nostra, as seen in the recent drive by business leaders to stop paying extortion money. But in Calabria there has been little public protest against a criminal organisation that keeps a lower profile and has so effectively corrupted local politicians.

Parliament's anti-Mafia commission has been dissolved ahead of general elections in April. Months will elapse before a new commission is formed and members have questioned how effectively a new government will confront the problem of organised crime.

The report was adopted by parliamentarians from parties on both the left and right in a rare demonstration of unity. Members are also anxious to show to the public, ahead of their re-election campaigns, that they have achieved something.

The Mafia will be a hot election issue in Sicily. Salvatore Cuffaro, the head of the island's regional government, resigned last month after receiving a five-year jail sentence in a Mafiarelated trial. He is appealing against the conviction and is running in the national elections for the Catholic centrist UDC party.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f95636b0-e03c-11dc-b0d7-0000779fd2ac.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/21/08 08:57 AM

The owner of the Mount Airy Casino Resort yesterday asked a judge to toss out perjury charges against him, arguing that he is a "scapegoat" in a case riddled with leaks and devoid of evidence that he lied to gaming regulators to win a lucrative slots license.
The motions by Louis A. DeNaples offered a glimpse into the vigorous defense he will wage to beat charges that could land the 67-year-old in jail and cost him his $412 million Poconos casino.

The case has focused a critical eye on the state's fledgling gaming industry and raised questions about how applicants for casino licenses are reviewed.

"This prosecution of Louis DeNaples is the most outrageous of its kind that I have ever seen," lead defense attorney Richard A. Sprague said in a statement yesterday. "When you get past the headlines and the leaks . . . you discover that there simply is no basis for a perjury case against him."

The prosecutor, Dauphin County First Assistant District Attorney Fran Chardo, dismissed the defense assertions, saying: "We wouldn't have brought the charges if we didn't think it was the right thing to do."

"A reasonable juror will conclude that he intentionally lied," he added.

Based on recommendations by a grand jury, prosecutors in Harrisburg last month charged DeNaples, a wealthy Scranton businessman, with lying to state gaming regulators about his alleged ties to crime figures. The figures include two reputed mobsters from northeastern Pennsylvania and two Philadelphia men caught up in the City Hall corruption probe four years ago.

According to witness testimony and records presented to the grand jury, DeNaples either was very close to the men socially or had business relationships with them.

In 71 pages of motions filed yesterday in Dauphin County, the defense attacked the case, point by point, as weak and politically motivated. At the heart of the defense: DeNaples, who has pleaded not guilty, didn't lie to gaming investigators because the questions asked in two interviews in August and September 2006 were not specific enough.

For example, one of the four perjury counts stems from answers he gave about William D'Elia, a reputed mob boss awaiting trial on federal charges of money laundering and solicitation of murder.

DeNaples told regulators that he knew D'Elia as a customer at his auto-parts store and the bank he chairs. But prosecutors maintain that the two are much tighter, that D'Elia invited DeNaples to his daughter's wedding and DeNaples gave D'Elia his dead father's rosary beads.

The defense motions note that DeNaples was never asked specifically about the wedding or the rosary beads.

"The result is a total disconnect between DeNaples' testimony and the allegedly contradictory evidence," the motion states.

The defense also dismissed D'Elia, the prosecution's star grand jury witness, as "a corrupt and polluted source if there ever was one."

In a separate but related filing, the defense argued that DeNaples was caught in the middle of an "unholy triumvirate" of D'Elia, the District Attorney's Office, and the state police, which have "combined their forces as allies."

Defense attorneys were referring to a public dispute between the state police and gaming investigators over who conducts background checks on license applicants.

The feud goes back to 2004 when Pennsylvania legalized slot machines. At the time, the state police unsuccessfully sought to do the background screenings, arguing that the state Gaming Control Board's investigations would not be complete without unfettered access to law enforcement files.

Much of the evidence contained in the charges against DeNaples came from state police investigators.

Another motion seeks volumes of records, such as evidence logs and testimony transcripts, from the prosecution.

The defense also wants any references that Chardo made in the closed-door grand jury proceedings to The Godfather or La Cosa Nostra.

Defense lawyers said Chardo had asked a witness about an annual Italian Civic Association event in which crooner Al Martino performed. Chardo allegedly said, "Al Martino - that's the guy from The Godfather!"

(Martino, a South Philly native, portrayed singer Johnny Fontane in The Godfather and The Godfather: Part III.)

The motion states that "such a comment can have no legitimate purpose" other than to "inflame the grand jurors."

Chardo would not comment yesterday about the Godfather reference, citing grand jury secrecy rules.

DeNaples' team accused prosecutors of breaking those rules time and time again by leaking information about the proceedings to reporters.

"The process employed by the Office of the District Attorney was the most notoriously public grand jury investigation in American jurisprudence," the motion avowed.

Chardo stressed that his office had never disclosed any grand jury information.

After DeNaples was charged, the gaming board indefinitely suspended his license and put a trustee in charge of the casino, which opened in October. DeNaples is not allowed to profit from the slots parlor and cannot even set foot inside.

This month, federal banking regulators suspended DeNaples from his position as chairman of First National Community Bancorp Inc., in Dunmore, Pa., where he is the largest shareholder.

Last week, Standard & Poor's cut Mount Airy's ratings to junk-bond status as a result of the legal problems.

Still, business at the casino has been brisk, according to revenue filings with the gaming board. Mount Airy took in $47 million in wagers last week - its fourth-best week since opening.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/special/pa_slots/20080221_DeNaples_filing_rips_perjury_charges.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/22/08 04:40 PM

The seizure of the assets of the Provenzano and Lo Piccolo clans is a devastating blow inflicted by the State on the Mafia. Hitting at the economic interests of the Cosa Nostra is essential for a definitive victory over Mafia power". The words are those of Anna Finocchiaro, Chair of the PD (Democratic Party) group at the Senate. "The operation completed today by Palermo's police department in connection with the investigation led by special state attorney Roberto Scarpinato and public prosecutor Gaetano Guardi' has been a great success - Anna Finocchiaro stressed - Our compliments are due to police forces and the magistracy for investigative and counter-criminal actions which have borne great results over recent years. The assets of Mafia clans are accrued by depriving the honest part of Sicily of its resources, and of the opportunity for healthy growth in its economy. The seizure of Mafia assets is therefore of double significance, because it not only hits the clans materially, but by transferring the assets to state hands, it has a symbolic value. Which means to say that via the state, honest citizens are able to claim back what has been taken from them, and that the Mafia can not just be combated, but beaten too. I would also like to stress the the appeal made by Scarpinato should be taken with absolute seriousness - Anna Finocchiaro concluded - It is necessary to find out the reasons for the bureaucratic obstacles the attorney spoke of, and to remove these obstacles as soon as

http://www.agi.it/italy/news/200802211811-pol-ren0074-art.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/22/08 04:41 PM

federal magistrate-judge in Brooklyn has given prosecutors until today to turn over tape transcripts or summaries of supposed threats to a reputed Gambino crime family member who is trying to get bail.

Yesterday, Magistrate-Judge Joan Azrack abruptly cut short a bail hearing for Vincent Dragonetti, 43, of Bellmore, son-in-law of fugitive crime captain Nicholas Corozzo, after prosecutors started quoting from surveillance tapes in the case.
Azrack was concerned that defense attorney Henry Mazurek of Manhattan didn't have the opportunity to study the taped conversations being relied upon by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Brownell. He was making the case that Dragonetti, who is charged with racketeering conspiracy and extortion, was dangerous and shouldn't be given bail. Mazurek has put together a $5 million bail package.

The tapes were apparently made by Joseph Vollaro of Staten Island, the main government informant in the big Gambino crime family roundup earlier this month. In one conversation quoted by Brownell, someone -- although it wasn't clear who -- talked about the need to squash someone's head. Azrack thought the comments were serious and might impact any bail decision.

But since the taped conversations weren't quoted in an earlier letter filed by the government to deny Dragonetti bail, Azrack wanted prosecutors to turn over more information to Mazurek.

"I just don't think it is fair to come in here and give extra quotes when defense counsel is hearing them for the first time," said Azrack.

Mazurek told reporters outside court that he thought he was being "sandbagged" by prosecutors quoting from tapes for which he had no summaries or transcripts.

"I don't think that is asking too much," said Mazurek.

Dragonetti's wife, Bernadette, whose father is Corozzo, 67, the reputed Gambino captain charged with racketeering conspiracy, wouldn't comment as she left the courthouse.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nymob0222,0,4081684.story
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/23/08 09:32 AM

An 87-year-old wheelchair-bound mob leader was sentenced to five years in prison Friday despite his lawyer's pleas that the octogenarian had not eaten in 11 days and was deteriorating from illnesses.

Lawyer Joseph Mure also argued that Ciro Perrone deserved leniency for a lifetime of civic deeds, including dashing into a building to warn residents there was a fire, contributing to the Catholic church and arranging a funeral for a destitute couple whose newborn twins had died.

But U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson said the good deeds were not enough to forgive what prosecutors said was a lifetime of crime on behalf of the Genovese crime family.




Patterson said he considered the good things Perrone has done in his life but could not grant his request to be freed or sentenced to as little as a year in prison because "the other conduct is so bad."

Perrone sometimes shook his head as Patterson lectured him. The judge said the only way to stop mob extortion and the accompanying violence was "to give a serious enough sentence that people realize they can't engage in this conduct."

A jury had convicted Perrone of participating in an illegal gambling business and a loansharking conspiracy as a Genovese captain. The government said Perrone used threats of violence to maintain his control over gamblers who could not repay debts.

Mure portrayed his client as someone who was deteriorating steadily in a prison where he had spent the last eight months.

He said Perrone had stopped eating because of the flu, was showering only once a week and was sleeping poorly because he had to go to the bathroom as many as a dozen times each night.

He said Perrone's blood pressure was always high, his arteries were up to 80 percent clogged, vertigo was frequent and he could sleep only up to three hours a night. He also said his arthritis prevented him from feeling his arms or legs and he's so cold all the time that he keeps three blankets wrapped around him.

The judge said he could not consider the medical condition because the lawyer had not included any documentation to back up the claims.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Honig called Perrone an intelligent, able man who was raised in a middle-class family but "chose this life and he lived it for a long, long time."

"This notion of him as a noble human being or hero is absolutely delusional," Honig said.

"Mr. Perrone never accepted responsibility for anything he's done. No remorse," he said.

Before he was sentenced, Perrone declined to address the court.

"I don't want to say anything. I have nothing to say," he said.


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--oldmobster0222feb22,0,6080155.story
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/24/08 01:14 PM

Godfather's arrest fuels fear of bloody conflictSeizure of Calabrian mafia leader could spark deadly war of succession


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/24/internationalcrime.italy
Posted By: dontommasino

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 02/28/08 03:58 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080228/ap_on_re_us/mafia_arrests

Plea deals have been offered in relation to the arrests of Gambino family members a few weeks back. Let's see how well omerta holds up in this case \:\)
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/01/08 09:22 AM

The Old World mob is moving to New York.

The Sicilian Mafia is trying to re-establish long-dormant ties to mobsters in the United States and New York, according to a report by the Italian anti-Mafia commission.

The legendary Costa Nostra has been sending associates across the Atlantic to rebuild its networks in America that were destroyed during the 1980s, according to an Italian parliamentary report obtained by the British news agency.

The American mob has its roots in Italian organized crime but the two entities have long been separate. That's changing.

When scores of mobsters were rounded up by the feds in the New York area earlier this month, the Daily News revealed that the suspects included reputed Gambino capo Frank Cali, who has ties to the Inzerillo crime family of Sicily.

Inzerillo mobsters have been living in exile in Brooklyn for two decades.

Cali not only shares an allegiance to the same mob code as the Inzerillos, he's related through marriage to Gambino associate Frank Inzerillo. He's also the brother-in-law of Gambino soldier and restaurateur Pietro (Tall Pete) Inzerillo.

Usually, American and Sicilian mobsters cannot be made members of both crime families because they don't share all the same rules. An exception appears to have been made for Cali, the wealthy owner of food import-export businesses. He is alleged to be a member of the Sicilian Mafia as well.

According to the BBC report, the Italian mob has sent its leaders to the U.S. to recruit gangsters who were expelled from Sicily during a bloody mob war in the 1980s.

The Italian anti-Mafia commission found that the Sicilian mob is "re-establishing its links with its American cousins," the BBC reported.

The report also claims that several American food distribution and construction firms are controlled by mob families in the U.S. - and the Italian mob wants a piece of that action, as well as a slice of the lucrative online gambling market.

The anti-Mafia commission puts the responsibility of stopping the Sicilian mob on the shoulders of the Italian government, saying authorities must do more to protect people who have come forward as witnesses against the gangsters.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime...ew_yorks_l.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/01/08 09:23 AM

The indictment of La Cosa Nostra continues in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn this week. After 62 mobsters and associates of the Gambino crime family were arrested and indicted earlier this month, eight more members of the Luchese crime family were indicted Thursday.

The 35-page indictment was unsealed hours after the mobsters and their associates were arrested in New York in the morning. Six of the defendants are charged with racketeering and conspiracy; one defendant is charged with illegal gambling, and one defendant is charged with extortion. The defendants, including longstanding Luchese captain Domenico Cutaia, his son Salvatore Cutaia and his son-in-law John Daudanza, both crime-family soldiers, were arraigned Thursday before a federal judge.

Salvatore Cutaia was specifically mentioned by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn as having been secretly recorded during a telephone conversation making threats to a man in North Carolina who had borrowed money from his father.

“You’re going to make me get on a [expletive] plane and come down to Carolina and go crazy on you,” the younger Cutaia was recorded saying to the man, according to the U.S. Attorney. “I’m going to come down there with 10 guys...”

Michael “Mikey Bones” Corcione, also a Luchese crime-family soldier and made member of the Mafia, is also indicted for racketeering. The racketeering charges brought against the defendants identify predicate acts dating back to the 1980s and include loansharking, extortionate collection of credit, marijuana distribution conspiracy, illegal gambling, bank fraud, extortion and mail fraud. According to the memorandum filed today in support of having three of the defendants detained in jail, the extortions included various threats of violence.

In addition to the racketeering counts, the indictment alleges 17 substantive charges, including illegal gambling conspiracy, mail fraud conspiracy, bank fraud conspiracy and marijuana distribution conspiracy.

Each of the defendants, except one, faces 20 or 30 years in prison if convicted. Additionally, the indictment seeks forfeiture of the proceeds of the racketeering activity, including Baudanza’s house.

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=18854
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/03/08 09:03 PM

An alleged mob associate from Staten Island who already faced a slew of federal charges after being nabbed in a massive organized crime sweep weeks ago, was indicted today on several drug and weapons charges.

