I have posted the full gangland article this week because it was a good one this is a one off though so I won't be breaking board again


Sally KO Lives To Fight Another Round, Against The Federal Bureau Of Prisons

Prison itself is supposed to be the punishment. But getting sick while behind bars can be a grueling sentence all its own.

Take the decidedly unpretty case of Genovese mobster Salvatore (Sally KO) Larca, currently incarcerated at the huge federal prison complex in Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Earlier this month, Larca, whose severe internal ailments were well-known to authorities even before he began his latest prison stretch, began bleeding from the rectum. "He was ashen gray, could hardly breathe, and had to be helped out of the unit by another inmate," a concerned family friend told Gang Land. "He'd been complaining for months that he was in a lot of pain, but they ignored him."

This time, correction officers finally agreed that the 47-year-old wiseguy needed to see a doctor. But instead of being placed in the motorized golf cart normally used for prisoner transport in such emergencies, Larca was made to walk to the prison infirmary, bleeding along the way.

"They made him walk, five steps at a time — he couldn't walk more than that without stopping — about a quarter mile to the infirmary," said the friend. "He was in terrible pain, and when he finally got there, he had to wait on line for someone to see him."

By the time he saw a doctor, Larca was in serious distress. Officials rushed him to a local hospital where sources say he underwent emergency surgery on May 2. While in the hospital, he developed a staff infection, one that is expected to keep him hospitalized for several more weeks.

In another layer of punishment, prison authorities allegedly never got around to informing Larca's family about his plight. Instead, his parents only learned about it from a fellow prisoner. And when they wanted to visit their ailing son at the hospital, officials refused to allow it based on "security reasons," according to the friend.

Arrested in a massive marijuana smuggling scheme, Larca began his current bid in April, 2013 when he was detained without bail. Last July, Larca was transferred to Fort Dix, according to the BOP. Constructed on the site of the former army base, the vast low security prison complex holds more than 4500 inmates. Larca brought with him a long and well-documented history of gastro intestinal ailments, one with which the federal Bureau of Prisons was all-too familiar.

In 2009, Larca's colon ruptured while serving a five-year sentence for labor racketeering and obstruction of justice at a federal lockup in Elkton, Ohio. According to his attorney, he developed so many infections and other problems during that episode that "his mother was called and literally asked, 'Where do you want us to ship the body?'"

"He was moved to Duke University Medical Center outside of Butner, and the family flew down there and they were under the assumption that he wasn't going to make it," lawyer Vincent Martinelli stated at Larca's sentencing in 2014.

Larca pulled through, but barely.

According to court papers filed in federal court in Ohio, Dr. Daniel H. Hunt, a specialist in colon and rectal surgery at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, declared that the BOP "failed to properly and promptly treat" Larca when he was felled by what was a severe colitis attack. He suffers from a clinical condition called Pseudomembranous colitis, according to Hunt.

Hunt was prepared to testify that a BOP "failure to properly and timely treat (Larca) or indicate him for timely surgery and/or appropriate medical management" caused him "irreparable harm" and "permanent problems in the future" including infections, diarrhea and additional surgeries, according to a pre-trial filing by Larca's attorneys.

Chief of Colon and Rectal Surgery at New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, Hunt reported that a seven and a half month delay between the original diagnosis in March of 2009 and his surgery that October "significantly degraded (Larca's) medical condition" and "led to the need for" three follow-up surgeries by Hunt, according to a filing by Larca's attorneys.

The lawsuit indicates that Larca's allegedly botched surgery was performed at the Salem Community Hospital in Salem, Ohio, and that Sally KO was subsequently confined to the prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina.

Martinelli told Gang Land that he detailed his client's medical problems to the court at the time of Larca's sentencing.

"I did everything possible as a lawyer to alert the BOP of his pre-existing condition and the continuing care and corrective surgery Sal would regularly need but after he got into the system, I received no information about the actions they took, or didn't take," said Martinelli.

The sentencing memo he filed, and the transcript of Sally KO's sentencing back up the lawyer's words. But apart from that, the BOP has officially known about Larca's medical problems since 2011, when he filed a medical malpractice suit against the BOP.

Two years later, Larca was snared along with three others in an FBI sting operation which used Anthony Zoccolillo, a drug dealer who had failed as a co-star of the short-lived reality TV show, Mamas Boys of the Bronx. But Zoccolillo was a star cooperating witness for the feds in 2013.

The following year, BOP paid $2500 to settle the lawsuit without admiting any wrongdoing in a "compromise settlement." But at Larca's sentencing that same year, prosecutor Rebecca Mermelstein conceded that the BOP may have borne some responsibility for Larca's "very serious medical issue while in prison." But she told Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Sullivan that Larca's "very serious medical issue was in a stable place" then and that there was "no indication that BOP can't handle it."

