Interview with Legendary Colombo mobster Sonny Franzese

Interview with Legendary Colombo mobster Sonny Franzese

  December 22, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Death penalty on the table for five suspects accused of murdering Bonanno associate

Death penalty on the table for five suspects accused of murdering Bonanno associate

  December 19, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Bushawn "Shelz" Shelton
 
Five men could face the death penalty in a murder-for-hire scheme that led to the assassination of a reputed mobster who was gunned down while waiting for a McDonald’s coffee, authorities said Tuesday.
The men — including ex-cons Bushawn “Shelz” Shelton and Herman “Taliban” Blanco, both 34 — were charged in a superseding indictment that alleges they conspired to pull off the Oct. 4 rubout of Sylvester Zottola, 71.
The reputed Bonnano crime family associate — who was known as “Sally Daz” — was repeatedly shot while waiting in the drive-thru lane of a McDonald’s restaurant in The Bronx.
The hit is believed to have been ordered by Albanian gangsters who wanted to take over an illegal gambling racket involving “Joker Poker” video games that Zottola ran, law-enforcement sources have said.
A cooperating witness who claims that Shelton and Blanco hired him to serve as the hitman has been helping prosecutors build their case, according to previously filed court papers.
Shelton, who was paroled in 2012 after serving a three-year prison term for illegally possessing a handgun, was busted a week after Zottola’s slaying.
Blanco, who was sent to prison in 2009 for burglary and assault in Queens, was picked up on a parole violation and transferred to federal custody last month, records show.
The indictment handed up Thursday also names Herman “Taliban” Blanco, Arthur “Feddi Bossgod” Codner, Himen “Ace” Ross and Kalik McFarlane as co-defendants.
All five could all face the death penalty on two counts, murder-for-hire conspiracy and causing death through use of a firearm, according to the feds.
Codner, 30, of New Hampton, New York, Ross, 32, of The Bronx, and McFarlane, 36, of Brooklyn, were arrested Tuesday morning.

Herman “Taliban” Blanco

They all pleaded not guilty when they were arraigned later in the day and were ordered held without bail, a spokesman for Brooklyn US Attorney Richard Donoghue.
In addition to Zottola’s slaying, Shelton is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm that the feds identified as a .32-caliber Armi Tanfoglio Giuseppe pistol.
He’s also charged with perjury for signing a sworn affidavit about his finances — which defendants use to be assigned court-appointed defense lawyers — in which he claimed to have just $5,500 in cash and bank deposits.
When Shelton was first hauled into court following his arrest, a prosecutor said a search of his Brooklyn home — which he shares with his grandmother — turned up $45,000 in cash and a loaded gun.
His granny told the FBI that “he came into that money very recently, most notably after the murder” of Zottola, prosecutor Lindsey Gerdes added.
Shelton and Blanco are scheduled for arraignment on Wednesday.

https://nypost.com/2018/12/18/suspects-could-face-death-penalty-in-mobsters-murder/

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Philadelphia boss Skinny Joey Merlino is spending the holidays in prison

Philadelphia boss Skinny Joey Merlino is spending the holidays in prison

  December 16, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Bonanno soldier Frankie Boy sentenced to five years in prison

Bonanno soldier Frankie Boy sentenced to five years in prison

  December 15, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Boy, oh boy.

Bonanno family soldier Frank "Frankie Boy" Salerno was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison for collecting mob loansharking and gambling debts.

U.S. District Court Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein imposed the federal jail term on Salerno, who collected the cash on behalf of his co-defendant John "Johnny Boy" Ambrosio — an acting captain in the Gambino family, prosecutors said.

Salerno, 43, of Queens, and Ambrosio were two of seven local Mafiosi busted in a federal sweep that ended with convictions for each and every one.

Ambrosio, 74, of Huntington, L.I., was sentenced last week to 51 months in prison on the same racketeering conspiracy charge as Salerno.

According to prosecutors, Salerno made his collections between 2014-17. A third conspirator, in an conversation with an undercover agent, outed himself and Salerno as organized crime figures.

Salerno “has got that thing,” said Gambino associate Anthony Saladino — pointing to a button on his shirt, indicating Frankie Boy’s Mafia legitimacy.

Saladino, 67, of Glen Cove, L.I., was sentenced to 63 months on the same day as Ambrosio.

The sentences “demonstrate that the shirt button of a ‘made man’ is no match for a badge,” said William Sweeney, FBI assistant director-in-charge of the New York office.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-metro-frankie-boy-imprisoned-20181213-story.html

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Son of underboss of Lucchese family hopes FBI polygraph leads to acquittal

Son of underboss of Lucchese family hopes FBI polygraph leads to acquittal

  December 09, 2018    Dapper_Don

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There’s one FBI agent convinced by Steven D. Crea’s denials of any role in a brutal Bronx mob hit and a second Mafia murder plot.

The son of reputed Luchese family underboss Steven L. Crea passed a polygraph exam administered last month by retired FBI veteran Jeremiah Hanafin, best known recently for conducting an August test on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser, court documents show.

It was the latest bit of good news for Crea, 46, who was released on $1 million bond in August after a White Plains federal judge rebuked prosecutors in a mob trial due to start this coming March.

Reputed Luchese underboss Steven L Crea.

Crea “has always maintained his innocence, and the polygraph was administered at the client’s urging,” said defense attorneys Joseph DiBenedetto and Seth Ginsberg in a statement to the Daily News.

The lawyers additionally hope to leverage the test findings into severing his trial from that of his four co-defendants — including his namesake dad, a mob veteran known on the street as “Wonder Boy.” The defense hopes to keep the sins of the father (and his associates) from tainting the son.

“In a multidefendant trial, the government can throw dirt in the air and hope that some of it sticks to everyone,” said the defense lawyers. “We want to ensure that any case against Mr. Crea is based solely on evidence that pertains directly to him.”

Both Creas were charged in the November 2013 execution of Michael Meldish, 62, one-time co-leader of a homicidal crew dubbed the Purple Gang. Meldish was discovered with a bullet to the head inside a parked Lincoln, its driver’s door left open on a Bronx street.

A federal indictment also accused the pair in a plot to whack Bonanno family associate Carl Ulzheimer, allegedly targeted in 2012 for dissing the elder Crea during a Bronx social club encounter.

“I’ll remember your face,” the father allegedly warned Ulzheimer.

But according to court papers filed last week, the younger Crea’s polygraph responses were “not indicative of deception” to questions about his involvement in either case. Hanafin, during his 24-year FBI career, performed more than 2,500 polygraph exams for the feds.

Steven L. Crea passed a polygraph exam administered last month by retired FBI veteran Jeremiah Hanafin (pictured), best known recently for conducting an August test on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser, Christine Blasey Ford

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney had no comment on the polygraph test.

The Lucheses are best known as the crime family featured in the Martin Scorsese mob classic “Goodfellas,” with infamous informant Henry Hill played by Ray Liotta. But a May 2017 federal indictment accused 19 members of the family’s current incarnation with racketeering, murder, assault, witness intimidation, robbery and extortion.

The younger Crea awaits his court date while out on bail, an unlikely circumstance for an alleged mob racketeer accused in a high-profile hit and a second murder plot.

After 14 months behind bars, the married father of three — who had no prior criminal charges — was released on Aug. 10 and placed under house arrest in his suburban home after the defense argued the evidence against him was lacking.

His 71-year-old father remains locked up in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center pending his court date.

Court documents portray “Stevie Junior” as a man caught up to some degree in his father’s world, much like late Gambino family boss John J. Gotti and his son John A. "Junior" Gotti. Even Crea’s promotion to capo was described as done for “political reasons,” with the son immediately busted back to the rank of soldier.

“There are complex dynamics in these cases, these racketeering cases, involving fathers and sons,” said previous Crea lawyer Mark Fernich. “There’s a different set of expectations in these families. . . . And look, there’s a stigma that comes with that name. It happened with "Junior" Gotti.”

White Plains Federal Judge Cathy Siebel approved the August release agreement after pointedly telling prosecutors their evidence against the mob scion was not as solid as promised.