Tottenville resident Michael Urciuoli -- whom federal authorities say is known to his Bonanno family associates as "Mike the Electrician" -- is accused of stowing more than a pound of cocaine and several handguns in his Sprague Avenue home and his car.

During a raid of his home last weekend, police said they found the drugs in a shoebox in the rafters of the garage, in a duffel bag on a workbench and in a dresser, tucked underneath his wife's clothes. They also said they found chemicals to dilute the cocaine, as well as a digital scale, mixing bowls, a plastic spoon and a spatula, all bearing cocaine residue.

A loaded .22 caliber pistol with two boxes of ammo was discovered hidden in a pigeon coop in the garage, police said. When Urciuoli was pulled over in his Lincoln pickup in the 4300-block of Amboy Road, police said they also found four more ounces of cocaine and a loaded .25 caliber pistol in the armrest.

The 43-year-old man's wife, Susan Urciuoli, 40, was also charged.

The top count against both of them, first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, carries the prospect of 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

The drug bust came just two and a half weeks after Urciuoli was charged in one of the biggest federal organized crime indictments in U.S. history. More than 80 people -- including almost the entire hierarchy of the Gambino crime family, and a few Bonanno crime family associates -- were arrested in the Feb. 6 sweep.

Federal authorities accused Urciuoli of conspiring to extort a granite company.

Urciuoli pleaded not guilty on Feb. 7 to the mob-related charges, and had his wife put up the Sprague Avenue house as collateral so he could make his $1 million bail the next day.

Last Sunday, he was sent back in jail on the new charges -- and, this time, was given no bail. His wife was released on her own recognizance after the couple's arraignment in Stapleton Criminal Court.

Urciuoli was scheduled to make an appearance Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn on the mob charges, but instead was held at Staten Island Supreme Court, possibly to appear before a grand jury.

A notice of indictment was filed with the court clerk today, and Urciuoli is expected back in Staten Island Supreme Court for an arraignment on the new charges this Wednesday.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/reputed_mob_associate_from_sta.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/07/08 11:51 PM

Italian police have seized more than $220m of property and goods from the Calabrian mafia, the 'Ndrangheta.
In dawn raids, heavily armed special forces seized a number of houses, cars, land and businesses in Calabria and the northern industrial region of Lombardi.

The areas are strongholds of feuding mafia clans under investigation for six murders in Germany last August.

Thirty people have been arrested since six Italian men were gunned down in the north-western city of Duisburg.

Several bank accounts were frozen as masked police carried out Tuesday's operation.

The raids came two weeks after Italian police arrested alleged 'Ndrangheta chief Pasquale Condello, 57, in Calabria.

Family ties

But while the seizure of $220m of assets might sound like a resounding success, it is small change compared to the group's profits.

The 'Ndrangheta has almost "exclusive" control over cocaine imports from Colombia, with estimated annual sales of $50bn dollars.

Last week, a parliamentary report noted that its operations have now spread from Italy, to much of Europe, as well as the United States, Argentina and Australia.

The 'Ndrangheta has become a far bigger threat than the Cosa Nostra, and what sets this group apart from other crime syndicates is its structure.

It relies on close family ties, which means it is less vulnerable to turncoats.

It is so tightly organised that it is now one of the strongest, most dangerous mafia groups in the world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7278427.stm
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/07/08 11:53 PM

Surrounded by guns hanging on the walls of an Italian rifle club, Brooklyn’s own Guardian Angel, Curtis Sliwa, accepted a couple of awards last week from local Republicans. Sliwa, born and raised in Canarsie, was given the Rough Rider award from The TR Group, a Manhattan-based Republican organization that derives its name from the initials of Theodore Roosevelt. Sliwa was further presented with a certificate of recognition from Brooklyn Congressman Vito J. Fossella, who is New York City’s highest-elected Republican.

“Curtis has done a lot to improve the quality of life in New York City,” said Robert Capano, director of Brooklyn operations for Rep. Fossella, whose 13th Congressional District encompasses Staten Island and the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Gravesend. “Curtis’ work with the Guardian Angels was a big part of that.”

Sliwa, a longtime Republican advocate, founded and still heads the Guardian Angels, a semi-vigilante group whose mission is to protect citizens and prevent crimes at times when the police are not around. Sliwa fully advocates the legal use of the right to make a citizen’s arrest, as well as the application of physical force if necessary.

Sliwa, who had just come from the taping of his “Political Rundown” television show on NY1, was dressed in his customary Guardian Angels uniform, with shiny red jacket and a red beret. He was also wearing his walkie-talkie and had to pause during a taped interview with Moscow television reporters to answer a radio call from one of his fellow Guardian Angels on nearby patrol.

After delivering a vivacious and commanding speech to his Republican supporters last week in the lounge of Tiro a Segno, the city’s oldest ethnic club, which sits unobtrusively on MacDougal Street and has a rifle range in the basement, Sliwa told his harrowing tales of crime-fighting to a Russian film crew. Sliwa spoke about John Gotti’s ordered assassination of him that failed in 1992, when a stolen and altered taxicab picked up Sliwa, and a gunman popped out of the dashboard and started shooting him.

Sliwa was shot multiple times with hollow-point bullets, and when he reached for the door handle to bail out, he realized that the door handles had been sawed off. He managed to dive over the front seat and out the window, where the mobsters left him for dead. But Sliwa survived.

He has always been a survivor. Sliwa grew up on the tough streets of Canarsie and battled the neighborhood kids who grew up to become the criminals that he still fights. Nicholas Corrozo, the Gambino crime-family captain who remains the sole mobster still at large after the recent Mafia takedown by the feds, was the one who devised the method to have him murdered in the taxicab, said Sliwa.

“I grew up with him. I grew up with them all,” he said. “I’ve been battling them since I was a youngster.” The seeds of his anti-crime ideology and community activism began when Sliwa was very young. After being given a scholarship to attend the prestigious Brown University, Sliwa was forced to forego enrolling when he was expelled from Brooklyn Prep School during his senior year for student activism. Instead, Sliwa became the night manger of a McDonald’s restaurant in a crime-ridden section of the Bronx.

It was on the subway known as the “Muggers Express,” which Sliwa rode back and forth from his home to his work, that the concept of the Guardian Angels was born. Sliwa was sick and tired of the crime that he saw plague the riders on the 4 train in the late ’70s. And on Feb. 13, 1979, Sliwa started the group of crime fighters, which now has grown to include more than 100 Guardian Angel chapters worldwide, as well as a nationally renowned Internet safety-program called CyberAngels.

Capano, who grew up in Bay Ridge, remembers the violence and crime that too often posed a threat to him as a youngster on the Muggers Express back then. But Capano, an avid and unstoppable New York Yankees fan, would not be dissuaded from making the long subway journey to the Bronx during baseball season. “It was scary,” he said. But Sliwa put an end to a lot of that.

Even the coat-check woman at Tiro a Segno remembered the Guardian Angels quickly responding to the scene when she was mugged in Greenwich Village years ago. “I like him,” she said. “They’re good.”

Possible mayoral candidate and grocery-store mogul John Catsimatidis, also made some remarks. State Senate candidate John G. Chromczak, who is running as the Republican opponent to Democrat Marty Connor for a seat in the 25th Congressional District, which includes parts of Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens and Downtown Brooklyn, was also in attendance.

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=19002
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/08/08 03:02 PM

The longtime supervisor of the FBI squad investigating the Gambino crime family has been whacked - by his bosses, the Daily News has learned.

Supervisory special agent Phil Scala, one of the most respected investigators in the metropolitan area, reached the mandatory retirement age of 57 last year and was granted a six-month extension to stay on the job.

Scala wanted to extend for another six months, but the suits in Washington refused and he was ordered to clean out his office late last week.

FBI spokesman James Margolin confirmed Scala's retirement but declined to comment further.

Sources said Scala wanted to stay on, especially on the heels of last month's massive takedown of 62 members and associates of the crime family, including the boss, underboss and consigliere, which he coordinated from the FBI command center in lower Manhattan.

"This is the way they treat somebody they like," said a source loyal to Scala. "He was led to believe the request was going to be approved."

For the past two decades, Scala and legendary Gambino-buster Bruce Mouw - who brought the late John Gotti to justice - were the only supervisors of the vaunted squad.

"Guys like Phil want to stay because they really make a contribution," Mouw said Thursday. "He knew all the names and places. You can't keep tabs on the players with a scorecard."

Sources said FBI Assistant Director Mark Mershon had backed Scala's extension, but headquarters want to end the practice of agents staying longer than six months past their 57th birthday.

"His in-depth understanding of organized crime will be difficult to replace," said Thomas Seigel, the former chief of Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's organized crime section.

Another source said Scala's expertise would be particularly missed in the next critical stage of the Gambino racketeering case as some defendants may defect from the Mafia.

Scala, a 29-year veteran of the FBI, was also a longtime member of the bureau's SWAT team.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime...to_pasture.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/15/08 08:26 AM

This ain't 'The Sopranos.' This is real f- - -ing life."
Those were the words said by bodybuilder-turned-reputed mob enforcer Vincent Filipelli to an undercover New Jersey state trooper in the parking lot of a South Philly gentleman's club in May 2006.

"Money's turned in to him, he turns the money to me, my money's turned in to my people," Filipelli continued, according to the transcript of the undercover taped conversation.

Filipelli, 54, of Cherry Hill, pleaded guilty last year to a one-count indictment charging him with interstate travel in aid of gambling for threatening the undercover trooper - who he thought owed a sports gambling debt.

Yesterday, in U.S. District Court in Camden, Filipelli was expected to be sentenced. After a full-day hearing, Judge Noel L. Hillman continued sentencing to Wednesday.

Dressed in an olive-green jumpsuit, his legs shackled, Filipelli, a balding man with a toothy grin, gave a thumbs-up to supporters - who numbered 25 in the morning - when he first entered the courtroom.

Among his character witnesses were a priest, a physical-fitness trainer and a friend and a neighbor who both consider him to be a good role model for kids.

The charge against Filipelli stems from the May 25, 2006, meeting when he traveled from New Jersey to the parking lot of the Crazy Horse Too gentlemen's club on South Columbus Boulevard.

There, he met with two men who, unbeknownst to him, were undercover New Jersey state troopers. He thought one of the men owed a $13,000 gambling debt.

According to the transcript of the taped conversation, Filipelli told the undercoverofficer: "I'll come to your house, I'll hunt you down until I'm paid. I'll come in here and snatch you right out of this f- - -in' place. I don't give a f- - - because that's what my job is to do."

Yesterday in court, four friends testified that Filipelli is not a threat to society.

John Stabeno, a Roman Catholic priest who now runs a halfway house helping people with drug and alcohol addiction, said Filipelli is a "friendly, good man."

When asked under cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven D'Aguanno how he would hold Filipelli responsible for his crime, Stabeno said, "Hopefully, that he can change . . . make better decisions in the future."

When pressed on the question, Stabeno instead blurted out his thoughts about cops and undercover work.

A person who makes a bad decision, he said, is "a police officer who's going to uphold the law, trying to bait someone to break it."

Hearing that, Filipelli's supporters in the gallery chuckled and clapped.

Michael Monforto, Filipelli's friend of 25 years, testified that he had previously invited Filipelli - a former Mr. America and Mr. Universe competitor - to a Christmas bazaar he held "for mentally and physically challenged kids in the area."

Filipelli would show them photos and play with the kids, Monforto said.

Neighbor Melanie Singer described Filipelli "like a Fred Flintstone kind of guy," with a loud voice, not an intimidating one.

Filipelli previously served about four years in prison on a federal racketeering charge in connection with his involvement in Philadelphia's La Cosa Nostra. He had worked as a mob enforcer for former crime boss, John Stanfa. In 1998, he got out of prison and was sent to a halfway house on supervised release.

D'Aguanno, the prosecutor, argued yesterday that once someone is part of La Cosa Nostra, he's always part of it. He contended that Filipelli's 2006 debt collection at the Crazy Horse Too was part of his continuing work with the South Philly mob.

As such, he recommended to the judge that Filipelli be sentenced to 63 to 78 months in federal prison, an upward departure from the expected guidelines.

D'Aguanno pointed to a July 1998 meeting Filipelli had with Joey Merlino - once Stanfa's rival - as an example of Filipelli's attempts to work for the mob after he got out of prison.

Defense attorney Donald Manno, however, argued to the court that Filipelli was done with organized crime in 1994. He asked the judge to consider Filipelli's guilty plea as an acceptance of responsibility, and requested a downward departure from the guidelines.

He contended that the 1998 meeting with Merlino was so Filipelli could get out of a $10,000 debt he owed before going into prison, and was not an attempt to return to organized crime.

He also argued that the 2006 Crazy Horse Too meeting was simply a collection for a bookmaker who had no ties to the mob.

At the end of yesterday's all-day hearing, Filipelli was given an opportunity to speak.

"I'm totally wrong, your Honor. I made a mistake," he said. He said he had promised his sister he "will never be in trouble again," and was now making the same promise to the court. *

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20...ht_on_tape.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/15/08 08:29 AM

his lifetime, former Mafia boss Joseph Massino was involved in at least one deal involving money and laundering that was perfectly legal - and someone still got victimized.

Today, Massino is a mob rat hiding in the Bureau of Prisons' witness protection program. And among the victims left in the wake of the treacherous ex-boss of the Bonanno crime family is a hardworking small businessman named Gary Lehman.

Eight years ago, Lehman bought G&J Launderette, a legitimate business in a building Massino owned at 60-37 Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood. He forked over $6,979 to Massino as a security deposit for rent and water usage.

Every month, Massino's wife, Josephine, stopped by to pick up the rent check, and Lehman met her husband occasionally when he stopped by an Italian coffee shop next door.

"Regardless of what was printed about him, they were nice people," Lehman, 59, said.

But it all came crashing down for Massino in the summer of 2004 after a federal jury convicted him of racketeering and ordering seven murders. The jury also ordered him to give $10.4 million to the feds, plus his CasaBlanca restaurant on Eliot Ave. and other real estate properties, including the building where the launderette is located.

Last year, the U.S. Marshals Service sold the building, and thus began Lehman's struggle to recover his deposit.

"I don't know if Massino has the money, his wife, or the marshals," he said.

Not one to give up easily, Lehman filed a summons in Queens Small Claims Court, then in Queens Supreme Court and recently in Brooklyn Federal Court.

An assistant U.S. attorney is representing the government, but it has been difficult for Lehman to find a lawyer willing to handle a federal case involving such a paltry sum of money.

Fernando Arias, an attorney in Jackson Heights, is trying to help. Last week, U.S. Magistrate Cheryl Pollack ordered both sides to work out a settlement in 90 days.

Lehman "doesn't have any issue with the Massinos. His only issue is the return of the deposit," Arias told the Daily News.

As for Lehman, he wasn't interested in Massino then and he isn't now.

