Maybe people could post the mafia activity that goes down in there town or city from personal knowledge to news reports or print articles, books things u`ve heard about that go on at certain establishments, blatant disragard for the law thst could only be attributed to police payoffs etc..

Reputed mob boss linked to 'old-time Mafia'


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Jason Cato is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staff writer and can be reached at 412-320-7936 or via e-mail.

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By Jason Cato
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, November 2, 2006

Running numbers in East Liberty might have introduced Michael J. Genovese to the underworld of organized crime, but it didn't satiate the criminal appetite that took him to the top of Pittsburgh's mob scene.
The head of the all-but-vanquished La Cosa Nostra crime syndicate that once dominated Western Pennsylvania died Tuesday at his West Deer home. He was 87.

"He was the old-time Mafia here," said Kenneth McCabe, the former special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh FBI office. "Most people think of the Mafia like 'The Godfather' movies. That's what they were."

Michael A. Genovese, 41, said his father was a retired car salesman, not the mobster portrayed in news reports.

"I always looked at the articles in the newspapers," the younger Genovese said. "If he did half of the stuff they said he did, he should've been in jail. That tends to make me believe you shouldn't believe everything you read."

Michael James Genovese never was charged in mob-related crimes, but that had more to do with being well insulated than from not associating with organized crime, federal and state investigators said.

Genovese was born and reared in East Liberty, where he once controlled the numbers racket, according to a report by the defunct Pennsylvania Crime Commission.

His climb through the Pittsburgh crime clan included a stint as capo and underboss to Sebastian John LaRocca, who became boss in 1956.

In November 1957, Genovese was part of the Pittsburgh contingency that attended a notorious summit of mob bosses from across the country in Apalachin, N.Y., according to the crime commission.

By the late 1970s, LaRocca's age and health forced him to begin yielding his power to Gabriel Mannarino, Joseph Pecora and Genovese, according to the crime commission. Pecora was convicted on gambling charges in 1979. Mannarino died in 1980.

Genovese took over the Pittsburgh clan, one of 24 original La Cosa Nostra families in the U.S., when LaRocca died in 1984.

Under Genovese's reign, the Pittsburgh Family dominated illegal gambling in Western Pennsylvania, the panhandle of West Virginia and eastern Ohio, the crime commission said. It was a major drug trafficker in Pittsburgh and was heavy into loansharking, scams and theft.

Age and federal prosecutors began catching up with organized crime in Pittsburgh by the early 1990s.

Charles "Chucky" Porter, who was Genovese's right-hand man, and Louis Raucci Sr., were indicted by a federal grand jury in March 1990 on charges including distribution of narcotics, extortion, conspiracy to commit murder, robbery, gambling and racketeering.

Stake-outs at L.A. Motor in Verona, where Genovese worked, revealed him meeting with Porter and Raucci almost daily, according to the crime commission. A wire inside the business, however, never recorded Genovese making any incriminating statements. He was careful to go outside when talking to Porter and Raucci.

Though the indictment against Porter and Raucci did not name Genovese as boss, several witnesses during the trial testified that he was the head of the Pittsburgh crime family. Other witnesses in mob trials in Ohio did likewise.

A funeral prayer will be held at 9:30 a.m. Friday at William F. Gross Funeral Home, Penn Hills. Mass of Christian Burial at 10 a.m. in St. Bartholomew Church with burial in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Penn Hills.



Read more: Reputed mob boss linked to 'old-time Mafia' - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_477755.html#ixzz1ReuwWNVY

Local FBI agent plays key role in dismantling region's organized crime family
First of two parts

Sunday, November 05, 2000

By Torsten Ove, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Two summers ago, Roger Greenbank took a drive out to rural West Deer to check the lay of the wooded land surrounding a certain big brown house off serpentine Clendenning Road.


FBI agent Roger Greenbank has left the Pittsburgh office after 25 years. (Bill Wade, Post-Gazette)
Driving by, he saw Michael Genovese riding a tractor in his garden, his shirt off in the sun.

"He happened to be facing my direction when the car went by," said Greenbank. "He waved and I waved and that was the end of it."