"He has raised PSAs and an extremely alarming susceptibility to prostate cancer," said attorney Martinelli. "He has kidney stones five to six times a year, Judge. He has them now. He has repeated hernias. He has two now. His lungs were depleted from pneumonia three times, the pneumonia being caused by his inability to fight infection from the loss of his colon. He has scarring to the lungs, Judge."

And in a pointed counter to the prosecutor's assertions that the BOP could now deal with Sally KO's documented ailments, Martinelli stated: "He's ill, and he will never be right ever again. Not only that, unless he receives very specific care, very, very, very pointed care, Judge, he quite possibly could die. If Mr. Larca develops an infection while in prison, he is not like the next inmate. He could die."

Larca was originally sentenced to nine and a half years. But Judge Sullivan, who called Larca a "decent man" at his sentencing, later reduced it to eight years and three months when the federal sentencing guidelines for all drug trafficking convictions were lowered last year. His release date, which had been in the fall of 2021, is now in June of 2020.

The lowered sentencing guidelines are no guarantee that a drug defendant's prison time will be lessened, as Larca codefendant Mitchell Engelson has learned several times in his failed efforts to reduce his sentence.

In a perverse ironic twist, though, Sally KO's sentence reduction may have contributed to Larca's current predicament.

Sources say that during a discussion with Larca, a Fort Dix medical staffer invoked a BOP rule that limits the distribution of prescription drugs that Larca had been taking before his incarceration to maintain his colitis and forestall any flare-ups only to inmates with more than five years remaining on their sentences.

"If you were going to be here for more than five years, we would get you the medications you're looking for, but since you have less than five years left we can't get you them because they're too expensive," the staffer said, according to a knowledgeable Gang Land source.


Feds: Gas Station Owner Fueled Genovese Rubout Plot

A reputed mob associate who owns and operates a flourishing gas station, mini-mart and car wash in the Whitestone section of Queens was the alleged money man behind a badly muffed assassination plot that is now the subject of a major murder conspiracy indictment, sources tell Gang Land.

The appropriately nicknamed Luigi (Louie Sunoco) Romano allegedly furnished $5,000 that the Genovese family used to hire a Bronx-based hit team of Crips gangsters who were assigned to carry out the hit, according to the sources.

If so, Louie Sunoco's money would've been better spent on some new spray nozzles for his car wash, or something similar. That's because the hired guns not only failed in two separate efforts to whack their target, they drew the attention of some sharp-eyed detectives whose investigation has led to a major indictment of Genovese family figures, including some who have managed to stay below the radar for years.

Thanks to the bumbling assassins, law enforcement officials say they have learned that Romano supplied the cash to Genovese associate Salvatore (Fat Sal) Delligatti. In turn, Fat Sal is alleged to have used the dough to hire the hit team to whack gangster rival Joseph Bonelli in June of 2014.

Romano, 38, is also alleged to have hosted a meeting among several members of the would-be murder plot at his gas station. The meeting occurred several days after the four-man hit team was arrested while making their second try to whack Bonelli at his home, which is just a few blocks from Romano's gas station.

Among those in attendance at the mini-mart sitdown were mobster Robert (Old Man) Debello, a venerable Genovese gangster who had managed to avoid serious trouble with the law for years.

The animated discussion took place at Romano's Exxon Gas Station and mini-mart at 150-65 Cross Island Parkway on June 12, 2014. (Ok, you are wondering why a guy nicknamed Louie Sunoco runs an Exxon outlet? Answer: Sunoco was the previous gasoline supplier. You can't make this stuff up!)

The meeting took place a few days after the hit team and Delligatti, a Debello crew member, were arrested by Nassau County detectives, according to the Manhattan U.S Attorney's office.

Sources say that Debello, mob enforcer Ryan (Baldy) Ellis, and former Debello crew member Robert Sowulski, who was arrested along with Delligatti but has agreed to testify for the government, was also at the gas station get-together.

Sources say that Sowulski has told the feds that Debello voiced anger at the meeting that Delligatti had gotten them all involved in a murder conspiracy case and advised everyone "to stay away from him."

Sources say Sowulski has also told authorities that during the gas station meeting, which was under surveillance by Nassau County detectives at the time, a very wary Debello opined that if the gas station was bugged, the "whole neighborhood is screwed."

As it happens, the gas station wasn't bugged, but two years later, eight members of an alleged plot to whack Bonelli are awaiting trial on murder conspiracy and related charges. The indictment, as Gang Land reported last week, is based in large measure on wire-tapped telephone calls among several members of the murder plot, the cooperation of Sowulski, and of a hoodlum-pal of Delligatti who put together the hit team, Kelvin Duke.