“It would be an understatement to say that I am disappointed on how this has played out on the government’s part,” she said. “Their case for detention is certainly weaker than I was led to believe.”

Siebel disparaged cooperating government witness Frank Pasqua as “tarnished” and truth-challenged, noting that he had previously blamed the Meldish murder on his own father. And she had previously suggested that prosecutors needed to link Crea to the crimes rather than just to the crime family.

The defendant didn’t rise to the rank of Mafia capo “without understanding what mobsters do,” Siebel said at a January 2018 hearing. “But your status as a mobster is not enough to detain you on grounds of dangerousness.”

Her words were reason for optimism in the younger Crea’s camp.

“In our view, the court’s comments reflect the inescapable conclusion that the government’s case against Mr. Crea is weak,” the two lawyers said.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-metro-wonder-boy-lie-detector-20181208-story.html

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Lucchese soldier is sentenced to 12 years in prison

Lucchese soldier is sentenced to 12 years in prison

  December 06, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Anthony Grado, a member of the Luchese organized crime family, and Lawrence Tranese, an associate of the Colombo organized crime family, were sentenced by United States District Judge Carol B. Amon to 12 years’ and 40 months’ imprisonment respectively for conspiring to distribute oxycodone that they obtained through fraudulent prescriptions. The Court also ordered Grado to pay $70,000 in forfeiture and Tranese $12,000 in forfeiture.
Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and James P. O’Neill, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), announced the sentence.
“Today’s sentence punishes the defendants for ruthlessly endangering our community through their organized crime-backed distribution of highly-addictive opioid drugs,” stated United States Attorney Donoghue.  “This Office, working together with our law enforcement partners, will continue our relentless efforts against those responsible for the opioid epidemic.” Mr. Donoghue thanked the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office for its assistance during this investigation.
“Opioid and prescription drug abuse affects communities and families in New York and across the country. Grado and Tranese’s conspiracy to distribute oxycodone contributed to this nationwide crisis, and even worse, they threatened a doctor with violence in order to coerce him into providing fraudulent prescriptions,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney.  “Today’s sentence should stand as a warning to organized crime families, their associates, and anyone else who would commit similar acts in order to further the scourge of opioid addiction for their own benefit: you will be found out and brought to justice.”
 “Dismantling criminal enterprises, in all their forms, will always be a priority for the NYPD and our law-enforcement partners at the Eastern District and the FBI,” stated NYPD Commissioner O’Neill. “Collectively, we have a very long reach and we will not tire in our mission of fighting crime and keeping people safe – which includes removing from our streets anyone who adds to our nation’s opioid crisis by dealing illegal narcotics.”
Grado and Tranese, together with their coconspirators, gave a Brooklyn-based doctor the names of people for whom the doctor should write prescriptions, and the doctor complied, usually without conducting any physical examinations.  The defendants then filled the prescriptions and sold the pills.  Alternatively, the defendants and their coconspirators used violence and threats of violence to force the doctor to write the prescriptions, or seized the doctor’s prescription pad and Grado completed the prescription.  In one recorded conversation, Grado told the doctor that he would make the doctor write “a thousand scripts a day and [expletive] feed you to the [expletive] lions” if the doctor wrote prescriptions without Grado’s approval.  In the same conversation, Grado told the doctor that if newly ordered prescription pads “go in anybody’s hands” besides Grado’s, “I’ll put a bullet right in your head.”  During the course of the conspiracy, one of Grado’s associates stabbed the doctor in a dispute over the doctor’s prescription pads.
The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section.  Assistant United States Attorneys Mathew S. Miller and Matthew J. Jacobs are in charge of the prosecution.
The Defendants:
ANTHONY GRADO
Age:  54
Monroe Township, New Jersey
LAWRENCE TRANESE (also known as “Fat Larry”)
Age:  55
Brooklyn, New York
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 17-559 (CBA)

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/luchese-crime-family-soldier-sentenced-12-years-and-colombo-crime-family-associate

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Canadian mobster was also the underboss of the Buffalo crime family

Canadian mobster was also the underboss of the Buffalo crime family

  December 06, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Domenico Violi asked the judge for a moment with his family before being sent to prison for serious drug trafficking; he exchanged hugs and kisses with his wife and his 20-year-old daughter and high-fives with his 17-year-old son as supporters who overflowed from the courtroom variously cried and clapped.
The end of Monday’s hearing was about Violi’s family. It started, however, with family of a different sort.
Violi, 52, was caught in an ambitious police probe that, as officials said at the time of his arrest, penetrated organized crime at its highest level and featured a co-operating turncoat mobster becoming a “made member” of a New York Mafia family.
The probe gathered a treasure trove of revelations and allegations in recorded conversations, capturing professed secrets, gossip and internal affairs.
The wiretaps, although untested in court, suggest a re-evaluation of some of what is publicly known about the current state of legendary Mafia families in the U.S., often referred to as La Cosa Nostra.
Violi, for instance, allegedly claimed on wiretap recordings that he had been made the Underboss of the Buffalo Mafia, the second-highest position in American Mafia families. If the claim is true, he would be the only person in Canada to ever be named to one of the top leadership positions in any U.S.-based Mafia clan.
It is shocking for several reasons, not the least of which is that the Buffalo Mafia, although once a powerful cross-border criminal enterprise, has been moribund for years.
The conversations suggest a resurrection as well as open lines of communications between the major American mob families remaining intact despite fierce law enforcement crackdowns that caused disarray.
And, according to the documents, the Mafia’s legendary Commission, the ruling body over all of the main American mob families, may no longer be a completely mothballed, inactive institution.

*****

“Domenic, you know you made history,” Violi said the alleged boss of the Buffalo Mafia family told him in 2017 after Violi was promoted to the position of Underboss, according to a wiretap summary tendered in court.
Violi asked what he meant.
Nobody in Canada has ever held such a high position, Violi said he was told, according to his own recounting caught on an RCMP recording.
It was such a unique situation that the Buffalo boss had consulted “the Commission” about it, the conversation continued. The opinion, he said, was that as long as someone is a member of the Mafia he is entitled to hold leadership positions within that family.

When police arrested Domenico Violi and searched his home, they found an autographed photo of the cast of The Sopranos, the popular Mafia television series. 

Monday’s hearing focused on Violi accepting responsibility for trafficking about 260,000 pills that included PCP, MDMA and methamphetamine; criminal organization charges against him were dropped as part of the deal.
He was arrested a month later, after his alleged promotion.
Violi acknowledged through an agreed statement of facts that he met numerous times with the informant, who was a trusted associate and then official “made” member of the Bonanno Family. He did not, however, adopt the Crown’s allegations of far-reaching Mafia involvement.
The conversations were recorded between 2015 and 2017 and the information could not be independently corroborated. The informant was not named in court.
Outside court, Violi’s lawyer, Dean Paquette, said his client did not accept the Crown’s Mafia allegations.
“We never had an issue about pleading guilty of the drugs. There were other charges on the information that we would have fought,” Paquette said, referring to criminal organization charges.

Police seized an array of phones and encrypted BlackBerry devices from Domenico Violi’s home after he was arrested. 

It was in October 2017, at a meeting in Florida, that Joseph Todaro Jr., the alleged Buffalo boss, told Violi he had hand-picked him, according to wiretap transcripts and summaries entered as exhibits in pre-trial proceedings.
After Violi recounted story to his friend, the New York mobster leaned in and kissed Violi in a traditional show of respect, the Crown’s evidence claimed.
He told Violi it was “in his blood.”
Violi was indeed born in the shadow the Mafia.
He is the eldest son of Paolo Violi, who was the powerful head of the Montreal mob until his shotgun murder in 1978 by the family of rival Vito Rizzuto, who then seized the city’s underworld throne. All of Violi’s uncles on that side of his family were similarly massacred.

Paulo Violi, father of Domenico Violi. He was 46 on Jan. 22, 1978 when he was murdered at a card game that turned out to be a set up.