Genovese, the 82-year-old godfather of the Pittsburgh mob, probably thought he was waving to a neighbor, not the relentless veteran FBI agent who helped dismantle his crime family.

A decade ago last month, Greenbank and a squad of federal agents and prosecutors crippled the Pittsburgh mob with the convictions of underboss Charles "Chucky" Porter, top lieutenant Louis Raucci Sr. and seven of their associates.

The Mafia has limped along ever since, damaged further by age, death and defections.

Now its nemesis, the "stone in the shoe" to use a twist on the old mob parlance, has moved on.

Greenbank, 52, the Pittsburgh Mafia's most persistent opponent since the late 1970s, left the region last week for a new FBI job in Wilmington, Del., where he'll take on Jamaican mobsters and corrupt public servants.


Part 2:
Mafia has long history here, growing from bootlegging days




He leaves behind a legacy of imprisoned gangsters and an encyclopedic understanding of La Cosa Nostra in Western Pennsylvania.

"No one," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum, "has had as much impact on organized crime here as Roger."

As it turns out, Greenbank has been even more instrumental than almost anyone realized.

Last week, the U.S. attorney's office revealed that Porter, 66, has been talking to Greenbank from prison for the last eight years, informing on his cronies.

The relationship between agent and inmate has led to FBI investigations of the mob across the United States.

His tips, as related to Greenbank and another agent, also averted mob slayings in Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and elsewhere, according to a motion filed by the U.S. attorney's office to cut short Porter's 28-year sentence.

Greenbank won't discuss Porter's cooperation, but he'll testify about the value of the information he's received at a hearing this month in federal court.

Wiretaps, surveillance

For five months in 1990, Greenbank, Teitelbaum and a team of federal officials huddled in their war room on the 25th floor of the federal building, Downtown, cobbling together a racketeering case that traced the mob from 1967 through 1990.

They had chipped away at the family throughout the 1980s, starting with a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration case against Gary Golden, a mob associate in New Kensington.

Greenbank first saw Golden at the funeral for mobster Thomas "Sonny" Ciancutti's brother in 1979, where agents were conducting surveillance from a van. From there, he followed Golden to Arizona and saw him meet with Porter and drug dealer Eugene "Nick the Blade" Gesuale of East Liberty.

In the mid-1980s, the federal officials scored their first major victory by convicting Gesuale, a crude and fearsome narcotics kingpin whom Greenbank says is the only mob associate he's known who has "absolutely no redeeming qualities."

Using a combination of informants, wiretaps and surveillance at places such as L.A. Motors in Verona, where Genovese was officially employed as a salesman, the feds systematically worked their way up the chain of command.

After Gesuale, they used drug dealers Marvin Droznek and Joey Rosa as government witnesses to provide details of the mob's inner workings.

Their testimony ultimately led to the prosecutions of more than 40 people. The top dogs were Raucci, a Verona gangster who bragged about breaking people's thumbs, and Porter, the half-Italian former mailman whose gentlemanly manners with authorities belied a history as a barroom brawler.

After the 1990 trial, the two men and their associates went to prison.

For Greenbank, the case brought a satisfying halt to a cancer that had spread for decades.

"I like [former U.S. Attorney] Tom Corbett's statement on the night of the convictions, on the courthouse steps," said Greenbank. " 'We have successfully severed the head from the body of La Cosa Nostra in Western Pennsylvania.' And I think he was right. We took off the largest moneymakers for the family. It was an awful lot of hard work by a lot of people."

Greenbank is not the type to take undue credit. Other investigators, such as veteran Internal Revenue Service agent Ed Reiser, were just as dogged. But in the mid-1980s, Greenbank became the lead agent in Pittsburgh for a task force targeting the mob, and everyone else followed his direction.

"In this type of work you have to trust the people you work with completely," said Reiser, 46. "Roger projects that sense of integrity and trustworthiness."

The Porter case was by far the largest prosecution ever of mobsters here.

