Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Friday, December 30, 2011

2 arrested in sale of ‘mob’ house


Patriarca crime familyBull price in bear market a tipoff

People in the state real estate industry were “scratching their head” after an associate of a late New England crime boss sold his “mess” of a house in a weak market for almost $1 million more than the asking price to two brothers now facing criminal charges, a police affidavit says.

Authorities on Thursday announced the arrests of Eugene O’Brien and Timothy O’Brien, who are accused of pulling off a $2.2 million fraud to buy the Narragansett home of Frederick Carrozza Sr., who ran a business from the same Providence office as the late reputed mob boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca.

Narragansett real estate agent John Hodnett wrote in an email two months after the September 2006 sale that the $2.4 million deal was one of the most “bizarre” transactions the market had seen in a while.

“This home has been on and off the market over the past 10 years between 595K and $1.5 (million). It was last on the market for $1.5 (million) this past February,” Hodnett wrote in an email quoted in the affidavit. “To see this close at $2.4 (million) with a mortgage (of) $2.28 (million) is mind boggling and turning all of the comps upside down. Most people are under the assumption that there may be more than meets the eye on this one.”

Investigators began looking into the sale of the home after the lender foreclosed last year, state police Lt. Michael Winquist said. A confidential source told authorities the sale price was suspicious and crimes may have been committed, he said.

Two area real estate agents told investigators the 4,900-square-foot home near a beach was in poor condition in 2006 and required “a lot of money and work,” the affidavit said. An attorney who offered to buy the property from Carrozza for $1.2 million called it a “mess” and planned to raze it, the affidavit said. A forensic appraiser determined the house was worth $910,000 when it sold, Winquist said.

Carrozza, who is not facing charges, made about $2 million in the sale, the affidavit said. He did not promptly return a message seeking comment Thursday.

Eugene O’Brien, who is from Somerset, Mass., and has worked in the mortgage industry, made more than $95,000 from purchasing and refinancing the property, and Timothy O’Brien, an acupuncturist from South Kingston, made $100,000, the affidavit said.

They’re each charged with obtaining money under false pretenses, conspiracy and money laundering.

When Eugene O’Brien secured new financing in December 2006, he did not disclose on his loan application that he had purchased three properties in Rhode Island and Massachusetts between Nov. 6 and Dec. 14 for more than $1 million total, the affidavit said. The properties fell into foreclosure. 

http://www.telegram.com/article/20111230/NEWS/112309701

Mob Expert Picks Top Mob Stories of 2011


English: Joe Massino spotted leaving his docto...As New York mobster stories go, there seemed to be no shortage in 2011. Mob expert Jerry Capeci should know.
Capeci, a former New York Daily News reporter, runs the website Gang Land News. On Thursday, he picked the top mob stories of 2011.
Hands down, he writes, the top story was the Mafia Takedown arrests of 127 wiseguys and “various  cohorts.”
Runner up story, Capeci writes, was the appearance in April in fed court in Brooklyn of ex-Bonanno boss Joseph Massino on the witness stand at the capital murder trial of successor boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano.  Massino made history, becoming the first mob boss from one of the 5 New York crime families to take the witness stand for the feds.
Though Capeci  picks the massive takedown in January as the top mob story of the year, he is not without some skepticism.
On the day of the announcement, Capeci writes that the “feds put on an overblown dog and pony show at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn in a pretty transparent effort to send a message to mobsters that they were still a top priority of the federal government.”
“Six weeks later, as Gang Land reported on March 3, the priority claims went down several notches when it was learned that FBI bosses had combined the five squads that had been investigating the Five Families into three, and cut the number of mob-busting agents by 25%, to about 45, the lowest number since the days of J. Edgar Hoover.”

http://www.ticklethewire.com/2011/12/29/mob-expert-picks-top-mob-stories-of-2011/

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Fugitive Frank Cetta of Lucchese crime family bagged for running offshore 'wire room'