"I'm a regular guy, and I didn't buy the business to meet him," he said


http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/quee...is_6g_depo.html
Posted By: pizzaboy

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/19/08 03:36 PM

Hey Chopper, no posts from you in this thread a while?
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/19/08 05:18 PM

Ive Been Busy mate \:\)

Italian police arrested 21 alleged Cosa Nostra bagmen Monday, amid signs mob victims are actually rebelling.

The arrests were believed to be the first time police have apprehended such a large group of alleged crime syndicate operatives based on the word of the people on which they had been preying, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Informants also played a major role in the arrests, ANSA reported.

A joint statement issued by two anti-mob groups credited the cooperation of business people.

In a bid to dent the Mafia's control, the Sicilian branch of the industrial employees union has vowed to eject any members paying for protection.

The federation has been contacting businessmen mentioned in a log book seized during the arrest last November of reputed Cosa Nostra chief Salvatore Lo Piccolo.

Businesses now have to choose between going to the police or being thrown out of the federation, ANSA reported.


http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/17/italy_conducts_mobster_sweep/3514/
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/19/08 05:20 PM

When Michael "Mickey" Marcello visited his half-brother, Chicago mob boss James Marcello, in prison in 2003, the men talked about the possibility that Michael Marcello would get locked up too.

Michael Marcello told his brother he wasn't worried.


"What are they going to do, give me two f------ years?" he asked, in a secret recording the FBI made of the visit.

Michael Marcello was off -- by more than 6 years, he learned Tuesday.

Michael Marcello, 57, received 8 1/2 years in prison, just moments after he wiped away tears while hearing his son and stepson tell the judge how much they loved him. He's the first to be sentenced in the Family Secrets mob case.

Michael Marcello ran a lucrative video poker machine operation in the western suburbs and carried out his half-brother's orders while James Marcello was in prison, authorities say.

"Jimmy is the kind of guy who puts targets of the backs of people," the late federal prosecutor Mitch Mars said of James Marcello in 2005.

"Mickey is dangerous because he communicates Jimmy's wishes."

James Marcello was convicted at trial in September in the Family Secrets case. Michael Marcello pleaded guilty in June but did not cooperate against his brother.

Federal prosecutor T. Markus Funk conceded that Michael Marcello was not the worst of the worst Outfit members, but noted the comparison is relative.

"When you're talking about the Chicago Outfit, you're talking about a pretty grim and evil bunch," Funk said.

Michael Marcello, who worked for the Chicago Sun-Times as a truck driver from 1986 to 1995, apologized for his crimes and said he had nobody to blame but himself.

"I embarrassed myself and my family," he said.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel sentenced him to nearly the maximum under the advisory sentencing guidelines.

Zagel suggested that Michael Marcello was maybe "too good of a brother" to James Marcello.

"I think the lesson that you can derive from this . . . is that even when you talk about friends and family, limits have to be drawn," Zagel said.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/mob/838098,CST-NWS-mob12.article
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/22/08 03:40 PM

BOSTON, MA - A former Medford man was convicted yesterday, in U.S. District Court
of conspiracy to possess cocaine and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in
Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - New England Division, announced that
ROBERT C. LUISI, age 46, formerly of Medford, was convicted by a jury sitting before U.S.
District Judge William G. Young of drug charges.
Evidence presented during the nine-day trial proved that LUISI was a Capo Regime, or
lieutenant, in the Philadelphia Family of La Cosa Nostra, commonly known as the mafia, and
that he and his crew operated in the Boston area. An undercover FBI agent successfully
infiltrated LUISI’S crew and recorded numerous conversations relating to illegal activity
including principally sales of cocaine. Recordings played for the jury evidenced LUISI
orchestrating drug sales. LUISI was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine during the
period February 1999 through June 28, 1999 and distribution of cocaine on April 30 and June 3,
1999. In 2002, LUISI was tried and convicted on these same charges. The United States Court
of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed that conviction and ordered a new trial.
LUISI faces a mandatory minimum term of 10 years' imprisonment up to a maximum of
life imprisonment on the conspiracy charge and a maximum of 20 years' imprisonment on the
distribution charges, to be followed by 5 years of supervised release. Judge Young scheduled
sentencing for May 8, 2008.
U.S. Attorney Sullivan said, “LUISI’S conviction is the direct result of outstanding work
by the F.B.I. in investigating this case, both in the District of Massachusetts and in Philadelphia.
The case should serve as a cautionary tale for any organized crime groups that might be tempted
to test the waters in Massachusetts. The consequences will be severe.”


http://boston.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/cocainedist031408.pdf
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/22/08 03:42 PM

Vincent Filipelli of Cherry Hill, who more than a decade ago was a bodyguard and driver for a leader of Philadelphia's organized crime family, was sentenced Wednesday to 66 months in federal prison.


Filipelli had pleaded guilty to interstate travel in aid of racketeering, an offense that covered his admission that he told a man in Philadelphia he would "put him in the hospital for a year" if he did not pay a $10,000 illegal sports gambling bet.

The target of the threat was an undercover New Jersey State Police detective.

While his sentencing was pending in U.S. District Court, Filipelli was indicted by a state grand jury in November on charges of running a gambling Web site and possession of illegal steroids and weapons. The weapons and steroids were found during a raid at Filipelli's house.

The gambling charges are pending in state court.

Wednesday's sentencing by U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman followed more than 12 hours of legal argument over two days from defense attorney Donald F. Manno and Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven D'Aguanno.

Manno sought a lighter sentence because Filipelli had pleaded guilty. D'Aguanno wanted more time because of Filipelli's admitted connection to La Cosa Nostra.

Filipelli has been in custody since his arrest on federal charges in October 2006.

At a bail hearing following that arrest, friends and neighbors on Filipelli's block of West New York Avenue in Erlton almost filled a courtroom in U.S. District Court, offering support and pledging money to meet his bail.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080320/NEWS01/803200402/1006
Posted By: BDuff

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/22/08 04:01 PM

Filipelli is an idiot
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/22/08 04:18 PM

Threatining a undercover agent is never a smart move.
Posted By: BDuff

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/22/08 08:50 PM

It's like what Nick Carimandi did back in the 80s, which caused him to flip out of fear of Nicky Scarfo. Filipelli will be back on the streets soon enough, Ligambi likes him.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/24/08 01:46 PM

Banished from Gambino crime family activities by his infamous brothers John and Gene - and relegated to being a house-husband while his wife brought home the money - Vincent Gotti's crime career was mired in drug abuse and petty arrests.

But times have changed, mostly for the worse for the Gambinos, and Vincent Gotti has finally hit the big time, sort of.

Six years ago, after the death of his boss brother John - and just before he turned 50 - Vincent, the black sheep of the Gotti family, finally became a Mafia soldier, authorities say.

The career surge came with a burgeoning loansharking business and the right to order at least one murder, the feds said.

Unfortunately, finally getting on the mob radar meant he got caught up in the recent massive indictment that Brooklyn federal prosecutors say has nearly decimated the Gambinos.

"Because the crimes for which [Vincent] Gotti has been charged constitute crimes of violence and narcotics offenses for which the maximum term of imprisonment is life," Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan Norris argued in court papers, prosecutors asked that he be jailed without bail.

Magistrate Robert Levy and Federal Judge Jack Weinstein denied him bail this month in hearings that divulged many new details about this virtually forgotten Gotti.

"I can't sleep," Gotti told Weinstein last week in court after the judge asked if he was being treated well at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Defense lawyer Scott Leemon jumped in, saying that some inmates in the prison dormitory are up until 3 a.m.

The judge chuckled.

"It might be a question of age," Weinstein said. "I'm sure at one time he could have slept through that."

Vincent Gotti's rap sheet starts in 1973, when he pleaded guilty to petty larceny. Over the next two decades, he was collared for robbery, criminal impersonation and indicted in 1980 for selling cocaine.

During this time he was also abusing drugs himself, leading to the exile imposed by older brothers John and Gene.

Law enforcement sources said Vincent Gotti was banned from John Gotti's social club scene, the Ravenite in Little Italy and the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park, Queens.

Although John Gotti did not disapprove of drug dealing and Gene Gotti remains in prison for heroin trafficking, Mafia rules prohibit drug use.

"John abhorred drug users," a source said. "Not for moral reasons, but for security reasons. The security of the family."

Former FBI agent George Gabriel summed up Vincent Gotti's situation in a 1992 interview with his parole officer: "Vincent has no place within the family organization. He was chased away as an embarrassment due to the stupid things he has done in the past," he said in a document in the parole file.

Even behind prison walls, though, the surname Gotti still carried some weight.

A prison superintendent at the Queensboro Correctional Facility was demoted for asking Vincent to "pull strings" with executives at a construction company about a prison project, the Albany Times Union reported.

Vincent Gotti was once a shop steward in Local 23 of a construction union, but doesn't appear to have worked for some time except for a job in a phone store.

His lawyer described Vincent in court as a "homemaker" whose wife of 24 years, Carmela, brings home the bacon from her job at a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange.

The Gottis reside in a modest home in Hewlett, L.I., with their daughter, 16, and a son, 10.

The bail motion states that Vincent coaches his son's baseball team, "never misses his daughter's softball games" and is "very active" in a charity called Bless the Kids Foundation.

The foundation's Web site lists an address in Ozone Park; the phone number is disconnected.

John Gotti died of throat cancer in prison in June 2002. Five months later, with eldest brother Peter Gotti running the Gambinos, Vincent was inducted into the family.

Prosecutors allege Vincent has gotten into loansharking and ordered the murder of Howard Beach bagel store owner Angelo Mugnolo in 2003.

A former law enforcement official said he was "surprised" to learn of Vincent Gotti's emergence from obscurity. "I guess it's the passing of years and the [Gambino] ranks have gotten thinner," the official offered as an explanation

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime...e_i.html?page=1
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/24/08 01:50 PM

Police from Thailand´s Department of Special Investigation have swooped on a suspected member of the ´Bandidos´ motorcycle gang, which is accused of involvement in drug dealing money laundering, and dubious land practices on the island of Koh Samui.

According to the Bangkok Post, Police Colonel Pravuth Wongsinil, chief of the consumer and environment protection unit named the suspect as 32-year-old British national Lauren Daniel James Fray, the owner of owner of Sabai Thani Property Co.

“Mr Fray entered Thailand as a tourist and used loopholes in Thai laws to buy and sell public land and real estate with the assistance of Thai lawyers,” he said.

http://www.property-report.com/aprarchives.php?id=1315&date=180308
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/25/08 06:17 PM

Six men alleged to be leaders among the Montreal Mafia have decided to proceed with a trial on several charges related to Project Colisée.

All six, including Nicolo Rizzuto, the octogenarian father of reputed mob boss Vito Rizzuto, appeared before Superior Court Justice James Brunton on Tuesday through a video linkup between the Montreal courthouse and the Bordeaux and Montreal detention centres.

Lawyers representing all six said they are ready to proceed with a trial in Quebec Court before a judge alone. Prosecutor Yvan Poulin said the Crown did not object with the request.

Two weeks in September have been set aside for both sides to argue pretrial motions. The case is scheduled to be heard at the special courthouse on Gouin Blvd., which was constructed for criminal trials held against members of the Hells Angels a few years ago. Since then, the courthouse has been used for other trials involving several defendants tied to organized crime.

Project Colisée was a lengthy police investigation into the activities of the Montreal Mafia and resulted in the arrests of more than 90 people in November 2006. Most of the investigation was conducted while Vito Rizzuto was behind bars and awaiting the outcome of a U.S. case where he ultimately pleaded guilty to racketeering for his role in the 1981 murders of three men in New York. He is serving his sentence in the U.S.

The six men who appeared before Brunton on Tuesday were singled out as leaders in the alleged conspiracies probed during Project Colisée, including drug trafficking, extortion and illegal gambling.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/ne...948c63c&k=99730
Posted By: Lilo

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/26/08 10:08 AM

John Gotti must be spinning in his grave: The late Gambino crime boss' self-proclaimed "adopted son" is a rat.

Lewis Kasman, a multimillionaire mob wanna-be, has been secretly taping conversations with gangsters since late 2005, federal prosecutors revealed Tuesday.

Kasman could never be a sworn member of organized crime because he was not Italian, but his betrayal of the Mafia is shocking because of the unique access he enjoyed for years in Gotti's inner circle.

He used his contacts with hotel queen Leona Helmsley to plan John A. (Junior) Gotti's wedding at the Helmsley Palace in 1990, was a family spokesman during the elder Gotti's prison cancer battle, and gave the eulogy at his 2002 funeral.

Previously, Kasman gave the Dapper Don a $70,000 no-show job at a sham company in the Garment District and even took a perjury rap by lying to a grand jury about his knowledge of the Mafia.

"He was very close to John and John truly cared about him," said a knowledgeable source. "He occupied a position like a son."

Kasman, 51, is to testify tomorrow in Brooklyn Federal Court at a hearing to determine whether reputed mob lawyer Joseph Corozzo Jr. should be disqualified from representing his father, Joseph Sr., the reputed Gambino consigliere, in his upcoming racketeering trial.

Another source said that some defense lawyers were warned that Kasman was cooperating with the government, but apparently no one told the Corozzos.

He will talk about his relationship with the leaders of the crime family and his knowledge of both Corozzos' criminal activities, prosecutors Joey Lipton and Roger Burlingame said.

Sources said Kasman's decision to flip was based more on feeling disrespected than cutting a deal to stay out of jail. "He thought of himself as a better son to John than his own son," said another source.

"There was an element of trying to clear up all accounts [of past wrongdoing]. But he felt that after John died, things were different and he was just being squeezed for money."

Kasman visited Junior Gotti in prison, but the two were not close, the mob scion's defense lawyer said yesterday.

"I have no concern that John has had any conversations with him [since 2005] or is on a wire," lawyer Charles Carnesi said.

Two years ago, Kasman bought a $1.5 million home in an exclusive gated community in Boca Raton, Fla. His name has appeared occasionally in a Palm Beach Post gossip column, including a sighting backstage with his kids at a Lindsay Lohan concert, and watching Florida Marlins baseball games from a luxury box.

Kasman's mother-in-law professed no knowledge of his undercover work for the feds. "I don't know anything about this," Sandy Kula told the Daily News. "This is the first I'm hearing of it. I don't see him."

Kasman bitterly complained to Ganglandnews.com author Jerry Capeci in 2006 that Junior Gotti would be "destroying his father's legacy" if he testified at his retrial on racketeering charges.

Instead, Kasman will take the witness stand and break a rule that would have earned him a death sentence - even from his mentor and "adopted father."

jmarzulli@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime...just_like_.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/26/08 05:17 PM

Thanks Lilo \:\)
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/26/08 10:58 PM

Italy has its own version of Mad Cow disease. It hasn't got a name yet, but you could call it Mad Buffalo disease. Buffalo milk, not cow's milk, is used to make Italy's finest mozzarella, the rubbery, and expensive, porcelain-white cheese used in pizza and lasagna. Some of the buffalo milk is contaminated with dioxin and sales of mozzarella are down between 30 and 50 per cent. Japan and South Korea this week banned mozzarella imports.