For decades the Mafia ran the rackets, infiltrated labor unions and paid off politicians and police. Mobsters and their associates had been arrested many times and often convicted, but they usually got probation or a year or so in jail.

With the advent of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, federal officials could prosecute an entire network of criminals on a pattern of inter-related crimes.

Greenbank's organizational skills and near-photographic memory proved invaluable. In addition to his considerable interviewing talents, he's renowned for his recall of dates, names and places. Even now, he knows where he was on certain days 15 years ago, who said what to whom and probably even what he had for breakfast. In short, he's the ultimate detail man.

"I think one of the things that set Roger apart from the beginning is that he had a good grasp of how to put together a historical case," Reiser said. "He's meticulous. Once he got on the trail [of mobsters], I think he drove those guys nuts."

Facts and figures come easily to Greenbank.

"As a kid growing up [in Baltimore], I could recite all the baseball averages," he said. "My dad said if you can do that, why can't you do it with schoolwork? But it's always been a natural talent."

Learned Chinese

Greenbank is hardly the physically imposing sort.

In his impeccable suit and glasses, he looks more like an accountant than a G-man of old. A devoted family man, he's never fired his gun in the field, and you can't picture him kicking down doors with Elliott Ness or shooting it out with Al Capone.

But the FBI's cowboy days are long over, and Greenbank personifies the modern agent: smart, intense, focused.

Like many federal agents, he's taciturn at first. But once he gets to talking about his work, he can become downright animated.

In describing the mannerisms of Pittsburgh mobsters complaining about not having enough money, he suddenly jumps out of his chair, pulls the pocket linings out of his pants and says in his best husky mobster-ese, "I'm tapped out!"

It's a cinch that he likes his job. He always wanted to be in law enforcement. His grandfather was a police officer on horseback in Baltimore, and his uncle was a policeman, too.

After graduating from Towson State University, he went to work as a file clerk in the Baltimore FBI office. He then attended the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., and became a special agent, taking his first assignment in Philadelphia in 1976.

After two years learning the ropes, he took advantage of an FBI foreign language program in Monterey, Calif., learning to speak Mandarin Chinese. He was assigned to Pittsburgh in 1979, where he was going to investigate a case that would make use of his Chinese.

The case never developed, so he returned to regular criminal work and has stayed here ever since, directing his attention to the Mafia.

In the end, he says, the Pittsburgh mob was done in by RICO and its members' greed for profits from the drug trade.

It hasn't recovered.

These days, no more than a handful of members remain, all of them old men.

None are under 70. Ciancutti, recently arrested on gambling charges, is 70. Two other longtime members, Frank Amato Jr. of East McKeesport and John Bazzano Jr. of McMurray, are well into their 70s. And although Genovese has a pacemaker that has rejuvenated his bad heart, he's older than all of them.

The Mafia is facing its extinction, just as it is in other parts of the country where it once ruled by intimidation, street smarts and a careful cultivation of its mystique.

"The mob is going to eventually cease to exist, because it's too old," said Greenbank. "They're not making any new members. It's just eventually going to go away."

'Hey, you got me'

Greenbank didn't hate the mob.

He managed to build his cases without getting emotional.

Once, during the investigation of the Mafia's involvement in casino gambling on the Rincon Indian reservation near San Diego, the late mobster Henry "Zebo" Zottola suddenly said, "Why do you hate me?"

I'm just doing my job, Greenbank told him. It's nothing personal.

It never was.

Most mobsters tended to respect the idea that agents had a role to play.

For some, it was almost a game.

Raucci, for example, seemed to have a wink in his eye -- despite his history as a hardened criminal who had bombed buildings, kidnapped a police officer, done drive-by shootings and even sold babies in an adoption scheme.

"Just after he was sentenced to 27 years in prison [in 1991], he's in the car being driven away and he's smiling and waving," Greenbank recalled. "He knew it was his time. I think a lot of these guys felt you do your thing and I'll do mine. Some of them I could tell didn't like me. But some of them, like Raucci, were like, 'Hey, you got me.'"

Greenbank understood how the local mobsters thought. He appreciated their code of honor, however warped it might be.

