http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/witness_claims_his_buddy_was_s.html

Anthony Zoccolillo, testifies

Looks like Ernie Aiello is being represented by Jay-Z's lawyer. Not exactly a cheap lawyer.

Oxy is a money maker, as is weed.

this rat seems entertaining at least. Ratting "out of the good of his heart."

I wish PB was here to give us something on the BX guys on trial. Get well soon...

capeci in a old article called zocallerio the most effective witness in 2014



This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Bronx Mama's Boy The Most Effective Mob Turncoat of 2014

Gang Land Exclusive! Until Anthony Zoccolillo was arrested on drug charges when he was hanging out with a violent gang of Albanian gangsters called the Wolfpack nearly two years ago, his "15 minutes of fame" had consumed a grand total of eight days in April of 2012. That's when he played himself in the Mama's Boys Of The Bronx, a so-called reality TV show that was so bad it was cancelled after two episodes.

But three years later, Zoccolillo is Gang Land's selection as the federal government's most productive cooperating witness of 2014 — based on his performance as an undercover operative for the FBI in the two months after his arrest, and his follow-up work with prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office since then.

"There's no question in my mind," said one law enforcement official not involved in any of Zoccolillo's cases, "the federal government got more bang for its buck with him last year than it did with all the other cooperators combined."

A noted mob lawyer put it a little differently, but agreed wholeheartedly. "In 2014, the Mama's Boy was the government's most effective rat," he said.

All 14 defendants in three Zoccolillo-connected cases that were indicted in 2013 and closed last year, including two Genovese wiseguys and three sons of onetime Bonanno acting boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano, pleaded guilty to dealing drugs (mostly marijuana) or other charges and were sentenced to a total of 61 years in federal prison.

Three defendants, including Genovese soldier Salvatore (Sally KO) Larca, who was sentenced to 114 months, received prison terms of nine years or longer. Only two were sentenced to less than a year in prison: Basciano's youngest son, Joseph received six months; a marijuana broker, who also flipped, wound up with 11 months.

On average, defendants in the Mama's Boy cases were sentenced to a little more than four years. And even though those prison terms were meted out by three different judges, they were at, or close to, what the government agreed to in deals with defendants.

That batting average is well above the score card resulting from a 2013 Manhattan indictment that focused on mob-tied trash haulers that began after an out-of-work garbage man started cooperating with the FBI after he was arrested for soliciting sex with a minor in 2008. Joseph Basciano

In that case, the government's arguments for tougher prison terms were undermined by the disclosure that its key witness was an accused sex pervert looking to escape a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years behind bars.

But Manhattan prosecutors knew that going into the case when they indicted 29 mob-connected defendants for labor racketeering in 2013. The case became a disaster. The government had to dismiss all charges against 10 defendants.

Even those who were convicted received light sentences. Of the 18 who pleaded guilty and have been sentenced, the longest prison term was 46 months. Six defendants got six months or less, and three received no time behind bars. The result was an average sentence of 9.6 months. The main defendant, Genovese associate Carmine (Papa Smurf) Franco, and four others each got a year and a day prison terms.

For the record, Gang Land does NOT stand for the proposition that the feds should focus on easier-to-make drug cases that carry longer prison terms and ignore time-consuming, much more difficult investigations into labor racketeering scams. In fact, the opposite is true. Gang Land believes that the FBI and federal government should devote more effort and money to crack down on corrupt activities that take money out of the paychecks of working people.

But that's a different story.

This week, we summarize just some details about the results of Zoccolillo's decision to cooperate with the FBI almost immediately after the agency's now-defunct FBI squad that had been investigating Albanian organized crime arrested him for drug trafficking on February 20, 2013.

His work first bore fruit less than two months later, on April 15, 2013, when FBI agents arrested Larca and three cohorts, and seized a 500 pound load of high grade weed that the foursome transported to a Queens warehouse concealed in trade show booths. Like defendants later added to the Larca case and those in two other indictments, all decided to cop plea deals rather than go to trial.

Mitch Engelson, whose first conviction for drugs was in 1998 as a co-conspirator with the Luchese family, also got 114 months; Thomas Donohue, a Florida based cohort who handled the shipping, was sentenced to 102 months.

Joseph Basciano's older brothers, Steven, and Vincent Jr., received 42 months and 36 months, respectively. Judge Richard Sullivan agreed to let Vincent Jr. spend the first year of his sentence in home confinement to enable him to help care for an autistic son, and prepare him for a two year separation.