No one I know is buying buffalo mozzarella, most of which comes from the Campania region around garbage-clogged Naples. The Italians are furious. Not only is mozzarella a dietary staple, it is a symbol of Italy's glorious food culture. Shame on mozzarella translates into shame on Italy.

The Italians blame the Neapolitan Mafia, known as the Camorra, for the mozzarella crisis. They are probably right. The run-off from the Camorra's illegal toxic dumps in Campania has no doubt contaminated the land and the water in some parts of the region. Dioxins are a known carcinogenic (though there are many types of dioxin, ranging from the relatively benign to the outright deadly). Dozens of buffalo herds have been quarantined because of higher-than-normal dioxin levels have been found in the animals' milk. Italy has some 250,000 buffalo whose milk is devoted to mozzarella production.

This being Italy, it's extremely hard for consumers to judge the true health risks. Unbiased opinions are rare and spin is rife. The Italian government today essentially told everyone to relax. Agriculture minister Paulo De Castro slammed what he called “the negative campaign that risks having an important economic and social impact on all products from Campania.”

Note that the minister didn't go so far as to say all buffalo mozzarella is safe. Meanwhile the Italian Confederation of Farmers said the mozzarella panic is not justified because the contamination affects only a tiny portion of the mozzarella farms. But the European Commission is erring on the side of caution. On Tuesday it asked for assurances from the Italian health and food authorities that the mozzarella is safe. It wants an answer by tomorrow.

The tragedy of the mozzarella mess is that everyone saw it coming and almost nothing was done about it. It's been an open secret for years that the Camorra hass been dumping thousands of truck loads of toxic waste on farms (some of which they probably own), in rivers and in caves in Campania. Two years ago Italian author Roberto Saviano wrote a book, called “Gomorra,” about the Camorra's stranglehold on the Neapolitan economy. Several chapters were devoted to the toxic waste racket.

Mr. Saviano said the problem began in earnest in the 1990s, when the Camorra cleverly solved northern Italy's shortage of dumps and incinerator capacity by trucking the waste south and stuffing it into already-packed landfills and unlicensed sites. One cavern was found brimming with the equivalent of 28,000 truckloads of trash.

Because the Mob charges close to market rates to pick up the waste but dumps it for next to nothing, the profits are lavish. "We're talking about six billion euros in two years," Mr. Saviano said in an interview by email in February (he lives under police protection because of the mob death threats against him and rarely gives face-to-face interviews). "Farmlands bought at extremely low prices are transformed into illegal dumping grounds. Putting their own men into the local administration, the Camorra enters the waste business at all levels. … The type of garbage dumped includes everything: barrels of paint, printer toner, human skeletons, cloths used for cleaning cow udders, zinc, arsenic and the residue of industrial chemicals."

The authorities finally caught on in 2002, when the first of the "eco-Mafia" trials began. But the problem persists. In a 2006 study of 196 municipalities in the region, the World Health Organization found "significant excesses" — up to 12 per cent higher than the national average — for stomach, liver, kidney, lung and pancreatic cancer. In the town of Acerra, about 20 kilometres northeast of Naples, sheep are dying because of high levels of toxicity found in the land. Many thousands of buffalo have been slaughtered.

In spite of the effort by the mozzarella makers and the government to remove some of the fear factor, the truth is the dioxin contamination could be widespread in Campania, thanks to the toxic dumps. If so the mozzarella crisis will take months, perhaps years, go go away. Fancy pizza with cheddar instead?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/s...Story/WBwreguly
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/26/08 11:01 PM

Police fear a Mafia war is about to break out after a mobster was gunned down in a revenge hit yesterday.

Giuseppe Cavallo, 27, was shot in his car, leaving his wife badly hurt, less than 48 hours after rival gangster Luca Megna, 37, was killed nearby in southern Italy.

Both were members of of the N'Drangheta in Calabria, said to be even more bloodthirsty than the Sicilian Mafia

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/...89520-20362920/
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 03/28/08 08:04 AM

The murder of a man in southern Italy has fuelled concern about an escalation of a blood feud among the Calabrian mafia or 'Ndrangheta.
Police say the victim, Francesco Capicchiano, 33, was carrying a pistol but did not even have time to draw it as two gunmen opened fire.

It was the third mafia murder in the Crotone area in just five days.

The 'Ndrangheta, has overtaken Sicily's Cosa Nostra as the richest and most fearsome of the Italian mafia.

It is characterised by close blood ties and a global reach. Long under-estimated it shot to international attention after last August's massacre of six young Italian men outside a pizzeria in Duisburg, Germany.

That high profile massacre was part of a faida, or feud, that had started in 1991, and which had often featured attacks on religious holidays.

Early funeral

Before Francesco Capicchiano's murder on Thursday, Luca Megna was shot dead as he drove his wife and daughter through Crotone on Easter Saturday, 22 March.

This region looks more and more like Iraq, where people are killed in broad daylight



He died instantly, his wife was injured and a bullet in the head of his five-year-old daughter has left her in a coma.

In true mafia style, the revenge attack mirrored the original murder. The family of Giuseppe Cavallo, 37, faced a hail of bullets as they travelled across town. The two-year-old daughter was miraculously unhurt.

In a sign of just how worried they are about further violence, local security forces ordered that Megna's funeral on Thursday be held at 0600, with no funeral procession and only the closest family present.

Teachers at a middle school attended by many children of the two rival clans all phoned in sick on Thursday - fearful for the safety of their pupils and themselves.

The headmaster appealed to the local police chief and administrators to intervene to ensure the safety of students and teachers alike.

Investigators believe the three murders are part of a clan war for control of the drug trade and extortion in Crotone. But they believe other huge business interests may have triggered the conflict.

Al-Qaeda comparison

The anti-mafia commission report points to the 'Ndrangheta's interest in the Europaradiso project to be built within a nature reserve near Crotone - it would be one of the biggest tourist centres in the Mediterranean with 120,000 beds and work for 4,000 people.


'Ndrangheta chief Pasquale Condello was arrested in February

The parliamentary anti-mafia committee, this year dedicated a specific report to the 'Ndrangheta, which it likens to al-Qaeda because of its tentacular structure and lack of hierarchy.

Over the decades, the crime syndicate was able to exploit the presence of Calabrian immigrants in all corners of the globe, from Colombia to Canada, from Australia to Germany.

The president of the parliamentary anti-mafia committee, Francesco Forgione, who is running in Calabria for a Senate seat in the upcoming general election, said the upsurge in violence in Crotone "puts at risk the serenity of this electoral campaign".

Veteran politician Giacomo Mancini compared the situation to a war zone.

"They promised to turn Calabria inside out and instead this region looks more and more like Iraq, where people are killed in broad daylight with pump shotguns fired against cars," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7317897.stm
Posted By: Peter_Clemenza

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/04/08 10:41 AM

Boy (14) still held over Limerick shooting

A 14-year-old boy is still being held by gardaí investigating a shooting in the St Mary's Park area of Limerick earlier this week.

The shooting took place at 6.15am on Wednesday when a shot was fired at a house on St Munchin's Street. The house was occupied, but nobody was injured.

There was a similar attack on another house in the same estate on Sunday morning.

Two teenagers were seen running from the scene of the shootings, and a sawn-off shotgun was found by gardaí nearby.

An 18-year-old youth and the 14-year-old were arrested at 10am. The older youth has been freed.

The 14-year-old had been arrested and released by gardaí just hours before the gun attack after he was stopped driving a car near the estate while wearing a bulletproof vest.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0404/breaking9.htm
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/06/08 10:31 AM

The deportation of former Mafia boss Rosario Gambino from the United States to Italy has been delayed, sources told Adnkronos.

The 65-year-old Gambino,(photo) cousin of Carlo Gambino, boss of the Gambino crime family, has been sought by Italian authorities since 2001, when a request for extradition was originally denied by US judges.

Eleven attempts for his extradition were rejected by US authorities on the grounds that a law known as '41-bis' could be result in Gambino being tortured in Italy.

The '41-bis' article of the Italian penitentiary act gives power to the minister of justice to suspend prison regulations, and can include a ban on association with other prisoners, a ban on receiving parcels and visits by family members among others.

Since Gambino is not a US citizen, a US judge signed the deportation order on Tuesday for Gambino to return to his native Italy after completing a 22-year jail term for drug trafficking charges.

He has since been kept in an immigration detention centre.

Gambino built up a massive illicit drugs trade between American and fellow mobsters in Italy during the late 70s .

Reportedly, Gambino and his two brothers set up a pizzeria known as Father and Son which the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claimed was used as a front to launder money and deliver drugs.

Gambino is also believed to have had ties with Michele Sindona, a corrupt international banker with numerous ties to the Mafia who was used by the Mob to launder billions in drug money in late the 70s and early 80s.

Sindona, was poisoned in jail in 1986 while serving a life sentence for the murder of lawyer Giorgio Ambrosoli.

It is alleged that in 2001, Roger Clinton, half-brother of the then president Bill Clinton had sought to free Rosario Gambino with a presidential pardon, after having allegedly received 50,000 dollars among other gifts by the Gambino family.

The pardon was never issued by Bill Clinton.



http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2035492351
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/06/08 10:32 AM

reputed Gambino crime family associate from the Oakwood section of Staten Island helped peddle more than a ton of pot, raking in millions of dollars for an organization known as "Cartoon Network."

But the prison sentence a federal judge hit Frank Paul Adamita with today was no joke.

Senior District Judge Leonard D. Wexler sentenced Adamita to 65 months or five years and five months, behind bars. The proceeding was held on Long Island in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Adamita's lawyer, Charles F. Carnesi, could not immediately be reached today for comment; however, he previously denied any link between his client and organized crime.

Federal prosecutors said Adamita, 34, was a wholesale distributor for the organization, and helped grow some of the pot in a Brooklyn apartment, while peddling it mainly on Long Island. He even considered setting up a "grow house" in Graniteville in 2006 with an associate to hydroponically cultivate the illegal cash crop.

The defendant pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to distribute and possess marijuana. He remains free on $1 million bond and is to surrender May 30 to begin his sentence.

Prosecutors allege that Adamita's father, Emanuele Adamita, also was a member of the Gambinos and supervised the importation and distribution of multiple kilos of heroin in the "Pizza Connection" case of two decades ago. The crooks allegedly laundered the proceeds through pizza parlors used as fronts. The elder Adamita was deported to Sicily after completing a 10-year federal sentence in 1998.

Cartoon Network moved more than 1,000 kilograms -- more than 2,200 pounds -- of marijuana while in business between January 2000 and October 2006, according to the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. The organization is not affiliated with the TV network of the same name.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/reputed_mobster_from_staten_is.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/12/08 02:41 PM

Peter Gotti is trying to persuade a judge to trim his prison term, saying his health has declined since he has been behind bars.

The older brother of the late mob boss John Gotti is suffering from a list of ailments ranging from gout to glaucoma, his lawyer told a judge Thursday. Attorney Joseph A. Bondy asked that his client's 9 1/2-year sentence in a Brooklyn racketeering case be reduced to the five years he has already served.

"He's been through enough," Bondy said.

Judge Frederic Block did not immediately rule on the request.

Peter Gotti, 68, became the acting boss of the Gambino organized crime family in 1997, after his elder brother went to prison and his nephew, John "Junior" Gotti, was beset by legal woes, authorities have said.

He was convicted in April 2004 of racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering linked to the Gambinos' domination of the Brooklyn waterfront. A federal appeals court upheld the conviction in 2006 but said he might be entitled to a lesser sentence.

Should he get one, Gotti still would face a 25-year sentence for ordering a failed hit on mob informant Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, the key prosecution witness in the racketeering case that sent John Gotti to prison for life

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/11/america/NA-GEN-US-Peter-Gotti.php
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/14/08 07:01 AM

GoodFellas was the definitive mafia film - and it is the story of one man, Henry Hill, one of the only survivors of a ruthless gang of robbers and killers.

Hill walked the streets of New York as a king - an associate of the Lucchese crime family. He stole big, he spent big and took vast quantities of drugs.

Then he got caught and spent 30 years in the witness protection programme, telling the police all they needed to know to put his mafia bosses behind bars.

"I couldn't walk around this neighbourhood ten years ago," he says standing, smoking outside Junior's diner in Long Island City. "There'd be bullets flying all over the place."

His morning started with fried calamari washed down with a glass of wine and a shot of whiskey. But it was not the Dutch courage that meant he dared to visit his old haunting grounds on this murky spring day.

"I'm old enough to die, just as long as they do it quickly," he says, pointing to his forehead.

Hill is a very different looking man from the one shown on the big screen. He is short, grey-haired, with lines on his face.

A cigarette barely leaves his hand. The same goes for a bottle of beer.

After Junior's, it was on to his mistress's house. She was called Janice Rossi in the film, Linda in real life, and Hill confirms the famous scene where his wife, Karen, is madly pressing apartment buzzers and screaming that Janice is a "whore".

But he says in reality he was in the apartment too and had to climb down the drainpipe to get out and reach home before Karen returned.

Hill says: "If you can't love two people at once, there's something wrong with you."

I point out that his wife probably did not see it that way. "Obviously she didn't," says Hill.

After a short interlude where he tries to persuade a traffic warden not to give us a ticket - "Sistergirl, please," he says - we are off to Robert's Lounge.

The club was owned by Jimmy Burke (Robert de Niro's character in the film) and was the scene of Spider's (played by Michael Imperioli) death.

"Spider was killed in the basement," Hill says. He describes the dark room filling up with smoke and the deafening echo of bullets in the tiny space.

He says Spider was buried in the basement along with several others killed there or nearby over the years. With a grim look he says: "This is a graveyard."

'Bust some heads'

GoodFellas contained several scenes of visceral, shocking violence and it was not an exaggeration.

Joe Coffey became a policeman because the mafia shot his dad. It happened when he was eight and they did it right in front of him.

"GoodFellas is probably the best mafia movie as far as showing them for what they really are," he says today.

"The Godfather, Casino, they show them as sort of folk heroes. GoodFellas pins them down to exactly what they are - street thugs."
Hill says he never killed anyone although he did ''bust some heads", and he admits he does not know whether his victims lived or died.

He smiles as he talks of how much he stole, though.

"We stole anything we could sell," he says, as we pass a Bulova watch factory.

He claims they used to stake out the trucks as they brought shipments in and then hold up and pay off the drivers. The watches could then be sold on the black market.

His most famous crime was the Lufthansa robbery of 1978 when a reported $5m (£2.5m) was taken from a vault at New York's John F Kennedy International Airport.

Pasta sauce

Hill says the police told him more than $100m (£50m) had gone through his hands, although he himself has no idea how much he stole and spent.