A fugitive who allegedly ran a Costa Rican “wire room” where the Lucchese crime family processed billions of dollars in illegal wagers on sporting events has been taken into custody by the state Division of Criminal Justice.
The U.S. Marshals Service returned Frank Cetta, 73, of Las Vegas to New Jersey from Costa Rica and he had a first appearance in court Morristown Wednesday morning.
The State Police Fugitive Unit initially developed information about Cetta’s location, which the Division of Criminal Justice referred to the marshals. Cetta was arrested by authorities in Costa Rica on Dec. 5.
Cetta made his first court appearance before state Superior Court Judge Philip J. Maenza. Supervising Deputy Attorney General Mark Eliades, chief of the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau, is prosecuting the case. Maenza set bail for Cetta at $350,000 with full bail required. He is being held in the Morris County Jail.
The judge ordered that if Cetta posts bail, he must surrender his U.S. passport, submit to a bail source hearing, and execute a waiver of extradition. Cetta is scheduled to be arraigned on Jan. 3 before Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan in Morristown.
Cetta was named in a May 14, 2010 state grand jury indictment obtained by the Division of Criminal Justice that charged two ruling members of the Lucchese crime family in New York, Joseph DiNapoli and Matthew Madonna, as well as 32 other alleged members and associates of the crime family. All of them were indicted on first-degree charges of racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering. The indictment stemmed from Operation Heat, an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau.
“Organized crime cannot evade our determined efforts, not even by hiding in Central America,” state Attorney General Dow said. “Frank Cetta is charged with crimes that reached from Costa Rica to New Jersey. We’ve demonstrated that the reach of justice is equally long. We are grateful to the U.S. Marshals Service for their efforts in apprehending this fugitive.”
“Frank Cetta allegedly was responsible for minding the store in Costa Rica for the Lucchese crime family, making sure things ran smoothly at the offshore hub of their multi-billion dollar gambling operation,” Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor said. “With the aid of the U.S. Marshals Service and Costa Rican authorities, we have brought him to New Jersey to face prosecution.”
Cetta allegedly supervised a wire room in San Jose, Costa Rica, where up to 20 people worked at a time, taking bets by phone and processing online wagers for the Lucchese crime family’s gambling operation. In May 2010, the Division of Criminal Justice arrested and charged another fugitive in the case, Brian Ronald Cohen, 63, of Buffalo, who allegedly ran the gambling operation’s website and the technical aspects of the Costa Rican wire room.

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/state/fugitive-frank-cetta-of-lucchese-crime-family-bagged-for-running-offshore-wire-room

Gambino associate wants mob nickname barred from upcoming trial


He hates “Love.’’
The lawyer for reputed Gambino crime-family associate Vito “Vito Love’’ Cortesiano wants a Brooklyn federal judge to bar any mention of his client’s moniker from his upcoming racketeering trial.
The lawyer, J. Patten Brown III, argues in court documents that “the only reason the government wants to include” alleged mobsters’ colorful nicknames at trial is to indicate to the jury “that people who use aliases are inherently untrustworthy and engaged in questionable activities.”
Brown argues that Cortesiano’s nickname only creates prejudice in the eyes of a jury and is “improper.”
Prosecutors say Cortesiano has a close relationship with Bartolomeo Vernace, a Gambino captain who sits on the crime family’s ruling panel.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Richard Nixon 'had gay affair with Mafia fixer'


Former US president Richard Nixon had a gay affair with his best friend, a Mafia-connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo, according to a new biography by Don Fulsom.
Fulsom, a veteran Washington reporter who covered the Nixon years, also insists that the 37th U.S. President had a serious drink problem, beat his wife and by the time he was inaugurated in 1969 had links going back two decades to the Mafia, including with New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello, then America's most powerful mobster.
 Bebe Rebozo was a short, swarthy, good-looking Cuban-American businessman with a history of failed relationships with women and close alliances with Miami's Mafia chiefs, the Daily Mail reported.ulsom has used recently revealed documents and eyewitness interviews including with FBI agents to shed new light on long-standing doubts among White House insiders that Nixon may have been a more than just good pal with Rebozo.
 He asserts that Nixon's relationship with Pat, his wife of 53 years, was little more than a pretence. A heavy drinker whom his own staff dubbed 'Our Drunk', Nixon used to call his First Lady a 'f***ing bitch' and hit her before, during and after his presidency.
 The couple had separate bedrooms at the White House and in Key Biscayne, the exclusive resort near Miami where Nixon holidayed. Mrs Nixon did not even used to sleep in the same building, however Rebozo, was in the house next door.
 Fulsom also claims that one of Nixon's former military aides had a covert job 'to teach the President how to kiss his wife' so that they would look like a convincing couple.
 Fulsom has quoted a former Time magazine reporter who, at a Washington dinner, bent down to pick up a fork and saw the two holding hands under the table.
 It was, the reporter judged, amply intimate to suggest 'repressed homosexuality'.
 Another journalist revealed how, loosened up by drink, Nixon once put his arm around Rebozo 'the way you'd cuddle your senior prom date. Something was fishy there'.
 Rebozo even became an 'uncle figure' to the Nixons' two daughters, Tricia and Julie. The dapper Cuban-American selected Nixon's clothes and even selected the films he watched at the White House.
 On Nixon's solo visits to Key Biscayne, they swam and sunbathed, indulging in their shared passions for discussing Broadway musicals and barbecuing steaks.
 When Nixon became President, Rebozo was given his own office and bedroom at the White House, and a security clearance that permitted him to go in and out without being logged by the secret service.
 Using a false name, says Fulsom, Rebozo even got into Nixon's hotel suite during a trip to Europe.
 The President's closest colleagues criticized the way Rebozo monopolised Nixon's time.
 The book, Nixon's Darkest Secrets: The Inside Story Of America's Most Troubled President will be out on January 31, 2012.

