I'm not surprised the Outfit still holds a lot of sway in the neighborhood. All they really need is the political connections. They are tuned into the underworld and still have a fair amount of political connections. All it would take is a phone call to the right politician/cop/public official, to drop the dime on some gangbanger/drug dealer.

At least that is the theory I once proposed to Fosco re: Grand Ave. and the couple other neighborhoods where they likely still exert a considerable amount of power, and he agreed 100 percent.

Intersting story. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Fosco's story is interesting too. LOL. I don't really like to name names on these things, but *someone* is really turning into quite the mob celebrity. (The guy who hangs out at RIchard's.)

I wonder how he feels about the increasing publicity. All it takes is a one bored writer like John Kass to suddenly make you his cause d'celebre.

Next thing you know City Hall is sitting there scratching their heads saying "What are we gonna do about this X X character? He's making us all look bad!"

Anyway, I can't imagine I would like it very much if I was in his position.

Albie once ordered peronis & jameson shots for everyone in the bar, several high end dishes from la scarola, and a Hummer limo, and comped the entire bill to foscos tab. That's Why Joe dislikes him

In all seriousness though Albie being a C-Note figurehead is a serious accusation, and most likely factual. They are indeed an extremely violent & territorial entity.

The interesting part is that Albie is clearly a pretty important guy right now.

He has since clarified his statement and said that Andriacchi is in the "Accardo" role for the Outfit, the elder statesman. He does not know who the boss is.

Does anyone else feel that ripping off Cartel connected drug dealers is a bad idea?

Probably. I don't think the Outfit are a group to mess with either though. Doesn't sound like the Panozzos were scared of much.

HSC, you think GAC has become a sort new Wild Bunch? Enforcement wing?

Well this particular crew were doing it for years & years & no one ever fucked with them. So obviously it wasn't that bad of an idea. They did get caught by the law eventually, but that was to be expected.

I don't see that, where would you get that from? These guys are largely just thieves. Panozzo has been busted for extortion & doling out juice loans, but not nearly as often as he's been tagged for mansion raids, etc.

Also, The Outfit is a little bit too vast to Have just one "enforcement wing"

I'm curious as to how they actually did it. The article mentions they went disguised as cops, but when cops take a stash house they don't knock, they do a raid. Kick in the doors, clear the rooms etc. And these days PDs have SWAT teams out the ass, so usually a SWAT team would pull stash house duty.

It also seems that they were doing it for quite a while. In all that time word didn't get around among the drug gangs that a handful of "cops" are kicking in their doors and leaving with their product but never arrest anyone? It seems weird that no one ever shot at them during a robbery or tried to go after them later...

Yes. The gangbangers/hard drug dealers are more and more indiscriminately violent on average than the Outfit ever was.

Ripping off drug dealers is nothing new; it's been going in forvever, and has to be the world's most dangerous occupation.

These particular guys were getting away with it unscathed for years & years though. So it obviously wasn't that bad of an idea for them. Johnny Law was the one who caught up with them, not the cartel leaders. And it took them almost 30 years to finally nail them clean.

On a separate note, there's another two bit board called black hands or some shit, where our old pal THE DON (aka Chicago, aka Elmwoodparker, aka Taylor Street Crew member Charles Inglesia's long lost, illegitimate grandchild, aka Elmwood Park Crew outcast Joe Lombardi's beloved nephew, aka The Straight Jacket Lunatic) is completely losing his mind over these recent articles. It's rather priceless LOL.

Hahahaha...I'll check it out.

Yeah but now they got caught.

I mean, I don't pretend to know the interniciene workings of the relationship between the Outfit and drug lord street gangs, but I imagine in most instances now that their identities are out there, that would translate to a likely death sentence if you are just dropped in general pop somewhere.

Even if you have a healthy respect for another criminal organization, I think ripping off 25 keys would 999/1000 result in a loco cholo of one stripe or another turning your lights out in a particularly unpleasant manner.

Jesus Christ that made my brain hurt. Why do you even bother responding to him anymore? Waste of time I would think.

He sent me some really disturbing PMs on there. Youre right! Big waste of time & energy. The poor fella is legitimately out of his mind. I deleted most of my responses. Hopefully it gets the thread over there back on track for the users there.

.

Chitown, where you at? This thread needs your input.

This story seems to keep getting better and better, so apparently Panozzo threw an old lady down a flight of stairs more than once. WOW, impressive. Please let this case goto trial.

Here's the latest:

http://www.suntimes.com/m/28792710-773/r...ml#.U86f1dm9LCQ

Yeah this is really nuts. Everyone knows Paul Koroluk in the Grand Ave neighborhood. He was school boards and used to run a video store that was essentially a social club. He and Fred Pacente were busted for insurance scams back in the late 80s.

Everyone also knows about the CNotes. Guys like Kenny "Rico" Rodriguez and Jose "Chewy" Martinez are just as popular as Joey Lombardo. This was an Italian gang that really morphed into a Mexican/Ghetto gang by the early 90s. But a lot of the leaders- guys like Franco Santelli - were Italian.

Bobby Panozzo was a known heavy guy who was always around Albie. I was not aware he was ripping off cartels however, nor would I ever suspect Paul Koroluk of doing something like this - he was just a burglar (and a great one) who actually worked under some of the best Grand Avenue burglars like Andrew "Nucci" Lombardo; Joe's brother.

I really wonder who this informant is. If he has knowledge of real estate extortions happening back in the late 80s, he could really hurt Albie and the Spina brothers - those were the guys behind all of this and they own a TON of property in the neighborhood.

How Italian do you think the Cnotes are nowadays? If at all?

Going to be interesting to see what they can do (if anything) with this old lady thing.

^^the leadership is Italian, as are many of the soldiers that belong to the faction in the area of interest. The C-Note$ are pretty widespread at this point & include many Hispanics & other white European ethnicities.

Sounds like the ultimate scumbag. Hope he rots in prison for the rest of his life.

So it says they were laying low because they knew the cops were watching them...

yet they still fell into this trap?

Fucking morons. Greed will get you every time.

And that piece of shit needs to rot in jail for murdering a 77 year old woman and joking about it until this day.

A real scumbag

They might have needed the money.
hopefully they can go back and find that case if its true. They really are putting that street gang rico law to good use.

The story about the old lady sounds kind of like bullshit...and for those who know, that is literally a few houses down from Joe Lombardo's house (2210 W Ohio). Perhaps she was a widower still paying her husband's debts off, or perhaps it really did happen and these guys are that stone cold - but that neighborhood is very close knit and if Panozzo did do something like that, bragging wouldn't really help him win anyone's respect there.

According to an affidavit police obtained for a search warrant of their homes, an informant said Panozzo boasted about killing an elderly woman around 1987.

“Panozzo still jokes about throwing someone down three flights of stairs and jokes about how surprisingly difficult it was to murder an elderly woman,” according to the affidavit.

Investigators are focusing on a 77-year-old woman who died on Oct. 17, 1987, in the 2300 block of West Ohio, the affidavit said.

I have not heard about that gang in 10 years.

I was thinking the same. Maybe he did, but sounds like a bullshit story to me as well.

Isn't this entrapment?

If you read the article, it says that the police got the warrant due to the supposed bragging, and later seems to indicate that such a murder did in fact take place.

I'm not a lawyer but I imagine a judge issuing a warrant would ask if there ever was such an incident.