He knows where it went though: "Slow horses, drugs and rock and roll."

Now he makes his money selling his story. He is promoting a new Sky Movies mafia season, and has written several books (including a cookbook - real spaghetti and marinara sauce, not egg noodles and ketchup).

He adds that he made half a million dollars advising on GoodFellas.

I ask him how he thought the victims of his crimes would feel knowing about that.

He takes a drag of his cigarette and replies: "Do you know something? I don't give a heck what those people think, I'm doing the right thing now."

Henry Hill was speaking to Heather Alexander for BBC News 24's E24 programme.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7319520.stm
Posted By: pizzaboy

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/14/08 02:33 PM

I, for one, am really f'n tired of Henry Hill and his beating this dead horse, over and over, just to squeeze a few bucks out of a second rate beat writer.

He's a lowlife, junkie scumbag. Not just because he's a rat, but because at 65 years old he hasn't learned a damned thing. I hope he lives another twenty years, but only as a penniless, junkie scumbag.

Phew! How was that for a rant?
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/14/08 05:48 PM

Pizzaboy i couldnt agree more,i have no time what so ever for Hill he has had so many chances to make a life for himself yet hasnt.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/17/08 01:07 PM

The late John Gotti thought he was a tough guy, but he was a shy pussycat when it came to women and sex, according to the gangster's old confidant.

Lewis Kasman, the self-proclaimed "adopted son" of the Gambino crime boss, said Gotti -- despite the rumors of affairs and an out-of-wedlock child -- rebuffed women who threw themselves at him.

Now a cooperating witness for the federal government, Kasman taped Gotti's widow Victoria in April 2007 as she was recuperating from the effects of two strokes. For more than an hour, Kasman talked to Gotti's widow, whose voice was weak, about their children and various intrigues surrounding supposed efforts by the dead mobster's brothers to get his money.

Gotti died in June 2002 at a federal prison hospital in Missouri of neck cancer while serving a life sentence. After a $50,000 funeral, Gotti was buried in a crypt at St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village with his coffin head-to-head with that of his son Frank, who died at age 12.

On the recording, a copy of which was made available to a reporter, Kasman told Victoria Gotti that her spouse wasn't a "hang from the chandelier guy" when it came to sex.

"I was with him on Sundays ... I'd have known if he was in an apartment -- -- -- ," said Kasman.

"First of all, your husband was very shy, he would have me go and set it up," Kasman told Victoria Gotti.

"I'm not saying broads didn't come up to him and say 'Oh, Mr. Gotti!, Oh John, Oh John' -- that went on, you know that went on," said Kasman. "He would have been a sex maniac if half of those stories were true."

Kasman did his best to shoot down a rumor that Gotti might have had an affair with Lisa Gastineau, the former wife of ex-Jet defensive end Mark Gastineau.

"We would go out to dinner," said Kasman dismissively, adding that Gastineau had a different boyfriend.

Kasman, formerly of Woodbury, also denied the story that Gotti fathered a love child with the stepdaughter of the late mobster Aniello Dellacroce.

Kasman's taping stunned Gotti's immediate family when its existence was revealed in connection with a large roundup of reputed Gambino crime family members and associates.

Kasman related to Gotti's wife how much the mobster loved and respected her.

"I don't want you to have any of this ––– in your head, OK? He loved you, he cared for you," Kasman said.

"I don't have any doubt about that," Victoria responded.

Victoria Gotti wouldn't comment yesterday. Her daughter Angel said Tuesday the family was leery of many things Kasman told them, especially about money.

"He would tell each one of us something different," said Angel Gotti.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nymob0417,0,4671514.story
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/17/08 01:08 PM

The reputed leader of the Gambino crime family may be the Rodney Dangerfield of Mafia bosses.

John (Jackie Nose) D'Amico, 73, is apparently broke and his lawyer wants out of the case.

"He's been unable in any manner at all to meet any financial obligations to me," lawyer Robert Blossner said as politely as possible yesterday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

If being called a deadbeat in public wasn't bad enough, Blossner also said D'Amico's relatives had to wait four hours to visit him recently because other Gambino kin were ahead of them at the lockup in Queens.

D'Amico could qualify for a government-appointed lawyer, Blossner told Judge Jack Weinstein, who reserved decision on releasing the lawyer from his defense duty just yet.

All this disrespect suggests D'Amico hasn't changed much since he was anointed acting boss two years ago, nor has the way others view him changed.

"Everybody liked him, but he was no money earner," said a law enforcement source, who said it's entirely plausible D'Amico is penniless. "He's always been a degenerate gambler without a pot to p--s in," the source said.

If D'Amico, charged with racketeering and extortion, asks taxpayers to pick up his legal tab, prosecutors will closely examine the suburban New Jersey home where his wife lives and his income from a job at a bottled water company.

Fellow Gambinos often called D'Amico a "broke-ster," which is only slightly less insulting than being called a rat, the source recalled.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/broo...ig_john_da.html
Posted By: Yogi Barrabbas

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/17/08 04:46 PM

These mob types are always degenerate gamblers are'nt they?
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/18/08 09:24 PM

It sounds like the plot from a movie: A New York mob family becomes dissatisfied with the money flowing from a "crew" in a smaller New England city. Disgruntled members resort to murder so they can take control of the crew.

more stories like thisBut prosecutors say the story that unfolded in Springfield in 2003 was all too real.

Frankie A. Roche, 35, of Westfield pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to murdering Adolfo "Al" Bruno as part of an attempt to take over the Springfield crew, prosecutors said yesterday.

In a statement of charges filed with Roche's plea agreement, prosecutors described the conflict within the mob's Genovese crime family that led to the murder.

"Members of the Genovese LCN [La Cosa Nostra] family hierarchy in New York became upset with Adolfo Bruno because he was not sending sufficient tribute payments to New York," prosecutors said in the statement. "Thereafter, a member of the Springfield Crew sought authority from the hierarchy of the Genovese LCN family in New York, pursuant to the rules of La Cosa Nostra, to murder Adolfo Bruno."

Roche and other members of the crew, who weren't named in the court papers, acted to "usurp control" from Bruno in order to increase the income from racketeering for themselves and the Mafia family in New York, prosecutors said.

Roche, a mob "associate," was allegedly paid $10,000 to commit the murder. He could have faced the death penalty. But in exchange for his plea to a charge of murder in aid of racketeering, prosecutors will recommend he receive a life sentence, the plea agreement said.

Roche has also agreed to cooperate fully with law enforcement, and if he gives them "substantial assistance," his sentence could be reduced further, according to court documents.

Federal and state officials said Roche's cooperation would be critical in their ongoing investigation into Bruno's death and other mob activities. "We've got a pretty broad lens in terms of this investigation," US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said.

Warren T. Bamford, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said the mob is still a major concern throughout Massachusetts.

"I still think sometimes there is a misconception that the LCN has gone away, but that's incorrect both in Western Massachusetts and Eastern Massachusetts," Bamford said. "There are still organizations in existence, crews, groups that are still active and thriving . . . and it's important for us to go after them."

Bamford said the turmoil and power struggle in the Genovese family is not uncommon within the mob. "It kind of represents how they do business, how they act, and how they settle differences," Bamford said.

Assistant US Attorney Todd E. Newhouse said Roche admitted as part of his plea that on Nov. 23, 2003, he approached Bruno, 57, in the parking lot of a Springfield social club, exchanged greetings, then shot him six times with a .45-caliber handgun before fleeing.

Roche's lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/04/18/mob_associate_admits_to_springfield_murder/
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/18/08 09:26 PM

In a move to avoid the death penalty, Frankie A. Roche admitted that he was hired by the "Springfield Crew" to kill Bruno outside the Mount Carmel Social Club in the city's south end back in November 2003.

"The members of the Springfield Crew ultimately followed through with their plan, and they ultimately paid Roche $10,000 to murder Bruno," said Michael Sullivan, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

The plea deal states that Roche killed Bruno because the mob leader was not generating enough money for the Genovese La Cosa Nostra family in New York, and therefore needed to be replaced.

"The members of the Springfield Crew who planned Bruno's murder intended to increase the income from their racketeering activity once they removed Bruno from his position," Sullivan said.

Roche had been charged with murder in aid of racketeering along with aiding and abetting. Prosecutors, including the Attorney General decided not to pursue the death penalty in exchange for Roche's continued cooperation with the murder investigation.

Sullivan warned, "We have served a very clear, but simple notice to organized crime members that they commit their crimes subject to the penalties and the laws of the United States and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts... Not under their own criminal code of conduct."

Prosecutors hope the plea bargain will offer up more information with regards to the murder, and the Springfield mob, which they say is still working in Western Massachusetts.

"The investigation will proceed, and we are quite confident that we will be able to identify additional individuals involved in this crime and also to hold them accountable," said William Bennett, Hampden County District Attorney.

In exchange for the guilty plea, Roche will serve a life sentence for Bruno's murder. Investigators would not comment on whether or not Roche's co-defendants will face federal charges, but the plea agreement says Roche will testify against them

http://www.cbs3springfield.com/news/local/17879884.html
Posted By: Yogi Barrabbas

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/18/08 09:33 PM

The Springfield mob?

Fat Tony & co from the Simpsons?

\:D
Posted By: olivant

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/19/08 03:44 AM

If these articles are any indication, it could very well be that the Mafia is on its last legs. If so, I hate to think what type of people could fill the vacuum. If the Mafia has no scruples, the Russians et al have never even heard the word.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/19/08 07:04 AM

 Originally Posted By: Yogi Barrabbas
The Springfield mob?

Fat Tony & co from the Simpsons?

\:D


I thought the same mate
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/19/08 07:06 AM

 Originally Posted By: olivant
If these articles are any indication, it could very well be that the Mafia is on its last legs. If so, I hate to think what type of people could fill the vacuum. If the Mafia has no scruples, the Russians et al have never even heard the word.



I totally agree with you olivant people thought the mob were bad if the russians or albanians go to war i can see the body count doubling the columbo war quite easily.
Posted By: Yogi Barrabbas

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/19/08 01:44 PM

Pesky Eastern Europeans \:\(

\:D
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/20/08 08:52 AM

Former mob man Rocco Morelli is in town, but he's not here as an enforcer.

The 48-year-old is visiting the Maritimes as a pastor and founder of the Rocco Morelli Ministries International. He has teamed up with Bridges of Canada founder Monty Lewis of Fredericton to reach into the lives and hearts of prison inmates.

He addressed the sold-out Bridges of Canada Partnership Banquet last week, spoke at services at the Smythe Street Cathedral and Sunset churches Sunday and addressed an overcomers Meeting at the Victory Centre, on Brunswick Street on Monday.

"Morelli and his wife Christine are an unbeatable Christian team trying to set a good example for the men and women who are in the criminal justice system," Lewis said. "You can make good of your life, even if you had a rough start.

"Morelli is proof it can be done, but Christ is the power behind it all."

Morelli grew up as a fourth generation mobster in Pennsylvania.

"The Mafia curse was passed down to me from my great-grandfather and I was doomed from birth to be an heir of the mob," he said.

He wrote about his time in the Italian mob family in his book Forgetta 'Bout It. The book's message is there is a God and hope for everyone, including society's castoffs in prisons and jails.

"I had money, musical talent and a Christian family, and in the end it was the Christian aspect that delivered me from my former life as a gangster," Morelli said.

Bridges of Canada and Rocco Morelli Ministries are associated with the Coalition of Prison Evangelists.

"There is only one gospel and it should be heard by everyone, including those in our prisons and jails," Morelli said. "It freed me from my life of crime."

Morelli said he enjoyed his life of crime - pushing cocaine and collecting debts in an organization labelled by the FBI as the Pizza Connection. He spent 12 years in the mob until he "saw the light" at age 27.

"I was raised by church-going parents, went to Christian schools and enjoyed the undying love and support of my mother, who continues to pray for me daily," he said.

Morelli's transformation happened at a gospel meeting in a hotel in the late 1980s. A Mafia boss asked him to murder his crime partner, who was also a police snitch.

"This was going to put me in good stead with the crime family and I would have become a lieutenant, or under-boss, and my life would have been set from then on," he said.

"We attended this gospel meeting and just before the hit, I answered an altar call. The hit didn't happen."

Morelli and his partner were subsequently arrested in a police sting based on his partner's information. He served 15 months of a two-year jail sentence.

"I became a model prisoner and worked on my conversion from crime to Christianity," he said.

In 1995, Morelli became a licensed evangelist and earned a university degree.

"I saw the craziness around me, the broken dreams, the dashed hope and I decided I have to help prisoners and inmates break free of the chains of lawlessness and sin," he said.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/272633
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/21/08 09:39 PM

The case of the rogue NBA referee is going into overtime.

Feds are investigating up to five more people who netted bundles off bets from Timothy Donaghy, an NBA referee who pleaded guilty last August to betting on games he officiated over four years, sources said.

"There are people who made millions," said a source close to the case.

Sources also said Donaghy had been placing bets on games he officiated with other known Pennsylvania gamblers for years.

Thomas Martino, a low-level participant in the betting scandal, pleaded guilty to defrauding the NBA in Brooklyn federal court yesterday.

He admitted Donaghy, 41, would "provide him with the name of the team he believed was a good pick for betting purposes."

Martino would then tell another buddy and professional gambler, James Battista, Donaghy's game pick. Battista, 42, would allegedly place the bet. Donaghy was paid $5,000 for each winning pick, according to court papers.

"Mr. Martino allowed himself to be used by two people he considered to be very good friends he has known all his life," his lawyer, Vicki Herr, said outside court. "He's anxious to move and he has taken a step today to put this behind him."

Donaghy, Battista and Martino were classmates at a Springfield, Pa., high school.

Battista heard about Donaghy's racket and forced his way into the action in late 2006, according to court documents. Battista is slated to plead guilty on Monday.

Feds stumbled onto the betting scam through wiretaps being used in a massive investigation into the upper echelon of the Gambino crime family last year, sources said.

That probe resulted in the arrest of the family's acting boss, underboss and consigliere, and five dozen lower-level gangsters in February.

In his plea, Martino said Donaghy gave him a pick over the phone on Dec. 13, 2006, for a game between the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers that he officiated. The following day, Martino gave him a cash payment in Pennsylvania.

Martino said he got the name of another team from Donaghy on Dec. 26, and gave Donaghy a cash payment in Toronto on March 11.

Martino, of Marcus Hook, Pa., faces between 12 and 18 months in prison under the plea agreement.

He also admitted that he lied to the grand jury when he was asked about the betting scandal, but he did not have to plead guilty to perjury. His sentencing is scheduled for July 11.