http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/256513

Sunday, December 25, 2011

2011: A year in the Montreal mafia


Few attend funeral for slain reputed Montreal mobster, Salvatore Montagna.
Few attend funeral for slain reputed Montreal mobster, Salvatore Montagna.
FEBRUARY
Antonio Di Salvo, 44-year-old found dead in his home on Perras Blvd. in Riviere des Prairies had ties to some of the more powerful mobsters in the city. According to two Montreal police investigators, drug trafficking appears to be a likely motive behind the slaying. Di Salvo's body was discovered by a friend who was looking for him. The friend called police and the investigation was quickly turned over to the police major crimes unit when it became apparent Di Salvo had been shot in the head in least once. He is believed to have been killed inside the garage of the home he moved into in 2007.
---
Beaconsfield Ave. lately has been "like out of The Godfather," a neighbour said after real-life, Mob-style gunfire shattered the tranquility of a residential area in Notre Dame de Grace. Police said a suspect fired at least one shot. By all indications, the gunman was aiming at Rita Biasini, wife of Antonio (Tony) Magi. A businessman, Magi is facing an array of weapons charges. He was involved in a land-development project with Nicolo Rizzuto Jr. -son of reputed Mob boss Vito Rizzuto - when the younger Rizzuto was shot to death in December 2009 in N.D.G.
SEPTEMBER
The head of a construction company who was once a close associate of the Rizzuto organization was being interviewed by Laval police investigators after what provoked a shooting in broad daylight on a busy Laval thoroughfare. Raynald Desjardins, 58, used to be a close associate of Vito Rizzuto, a leader in the mafia in Montreal. Desjardins was not arrested but a man picked up near the scene of the shooting on Lévesque Blvd. near Highway 25. Laval police Sergeant Simon Charette said police were still trying to determine whether Desjardins was a target in the shooting. The shots were fired near Desjardins' residence, on the bank of the Rivière des Prairies in Laval's St. Vincent de Paul district.
---
A St. Léonard man faces four counts related to the shooting near the Laval home of Raynald Desjardins, an alleged associate of the Rizzuto crime clan. Jonathan Mignacca, 26, the only suspect arrested in the exchange of gunfire on a busy thoroughfare - an apparent attempt on Desjardins's life. Mignacca appeared in Quebec Court. His lawyer, Debora De Thomasis, told reporters: "To me, this is a case of self defence." Desjardins, 57, is known to police for his ties to Vito Rizzuto, an alleged leader of the Montreal Mafia currently serving a 10-year prison term in the U.S. Bail was denied in connection with a Laval shooting in which the target appeared to be an alleged associate of the Rizzuto organization.
OCTOBER
Lorenzo (Larry) LoPresti was fatally shot in St. Laurent. He spent his formative years living next door to reputed Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto on Antoine Berthelet Ave. - known as Mafia Row - in northern Montreal. He attended the same St. Laurent high school - Father McDonald Comprehensive - as Rizzuto's daughter, Bettina. It was widely known that the tall, curly-haired LoPresti was the son of Giuseppe (Joe) LoPresti, who had made headlines for his arrest in a high-profile heroin smuggling trial in the U.S.
NOVEMBER
Salvatore Montagna, a former head of the Bonanno crime family in New York, was found dead on a small island near Repentigny, was deported by the United States in 2009. As a dual citizen of Canada, where he was born, and Italy, where he was raised in Sicily, he chose to return to the city he was born in. Police sources have speculated for months that Montagna, who was married and the father of three daughters, chose to return to Montreal with the goal of filling a void in the Mafia created by a series of arrests that were followed by kidnappings and murders.

