5 years after Gotti's death, Mob limps on
John Marzulli, Daily News Staff Writer
June 10, 2007

"If they don't put us away for one year or two, that's all we need. ... Get a year, gonna put this thing together where they could never break it. Never destroy it. Even if we die, be a good thing." -Mafia boss John Gotti in 1986, discussing his legacy with capo George Remini in the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park, Queens

The Dapper Don never pulled it off.

When he died of cancer - five years ago today - in the hospital ward of a federal prison, his Gambino family was in ruins.

Gotti's brash, violent reign was both christened and cursed by his unauthorized assassination of then-boss Paul Castellano in 1985. It unleashed an all-out assault by law enforcement that lasted two decades.

Five years after the Dapper Don's demise, New York City's five Mafia families are bloodied and battered, but far from bowed.

"They're still a formidable presence," insists Kevin Hallinan, the FBI's acting special agent in charge of the bureau's organized crime section.

"It's fair to say they're hurting," he adds. "But there's no shortage of wanna-bes or associates being groomed to step in. We have to keep the heat on and do whatever we can to disrupt their influence."

The murder last week of Genovese soldier Rudolph Izzi and the shooting of reputed Gambino associate Robert DeCicco, both in Brooklyn, underscored that it still can be lethal for those "in the life."

But law enforcement priorities have changed since 9/11, with federal agents and NYPD detectives who once tailed wiseguys redeployed to counterterrorism duties.

Now, there are days that manpower shortages make Mafia surveillance impossible, sources told the Daily News.

Sources said the NYPD is so focused on terror threats that its traditional presence on the FBI-NYPD Joint Organized Crime Task Force has shrunk.

Cops in the unit who retire are not being replaced.

"I think [FBI Director Robert] Mueller and [Police Commissioner Raymond] Kelly think the mob is dead, and the reality is, it's not," said one knowledgable law enforcement source.

After DeCicco's shooting, Kelly could not deny that traditional organized crime organizations are still active.

Even Gotti's legacy lingers.

His jailed brother Peter is still the official Gambino boss and former aide-de-camp John (Jackie Nose) D'Amico is the reputed acting boss.

And today, Gambino capo Nicholas (Little Nicky) Corozzo, a favorite of Gottis', completes his supervised release and may be poised to take the reins of the crime family, according to law enforcement officials.

Experts say the Mafia families - even a Bonanno clan decimated by mass defections, including ex-boss Joseph Massino - are still reaping illicit profits.

The mob's traditional bread-and-butter industries - gambling, loansharking, construction and union racketeering - are supplemented by Internet rackets and Wall Street ventures.

Hallinan said the feds are closely monitoring mammoth construction projects like the rebuilding at Ground Zero, and new playpens for the Mets, Yankees and Nets - potential cash cows that could be worth millions to the mob.

But these days, investigators see less and less coordination among crime clans.

Retired NYPD Detective John Carillo testified in federal court recently that New York's once-vaunted Mafia "Commission" - a panel of the five crime bosses or their representatives - hasn't met to settle disputes since the year John Gotti died.

In the Teflon Don's heyday, failure to pay homage to the boss at his Ravenite Social Club in Manhattan's Little Italy or his Bergin club in Queens was an insult punishable by death.

Thanks to Gotti, the feds have a library of videos and photos depicting mob gatherings at social clubs, as well as at weddings, wakes and funerals.

"[Gotti] put a bull's-eye on all the captains," said Mark Feldman, the former chief of the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's organized-crime bureau and now a director at the accounting and consulting firm BDO Seidman.

Gangsters are still being convicted of racketeering as a result of the grainy surveillance tapes made outside those clubs back in the 1980s.

In recent years, most of the families have been run by committees of elderly capos who are respected for their wisdom - and not likely to become rats.

Gotti's playbook has become a primer for aspiring mob bosses on how not to operate.

"The social clubs have gone the way of the horse and buggy," Feldman says.

He adds that Gotti's move against Castellano was the defining event of the past 22 years because Gotti broke the rules when he killed his boss.

"It began the destabilization of what had been the most successfully run criminal enterprise," Feldman said.

Many of the storefront clubs in South Brooklyn, Ridgewood, Maspeth, Ozone Park, lower Manhattan and the Bronx are shuttered or frequented mostly by old-timers playing cards and sipping espresso.

