Garbage

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/01/16/f...4wSmBA.facebook

I take it they were making businesses in the area use their garbage trucks and related companies or something like that.

No bosses or high ranking members?

Hmm. Just speculation, but that leads me to believe that the investigation is ongoing, or why would the Feds bother with the dog and pony show?

The Feds don't want these guys near garbage anymore. Not that you're gonna keep them out entirely, but they're not remotely as involved as they used to be. If the Feds think they're making inroads again, you can bet the other shoe is gonna drop on this one.

HERE IS THE PRESS RELEASE:
http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/January13/OCWasteDisposalArrestsPR.php

Nah its more like bid rigging and territorial shit. Not just like one company at a time (that is done too)... Its more like company a is owned by so and so who is with joe blow. Company a wants to service such and such township so he goes to joe blow who scares off other bidders with threats and shit like that.. Theres alot of other scams to the businesd... Under reporting the weight, over reporting it, not classifying it right, using a bunch of bean eaters instead of union guys....

nypost article

Mobster nabbed in massive bust was given big break by judge in 2012

So when is the fishing trip with George costanza ?

They got Carmine Franco I remember George Anastashia repeating his quote caught on a wire a million times " Goodfellas don't sue Goodfella's,Goodfella's kill Goodfella's -Carmine Franco

Franco has to be almost 80 years old now. The Feds must be super pissed at him because they threw him out of garbage fifteen years ago. That he found his way back into the game must be giving them extra incentive. Poor bastard.

Hey at least we dont have to hear about our nations "moral compass" anymore. As far as teabaggers go, Im not the type to stand and scream like a maniac for anyone. However The Constitution as a document is going to come under great debate whether its a "living" or "adjustable" set of rules. And for once in my life I truely have no idea where I stand. I will state I do not own a gun for the simple reason, I would use it!

Sounds good, but you have the wrong thread .

Sorry fella's between the Morphine and my nurses ass Im not myself!

Here's the indictment -

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/January13/OCWasteDisposalArrestsPR/Franco,%20Carmine%20et%20al.%20Indictment.pdf


These are the made guys involved in the bust...


Genovese:
Anthony “Muzzy” Pucciarello/77
Joseph “Joe Sass” Sarcinella/78
Dominick “Pepe” Pietranico/82
Peter Leconte/42


Gambino:
Anthony Bazzini/53


The lead defendant, Carmine Franco, is listed as a Genovese associate of course.

Who is Joe Sass?? That name sounds really familiar to me!

He's a Genovese soldier who was involved in a gambling bust up in the Bronx not too long ago.

No one was even that important in this bust. This is friggin minnie mouse ball the Feds are playing. Either the garbage influence the mob has is small or it's ingoing and a lot bigger than we think.

There doesn't necessarily have to be a high ranking mob member involved for the case to be important. In addition to this latest bust in garbage, we've seen other cases involving construction and the waterfront in recent years where there were only associates and maybe one or two soldiers charged. But these busts still go to the heart of the mob's power in the tri-state area.

A related indictment involving Lucchese associate Charles Giustra that also came down today. Includes narcotics trafficking, contraband cigarettes, etc.

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/January13/OCWasteDisposalArrestsPR/Giustra,%20Charles%20et%20al.%20Indictment.pdf

Random Poster: " I'm Sorry I didn't go to an IVYLEAGUE School like you!!"

IvyLeague: "ahhh actually I didn't ..Its the name of the Genovese Family."

He's an ancient bookmaker here in the Bronx. I have no earthly idea what he's even doing in a case like this. Garbage is definitely not his forte, and it's not something that one generally gets into so late in life. He must be damn near 80 years old. In his case, either the Feds are reaching or they're just looking to rattle an old man. A shame.

PIZZA BOY here is something on Joe Sass:
Firefighter, three geriatric gangsters accused of running gambling ring for Genovese crime family
'They’ve been using the same simple formula since 1975'

A New York City firefighter and three geriatric gangsters were busted in the Bronx Thursday for allegedly running a $2 million-a-year gambling and loansharking ring for the Genovese crime family.

Mob associate Joseph (Joe Sass) Sarcinella, 77, who prosecutors say ran the sports book, has been busted twice before — once in the mid-1970s for running a $50 million operation for Vincent (The Chin) Gigante.

“They’ve been using the same simple formula since 1975,” said one source involved in the Bronx probe.

In 2001, the wiseguy was nailed again for running a $10 million gambling ring in Bronxdale. He pleaded guilty the next year, and served four months — one weekend at a time.

In the 73-page indictment, the Bronx district attorney charged that the eight-man crew — three older than 75 — levied exorbitant interest, sometimes 100% of the bet. The old men sometimes met at Veniero’s on E. 11th St.

"They would summon their loan shark victims to come and settle up," at the pastry shop,”where they nibbled pastry and talked business police said.

Bruno (Cola) Totino, 81, Dominick (Pepe) Pietranico, 81, John D’Abrosio, 54, Frank Mastracchio, 56, Dominick (Whitey) Totino, 44, and Thomas McMahon, 29, were all charged with loansharking and promoting gambling and racketeering - a felony carrying a maximum 25 prison stretch.

McMahon, 29, a seven-year vet of the FDNY assigned to Ladder 38 in Belmont, acted as a runner, collecting bets on the streets and paying out winnings, according to the indictment. He was suspended for 30 days, the Fire Department said.

Prosecutors caught the gangsters on wire tapes shaking down sports gamblers for big money.

“They specialized in football but they took bets on everything,” the source said. “These guys have been doing this for a hundred years. “These are old hands for the family. They’re old pros.”

The operation ran between 2009 and 2011, taking the action through a social club and two offices in Pelham Gardens and Fordham Heights.

McMahon’s uncle, Mastracchio, 56, was also busted for criminal possession of a weapon after cops found a sawed-off shotgun and a pistol in his Bronx home.

McMahon could not be reached for comment..

Murray Richman, the lawyer for all the men except the firefighter, declined to comment.

In the social club on 1480 Mace Ave. Thursday night where bets were allegedly collected, five guys were screaming at each other over the bust.

One man was slammed his hand against the wall and screamed at another “You know how much f--king money that is!”

“You should have f--king known!” a second guy screamed.

But they calmed down when approached by a News reporter.

“Talk to the lawyer,” one of the men said. “There wasn't anything illegal happening here.”

Another man headed to the nearby bodega where he purchased 15 scratch tickets.

It's a time-tested business principle, pizza. Diversification!

Thanks, Beanshooter .

I remember that case from a year or so ago. It turned out to be much ado about nothing. They ALL got off with fines and conditional releases. It was a total waste of time and money. This case is a lot more serious just by virtue of it being a Federal RICO case.

I know that lawyer well, Murray Richman. They call him "Don't Worry Murray." He's a fucking creep, but he's very good. He represents high profile black rappers all the time. Not that those guys are remotely close to real gangsters, but their high profile has made Murray a very rich man.

Is Don't Worry Murray any relation to Better Call Saul?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqnHtGgVAUE

Interesting info on Murray. I found this newspaper article on him and his daughter. He sounds like a real character:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/family_court_izUpVnLnZHOabANMIpERxN

True enough, Ivy. But at his age it just wasn't very smart. Sass was never a tough guy. Not even when he was younger. I had a little back and forth about this with Charlie on the other board, but Joe Sass was very close to Joe Dente Sr. back in the day. They were together constantly.

For a mob skipper, Dente was actually a pretty big hearted guy. He was always looking out for guys who were a little bit "soft," as long as they weren't rats. Dente used to really look out for Sass, and Sass came to count on it. I'm just not sure that he has the kind of Rabbi today that he did back then. My gut tells me that he's being used here, and I feel badly for him.

But I'm just a neighborhood guy. So what the fuck do I know?

Thats weird, i seriously have no idea where i know that name from.

But food for thought- he was with Chin back in the day, assuming he was never released to another crew, his skipper would be Quiet Dom right? So maybe these are his guys..

Well, I have yet to see you say something that contradicts some major well known fact from the feds, etc. so I usually take what you say at face value.

Just to give you an idea of how long he's been around, here's a picture of Sass in 1975. 1975!!!!

So wait these are three Genovese guys and one Gambino guy in a garbage case. Is this looking to go for serious time or light? I mean it just doesn't seem that huge. These guys get busted all the time. It shouldn't be a huge deal for them.

Well, 32 defendants in all. 5 are made guys in the Genovese family. All soldiers. Another is a Gambino soldier. And there's others who are associates of those families, as well as one that's a Lucchese associate. The lead defendant in the case, Carmine Franco, is a long time Genovese associate.

Who said it was "huge"? It's a glorified shakedown at this point. Unless it's ongoing, then the other shoe might eventually drop.

I merely pointed out that 2 or 3 years isn't easy time for an 80 year old man who wasn't a tough guy to begin with .

True that. There has to be more mob influence in garbage than this. Not saying it's a good thing just that it's likely.

This old man Pizza do you think they'll give him a plea deal?

This article has some photos of those arrested, including Franco and Joe Sass. Thanks to kevlar for originally posting it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/feds...ticle-1.1241033

Don't be fooled by one indictment. I know what I see. It's not remotely the same as it was years ago. Nor is the mob's influence in garbage completely dead. The truth, like most truths, lies somewhere in the middle. The plain truth: Without the Teamsters and the drivers it will never be the same.


I hope so. He's not a bad old guy.

Some of those guys are fucking ugly

News video on the bust with some of them doing the perp walk...

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/20600759/mob-sweep-across-metro-region

Who cares about those photos are you going to go to kinkos and get them blown up.

Probably a lot of the same people who have viewed and posted in this thread would be interested to see who was busted.

Well, if they are unlucky enough, a conviction can give them a 20 year sentence each.

That is some awesome hair!

That quote was from Salvatore Profaci, but he was talking about a beef between Stanfa lawyer Salvatore Arena and Carmine Franco over garbage rackets.

Info on this Leconte and Bazzini, fairly young by today's standards, they both made? What crews they in etc? Thanks.

Don´t know about Bazzini, but according to the indictment, the Genovese guys are members of the "Lodi crew". If I´m not mistaken, Lodi is a borough in Bergen county, NJ. To my knowledge, Tino Fiumarra´s crew and Gatto´s crew operated out of there. Both Fiumarra and Gatto passed away in 2010. I have no clue who run those crews today.

Last I read, Michael "Tona" Borelli was acting captain for Mikey Coppola, who is now the official captain of the Fiumara crew.

It should be noted that, in the past, Carmine Franco answered to Tino Fiumara. So it may indeed be that crew.

Never heard anything about who took over after Gatto died.

Lodi has always been wat they called Lou Reds crew. But ive never heard of them being into garbage, just book. Yea Tona is MCs guy. But not his only one. Tuna is a big bm from way back in the day, hes gotta be pushin 70. Louie Bragg lives in Lodi when hes not in FL.. Dunno, tona was a newark guy.

joe sass had the hair in the 70tys still knows how to dress for a 80ty yr old , but why isnt a capo in this indictment unless they put the low guys in charge of the trash cause it wouldnt be a big lost. these old guys are so old they can never roll, they'll probaly just sonny fransese it. go to fort devens for old mob guys there here or bulter n.c.

Yeah your right my bad. Aveva's Daughter was married to Profaci and I think both of their fathers were Bosses who got whacked as well.

Avena's father was a high ranking member in the Philly mob who got whacked. Profaci's father was Joe Profaci, he wasn't whacked.