Romano is the only defendant charged in the murder plot who is not behind bars. Debello, Delligatti and Ellis, and the others, who include Bertram (Birdy) Duke, the brother of cooperating witness Kelvin Duke, and three members of the hit team, are all detained without bail.


Vinny TV Whips Heart Attack; Checks Out Banner Social Club

He looked pretty good this week as he sat in front of the old, semi-refurbished Banner Social Club in Bensonhurst, but Vinny TV, aka Vincent Badalamenti, the erstwhile acting street boss of the Bonanno crime family, had a few scary days just two short weeks ago.

No, nobody tried to whack the veteran and venerable Brooklyn mobster. But neighborhood sources say that on Friday the 13th, a bad omen if ever there was one, Vinny TV suffered a heart attack and was rushed to a local hospital. The emergency came just a few days before Badalamenti's three-year post-prison stretch of supervised release was due to end.

The lawyers who won Vinny TV a pretty good 18-month sentence were busy with other things, but they did manage to confirm during a brief chat that the 58-year-old Badalamenti had suffered a heart attack. But he's doing fine, they said, following surgery in which doctors inserted two stents to ease the blood flow to and from the wiseguy's heart.

Badalamenti was the main conquest of Hector (Junior) Pagan, the murderous ex-hubby of Mob Wives co-star Renee Graziano who wore a wire for the DEA and snared six gangsters in tape recorded conversations, including his ex-father-in-law, capo Anthony (TG) Graziano.

Rather than go to trial, Vinny TV copped a sweet plea deal calling for 21-to-27 months. He did even better than that when he showed up before Chief Judge Carol Amon who gave him 18 months. But Amon did squash a defense request, joined by the prosecutor, for only a year of supervised release, and gave him three years, which kept Badalamenti from officially visiting his old haunts at the Banner Social Club on 20th Avenue and 72d street until last week.

Gang Land is pretty certain that Vinny TV, who was knocked down a peg for getting snared on tape by Pagan, didn't make any unofficial visits to the legendary club, which was the site of many family Christmas parties, including one in which DEA agents raided in 2009 when they mistakenly believed there was a family induction ceremony going on.

The club, which Badalamenti inherited from the late Bonanno soldier John (Johnny Green) Faraci, was not only on his forbidden list. Sources say it was in need of refurbishing and a new air-conditioner and that Vinny TV was heard to say he wasn't going near the place until he had "fixed it up good."

He had to borrow $5,000 to hire a bunch of guys to kill someone?

Who the fuck risks their life for like, $1,500, anyway? Insane

Debello has stayed under the radar for years even turned down capo position and because of this idiot he is looking at dying in prison he is 74

roserio gangi has allegedly become acting capo of the dichiara crew

Love your disclaimers by the way, GR. Thanks for posting brother.

Damn thats fucked up what they did to Sal Larca..criminal or not being denied adequate medical care and treated that poorly is bullshit.. Not to mention he got all that time for weed selling

Whos crew is he in?

Jerry says Vinny tv is acting street boss? So thatd make Cammarano what acting boss?

sally ko is a tough guy from what I have read he got busted after Anthony Zoccolillo wore a wire on him got busted for drugs with the basancio kids. Young guy in his 40s made and with the westside he reported to Ernest Muscarella got 9 years.


old gangland article


The wiseguy he snared for the feds, Gang Land has learned, is tough guy Salvatore (Sally KO) Larca, a major player in the Bronx-based crew of powerful Genovese capo Ernest Muscarella.

Unlike mob turncoat Hector (Junior) Pagan – the ex-hubby of Mob Wives star Renee Graziano who wore a wire for the feds at the same time he was appearing on the VH1 reality show – Zoccolillo began his undercover work for the feds long after his TV role playing had ended.

But the Mama's Boy's motivation in turning on Sally KO Larca and his cohorts mirrors Pagan's reason for wearing a wire against his ex-father-in-law, Bonanno capo Anthony (TG) Graziano and his cronies. Like Pagan, Zoccolillo was eager to curry favor with the feds after getting caught committing his own crimes.

In Zoccolillo's case, he got jammed up in a joint FBI-NYPD probe that nailed 13 members of a violent Bronx-based Albanian gang known as the Wolfpack on federal drug and weapons charges last fall. For four years, the gang had posed a "triple threat" to "neighborhood safety" through the trafficking of guns, cocaine and oxycodone, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

Sources say Zoccolillo, 36, hung out in a neighborhood pizzeria-restaurant in the Morris Park section of the borough with many members of the gang headed by Christopher Nrecaj, 30, and his brother David, 28. He escaped the original dragnet, in October, but was arrested by the FBI-NYPD Balkan Organized Crime Task Force in February.