Years before HBO's "The Sopranos" aired its first episode in 1999, New York mobsters began moving to the suburbs of New Jersey, Long Island and Westchester County, where they meet in legitimate restaurants or bars.

n 2003, real-life Luchese gangster Joseph Caridi, who lived in idyllic East Northport, L.I., showed why he's known as "the Tony Soprano of Long Island."

He was busted for running crime rackets out of his home and a local strip club, just like his fictional counterpart.

The bosses can run, but they can't hide, Hallinan said.

"We're going to take out the head of the beast, not just the tentacles," he said. "No one can stay in that position [boss] for very long."

Since early '90s, city is seeing far fewer casualties of Mafia wars

Mafia violence has declined significantly since the last major mob war of the early 1990s. In 1987, the FBI counted 21 organized crime-connected murders. The 1991-92 Colombo family civil war left 12 dead. Here's a look at more recent mob violence:

1999 - Colombo underboss William (Wild Bill) Cutolo disappears May 26 amid a struggle for control of the crime family. His body is never found.

2004 - Mob associate Randolph Pizzolo is gunned down in Brooklyn, allegedly on orders of Bonanno boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano.

2005 - Genovese capo Lawrence Ricci vanishes on Oct. 7 while on trial in Brooklyn Federal Court. His body is found the next month in the trunk of a car parked outside the Huck Finn diner in New Jersey.

Last Tuesday - Gambino associate Robert DeCicco is wounded in Bensonhurst by masked gunman.

Last Wednesday - Genovese soldier Rudolph (Rudy Cue Ball) Izzi found fatally shot in bedroom of his Bensonhurst home.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/5-years-gotti-death-mob-limps-article-1.220379



Breakdown of the 5 families...

Thanks for posting Ivy. Us folks outside the NYC Metro area appreciate being kept in the loop when good articles like this get printed.

It will be interesting to see if LCN makes a significant come back since law enforcement has other priorities since 9-11. I am betting against them.

I was out east on business and drove by Manhattan on my way into Jersey. It was the first time I saw the Freedom Tower in the skyline. My business partner told me it was over budget by $4 billion already. Amazing - some of that has got to be corruption, and likely LCN. Anyone know any details?

all the facts have happened in brooklyn,two in bensonhurst.it looks still italian over there lol

Yeah, the mob LCN has been there since the initial clean up following the attacks. Both through their demolition, trucking, and construction companies and through the Operating Engineers and Laborers unions. One article a year or two ago talked about the enormous wages being paid to members of the Operating Engineers Union, controlled by the Genovese and Colombo families, for what essentially amounted to "no work" jobs. So going over budget is no surprise.

I thought the Rudolph Izzi killing was a random killing, not mafia related?

They never determined who killed him or why. But the fact that he was a LCN member, found lying on his bed in his home, shot once behind the ear, led to the natural assumption it was mob-related.

I'm sure that some no work/no show jobs do exist, Ivy. But I think they're overblown by the media. I may have mentioned to you in the past that my brother is a crew chief with the Operating Engineers down at Rockefeller Plaza?

Yes, they make a lot of money. Once you're vested in the union (5 years), there's no way you're making less than 100k per year (with overtime). But I must say, for the most part those guys work their asses off.

Robert DeCicco was shot less than a mile and a half away from Izzi's home, sitting in a car. Both shootings happened within three days of each other. Coincidence?

I imagine most do. Here's the article I was referring to.



Phantom Crane Operators Rake in $400,000 in No Show/No Work Ground Zero Construction Projects Thanks to Mobbed Up IUOE Locals
New York Daily News
May 13, 2011


A series of no-work and no-show jobs for construction projects at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan from a pair of union locals under Fed scrutiny for ties to the Colombo and Genovese crime families is adding more than $96 million to the overall costs, a New York developer group claims.

Outdated rules would allow some members of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) to pocket an annual salary of anywhere between $135,000 to $405,000 for doing not much more than showing up to projects that include the Freedom Tower, the 9/11 memorial, a transit hub and work on adjacent streets.

Contractor and union sources confirmed that the eight tower cranes at the WTC site guarantee a bonanza for Local 14 operating engineers and the Local 15 specialists who fix them.

On one day in mid-March, for example, contractors said 56 of 204 Local 14 and Local 15 employees on site held no-work jobs.

The board compiled the statistics in the runup to contract talks with the operating engineers and all the city's construction unions, which start next month.

