Bonanno captain nicknamed Porky complains that prison food is killing him

Bonanno captain nicknamed Porky complains that prison food is killing him

  July 30, 2018    Dapper_Don

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An accused wiseguy known as “Porky,” who got tossed in jail because he couldn’t lay off the lasagna, now says prison food is killing him.
Reputed Bonanno crime family captain John “Porky” Zancocchio — who gained a measure of notoriety as gambling-addicted baseball legend Pete Rose’s bookie — says he’s being offered nothing but empty carbs in jail and he wants out.
The 60-year-old says his already fragile health has been on the decline since he was tossed into Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in February, due in part to “inadequate dietary supplementation.”
“The dietary regimen at the MCC, which consists nearly entirely of sugar and carbohydrates, dangerously exasperates his condition,” lawyer John Meringolo said in a letter to the judge.
The alleged bookmaker and loanshark, a cancer survivor with “chronic diabetes,” has been suffering from numbness in his leg and prison medical staff have detected a spot on his lung, which it then failed to follow up on, his lawyer said.
Zancocchio wants to be released to home detention or transferred to a medical facility in Devens, Mass., Meringolo told the judge.
Manhattan federal court Judge Alvin Hellerstein is expected to consider the request at a bail hearing Monday.
Zancocchio was tossed into federal custody in February — one month after he was arrested on racketeering charges — after his appetite got the best of him.
The feds claimed Zancocchio violated his $1 million bail package while on furlough for an aunt’s funeral in Staten Island, where he was caught spending hours at Bella Mama Rose, a Staten Island restaurant “that he owns along with Frank Camuso, a captain in the Gambino Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra.”
Following the burial the next day, he went to another Staten Island eatery instead of going home and then “stopped inside a bakery to greet people,” the feds said.
Zancocchio, who built a multi-million bookmaking business while married to his former boss’s daughter Lana Graziano Zanococchio, was busted in an FBI roundup in January that nabbed nine other accused mobsters.
He has been charged with racketeering and extortion conspiracy and faces up to 40 years if convicted.

https://nypost.com/2018/07/30/fat-mobster-known-as-porky-says-prison-food-is-killing-him/

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Two men charged for attempting to use street justice to solve robbery

Two men charged for attempting to use street justice to solve robbery

  July 29, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Two men who investigators have said had ties to organized crime figures, were arrested Thursday in a case that they attempted to use street justice to solve a robbery.

Frank Zammiello, 72, of Cranston, and Richard Dion, 52, of Johnston, were arraigned at Kent County District Court on three misdemeanor counts of simple assault, disorderly conduct and conspiracy.

They pleaded not guilty.

The case stems from a February 2017 break-in at Zammiello's sprawling Cranston home. According to court documents, "numerous" items were stolen from Zammiello "including jewelry, watches, and a gold bar," all valued at about $500,000.

According to a state police affidavit, the following December Zammiello, Dion and two men - identified as Tyrus Pugh and Kemphis Bason - approached Daniel Branca at a R.I. Department of Transportation facility in Warwick, where Branca works.

According an affidavit by Det. Mark McGehearty, the men believed Branca took part in the robbery at Zammiello's home or knew something about it.

Branca told police the men approached him as he was locking up the RIDOT facility, and told him “you’re coming with us," attempting to grab him. At one point, Branca said his shirt was pulled over his head and he was pushed to the ground.

"Daniel Branca stated that it felt like all four males were on top of him and they continued to grab him and tried to pick him up," McGehearty wrote. "Furthermore, he stated that it felt like they were trying to kidnap him."

Branca said he screamed and other RIDOT workers came to his aid. He told detectives he feared the men were going to kill him.

The incident was captured on RIDOT surveillance video that the state police obtained, according to court documents.

Zammiello's attorney John Cicilline said his client was trying to question people about the missing items, but there was never an assault.

"Mr. Zammiello was the victim of a home invasion in which he lost a lot of personal belongings sentimental in value," Cicilline said. "Mr. Zammiello has been cooperative with law enforcement spoke with them."

"It is our hope at the end of the day justice will prevail and we look forward to our day in court," he added.

Ciclline said Zammielllo has not recovered the stolen items and no one has been arrested for the house break.