After years of spying on them, interviewing them and listening in on their obscenity-laced conversations, he knew they saw the world largely through the prism of how they grew up together in Larimer, once predominantly an Italian neighborhood.

Loyalty was life for those guys.

When Gesuale was a fugitive in Jamaica in 1985, Greenbank and another agent went to see Porter for information. They followed his Cadillac on Route 22 and pulled into his driveway in Penn Hills.

"He got out with a cigar and said, 'What can I do for you?'" Greenbank recalled. "I introduced myself, and he said, 'I've heard of you. What's up?' I said we're looking for Gesuale. He said, 'We had a falling out.' I said, 'Can you tell me where he is?' He said, 'No, I can't do it. He's an old friend."'

That may have been the beginning of a bond between Greenbank and Porter.

"He was very polite, he looked me in the eye, I think he was sizing me up," said Greenbank. "I had the sense that that he thought I was just doing my job."

Five years later, Greenbank cultivated the underboss further with his awareness of the importance of status.

When agents arrested Porter, Raucci and their underlings in April 1990, Greenbank handcuffed Porter's hands in front of his body instead of behind his back, as procedure required.

Porter thanked him for the courtesy.

At the courthouse, Greenbank gave Porter eggs for breakfast and sent someone to fetch Raucci a cup of coffee. The other suspects got nothing.

It was calculated to play to the egos of the bosses as "men of respect."

Treating people with dignity is part of Greenbank's style. Who knows, he figures, when it might pay off?

Confidential informants

Gesuale was one criminal, however, who got no personal favors.

A loan shark who ran social clubs in Shadyside and Squirrel Hill, he drove a Jaguar, a Lincoln and a Mazeratti and lived in a Highland Park penthouse apartment. He had a monumental ego, wearing clothes monogrammed with NTB -- the "Nick the Blade" initials were even stitched on his underwear -- and keeping photo albums full of pictures of himself. He also was a slob. On one surveillance detail, Greenbank saw him use one hand to snort cocaine while using the other to urinate off a balcony.

He ended up pleading guilty in the middle of his trial and getting 45 years.

"He had 11 previous arrests but no convictions because he terrorized witnesses, and the FBI figured he needed a public trial," Greenbank said. "If I ever got close to hating anyone, it was Gesuale. He was a bad guy. He was abusive to women. He was an animal. In fact, that was one of his other nicknames."

Greenbank also couldn't help feeling some animus toward Melvin Schwartz, Porter's attorney.

During the 1990 trial, Schwartz began grilling a Chinese witness from Chicago using information from an FBI report that identified several individuals by their first names followed by "Lnu," for "last name unknown." At one point Schwartz, a pompous sort, began talking about "Joe Lnu," apparently thinking that Lnu was a Chinese name. The Chinese witness said he didn't know any "Joe Lnu."

As the grilling continued, Teitelbaum stood up and told the judge he could clear up the confusion. But Schwartz cut him off, saying he didn't need Teitelbaum's help, and resumed trying to find out who "Joe Lnu" was.

Greenbank, who had to put his head down because he was laughing too hard, muttered a profanity under his breath.

Schwartz whirled.

"What did you say, Mr. Greenbank?"

"You heard me," Greenbank said.

Schwartz demanded that Greenbank's slur be made part of the court record. Greenbank had no problem with that.

"I did call him" that, he said. "Because he was one."

Over the years, Greenbank became a student of Mafia culture. A movie buff, he's enamored of "The Godfather," "Goodfellas" and other gangster flicks, which he's found fairly accurate. The real thing, however, was a good deal more mundane.

"Surveillance gave us an insight into their character," Greenbank said. "There were a lot of conversations about their peppers. Or what they watched on TV last night. You saw a more human side to them. You also saw the treachery. Three guys would be talking and one would leave the room and one would say, 'You know, I never liked [him]. Why do you keep him around here?' The guy would come back in, and everything was OK."

Bugging places of business was an effective method of gathering intelligence, but it proved frustrating, too. At first, Greenbank and the other agents thought it would provide a treasure trove of past, present and future crimes. But the mobsters were smart, especially Genovese.

