Interesting article. Here's a couple exscripts.


"He's an old school guy, he doesn't talk on the phone, and he only meets with people he knows," said another law enforcement source. In one 2006 incident described in court papers, it took five phone calls with two underlings to arrange a meeting in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn between Cali and capo Michael (Mickey Boy) Paradiso in which neither Cali nor Paradiso's names were mentioned. Paradiso's guy referred to Cali, who has a produce business, as "the fruit guy," and Cali's guy referred to Paradiso as "the Staten Island guy," according to a court filing.



Closer to home, several sources said they viewed Cali's ascension as a positive move for the Gambino crime family based on his track record as an "earner" and a wiseguy who "shares the wealth" with his crew members.


"He makes a lot of people partners in things that he does," said DiLeonardo, who tried to snare Cali in some illegal chatter in late 2002 when Mikey Scars flipped and was trying to make his bones with Team America. "He's a mild mannered, even tempered guy. He's not greedy; he makes everybody eat. He's not a micro-manager, but he's involved in everything he does."

And in the late 90s, they wrote, Cali had "illegal joker poker gambling machines" in several social clubs and other establishments in Brooklyn. Among them were "four or five machines in Café Italia in Brooklyn" alone, according to the feds. The machines generated money for Cali, his partners, and — as he did religiously in all his ventures — a 10% tribute off the top to the Administration.