Zammiello is a developer and businessman who owns Northstar Aviation in Warwick, a private jet concierge service. He has also been tied to organized crime figures in the past. In the 2011 federal extortion case against former mob boss Luigi "Baby Shack" Manocchio, federal prosecutors described the longtime mobster as a close friend of Zammiello's. During a bail hearing in the 2011 case, prosecutors argued Manocchio was a flight risk because he could hop on a private jet owned by Zammiello to flee the country.

Zammiello also helped bail out then-mob boss Raymond "Junior" Patriarca for a 1986 arrest.

Dion is a former Providence police officer - who served less than a year on the job - and has been identified as an associate of mob capo regime Edward "Eddie" Lato. Dion pleaded guilty in a 1998 extortion case where he was identified as a "collector" for Lato and was sentenced to more than five years in prison.

At of late afternoon Thursday state police said Pugh and Bason had not been arrested.

Zamiello and Dion were released on $3,000 personal recognizance and will be back in court next month.

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/businessman-former-providence-officer-with-mob-ties-accused-of-attempted-street-justice/1326180174

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Judge tells Genovese mobster he is no Michael Corleone during sentencing

Judge tells Genovese mobster he is no Michael Corleone during sentencing

  July 23, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Michael Corleone? Fugheddaboutit!
A Manhattan federal judge quoted from “The Godfather: Part III” in court Thursday while balking at a reputed Genovese crime-family capo’s assertion that he only returned to “the life’’ because he couldn’t make ends meet on Social Security.
“This does not suggest, like Al Pacino in ‘The Godfather,’ ‘Just when I thought I was out … they pull me back in,’ ” Judge Richard Sullivan said, quoting one of the flick’s famous lines uttered by Pacino as mob boss Corleone.
The lawyer for convicted loanshark Eugene “Rooster’’ O’Nofrio had been arguing that his client, 76, was financially struggling when he was offered an opportunity to make some illicit dough by government cooperator John “Junior” Rubeo.
“He only got back in because Rubeo offered him a last chance,” O’Nofrio’s lawyer, Thomas Nooter, told the judge.
But Sullivan wasn’t buying it, citing evidence presented by the feds that O’Nofrio was widely considered an “acting” capo of the mob family who ran crews from Manhattan’s Mulberry Street and Springfield, Mass.
“You know … Springfield was given to me,” O’Nofrio said in one taped call.
In another call, O’Nofrio discussed how to intimidate a guy who owed him money on a $30,000 loan.
“What do I got to do with him?” O’Nofrio said. “Do you have to take his eyes out?”
Nooter insisted to the judge, “My client was playing a role. It was like he was living in the glory days when there was an active Geneovese crime family.”
But after quoting from “The Godfather,’’ Sullivan said, “This suggests Mr. O’Nofrio was in.”
Sullivan sentenced O’Nofrio to two years and six months in prison for loansharking and selling contraband cigarettes.
“I’m truly sorry, and you won’t see me again,” O’Nofrio told the judge before he was sentenced.

https://nypost.com/2018/07/19/judge-trolls-mobster-in-court-youre-no-michael-corleone/

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John Gotti's grandson is busted for running illegal scrap yard in Queens

John Gotti's grandson is busted for running illegal scrap yard in Queens

  July 23, 2018    Dapper_Don

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One of John Gotti’s grandsons has been busted, accused of running an illegal auto scrapyard in Queens, the Daily News has learned.

Carmine Gotti Agnello Jr., 32, was released without bail Wednesday night after he was arraigned on vehicle-dismantling and falsifying business records charges.

Agnello’s business, LSM Auto Parts & Recycling, on Liberty Ave., in Richmond Hill, did not have a license to crush cars, authorities said.

A records check in May revealed that the shop crushed about 400 vehicles between Feb. 14 and April 5, according to court documents

The state Department of Motor Vehicles later said LSM doesn’t have a license to crush cars — nor is it registered as a vehicle repair shop.

Agnello tried to register the business in early June, then withdrew his application, the documents said.

Victoria Gotti, Frank Gotti Agnello, John Gotti Agnello and Carmine Gotti Agnello Jr. attend Frank Gotti's 21st birthday celebration in New York in 2011.

When he was arrested Wednesday Agnello “admitted knowing that the business was unregistered and that his tow trucks bring in most of the cars which get scrapped,” the documents said.

A law enforcement source said the business has been unregistered since Sept. 2016.

The source also said that the arrest was not part of a larger investigation and that it was triggered when the NYPD first realized the business wasn’t legit.