"He did the same thing John Gotti did, and that was walk and talk," said Greenbank. "They would be in [L.A. Motors] talking about something and the moment it got interesting, Mike said, 'Let's go outside.' And they'd be out there walking around waving their arms for two or three minutes. You saw that all the time. And you couldn't read those conversations."

So the agents bolstered their cases with confidential informants, who remain confidential to this day.

"I know that still drives some of these guys nuts," Greenbank said. "Our sources tell us these guys are still trying to figure out who CS1 [confidential source 1] was."

They'll probably never know.

But they do know the identity of someone else who has been informing on them: Porter.

The Porter information pipeline dates to 1991, when the federal prosecution team sent letters to the mobsters' attorneys explaining that they had a year to decide if they wanted to turn informant in exchange for less time.

In November of that year, Greenbank and the other feds met with Porter at an Air Force Base in New York near the penitentiary where he was incarcerated. Although Porter's first year in prison was coming to a close, Greenbank and others suggested that his cooperation might earn him a sentence reduction in the future.

Porter had always been loyal to the mob. But now he was closing in on 60, suffering from severe diabetes and facing the sobering prospect of dying in prison. He also had three children Greenbank described as good citizens, none of them involved in the mob.

Porter started talking and he's been talking ever since, supplying the FBI with information he's learned through inmates and other sources.

When his son, attorney Charles J. Porter, met with Greenbank and Teitelbaum last year and described his father's worsening diabetes, failing eyesight, bad kidneys and other health problems, Greenbank decided it was time to show Porter's cards.

He wrote a report detailing Porter's cooperation, and based on that, U. S. Attorney Harry Litman filed the motion for a reduced sentence for "substantial assistance."

On Nov. 29, Greenbank will appear before U.S. District Judge Donald Ziegler to explain what Porter has told the FBI through the years.

And out in West Deer, Greenbank knows, an old man in a big brown house will be watching.

nothing for years in my neck of the woods. i just thought this was an interesting topic for a post. so i thought i would contribute the best i could

Im in the girard estates section of south philly so I see it everyday. I really wish the days of old were back but thanks to the FBI they are more underground now and arent out in the open keeping the neighborhood safe like they used to.

Shunk, Porter (where I live) and Ritner streets are all still good but Jackson is getting riff raft spill over and Wolf street is starting to turn between the 15th and 16th street areas. I miss the old days when they could be out in the open.

The other night I got shanked by a guy that kept saying, "do you know who I'm with, do you know who I'm with????"

well who was he with? the colombos?

Ya know, he ran right to the police and ratted himself out, so I'm guessing the Colombos, yes!

sounds like something one of them would do!

Former Perth mayor caught up in international Mafia crackdown
Aja Styles
A former WA mayor has admitted he was shocked that his name was linked to a multinational crackdown on the Mafia organised crime network which has led to dozens of arrests worldwide.
London's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that Italian crime authorities had issued 41 arrest warrants over the operation, and named one of the wanted men as Tony Vallelonga, a former mayor of Stirling - an inner-city Perth municipality with a population of 200,000 - who emigrated from the Italian region of Calabria 30 years ago.
Mr Vallelonga was identified as one of dozens of suspected gangsters allegedly belonging to Italy's most powerful Mafia organisation, the 'Ndrangheta, who were targeted in a police operation spanning three continents.

Lawyer John Hammond and his client Tony Vallelonga, who is accused of being a Mafia gangster. Photo: Aja Styles
Police focused their efforts on dozens of people in Italy and Germany and issued arrest warrants for others in Canada and Australia, including Mr Vallelonga.
Mr Vallelonga, who had immediately retained lawyer John Hammond after hearing about the claims through reporters, has vigorously proclaimed his innocence.
"Very damaging, it's upset my family and I believe a man like myself who worked very hard for the community and over the years, not only charitable organisation, retirement village, you name it, I have always been an outstanding citizen and this hurts my family," Mr Vallelonga said.