Donaghy, who lives in Bradenton, Fla., faces up to 25 years in prison for conspiring to engage in wire fraud and transmitting betting information though interstate commerce. His sentencing is scheduled to take place May 30.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04172008/news/regionalnews/5_new_dirty_players_in_ref_case_106860.htm
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/24/08 06:49 AM

Around 40 suspects have been arrested in a police crackdown on the powerful 'Ndrangheta organised crime ring in Italy. Some 300 officers took part in the raids on the homes of some of the most influential families linked to the mob based in southern Calabria.

Three men were still being sought following the early morning raids. The 'Ndrangheta now dominates the European cocaine trade, outdoing its better-known Sicilian rival, the Cosa Nostra.

It gained international notoriety last summer when it was blamed for the killing of six Italians outside a pizza restaurant in Germany. Investigators believe the shooting was part of a vendetta between rival Calabrian families going back more than 16 years.

http://www.euronews.net/index.php?page=info&article=479416&lng=1
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/24/08 06:55 AM

FEARS of tit-for-tat violence have emerged after a member of a notorious Melbourne crime family was wounded by gunfire.

The 30-year-old man was blasted in the leg on Wednesday night in what might have been a revenge attack over an earlier shooting.

The latest victim is from a crime clan involved in brutal offences throughout the northwestern suburbs for years.

He had been in the driveway of his Bladen Place, Gladstone Park, home when the gunman struck.

That attack came days after a man was shot at another Gladstone Park address, sparking fears the Bladen Place incident was a payback.

The family are the subject of police Taskforce Lased, which is investigating its involvement in serious crime.

Detectives believe the family is linked to large-scale drug dealing, shootings, witness intimidation, bashings, kidnappings, road rage attacks, blackmail and knife crimes.

They have taunted police with claims that they have better guns.

Victims of the hot-headed family have been shot and attacked with machetes just for looking the wrong way.

The gunman involved in Wednesday night's incident was last seen fleeing into Wolverton Drive.

His victim was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a serious but stable condition.

Victoria Police spokeswoman Marika Fengler said detectives from the armed crime taskforce were investigating.

"Taskforce detectives are working on a number of inquiries in relation to the two shootings, and are channelling considerable police resources into these intense investigations," Ms Fengler said.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23525818-2862,00.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/26/08 08:09 AM

A man once deemed to be 'a man of honour' in the Sicilian mafia was denied full parole as he continues to serve the lengthy sentence he received for his role in one of the biggest drug trafficking conspiracies investigated in Canada.

Evidence presented during a National Parole Board hearing in Laval today suggests Gerlando Caruana, 64, now leads a quiet existence while he deals with problems like diabetes and a bad heart. He spends most of his days respecting his day parole conditions in a halfway house. His parole officer informed the board Caruana appears to have severed his ties with his associates.

"But the parole board has to be prudent in your case," board member Jacques Letendre told Caruana at the end of the hearing where his day parole was extended for six months. "Full parole would be premature."


Letendre was referring to the last time Caruana was out on full parole. He was granted the release in 1993, while serving a 20-year prison term for smuggling 58 kilograms of heroin into Canada. A few years later, while he was still making regular visits to a parole officer, Caruana emerged as a key suspect in Project Omerta, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit investigation that cracked open a major cocaine pipeline running from Mexico to Canada. Shipments totalling more than 7,000 kilograms of cocaine were linked to the Caruana family during the investigation.

Yesterday, Caruana admitted he handled the distribution of the cocaine when it came to Montreal by selling it to major dealers. During that time he and Anna Staniscia, his then mistress, operated a piano bar in Pointe Aux Trembles. Wiretaps gathered during the investigation indicated the pair planned to flee to Belize when Caruana realised he was under police surveillance. Staniscia, who was also arrested in Project Omerta but eventually saw all the charges against her dropped, was present at Thursday's hearing. Caruana said they are a couple now and that she looks after him.

"I have a guard dog now," Caruana said meaning Staniscia keeps his past associates away. "She is the one who says they can't see me."

His younger brother Alfonso controlled most of the operation from Toronto. Both were arrested along with several other people when Project Omerta came to an end in 1998. Alfonso Caruana was sentenced to 18 years after he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in 2000. Gerlando Caruana also pleaded guilty and saw his previous sentence, for smuggling heroin, added to the one he received in Project Omerta. His combined sentence is 31 years and 11 months.

Alfonso Caruana, 62, has since been extradited to Italy where he was tried in absentia and sentenced to 22 years for mafia association and his role in an international drug trafficking conspiracy. The Caruana brothers were born in Castelvetrano, a town in western Sicily, where their family had deep mafia ties.

At one point in today's hearing Letendre laid Caruana's reputed mafia ties on the table. He quoted a court document prepared by Giovanni Falcone, an Italian anti-mafia magistrate who was assassinated in 1992. Falcone described Caruana as a made member or so-called 'man of honour' in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, or mafia. Before he was killed, Falcone investigated several mafia clans extensively, including the Caruanas. Letendre was likely referring to an indictment in which Falcone referred to both Alfonso and Gerlando Caruana as "part of the dangerous [BadWord]-Caruana organization" a "mafioso family of Siculiana that for years has ruled the line of vast and well-constructed international drug trafficking."

"I've lived in Canada for 42 years now," Caruana said of the allegation. "I don't know how Mr. Falcone judged me like that. It is false."

He went to say that his reputation could perhaps be attributed to uncles in Sicily who were reputed 'men of honour.'

Letendre also asked how someone can actually retire from an organized crime family like his.

"I've made a decision to get out," Caruana said adding he regrets that his sentence cost him time he could have spent with his grandchildren. "It's a decision I made when I was arrested a second time."

He said he was under pressure to earn money when he smuggled drugs into Canada. Now that his children are all adults, he said, "I don't place any more importance on money."

"Because of my health I can't even walk. I walk about 100 metres, I get tired and have to head back home."

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/ne...cfa6b11&k=59391
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/29/08 04:21 PM

The National Police has arrested a 45 year-old British woman in Benidorm, initials A.H., who is alleged to be a member of the Cosa Nostra (the Sicilian Mafia).

The woman, who was detained while staying at a hotel in the town, is wanted by Italian authorities who believe she has been involved in offenses of murder, extortion and drug trafficking. If convicted of the alleged crimes, she would face a maximum sentence of 24 years in Italy.

http://www.costablancaleader.com/news/article.php?article_id=15119&article_section_id=1
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/29/08 04:22 PM

was a multimillion-dollar operation run by one of the biggest bookmakers in Philadelphia.

It included wiseguys and wannabes, gamblers and hustlers and, most surprising, a suspected hit man and the brother of his alleged victim.

Over 20 months, it generated more than $60 million in bets on professional and college sports.

That's part of an inside look at an illegal bookmaking operation that was based in the high-stakes poker room of Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, according to a New Jersey State Police affidavit.

Earlier this month , 24 people, including Jack Buscemi Jr., who allegedly headed the operation, were indicted by a state grand jury on racketeering, conspiracy, gambling and money-laundering charges.

Buscemi, 50, of Mullica Hill, is described in the 75-page affidavit as the "largest bookmaker in the Philadelphia area." He is also labeled a "close associate" of reputed Philadelphia mobster Gaeton Lucibello, the alleged consigliere, or number-three man, in the Philadelphia crime family.

The affidavit, obtained by The Inquirer, provides a firsthand account of how the gambling investigation unfolded. It also offers details about the inner workings of a Philadelphia crime family that has slipped back into the shadows after years of high-profile media attention and government prosecutions.

Written by state police Detective David Feldstein, it is based on information provided by confidential sources, FBI agents, casino and state police surveillance reports, and wiretapped phone conversations. It was filed in August 2007 as part of a motion seeking court approval to wiretap phones used by Buscemi and his reputed gambling partner, Andrew Micali.

The affidavit includes details about Lucibello and Anthony Nicodemo, another reputed mobster.

Nicodemo, 36, was among those indicted along with Buscemi and Micali on April 10. The New Jersey Attorney General's Office alleges that he "exercised leadership authority" over the ring.

Lucibello, 55, has not been charged.

In the affidavit, Nicodemo is identified as a "prime suspect" in the unsolved gangland murder of John "Johnny Gongs" Casasanto. Casasanto was gunned down in his South Philadelphia rowhouse on Nov. 22, 2003.

Casasanto's brother, Stephen, 37, is another defendant in the Borgata case, charged with money laundering and promoting gambling.

According to FBI information cited in the affidavit, "Nicodemo was inducted in the Philadelphia LCN (La Cosa Nostra) Family . . . shortly after the contract murder of . . . John Casasanto."

Traditionally, participating in a murder is a requirement for formal initiation into a Cosa Nostra family.

To law enforcement and underworld sources, the FBI allegation implies that the leadership of the family – individuals such as Lucibello and reputed mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi – would have been aware of the circumstances behind the Casasanto hit and would have presided over Nicodemo's "making" ceremony.

On Friday, James Leonard, the lawyer for Nicodemo, said there was "no truth whatsoever" to the allegation and called the statements in the affidavit a "pack of lies."

Nicodemo and the other defendants in the case are expected to plead not guilty at a preliminary hearing in Atlantic County Superior Court next month. No trial date has been set.

In addition to the mob references, the affidavit also explains how the Borgata investigation began and provides some of the details uncovered during the 20-month probe.

The casino itself was not implicated in the scam, and state authorities were quick to point out that Borgata officials cooperated fully with the investigation. Among the defendants in the case are two former casino poker-room supervisors.

An anonymous phone call early in 2006 set the probe in motion.

A man who identified himself as a "regular" at the Borgata complained about someone named "Andrew" who appeared to be taking bets on a cell phone while sitting at one of the poker tables.

The caller said Andrew was in the poker room Wednesday through Sunday from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m.

That information led investigators to Micali, 32, of Ventnor, who authorities now say was the "controller," or day-to-day operator, of the ring.

In March 2006, with Micali in its sights, the New Jersey State Police began an undercover operation.

Over the next 20 months, investigators recorded hundreds of phone conversations, used confidential sources to place bets with Micali, and gathered details through surveillance and from the eye-in-the-sky cameras that monitor the action in the casino.

Those surveillance cameras, according to investigators, captured several "settle ups" conducted by Micali. A settle up is the collection or payout of a gambling debt.

Tapes "show Micali looking at what appear to be tally sheets, crossing off the names of bettors, and then" making payments, the affidavit alleges.

In one, Micali is "observed withdrawing approximately $5,000" from a safety deposit box in a room adjacent to the high-stakes poker parlor.

With undercover detectives watching, Micali and a gambling customer then entered a nearby restroom. A few minutes later, as the customer emerged, investigators saw him place an undetermined amount of cash in his pocket.

Another investigator then went into the men's room where he saw "Micali crossing a name off what appeared to be a tally sheet."

The affidavit alleges that Micali bought an interest in Buscemi's sports-betting business in 2005. It is unclear whether the Borgata bookmaking operation was already underway or whether it began after Micali teamed with Buscemi.

According to information provided by the FBI, Micali paid Buscemi $500,000 for a 10 percent interest in his book, placing the value of the business at $5 million.

Buscemi, according to a second affidavit, has no legitimate source of income. Yet, investigators say, in October 2007 he bought a $550,000 house in Mullica Hill where he and his wife live.

The house is now the subject of a forfeiture action by the Attorney General's Office.

"Surveillance conducted during the course of the investigation did not reveal that Buscemi engaged in any legitimate employment activities," according to the affidavit filed in November to support a motion to seize the house.

Surveillance from the Borgata, however, includes a tape of a July 14 meeting that investigators say shows Buscemi conducting business.

In the video, Buscemi is seen handing Micali between $15,000 and $20,000 in cash, according to the affidavit. Micali then wound a rubber band around the wad of cash, which he stuffed into his right front pocket.

Investigators said Buscemi left the poker room while Micali stayed behind to "settle up" with customers

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20080428_Opening_the_book_on_betting_operation.html
Posted By: JRCX

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/30/08 04:44 AM

PBS had a 2-part documentary on Vegas last night. It covered from the late 1800s to the current age and the role that organize crime played, it was quite intriguing, did anyone catch it? I just find it terribly ironic how organized crime is often taken out by the true professionals, the corporations... they let the amatuers lay the ground work, then they roll in and take it over... its as if they watch and learn from organized crime, then take it over and blow it out... the documentary pointed out that people were more comfortable in the "old days when the mafia was involved because they honored their commitments". Sad statement when you can trust the mafia more than expanding corporate america.
Posted By: Turnbull

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 04/30/08 05:34 PM

The series fell into some glamorization-of-the-Mob traps that writers fall prey to. They overlooked or underemphasized the impact of two "big picture" developments:

First, after gambling was legalized in 1931, the Nevada authorities welcomed the gangsters because they were bringing lots of money into the state. Since the gangsters were operating out in the open, a lot of the secrecy and backstabbing that lead to jealousy, paranoia--and violence--were avoided, and the gangsters generally (but not always) cooperated with each other. But after the televised Kefauver and McClellen hearings exposed the role of organized crime in Nevada gambling, the Legislature created the Gaming Commission and gave it two big teeth: the power to license key employees of casinos; and the "Black Book," a compendium of people who could be barred from even entering a casino (much less owning or operatin one) because of criminal records or unsavory reputations. The Gaming Commission drove the gangsters underground, which amplified skimming and created conditions for violent competition. It was, in its own way, like Prohibition.

Second, writers always like to say that when Howard Hughes went on his Vegas buying spree, he paved the way for legitimate businesses to own casinos. Not exactly. Nevada had been the only state with legalized gambling. But, beginning around 1970, other states began legalizing some forms of gambling, such as lotteries, off-track betting--and casinos. The money potential was so gigantic that existing major hotel chains like Hilton saw huge profits in buying or building casino/hotels. The potential also created new entrepreneurs like Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson, and attracted real estate tycoons like Donald Trump. It was "good business," not just Howard Hughes's example.
Posted By: JRCX

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/04/08 04:56 AM

I'll Never forget the Sopranos Episode where they go up to an Native-American Indian casino and the owner of the casino is telling tony and his crew that his great grandmother on his mother's side was half indian, so that qualified him as an Indian to own a casino. While it is sad what the US Government did to the Native American, nothing short of Genocide, it was interesting that they became more powerful than the mafia in this one instance to the point where tony and his crew didnt have the money to fund another casino. I may have some of the details blurry, but it was a very interesting episode. It also reminds me of the Chris Rock statement "blacks need to stop complaining, ain't no one got it worse than the american indian, when was the last time you saw 2 indians at a red lobster hanging out talking -- never". Sad but true. No one got screwed worse than them, and honestly, I'd like to see them step up to the plate and take some of this country back over corporate america.
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/11/08 12:32 PM

Reputed New England Mafia underboss Carmen "The Cheese Man" DiNunzio was arrested yesterday on charges that he delivered a $10,000 bribe to an undercover FBI agent posing as a state official, part of an alleged conspiracy to secure a $6 million Big Dig contract.

more stories like thisDiNunzio, 50, who owns a cheese shop in the North End, was indicted along with two other men on a federal charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. He was secretly recorded and videotaped by the FBI in September 2006 as he allegedly paid cash to a man he thought was a Massachusetts highway inspector. DiNunzio thought the payment would help him and his friends secure a contract to provide 300,000 cubic yards of loam, a soil mix, for the project, according to the indictment.