Three other New York-based drug dealers charged along with the Basciano brothers, Elon Valentine, George Kokenyei, and Dominick Deluccia, received prison terms of six years, three years and 18 months, respectively. A California-based marijuana broker, Kenneth Owen, was sentenced to 27 months.

Charged with loansharking in a separate indictment, Genovese wiseguy Pasquale (Uncle Patty) Falcetti and a Bronx-based associate who had known Zoccolillo for decades and had loaned him $34,000 in 2011 that he used to finance his move into the marijuana business, each copped plea deals rather than contest the charges at trial.

Falcetti was sentenced to 30 months in prison; his associate, Thomas Joy received 14 months.

Prosecutors also used Zoccolillo to up the ante for Vincent Bruno, a longtime buddy and partner in the drug business who was also a close associate of Larca's. Bruno, a violent Bronx-based gangster had been nailed on cocaine trafficking charges in February of 2013, a week before the Mama's Boy was arrested by the FBI.

Bruno, 30, had already worked out a plea deal calling for 70 to 87 months on the coke charges when Zoccolillo informed the feds that Bruno was also involved in his lucrative marijuana business. The new info forced Bruno to agree to a plea deal calling for up to four more years in prison or face additional drug charges carrying twice that. He was sentenced to nine years.

Richard Strock, a marijuana broker from the San Francisco Bay area who was a Larca accomplice for years and was arrested with him, subsequently cooperated with the feds. He was sentenced to 11 months in prison and is currently serving three years of post-prison supervision.

At his sentencing in November, Judge Sullivan ordered him to forfeit $10,000, noting that he had deducted $5000 from the original amount after prosecutors reported that fellow inmates had threatened Strock and extorted that much cash from him after they learned he was cooperating with the feds.

Zoccolillo is slated to be sentenced in May. As a cooperator, the Mama's Boy has reason to be proud.

Good post as always GR

GR solid post thanks pal...anyone heard more about this trial recently? You'd think the daily news would write about it everyday at least, I mean enough with the Trump bashing and stupid fuckin stories about Kim Kardashians fat ass and Beyonce hating white people..Mob shits always gets clicks IMO online....jw if anyone heard more of whats going on or if any other notable rats were testifying?

Found this one on BH credits to willychichi...has updates and new testimony from NYPD OC cops

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/alleged_si_mobster_recorded_us.html

Silive. Been covering it a lot that last I read this guy skinny santoro is all over the place. He's fucked. He's selling drugs on a wire got caught with a pile of guns. Taking bets for nickels and dimes. I don't no about the rest but he's gonna get burried. The old guy Nicky mouths lawyers trying to get him bail in the middle of the trial he must not be doing to good. Rikers can't be good for that old wise guy. And the young guy from the bx is caught up to.

The Bonnanos are major players in the distribution of high end marajuana on Staten Island - huge racket .

The Viagra racket is also a high margin business , obtaining insurance subsidized product and selling 100 mg up to $20 per pill. A hundy can be broken up and used up to 4 times .

Both pretty solid from a profit and LE exposure standpoint . A CA weed connect likely nets them $500 a lb, so a 1,000 lb a month dealer is generating $50k a month . Plow this, gambling and loan sharking into real estate and construction busines which continues its ferocious bull market run in NYC , Hoboken, JC, Harrison and you can see how some guys can make a tremendous amount of yearly income with below avg. LE exposure if you can stay off the phone and minimize rat / wired up exposure lol . While this crew seemed pretty weak in the LE part some of these guys have this down to a science now

Just look at Barney , in 1 point LE says he is the Boss while also admitting they can't prove he has been involved in any crime since his prison release . Talk about some bullshit but IMO it shows the level of frustration LE currently has with them and it might not be a coincidence this was a little while after that big construction deal.

I refuse to condone their acts but you have to admire their skills at avoiding LE and the public in general. I went weekly to a restaurant they did business with for years, we would joke that I was the only Italian in there . Yet it laundered $400M of money thru the place . It appears the same is going on with the Ports , phasing out some of the more high risk lower profit street shit in favor of big money sophisticated lower key crimes. Just 7 or so years ago some higher risk stuff was still going on , shoot in 2011 or so there was a huge bust for some crazy stuff that you didn't even hear a peep about unless you knew people that worked there . To me at least it seems they are moving away from the low level thieving and small time extortion activities and into more quasi big time legit stuff . Any time you see a labor dispute over hiring practices you need to look into that lol, that was a show of strength IMO especially when there aren't many Italians left there

I strongly sense LE is very frustrated with them, business seems to be expanding rather than the opposite .