Tony Vallelonga (left) photographed at the Lexus Ball with media mogul Kerry Stokes and his wife Christine. Photo: Jarrad Seng
Mr Hammond said there was no clear accusation brought against his client and he was not aware of any arrest warrant. He said reports on his client were "pure and utter speculation" and he threatened to to take defamation action over the reports.
"What has been said about Mr Vallelonga is absolutely outrageous," he said.
"He has no dealings with the Mafia, he is a man of impeccable standing with the West Australian community and his friends today are standing by him, so allegations being made in the press either directly or by innuendo are defamatory of my client and they are very dangerous.

Italian police reveal a secret bunker where an alleged Mafia boss was found and arrested during the raids. Photo: AP
"He should not be hung, drawn and quartered purely on speculation. There is nothing Mr Vallelonga has done that is wrong."
He said despite numerous phone calls the AFP had not given him any information about the accusations and his client had received no official documentation to support the allegations. He was investigating whether it was a case of mistaken identity.
"I will be speaking with the Australian Federal Police and Mr Vallelonga, as you can imagine he is very upset about the allegations," Mr Hammond said earlier this morning.
"It comes as a complete surprise to Mr Vallelonga and shock, might I add, for both him and his family. Mr Vallelonga has an impeccable record of service to the community, particularly to the City of Stirling, where I believe he's a freeman of the city."
The Australian Federal Police have acknowledged a request has been made by Italian police for co-operation, but denied any knowledge of an arrest warrant. A spokeswoman said the matter was being handled at a "government to government level".
A spokeswoman for the federal Attorney-General's department said she could not confirm whether an extradition request had been sought.
"As a matter of long-standing practice, the Australian government does not disclose whether it has received an extradition request until the person is arrested or brought before a court pursuant to a request," she said.
"This is to avoid giving the person who is the subject of the extradition request the opportunity to flee and evade arrest."
Notorious organised crime network
The 41 suspects targeted in the operation were all alleged members of the 'Ndrangheta, the organisation based in Calabria that is now considered to be more powerful than the Cosa Nostra of neighbouring Sicily.
Police said the extent of the operation showed how the 'Ndrangheta had spread beyond its provincial roots to become one of the world's most effective cocaine trafficking networks.
Although it operates on an increasingly global basis, its most far-flung cells remain loyal to bosses in Calabria.
"'There is a perfect reproduction of the Calabrian model," said Giuseppe Pignatone, a prosecutor in Reggio Calabria, the regional capital of Calabria.
"The foreign groups always maintain contact with the centre of operations, which is the Reggio Calabria area, where they periodically come to take their orders, directives, long-term strategies, as well as give an account of what's going on. The fulcrum remains Calabria."
The 'Ndrangheta, which means "virtue" in the local dialect, makes billions of dollars a year trafficking cocaine around the world from South America.
Officers arrested 31 suspects in Italy, while six - all Italian citizens - were apprehended in Germany, near Konstanz on the border with Switzerland and in the state of Hesse to the north. They are expected to be extradited to Italy.
Among those picked up in Italy was Francesco Maisano, 46, an alleged boss.
The arrests stemmed from a wire-tapping operation by Italian police in which they recorded a senior Mafia suspect, Giuseppe Commisso, whose nickname in the Italian dialect is "u mastru" or "the master".
He allegedly issued orders from his Calabrian dry-cleaning shop to lieutenants around the world.
Those arrested could be charged with offences ranging from drug trafficking, money laundering and protection rackets to possession of firearms.
The operation was a follow-up to a raid in Italy last July in which more than 300 alleged 'Ndrangheta members were arrested.
The growing influence of the 'Ndrangheta was underlined by the recent release by WikiLeaks of a confidential cable from an American diplomat in Rome.
The envoy claimed that the criminal group's hold on Calabria was so pervasive that the region would be considered to be a failed state if it were not a part of Italy.
A life of service
Mr Vallelonga, otherwise known as Domenicantonio Cosimo Vallelonga, served as mayor of the City of Stirling for eight years in the lead up to his retirement in 2005. He had previously served as a councillor for nine years prior to becoming mayor.
His long-service to the council included the foundation of many public buildings like the city's civic and administration centre, local day centres and the Main Street Commercial precinct upgrade project, as well as helping the city host the Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships from 2007-09 and implement the meals on wheels program and the city's security service.
He was a Justice of the Peace and was made an honorary Freeman of the City of Stirling.