By Jerry Capeci
Trio Pleads Guilty In Garbage Case; Baseball Bat Assault Of FBI Operative Still A Mystery
Three Genovese family gangsters pleaded guilty last week to two loansharking schemes that led to a brutal baseball bat beating of an FBI operative who was working undercover against organized crime activity in the waste hauling industry in New York and New Jersey.But the feds have not been able to link the trio – or anyone else for that matter – to the vicious February 26, 2012 assault against the independent private carter who wore a wire for three years. The main target of the probe, 77-year-old lead defendant Carmine (Papa Smurf) Franco, is still awaiting trial on labor racketeering charges along with 25 others.The attack itself took place on a Sunday night when the assailant, without saying a word, assaulted the undercover operative with a bat. A week later the thug left the bat – wiped clean of fingerprints – in the cab of the cooperating witness's garbage truck as an eerie reminder of the vicious assault.Despite a wealth of suspects – four mob crews "controlled" the victim's business and extorted protection payments from him during the lengthy probe – authorities have acquired no evidence implicating any mob guys in the beating, even though the snitch continued wearing a wire for two months after the attack."I got smacked over the head, knocked out unconscious, my right eye is smashed in," the cooperating witness told his alleged mob handler in his first phone call after the bloody assault, according to a transcript of the conversation obtained by Gang Land."I don't know what I got hit with, but I got a grapefruit on my head. My right eye, I can't open it. It's all purple and blown up, it looks like I got a golf ball on it," he said a day later, following his release from an area hospital.No actual violence is alleged against any defendant in the 15 count indictment. But a year before the attack, a longtime Genovese associate who copped a plea deal, William Cali, who often used the alias Joe Cali, was tape recorded boasting of his prowess with a baseball bat on two successive meetings with the cooperating witness, Gang Land has learned.In one meeting, on February 16, 2011, when the informer mentioned that Mexican criminals had stolen merchandise from him, Cali said "he would bust their heads with a baseball bat" if he ever caught up with them, according to an FBI report that was obtained by Gang Land.Two days later, according to a summary of a follow up discussion by FBI agents Jon Jennings and Natale Parisi, as the men talked about a guy who was giving one of Cali's underlings a "hard time," Cali again mentioned his batting prowess, threatening to "put him in a coma with a baseball bat."During another taped talk that same week, Joe Cali talked openly about his loanshark business, saying, "I still make my living on the street with my shylock customers and everything else." He added that the threat of violence helped him collect. "When you have no muscle in the business you're in, you've got a lot of problems," he said.Cali, 59, pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to extortion conspiracy for coercing the private carter, whose name is being withheld by Gang Land, to fork over the money he owed the gangster from February to July of 2011.At sentencing, Cali, whose first conviction was in 1973, faces 24-to-30 months behind bars, according to a plea agreement worked out by attorney Aaron Goldsmith, who told Gang Land that his client did not engage in any violence or any overt threats."I made him understand if he doesn’t pay me, it wouldn’t be good," is how Cali explained his actions to Judge Kevin Castel. "I made him a little frightened, your honor."A pair of elderly Genovese mobsters, Dominick (Pepe) Pietranico and Joseph Sarcinella, who allegedly controlled the undercover private carter and extorted protection payoffs from him for a year, both pleaded guilty to loaning him $12,500 at a usurious interest rate of 150% a year. According to their plea deals, Pietranico, 82, faces 30 to 37 months, and Sarcinella, 78, between 27 and 33 months in prison.As part of their agreements, racketeering conspiracy, extortion and all other charges will be dismissed against the three men, the first to plead guilty in the case. The case is slated for trial next year, but Gang land expects that most, if not all the defendants, will also cop plea deals.Despite the beating, the cooperator told the FBI he wanted to continue his undercover work. On Monday, February 27 of last year, the day after his assault, he reached out to the mob underling who did the daily dirty work for Gambino soldier Anthony Bazzini to inform him of the assault, and try to determine who was responsible."Somebody must not be too happy with me," he told Scott Fappiano, explaining why he hadn't shown up the night before with a regular payment that was due. "I got bashed over the head. They took me to the hospital in the ambulance," he said.During a long back and forth, Fappiano empathized with the informer, but pointedly asked him what he had "been doin' that you're not supposed to be doin'?" Fappiano promised to see if he could learn anything about the attack, although he theorized that it was a "random" thing, and not related to the garbage business."They… they … they'd say something and leave you a message, you know, why they're doin' something like that, they just don't do that unless … he's a fucking lunatic," said Fappiano. "I don't know. I couldn't explain that."Fappiano, a longtime Colombo associate who gravitated to the Gambinos in recent years, told the battered independent carter that he was "sorry it happened" but reminded him of his continuing financial obligations to Fappiano and his cohorts, and told him not to forget them."You have to stop by and see me," said Fappiano. "I had to go these people today, I told you that it was important. I was supposed to have that Friday."When the carter assured Fappiano that he had the $185 payment, the gangster replied that wasn’t enough: "Well, you're having it is not good for me."

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130617...-caught-on-tape

Ramsey man pleads guilty in waste-hauling racketeering in NJ, NY
Friday, November 22, 2013
BY PETER J. SAMPSON
STAFF WRITER
The Record

Carmine Franco, a former Bergen County trash-collection baron ultimately banned from the industry in New Jersey, pleaded guilty on Friday to federal racketeering charges stemming from a crackdown on Mafia control over waste-hauling in New York and New Jersey.

Franco, 78, of Ramsey, and Anthony Pucciarello, also 78, of Bloomfield, confessed in federal court in Manhattan to taking part in an illegal scheme to exert control over the commercial waste-hauling industry in the two states.

They were among 32 defendants linked to three organized crime families — Genovese, Gambino and Luchese — charged in January in connection with the scheme. Sixteen of the defendants have pleaded guilty.

Franco faces a penalty of 45 years in prison when sentenced March 19. He also has agreed to forfeit proceeds of $2.5 million. Pucciarello faces three years in prison when sentenced March 21.

“With today’s guilty pleas, Carmine Franco and Anthony Pucciarello become the latest defendants to be held to account for their roles in a criminal racketeering enterprise that encircled the waste-hauling industry in the New York City area and parts of New Jersey,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a release. “This office will continue working with our law enforcement partners to pry loose the tentacles of organized crime from around the industries it tries to control.”

Franco, an associate of the Genovese crime family also known as “Papa Smurf” and “Uncle Sonny,” pleaded guilty to three separate conspiracy counts. As part of his plea, he acknowledged his membership in a racketeering enterprise that exercised illegal control over waste haulers in the counties of Bergen and Passaic in New Jersey and Westchester, Rockland and Nassau in New York.

He also admitted that he committed mail and wire fraud by overbilling customers of a waste transfer station that he controlled in West Nyack, N.Y. and that he and his associates transported large volumes of stolen cardboard across state lines. Pucciarello, a reputed member of the Genovese crime family, admitted that he was aware that others were conspiring to use extortion to obtain an ownership interest in a business owned by a cooperating witness. He admitted that he failed to report this extortion to authorities and agreed to conceal the percentage of the victim’s business that he would own following the extortion.

Franco has owned or controlled waste-disposal businesses for more than 30 years. Because of convictions in the early 1980s and late 1990s and known associations with organized crime, he was banned from the waste-hauling industry in New Jersey and could not be licensed to operate such businesses in many New York jurisdictions, the indictment said. But, it charged, that didn’t stop Franco from secretly taking control of and operating trash-hauling companies, extorting their owners and orchestrating thefts of their property.

During the four-year investigation, authorities were aided by a cooperating witness whose hauling company was under Franco‘s control and later was taken over by other mob factions.

After wresting control of the company from Franco, a Genovese crew based in Lodi allegedly extorted $500 weekly “protection” payments from the cooperating witness to shield him from other Mafia factions, the indictment said.

Peter Leconte, 42, of Lodi, a reputed Genovese soldier, pleaded guilty on Nov. 15 to conspiring to commit extortion by threatening economic harm if a hauler didn’t turnover a percentage of his company. He faces 20 years in prison when sentenced Apr. 4. After wresting control of the company from Franco, a Genovese crew based in Lodi allegedly extorted $500 weekly “protection” payments from the cooperating witness to shield him from other Mafia factions, the indictment said.

Peter Leconte, 42, of Lodi, a reputed Genovese soldier, pleaded guilty on Nov. 15 to conspiring to commit extortion by threatening economic harm if a hauler didn’t turnover a percentage of his company. He faces 20 years in prison when sentenced Apr. 4.

↓http://www.northjersey.com/news/Ramsey_ ... ering.html

Ramsey man pleads guilty in waste-hauling racketeering in NJ, NY - NorthJersey.com
Carmine Franco, 78, of Ramsey, and Anthony Pucciarello, also 78, of Bloomfield, confessed in federal court in Manhattan to taking part in an illegal scheme to exert control over the commercial waste-hauling industry in the two states.

Guess the feds got what they wanted. Recouped a couple million bucks towards the cost of the 4 year investigation and the court appointed CJA attorneys for mostly all the defendants. Except for the two dead guys they originally set out to bust and the eyesight in one eye of the cooperating witness, everything seems to have worked out exactly as they planned. Bravo

does papa smurf get his button before or after he goes to jail. I read some book the guy jimmy nap who was once the biggest numbers guy in nyc was made right before he went to jail in 1977. fat tony wanted him to be a member so no one messed with him in jail. never killed anyone, think the books buy his kid. wonder if angelo ponte got it to. no one knew the president of that festival was a bonanno till they all started singing. perry c, these old guys will take the button saves you some money from the shake downs rite.

the gambinos made guy in his 70tys freddy hot or something like that. he was skinny doms code that beat murder and walk out the court house.

Gambino gangster says he is no Tony Soprano

Real-life wiseguy Anthony Bazzini says he’s nothing like the fictional Tony Soprano.

Or, for that matter, any of the characters in “GoodFellas,’’ “The Godfather’’ and other mob movies.

So Bazzini, who will go on trail next month on charges of being part of a massive gangland effort to control the New York-New Jersey garbage-carting industry, has asked a federal judge to ask potential jurors:

* If they are “regular watchers or have been in the past regular watchers of ‘The Sopranos’ or similar programs.”

* If any of them or their family members has ever worked in the “waste-disposal industry.”

*  If they “harbor potential bias or prejudice against Italian-Americans” or developed “a negative perception” of them based on “The Sopranos,” “GoodFellas” or “The Godfather.”

In “The Sopranos,” boss Tony Soprano, played by the late James Gandolfini, used a garbage-carting business as a mob front.

The feds say Bazzini, 54, of Glen Head, LI, is the “ghost owner” of Galaxy Carting in Ronkonkoma, which also did business in New Jersey.

He and 31 other reputed mobsters were busted in January for allegedly scheming with rival Mafia families to trash efforts to clean up the garbage business — and using strong-arm tactics to shake down owners of legitimate companies and secretly assume control of their operations.

Bazzini faces charges of loan-sharking and other racketeering offenses.

His lawyer, Raymond Perini, also wants his client to get a prude-free jury that can handle cursing.

He asked that prospective jurors be read the following statement: “You will hear foul language used by the defendants during the course of recorded conversations.

“Do you have any moral problems with the use of foul language? Will the use of foul and profane language impact your ability to render a fair and impartial verdict?”

The feds declined to comment, and Perini and Bazzini did not return messages.

http://nypost.com/2013/12/02/mafia-defendant-im-no-tony-soprano/

Maybe one of the juror questions should be: are you aware that the feds don't have many mobsters to bust anymore, so they hafta kinda sorta manufacture them now by using crooks or underachievers to fuck people out of money and wait for them to react.... And then call them mobsters when they do?

Jerry Capeci had a nice write-up regarding the sleazy sexual predator of underage girls who wore a wire for 4 years and is the government's only witness.

Pervert Who Likes 15-Year-Old Girls

The feds disclosed last week why they have been giving out sweet plea deals to wiseguys and associates of three crime families who were snared in a massive sting operation into the scandal-tarred private sanitation industry in New York and New Jersey: their main witness is a sex pervert who preys on 15 year old girls.

In court papers, Manhattan federal prosecutors say that the undercover operative who taped more than 500 conversations with 29 defendants with the Genovese, Gambino and Luchese clans began working for the FBI after he was arrested for soliciting sex with a girl he believed to be 15 years old. The filing was disclosed yesterday by the Daily News.

The witness is identified in court papers as CW but Gang Land named him six weeks ago as Charles Hughes, a longtime fixture in the waste hauling business. Hughes was arrested on charges carrying a mandatory minimum of 10 years behind bars when he arrived at a motel with a supply of condoms prepared for a tryst with the "15 year old girl" he had solicited for sex for two months, according to the filings.

In their papers, prosecutors Brian Blais, Natalie Lamarque and Patrick Egan are asking trial judge P. Kevin Castel to keep a lid on that sleazy history by limiting the scope of the defense questioning of Hughes. They argue that any discussion of their witness's sordid past would inflame and prejudice jurors in the case against the government.

Prosecutors asked Castel "to preclude cross-examination regarding the details of the graphic, sexually explicit conversations between (Hughes) and the girl during internet chats and phone conversations." 

The grubby details of the conversations, say the prosecutors, would add "little or nothing to the jury's assessment of (Hughes's) credibility, and the inflammatory nature of the offenses would be highly prejudicial."

Unsurprisingly, lawyers for the defendants are eager to make sure jurors hear as much as possible about those frisky exchanges. But Raymond Perini, attorney for Gambino soldier Anthony Bazzini, who begins trial next week along with mob associate Scott Fappiano, insisted that he will keep his questions tasteful. He has no intention, he told the judge, to "bring out verbatim the discussions of organ size, sex acts, or body waxing other than to refer to them in passing."

Arguing that Hughes is not just a witness "but essentially the ONLY government witness," Perini wrote that government's effort to block the sex crime history was premature, certainly before Castel "has heard the evidence in context."

"This is not some unrelated bad act," writes Perini, but the crime that is the sole basis for Hughes's decision to cooperate, and as such, he "is highly motivated to curry favor with the government" since "this is how he plans on getting out from under" a long stretch behind bars.