Agnello’s father, Carmine "The Bull" Agnello Sr., served seven years in federal prison for racketeering and tax evasion — and forfeited $10 million to the government after he was accused of dominating the scrap metal industry in Willets Point by using arson, extortion and threats to intimidate his competitors.

Carmine Sr. married Victoria Gotti, one of the Dapper Don’s two daughters. The couple divorced in 2002 and he moved to Cleveland, where in 2015 he was arrested and accused of stealing cars and illegally using dirt to weigh them down before selling them for scrap.

Last year, he pleaded guilty to gun possession in that case and agreed to pay a $180,000 fine, but avoided jail time.

Carmine Jr. and his two brothers starred more than a decade ago in the reality show, “Growing up Gotti.”

He didn’t respond to a request for comment. His lawyer, Scott Leemon, also had nothing to say.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-metro-gotti-grandson-queens-scrap-metal-20180719-story.html

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Family files $10M lawsuit against two turncoat Colombo mobsters for decades old murder

Family files $10M lawsuit against two turncoat Colombo mobsters for decades old murder

  July 14, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Maybe time heals all wounds — but for a Brooklyn family suing over a decades-old murder, the wound is still deep and raw.

It was 24 years ago this past week when Carmine Gargano Jr. walked out of his parents’ Bay Ridge home.

“Mommy, I’ll be right back,” he said.

It was the last time his mother, Rosa, would ever hear or see son.

A malicious mobster shot the 21-year-old man twice that day at a McDonald Ave. chop shop, and took a sledgehammer to his 6-foot-2, 230-pound frame. Joseph "Joey Caves" Competiello was acting on orders from Dino "Big Dino" Calabro to “take care of it,” Brooklyn federal prosecutors said.

Someone’s beloved son was just someone else’s dirty job.

And then the Colombo crime family bigs became cooperators. Competiello received a 12-year sentence in 2014 for his turncoat talents and Calabro received an 11-year term in 2017. They dodged the possibility of lifetime sentences for a multitude of admitted sins, and just like that, Gargano’s murder went away.

Competiello’s racketeering conspiracy plea counted the savage killing as one of his underlying crimes. Calabro was not charged with Gargano’s murder, but one of the underlying crimes in his racketeering conspiracy plea was being an accessory after the fact in connection to Gargano.

The Garganos say justice was not served. Rosa, 66, and Carmine Sr., 73, are now suing Calabro and Competiello in a $10 million wrongful death case.

“I’ll never let it go,” Rosa Gargano told the Daily News during a tearful interview. “Those guys changed my life and my family forever.”

The retired Navy custodian opted to sue because she “wants them to pay and that they suffer as much as possible.”

Everyone in the surviving family is pitching in with the Brooklyn Supreme Court case against the pair, and their help is sorely needed. Years ago, the wiseguy duo testified they were in witness protection, but it’s not clear where they are now. No lawyers wanted the Garganos’ civil case for fear of the Mafia, they said.

The December 2017 case is actually a second effort from the Garganos, after a judge said an initial 2015 wrongful death suit against the pair had technical defects.

Before they knew who was linked to crime, the Garganos knew to be worried when Carmine didn’t return soon that day. They traveled to Long Island, Staten Island and downtown Brooklyn looking for Carmine and his white van.

Gargano was a Pace University student eyeing an accounting career. But prosecutors said the young man was also helping to operate a chop shop with Competiello.

Rosa Gargano said her son didn’t really hang with Competiello and his circle, but only knew them briefly through a cousin she disliked and didn’t trust.

Shortly before he died, Gargano made the mistake of complaining to Competiello about getting his full share of the proceeds, according to prosecution court papers.

Joseph Competiello is walked by the FBI from Federal Plaza on June 4, 2008.

Competiello initially buried Gargano at the garage.

In that first, frantic search, Gargano’s brother, Michael, went to the McDonald Ave. spot.

“I probably walked by his body and didn’t know that,” he said.

Prosecutors said that at some point, Competiello, Calabro and others moved the body to a wooded spot in Farmingdale, Long Island.

Gargano’s corpse was never found, though investigators with Competiello’s cooperation found strands of his hair at the chop shop in 2008.

At Calabro’s sentencing, the eight-time killer said he knew “the words just don't exist to heal the wounds I have inflicted.”

“He doesn’t feel sorry. He got away with it.” Gargano’s brother, Jerry, 44, said.

“Look at their sentence,” fumed Gargano’s 46-year-old brother Michael. “Is that justice?”

No reply papers, or anything else, have been filed in the case.