Possibly the last place in the world u would think of a Mafia arrest lol.

2007 april
8 charged in Ottawa cocaine ring bust
Ottawa-based drug trafficking ring that moved dozens of kilograms of cocaine a month has been busted and the alleged ringleader has been arrested, police say.

"We can guesstimate, but it is believed that the organization in a month would [distribute] between 30 kilograms of cocaine and 50 kilograms of cocaine," Ottawa police Staff Sgt. Pierre Gauthier told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday, following police raids at four Montreal properties on Monday.

Those and January raids at eight Ottawa-area sites led to the arrest of 18 people, including Giuseppe Battista, 38, who was based in Ottawa's Barrhaven neighbourhood and headed the ring, police allege.

Police found $55,000 in cash in Battista's home.

"The Battista organization is a large organization that has been going for years," Gauthier said.

Police said it was based in Ottawa, but had links with Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Police said the ring was broken by an undercover operation dubbed "Project Bulldawg" that combined the efforts of the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and the police services in Ottawa and Montreal.

During the 16-month operation, police seized $1.2 million in assets such as cash, cars and real estate; six handguns, a Taser (stun gun); and a variety of drugs that they say had a wholesale value of $985,330 and a potential street value of more than $3.3 million, including more than:

22 kilograms of cocaine.(]
12 kilograms of ecstasy.
729 grams and 176 plants of marijuana.
97 pills of Viagra.
73 pills of anabolic steroids.
Police arrested eight people during the Jaunary raids and another 10 people since then.

Battista has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and more than a dozen other counts.( since dropped)

He and the other suspects together face 138 drug, weapons and criminal activity charges.


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Judge throws out evidence in drug case, blasts police
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Jul 7, 2011 – 7:57 AM ET

By Andrew Seymour

OTTAWA — Bricks of cocaine and four handguns were tossed out as evidence against four men accused of running a massive drug ring after a judge blasted two detectives for searching a suburban Ottawa house illegally because they found a door unlocked.

The behaviour of the officers — detectives Kevin Jacobs and Doug Edgar — would “shock the conscience of the community,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Julianne Parfett found in a written ruling released last week.

“I find the public would be horrified to learn that there are police officers who believe that they can enter homes to look for criminal activity for no better reason than they have forgotten to lock a door,” Judge Parfett said.

“A private residence is sacrosanct. It is trite law that ‘a man’s home is his castle’ and that residents are free from state interference when they are in their homes.”

The two detectives found 12 kilograms of cocaine, four handguns and ammunition and $90000 in cash during the June 17, 2006, search of the Kanata residence of the brother-in-law of Cory Farrell, one of the men charged in connection with the drug ring.

The officers were at the home to serve a summons under the Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act after Constable Jacobs had stopped Mr. Farrell a day earlier for driving while suspended and without proof of insurance.

Const. Jacobs said he saw through window blinds that the house appeared vacant, but the back door was unlocked. A neighbour had told him the resident had moved out two weeks earlier, and Const. Jacobs said he was concerned about the house being unsecured.

Const. Jacobs testified he and Constable Edgar decided to check for evidence of a break-and-enter or squatters. They found neither. Instead, Judge Parfett said Const. Jacobs found what he was looking for — a motherlode of drugs consisting of two bricks of cocaine on the floor of a closet, wrappings from other bricks of cocaine in a large box in the hallway and more cocaine and handguns in two bags on a closet shelf.

Judge Parfett said the officers’ legitimate purpose for being at the house ended once they determined Mr. Farrell’s brother-in-law no longer lived there.

The search amounted to an abuse of process, Judge Parfett said, and excluded the evidence.

The evidence seized was used as part of Project Bulldawg, a 16-month undercover operation targeting a drug distribution network that police said had ties with the Hells Angels and the Montreal Mafia.