"I'm the Cheese Man," DiNunzio, of East Boston, said in an apparent boast to the undercover agent, who had said he was worried that the deal could fall through. "We straighten out a lot of beefs, a lot of things."

DiNunzio was indicted along with Anthony D'Amore, 55, a convicted drug dealer and alleged mob associate from Revere, and Andrew Marino, 42, of Chelmsford, who owns a small trucking company, Marino Trucking.

Federal authorities called the indictment significant because it comes as the local mob, which had been nearly dismantled in the 1980s and 1990s with waves of federal prosecutions, has been regaining strength as mobsters are returning to the streets after years in prison.

It also could illustrate an overconfident, sometimes reckless hierarchy of the local branch of La Cosa Nostra, more commonly known as the Mafia. It would have been unheard of in the days of the old guard for an underboss to personally deliver a bribe to a man he barely knew.

And given that local mob leaders like Gennaro "Jerry" Angiulo, Raymond "Junior" Patriarca, and Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme were all toppled by wiretaps and FBI bugs, it seemed almost baffling that DiNunzio would be so chatty and allegedly careless.

"I don't think anyone ever suggested there were geniuses involved in" La Cosa Nostra, said US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, when asked during a press conference if there has been a dumbing down of the mob. "I don't think they are any dumber, but as dumb as they have always been."

In a brief appearance in US District Court in Boston yesterday, DiNunzio, a hulking figure who tips the scale at over 400 pounds, was dressed in a bulky blue sweatshirt and black pants that he hitched up each time he stood to address the court. He pleaded not guilty. D'Amore and Marino were not arraigned because they were without lawyers.

DiNunzio's Boston lawyer, Anthony Cardinale, told the court that he is worried about his client's health if jailed because DiNunzio suffers from a heart condition, Type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, and other ailments
He takes a lot of medicines, without which he can't survive," Cardinale said.

more stories like thisUS Magistrate Judge Joyce London Alexander ordered DiNunzio and D'Amore held without bail until a hearing Wednesday on whether they should remain jailed until the case is resolved. She ordered that DiNunzio be taken to the Devens federal prison hospital in Ayer. Marino was freed on personal recognizance.

DiNunzio has been a made member of the Mafia since the late 1990s and was tapped to serve as underboss four years ago by reputed boss Luigi "Louie" Manocchio of Providence, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court. DiNunzio was arrested in December 2006 by Massachusetts State Police on state charges of extortion and gambling conspiracy and is currently awaiting trial in Essex County.

Though DiNunzio was subdued and looked forlornly at the crush of reporters that filled the courtroom, federal authorities depicted him as the leader of a dangerous and violent organization.

Warren T. Bamford, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said La Cosa Nostra remains the foremost organized criminal threat in America and is involved in everything from stock market manipulation and telemarketing scams to gambling, loan-sharking, and murder.

"The threat of [La Cosa Nostra] is still with us; it has not gone away," said Bamford, adding that it is crucial for the FBI and other agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and Boston police, who participated in the DiNunzio investigation, to keep the pressure on the mob.

"We've caused a significant disruption in this organization," Bamford said of the indictment.

The indictment alleges that in May 2006, an unidentified cooperating witness began meeting with DiNunzio and D'Amore about the soil contract. The two men, along with Marino, allegedly paid the purported Massachusetts Highway Department inspector, who was a friend of the witness, a $10,000 down payment. The deal was that the inspector would receive a total of 5 percent of the contract's value, which amounted to about $300,000.

When it looked like Marino was going to back out of the deal on Oct. 9, 2006, according to the FBI affidavit, the undercover agent posing as the inspector told DiNunzio. "What I need is a guarantee that somebody's got their foot on Marino's neck."

"Right here, you got the guarantee from here," DiNunzio replied.

The reputed mob leader told the undercover agent that if Marino did not come through, "They better leave town . . . 'cause it ain't gonna be safe nowhere for them."

In an earlier recorded conversation in Sept. 2006, the cooperating witness, who was also involved in setting up the bribery plan, suggested that he and D'Amore might become made members of the mob "if we do a good job."

But D'Amore was not interested in joining the family, according to the affidavit.

"You can keep it," D'Amore said. "Who needs the [expletive] grief?"

He added, "Wouldn't you just rather be on the outside, like this, looking in and knowing you've got a few friends?"

The witness agreed, saying, "Yeah, membership has its costs."

One cost is the risk of attracting the attention of law enforcement. "There is certainly not a decline in this family," said Jeffrey S. Sallet, the supervisory special agent in charge of the FBI's Providence office and coordinator of the New England division's organized crime program. "We at the FBI view them as a priority investigative target."

Even with yesterday's arrest, Sullivan said there is no evidence of Mafia involvement in the mammoth $15 billion, 15-year Big Dig project.

The loam contract being sought by DiNunzio and the others apparently was intended for the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, almost eight acres of park and open space snaking through downtown Boston on the footprint of the old Central Artery.

One mystifying aspect of the allegations against DiNunzio and the others is how anyone could have believed a Massachusetts Highway Department inspector could help obtain a supply contract. Loam, like concrete and other materials used on the Big Dig, was purchased by building contractors, not the state.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massach..._leader/?page=1
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/11/08 12:33 PM

FBI agents fanned out across New Jersey yesterday in two high-profile organized crime cases, one linked to a sweeping racketeering indictment and the other to a financial investigation in which the son of jailed mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo appears to be a prime target.

FBI agents seized records and documents from the Atlantic County home of Nicodemo S. Scarfo, 42, son of the notorious former Philadelphia/South Jersey mob kingpin.

After serving search warrants, agents also took records from several other locations, including the home of Scarfo's ex-wife and from his lawyer's office in Cherry Hill.

A copy of one search warrant obtained by The Inquirer described the operation as part of an investigation into mail fraud, bank fraud, interstate transport of stolen property, extortion, wire fraud, conspiracy, and money-laundering.

Sources familiar with the probe said federal authorities were focusing on more than a dozen companies that have interwoven connections. It was unclear what role the younger Scarfo played in those companies.

There have been no arrests in the investigation.

In a second and apparently unrelated development, several Scarfo associates were charged in a gambling, extortion and racketeering indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Newark.

In all, 23 reputed mob members and associates linked to the Gambino and Lucchese crime families were charged in the case, including Andrew "Andy Knapik" Merola and Martin Taccetta.

Merola, 41, was described by the FBI as a high-ranking member of the New Jersey branch of the Gambino organization. Taccetta, 56, is a longtime leader of the Lucchese family in New Jersey.

Scarfo, who authorities say was formally initiated into the Lucchese crime family, was once linked to a bookmaking and loansharking operation with Merola.

FBI Agent Weysan Dun, who heads the bureau's Newark office, said yesterday's indictments and arrests were part of a decades-long attack on the mob in New Jersey.

"Cosa Nostra, which translates as 'this thing of ours,' is steadily becoming 'this thing of the FBI's,' " Dun said in announcing the arrests.

Scarfo, through an attorney, declined to comment about the raid on his home in Egg Harbor Township. His ex-wife, Michele, whose home in the same community was also the subject of a search, also declined to comment.

"Neither one of them wants to say anything," said James Leonard, Michele Scarfo's lawyer.
Leonard said he believed his client was not the target of an investigation. He said FBI agents arrived at her home on Sun Valley Court about 9 a.m. and spent two or three hours taking out documents.

"She was shaken up," Leonard said.

The couple divorced several months ago. They have a school-age daughter.

Nicodemo Scarfo has since remarried and has an infant son also named Nicodemo.

Scarfo's longtime lawyer, Donald Manno, was among others the FBI served with search warrants. Agents spent several hours taking documents from his Cherry Hill office.

Manno confirmed that search warrants had been served but he declined to comment further.

"At this point there's nothing I can say," he said.

Among the companies cited in the search warrant were a Texas firm, FirstPlus Financial, and several of its subsidiaries, including FirstPlus Development, at 1231 Bainbridge St. in Philadelphia.

Calls to both companies were not returned yesterday.

It could not be determined whether search warrants had been served at the company offices. Two sources familiar with the investigation said the case had links to Texas and Florida and included companies involved in finance, construction, development, used-car sales, and charter-boat operations.

On its Web page, FirstPlus Financial, based in Irving, describes itself as a company that "provides a wide range of financial services as well as facilities development, restoration and management services to both consumer and commercial marketplaces."

FirstPlus Development touts itself as a company involved in general contracting, construction management, and project design and building.

The search warrants served yesterday sought all documents and materials issued from Aug. 1, 2006, to the present involving 43 individuals and companies.

Three principals of FirstPlus or its subsidiaries were among those on the list. Nicodemo Scarfo and his jailed father were also listed, along with mob associate Daniel Daidone, a former South Jersey bartenders union official jailed in a Camden City political corruption case several years ago.
Also listed was Salvatore Pelullo, believed to be the brother of two Philadelphia-area businessmen the FBI identified as longtime mob associates.

The younger Scarfo recently moved to Atlantic County after serving a 33-month federal prison sentence for a gambling conviction. He also has a conviction for conspiracy, loansharking and racketeering.

He was identified, but not charged, in a New Jersey State Police investigation last year as a former ranking member of the Lucchese organization. The investigation indicated that Scarfo had been demoted from the rank of capo to soldier in the crime family during an internal reorganization.

"Little Nicky" Scarfo, 79, is serving a 55-year sentence for racketeering and murder. His control of the local crime family ended in the late 1980s when he was jailed and when his son was ambushed in a South Philadelphia restaurant.

The younger Scarfo survived that assassination attempt.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/18794479.html?page=1
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/12/08 09:36 PM

Italian police arrested Friday seven mafia suspects, including alleged members of two crime families linked to the murder of six Italians killed in an August 2007 shooting in Duisburg, Germany.

"Some prime suspects remain at large," said Carabinieri paramilitary police commander, Francesco Iacono, commenting on initial news reports in Italy and in Germany that up to 11 suspects had been apprehended.



The suspects were picked up in morning raids, involving 150 Carabinieri, in the southern town of San Luca -- the traditional stronghold of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian version of the mafia -- as well as in the nearby Locride area and in the northern cities of Udine and Bologna.



Two women, Maria Pelle and Antonella Vottari, the wife and sister of prominent 'Ndrangheta boss, Francesco Vottari, who was arrested in October 2007, were among those arrested Friday.



Prosecutors said those arrested faces ranging from murder to the illegal detention of firearms and explosives.



The seven suspects all allegedly belong to either one of two San Luca-based crime families, the Nirta-Strangio and the Pelle-Vottari.



The families have been locked in a bloody feud since the early 1990s. Victims are believed to include the six killed in Duisburg.


http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3326942,00.html
Posted By: chopper

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/17/08 08:52 AM

Donaghy and two accomplices in an illegal betting ring are scheduled to be sentenced within 3 days of one another this summer after the former NBA referee's sentencing date was postponed yesterday - for a fourth time.
Donaghy, who has admitted to dishing inside NBA information to high school buddies James "Baba'' Battista and Thomas Martino in exchange for cash payments, was scheduled to be sentenced next week in New York on gambling and wire-fraud charges.

Yesterday, that date was pushed back again, this time to July 14, according to Robert Nardoza, spokesman for the federal prosecutors' office in Brooklyn.

Battista, of Phoenixville, and Martino, of Marcus Hook, are scheduled to be sentenced July 11 for their participation in the short-lived gambling ring, which the feds reportedly uncovered during an investigation of the Gambino crime family.

All three men attended Cardinal O'Hara High together in the 1980s. They launched the ill-fated gambling scheme in December 2006 at the Philadelphia International Airport's Marriott Hotel, Battista told a judge last month.

Donaghy, a Havertown native who resigned in July after 13 years as an NBA referee, faces up to 25 years in prison, but could receive a much lighter term under federal sentencing guidelines.

Battista, also known as "Sheep,'' is facing 10 to 16 months in jail, while Martino faces 12 to 18 months. *

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/sports/20080516_Donaghy_sentencing_pushed_back_to_July.html
Posted By: DanielNL

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/23/08 11:45 AM

Ferrante Tells His Story of Mob Life
By Matthew Price
Special to Newsday
May 23, 2008, 4:01 AM

NEW YORK -- The Yona Schimmel Knish Bakery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side isn’t the likeliest spot for a sit-down with a onetime wise guy, but Louis Ferrante is hardly your typical ex-mobster.

An intense, brassy, fast-talking bantamweight, the 38-year-old Ferrante, who’s joined me to talk about his new memoir, “Unlocked: A Journey From Prison to Proust” (Harper, $25.95), can expound on just about any topic — penal reform, world history, literature, theology, you name it — and peppers his remarks with references to Churchill, Napoleon and Disraeli. There’s a lot about him that’s unexpected. Consider this: Ferrante, a former Gambino family associate raised in a Catholic home, is now an Orthodox Jew.

A hard-boiled tale of crime, punishment and redemption, “Unlocked” charts Ferrante’s violent life pulling off heists for the Gambinos and his eventual downfall in 1994, when a mighty trifecta of the Secret Service, the FBI and the Nassau County (N.Y.) district attorney put him behind bars. Ferrante took a plea and served nine years in several New York jails.

He doesn’t downplay the brutality of life inside — sexual abuse was rampant and Ferrante had to fend off would-be attackers — but doing time would change his life for the better. Prison became a kind of university and spiritual retreat: Putting his mob days behind him, Ferrante turned to books, devouring Caesar’s “Gallic Wars” and Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina.” He started to write and embraced Judaism as he tried to atone for his past misdeeds.

It’s a pretty incredible story, but Ferrante, who grew up in Queens and now lives in upstate New York, almost didn’t tell it. After his release in 2003 — he successfully appealed his own case — he moved to Long Island and hoped to publish a 1,000-page novel set in the antebellum South, but a pal persuaded him to write a memoir.

“When I got out, I didn’t want to think about jail,” he recalls, tucking into a steaming, oven-fresh knish. “I couldn’t even watch ‘The Sopranos.’ But my friend goes, ‘Lou, you gotta give it to them; that’s what people like. Write whatever you want later.’ ”

Ferrante acknowledges that Mafia lore remains ever-popular. He’s up-front about why “the life” appealed to a working-class kid who didn’t have much direction. “It was a place to hang my hat,” he says of the camaraderie he found in his crew. (In “Unlocked” he writes, “An 18-year-old in the Midwest, searching for these same feelings, might join the Army or Marines.”) Readers will find plenty of action — the book opens with Ferrante sticking a gun into a truck driver’s mouth — but don’t expect much on John and “Junior” Gotti.