Rosa Gargano said the family will press the lawsuit as much as they can.

“The rest is in God’s hands,” she said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-metro-mob-wrongful-death-brooklyn-lawsuit-20180713-story.html?outputType=amp

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Three made members of the Colombo and Gambino families busted for threatening debtors

Three made members of the Colombo and Gambino families busted for threatening debtors

  July 13, 2018    Dapper_Don

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The mob is still alive and well, prosecutors said Wednesday as six reputed members and associates of the Colombo and Gambino crime families — three of them “made men” — were arraigned for loansharking and other crimes in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday.
Assistant US Attorney Matthew Miller described how allegedly inducted Colombo soldier Vito “The Mask” DiFalco terrorized his debtors, who Miller said “keep paying because they would be terrified of what would happen to them if they don’t pay.”
Prosecutor Elizabeth Geddes told the court that telephone wiretaps had caught the skeletal 63-year-old threatening to flood victims’ homes and even telling someone they were lucky he hadn’t torched their car like he used to as a younger man.
“Good things happen to me when I stay calm,” Difalco was recorded saying, according to court papers. “See, like, I was by your house the other day. Four years ago I would have put the Benz on fire.”
“They put people in fear,” Geddes said of the wiseguys, which prompted a snicker from Difalco’s daughter in the gallery.
Fellow Colombo soldier Jerry “Fat Jerry” Ciauri even threatened to shoot one man and his wife if he didn’t cough up the money he owed, according to court papers.
“You can run upstate all you want, I’ll go up there and shoot you and your wife in the head,” Ciauri, 59, is accused of saying.
Both Difalco and Ciauri were held without bail Wednesday, as was allegedly “made” Gambino member Anthony “Anthony Suits” Licata on extortion charges.
Joseph Maratea, Salvatore Disano and Joseph Rizzo were also arraigned for their role in the well-established racket.
Maratea worked closely with Difalco, Geddes said, running a pawn shop out of the same Dyker Heights building where Difalco ran his bar: the Tryst Lounge. It was at the Tryst they engaged in illegal gambling, court papers say, running Monday night football pool schemes.
Prosecutors said the pawnshop was actually a front for their loansharking business, with Maratea, 42, and Difalco making copies of people’s driver’s licenses — which they kept in personalized files — so they could find them at home when they didn’t pay.
The accused mafiosi all pleaded “not guilty” Wednesday to various charges, including racketeering, money laundering, illegal gambling, making extortion and extortionate collection.
They’re due back in court Aug. 7.

https://nypost.com/2018/07/11/6-reputed-mobsters-accused-of-threatening-debtors/

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NYPD releases video of attempted murder of Bonanno associate in the Bronx

NYPD releases video of attempted murder of Bonanno associate in the Bronx

  July 13, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Cops released dramatic video footage of an attempted hit on the son of a reputed Bonanno crime family associate in the Bronx, sources said.
Shooting victim Salvatore Zottola, 41, can be seen desperately trying to escape as the gunman pulls up in a dark Nissan sedan and opens fire on Wednesday, according to the video.
The shooter, who was in the passenger seat, exits the vehicle after firing a few shots on Tierney Place near Longstreet Avenue and chases Zottola, shooting him a total of three times before fleeing.
Zottola can be seen rolling on the pavement in an attempt to avoid the bullets.
He was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center in critical condition, but survived.
Cops were on the lookout for the gunman Thursday night.

https://nypost.com/2018/07/12/shocking-video-shows-attempted-hit-on-son-of-bonanno-crime-family-associate/

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Volatile gangster admits threatening to kill former lawyer's son

Volatile gangster admits threatening to kill former lawyer's son

  July 13, 2018    Dapper_Don

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An unpredictable wiseguy pleaded guilty — just barely — to mailing a threatening letter to his ex-lawyer.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors said while Battista "Benny" Geritano was locked up on a state sentence for a 2013 stabbing, he wrote a foul-mouthed screed to force his onetime lawyer into saying he blew the case. The unidentified lawyer wouldn’t sign such an affidavit, prosecutors said, so Geritano’s menacing February 2017 missive said: “If you and your son don’t get me the f--- out of jail very soon — your son’s head is going to come off his f----n shoulders ...”

On Thursday, the reputed Gambino associate admitted to mailing a threatening communication, even though he once seemed bent on fighting the case.

Judge Ann Donnelly asked Geritano, 45, if he meant to threaten the attorney.