Giuseppe Battista, Duane Hurdis, James Kongkhaw and Farrell have pleaded not guilty to 35 charges, including conspiracy to traffic drugs, association with a criminal organization, weapons offences, drug trafficking and possession of the proceeds of crime.

Judge Parfett recognized her decision would likely lead to the dismissal of some charges against the men, although defence lawyers have conceded convictions will likely be registered against their clients on at least some of the remaining charges.

Mr. Battista, the alleged ringleader, has had charges of conspiracy to commit murder dismissed following a preliminary hearing. He and another man, Joey Peloso, were found guilty of conspiracy to launder the proceeds of crime.

Judge Parfett is expected to deliver her verdict this summer. en of story

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Giuseppe Battista Known as "Joey B" on the streets is a soldier in the Ottawa Ndrangeta cell( whose leader Nino Coco is a member of the Camera Di Controllo which represents all 10 Ndrina clans in ontario) with close ties to Montreal And eastern ontario Hells Angels Elite Nomad Chapter bigwig Paul "Sasquatch" Porter who ( Who is no lghtweight flunky read up on him very interestin story of his life survived 5 or so assassination attempts during the Quebec biker war as A Rock Machine Member Then Became a Bandido as all rock n-machine did after most were murdered by the Hells Then Led a Mas defection to the hells angels and was put in charge of eastern ontario and western QC and given Nomadic statatus meaning he could do business in any hells territory(or other terr. because no one would challenge him) without objection he is 6`8 600 pds imagine dodging 5 assassination attempts with bullets at that size of course he respects mafia teritory but he is the most powerful Hells angel thats not in jail or under house arrest and that says alot about his cunnig ways of operating
an OC enterprise> )

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2008/11/21/ot-cocaine-081121.html
This man pictured and his father run the little Known but very active Ottawa family (an Ndrina) out of little Italy He actually owns and is a host at Giovanni`s(prime Italian Restaurant in Ottawa the Capital Of Canada on preston Street ) welcoming customers organizing fundraising golf tournaments
little italy is full of cafe`s with wiseguys mostly old men standing out side chatting but is also welcome to people who want to eat at the public restaurants but every nite most cafes and restaurans turn into card houses and not in back rooms right at the diner tables you can see it through the windows if your ever in town the cops are paid its a tradition

I live in the Wichita area of Kansas. It has long been thought around here that there are many wiseguys who are in the witness protection program living in and around our area.

No one knows for sure of course otherwise the program would be worthless but none the less many residents here firmly believe that Wichita, Kansas and South East Kansas have multiple guys in Witsac living in our parts.

If I was a rat, I'd rather take my chances on the street .

South east Kansas has a long history of mob activity. The mines attracted organized crime in the early 1900's. Areas with strong mafia ties would be Frontac, Arma, Pittsburg, Columbas, Gerrard, for years this area was controlled by Poppa Joe Sieha (not sure on the spelling). The blackhands were very strong here and had ties with Chicago and Kansas City. Its my understanding that there are still active in the area,like a crew who controls a city.

i know marvin droznek and he was in my eyes a stand up guy a wonderfull father and an xtremely good friend .sure do miss his wise guy persona

the feds asked travis tritt if he owned a blue corvete lol it was me in the corvete leaving marvins house.goofy feds a metro police officer on loan to fbi was from my neighborhood and knew mw and he was the one who figured oout it was me at marvins and not travis tritt

Now that is some funny stuff... I'm New England bound so pretty much everything that I've been seeing has already been mentioned here a bunch so I don't have anything new to add.

That was a good one from me, I agree.

There's a fam with the last name Scotto that owns some sub shops in the area n rumor is that they are but who really knows

If alot of money is going through then The Mob will be there! Small people will give Soldiers or Associates the word, They'll tell up the ladder and so on.

I live in Chicago, so......LOL

I live in Hamilton, On so there is lots of activity. A few interesting ones are: the monopoly of vending machines in bars/restaurants along with installing illegal gambling machines; mortgage fraud; and operating auto repair places that scam you on parts.