DECEMBER
Montreal businessman Antonio (Tony Suzuki) Pietrantonio, 48, was the latest target in a series of shootings that began in September. Pietrantonio was left in critical condition after being shot near the entrance of Restaurant Imperio, a Portuguese grill in a strip mall on Jarry St. E. near Chambord St. The attempt on Pietrantonio's life follows the Nov. 24 slaying of Salvatore (Sal the Ironworker) Montagna on an island just east of Montreal and the Sept. 16 attempt on the life of Raynald Desjardins in Laval.
--
Raynald Desjardins was one of six men charged with the first-degree murder of Salvatore (Sal the Ironworker) Montagna in what is believed to have been a settling of accounts within the Mafia in Montreal.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/2011+year+Montreal+mafia/5893659/story.html

DHS tries to arrest Gambino Captain at the wrong home address


This is a goof almost too good to be true.
Mob expert Jerry Capeci of Gang Land News reports that the feds — more specifically, federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security — were a little embarrassed a few weeks ago when they tried arresting Gambino crime family capo Alphonse Trucchio.
The feds phoned Trucchio and told him to step outside his South Ozone Park, Queens home so they could arrest him on racketeering charges, according to Gang Land News.
Problem was, when Trucchio stepped outside, no one was there, Gang Land reported. Inside, shortly after, the phone rang again.
“If you don’t come outside now, we’re going to break the door down,” warned an agitated agent, Gang Land reported.
“Where are you? I just went outside and there was no one there,” said Trucchio, according to Gang Land.
The agents said they were outside his Howard Beach home.
“I don’t live there anymore,” replied the gangster, according to Gang Land. “I’ve been living here for 10 years…I’m on house arrest on an electronic monitor – and you don’t know where I am?!”
Gang Land reported that he then gave the agents the right address.

http://www.ticklethewire.com/2011/12/24/oops-fed-agents-big-goof-in-arrest-of-ny-mobster/

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Desjardins charged with first degree murder of Montagna


Raynald Desjardins leaves the Joliette courthouse after being charged with first degree murder in connection with the death of mobster Salvatore Montagna on Wednesday morning.
Raynald Desjardins leaves the Joliette courthouse after being charged with first degree murder in connection with the death of mobster Salvatore Montagna on Wednesday morning.
 

Raynald Desjardins, a high ranking mobster who is close to reputed boss Vito Rizzuto, was formally charged with first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder Wednesday morning at the Joliette Courthouse. 
Police allege the 58 year old reputed gangster assassinated a rival who was trying to assume control of the Montreal mafia. 
The 40 year old victim, Salvatore Montagna, was the former head of New York's notorious Bonnano crime family. 
Montagna was shot and killed on November 24th in Charlemagne. 
In addition to Desjardins, three other men are charged in the murder: 34-year-old Vittorio Mirarchi, 27 year old Felice Racaniello, and 67 year old Jack Simpson. 
Two other suspects, Calogero Milioto and Pietro Magistrale, were arraigned on several weapons charges. 
Raynald Desjardins returns to court January 4, 2012.

http://www.globalmontreal.com/desjardins+charged+with+first+degree+murder/6442546635/story.html