The lawyer says that among other things, he wants to question Hughes about lies he told the "girl" and a "series of lies" he told a court appointed shrink who treated him following his arrest.

"None of these factors involve 'graphic conversations,' just plain old lying," he wrote.

In November, the main defendant in the case, Carmine (Papa Smurf) Franco pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges that call for a maximum of 50 years in prison. His plea agreement with the feds, however, recommends a prison term between 27 and 33 months.

So far, 15 of the 29 defendants in the indictment, which has been split into four trials, have copped plea deals. Bazzini, 54, and Fappiano, 50, are the only two remaining defendants in the first trial, which begins Tuesday.


Here's the latest news. Last minute sweet plea deals being shelled out by the government.

http://m.nydailynews.com/1.1579975

Sure would've loved to see a child molester star witness testifying for the government in open court. How low can they go? Scumbags

Don't be fooled by one indictment. I know what I see. It's not remotely the same as it was years ago. Nor is the mob's influence in garbage completely dead. The truth, like most truths, lies somewhere in the middle. The plain truth: Without the Teamsters and the drivers it will never be the same.

So how influenced are the mob in garbage? they obviously dont operate a monopoly on the cartels but there not out of it completely so what presence have they got?

LCN garbage rackets are much bigger in NJ and update NY today , NYC might be dead.

In my town in NJ the local hauler and a pretty large waste transportation system company ( rail car trash all the way to Ohio landfill ) are run by men with strong LCN ties .

It's still big business and a Westside thing, it's a quasi legit biz and very hard to keep people out of as they can just rename , start a new co or play via consulting gig

DB, anyone in garbage in the tri-state area who might have or had a, let's say, 'reputation', are just left overs who've got their hands tied. If they were 'involved' at some point in the past, they can't do anything about it. They can't claim property rights to stops outside their own circle anymore. Even within whatever is left of their decimated circle they don't want trouble. It's an open market out there for anyone to take. All you have going on today is hard working people trying to make a dollar & pay the bills. You've got the good ones and the bad ones, as with any blue collar businesses. People strong-arm competition every day in all kinds of businesses. Mostly in politics, as we've seen right here in NJ lately. Don't even get me started on that guys shady relatives.

The only people treating these guys the way they used to get treated are rats and undercover LE trying to rekindle old habits so the feds or police can advance their careers. It's disgraceful what they do and the criminals they capture and rely on to get headlines and create problems where no problems would have occurred had it not been for them creating them.

Occasionally, a wannabe will make a bad name for everyone. There are wannabees in every business, though, not just garbage. The fact is, it requires unity for that mentality to take hold. There's no unity, especially not in garbage. Without that very important unity and mutual respect, there can never exist a mob. Except when it's arrest and headlines time. Then they say the mob is back! Yeah, they're back alright.... Just now they're called District Attorney, Mayor, Governor or Chief rather than soldier, capos or consigliere.

In the legal arena of the Southern District of NY, the following decisions of Judge Castel are nothing short of amazing. Judge Castel, a notoriously rough jurist... Rules in favor of defense up and down the line. Looks like the FBI and prosecutors hung their hats a little too high on such a lowlife, scumbag, pedophile like this Charlie Hughes.

Taken from Gangland

By Jerry Capeci

Garbage Gangsters Get Super Sweet Plea Deals; Keeps Sex Pervert Witness Off The Stand

A week after federal prosecutors disclosed that their key witness in the huge mob waste hauling case had preyed on 15-year-old girls, they gave super sweet plea bargains to the last two holdout defendants. The plea deals will keep many sordid details about the FBI's undercover operative — and how he was handled — under wraps.

The gangsters got offers they couldn't refuse: low-end guidelines of 15 months for one, a year for the other. The deals were cut last week, right after a Manhattan federal judge indicated he would give the defense some leeway in questioning witness Charles Hughes about his 2008 arrest for soliciting sex from a girl he believed to be 15-years-old.

The guilty pleas close out the first of three trials that were scheduled in the 29-defendant case alleging mob control over the private sanitation industry in five counties in New York and New Jersey. So far, 19 defendants from three crime families, including geezer gangster Carmine "Papa Smurf" Franco, a Genovese associate, have copped plea deals.

The final pre-trial conference in which Judge P. Kevin Castel said he'd allow at least some of the underage sex allegations to surface if the witness took the stand resulted in a fast, Macy's bargain-basement-style sale of guilty pleas: Prosecutors suddenly reduced prison-term plea deals offered two Gambino family defendants by two-thirds.

The original plea offer of 37-to-46 months for wiseguy Anthony Bazzini, had already been reduced to 30-to-37 months by the last pre-trial session. After Castel left the bench, prosecutors chopped it to 12-to-18 months. The numbers for associate Scott Fappiano, who has more convictions of his rap sheet, began at 41-to-51 months. They ended up at 15-to-21 months, according to court records in the case. Bazzini, 54, and Fappiano, 52, are slated to be sentenced in May.

Castel never made a definitive ruling on exactly how much leeway he would give the defense, but he clearly rejected the contention of lead prosecutor Brian Blais that any cross-examination of Hughes about lies he told the "15-year-old," and other lies he told a court-appointed shrink were "out of bounds."

After grilling Bazzini's lawyer Raymond Perini about the questions he would ask Hughes and his reasons, Castel said he would "think about it" before pointedly cutting off discussion. "If the government has anything further they want to say on the subject, they can write me a letter, and I will take a look at it," said Castel.

Prosecutors said little in court about their key witness. But the limited colloquy on the subject between Perini and Judge Castel indicated serious flaws in his character and credibility, the kind of thing that many jurors might view as worse than the bid-rigging and illegal payoffs he was alleging against the defendants.

Castel, who is not viewed as a pro-defense jurist, began questioning Perini by asking the attorney if he wanted to "go through the transcript" of a taped conversation Hughes had with the "girl" and ask whether he lied when he said he was "tall, dark and handsome."

"I didn't say that Judge," Perini replied quickly, before beginning his detailed explanation of what he believed he had a right to ask the witness.

"There is another lie he tells," said Perini, referring to an early August of 2008 conversation, three weeks before the witness was arrested in front of a Westchester motel with a supply of condoms and a motel key and charged with soliciting sex from a 15 year old girl. That day, said Perini, Hughes, who had not shown for an earlier rendezvous, told the "girl" he was now ready for action.

"He comes up with this story that my wife caught me with condoms and she wouldn't let me come, but now I'm living in a motel room, and now I really want to get together with you again," said Perini. "Lie. Pure lie. I want to explore his lying to a supposed 15 year old to have sex with her. That's what I'd like to do."

Asked what the lie was, the lawyer said the excuse he gave the girl was a lie. "Just two weeks ago," Hughes admitted telling the feds that was a lie, said Perini.

Numerous times during their back and forth, Perini stressed that he would focus on the lies Hughes told the "15-year-old girl" as a way of undermining his believability to jurors who would have to decide whether to credit his allegations against Bazzini.

"That's a lie that goes to his credibility in this relationship with the 15 year old," the lawyer said. "And I think it's something the jury should know about him, because if he is willing to lie about that, what would he do when he is looking at ten to life?" said Perini, referring to the minimum prison time Hughes would have faced for soliciting sex from a minor — if he hadn't gotten a cooperation deal from the feds.

At no point during the proceeding, did Blais, or co-prosecutors Natalie Lamarque or Patrick Egan, contradict anything that Perini told the judge about their witness.

Castel withheld a final ruling on what alleged lies to a court appointed psychiatrist that Perini could cross-examine Hughes about, but he made several positive defense findings.

The judge ruled that a taped talk in which Bazzini mentioned that he saw former Gambino boss Peter Gotti in prison, and information that Hughes was severely beaten during the undercover probe were both prejudicial and could not be used at the trial.

Not addressed during the session, or in the government's court papers, were several assertions of bad judgment or possible wrongdoing by the prosecutors and FBI agents that Perini and co-counsel Lee Ginsberg noted in their court papers — points they would most likely have raised at the trial.

Among other things, prosecutors allowed Hughes's release on bail to cooperate before he pleaded guilty to the sex charges. They also relaxed "highly restrictive bail conditions meant to protect children from pedophiles like the cooperating witness … at the behest of the FBI" which then gave Hughes "a salaried sort of position" for the next five years, wrote Perini.

Spokespersons for the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI declined to discuss the case

NJ priest begs judge to go easy on ‘Papa Smurf’ Franco
May 5, 2014 | 8:09pm


A New Jersey priest wants a Manhattan federal judge to go easy on mobbed-up garbage-carter Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco.
With the reputed Genovese wiseguy facing more than two years of prison when he’s sentenced May 15 as ringleader of a multi-family organized crime effort to control New York and North Jersey’s waste-hauling industry, Judge Kevin Castel received a letter from the Rev. Peter Sticco, claiming Franco’s been a regular Mother Teresa since his arrest.

The priest says Our Lady of Grace Church in Fairview and its adjacent 400-student grammar school don’t have paid maintenance staff and that Franco, 78, of nearby Ramsey, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: becoming “a full-time volunteer” who’d do everything from handling church and school security to ensuring the restrooms and altar are spotless.

Sticco also noted that the wiseguy was instrumental in decorating the church last Christmas and helped deliver 300 turkeys and trimmings to the poor at Thanksgiving — and he assured that Franco would continue to do such altruistic work for the church if he stayed out of the pen.
He said that an 80-year-old retired businessman had previously volunteered daily at Our Lady of Grace but had to stop because of poor health — leaving the church in a bind.

“He is greatly missed and we have not been able to find someone like him since,” the priest said. “Carmine is that type of person” who is “eager to work, knowledgeable, and always has a smile on his face.”
Among two dozen other letters Castel received in support of Franco is one from former New Jersey state Sen. Henry McNamara.
The longtime Bergen County pol and power broker said a non-prison sentence of community service is warranted due to Franco’s advanced age and laundry list of health problems, which includes being a cancer survivor who recently had his prostrate surgically removed. He also noted that Franco is the “primary caregiver” for his ill wife, Mary.

“Based upon my personal knowledge of Carmine and his family over the past thirty years, I have had no reason or occasion to experience any untrustworthy side of the individual,” said McNamara, 79, who served as a senator from 1985 to 2008.

He said they first met when McNamara was sales manager for a local Ford dealership and Franco and his “business manager came to purchase a vehicle.”
McNamara also confided that he used to turn to Franco for help while serving in Trenton as chairman of the Senate Environmental Committee. The pol said he used Franco as a “resource” to “assist” in fact-finding before drafting legislation that saved “significant taxpayer dollars” in connection with the solid waste industry.
Franco’s lawyers have also asked, in a separate 37-page filing, that he get a non-prison sentence of probation or community service, citing many ailments that allegedly would make it difficult for him to get proper medical treatment in prison.

Franco faces 27 to 33 months behind bars under his plea deal with the feds, which includes forfeiting $2.5 million to the government. He pleaded guilty last November to charges of racketeering, mail and wire fraud, and interstate transportation of stolen cargo.

He admitted being a key player between 2009 and 2012 in a scheme in which rival Mafia families banded together to circumvent official efforts to clean up the trash business — and used strong-arm tactics to shake down the owners of legitimate companies and secretly assume ownership of their operations.
Franco, who had been barred from the trash business in New Jersey because of past criminal convictions, admitted running his piece of the operation out of Rockland County, NY.

this guy papa smuf pulling out all the stops from going to jail. hes gonna get 1yrs house arrest. I no experts are gonna say this guys not made but im guessing he is. the bosses would induct him just so he doesn't get bullied in jail or for his service to the family for the last 100yrs. westside makes guy who arnt killers, they made that guy hotdogs cause he was president of the school bus union. there was that guy Napoli who was like the biggest numbers guy in nyc in the 70tys and fat tony inducted him rite before he went to jail so he had that prestige. smurfs nephew is made he just got a sweet deal. I amazed that they could steal 200k dollars of cardboard or someshit in 1 weekend, you think he goes strait to the boss with his cash. but chin screw up cause he let the windows guy get close to him

Carmine Franco and Angelo Ponte were never made for a reason. The Westside does not make garbage guys who need to keep up appearances in the legitimate world. We're literally talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. They're not going to risk that to play gangster and burn a Saint like some of the other nit-witted crews.

I'm no expert. But I'm right about this. And check your pm, pmac .

Speaking of garbage, any thoughts on who was behind that illegal dumping in Roberto Clemente Park on Long Island?

That was really fucked up. It's going to cost a fortune to clean that mess up. Like the Town of Islip doesn't have enough problems .

