This is the latest, picked up from the Friends of ours site.

Thomas Farese just got picked up.

Read it here:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/feds_bust_colombo_big_for_money_blqHdKNBdAaSlJpB7GVqEO

Oh sh*t they are really on Colombo Family

I never knew he was a high ranking member, he was a soldier at best. On the other hand, not much info on him anyway.

I had him as an acting capo.

Well, the article said he had been recently promoted to that position.

any takers on this guy flipping or not?

your a funny guy!

He cant be promoted directly from soldier to Consiglieri? Or maybe he was a Capo, or acting like Knuckles said.

I think if the powers that be decided it you could be promoted from soldier to Consigliere, things are pretty loose these days anyway!

Here´s some interesting stuff about Farese. Don´t know how accurate this article is but....


Mafia Figure On Way Back To Jail


Ex-convict Pleads Guilty To Money Laundering


May 19, 1998|By LARRY LEBOWITZ Staff Writer


One of Broward County's most prominent organized crime figures is on the verge of returning to prison, this time for laundering more than $1 million for undercover agents posing as Colombian crack dealers and hiding his interest in two local strip joints.

Thomas Farese, a capo regime or ``made'' member of the Colombo crime family, is fighting to minimize his sentence in a multi-day sentencing hearing that began on Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami.

Farese, 55, of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, pleaded guilty in January to one count of money laundering conspiracy. On Monday he angrily said he wanted to fight the charges but could not afford the risk that his wife and co-defendant, Suzanne, might also go to prison.

Suzanne Farese, 46, is the daughter of the late Alphonse Persico, the Colombo under-boss who ran the family in the late 1970s after his brother, Carmine Persico, was sent to prison for 100 years. Prosecutors have agreed to drop the charges against Suzanne Farese as part of her husband's plea deal.

Farese started out as a small-time hood from Boston, with a string of arrests dating back to the early 1960s. But by the mid-1970s, he was one of Fort Lauderdale's most prosperous dope-smuggling mafioso.

In 1973, Farese was charged with possessing a stolen painting and convicted of interstate transportation of forged securities.

He served the last 10 months of a 10-year sentence at a prison camp in Pensacola where he befriended the late Nicholas Forlano, a ``made'' member of the Colombo family and one of New York's biggest loansharks.

After their respective releases in 1974, Forlano and Farese settled in South Florida where Farese hatched a far-reaching criminal enterprise under the legitimate cover of the Olympic Corp.

Farese ran the show from a tiny office atop the Bridge Restaurant at 3200 E. Oakland Park Blvd.

Olympic ran two Broward restaurants and nightclubs, a realty firm, a charter aviation service, three ocean-going shipping lines, two banks in the Cayman Islands, a coin-machine company and a movie production company.

Hanging in the restaurant lobby was a caricature of Farese smoking a cigar, sitting behind a desk covered with miniature banks, movie cameras, ocean freighters and a money bag covered with dollar signs.

Farese was such a good earner that in July 1978 he earned his ``button'' _ Mafia parlance for initiation as a ``made'' with certain protections and privileges in the Colombo family.

But it all came crumbling down with his indictment and conviction in 1980 for large-scale marijuana smuggling and other criminal enterprises.

Farese was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Shortly after his release from prison in 1994, he became the target of another federal investigation.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1998-05-19/news/9805190006_1_thomas-farese-laundering-colombo

Farese seems to have run in and out of prison all the time!
In 2001, he was sentenced to a 6 year prison term for money laundering.

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-11th-circuit/1142239.html

If this guy was based in Florida, how could he have been an effective consigliere of the Colombos up in New York?

The writer of the article obviously doesnt know what a Capo regime is, he says its a made men. Perhaps with the backing of Persico he could have become a capo, but i am not sure about all the stuff written about him. But it could be because of the manpower, the Colombos are having a realy hard time finding good men to replace the top hierarchy.

Yeah. And another thing that´s kinda bother me about the article, it specifically says that the guy was inducted in July 1978. How would the writer know about that?
From an informant? I don´t know...

Muk, what do you think? Maragni was active in Florida too. Could Farese have functioned as the acting capo of Maragni´s old crew? If this is the case, I think Farese is in more trouble than I thought he was.

It is possible that Maragni has him on wire to, but i dont think hes a big catch. I could be wrong though about Farese.

^^^yeah not a big catch i think since they only charged him with money laundering

this is like the ralph deleo being the street boss for the colombos out of MA the fam is trying to take the heat off of the few NY guys left...

so was this guy an acting consig for fusco or a brand new consig?

I still dont believe he was a consiglieri, he may be an acting consiglieri or acting capo at best.

it is possible he was consig, i remember capeci had an article a while back about fusco and how fusco sent word to the old man aka the snake that he would love to help out and be the consig.


guess we will find out in the future



...waits for new colombo informant to surface...

It looks like Maragni have Farese on tape:
(This is from http://cosa-nostra-news.blogspot.com)

Colombo Member Charged With Money Laundering

From NYPOST.com:

In another blow to New York's embattled Colombo crime family, FBI agents yesterday arrested its reputed consigliere and charged him with money laundering offenses.

Thomas Farese - who sources said was recently annointed by jailed street boss Andrew (Mush) Russo to be the mob family's consigliere and is its third highest-ranking made-member Farese, 69, was elevated to the high-ranking crime post last year - was arrested around 6 a.m. by FBI agents in south Florida where he lives, officials said.

Farese, who is also known as "Tom Mix" and "Mr. T," was ensnared by agents from the FBI's New York office in a probe that relied heavily on information secretly collected by one of the mobster's former Colombo crime family colleagues, sources said.

Reynold Maragni, who served as a Colombo captain until he switched sides to become a federal informant late last year, delivered substantial evidence that suggests Farese was involved in illicit money laundering activities, the sources said.

Maragni, who owns a vacation home in south Florida, wore a hidden "wire" - a recording device to tape conversations with Farese and collect information about the wiseguy's activities, sources said.

Farese was previously convicted of money laundering in a Florida federal court, official records show.

In a related action, FBI agents in Florida also arrested Pat Truglia yesterday.

Truglia, a reputed Colombo crime family associate also based in south Florida, was charged with money laundering offenses, officials said.

Yesterday's developments mark the second time known publicly that Brooklyn federal prosecutors have deployed Maragni to help the FBI assemble a case against his former Colombo colleagues since the former mob captain "flipped."

Any idea what happened at the trial today?

Wow... Also Farese was acquitted! His co-defendant, Pat Truglia, was convicted of money laundering and faces 21 to 27 months in prison though.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mob-...8#ixzz2DmdcN8Da