2 Hunterdon men accused of extorting money at Christmastime from longshoremen's union members


For workers on the docks and piers of New Jersey, Christmastime for years meant longshoremen being forced to pay money to union leaders, federal officials say.
Two Hunterdon men who are in the International Longshoremen’s Association union are charged in a superseding federal indictment that adds dozens of counts to a previous indictment charging multiple defendants — including an alleged member and associates of the Genovese organized crime family — with racketeering and related offenses.
The additional charges include conspiring to extort Christmastime “tributes” from ILA members on the New Jersey piers. The defendants are accused of taking money from the workers through “wrongful use of, actual and threatened force, violence and fear.”
The Hunterdon defendants are Thomas “Tommy” Leonardis, 54, of Rocky Run Road, Lebanon Township, president of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1235 and ILA representative, and Edward “Eddie” Aulisi, 52, of Pleasant Run Road, Readington Township. According to officials, he had a “no-show” job as a longshoreman. He’s the son of Vincent “The Vet” Aulisi, 78, of West Orange, a former Local 1235 president, who was also indicted.
Leonardis is charged with extortion conspiracy and extortion of ILA members. Edward Aulisi is charged with extortion conspiracy. The charges are under the federal Hobbs Act, which is used to combat racketeering in labor cases.
According to government records, as president of the 887-member local, Leonardis received a salary of $206,130 in 2010, plus business expenses of $5,180 for total compensation of $211,310. He moved from Essex County to Lebanon Township in 1999.
The original indictment was returned in January 2011. A 103-count superseding indictment was unsealed Dec. 15 in Newark federal court in which previously charged defendants Stephen Depiro, who federal officials allege is a soldier in the Genovese organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra (the “Genovese family”), and three Genovese family associates, Albert Cernadas, former president of ILA Local 1235; Nunzio LaGrasso, vice president of ILA Local 1478; and a Richard Dehmer are charged with racketeering conspiracy.
The new indictment accuses current or former ILA supervisors with extortion conspiracy and extortion. LaGrasso and five other men, including Leonardis and Vincent Aulisi, are charged with additional counts of extortion of ILA members. A total of 28 people are listed as extortion victims.
Members of the Genovese family, including Depiro, are charged with conspiring to collect “tribute” payments from New Jersey port workers at Christmastime each year through their corrupt influence over union officials, including the last three presidents of Local 1235.
The timing of the extortions typically coincided with the receipt by certain ILA members of “Container Royalty Fund” checks, a form of year-end compensation, the government said.
Investigators said Edward Aulisi was caught on tape assuring reputed mob boss Michael Coppola that the Christmas tribute money would continue even after Cernadas left, and in fact had doubled. Documents refer to Aulisi as a “Genovese crime family associate.”
The payments were the focus of some attention during a hearing in October 2010 by the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. Edward Aulisi, whom officials say held a no-show job at Port Elizabeth, was called as a witness but invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He had the title of checker, or dockside clerk, at the APM terminal in Elizabeth.
Commission officials showed photographs of him barbecuing and riding a lawn mower while he was scheduled to work. The commission eventually barred him from working on the waterfront for associating with Coppola.
“Those working hard for a living should not have to worry that their bosses and union officers have an allegiance to the Mafia,” said Paul Fishman, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. “It is an unacceptable risk to this region’s security and economy for organized crime to hold sway over New Jersey’s waterfront.”

According to Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, “the Genovese crime family allegedly preyed upon ILA members for years through a pattern of racketeering activity” and coerced dock workers “to make ‘tribute’ payments — up to thousands of dollars each year — to the Genovese crime family at Christmastime.”

http://www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/index.ssf/2011/12/2_hunterdon_men_face_union_tri.html

Reputed Pagan motorcycle club member denied bail in drug case


A reputed member of the Pagans outlaw motorcycle club charged with the illegal distribution of the prescription drug oxycodone was ordered held without bail Wednesday pending trial.
Federal prosecutors argued that Joseph Fareri, 51, of South Philadelphia, was both a danger to the community and a risk of flight if released. He has been held at the Federal Detention Center since his arrest two weeks ago.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Labor cited Fareri's "phenomenal criminal history," including convictions for witness intimidation, voluntary manslaughter, and aggravated assault, in arguing that he should be denied bail.
Labor also referred to a pretrial services report that raised concerns about Fareri's "serious propensity toward violence."
Defense attorney Joseph Capone had asked for some form of monitored house arrest that would allow Fareri to continue to work at a beauty salon/barbershop in South Philadelphia. Fareri, he said, lives in an apartment above the shop.
The shop is owned by the wife of reputed mob leader Anthony Staino, under indictment on racketeering charges.
In denying bail, U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Caracappa said Fareri's criminal record, including a series of arrests in what Capone described as domestic-violence disputes, bolstered the government's claim that he would be a danger to the community.
Fareri, who faces 13 to 15 years in prison if convicted, is accused of being part of a drug operation headed by reputed South Philadelphia mob associate William "Billy" Andrews.
The case, developed by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, includes allegations that Andrews, 51, and Fareri sold more than 7,000 oxycodone pills between March 2009 and April 2011.
The pills were sold for $20 to $30 each, authorities said.
Andrews, who served a 12-year sentence for dealing methamphetamine, began dealing in oxycodone in March 2009, just months after being released from prison and while still on court-ordered supervised release for the meth conviction. Like Fareri, he has been denied bail.
A third defendant, John Marshall, was released this month on $15,000 bail.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20111222_Reputed_Pagan_denied_bail_in_drug_case.html

Wednesday, December 21, 2011