Violi is also the grandson of the late Giacomo Luppino, who, from his humble home in Hamilton, was a senior mob authority in Canada in the 1960s and 70s. Luppino was said to have hacked off the ear of a rival and carried the leathery flap around with him for years.
It was Luppino who helped forge an alliance between Hamilton’s mobsters and the Mafia of Buffalo, which at the time was a powerful entity.
The Buffalo mob has since fallen on hard times. Old-timers who had run the group for years were dying of old age or retiring with little sign of new blood coming in, including Joe Todaro Sr., who was known by the nickname Lead Pipe Joe and was Joseph Todaro’s father.
The police evidence gathered during the three-year probe claim the organization was being resuscitated as the last reputed boss, Leonard "The Calzone" Falzone, was ailing. He died in 2016.
The reorganization seemed to begin in 2014.
Violi himself said he was inducted into the Buffalo Family as a “made” member in January 2015, according to the documents, and around the same time, Rocco Luppino, Giacomo Luppino’s son, was allegedly named “captain” of the group’s outpost in Canada; a younger Luppino relative was asked if he wished to also be “made.”
Violi said he beat out 30 other guys to become Underboss, the documents claim. All would have to be “made members” of the Buffalo Family to be considered for the post.
The mobsters, the documents allege, were clear that Todaro held the reigns of power within the re-emergent Buffalo organization; the men said that nobody became a member without going through Todaro first. They said a mobster in the area was either under Todaro or they needed to pack their bags and leave.
In keeping with mob tradition, in an attempt to protect the boss, Violi and the informant sometimes made a hand gesture instead of speaking Todaro’s name: they would put their fingers to their mouth as if puffing a cigar or cigarette, the documents allege.
There was debate, according to the informant’s alleged conversations with Violi’s younger brother, Giuseppe "Joe or Joey" Violi, on whether he should be “made” by the Bonanno Family, to which their father belonged, or by Buffalo.
Giuseppe Violi was arrested in the same police operation. In June he pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to import cocaine, trafficking cocaine, and trafficking fentanyl and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Giuseppe-Violi

Todaro, 71, was not charged in the case and does not appear personally in any of the recordings. He could not be reached for comment Monday.
Todaro runs a highly successful pizzeria in Buffalo and, last year, in an article on the demise of the Buffalo Mafia in the Buffalo News, Todaro is quoted saying he works seven days a week at his restaurant, just as his father did.
“I’m not going to comment” on organized crime questions, he said, according to the newspaper, “but if you want a great recipe for cheese and pepperoni, I’ll tell you.”
Maureen Dempsey, a spokeswoman with the FBI’s Buffalo office, said she could not confirm or deny any of the allegations.
The evidence from the RCMP probe suggests the lines of communication between mob families remains robust.
Soon after Violi was allegedly made Underboss, according to the documents, at least three of the families had already been told. Michael "Mikey Nose" Mancuso, the boss of the Bonanno Family knew, the documents say, and the Genovese Family and the Colombo Family also had been told.
The news apparently flowed both ways between New York and Buffalo. After the informant was “made,” a mobster named John “Porky” Zancocchio had allegedly told mobsters in Buffalo, the informant told Violi.
Paquette outlined the contributions Violi made to the community through charity and community service.
“He’s going to pay a price for what he’s done, but that’s not all of who he is and it would be a mistake to make that judgment,” he said outside court.
“There is another side of him that people genuinely find that he’s done good things,” he said noting the large crowd of supporters.
The courtroom could have been filled twice over by his supporters — young and old, men and women, entire families with babies — who waited in the hallway after being refused entry because there were no more seats.
“It says a lot about Domenic’s larger character.”

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/shocking-mob-trial-allegation-hamilton-crime-figure-was-underboss-of-buffalo-mafia

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Judge says Tommy Shots is equally liable for prison ping pong injury

Judge says Tommy Shots is equally liable for prison ping pong injury

  December 03, 2018    Dapper_Don

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A portly Colombo mobster who sued the U.S. government after he broke his own kneecap playing prison ping-pong is equally liable in his own accident, a judge has ruled.
Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli is 50 percent at fault for his August 2013 slip at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn federal court judge Kiyo Matsumoto found Thursday following a bench trial.
The imprisoned mob boss slid in a puddle of water near the prison showers as he chased an errant ping pong ball during an evening game, he testified earlier this year.
But the aged wiseguy’s off-brand Crock slippers couldn’t handle the pooled liquid and he went down on one knee, cracking his own knee cap.
Matsumoto wrote that she found Gioeli equally at fault for his injury — because he played ping-pong at the table twice a week for exercise, and testified the pooled water was always there.
Yet the judge also noted the federal prison had been equally negligent in cleaning up the water and allowing it to repeatedly accumulate, which led to the accident. The area was also poorly lit, she concluded.
Gioeli was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2012 after a jury found him guilty of helping plot mob-related murders. Yet Gioeli still owes the feds $365,000 in restitution as part of his sentence — meaning any money he’s awarded would go toward that debt first.
He’s due back in court in January for the damages portion of his civil case.

https://nypost.com/2018/11/29/judge-rules-mobster-equally-liable-for-prison-ping-pong-injury/?utm_source=facebook_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons

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John Gotti's grandson dodges jail time

John Gotti's grandson dodges jail time

  November 28, 2018    Dapper_Don

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This “Growing Up Gotti” alum appears to have a touch of Teflon.
Carmine Gotti Agnello Jr., grandson of the late Dapper Don, John Gotti, dodged prison time Wednesday by copping a plea deal for operating an illegal scrapyard.
Queens criminal court Judge Gia Morris agreed to reduce charges against the 32-year-old scion of the late Gambino boss, to a misdemeanor in exchange for a $1,000 fine and a forfeiture of $4,605 in ill-gotten gains.
“Do you acknowledge that you…operated a salvage pool that was not registered with the appropriate authorities?” Morris asked.
“Yes,” said Agnello, his hair tied back in a bun.
Outside court, the son of Victoria Gotti said, “No words. I just want to get back to work.”
His lawyer Stephen Mahler says his client is a legitimate businessman who was caught in between licenses.
“His license had expired and he’d already been approved for a new one,” Mahler said, claiming that Agnello simply didn’t want to take the case to trial to prove that.
Agnello’s license lapsed in December 2016 and he was arrested in July 2018.
Agnello applied for a new license in June — but later withdrew the application, according to a DMV investigator.
The mob scion’s dad, who is also named Carmine Agnello, was arrested in 2015 for running a stolen-car scrap-metal scam in Ohio.

https://nypost.com/2018/11/28/john-gottis-grandson-dodges-prison-over-illegal-scrapyard/

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Whitey Bulger's bunkmate is implicated in his murder

Whitey Bulger's bunkmate is implicated in his murder

  November 24, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Felix Wilson was riding a bike the wrong way on East Ferry Street when he was arrested five years ago.
Today, the Buffalo man is the subject of stories in New York Times and Boston Globe.
Wilson, it turns out, was bunkmates with longtime New England crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger when Bulger was killed inside a West Virginia prison last month.
No one will comment on Wilson's involvement, if any, in the murder, except to confirm that he has been segregated from other inmates at Hazelton penitentiary.
"I would be surprised if he had any role in Whitey Bulger's murder," Buffalo defense lawyer Herbert L. Greenman said Tuesday.
Prison authorities are not commenting on Wilson's role, but confirmed three other inmates are also in solitary confinement — Fotios Geas, a former mafia hit man from Massachusetts, Paul J. DeCologero, a New England organized crime figure, and Sean McKinnon, an inmate with no known connection to organized crime.
All four men, including Wilson, were separated from the rest of the prison population shortly after Bulger's murder.
Known for his time as a crime boss in Boston and later as an FBI informant, Bulger was serving two life sentences when he was transferred to Hazelton, a federal prison with a reputation for violence.
Prison officials say he was transferred because of a threat he made against a staff member at his previous prison, Coleman II in Florida.
Bulger's conviction followed 16 years on the run, 12 of them on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and a criminal career that included 11 murders.
In contrast, Wilson was serving time for gun possession and was in the midst of a 30-month prison sentence at Hazelton when he was moved to a new cell with Bulger.
Arrested in August of 2013, Wilson was found in possession of a gun when police stopped him while he was riding his bike on East Ferry Street. He had a previous conviction for attempted robbery and, as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney's office, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a weapon.
When Wilson was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara, he was facing a recommended sentence of 30 to 36 months in prison. Arcara gave him 30 months.
Greenman, a prominent criminal defense attorney, said he came to know Wilson and his mother during Wilson's criminal case and finds it hard to believe he would ever be involved in a murder.
"He's also about to be released from prison," he said of Wilson's scheduled release next year.
Bulger, who died within hours of his arrival at Hazelton, is believed to be at least the third inmate killed this year at Hazelton, a maximum security facility. He was beaten to death with a sock containing a padlock.
Nearly 90 at the time of his death, Bulger was in a wheelchair and suffering from heart problems. Prison authorities said his body was found wrapped in blankets on his bunk during rounds the morning after he arrived in late October.
His murder has raised questions about the wisdom of placing him at a prison with known organized crime figures and a reputation for punishing government informants.
News reports about Wilson's possible involvement in Bulger's killing indicated he was a native of New Hampshire but later made it clear he was resident of Buffalo.