After his arrest, Zoccolillo fingered Larca, 45, and a trio of cohorts in the huge pot dealing scheme, according to an arrest complaint by NYPD Detective Michael Corvi.

The turncoat snared Larca in tape recorded conversations in March and April in which the Genovese veteran talked about his links to two 500 pound shipments, Corvi wrote. After shipping an initial 100 pound load to New York, the group quickly upped the size of their shipments, moving a total of about 3000 pounds, according to the complaint.

The mama's boy's cooperation may also help lead to bigger fish. Law enforcement officials say Muscarella, 69, a former acting Genovese boss, and several other wiseguys, including an imprisoned close pal of Sally KO, are subjects of a continuing grand jury investigation being conducted by assistant U.S. attorney Rebecca Mermelstein.

In a March 15 telephone conversation, Larca confirmed receiving a 500 pound shipment from two cohorts. One of them, Mitch Engelson, 63, is a longtime marijuana dealer who was convicted of drug dealing with Luchese mobsters in 1998. The other, Thomas Donohue, 51, is a Florida based confederate who concealed the marijuana loads in booths used in trade shows, Corvi wrote.

For his "assistance in arranging the shipment," the appreciative Sally KO paid Zoccolillo a $6000 fee. Sadly, the out of work actor – Mama's Boys was canceled after two weeks – had to give "that money to the FBI," wrote Corvi. The detective noted that Zoccolillo also obtained evidence against Engelson, Donohue, and a fourth co-defendant, Matthew Strock, 36, a marijuana broker who was arrested in San Francisco.

The enterprising snitch recorded conversations about the marijuana caper with Donohue and Strock. In a nice social media twist to his cooperation, he also got Engelson to communicate details about their pot smuggling on Facebook. On one occasion, Corvi wrote, Engelson informed Zoccolillo that he and Donohue were staying at a hotel in South San Francisco and that Zoccolillo could either "share a room" with him or make a "reservation under whatever name you use" but to make sure he had a "photo i.d."

For hooking Larca up with marijuana growers in northern California, Strock – one of several connections Larca allegedly used – earned about $100 a pound for each deal he arranged, according to the complaint. Sally KO, for his part, did a lot better – earning about $1000 a pound for his troubles, wrote Corvi.

Larca accomplished this, the detective wrote, by scamming Engelson and Donohue about who was the real purchaser of the grass. He first added a secret $200 finder's fee on the loads that Engelson brought him, then tacked on an extra $800 per pound to the cost before selling it to others in the New York metro area.

The middle men weren't unhappy, however. Engelson was still selling his pot to Larca for $600 a pound more than he was paying for it. All went well until the bubble burst on Monday, April 15.

That's when Engelson and Donohue arrived at City Closet Storage at 47-32 32d Place in Long Island City to pick up their latest 500-pound load of pot and were instead met by FBI agents and NYPD detectives who arrested the duo on drug charges.

The arrest took place without incident, said FBI spokesman Jim Margolin. That's in contrast to an old arrest of Engelson back in 1997. When agents went to his Manhattan apartment to arrest him in that bust, sources say, he hurled large bales of marijuana out the window, nearly hitting agents who remained outside his home.

After arresting Engelson and Donohue, said Margolin, FBI agents met up with Larca in Staten Island as he picked up his young daughter from a children's play group. Agents first allowed him to arrange for a relative to take the girl home to her mom, then put the cuffs on him.

Sally KO, who got out of prison in 2010 after serving 63 months for racketeering charges that included trafficking in firearms, obstruction of justice and labor racketeering, declined an offer to join Zoccolillo as a cooperating witness. Like Engelson and Donohue, he is currently housed without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Larca's attorney, Vincent Martinelli, said his client professed his innocence at his arraignment and that the government has yet to turn over any evidence that contradicts that contention. Lawyers for Engelson and Donohue did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesman for TLC network, the Discovery Channel entity that aired the Mama's Boys of the Bronx, did not return a call for comment. Gang Land could not locate Zoccolillo, but maybe one of these days he'll spin some insight about his dealings with Sally KO Larca on Facebook.

When TLC canned the show, Zoccolillo gave this long run-on summary of his Mama's Boys days on Facebook, according to reporter Peter Milosheff of The Bronx Times: “You know what's funny TLC? We filmed all this great stuff about our culture, values, and traditions and you cut it all out and make them add all this nonsense, then cancel us cause nobody liked what you told our production team to shoot ... what do you know about our Italian culture… let us be who we really are and then maybe we would have got better ratings.”

Not that it helps Zoccolillo's acting career, but Gang Land gives four stars to the great mob pot bust he helped orchestrate.