Pmac, in 4 months, the cw in the Smurf case was led by the feds to another crew in Staten Island. There, he and 3 others drove around flatbeds picking up bales of cardboard from behind major department stores. 5 trucks a night, 20 tons per truck. 2 truckloads a night with cardboard at 150 per ton back then.
That's 6 grand a truck x's 5 = 30k per night. And that's how you glom 200k a week of stolen cardboard.
The scheme lasted for 4 months and the feds gave the bust of the lead defendant, a one Vincenzo Grasso and two others, Neil Devito & John Nichols, to the BIC as a 'thank you'. Two lower level defendants of that case were rolled into the Smurf case. They really put the lone cw to work for 4 years. All so he could get out from under pedophilia related charges.

As far as Smurf being given leniency, Castel is one tough cookie. He doesn't give a rats ass about an old man dying in jail. It's going to be very interesting to see what happens on 5/15.
Pizza is right, no garbage guys ever got made, it was hard enough trying to obtain licensure just being associated with those guys, nevermind having been in the club.

That's going to be one big lawsuit there, Ivy. They already fired the Parks Commissioner over this. Everyone knows who was doing the dumping, but like you questioned, who were the people behind it all? The ones making the big money. That site was supposed to be construction of new soccer fields using dirt fill trucked in from elsewhere. It appears, someone found a secluded section of the park and decided to go and open up their own personal little landfill operation. Somebody's in deep shit.

garbageman knows hes garbage im gonna stop recycleing keep all my shit in the backyard, wait for a pay day.

Genovese soldier sentenced to four months in prison

A reputed mobster who whined about getting “whacked” – by falling concrete – to avoid jail time was sentenced Wednesday to four months behind bars for being part of a mob effort to control New York and North Jersey’s garbage-carting industry.
Robert Franco, 51, of White Plains, tried to get out of jail time by recently claiming in legal papers that he still suffers terrible pain from a 2003 car accident and from getting whacked in the head four years ago by a chunk of falling concrete.
But the feds said the reputed Genovese soldier and nephew of ringleader Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco is not a very wise guy – and didn’t deserve a break.

They said he was stealing recyclable cardboard trash for the mob when the concrete fell from elevated tracks in The Bronx and struck him. They know, because the blockhead was unknowingly under FBI surveillance.
Franco afterward the sentencing declined comment, but his lawyer, Richard Ma, claimed in court that “the [previous] mention of injuries was not for leniency in sentencing.”

Franco claimed in court filings last month that he can’t cut it in prison because he “walks with a limp” from the car accident and “still experiences migraine headaches” from the falling-concrete accident, which left him with a “concussion” and required “18 stitches” to his head.

http://nypost.com/2014/04/30/whiny-mobster-sentenced-to-prison-despite-injury-claim/

What a dumbass .

I just saw this one,pb soldier? Doubt that one. Numbnuts is more like it. He got 4 months.

Yeah soldier. Not the smartest apple in the Westside's bushel though l

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that DOMINICK PIETRANICO and JOSEPH SARCINELLA were sentenced in Manhattan federal court in connection with their roles in a scheme to exert control over the commercial waste-hauling industry in the greater New York City metropolitan area and in parts of New Jersey. Each defendant previously pled guilty to one count of loansharking in connection with the scheme. PIETRANICO and SARCINELLA were each sentenced today to five months in prison by U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel.

According to the Indictment, other documents filed in Manhattan federal court, and statements made at various proceedings in this case, including today’s sentencing:

PIETRANICO and SARCINELLA were participants in a scheme, along with other members and associates of three different Organized Crime Families of La Cosa Nostra (“LCN”) – the Genovese, Gambino, and Lucchese Crime Families – to control various waste disposal businesses in the New York City metropolitan area and multiple counties in New Jersey. Members of the scheme engaged in various crimes including extortion, loansharking, mail and wire fraud, and stolen property offenses.

PIETRANICO and SARCINELLA, who are made members of the Genovese Crime Family, provided protection and “backing” to a cooperating Government witness who operated a waste disposal company, and made an extortionate loan at a rate of interest exceeding 100% annually.

In addition to the prison terms, PIETRANICO, 83, of Mahopac, New York, and SARCINELLA, 79, of Scarsdale, New York, were each also sentenced to one year of supervised release. Additionally, PIETRANICO was ordered to forfeit $9,340 and pay a $2,000 fine, and SARCINELLA was ordered to forfeit $10,540 and pay a $5,000 fine.

PIETRANICO and SARCINELLA were charged as part of a large investigation led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and the Westchester County Police Department. To date, 32 defendants have been charged with participating in the scheme to exert control over the commercial waste-hauling industry. Twenty-one of these defendants have been convicted for their roles in this scheme.

Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the FBI and the Westchester County Police Department.

The prosecution of this case is being handled by the Office’s Violent and Organized Crime Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Brian R. Blais and Patrick Egan are in charge of the prosecution. Assistant United States Attorney Micah Smith of the Office’s Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture Unit is responsible for the forfeiture aspects of the case.

http://www.lawfuel.com/crime-families

^^^^
That's a lot of hullabaloo for a shylock loan gone bad.

these west side guys do not retire

never heard of either, made? what crew?

I think they were out of the Lodi Crew?

"PIETRANICO and SARCINELLA were each sentenced today to five months in prison by U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel."

5 months? I would've thought with 'Don't Worry Murray' they would've walked.

Cheech - these two guys are out of the Bronx. They were involved in a case back in 2012 with gambling and a NYC Fireman.

Thanks GM. I remember that case. Didn't recognize the names though

The biggest scumbag in a profession full of scumbags.

Amen to that.

For those who dont know who he is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLEe496IS1o

http://m.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/papa-smurf-year-prison-article-1.1793721

One year, not too shabby for the lead defendant and an apparent 'ring leader' who Preet swore he would 'hunt down' those of similar ilk.

PB - DWM looks like exactly what you described. In the immortal words of Mortimer Duke.... "I mean, real scum, Randolph!"

Yeah, it's funny because I forgot all about that video when I made that post. My opinion of him is strictly personal. He's a lowlife scumbag. If I saw him catch a heart attack on a secluded street and I was the only person there, I'd walk right by him. No exaggeration. No bullshit. He's human garbage.

Sonny, I just watched that video. Jesus Christ on a cracker, that guy makes no bones about it.
One thing I admire he had the balls to say. "When I was little, I believed in things like my parents, God & Country. My parents are dead, there is no God and the country's full of shit."

give papa smuf his button he's been waiting 100 yrs.

Yeah, I can see how a guy who defends a knife murderer with a fell on the knife excuse can be a scumbag. That's someone who has lost all his morality and substituted reality with his own comfortable version. Wait a minute, that sounds like me lol

You don't quit, do you?

how bout be called as dapper as john gotti in the post article might piss the bosses off no button for him.

Oh they were out of the BX. Thought it was Lodi. They used to run a lot of Garbage Routes in North/Central Jersey.

How much per year these guys making off the garbage business or around their making ?

The latest, from Jerry Capeci over at gangland.com
What an abysmal failure this case has crumbled into....

Wiseguy Lawyers Say FBI Informer In Garbage Case Is A Bigger Crook Than Their Client, Anthony Bazzini
The FBI's paid informer in the once highly-touted "Papa Smurf" waste carting case against geezer gangster Carmine Franco and 28 others committed crimes that a legitimate wiseguy wouldn't stoop to. So say lawyers for Gambino mobster Anthony Bazzini, who is slated to be sentenced next week for his conviction in the racketeering case. Originally billed as a major blow at the mob, the three year-long probe of the waste hauling industry in New York and New Jersey has since fizzled down to a handful of relatively minor convictions.

Adding insult to injury, defense lawyers are now claiming the government's informant — already exposed as a child sex predator — was double dealing the feds while he was wearing a wire for the FBI and is clearly the biggest crook of the bunch.

Bazzini's attorneys, Raymond Perini and Michael Castronovo, say their client and a friend were conned into losing $20,000 in what they thought was a "legitimate" joint venture. At the same time, the lawyers assert, undercover operative Charles Hughes was provoking them to commit crimes while stealing money himself and keeping his illicit proceeds a secret from his FBI handlers.

In addition to stealing $3100 in carting fees, Bazzini's mouthpieces claim, Hughes helped steal three garbage Dumpsters worth about $20,000 each from Galaxy of Long Island, a company that Bazzini's friend owned. The theft included two roll-off containers that Hughes has since admitted swiping, according to court papers filed with Manhattan Federal Judge P. Kevin Castel.

Defense lawyers made the allegations against Hughes in court papers seeking home confinement for Bazzini. The 54-year-old wiseguy copped a super sweet deal on the eve of his racketeering trial in January with sentencing guidelines of 12 to18 months, a much lower recommended prison term than the original plea offer of 37-to-46 months.

Carmine FrancoIn the filing, lawyers say that the owner of a construction company, and a customer, both told defense investigators that they paid an unidentified Hughes confederate for the Dumpsters that Galaxy of Long Island supplied at the building site. Galaxy, Bazzini's attorneys allege, never received any part of the $3100.

"The dispute over this $3100 and the theft of two roll-off containers from the Hoboken, New Jersey job site (is what) led to Mr. Bazzini's criminal conduct in this case," the lawyers wrote about their client's actions in two phone calls he made in December of 2011.

In the calls, the lawyers wrote, Bazzini was heard "making implied threats of bodily harm" to Hughes if he didn't release the stolen containers to Galaxy. Employees of the company had tracked the stolen waste bins to a yard owned by a Garden State company named Galaxy of New Jersey. The defense memo claims the New Jersey firm has links to Hughes but is not connected to the company owned by Bazzini's pal.

"Bazzini was particularly angry" when he learned that "repairs had been made by Galaxy of New Jersey to one of the Galaxy of Long Island's roll-off containers," the lawyers wrote. The similarity in names was a clear indication that the New Jersey outfit intended "to repaint them and retain them for their own use," they stated.

Without denying their client's guilt, the lawyers asked Castel for leniency. Bazzini, they maintain, had good reason to be "angry with (Hughes's) pattern of deceptive conduct and lies, which hurt his friends at a time of economic vulnerability." The mobster was also "upset" because he himself had dragged them into a "phony business opportunity" with Hughes.

"It would be hard to argue that anyone would not feel the same, given the circumstances," wrote Perini and Castronovo.

In addition, the lawyers assert that "exceptional misconduct and provocative behavior" by Hughes against Bazzini was another mitigating factor that Castel could use to impose a lenient sentence for his client.

Judge P. Kevn CastelIn a conversation about his dispute with Bazzini about the roll-off containers that Hughes mistakenly taped with FBI agent Jon Jennings, the lawyers wrote that Hughes was heard telling the agent: "But then this is good, because maybe I'll get threatened."

In the same conversation, the informer was heard "actually counting up how many defendants he had to his credit" to help him obtain a lenient sentence for soliciting sex with a girl he believed to be 15 years old" by increasing his numbers in a so-called "5K-1 cooperation letter. It is implicit that he expected to add Bazzini to that number, and he did," wrote Perini and Castronovo.

"While Bazzini's conduct is not commendable behavior, it is not out of the range of normal human behavior to react angrily" when an employee of the government "stole payments for goods and services, caused equipment to be stolen, and harmed the friends' company at a particularly hard time for them," the lawyers wrote.

$87, 634.47 each. But that's after taxes.

Lmfao

Oh what a tangled web they weave, when Uncle Sam practices to deceive...


This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Feds Have Second Thoughts About FBI Operative In Mob Garbage Case
Gang Land Exclusive!Carmine FrancoThe office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is having second thoughts about its prime witness in what was to be a blockbuster case charging 29 mobsters and associates from three crime families with labor racketeering in the garbage business in New York and New Jersey.

Make that more second thoughts.

Gang Land has already revealed that FBI informer Charles Hughes only agreed to cooperate after he was caught trying to line up a sex date with a 15-year-old girl who turned out to be a fed trolling for perverts on the internet. And that the feds gave sweet plea deals to mobsters to keep Hughes off the stand. But now prosecutors are reviewing allegations raised by defense lawyers that Hughes also secretly stole valuable roll-off garbage containers and thousands of dollars during the three year federal probe of the mob and the waste hauling industry. After initially flatly denying the allegations against the witness, prosecutors abruptly announced last week that they were taking another look at the defense charges against the undercover operative.

Prosecutors disclosed those intentions in a June 3 letter to Manhattan Federal Judge P. Kevin Castel that requested a "brief adjournment" of the sentencing of Anthony Bazzini, a Gambino mobster who pled guilty to making two threatening phone calls to Hughes about the thefts in 2011. Defense lawyers, who had indicated they would further detail their corruption charges against the already tarnished witness at Bazzini's sentencing that had been set for June 4, agreed to the delay.

Sources say Hughes, a longtime low-level member of the waste hauling industry, began cooperating after his 2008 arrest by members of the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force for soliciting sex with a minor at an Elmsford, NY motel when he showed up with a supply of condoms for what he thought would be a tryst with the teen.