https://buffalonews.com/2018/11/21/buffalo-man-implicated-in-whitey-bulger-murder/

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Undercover FBI agent talks about infiltrating the Philadelphia crime family

Undercover FBI agent talks about infiltrating the Philadelphia crime family

  November 24, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Feds say Gambinos set Mercedes on fire while trying to collect a debt

Feds say Gambinos set Mercedes on fire while trying to collect a debt

  November 18, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Talk about your childish Gambinos.

Three men tied to the notorious “organized” crime family torched a car to intimidate a businessman, but botched the job when one member of the thick-headed trio caught fire and was captured on tape scurrying away, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Peter Tuccio, Jonathan Gurino and Gino Gabrielli chased down the businessman in Dec. 2015 after seeing him leave a Howard Beach smoke shop, eventually confronting him outside a pizza parlor, a newly unsealed indictment revealed.

Tuccio then allegedly asked the man about a Gambino capo he owed money to and made mention of his Mercedes.

Later that night, the man watched his car burn. But his home security camera also captured the blaze.

The footage revealed Gabrielli dousing the Mercedes with liquid, the car bursting into flames and Gabrielli sprinting from the scene with his leg aflame.

The pants-on-fire perp and Tuccio were later captured on surveillance video walking into Jamaica Hospital, according to prosecutors.

Gabrielli pleaded guilty to arson in August 2016. Tuccio and Gurino were indicted Friday.

“Organized crime families have long relied on extortion and threats of violence in exchange for so-called ‘protection,’” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney. “As alleged, the defendants set a man's car on fire to send a message, but now they are the ones feeling the heat.”

Friday’s indictment charges Tuccio and Gurino, both 25, with arson, arson conspiracy, extortion, extortion conspiracy and using fire to commit a felony.

The far-from-dynamic duo were both released on $700,000 bond and placed under house arrest with their parents agreeing to put their houses on the line for their release.

(L to R) Joseph Merlino, Peter Tuccio walk together.

Tuccio, who dutifully attended every day of Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino’s racketeering trial earlier this year, wore all black to the arraignment .

Gurino, his head hung low, wore a grey tracksuit with blue stripes.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Moore said at the hearing that a witness to the fire reported finding a dead rat on her car.

She requested Judge Steven Tiscione remand the two men, contending they’re a flight risk and pose a danger to the community.

Tiscione acknowledged that while it was “certainly a crime of violence,” nobody was physically injured in the fire.

Both Tuccio and Gurino deny the charges. Each faces a 15-year mandatory sentence if convicted.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-metro-gambino-torch-111618-story.html

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Another Bloods gang member busted in murder of Bonanno associate

Another Bloods gang member busted in murder of Bonanno associate

  November 18, 2018    Dapper_Don

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A gangster known as “Taliban” was busted for his role in the October execution of a veteran Mafia associate at a McDonald’s drive-thru — and a botched hit three months earlier on his son, authorities said Friday.

Herman "Taliban" Blanco, 33, of the Bronx, was arraigned Friday afternoon in Brooklyn Federal Court over his role in the Oct. 4 killing of Sylvester "Sally Daz" Zottola and the attempted slaying of Salvatore Zottola — a hit ordered in an effort to “lure out” the father, according to a federal criminal complaint.

The 71-year-old old victim, a longtime organized crime figure in the Bronx, was waiting for a cup of coffee at the fast-food restaurant when he was shot repeatedly by a gunman who fled on foot. Zottola was died at the scene.

Brooklyn gangbanger Bushawn "Shelz" Shelton, 34, was arrested last month for his alleged role in the two Zottola shootings. The complaint against Blanco was filed by an FBI agent assigned to a squad investigating Balkan and Middle Eastern organized crime.

A cooperating federal witness told authorities that Blanco approached him in the spring of this year offering cash for the killing of “John Doe #1,” the six-page complaint recounted.

“Shelton later informed the (witness) … that the purpose of killing John Doe #1 was to lure out Zottola,” the complaint alleged.

Son Salvatore Zottola, 41, though not identified by name in court papers, survived a July 11 murder attempt outside his waterfront home in the Bronx.

Court papers identified the elder Zottola as a Lucchese family associate with ties to now-imprisoned ex-Bonanno family boss Vincent "Vinnie Gorgeous" Basciano.

Authorities said telephone records indicated Blanco and Shelton shared frequent cell phone chats between March and October 2018.

And the cooperating witness in the case actually went with the two suspects to pick up a gun before driving to Salvatore Zottola’s home to lie in wait for the target. The would-be victim never appeared that day, the complaint said.

His father similarly escaped death in multiple threatening incidents over the last year, including a December 2017 attack inside his Bronx apartment where three masked invaders stabbed Sylvester Zottola repeatedly in the neck and chest.

Shelton’s wife Takeisha, in court papers filed Tuesday, sought to quash a subpoena seeking her to testify against her husband.

“As the law … makes clear, Ms. Shelton cannot be compelled to offer evidence against her husband in a criminal proceeding,” wrote her attorney Florian Miedel.

Prosecutors suggested, without identifying another suspect, that they might ask Ms. Shelton to testify against another target of the probe.

Blanco, described by prosecutors as a known Bloods member, is being held without bail.

He is also on parole for an assault and burglary conviction. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Gerdes said Blanco was released from prison last year after serving 12 years.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-metro-mob-hit-second-arrest-20181116-story.html

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Genovese associate prime suspect in murder of Whitey Bulger