Tons of points db that's how I see it. Just interesting there organization is still going pretty strong and I think has gotten with the times or adapted. Those Bonner pills are huge in new england to. You want to do coke with some sluts better have a Bonner pill in ya pocket good times.

The east coast weed prices I've heard have been dropping to from a steady 2500+ a pound more the plus five years ago to almost 2100 a pound. Think Colorado being closer is for that. And still a lot of the good bud comes from the friends in Canada. But with more and more states making it legal prices are getting cheap.

How bout them to Viet or China men in bk with all the weed busted yesterday.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/judge_denies_alleged_bonnano_c.html

nicky denied home confinement

Im in Denver and I can get 99$ ounces at dispensary of shit that cost 400 an oz back east. And i got bunch of plugs for pounds. Shit is dirt cheap out here..

Wow.....and I thought Cali was cheap but more and more I'm hearing denver is the spot may have to take a trip.....I'm in Ct. And have a good friend that moved out west it makes life much easier but I'm shocked at some of them low numbers I hear from them broncos

I mean every dispensary has different prices but ive got a few that are really cheap and the bud is just as good as the rest.. one called colorado harvest company, they have 2 stores in denver and one in aurora, but they have $16 8ths, $30 quarters, $99 Ozs.. and thats the cheapest ive found yet. And since places like that sell it so cheap, people that still sell it illegally have to sell it cheaper. Like you can only buy 2 ozs at a time if your a colorado resident. And out of state cant get more then a quarter.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/prosecution_claims_cash_flowed.html

MANHATTAN, N.Y.— The money flowed up to the "old boss."

Any proceeds from gambling and loansharking activities eventually made its way through the Bonanno crime family hierarchy and landed in alleged mob boss Nicholas Santora's hands, the prosecution claimed during the Bonanno mob trial Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Santora, 73, along with three alleged Bonanno associates -- Anthony "Skinny" Santoro, 52, of Great Kills, Vito Badamo, 53, and Ernest Aiello, 36 -- are on trial for enterprise corruption, including loansharking, gambling and drug dealing. They were busted in July 2013.

Detective Angelo Barone testified that Santoro and Badamo would take care of collecting money from the alleged illegal activities before giving it to "Captain Crunch" or "iron boss," which were Santora's nicknames.

"The money goes up," the detective testified. "Santoro collects the money, gives it to Badamo and a piece goes to Santora."

The state claims Santora is the crime family's ringleader. The prosecution says he was in charge of an Internet gambling site, sold prescription drugs, such as oxycodone and Viagra, on the black market, and the other three defendants were his underlings.

In a series of audio recordings, texts and surveillance, Santoro and Badamo were caught either talking about the gambling debt owed to them or exchanging money during their alleged meetings, Barone said.

In one recording, Santoro says he will take Badamo to the house of the man who owes them cash and in another wire tapped call Santoro refers to "iron," which is a mob reference to cash, the prosecution alleges.

In another conversation, Santoro and Badamo discuss taking care of the situation before it got to "front street."

"That means they wanted to take care of it before Santora got involved," Barone said.

Michael Alber, Santora's attorney, questioned Barone's analysis of the evidence and how he determined the money flow went to his client.

"Did you see anyone give Santora money?" Alber asked.

"No," Barone replied.

"When you recovered all materials from all the search warrants at the respective houses, did you see any reference to "Captain Crunch" in any of the documents you recovered?" Alber asked the detective.

"No," Barone said.

Santora, Alber also argued, is not shown in any government surveillance.

Badamo's attorney, Joseph Donatelli, said the state recovered no evidence of gambling activity when they searched his client's home and car.

"You believed you would find evidence?" Donatelli asked Barone.

"I was incorrect," the detective replied.

But, Badamo, nicknamed "Uncle Chap," was recorded talking to another Bonanno associate, Dominick Siano, about the raid.

"Uncle Chap, we got big problems," Siano says on the tape. "They got my computer, It shows I went onto the site (the alleged illegal Internet gambling site the Bonanno's ran.)

"Who else was hit by the search warrants?" Badamo asks.

Badamo's reply, the prosecution says, proves he knew about the illegal gambling site.

Testimony resumes Wednesday morning.

i dont think they have showed much that nicky getting a cut so far i have seen little which can hurt him if this is what the feds are relying on to get nicky well then i think he has a good chance of beating some of the chances still baffled why they put that guy who killed 7 guys on stand they should have put massimo