Anthony BazziniIn court papers, defense lawyers Raymond Perini and Michael Castronovo had argued that Bazzini, whose suggested sentencing guidelines are 12-to-18 months in prison, deserved a much more lenient sentence — probation — because sentencing statutes permit judges to consider the misconduct of cooperating witnesses as mitigating factors in favor of the defendant.

The attorneys stated that two independent witnesses — a New York contractor and a New Jersey homeowner — had linked Hughes to the theft of $3100 in garbage collection fees. Additional material that the government turned over to the defense on the eve of the scheduled start of trial in January also implicated Hughes in the theft of two waste bins worth about $40,000, the lawyers allege.

That scam is what "led to Bazzini's criminal conduct," the lawyers wrote. Their client, they state, only got "upset" in the first place because he had convinced a pal who owned a carting company named Galaxy of Long Island to enter into what turned out to be a "phony business opportunity" with the FBI operative.

In their initial reply, prosecutors Brian Blais and Patrick Egan dismissed the allegations.

"The government denies that CW-1 engaged in unauthorized illegal conduct," wrote the prosecutors, noting that "CW-1's actions were supervised on an intensive basis by his handling agents, including by physical surveillance on an almost daily basis." (Hughes has been identified as CW-1 in court filings and in open court before Bazzini and mob associate Scott Fappiano copped guilty pleas in January, but prosecutors do not name him in their papers.)

It was true, the prosecutors wrote then, that Hughes had "two Galaxy of Long Island containers moved" to a storage yard of a company named Galaxy of New Jersey. And it was true as well, they conceded, that the owner of that firm "had a relationship with (Hughes)." But it was all okay, they said, because everything was done "with full knowledge of the agents … who were conducting what was essentially daily surveillance of CW-1's movements and activities."

Judge P. Kevn CastelFurthermore, the feds insisted that Hughes and his pal at Galaxy of New Jersey were not planning to steal the roll-off containers, as Bazzini claimed. He had only moved them there at the request of a customer. And even then it was solely "as a temporary storage measure" until Galaxy of Long Island "could retrieve them," which the company eventually did.

That position was already a major change from the way the feds told it to defense lawyers last year in both a meeting and June 2013 letter, however. Back then, court records show, the feds insisted that Hughes "had no role in taking the containers" in the first place. Moreover they stated, he had "no authority" to order their release "to the Galaxy of Long Island driver who came to pick them up" after Bazzini demanded their return.

Also left unexplained was why it took until last November 19, months after the defense team had asked prosecutors about the matter, for Hughes to remember that he did have something to do with the waste bins ending up in the Garden State.

"In the debriefing notes" that were turned over to the defense on the eve of the expected trial of Bazzini and Fappiano, wrote lawyers Perini and Castronovo, "the cooperating witness admitted that he himself had the boxes moved to Galaxy of New Jersey."

Contacted by Gang Land, Perini declined to expand on the defense allegations, or discuss his recent talks with prosecutors regarding Hughes, but said he expects to file an additional sentencing memo today or tomorrow.

Prosecutors declined to comment about the garbage case, or the current status of Hughes.

Records show that Hughes, who was involved in the waste hauling industry for 25 years, was arrested on a federal complaint on August 27, 2008. He pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for sex and other charges on October 8 of 2009, the same year he began wearing a wire for the FBI.

Scott FappianoHis case is still sealed. But according to filings in the garbage case, Hughes was arrested after a three month long sting operation in which he had a series of "sexually explicit" online chats with a person he thought was a 15-year-old girl, and "two recorded telephone conversations with an individual he believed to be the girl with whom he had been chatting online."

Originally arrested on charges that carry a mandatory minimum of 10 years behind bars, Hughes has a cooperation agreement with the feds and is hoping to be rewarded for his undercover work with a much more lenient sentence. Prosecutors and FBI officials declined to say whether Hughes, who was freed on bail during the garbage probe, was remanded after his undercover work ended, and when they plan to sentence him. He is not expected to ever testify.

Meanwhile, prosecutors have decided to dismiss charges against seven of the original 29 defendants, and are expected to also move to drop charges against the three remaining defendants who did not agree to plea deals. All told, 19 defendants, including aging mob garbage kingpin Carmine (Papa Smurf) Franco, have pleaded guilty to various charges in the case.

The Feds aren't capable of shame or humility. This pervert kiddie toucher won't deter them one bit in their overzealous assault on the garbage business. I'm not a mob apologist, but it's clear that they're not going to be happy until they chase everyone out of the business. Cardboard and paper are next. Mark my words.

Jerkoffs wouldn't know the difference between Asian and home-grown cardboard if it bit them in their fat, lazy, government asses. And they've got the power to control the industry.

think that was the first time that guy went to a motel with condoms looking for a teenager?

Who knows, but he should have his brains blown out!..... And to boot he probably has kids of his own. Fukin ScumBum

He's got two kids, the piece of shit that he is. Girl and a boy.

Wonder if his kids had to change their names as well, because daddy decided he'd rather fuck sophomores rather than their mother.

Yeah i'm sure they did GMan......You can Run but you can't Hide!

Sure you can. When's the last time you heard of them catching up with a guy in WITSEC?

The Mob ain't gonna get him and they probably won't even bother to look. You have to leave it up to karma or God to catch up with a scumbag like that. Time is his worst enemy. I like to believe that time and fate always catch up to people like that. I hope so, anyway .

Yep, you're right,they won't look. Waste of time.
Then again, the kiddie banger only has one eyeball because the other one popped out when he got his skull caved in with a bat during his stint as Joe Pistone Jr. So he's going to have to use that one eye double-duty keeping a lookout. lol

That's what i was getting at PB. As much as i would like to see it the other way with 2 to the back of the head but he has to live with that embarrassment everyday of his life... I really feel bad for the kids, who had to change their lives for their father being a Chester!

I am absolutely shocked the Fed's would be willing to allow a sexual predator back onto the streets, just so they can bust a few mobsters off the street running a garbage scam? If you read any of the former FBI agents own material you will find that a very high amount of serial killers are sexual predator's, and are killing victims just avoid being caught.

That is from their own books.. Why would they possibly allow someone like that back out on the streets, when they know that can't be cured, they know they will be trolling for young girls(or boys) again. They are enabling a pervert to continue to do it, as long as he keeps giving them info on some scheming mobsters? Give me a break.. They can't even keep track of the shady shit the guy is pulling now(assuming its true he help ripped off the dumpsters), while he is on daily surveillance, what makes anyone think hes not out trolling now?

What's really the worst crime here? The mobsters or a sex predator being enabled by the FBI. Its disgusting.

Walkner,

You would think the feds would have not allowed this for such a small time bust, but the feds have been making deals forever with people a lot worse than this guy... think Gravano and Scarpa. My guess is that when they made the deal the feds believed it would lead to them to more information, indictments and bigger fish and it may before its all said and done. As a side note some of these FBI guys are addicted to the chase just like the wise guys are addicted to the action. As history has shown us there is not much the feds aren't willing to do to get what they want, and what some of these fed guys want today is notoriety, power and more money. Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads on here.

The sad fact is that the punishment for being a pedophile is not a strong enough deterrent and the pedophile's know it.

In this case, the targets were a one Tino Fiumara, a member of the ruling panel leading the Genovese, and Connecticut's Matty 'The Horse' Ianello. After 2 years of wasting time, Fiumara rolled a 7 and cashed out in 2010.

After the FBI recovered from the embarrassment of 24 months of massive multi-state surveillance and undercover work spanning from NY to Florida, what was their solution? They moved their focus to the next natural perfect choice for a lead defendant... 94 year old Ianello (lol). Another 24 months of multi-state surveillance later, Ianello checked out. Woops! What a surprise! Dickus Heldinhandus.

Fiugeddaboudit.

From gangland & Jerry Capeci

More shameful, embarrassing news for the feds and a first look at the FBI's star pedophile, Charlie Hughes


Wiseguy Uses Government Info To Slam FBI Informer In Mob Waste Hauling Case
Charles Hughes
The embarrassing list of low crimes and misdemeanors continues to mushroom in the not-so-great Papa Smurf garbage case. Problem is, the offending perp isn't Carmine Franco or any of the 29 wiseguys and mob associates indicted for labor racketeering. Instead, it's the FBI's own undercover operative in the three year probe into the mob's involvement in the waste hauling industry. That's him pictured at the right, Charles Hughes.

Hughes, 44, agreed to cooperate with the feds after he was arrested in 2008 on charges of soliciting sex with a girl he believed to be 15 years old. He pleaded guilty to unspecified charges in 2009, and was slated to testify at trial in January. He was spared that embarrassing appearance, however, when the two remaining defendants pleaded guilty.

The original sex charges against him remain sealed. All that's known for sure is that they carried a mandatory minimum of ten years behind bars. What's also known is that usually when the government gets its hands on such sex offenders it tries to get the maximum penalty. Just this week, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced a similar sex-solicitation arrest of another defendant and asked citizens for any other info they may have about the suspect. But Bharara, as well as the FBI, have declined repeated requests to explain why the charges against Hughes are still sealed, or to release any other info about Hughes, including whether he is behind bars, or free on bail.

New details did emerge this past week regarding alleged double dealing by Hughes during his undercover work, and the FBI's failure to keep tabs on him. They were cited in court papers filed by Raymond Perini, an attorney for Gambino mobster Anthony Bazzini. Bazzini, who pleaded guilty to threatening Hughes in two phone calls, is set for sentencing next week.

Federal prosecutors, who said last month that Hughes had funneled payments from 18 of 20 New Jersey customers to Galaxy of Long Island, a carting company linked to Bazzini, now concede that Hughes supplied only three customers, wrote Perini, asserting that his information comes from tape recordings, FBI documents or other records he received from the government.

Perini stated that Hughes now admits using a cohort who ended up being indicted in the case, Stephen Moscatello, to collect payments from two customers in Old Tappan, New Jersey — a total of $3100, according to Perini — and not passing the money on to Galaxy, after receiving it from Moscatello.

Hughes claims he didn't keep the cash, though. He says he passed it on to a second codefendant, Luchese associate Charles (Charlie Tuna) Giustra, "who must have stolen it and not passed it on to Bazzini," wrote Perini. The lawyer questioned why Hughes never brought that up in any of "the dozens" of taped talks he had later on with Giustra or with Bazzini's alleged partner-in-crime, Scott Fappiano — and why he never mentioned it to the FBI.

The lawyer never raised the real-world, real-life reason why Hughes's current account makes no sense: Even in 2014, when mob protocol is not what it used to be, there's no way that mob associate Giustra would ever steal money from Bazzini, a "made man," unless he first whacked the only other person who was involved in the deal, namely Hughes.

Gang Land could not reach Giustra, but Moscatello, 53, confirmed that he worked for Hughes, that he did service the customer in Old Tappan whom Hughes supplied, and that he did collect the fees and turn them over to Hughes.

"I did pick up the money — Charley told me to — but I don't think it was $3100," said Moscatello. "I think the customer paid me by check, but whatever it was, I know I gave it to Charley. I don't know what he did with it."

Moscatello, who was the first defendant whom Hughes tape-recorded in 2009, pleaded guilty to transporting stolen garbage containers across state lines. Probation officials recommended a no jail term, and prosecutors stated that "the plan to steal and transport containers was not" his idea. He was sentenced to 45 days behind bars.

Information the government gave Perini also indicates that prosecutors misspoke when they stated in court papers that Hughes moved two Galaxy of Long Island bins from a firehouse in Hoboken to a safe storage lot in New Jersey under the supervision of the FBI, according to the lawyer.

In fact, Perini wrote, the FBI learned that the bins were stolen on November 28, 2011 when a third defendant, Jonathan Greene, called Hughes and told him so in a tape-recorded conversation in which Greene gave Hughes "directions to the remote yard where the roll-offs were stored."

Two days later, two FBI agents "went to the location and photographed the roll-offs and noted in an official report that they were two roll off containers stolen from a construction site in Hoboken," wrote Perini.

The FBI declined to comment about the "stolen" garbage containers.

Prosecutors say they will respond to Perini's most recent filing before Bazzini is sentenced on Tuesday.

Ex-cop cuts deal with feds after alleged Mafia involvement
June 22, 2014

A retired state trooper busted for allegedly working as a mob enforcer while on the job has cut a sweetheart deal with prosecutors that will keep him out of jail — and wipe his record clean, The Post has learned.

Mario Velez, 46, agreed to the deal that requires him to do nothing more than stay out of trouble for three months. Velez of Peeks­kill was set to go to trial June 16 with three reputed mobbed-up associates also accused of making threats of force and fear to extort a trash hauler into turning over his business to them in 2011.

But under last-minute “deferred prosecution agreements” offered with the feds, they’ll avoid jail and future prosecution simply by remaining “law-abiding” citizens, agreeing to restricted local travel and following other terms over the three-month period.