Genovese associate prime suspect in murder of Whitey Bulger

  November 01, 2018    Dapper_Don

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An ex-Mafia hitman who’s being eyed as the prime suspect in the fatal beatdown of James “Whitey” Bulger can guarantee his status as a boss behind bars — if he really was behind the infamous Boston gangster’s death.
Fotios “Freddy” Geas is suspected of rubbing out Bulger, 89, on Tuesday morning — hours after the aging mobster was transferred to Hazelton federal penitentiary in West Virginia.
“He’s a rich man now. He’ll run any prison he’s in,” a law enforcement source told MassLive.com.
Geas, 51, is serving a life sentence at Hazelton for the 2003 murders of one-time mob boss Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno and associate Gary Westerman.
The former West Springfield, Massachusetts, resident has not disputed his role in the death of Bulger, according to the Boston Globe.
A law enforcement source said the wheelchair-bound Bulger was “badly beaten” by a group of inmates, including one who used a padlock wrapped in a sock. He was found unresponsive in his cell just after 8 a.m.
As the boss of the lucrative and violent Winter Hill Gang, Bulger cemented his crew’s position as the most powerful in Boston by secretly serving as an informant for the FBI from the mid-1970s through the ‘90s. The deal protected him from prosecution while he gleaned key information about sting operations and rival gangsters.
Geas has an open hatred for “rats” — making Bulger a prime target.
“He has great disdain for informants,” Daniel D. Kelly, a lawyer who represented both Geas and his younger brother Ty Geas in several criminal cases, told MassLive.com. “I’m not saying Freddy did this just because the media says so, I’m just telling you what I know about him.”
“Freddy is a dying breed,” added Kelly, who’s pals with Geas and frequently exchanges emails with him.
Geas has led a life of crime, with a rap sheet dating back to his teens. He and his brother Ty were convicted of killing Bruno, a Genovese capo, “cowboy style” in 2003.
Geas hired the hitman in Bruno’s murder — but shot Westerman twice in the head himself after luring him to a home in Agawam for a purported home invasion.
The Geas brothers served as hitmen for Anthony Arillotta, who became a made man in the Mafia in 2003 but then flipped by becoming an FBI informant after he and the two men were charged in Bruno’s murder.
Arillotta wound up serving 99 months in exchange for his testimony against the brothers and others and has since entered witness protection.
Geas wasn’t swayed one bit by Arillotta’s cooperation, despite knowing he was facing a life sentence, according to Kelly.
“Freddy is a man’s man,” the attorney said. “After Anthony Arillotta flipped, there was a back channel for Freddy to try to persuade him to cooperate too. He didn’t even blink an eye. He didn’t flinch. He just said no.”
The lawyer said he chatted with Geas just a few days before Bulger’s death — but only discussed typical Boston topics.
“The Patriots,” said Kelly. “We talk about sports and weather, like everyone else.”

https://nypost.com/2018/10/31/meet-the-mob-hitman-suspected-of-killing-whitey-bulger/

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Notorious Boston mob boss turned FBI informant Whitey Bulger is murdered in prison

Notorious Boston mob boss turned FBI informant Whitey Bulger is murdered in prison

  October 30, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Notorious Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger was murdered Tuesday inside a West Virginia federal prison, with a Mafia-linked inmate reportedly suspected in the slaying.

The Boston Globe reported the alleged mob hit on Bulger and the detail on the suspect as federal officials confirmed the death of the one-time organized crime kingpin. The 89-year-old Irish-American gangster was only transferred one day earlier to the high-security prison in Hazelton, W. Va.

“At approximately 8:20 a.m., inmate James Bulger was found unresponsive,” read a brief statement from the Bureau of Prisons. “Life-saving measures were initiated immediately by responding staff. Mr. Bulger was subsequently pronounced dead by the Preston County Medical Examiner. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified and an investigation has been initiated.”

No other details were provided surrounding his sudden, shocking and violent demise. Bulger, previously held in Florida, was convicted of 11 murders himself during his bloody reign as crime boss in his hometown of Boston.

Hazelton is home to about 1,300 inmates.

The lingering animosity between Bulger and New England’s Italian organized crime operations stems from his former positions as both head of Boston’s powerful Irish mob, the Winter Hill Gang, and his simultaneous work as informant for a local FBI agent. Most of his tips steered investigators toward the Italians, clearing the way for the blood-thirsty Bulger’s group to grab hold of the city’s illegal operations from gambling to drugs.

The corrupt relationship between the fed and the felon became the movie “Black Mass,” with Johnny Depp — hair slicked back and sunglasses perched on his nose — playing Bulger. The feds, in return for Bulger’s inside information, turned a blind eye to the brutal boss’ criminal activities.

He bolted Boston in 1995 after a warning from Agent John Connolly, who wound up behind bars over his crooked relationship with the gangster.

This file June 23, 2011, booking photo provided by the U.S. Marshals Service shows James "Whitey" Bulger.

Bulger spent 16 years on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after going on the lam, fleeing his hometown as the feds closed in. He was busted in 2011 in California and convicted two years later for an assortment of crimes including the homicides.

Three former Bulger associated turned rat on their old boss, who was convicted of the killings, extortion, and money-laundering on a long-awaited day of reckoning for the relatives of his victims.

His sentence at age 84: Two consecutive life terms — plus five years.

His legend only grew as Bulger evaded arrest after his disappearance, with endless reported sightings around the U.S. and the world. One tipster insisted spying Bulger inside a Boston movie theater in 2006, watching the Martin Scorsese movie “The Departed” — where Jack Nicholson played a mob boss based on the fugitive son of South Boston.

Bulger was behind only 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden for much of his time on the FBI’s list of fugitive criminals.

Bulger became a lingering embarrassment to the feds as he remained on the run, with a $2 million reward posted for information on the globe-trotting gangster. Prior to his arrest, the last confirmed Bulger sighting came in London in 2002.

He was finally busted with his long-time girlfriend Catherine Grieg in their Santa Monica, Calif., apartment — a $1,145-a-month, rent-controlled residence near the beach. Agents searching their home recovered more than $800,000 in cash and more than 30 guns, stuffed inside the walls.

Bulger’s kid brother, William Bulger, followed a different path than Whitey: He became one of the Massachusetts’ most powerful politicians, leading the state Senate for 17 years.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-metro-white-bulger-dead-prison-20181030-story.html

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Another NYC mafia murder in Brooklyn

Another NYC mafia murder in Brooklyn

  October 27, 2018    Dapper_Don

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The killer struck in classic mob style: : one bullet to the head and a second shot as the coup de grace.
An elderly man with ties to organized crime got shot twice in the back of the head in a suspected wiseguy rubout in Brooklyn on Friday afternoon, police sources told The Post.
They said Vincent Zito, 77, died inside his Sheepshead Bay home on Emmons Avenue near Batchelder Street at about 3:15 p.m.
Zito’s grandson, who lives in the house, came home from school and found his grandfather’s body lying face up in the living room with a handgun next to him, according to a handyman who worked for the victim.
Cops said a pistol was recovered at the scene.
Howard Stewart, 43, said he came to the house Saturday morning to paint the grandson’s room — and was shocked when a cop answered the boy’s door.
Zito’s son Joe then broke the news.
“I said, ‘Joe what happened?’” Stewart told The Post. “He started shaking his head. I said, ‘What happened?’ He said he got two shots in the head.”
Police said there was no sign of a forced entry.
Stewart speculated that the killer must have been someone Zito knew.
“Two shots to the head? Man, it’s a setup,” he said. “There was no break-in. It’s someone he knew.”
Though police believe there is a Mafia connection to the hit, it’s unclear with what family Zito might have been affiliated, sources said.
Zito had an older brother, Anthony Zito, 82, who has ties to the Lucchese clan and was jailed in 1971 for extortion, according to a published report.
Zito himself was arrested for loan sharking in the past, it said.
Still, Stewart remembered Zito as a kind-hearted old man known as “Pop” to his family.
“He would give you everything,” Stewart said. “He would give you the shirt off his back. I don’t know why someone would want to hurt him.”
But not everyone shared the admiration.
A neighbor remembered him as a “snake,” who sold him a can of gasoline for $100 while the man was trying to help clear water during Hurricane Sandy. .
“I was so mad at him,” said the neighbor, who asked not to be named. “I was pumping water for all the neighborhood. He sold me gas, $100 [for a gallon].”
The man said Zito was known in the neighborhood as a schemer. “He is not a good guy,” the neighbor said.
Stewart added that he thinks Zito’s home-security system will help cops track down the shooter.
“There are two cameras outside and one inside, so they might see who knocked on the door,” he said. “They might capture something.”
The cameras on the house were visible from the street on Saturday, with one positioned so that it would capture footage of anyone entering or leaving the front of the house.
A second camera was trained on a door at the back of the house.
There’s also an ADT alarm system sticker at the bottom of the front door.

https://nypost.com/2018/10/27/elderly-man-gunned-down-at-home-in-suspected-mob-hit/

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Who will run the Philadelphia crime family now that Skinny Joey Merlino is heading back to jail?

Who will run the Philadelphia crime family now that Skinny Joey Merlino is heading back to jail?

  October 23, 2018    Dapper_Don

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High ranking Bloods gang member arrested for murder of Bonanno associate

High ranking Bloods gang member arrested for murder of Bonanno associate

  October 23, 2018    Dapper_Don

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When investigators found $45,000 in cash inside the Brooklyn apartment of a man they suspected might be linked to last week’s killing of a reputed mobster, the man’s grandmother offered an explanation.

