Hi Ivy,
actually the information on the made men came from an FBI affidavate stating that in 1987 William Cammisano Sr. acting boss made as many as 12 men, I used to have a copy of it but I cant find it. There have been several inditements since the late 80's but the FBI is very hesitant to use the words organized crime in this town because they are so proud of their work in the strawman case and their ascersion that they have eliminated the mob from KC for good. The recent arrests of 10 men started in March I will try and find the links, there was an inditement this past week of a member for trafficing in conterfit merchandise over 400,000.
Here are some of the links
http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/dicapo.ple2.htmhttp://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/dicapo.ple.htmhttp://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/cammisano.ind.htmhttp://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/civella.ple.htmhttp://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/cammisano.ple.htmhttp://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/sansone.ple.htmhttp://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/simone.ple.htmIn addition there was the Lincoln town car full of dynamite that was used to blow up part of the Belfonte Ice Cream plant because of Nick gambling debt to the mob in the mid 90's.
In the mid 2000's you had the utility company and the credit card scam arrests involving local members and members of the gambino family, where they were using a local utility company as a way to scam money off the bill and through credit card charges.
John Calia a soldier was convicted for drug trafficing in recent years and both Anthony and Joe Porrello were convicted in the tivol robbery in 2001 for 2.1 million in jewerly, they were the masterminds and organizers. Both are members and Anthony is a capo.
John Mandacina a soldier was convicted of murdering a federal witness and is doing life, this happened in around 2005 i believe.
You have the unsolved murder of Charles Cammisano the newphew of William Cammisano and the unsolved murder of of William Cammisano's grandson which occured in 2004 and 2007.
They have a guy now in the teamsters local 41, Ben Palmentere, so they are slowly beginning to get back some union influence. They control the unions that control the local food chains and have major controls in the Passantino brothers applemart chains and the Constantino brothers price chopper chains.
The have members on the Jackson County sports authority which controls the actions involving the stadiums including awarding of constuction contracts. The former County executive Catherine Shields, is married to the son of Tiger Cardarella and whom has strong associations. They have people in the county and local goverments but have not been able to make strong efforst into the police departments but do have some local judges who are favorable.
However let me say this, are they the crew that was in operation in the 60's and 70's no, they are not close to that. The mob in this town even in the Civella era was hard to get information on because they are almost all blood related in the inner circle. They have always been low key and they are to this day very low key, they are about 80% legitamate and 20% illegal in their activities. They are using more sophisicated methods of operation and rely heavily on the local black gangs and mexican gangs for their drug trafficing and "wet" work.
As for other states, Ribaste still controls remaning interests in Vegas, most recently involving Binion, and some car lots and pawn shops. I do know they have a few people working in Denver with the family there, they own and operate Bazokka's show girls here in town a high end strip club. The Civella sons have interests in the valley in cali in the porn industry.
There not the gambino's nor are they even the crew they were before but they are more than just a few old guys hanging around. They are stronger now than they were in the late 80's. They have a structure, boss, under boss, capos and soldiers.
One thing you should be aware of, having lived here all my life and growing up in the NE I grew up in and around these guys and I can tell you there has never been a lot of indictments and arrests even back when uncle nick was running the show, off topic, I used to go into the fruit market which was in the farmers market area where nick civella had his "office". He would always give me some fruit for free, tell me to call him uncle nick and then tell me to be a good boy and do good in school, he was always such a nice man, didn't have a clue at the age just how "nice" he was LOL. My point even in the highlight of their power, they didn't make the news a lot. Again not saying they are a powerful outfit like they were, just saying their more than just 10 old timers hanging out.