He may be done with the mob, but Ferrante still has connections from back in the day. He’s proud he never ratted anyone out, and though I press for specifics on the Dapper Don and his son, he clams up. Alluding to several other higher-ups he knows, Ferrante adds that he “didn’t want to offend anybody. I want to be able to come to Manhattan for the rest of my life.”

Still, Ferrante offers up many provocative opinions. He’s astonished that Sammy “the Bull” Gravano turned informant against the Gambinos, but points out that the crackdown on the mob tested even the most hardened of wise guys. “I think the sentences are outrageous,” he says. “I was facing 125 years; I never killed anybody. Give me five and see if I turn my life around — give me a hundred next time.”

Waxing philosophical, Ferrante says his circumstances could be anybody’s: “I think we’re all the same -- whatever I did, you’re capable of doing, and whatever you’ve done in your life, I’m capable of doing.”

For Ferrante, such insight is hard won. He tells me how the stern morality of Judaism gives him a vital perspective on his life. “I felt it,” he says of the Torah’s teachings. “I know if you screw up, you’re going to get punished. I suffered and know it’s true.”

He keeps kosher at home and doesn’t eat pork anymore. But that’s no problem — he knows a butcher who does a nice kosher braciole.

source: http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20080523/ENTERTAINMENT/27858665
Posted By: DanielNL

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 05/28/08 02:50 AM

A Slice of Mafia With Your Sparkling Water?
The city's king distributor of bottled beverages likes the wiseguys
by Tom Robbins
May 27th, 2008 12:00 AM

For those who insist that New York's Mafia is mainly a relic of the bad old past, consider this: The day job of the man currently alleged to be the acting boss of the Gambino crime family is top salesman for the city's largest distributor of healthy and cutting-edge beverages.

That thirst-quenching bottle of Glaceau Vitamin Water you plucked out of the deli cooler? That glass of sparkling Pellegrino? Those cute Adam & Eve juices? Those satisfying Mistic fruit drinks? Those wonderful bottled waters now a staple of a healthy lifestyle—Crystal Geyser? Saratoga Spring? Iceland Spring? Those cool, wacky drinks like Muscle Milk, Tazo Tea, Organic Yerba Maté?

Chances are that the order for these pleasing and beneficial beverages was made through a company known as Big Geyser Inc. that boasts 300 employees and operates out of a mammoth warehouse facility in Maspeth, Queens. And from his desk right there five days a week—or at least until the FBI locked him up back in February on an extortion rap—sat John "Jackie Nose" D'Amico, working the phones to help bring these superb products to you.

He has done so since 1991, according to D'Amico's old friend Irving Hershkowitz, founder and president of Big Geyser. Hershkowitz made this affirmation last week in a letter in connection with D'Amico's request for release on bond from charges that he had extorted a Staten Island cement company.

D'Amico started at a base pay of $24,000, and the salesman has done well enough that his current salary is $71,000 a year, according to Hershkowitz's letter.

The issue of D'Amico's employment was batted around last week by prosecutors and a defense attorney as they sat at a big table with U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein in his courtroom in Brooklyn. D'Amico, who is 71 but looks younger, wore a blue prison tunic over a white T-shirt. Many New Yorkers would recognize him as the good-looking guy with a cheerful smile and a mop of gray curls who was often seen at John Gotti's elbow in newspaper photos, described as one of the Dapper Don's trusted captains.

Despite those associations and a couple of past gambling convictions, D'Amico was still entitled to bail, his attorney, Elizabeth Macedonio, told the judge. "Big Geyser is probably the largest distributor of non-alcoholic beverages anywhere," she said.

Beside her, Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Burlingame snorted. "Big Geyser does a lot of legitimate business," he said. "They also happen to employ two members of the administration of two organized crime families, for what that's worth."

D'Amico's co-worker at the beverage firm, the prosecutor said, was another aging and alleged mobster named Matthew Madonna, 72, whose reputed allegiance is to the Lucchese crime family and who was once notorious as the chief supplier of heroin to Harlem drug czar Nicky Barnes.

Prosecutor Burlingame said that it is his belief that D'Amico's is a no-show job that lets him collect health benefits and claim lawful employment. He said that attempts to talk to Hershkowitz about his employees' work habits were thwarted after the businessman asserted his constitutional privilege not to speak with law-enforcement officials.

Indeed, messages left at Big Geyser went unreturned, and a phone listed to Hershkowitz at his Upper East Side apartment went unanswered last week. That's too bad, because, in addition to his savvy business sense about the beverage industry, Irving Hershkowitz (a/k/a Hal Irving, a/k/a "Big H"), 67, is one of those New York City characters who loves to tell a good story and has many of them to tell.

I learned this for a fact in 1993 as a result of a chance encounter with Jackie D'Amico on Second Avenue near the mouth of the Midtown Tunnel. D'Amico was driving a lustrously ruby-red Jaguar, and he stopped when he spotted my then colleague at the Daily News, Gene Mustain, who covered Gotti's many trials. Mustain is a gracious writer and an even more gracious man who won the trust of Gotti's toughest cohorts. D'Amico was glad to see him and he chatted away, ignoring the horns from the traffic backed up behind him. While they spoke, I marveled at the gleaming red car and took note of the license plate.

A search revealed that the auto was registered to something called Crystal Geyser East, which listed Irving Hershkowitz as chairman. Hershkowitz, news clips showed, had been declared "the highest-volume liquor salesman in the world" by industry publications when he worked for Peerless Importers of Brooklyn. He'd switched to peddling water and juices after deciding in the mid-'80s that they were "the key beverages in the new marketplace." A message left at his company was quickly returned by the boss himself, who said he was calling from his car phone and happy to talk.

"Hiya, yeah, I'm Irving Hershkowitz, but they call me Hal Irving. So call me Hal, right?" He rolled off a long list of his company's successes and products. "We're very big. We do about $25 million a year in business."

His patter only paused when he was asked why Jackie D'Amico was driving a $100,000 Jaguar registered to his firm. There was an audible screech of brakes followed by a long silence. I feared that he'd cracked up. His voice finally returned. "He's a salesman of ours," Hershkowitz said. "He's been one for about three years. He works on commission. I know him 30 years. He's a lifelong friend. We went to New Utrecht High School. He was with us when we formed. He went around with me to see outlets; he knew a lot of people. He helped me develop the product."

What Jackie did outside of work wasn't his concern. "His own life has nothing to do with me. My relation with him is strictly business. That's the situation, y'know?"

He then graciously extended an invitation to join him at his club. "See me tonight at the Lone Star Boat Club; it's on West 54th Street." About an hour later, he called back. "Listen, I can't talk to you no more." Had D'Amico told him to cancel the invitation? "No, no. Just forget it, OK?"

But this is a hard man to forget. Hershkowitz showed up in a Times story in 2005 after the death of actor Jerry Orbach, a friend who also belonged to the Lone Star club. There Hershkowitz was known as "Big H," a gruff-talking pinochle player, the Times reported. As Hal Irving, he also showed up as the subject of testimony in 2006, when a former Gambino captain named Michael DiLeonardo took the witness stand against John A. Gotti, the don's son and successor. DiLeonardo described how Irving had supplied Jackie D'Amico with a job that "he could show the government," and a Jaguar.

The informant said he had once sat down in Irving's offices with D'Amico and another mobster to settle "a beef" about one of the profitable sales routes for Irving's beverage business. He also said that Irving had put up $50,000 to invest in Da' Noi, the swanky Upper East Side restaurant that Gotti Sr. had built on York Avenue, and where Irving was a regular.

What did Hal Irving get in exchange for all this help to the Gambino family, prosecutors asked the witness? "Protection," came the answer. "And Hal liked wiseguys. He had bragging rights."
Posted By: ILUP

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/04/08 06:09 PM

If you they wanted to tell the truth about Mr. Artuso they would print the facts and rename the article “The FBI Grudge” that is what this case is really about. I have read over all of the court documents in the case against Mr. Artuso, I found absolutely no proof of the alleged crimes. I found the facts to be very one sided in this article, Mr. Artuso was previously involved in organized crime, he was one of the labeled 'backup' shooters on the Castellano-Billotti double murder on December 16, 1985, in which his gun jammed and not a single shot was ever fired, not to mention later findings show that Mr. Artuso was never even close enough to the victims to fire a shot. Mr. Artuso did moved to Florida, and tried to make a living, but not by running a so called “South Florida crime ring “since 1985 Mr. Artuso has served his time and paid his debt to society in the Federal Penitentiary for alleged previous crimes, but the truth is that Mr. Artuso has not been involved in any crime much less organized, in over 20 years. In fact, the reason he moved his family to Florida was to get away from that kind of atmosphere, he has lived his life on the up and up ever since. The FBI is angry that Mr. Artuso is the only one involved in the Castellano-Billotti double murder that is not dead or incarcerated. Artuso was never charged in the case. The FBI has been harassing and threatening Mr. Artuso for many years. Why would he blatantly break any laws (like running a crime ring) if he knew he had the FBI breathing down his neck, that would be stupid. Mr. Artuso is a very intelligent man and has no intention of breaking any laws or ever going back to prison, much less run a crime ring? Come on. The FBI can’t stand the fact that Mr. Artuso was rehabilitated and reformed while in prison and is now an upstanding member of the community. I thought that was what the Federal Prison System was for? I thought that is why Mr. Artuso and the rest of America, myself included, pay such high taxes? Looks like the truth here is that the FBI wants Mr. Artuso in prison for the rest of his life, over a 20 year grudge, just look at his bail amount $225,000. Give me a break! There are people accused of murder and much worse, that don’t have bails set that high, if he was planning on leaving town, I think he would have done so long ago. Mr. Artuso has cooperated fully with the FBI for several years now. I respect for the FBI and its officials, I think they do an excellent job protecting our citizens and our country, but in this case I find the FBI is acting completely unjust and is wasting thousands of tax payer money trying to frame Mr. Artuso. I found no actual proof that Mr. Artuso was engaged in anything that wasn’t considered to be normal business practices done every day by millions of Americans. I think you owe it to Mr. Artuso to do the research and report all of the facts, you are serving Mr. Artuso a major injustice. Mr. Artuso is reformed, and is a taxpaying, law abiding, citizen of this country, and he has the right to earn a living and the right to be left alone. This case violates his right for liberty and justice for all.
Posted By: ILUP

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/04/08 06:11 PM

Mr. Artuso has done nothing wrong and should not be punished for a crime he was not convicted of.
Posted By: MiniMafiaBoss

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/14/08 12:09 PM

Originally Posted By: Don Cardi
As much as I may enjoy reading about the mob, watching movies about the mob, talking the mob and learning all that I could about the mob, the thought of paying tribute to these people, who are really nothing more than murderers and criminals, by giving them a museum, seems outrageous.


The Al Capone Museum was closed down because it made him a celebrity when he shouldn't have been. There are those who are viled by mob crimes, and those who glorify it, wether it be for interest or for "training" purposes.
We all like the mob because it is interesting.
Posted By: Don Cardi

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/14/08 10:19 PM

Originally Posted By: MiniMafiaBoss


[ There are those who are viled by mob crimes, and those who glorify it, wether it be for interest or for "training" purposes.



Have you trained?
Posted By: MiniMafiaBoss

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/15/08 02:57 PM

No I mean't the wannabes in the Italian Mafia, people like Johnny Capone.
Posted By: MiniMafiaBoss

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 06/20/08 07:48 PM

Johnny Capone is a Colombo associate whos calling himself Capone, as in Al, he is a classic wannabe - giving his loanshark victims a hard thumping in the head, even after they have paid up.

Johnny is now in jail, they say his "career" is over.

This info is from the Jerry Capieci site, Gangland.
Posted By: Don Jasani

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 08/09/08 02:07 PM

Dan Robson
Staff Reporter

A man identified by Italian investigators as one of the kings of international drug trafficking was arrested in Markham on Thursday, after allegedly living illegally in Canada for the last three years.

Giuseppe Coluccio, 41 – one of Italy's most wanted men and a suspected leader of the 'Ndrangheta Mafia – was living in a condo on Toronto's downtown lakeshore, said RCMP Sgt. Marc LaPorte.

Italian news media reported that about $1 million in readily-negotiable travellers cheques was found hidden behind a wardrobe in Coluccio's condo after his arrest.

On Thursday, the RCMP followed Coluccio from his condo to a strip mall in Markham where they executed a "high risk" takedown and arrest just before 1 p.m., said LaPorte.

Coluccio has been on the run from Italian authorities since 2005, when he evaded arrest in a sting operation in southern Italy.

Coluccio had been living in Canada under an alias, which LaPorte would not disclose. He is considered to be a key player in organizing cocaine and heroin traffic from South America to Europe.

Italian investigators have declared him one of the country's 30 most dangerous fugitives.

The Italian media reports suggest Coluccio continued to run his drug empire in Italy while in Toronto.

He allegedly has connections to the C-u-n-trera-Caruana Sicilian drug dealing family– some of whom are believed to also be hiding from authorities in Toronto.

Italy's defence minister, Ignazio La Russa, said the arrest showed authorities were making advances in the fight against organized crime.

"Coluccio had lived happily in Canada thanks to the (support) provided by the Calabrian clans – a situation that shows the extraordinary reach of the 'Ndrangheta," said public prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone.

'Ndrangheta, based in the southern Calabria region, has reportedly overtaken Sicily's Cosa Nostra to become the most powerful Italian crime group.

"Canada is traditionally a strong base for the 'Ndrangheta," says organized crime expert Antonio Nicaso. "Canada is the right place to deal with narcotics. Montreal is the main port of entrance for narcotics in North America, and in Canada they can control that major point of entry. Toronto specifically is an important base for 'Ndrangheta.

"Ndrangheta is on the rise and it is second to none, with a lot of influence in Italy, Europe and worldwide. It is the only one that has investment in cocaine production in Columbia ... They're the most powerful criminal organization worldwide."

Last month Michele Modica, a mobster who was the intended target of a shooting that left North York mother Louise Russo paralyzed in 2004, was arrested in Sicily.

Italian special operations and Canada's Immigration Task Force collaborated in 2006, leading to a nationwide immigration warrant for Coluccio's arrest, said LaPorte.

Coluccio's arrest was praised by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. In a statement, he applauded the work of the Immigration Task Force, which is headed by the RCMP and includes officers from the OPP, Toronto police, and the Canadian Border Services Agency.

Coluccio is being held in RCMP custody on an immigration warrant, and will appear at an admissibility hearing on Monday.

With files from Reuters

http://www.thestar.com/article/475221

I'm glad they got the guy, but its somewhat unsettling that the takedown took place in Markham of which Thornhill (where I live) is a part of.



Posted By: inellgilsta

Re: Real Life Organized Crime News - 09/22/10 03:49 AM

"Naples is a nice place to visit if you don't have to smell it."

I heard so many things about Naples, they said that it is a beautiful place to visit.

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