The money had turned up in the last week, she told investigators, and it came from her grandson’s T-shirt business.

Federal prosecutors had a different theory: The man, Bushawn Shelton, 34, was a high-ranking member of the Bloods street gang, and had taken part in a plot to kill Sylvester and Salvatore Zottola, a father and son who were reputed to be associates of the Bonanno crime family.

On Thursday, Mr. Shelton, who is known as “Shelz,” was arrested and charged in United States District Court in Brooklyn with federal conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and brandishing a firearm.

A law enforcement source confirmed Mr. Shelton is suspected in connection with the murder of Sylvester Zottola, 71, who was gunned down outside a Bronx McDonald’s last week, even though he was not specifically charged with that crime. Mr. Zottola’s son, Salvatore, 41, also barely escaped a botched attempt on his life earlier this year.

Prosecutors said the search executed at Mr. Shelton’s home earlier on Thursday not only uncovered the $45,000 in bills but also loaded firearms.

The charges against Mr. Shelton signaled a break for investigators in a frustrating case, though it still left many questions unanswered. For nearly a year, Mr. Zottola and his son had been hunted by shadowy assassins on the streets of the Bronx. It was a pursuit law enforcement officials suspected stemmed from the pair’s well-documented connections to New York’s organized crime families.

A criminal complaint said Mr. Shelton was part of a murder-for-hire plot targeting the Zottolas over a nearly five-month period ending with a botched July 11 assassination attempt against the younger Zottola outside of the family’s compound in the Throgs Neck neighborhood. Neither Zottola is named in the complaint, but a law enforcement official confirmed the anonymous John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 cited in the document refer to them.

Mr. Shelton is accused of paying another man to try to kill the pair and providing him with getaway drivers and firearms to carry out the plot. But the hired hitman was arrested, pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire and agreed to cooperate with federal investigators against Mr. Shelton, the complaint said.

Who initially hired Mr. Shelton, and why they wanted the Zottolas dead, remains a mystery. Court documents make no mention of a motive. Sworn testimony indicates the case was investigated by the F.B.I.’s Balkan and Middle Eastern organized crime squad, bolstering theories that the Zottolas may have somehow crossed an Albanian organized crime group.

For years, the Zottolas fostered close ties to the Luchese and Bonanno crime families, providing and maintaining electronic gambling machines for mob-controlled hubs in New Jersey.

The elder Mr. Zottola had a particularly close relationship with Vincent J. Basciano, who led the Bonanno crime family in the early 2000s before being convicted of racketeering and murder. At the turn of the millennium, Sylvester Zottola allowed Mr. Basciano’s girlfriend, Debra Kalb, to live at his compound in the Bronx, according to court transcripts.

But the elder Mr. Zottola’s ties to organized crime extended beyond the Bonanno family. He had a long history with the Lucheses, according to an investigator who handles Mafia inquiries but was not involved in the murder case, and an F.B.I. report that summarizes the agency’s debriefing of a high-ranking Bonanno crime family figure.

The investigator said Mr. Zottola also had ties to the Genovese crime family: He had grown up with Pasquale Falcetti, a soldier from the Genovese family’s East Harlem crew who was known as “The Clubber.”

Mr. Shelton is expected to appear in court for a detention hearing on Friday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/nyregion/bronx-assassination-mafia-arrest.html

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Philadelphia boss Skinny Joey Merlino sentenced to two years in prison

Philadelphia boss Skinny Joey Merlino sentenced to two years in prison

  October 23, 2018    Dapper_Don

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The reputed head of the Philadelphia mob was slapped with a maximum sentence of two years for illegal gambling Wednesday during a raucous proceeding in which one of his supporters loudly called the judge “a rat bastard.”

Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino pleaded guilty in April to a single count of running an illegal gambling business after a jury deadlocked on more serious racketeering charges.

Judge Richard Sullivan said that after sitting through the trial he had no reservations giving Merlino the maximum sentence.

“I certainly would have given you more than 24 (months), this is not a bad deal,” Sullivan said, crediting Merlino’s attorneys.

But the sentence didn’t go well with one of Merlino’s supporters in the audience, who complained that Sullivan’s lengthy rundown of the accused mobster’s past was “all for show.”

“It’s all bullsh--,” the man said. “Rat bastard.”

Sullivan then spoke to the man directly.

“Do you want to take over? Is there something you want to say?” Sullivan said. “It’s unfortunate people here think they can take over the proceeding.”

The judge then asked his deputy to call the court marshals, but the man left before they arrived. He declined comment while smoking a cigarette outside the courthouse.

Merlino’s attorney, Edwin Jacobs, had argued that Merlino was roped into an alleged racket involving pain cream by a gangland snitch, John "Junior" Rubeo.

During the proceeding, Sullivan said the trial had showed that Merlino was “a player” — but had not shown that he was the head of the Philly mob.

As Merlino left the courthouse smoking a cigarette, another of his supporters called reporters “vultures” and told them to “get a real job.”

Prosecutors had alleged Merlino returned to his life of crime after he finished a prison sentence in 2011 for racketeering and moved to Boca Raton, Fla.

Merlino, meanwhile, said he agreed with the commander-in-chief’s attitude about cooperating witnesses.

“President Trump was right. They need to outlaw the flippers,” Merlino said with a chuckle.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-metro-skinny-joey-sentencing-20181017-story.html

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Bonanno gangster fatally shot at Bronx McDonald's drive thru

Bonanno gangster fatally shot at Bronx McDonald's drive thru

  October 04, 2018    Dapper_Don

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A reputed mobster — whose son was injured during an attempted hit job three months ago — was blasted to death at a McDonald’s drive thru in the Bronx on Thursday, sources said.
Sylvester Zottola, 71, a Bonanno crime family associate, was shot in the head and chest and shoulder while sitting in his car outside the fast food restaurant at Webster Avenue and Belmont Street at around 4:45 p.m., according to law enforcement sources.

Sylvester had been roughed up three times in the past year. His son, 41-year-old Salvatore Zottola, was injured when a gunman opened fire on him outside his Bronx home on July 11.
The July shooting was captured on surveillance video, but the younger Zottola did not cooperate with authorities and no arrests were made, sources said.
Investigators believe the attack on Salvatore was intended to be a message to his father, who received his own share of attempted assaults.
In September 2017, the elder Zottola was walking near his Bronx home when an assailant clubbed him over the head, sources said.
Two months later, a gun-wielding thug tried unsuccessfully to force Sylvester Zottola into a car at Meagher Avenue and the Throgs Neck Expressway, sources added.
The most vicious run-in came on a late December night when Sylvester Zottola walked in on three burglars ransacking his home.
One burglar pulled a knife and stabbed Zottola in the neck, putting him in critical condition in Jacobi Medical Center.
No arrests had been made Thursday evening in Zottola’s slaying.

https://nypost.com/2018/10/04/reputed-mobster-gunned-down-at-mcdonalds-drive-thru/

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The Five Families of today are keeping quiet