“We feel this was the right and just thing for the government to do, based on his background,” Velez’s lawyer, John Meringolo, told The Post. “He’s a good citizen, a good trooper and a good father.”

Velez was mum about the deal — and his arrest.

“I took a beating, and I just want to get back on my feet,” he said.

Also arrested in 2013 were Pasquale P. Cartalemi Jr., 51, and his son, Pasquale L. Cartalemi 28, both of Cortlandt, at their company AAA Carting in Peekskill.

The trio had faced up to 40 years behind bars on extortion charges.

Another associate who caught a break, Andrew McGuire, 30, of Hawthorne, had faced up to 20 years on an extortion conspiracy charge.

The US Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

The suspects allegedly shook down and took control of Capital Waste Services in Hawthorne. McGuire is currently listed as the CEO of the carting business, according to state records. They all claim they’re innocent.

Sources said Velez retired under fire as a state trooper in 2012 after the FBI notified his bosses that he was a target of a probe that found rival Mafia families had banded together to circumvent official efforts to clean up the trash business. The state police had been looking separately into Velez’s actions at the same time that the feds were investigating,

An indictment said the suspects used strong-arm tactics to shake down the owners of legitimate companies and secretly assume ownership of their operations.

In January 2013, 32 people were indicted as a result of the probe, including Velez and his crew and alleged ringleader Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco, 78. Franco was sentenced to a year in jail last month after copping a plea to a separate shakedown scheme.

http://nypost.com/2014/06/23/ex-cop-cuts-deal-with-feds-after-alleged-mafia-involvement/

I believe that makes 7 out of the original 29 indicted in the Papa Smurf 'proper' who've walked away with this deferred prosecution and once the 'be a good boy time' is up, charges are dropped.
I guess one could count dead Tino and dead Matty, if you really wanna get technical about it? They got deferred death. They wanted Tino so badly, they sent people to the funeral home to make sure the corpse was really him. I suppose with 94 year old Matty, they took the word of the death certificate. But hey, after 4 years of ball-busting surveillance, they got some prettyyyyy prettyyyyy prettyyyyy good collars with the jacked hot dog truck and the fugazi cigs lol.

I agree with everything you just posted. But they sealed the ex-cop's plea. What's that tell you?

PB, have you ever read Takedown? I've been seeing at my local used book store for weeks and keep thinking to buy it but never do.

Yeah, Snakes. That was my local. I was a member of 813 for twenty five years, a shop steward for ten, and a business agent for seven.

Good book, but the cop's ego was out of control (what else is new?). And Sal Benedetto is a whiny baby who PUT HIMSELF in a jackpot, then ran for help when he got scared.

Also, they made a few guys out to be heavyweights in the garbage business who were nothing more than wannabe gangsters. But that's to be expected in mob books.

When you read it, shoot me a pm .

That him and the other 6 have some stereotypical 302's floating around.

See? I told you that you should have been a lawyer .

Don't Fret Bret? Oh, wait, even better... Don't Get Bent Brent! I'd blow Don't Worry Murray away!

Murray Richman: The King Daddy Scumbag in a business full of scumbags. Cocksucker deserves hemorrhoids the size of boccie balls.

Feds ask judge to ignore plea for leniency by alleged mobster


By Rich Calder

June 23, 2014

He says he’s no Tony Soprano — but he sure sounds like one.

The feds have asked Manhattan federal Judge Kevin Castel to ignore a plea for leniency by real-life wiseguy Anthony Bazzini when he’s sentenced Tuesday, saying his claim that he only threatened a confidential government witness with bodily harm because the wired-up informant beat him for thousands of dollars in business deals is just ridiculous.

Before copping a plea in January to being part of the massive gangland effort to control the New York-New Jersey garbage carting industry, Bazzini also bizarrely tried to distance himself from comparisons to the fictional mob boss on HBO’s “The Sopranos” played by the late James Gandolfini — and even asked Castel to screen potential jurors to ensure none have a “bias” against Italian-Americans based on the show.

But a description of Bazzini, 54, of Glen Head, LI, painted by Assistant US Attorney Brian R. Blais in recent court papers sure makes him sound like Soprano, who also had an infamous temper and used the garbage-carting business as a mob front.

“The defendant has a history of engaging in quite troubling threatening behavior,” including a 2003 federal conviction “where Bazzini threatened to cut off his stockbroker’s ‘mother’s hands,’ to put the broker’s brother in ‘four casts’ and to ‘kill’ the broker’s whole family after Bazzini suffered losses in the stock market,” Assistant US Attorney Brian R. Blais wrote Castel.

“Resort to threats of bodily harm in the face of perceived monetary sleights – especially by an individual with a pattern of making such threats – is not behavior that should be rewarded with leniency.”

Blais also noted that despite the “perceived slight” by the witness – “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

He said Bazzini deserves the 12 to 18 months in prison he faces after pleading guilty to interfering with commerce by threatening bodily harm between 2011 and 2012.

However, Bazzini’s lawyer, Raymond Perini, in a June 11 memo asked Castel to go easy on his client because the government witness, referred to as “Mr. Hughes,” is a “liar and a thief” who provoked the threats. He also claimed Hughes accidentally recorded himself saying that getting Bazzini to threaten him “would be good.”

“Mr. Bazzini was pushed beyond his limits and reacted accordingly,” the lawyer wrote.

The feds say Bazzini is the “ghost owner” of Galaxy Carting in Ronkonkoma, which also did business in New Jersey.

He and 31 other reputed mobsters were busted in January 2013 for allegedly scheming with rival Mafia families to trash efforts to clean up the garbage business — and using strong-arm tactics to shake down owners of legitimate companies and secretly assume control of their operations.

http://nypost.com/2014/06/23/feds-ask-judge-to-ignore-plea-for-leniency-by-alleged-mobster/

Bazzini's a made guy with the Gambino's right? Anybody know much about him, what crew he's in etc.

One hour left till his sentencing. Wonder what Castel is going to slap him with?
I'll say, ummmm 9 months.

Of course. He's not going an inch outside of the guidelines. Not with a made guy. Not when the sentence is so short to begin with.

sentence?

I think the guidelines call for something like 9 to 15 months.

What did he get?

?

He got 1 year and 1 day, 3 years probation

You hit it pb, guidelines were 12-18 he went 1 inch inside them lol, fuckin stickler, that Castel.

What'd I tell ya?

(not laughing at the sentence, just the predictability of it )

http://nypost.com/2014/06/24/garbage-carting-mobster-sentenced-for-violent-threats/

I bet Matsumoto over in Brooklyn would've let him walk, maybe even given him a lollipop on the way out the door.

But they knew better than to petition for a change of venue. At the end of the day, it's just a year. Know what I mean?

Haha all he would have to do is tell her hes going blind and that he cant piss standing up anymore, and maybe have james caan write a touching letter for good measure.

Hemorrhoid the size of bocci balls?! Just saw that! A HAHAHAHAHAHA. I swear, there should be a radio talk show about this subject, I'd call in every day and crow bar in a mention of Murray just to hear you insult him.

Step into the 21st century, Delly. They'd have Scott Caan right the letter now. Little midget that he is .

Too funny! lol
Your Honor, I've had this horrifying zit under my balls for the last few weeks, It really hurts.

Dear Judge,
Please excuse Juan Epstien from prison, James Caan is his best friend and says he will be tearful if you lock him up.
Bless you
Signed
Epstien's Mom

Yeah, especially when the original charges were RICO based and maxed at 40 years. All in all, Bazzini's lawyers did a great job for him. These slaps on the wrists getting handed down are proof that this case went belly-up.

It's official, 30% of the defendants have had charges dismissed completely.
Really rubs my rhubarb.

By Jerry Capeci

Snake Bites Mob Garbage Case Again; Feds Drop Charges Against Last Three Defendants
Gang Land Exclusive!Carmine FrancoThe office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara quietly announced this week that it is dismissing charges against the last three defendants in the snake-bitten7 labor racketeering case that the FBI made against Genovese gangster Carmine (Papa) Smurf Franco and 28 others. All told, prosecutors have now dropped the charges against 10 of the 29 defendants in the indictment.

Throwing in the towel before trial against more than a third of the defendants in the 16-count indictment wasn't the way things were supposed to turn out. When the arrests were announced, the case was hailed by Bharara and New York FBI boss George Venizelos as a major blow against the Mafia's control over the waste hauling industry in New York and New Jersey. Instead, this foray against the mob rivals the losing ways of the luckless Mets.

In a two paragraph court filing, prosecutors told Manhattan Federal Judge P. Kevin Castel they were deferring the prosecution of the owner of a Jersey City garbage company and two truck drivers charged with stealing about 130 tons of cardboard between March and July of 2012. The trio, Thomas Giordano, 43, the owner of Galaxy Carting of New Jersey, Michael Russo, 51, and Louis Dontis, 59, were set for trial next month. The charges are slated to be officially dismissed later this summer.

The three men were tape recorded by FBI informer Charles Hughes in dozens of conversations in which they allegedly discussed truckloads of stolen cardboard, and a surprisingly simple, relatively lucrative mob scam. Drivers snatched the cardboard from sites in Brooklyn, Bayonne and beyond. It was then put up for sale by Giordano at a market price that ranged between $106 and $125 a ton, according to an FBI summary of talks that Hughes recorded from March of 2009 until January 8, 2013 – a week before the indictment was unsealed.

But in an apparent effort to keep their key witness, undercover operative Hughes, off the stand, prosecutors have decided to drop the charges. A major concern is that Hughes would have to admit that he became a government witness only after he was arrested for soliciting sex with a girl he believed was 15 years old.

In January, prosecutors gave super sweet plea deals to Gambino mobster Anthony Bazzini and mob associate Scott Fappiano, who faced 20 years if convicted, rather than subject Hughes to a biting cross-examination about that by their lawyers.

But prosecutors had no leverage to wangle guilty pleas from the alleged cardboard thieves. "They rejected plea deals of zero-to-six months early on," said one source.

"There was no way they were going to plead to anything," said one defense attorney whose client accepted a plea offer before it became known that Hughes was a convicted sex pervert. "My guy got a really nice disposition, but he's not happy. And there's one other guy I know who's upset that he didn't hold out until the end," the lawyer added.

Sources say that following his arrest in August, 2008, Hughes, now 44, was detained until March of 2009, when he was released on bail and wired up by the FBI to see if he could deliver on a claim that he had worked in the waste hauling industry in his teens and could make cases for the feds. News that his cooperation stemmed from a sex-solicitation arrest surfaced five months ago.

Law enforcement sources say the primary reason the government decided to give Fappiano and Bazzini — who received a year and a day sentence on Tuesday — much better plea offers was a "real fear" that jurors would be so outraged by Hughes's conduct that they would hold it against the government for making a deal with him, ignore the law and acquit, no matter what.

Whether the FBI and U.S. attorney's office should have entered a cooperation agreement with Hughes in the first place is a bone of contention for some law enforcers. But that issue is difficult to assess since his case is still under seal as are the specifics of his deal with the feds.

But there is agreement by several law enforcement officials, and virtually every defense lawyer Gang Land spoke to, that the decision by Judge Castel to permit defense lawyers to question Hughes about lies he told both his wife and the "teenager" he thought he was seducing convinced prosecutors to give deals to Bazzini and Fappiano in January.

Prosecutors Bruce Baird and Patrick Egan had tried to limit the cross examination, but when Castel indicated during a pretrial session that he was going to grant defense lawyers Raymond Perini and Lee Ginsberg some leeway in their questioning of Hughes, the prosecutors gave the gangsters a plea offer they couldn't refuse.

"The mobsters were charged with extortion but it's really stealing garbage stops and bid-rigging," said one source. "That's pretty tame stuff for jurors to deal with compared to having sex with little girls who but for the grace of God could be their daughters or granddaughters. The chance of jury nullification was very real."

The decision to toss the charges against the alleged cardboard thieves was presumably even easier to make: The total value of the stolen cardboard was about $16,000, an amount not likely to sway jurors versus a sex-scheming witness.

Nor was playing the dozens of tapes Hughes made without having him testify to authenticate them a good option. Some conversations appear to back up the notion that the men knew they were dealing in stolen cardboard. For instance, according to the indictment, on May 29, 2012, Giordano was recorded saying "he did not care where the cardboard came from as long as it went to him."

But others, like one a few days earlier, according to an FBI summary obtained by Gang Land, appear to tilt the other way. In one such conversation, Dontis is heard telling Hughes that "he doesn't want to do anything wrong. He's not a brokester, he's just a hard working Greek who just wants to make money."

Even if convicted, the trio could have received non jail terms, or sentences of less than a year behind bars.

Giordano's attorney, Michael Bachner, the only lawyer who responded to a Gang Land request for comment, said he and his client were pleased by the deferred prosecution decision. "From the get go," said Bachner, "we have taken the position that Mr. Giordano should not be prosecuted. And while it took longer than we would have wished, we're gratified with the result."