Local 14 and 15 officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Many of the jobs are vestiges of an era in which the Colombo and Genovese crime families controlled Locals 14 and 15. Local 14 has been under a federal monitor since 2009.

One example is the full-time Local 14 "master mechanics" the contractor must hire whenever five pieces of heavy equipment or three tower cranes are in use.

With a $135,000 base salary, a master mechanic can make a staggering $405,000 a year with overtime that's guaranteed by six-day, 12- to 16-hour-a-day schedules. Welfare benefits, insurance and other costs hike the annual bill to $700,000 for that one mechanic.

It's a ridiculous requirement, REBNY says, because the manufacturer or crane owner does the repairs, not the contractor's master mechanics.

Instead, they are glorified shop stewards, a part-time job in most unions. With three required on site a day, that should cost about $6.3 million through 2013, the board says.

Master mechanic Carl Carrara Sr., identified as a Genovese associate, was charged in a 2003 racketeering conspiracy as the mob's point man in a no-show scam at the Museum of Modern Art.

He and six other master mechanics pleaded guilty that year in two cases that put much of Local 14 and 15's leadership behind bars.

Local 15 demands a similar piece of the action via "maintenance engineers." They're required on site full time when a master mechanic is there and three major pieces of equipment are operating in case any machines need fixing.

"There is nothing for these guys to do," a World Trade Center construction supervisor said. Eliminating that requirement would save $7.5 million over three years at Ground Zero, REBNY says.

Then there's the Local 15 position of "crane oiler," a relic from the days when equipment needed frequent lubrication. An oiler is required on site when any tower crane is in use.

Today, the oiler simply fires up the crane at the start of work. With overtime, he can earn more than $100,000 a year.

And there's Local 14's "stationary equipment operator," with one assigned to each compressor, welding machine and spray fireproofer in use. With overtime, they pull down about $110,000 a year, REBNY estimated.

A World Trade Center construction supervisor who asked not to be identified said technology has reduced the job to two simple functions: "They turn the machine on in the morning and turn it off at night," the supervisor said. "They are basically non-essential."

REBNY wants the city to loosen the union's influence over who gets licensed to operate heavy machinery.

Now, only operators with city licenses can work here, and applicants must train with city crane operators - virtually all union workers. That gives the two locals a stranglehold on major projects.

"Locals 14 and 15 have the hammer. They have the power to shut down a job," said Steven Spinola, president of REBNY, which wants to be able to hire nationally licensed crane operators.

Local 14 has been under the supervision of a federal court since 2008 as part of an agreement reached between prosecutors and the International Union of Operating Engineers. Members of the locals- acting on behalf of the Genovese and Colombo crime families- were awarding no-show jobs arranged by IUOE Locals 14 and 15. Some members of the local had also been charged by Federal Prosecutors in a 61-count indictment for involvement with a mob run no-show scam during the Museum of Modern Art's renovation between 2002 and 2004.

http://www.punditpress.com/2011/05/phantom-crane-operators-rake-in-400000.html

is the mob still hijacking trucks or not really into that anymore?

It's not really their forte anymore, but I'm sure there are still isolated instances.

But if you're talking about hijacking trucks coming out of the airports, it's virtually impossible today. Especially post 9/11, where you can't get into the cargo areas without having specific business there.

ah right so got kicked out of the business because of 9/11? what you meanby isolated instances?

An occasional armored car robbery. That kind of thing.

Not if Frenchy is in charge of security!

Frenchy would be shot dead in the name of National Security today. Paulie or no Paulie .

Hijacking trucks out of the airport was already becoming passe for the mob by the 1980's. It was becoming less profitable and new technology made tracking loads easier.

Exactly, Ivy. GPS has only been available to the "Average Joe" for about ten years, but the technology has existed commercially since the '80s (and even earlier than that in the military). Just try hijacking an airport load with a tracking device in it today.

Agreed !! New age technology basically ruined the mob, made it much harder to hijack trucks filled with goods. Forensics these days is much better as well, which would make it hard not to get pinched for whacking somebody, especially with cameras being every place you go. They never know if they're being watched, which has to add to wiseguys' paranoia.

That's no bullshit, either. Would anyone really rule out the government using satellite drones on Mulberry Street if Gotti was still down there?

It's a new day in law enforcement. And it's called technology.

Lucky for guys in Sicily that kind of technology isnt yet affordable. As it is, carabinieri have to now purchase their uniforms as well as a laptop if they would want one for work. They work for next to nothing over there.