The Five Families of today are keeping quiet

  September 30, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Meet the new mob — same as the old mob.
Thirty-three years after John Gotti carried out his audacious hit on crime boss Paul Castellano, which flouted Mafia rules and brought a wave of devastating prosecutions under the Dapper Don’s brash reign, New York’s five crime families have reverted to their old-guard ways.
They’re keeping quiet.
No more press conferences or TV appearances. No more weekly meetings with capos at favorite restaurants or social clubs. No more shootouts between warring factions. No more wire rooms for taking wagers.
Instead, gangsters try to keep their heads down and earn as they’ve done for decades, with drug dealing, loan-sharking, running strip clubs and protection rackets and skimming from union construction jobs, cops and prosecutors say. Bookmaking is still a lively trade, but most of it is done online using offshore accounts, not at smoke-filled gambling dens.
Crimefighters say the new old way is aimed at avoiding police scrutiny and preventing turncoats from selling out their fellow wiseguys.
“Everybody’s a rat,” said an ex-NYPD detective who continues to track mob business. “You can’t trust anybody anymore.”
Lieutenants and soldiers avoid gathering in groups so as to be less vulnerable to the wiretap or surveillance photo. And with suspicion permeating all activity, families have turned to veteran, low-profile leaders, including geezer gangsters Carmine Persico, 85, and John “Sonny” Franzese, 101, who hated Gotti’s gabby flamboyance. All these years later, those two are calling the shots for the Colombos, albeit from jail in Persico’s case. (Franzese got sprung last year.)
This more careful approach to La Cosa Nostra — this thing of ours — has the Mafia looking to bounce back.
There’s no clearer sign of the times than the leadership change in the Gambino family, which was once dominated by John Gotti’s outsized exuberance. The late Gotti’s jailed brother Peter remained in charge till 2015, but they have a new boss in Frank Cali, who according to one law-enforcement source is the exact opposite of the Teflon Don because “no one ever sees him.”
Cali, 53, who lives in Staten Island and has deep ties to Sicilian wiseguys, infused the family with “zips” — hoodlums from the old country — and bulked up its heroin and OxyContin business. But he avoids regular sitdowns with his capos, a tradition John Gotti embraced, preferring to communicate less frequently with a select few of his top people.
Even the recently released Gene Gotti, John’s 71-year-old brother, who spent 29 years in jail for heroin dealing after the feds caught him blabbing on tape, may have trouble challenging Cali’s rule. “He is everything over there,” said a gangster in Italy who was recorded raving about Cali’s standing in New York, the feds said.
He’s also kept his nose relatively clean. Cali has just one criminal conviction: a federal extortion charge in 2008 involving an attempt to shake down a trucker working at a proposed NASCAR race track in Staten Island. Though hit with 80 counts that also netted 62 other alleged hoods and associates, Cali did just 16 months in prison.
“The Gambinos are running smoothly — gambling, pills, construction unions, etcetera,” one law-enforcement official told The Post. “The last thing they want is someone to put them back in the papers and on TV.”
Secrecy is key to the success of the Genoveses, the biggest and most powerful of New York’s five families.
They engage in the same activities as others — loan-sharking, extortion — but it’s common for their soldiers to not even know the full names of the bosses they work for or other criminal associates, experts say.
Being extra careful, however, isn’t always enough.
In January, the feds busted Joseph “Joe C” Cammarano Jr., the boss of the ultra-cautious Bonanno family, on charges of murder conspiracy, extortion, drug dealing and loan-sharking. The 58-year-old godfather, a Navy vet whose underboss dad died in jail, had taken the reins of the operation three years ago, vowing to revive the organization.
He and his crew of cronies, including Pete Rose’s former bookie, constantly fretted over rats in their ranks, prosecutors said, following a tide of turncoat testimony over the years, starting with FBI mole Joe Pistone, aka “Donnie Brasco,” and ultimately including boss Joseph Massino.
The Luccheses also got hit last May, when current boss Steven “Wonder Boy” Crea got busted on racketeering and murder charges, along with 17 other family members or associates, including Crea’s son, Steven Crea Jr.
Despite those takedowns, there’s still plenty of money to be made among the bent-nose set. Strict regulations that went into effect following the mortgage meltdown provided a nice boost to the business of street loans — fast cash at an exorbitant rate.
“Things are tight with banks these days, so if you’re running a business and need a loan, you might be willing to pay the 3 percent weekly vig,” said the former NYPD detective, referring to the usurious interest that mob lenders charge.
Gambling continues to rake it in.
“The Internet is an important tool for the business and a lot of them use it for Internet gambling,” mob author Selwyn Raab told Rolling Stone.
“And why not? People aren’t going to bookies the way they used to. They couldn’t compete by just having some old-fashioned bookmaking with some guy with a telephone … It’s big, it’s a lot of money.
And if you’re putting up a Manhattan skyscraper, chances are some of your construction budget finds its way into mobsters’ pockets.
That’s because Mafia honchos retain influence in the trade unions, which allows them to finagle deals in which builders pay union rates for jobs that then go to non-union workers, who are willing to take less. Wiseguys pocket the difference. They also tack on extras to every bag of concrete purchased for the project.
It helps that law-enforcement’s top priority is terrorism, not the Mafia. Following 9/11, the combined organized-crime fighting forces of the FBI and NYPD in New York went from 300 or 400 agents, down to 20 or 30, according to Raab. “When you don’t have the personnel, you’re not going to have the indictments or convictions,” he said.
Even so, old-time wiseguys lament that much of the culture of La Cosa Nostra sleeps with the fishes.
There’s very little communication among the five families, for example. Previously, when an associate or aspiring gangster was proposed for official membership, all the families had to give their OK. “Now they’re not passing the lists around to each other,” said one source. “The Colombos just made about half a dozen guys but they didn’t tell the other families.”
Many of those coming into the life aren’t of the same sturdy stuff as during the Mafia’s heyday, insiders say.
“They had to lower their standards when making people,” said another law-enforcement source, noting that fewer people are joining the mob — and many are leaving it.
They’ve also disappeared from neighborhoods that loved their lore.
“Little Italy, where you used to have all the social clubs, is nothing more than a collection of restaurants,” said Raab. “Same thing in Bensonhurst [Brooklyn]. They no longer live there and don’t have to operate there.”
And there’s less violence. If a lesson can be learned from Gotti’s bloody run or the ruinous Colombo internal war of the 1980s, it’s that murder is bad for business. Nor is there much threat of retribution, should one get caught and turn state’s evidence against former associates.
Gene Gotti went down in part because of the cooperation of Lewis Kasman, John’s former trusted aide, who sat for an interview with this reporter in Florida in 2012. Kasman feared for his life but was not in witness protection.
The same goes for Chris Paciello, a close associate of the Bonannos and Gambinos, who was responsible for putting away 70 top wiseguys, including Bonanno boss Massino, according to his lawyer, Ben Brafman. Paciello, who’s dated Madonna and Sofia Vergara, is hardly in hiding. He runs a nightclub in Miami’s South Beach.
And the most infamous mob rat of all, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the homicidal underboss whose testimony put former best friend John Gotti in jail, is alive and well. And free as a bird.
Even with all the changes in the Mafia, some things remain the same.
“They’re still part of the fabric of New York City,” said a law-enforcement source. “They’re never going to go away.”

https://nypost.com/2018/09/29/the-new-mafia-is-wising-up-and-keeping-quiet/

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Anniversary of Philadelphia mob war

Anniversary of Philadelphia mob war

  September 29, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Lucchese soldier cops plea deal for tracking down and trying to to kill government cooperator

Lucchese soldier cops plea deal for tracking down and trying to to kill government cooperator

  September 25, 2018    Dapper_Don

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The mob’s Mr. Magoo took a page from “The Sopranos’’ to try to exterminate a rat — but he botched the job.
Joseph “Joey Glasses’’ Datello — whose eyesight is so poor he couldn’t read a special large-type statement without the help of his lawyer in White Plains federal court Monday — copped to the crime as part of a plea deal.
Datello was caught on wiretaps discussing his vendetta against former business associate Sean Richard, prosecutors said.
The Lucchese soldier, 67, was stewing because Richard left him holding the bag on a $200,000 debt to the mob that the pair had racked up. Richard also turned state’s evidence against Datello and his fellow goodfellas, the feds said.
The Staten Island wiseguy was worried about getting “clipped’’ over the debt, prosecutors said.
Then Datello learned Richard was living in New Hampshire, so he headed north in 2016 and “lay in wait’’ to kill him, prosecutors said.
The move echoed mob boss Tony Soprano in the HBO series, when he hunts down Mafioso-turned-FBI informant Fabian Petrulio and strangles him in Maine.
But Datello failed to kill Richard. He was charged with the planned hit last year.
He is expected to get 14 to 17 and a half years as part of the deal.

https://nypost.com/2018/09/24/mobster-takes-plea-deal-for-failed-hit-on-ex-business-associate/

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Gambinos brace for Gotti to rejoin the crime family after prison release

Gambinos brace for Gotti to rejoin the crime family after prison release

  September 17, 2018    Dapper_Don

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“Dapper Don” John Gotti’s younger brother, Gene, is back on the streets after serving 29 years in prison for dealing heroin — and the mob is bracing for what it will mean to their rackets, The Post has learned.