Neither Bharara, nor the FBI, would comment about this week's deferred prosecution, or the embarrassing decision to drop the charges against a third of the defendants in the case. They also declined to discuss the status of Hughes, including whether he is behind bars, or if, as prosecutors indicated last week, he is free on bail, and what type of supervision he has now.

In court papers, prosecutors wrote that Hughes "remains in virtual hiding, fearful for his safety and the safety of his close family members." His "ability to earn a living and to support his family is essentially non-existent," they wrote, adding that his "life will never return to the way it was prior to his arrest."

Prosecutors also wrote that different accounts they gave defense lawyers about how roll-off containers belonging to a Bazzini-connected carting company ended up in a Giordano company storage lot were caused by "miscommunication or misunderstanding" between Hughes and his supervising FBI agents, "rather than a deliberate effort by (Hughes) to mislead the government."

NJ Transit battles Papa Smurf(and loses)

article from Oct 2014

http://www.northjersey.com/news/nj-trans...amily-1.1114198

Most people would not choose to owe Carmine Franco — or his associates — anything. But that’s exactly the situation NJ Transit finds itself in, owing more than $8 million to the family of Franco, a convicted mob boss currently serving time in federal prison for racketeering.

In May, Franco admitted that he orchestrated a Mafia scheme to control North Jersey’s garbage business through threats and intimidation, forcing many owners out of their own businesses. But NJ Transit isn’t backing off.

This morning, the agency plans to dedicate another $150,000 to challenge a court ruling that gave Franco’s family $8.1 million for a piece of land needed to build new train tunnels under the Hudson River — a project that was canceled by Governor Christie in 2010.

And the costs for the public transit agency may not stop there. A private contractor has found that cleaning up the disputed parcel could cost $2 million, a bill the Franco family now says is NJ Transit’s responsibility.
Carmine Franco before his sentencing in 1998.

That’s on top of another $2 million NJ Transit already has paid lawyers over property disputes related to the canceled rail tunnel project.

“They’ve just procrastinated,” said Paul V. Fernicola, the attorney representing Franco’s family. “How long is this process supposed to take?”

Nancy Snyder, a spokes­wom­an for NJ Transit, declined on Tuesday to discuss the parcel or the agency’s appeal.

The legal fight centers on an awkward, 1.89-acre triangle of weeds and broken concrete that spills into Weehawken, Union City and Hoboken. Owned for years by Carmine Franco, who deeded it to his wife Mary and sister-in-law Carol, it was an industrial site used by a hodgepodge of auto repair, jitney bus and salvage yard companies, according to records filed in Superior Court in Hudson County.

Carmine Franco, who is 78 and from Ramsey, was known to his mob associates in the Genovese crime family as “Papa Smurf” and “Uncle Sonny.” Convicted in the early 1980s and again in the late 1990s for mob-related conspiracies, he was banned for life from the waste-hauling industry in New Jersey and many New York jurisdictions.

Franco eluded that ban, helping to create an alliance between the Genovese, Gambino and Lucchese crime families to exert control over the trash industry by using proxies to hide his role. He also admitted to mail fraud, wire fraud, and overbilling customers at a waste transfer station in West Nyack, N.Y., which he controlled.

When he was convicted, Franco faced a possible prison sentence of 45 years. His lawyers responded with a request that he be sentenced to a year of community service, at a church. Manhattan federal Judge Kevin Castel ultimately sentenced Franco to one year in prison. He also was ordered to forfeit $2.5 million to the United States.

The land originally caught the eye of NJ Transit officials in 2008 when the agency was looking for properties for its massive project to build a pair of train tunnels between New Jersey and New York. The project was called Access to the Region’s Core.

The agency sued for condemnation in December 2009, and initially offered to pay the Franco family $934,000, according to court filings by NJ Transit. A second appraisal increased the offer to $990,000.

Seven months later, Christie canceled the ARC tunnel project. In the years since, NJ Transit has done little with the land, other than surround it with a chain link fence festooned with signs marking it as NJ Transit property.

Meanwhile the surrounding neighborhood was experiencing a transformation. Thanks partly to NJ Transit’s light rail trains, which pass immediately north of the site, the area has exploded in recent years with new luxury condominiums and apartment buildings. All that development has left the Franco family’s 1.89-acre plot as one of the last large pieces of bare ground, just a few minutes’ walk from ferry lines to Manhattan.

Facing condemnation, the Francos hired an architect and an engineer to reimagine their land, and seek a higher price. Instead of a polluted bus parking lot, the architect envisioned residential buildings up to 13 stories tall, with 126 units and sweeping views of New York.

When its capacity for redevelopment was considered, the land’s value skyrocketed to $9.1 million, Fernicola said. After a 12-day trial a Hudson County jury largely agreed, ordering NJ Transit to pay the Franco family $8.1 million.

“Clearly NJ Transit substantially undervalued the property,” Fernicola said. “This property has amazing views of Manhattan.”

In addition to the site’s potentially growing value, NJ Transit also may have to deal with its contamination. The agency’s first, preliminary environmental study of the parcel, dated Sept. 16, 2008, found “a petroleum-like odor” and “elevated levels of contaminants … in both soil samples and groundwater samples,” according to court documents. A second study in March 2012 found PCBs and other pollutants, and estimated it would cost nearly $2 million to remove contaminated soil, remove drums of chemicals and cap dangerous portions of the site.

NJ Transit argues in court filings that the Franco family should pay to clean the site. Fernicola counters that because New Jersey law requires agencies that take land through condemnation to file two lawsuits simultaneously — one to condemn the property and a second to recover cleanup costs from the former owners — NJ Transit already has missed its only chance to get cleanup money from the Franco family.

Years after it started the condemnation process, “all NJ Transit has done was remove a single gasoline container” from the site, according to a legal brief filed in 2012 by Fernicola.

NJ Transit’s administration committee is scheduled to vote this morning on whether to spend another $150,000 on legal fees associated with the case. The agency originally allocated $2 million in November 2008 for lawyers working on property acquisitions related to the ARC tunnel.

Email: maag@northjersey.com

that judge is pure govt. tough sentencer

a year and a day is a break.. gets his good time..month and a half off or so..think it is 54 days

Those are the three words the want to hear at sentencing: and a day.

Do 6 months in MCC or MDC then halfway house were he probably already is. Merlino must be getting out anyday

I know this was a while back, just skimming through the thread. In my opinion, a cop-turned-mob-enforcer deserves some kind of sentence...he walks while the other guys faced 40 years in prison? At least the wiseguys were honest about who they were. Gross.

This whole story is pretty entertaining. Never thought that garbage would interest me for more than a millisecond but it's true, you never think about where your trash goes, or who picks it up for that matter. And that's one reason the mob could corner the market.

Just stay away from the garbage.

/me chuckles at getthesenets.

Matsumoto tore Fappiano a new asshole, between Castel and her, he's going to do almost 3 years. Ouch.
That property in weehawken will make up for the 2.5mil restitution, lawyers fees and then some.

He's down in Butner medical, release date is early June.

Nobody is going to get 40 years in this case or any similiar case . Garbage is really a great business to be in .

I don't know much about NYC garbage market and will defer to the guys here in the know that the wise guys have been pushed out, gman and PB seem to the most knowledgable. Im not certain but it seems NE NJ , weschester and some of CT have ties and it will be very hard to boot em out . It appears stealing still goes on which should be prosecuted , They are basically garbage brokers, settling disputes , they are around because to some extent they are still needed . Personally I don't see how they are much different then big time political or money's power brokers who IMO cause more damage , although I will say these guys will prey on the weak and get their hands on their business but in all honesty that would probably happen without them . Most know in this business is for tough men that operate with a separate set of laws .

In NYC it does seem like Guiliana has made a fortune in the background check business . His firm regularly wins no bid deals , ironic as that was what he said CN did.

Not too mention how the govt has cornered the lottery business with again no bid work. When it comes to making $ in gray area businesses the govt takes their playbook from guess who .

Let's be honest the govt has cost far more American lives for the sake of money , in many gray areas the govt only competition with CN . CN problem is they can't really contribute to campaign contributions otherwise things would probably look different today . I will give CN some credit , with all the nonsense money wasting and resources activity done by the govt they have begun to play it legit . Gambling is up next

DB, it's true, even in this day and age, LCN or no LCN, garbage guys in the NYC metro area will always run by their own set of rules. Just like towing, concrete or most local trucking outfits. All that's needed to get top headlines is one old fart with past ties and boom... Papa Smurf.
Believe me, nobody is getting rich off garbage like they used to. Waste Mismanagement fucked it all up. Those guys don't even care if their trucking division operates in the red, as long as their landfills make money. WM doesn't even operate trucks in the 5 boros anymore, they don't need to. Although it was pretty thrilling to watch Action Carting take over all their routes, trucks and equipment and put Action stickers over the WM ones. That, I enjoyed.
I could go on and on. Point is, the feds stooped to the lowest form of scum, a child molester, as their Queen for a Day. That makes me sick.
The feds went fishing in a lake that has long since been over-fished. Preet, glowed like it was the biggest thing since the Valero case. Employing the old "organized crime tentacles" quotes used in those huge cases of a time gone by. Only to have 1/3 of the defendants get the charges dismissed. And the rest all got the sweetest deals ever. Except for that Bada Bing rat... He flipped and still got a month lol.
Can't wait till Capeci's lawyers rip the details of the child molesting Hughes' case from the hands of the feds and we get to find out what jail time, if any, these cho-mo lovers gave him.

Great post gman

Love your info

I will say though in Hudson and Essex county the big corps aren't around so some of those old school ties have a lot more influence than in NYC .

Towns like Nutley Belleville north Arlington lyndhurst Lodi Kearny jersey city etc . And the transfer stations in that area

And yet the feds were able to steal the transfer stations in Norwalk and New Canaan (both in Connecticut) when they chased Tommy Milo out of the business and kicked Jimmy Galante to the curb.

They were able to do complete asset seizures under the anti-trust laws, which were pre-9/11 versions of the Patriot Act. I fucking hate politics, but the G was doing this shit for a century before Bush named it the Patriot Act. Same shit, different day.

And if you tug on Superman's cape, they'll do it in a similar fashion in the suburbs of North Jersey. They've already taken a dozen two and three truck operations away from poor working guys in Lower Connecticut. That's why I'm forever privately asking posters who I trust to refrain from posting how strong they still are in suburban garbage .

Because, for one thing, it's bad luck. And for another thing, the Feds are rumored to be getting ready to go full force after paper and recycling outside the City (the entire cardboard industry has Federal babysitters in NYC today).

Recycling in Jersey is where it's at right now. But if the Feds ever get overzealous because of Carmine and his ancient connection to the NY trade paper association through Shades, they may decide to steamroll the fucking thing. So why jinx the poor old man?

Garbageman knows what I'm talking about. And you know I like you a lot, DB. You're a GREAT contributor here. And I fully realize that I post too much myself sometimes, but some things are better left unsaid .

PB you might enjoy this guy's epic bit on asset forfeiture. Couldn't have said it better myself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEpZWGgJks

My understanding was NY had another garbage overhaul pretty recently. Matter of fact I couldn't sleep one night and did some reading on the matter. Said something like, the market was like the wild west where anyone could start a company...so building one two and three all in a row are using three different companies with diff trucks...driving up congestion and pollution. And the solution was to "Seattleize" the city pickup and give one section of the city to one private company so trucks aren't spilling in to each other.

Oh man, all I can say is good luck finding any solution to keep anybody happy You'd have better luck finding peace in Palestine right. Some biz don't wanna get cut out of the picture and I'm sure some businesses like the low costs from all the competition and don't give a rat's ass about pollution and congestion when their pickups cheap.

Whats the current read?

Too true pb. What they did in Connecticut was taken straight from the Rosedale Carting playbook. Take it all. It's sickening. They actually siezed property, money (cash) and equipment and charged those objects as guilty and therefore subject to forfeiture. Up is down, in that world.
By the way, DB... I loved that YouTube video, "tenny mucho mucho Deniro in su trucky-trailer?" hahahaha

Exactly. The minute they decide to regulate the paper in Jersey, they're going to do exactly what they did in Connecticut. They're never gonna say, Fuck it, it's just the suburbs. Not when the Government can steal all that money for themselves.

What the Feds took from guys who only owned two and three truck operations is shameful. You'd read about guys like Matty and Jimmy Galante and Tommy Milo and the asset seizures, and you'd say to yourself, meh, they're still worth a hundred million. But what about the poor bastards who only owned two and three trucks, yet got fined a quarter million apiece? They're fucked for life. And for what? A peripheral tie to a weigh station or transfer station that the Government deemed "inappropriate." It's revolting.

There was a time where your biggest fear was getting fined for illegal dumping. Today, the Feds don't even bother with it. They don't have to. There's a lot more money in just stealing the businesses for themselves.

That's fucking disgusting PB about CT

I wish you still had PM to discuss a thing or too

I think some of the NJ guys might be alright

I agree with you , Gargbage defiantly isn't strong , I'm sorry if that was implied

The idiot Feds fail to understand someone is needed to resolve disputes

Otherwise shit could get very ugly for us citizens . However any stealing should always be prosecuted

I'll open it later to send you an email address where you can reach me. Right now I'm literally running out the door into Manhattan to see my Pop. But I'll send it later for sure.

Yeah, it really is sickening that they have that power. Started with Rosedale and never ended.
Still nothing on Capeci's site about that white plains decision to release the Hughes docket. I know he will hound them to no end, though.

As part of the Southern District, White Plains Federal Court is tough. People don't realize it, but the judges and prosecutors in that particular courthouse are as tough as their Eastern District counterparts because they often catch OC cases that overlap NY/CT. And New Haven is all too happy to let them have the overflow.

And with Tommy Milo (Westside associate) and Cockeyed Nick (long dead Westside skipper) having the stranglehold that they had on Westchester and Connecticut garbage for half a century, they've always been gung-ho about crucifying garbage guys in White Plains.

That's one of the first things my lawyer told me when I met him downstairs at the MCC. I looked at this awesomely well dressed 60 something year old man with a matching suit & hat, (I respect the business man who employs a good set of haberdashery). He introduced himself, said I'd be out of there in a few more hours. Every agency involved was there for the accolades, and it was heavy with people from Westchester County and the 2 lead agents were out of the White Plains field office. He said, count your blessings you're in Manhattan and not White Plains (both southern district). The case spawned from White Plains & Westchester County. You know, back when Charlie Hughes tried bangin the 15 year old kid who was really a fed (have I mentioned that before? lol)
I stared at that witsec unit every day up there wondering if that one eyed cho-mo was in there. And I hope one day he comes across this site and reads this. My life is back, yours however, is forever changed by what you did to yourself and your poor wife and kids. You disgraced yourself, your family and everyone you've ever known. As a side hobby, I will make sure I post everything I find out about you from others who are putting in the work to do so. Me... I don't have the time. I'm too busy running my trucks, paying for college for my kids and spending quality time with them. I hope you learned one thing, best to stick to bangin adults, rather than kids, Charlie.

Told ya. This ain't my first rodeo, GB .

At one time, the Federal Courthouse in White Plains was famous for having the strictest pre-trial probation department in the entire country. Yes, PRE-TRIAL. Meaning that you haven't even been found guilty of anything yet, but you could have the same restrictions placed on you as guys with multiple convictions.

And you did NOT want to draw Barrington Parker Junior. Tough, no-nonsense Black guy, with a brilliant legal mind. But his father was also a Federal Judge. And I've been told that Junior was so tough because he was always trying to live up to the Old Man's rep as a groundbreaker for Black men in the legal field. It actually makes sense.

Anyway, being that everything is in the same building in these Federal courts, count your blessings. Because as far as "babysitters" go, I'd rather hear the words 500 Pearl than 300 Quarropas any day .

PB or any of the other knowledgeable NY guys, do you think ne of the NY families have any garbage hauling interest in upstate PA? Like Scranton,Hazleton, Wilkes Barre, Easton etc? I know in D'Arco's book they had a garbage dump that they got busted for running in upstate PA, but dont recall any others.

I believe the Philly fam hasnt really been involved in sanitation much if at all, but maybe someone can correct me. That area would have been Buffalino family turf if they were still around, but its not from NY/North Jersey..any insight would be much appreciated

Mikey this is a little dated but might help you fill in the gaps http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/11/nyregion/mafia-reported-to-be-seeking-new-trash-sites.html

Today? No.


That was Mikey Salerno's property, and it's what got him killed. The fact that he owned it, and Casso wanted it. Period.

Then Casso had the gall to hang a rat label on Mikey to justify the hit after the fact. Scumbag. Mikey was more of a man than, eh, don't get me fucking started.

That Casso flipped himself tells you all you need to know about him. Fucking lowlife, serial killing, piece of shit.

PB got any insight why Tony Ducks put them in charge? Geographically it was a total idiot move. I think he must have had a stroke on the way to the pen.

I'm not trying to test Pb's knowledge nor am i trying to start a fight with him or anybody else for that matter, but there is a big company in that area that have ties with the Gambino's.

Thanks for the response PB, thats right it was Mikey Salerno..didnt al take that over or set up Mikey to get whacked on Casso's orders if I remember correctly?

Since theres none still today, do you or anyone else know of other NY/NJ crews operating garbage schemes in upstate PA area? Just curious being that im from there

NJ can you elaborate on that info anymore? Or at least say where its at, Im from up that way and still have lots of family up there?

I wouldnt take your statement as challenging PB's knowledge, I mean i wouldnt speak for him, but he clearly knows his shit and is the real deal, but no one knows everything or maybe u have conflicting info, no biggie, but Im def curious to know what you know if you are willing to share

MikeyB211, they are in a lot of counties up there. Berks, Deleware, Chester, Colombia, Bucks, Luzerene, etc... It's a big time operation with transfer stations and the whole 9.

It was Casso. The Bronx crew was ordered to handle it through D'Arco. But, between Mikey and Buddy Luongo, the resentment is still there for a lot of those old timers.

no shit really, see now Im dying to know haha i live in Bucks and fams from Luzerne...check your PMS

I just mentioned Buddy Luongo. Ducks had to have given the okay there, so yeah, towards the end he was definitely slipping a little bit.

That Christie Tick, a fucking serial rapist, warned him against giving Amuso and Casso so much power, speaks volumes about how big a mistake it was.

Thanks again PB..old timers are still holding resentment 30 years later over what that nutjob casso did? I guess the level to which he screwed up solid money making efficient rackets with his paranoia and caused alotta guys to go down would make it hard to forget..so after Casso fucked it up and was busted, no other Lucchese guys were able to restart it I assume at least in upstate PA, I know in LI from what I read theyre still involved

"anyone got any info?"

I don't know about PA but there are transfer stations out to OH but again shit is all legal now . Things have changed , the big money ain't there like it was when they could tax everyone , that's gone , now they just regular businesses , probably low margin stuff

You're not kidding about the transfer stations. Before they became Federally regulated, they were a license to print money.

And don't forget the weigh stations. Christ, there was more bribery at the weigh stations than anywhere else in the industry. But that's heavily regulated now, too. If the weigh station is located within spitting distance of an Interstate Thruway (like I95), it's Federal. And it's not even the prison time, it's the fines.

If you're a two-truck operation and they throw a half million dollar fine at you, you're done. Ballgame over. Believe it or not, it was better for the little guy when the Mob was still strong there. Sure, you got shook down if you were located in a Mob dominated area. But you could still make a decent living if the owner was a working partner and willing to get his hands dirty (literally).

But today? One little infraction, and the Feds tax them with fines that put them out of business (fines that are, by the way, much more than what they were paying the local wiseguys). And then the Feds set it up for Waste Management to buy the companies at auction.

Look, I'm not a Mob apologist, and something obviously had to be done about the monopoly that CN had on the carting industry. But in doing so, the Feds made themselves partners just like the people who they were prosecuting. There needs to be a balance, and law enforcement needs to be held to a higher standard.

USA Waste, BFI, Waste Management. These companies all jumped in bed with the Feds when they saw the Mob losing its grip, and they opened the door for the Feds to fuck the little guy ten times worse than the wiseguys ever did.

again with this shit seriously eat a fuckin bowl of dicks, Im asking a simple question what the fuck is your problem you cocksucking loser? Would you rather I say do any of your intelligent fellas have a thought, opinion or fact on my question? You actually took the time to post that you sad jerkoff, who else has an issue with the way someone phrases a legit question involving what this board is all about? haha ur fuckin pathetic

This is a great thread. Really enjoyed reading through it. The funny part is that I happen to know this priest PERSONALLY who vouched for that Franco. Lmao, Ha ha. Looks like he helped him out.
Nicest man. He's our family priest. He performed a memorial service for my father there last March to keep with the tradition. We, being the Alfanos and Scalas help founded that church a hundred years ago.

Alfanosgirl... Yeah, all the stops were pulled on that one. Then again, some pretty ugly shit went down to make this case. Arresting one guy in a wheelchair who had no clue what was happening with the businesses, a secretary who also had no clue, both of whom, thank God, got their charges dismissed.
But now it's time for the cash to come out of the rats pocket. Looks like if "one eyed willie" wants to continue to have his paperwork sealed, he's going to have to pay lawyers to attempt to do so. I have a feeling Capeci and his lawyers aren't giving up on this one =) thanks jerry!


Preet's Team Still Hiding Sex Predator Charges Against FBI Informer In Mob Garbage Case

When Charles Hughes was arrested in 2008 on charges of soliciting sex with a minor, the feds were more than happy to cut a deal with him. All he had to do was plead guilty and wear a wire against the mob. The resulting sting operation resulted in labor racketeering charges against 29 defendants in the waste hauling industry and a major announcement by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara hailing the case as another crippling blow against the Mafia.
But the case fizzled. All charges against ten defendants were dropped. The remaining defendants got unusually sweet plea deals because prosecutors were not eager to have Hughes questioned about exactly what he was up to when he arrived at a Westchester motel on August 28, 2008 with a package of condoms for a tryst with someone he believed was a 15-year-old girl.
But even though all the charges resulting from Hughes's cooperation have been resolved, and despite an order by a federal judge last August 7 that details of Hughes's own conviction should be released within 90 days, the records still remain a closely guarded secret. First in November, then several times later, Bharara's team came up with a reason to delay the unsealing. And prosecutors still refuse to discuss the whereabouts, or status, of their once prized informant.
Last week, Bharara's office threw in the towel and declined to contest a Gang Land motion filed in April by attorney Richard Dolan with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The motion seeks to enforce the original order by White Plains Federal Judge Kenneth Karas to unseal Hughes's criminal case, and to reverse his follow-up rulings to keep the Hughes court file sealed.
Instead, the feds passed the baton to Hughes, stating in legal papers that the informant would continue the legal challenge to Gang Land's effort to unseal the records. The government's position goes against Justice Department policy regarding openness in the courts, as well as strict laws passed by Congress to protect children from convicted sexual predators.
In a letter to the Second Circuit, assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Blais said the government "takes no position on the merits" and "does not intend to file a brief in this matter." Instead, Blais wrote, "the defendant has emerged as the primary proponent of" keeping the records sealed, and his lawyers would be "opposing Capeci and Gang Land's appeal" of the continued sealing of the file.
Allowing defendants, especially those charged with soliciting sex with a minor, a say in whether their crimes are kept secret, is newly chartered territory. If that was the law of the land, would any defendants want their misdeeds aired publicly? But Bharara's office, which often trumpets its arrests of sexual predators, must believe that Hughes does have that right.
"The Government and (Hughes) have been doing everything possible to delay the determination of the appeal on the merits," Dolan wrote in his reply to the appeals court. He noted that just like the government, the attorney for Hughes waited 90 days, until the deadline day for filing, before submitting non-responsive court papers. "Delay was an important objective in its filing," the lawyer wrote.
Instead of responding to the issues, Hughes's lawyer filed a motion seeking permission to file his papers under seal, even though the attorney "must have known long before the due date for his brief that he was going to seek the relief requested," wrote Dolan, of Schlam Stone & Dolan LLP.
"Because the appeal involves a denial of the public's First Amendment right to obtain access to the files of a federal criminal case that has been pending for some seven years, and because the crime at issue involves a sexual predator who pled guilty to sexual conduct targeted at a minor almost six years ago, it is especially important that the appeal be resolved expeditiously," wrote Dolan.
Any need for sealing the Hughes case certainly ended 19 months ago, when his identity as the cooperating witness was publicly disclosed in a pre-trial court proceeding, Dolan wrote. It more likely ended a year earlier, he wrote, when Carmine (Papa Smurf) Franco and 28 others were arrested on various labor racketeering charges stemming from Hughes's undercover work.
"Obviously," wrote Dolan, "they presented the most immediate threat to Hughes' safety. Thus, any threat to the safety of Hughes and his family, based on his role as the informant in Franco, has already been addressed by whatever protective measures the Government provided to Hughes during the Franco prosecution."
"Presumably," the lawyer continued, "given the position taken by the Government, those protective measures are still in force."
"The cat is out of the bag and there is nothing left about Hughes' identity as the defendant in U.S. v John Doe to justify further sealing," wrote Dolan. "Each day that the sealing remains in effect compounds the problem. As the Supreme Court has warned, openness of the judicial process is 'an inestimable safeguard against the corrupt or overzealous prosecutor and against the compliant, biased or eccentric judge."