An exclusive Post photo shows Gene Gotti, 71, outside his family home in Valley Stream, Long Island, following his release on parole from a federal lockup in Louisiana last week.

The picture shows the stark change in appearance he underwent during nearly three decades behind bars.

Although Gene went away sporting dark hair, the geriatric gangster is now nearly bald — and what little hair he has left is snowy white.

The Gambino organized crime family once run by his late brother — who died in prison in 2002 — is now headed by Domenico Cefalu, with Frank Cali as its “street boss,” law enforcement sources say.

But as a made man who was a mob captain when he headed off to the slammer, Gotti is entitled to a role in the Gambino family — which has his cronies worried about the scrutiny that could bring, sources said.

“The Gambinos are running smoothly — gambling, pills, construction unions, etc.,” one law enforcement official said.

Gene Gotti leaves his home in Valley Stream, LI.

“The last thing they want is someone to put them back in papers and on TV.”

John Gotti’s penchant for publicity “set them back 30 years,” the source added.

“They don’t want no flashy leaders, no weekly social-club meetings,” the source said.

It’s unclear whether Gotti — who allegedly oversaw a lucrative loan-sharking operation while behind bars — will demand that he resume his role as a “capo” or even insist on a higher rank.

“Everyone hopes he will be low-key and just make a living, but that is very un-Gotti-like,” one source said.

Gene Gotti was infamously caught blabbing over telephones tapped by the FBI, which recorded him describing his older brother as a ”powerhouse captain” about three years before John allegedly took over the Gambinos by ordering the 1985 assassination of boss Paul “Big Paul” Castellano outside Sparks Steak House in Manhattan.

No one answered the door Sunday at Gotti’s home, which is owned by his wife, Rosalie.

A sign on the front door says “Nana and Papa’s Nest — where the flock gathers.” A white Mercedes-Benz sedan was parked in the driveway.

https://nypost.com/2018/09/17/gene-gottis-release-from-prison-has-mob-on-edge/

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Lucchese associate pleads guilty to attempted murder

Lucchese associate pleads guilty to attempted murder

  September 15, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that VINCENT BRUNO pled guilty today before United States Magistrate Judge Paul E. Davison to attempting to kill, and conspiring to kill, a Bronx man in 2012.  In May 2017, BRUNO and 18 other members and associates of the Luchese Family of La Cosa Nostra were arrested and charged in a nine-count Indictment, for their involvement in offenses including racketeering, murder, attempted murder, narcotics trafficking, and gun crimes.  Since the unsealing of the Indictment, BRUNO and nine other defendants have pled guilty, and have been or will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “Bruno’s attempt to murder a man at the behest of his mob superiors has ended where it should:  With Bruno behind bars.  We will continue to work with the FBI and our other partners in law enforcement to stamp out the remnants of La Cosa Nostra.”
According to the superseding information to which BRUNO pled guilty, his statements when pleading guilty, the allegations in the Indictment, and statements made in related court filings and proceedings:
In 2012, armed members and associates of the Bonanno Family of La Cosa Nostra forced their way into a Bronx social club controlled by the Luchese Family.  During the ensuing confrontation, one of the Bonanno Family associates (the “Associate”) acted in a manner that a leader of the Luchese Family, Steven L. Crea (“Crea Sr.”), perceived as a personal affront. To avenge this supposed offense, Crea Sr. ordered his son, Steven D. Crea (“Crea Jr.”), to have the Associate killed.  Crea Jr. passed the order to Paul Cassano Jr., a/k/a “Paulie Roast Beef,” and BRUNO.  On a subsequent night, BRUNO and Cassano travelled to the Associate’s Bronx residence.  There BRUNO, armed with a gun, tried to find the Associate in order to kill him, but failed.  The dispute between the rival families was then resolved before the murder was carried out.
In conjunction with this incident, Cassano pled guilty to attempted assault in aid of racketeering in 2017.   Crea Sr. and Crea Jr. are also charged with attempting to have the Associate killed and other crimes, and are scheduled to begin trial before Judge Seibel in 2019.

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BRUNO, 34, pled guilty to one count of attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and one count of conspiracy against the United States.  In total, the counts to which BRUNO pled guilty carry a maximum sentence of 15 years.  BRUNO will be sentenced before Judge Seibel.
The allegations contained in the Indictment as to Crea Sr., Crea Jr., and the other defendants who have not pled guilty are merely accusations, and these defendants are presumed unless and until proven guilty.
Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI’s Joint Organized Crime Task Force, which comprises agents and detectives of the FBI, NYPD, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.  He also thanked the Queens County District Attorney’s Office.
The case is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division.  Assistant United States Attorneys Scott Hartman, Hagan Scotten, and Jacqueline Kelly are in charge of the prosecution.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/organized-crime-associate-pleads-guilty-attempted-murder

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Former New England boss turned rat sentenced to life in prison for 1993 murder

Former New England boss turned rat sentenced to life in prison for 1993 murder

  September 13, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Former New England Mafia boss Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme was unrepentant Thursday as he was sentenced to life in prison for the 1993 killing of a nightclub owner, declaring that the "real story" will come out one day.
Salemme, the 85-year-old onetime head of the New England family of La Cosa Nostra, looked down at the table in front of him and read a document while the children of the man he's convicted of killing described the pain of losing their father and not knowing his whereabouts for more than two decades.
"While there is closure in this case, for me the healing is just beginning," Steven DiSarro's daughter, Colby, told the court. "This is not a movie. This is and has been our life: the story of a family who was robbed of the love and affection of their father."
Salemme and his co-defendant, Paul Weadick, were found guilty in June in the slaying of DiSarro, whose remains were discovered in 2016. Weadick also received a mandatory life sentence on Thursday.
Before being sentenced, Salemme rose from his chair, called the proceeding "ridiculous" and said DiSarro's family hasn't been told the truth.
"The real story about what happened here has not been out yet," said Salemme, who wore his gray hair slicked back and a bright orange jumpsuit. "But it will come out. It will come out in time," he said.
Longtime federal prosecutor Fred Wyshak at one point choked back tears as he spoke about the crimes of the mobster, after whom Wyshak has been going since the 1990s.
"This man is ruthless, barbaric and he is an individual who richly deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison," Wyshak said.
Salemme's trial transported jurors back to a time when the Mafia was a feared and powerful force in Boston and its environs. With slicked-back grey hair and a frail frame, Salemme is almost unrecognizable from the bulky mob boss depicted in grainy surveillance photos from his heyday.
Another former mobster told authorities that he saw Salemme's son strangle DiSarro while Weadick held the nightclub owner's feet and Salemme stood by. Salemme's son, known as "Frankie boy," died in 1995.
Authorities at the time were looking into Salemme's involvement in DiSarro's nightclub, the Channel. Federal authorities had told DiSarro he was about to be indicted and should give them information on Salemme.
Salemme and Weadick's lawyers said the other mobster, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, was lying to take Salemme down and help himself. Flemmi, who was notorious gangster James "Whitey" Bulger's partner and once good friends with Salemme, is serving a life sentence for killing 10 people.
Salemme and Weadick insisted they had nothing to do with DiSarro's killing.
Salemme, who has admitted to a slew of other killings, was living in Atlanta under the name Richard Parker in 2016 when the FBI received a tip the remains were buried near a mill building in Providence, Rhode Island. Salemme's lawyer questioned why he would admit to those slayings but never fess up to ordering DiSarro's death.
Salemme decided to cooperate with the government after learning that Bulger and Flemmi had been informing the FBI behind his back. In exchange, the government cut his sentence for a 1999 racketeering conviction and he entered the witness protection program.
He was kicked out of witness protection in 2004 when he was charged with lying to investigators for suggesting another mobster killed DiSarro, but was later allowed back under government protection.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/09/13/ex-mafia-boss-cadillac-frank-sentenced-to-life-in-prison.html

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