“Though I had no intent of carrying it out, yes I did,” Geritano replied. He also said he was dealing with “bad news pertaining to a heart doctor’s analogy” and “going through a breakdown. I was told I wasn’t going to live through the remainder of my sentence.”

Donnelly pressed Geritano on whether he meant to threaten the lawyer.

It took the judge a couple times to hear Geritano give a straight “yes” to her question.

Geritano’s daughter watched the proceeding and stormed out of court when the plea was over. Her father faces up to 20 years on the federal offense, and his plea deal makes no promises on whether the sentence will run concurrently with the state term, or start after it. Geritano was sentenced to 12 years on his state conviction in 2014.

“He very well could get consecutive time,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Gerdes told Donnelly. Part of the plea deal lets prosecutors seek any sentence up to 20 years.

Geritano burned through three attorneys in the federal case before getting his latest lawyer, Jeremy Iandolo.

He also mouthed off to one magistrate judge at his arraignment and got forced out of court. Another judge sent him for a mental health check. Later, Geritano even cursed out one of his defense lawyers.

Donnelly wasn’t having any of Geritano’s bizarre act Thursday. He identified himself as a “secured party creditor” at one point.

“Whatever, all right,” the judge said, waving her hand and moving on.

Iandolo declined to elaborate on the plea.

“He’s keeping his head up strong,” he said “If you want to plead guilty, you have to accept what you did.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-metro-reputed-mobster-admits-mailing-threat-to-ex-lawyer-20180712-story.html

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Bonanno associate refuses to cooperate with FBI after Bronx shooting

Bonanno associate refuses to cooperate with FBI after Bronx shooting

  July 11, 2018    Dapper_Don

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The son of a Bonanno crime family associate who was critically wounded in an attempted hit outside his sprawling Bronx home is refusing to cooperate with investigators, law enforcement sources said.
FBI investigators descended on Salvatore Zottola’s waterfront home in Locust Point on Wednesday afternoon, but were forced to cull surveillance footage from a neighboring yacht club because Zottola has denied them access to his houses’ cameras, sources said.
Zottola — shot three times by a still-unapprehended gunman while walking to his car Wednesday morning — is heavily sedated at Jacobi Medical Center, but has spoken enough to investigators to make clear he refuses to help, according to sources.
It’s believed, however, that the 41-year-old victim knew his attacker, sources said.
The gunman sped off in a waiting dark Nissan sedan.

https://nypost.com/2018/07/11/injured-bonanno-associate-refusing-to-help-fbi-after-shooting/

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Bonanno associate survives Bronx shooting weeks after father was also targeted

Bonanno associate survives Bronx shooting weeks after father was also targeted

  July 11, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Their family crest just might be a bulls-eye.

A reputed Bonnano crime family associate survived two bullets in a botched mob hit Wednesday outside his $2 million Bronx home barely a month after his father was targeted just 4 miles away, authorities said.

Alleged mobster Salvatore "Sally Daz" Zottola was leaving his home on Tierney Place in Throggs Neck when he was ambushed by a lone shooter at 6:40 a.m.

Zottola, 41, was hospitalized in serious but stable condition after he was shot in the chest and right hand. He also suffered a graze wound to the head, authorities said.

It was unclear if the shooting was related to a June 12 incident where Zottola’s dad Sylvester, 71, was arrested after squeezing off several shots at a man who pulled a gun on him around 7:30 a.m. outside his Bronx residence. Sylvester Zottola was arrested for weapons possession, reckless endangerment and other charges, and did not have a permit for the gun.

The family patriarch, identified in court papers as a Lucchese family associate, also survived a Dec. 27, 2017, stabbing in the neck and back when he walked into his home to find three people burglarizing the place.

Both father and son were affiliated with former Bonanno family boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano until the gangster was jailed for life after a 2007 murder conviction.

The gunman who targeted Salvatore Zottola fired four shots before climbing into a waiting getaway car and fleeing. No arrests were made in the shooting of the younger Zottola nor in either of the violent incidents with his dad.

“We want to thank everyone for their kind words, but you can go f--- yourself,” a Zottola family member said outside the Jacobi Medical Center, where Salvatore was hospitalized.

Salvatore Zottola and his relatives apparently own three pricey four-story homes on the street overlooking the water on the eastern tip of the Bronx. One of the homes near the Locust Point Marina is marked with a sign reading “Zottola Court.”

Salvatore "Sally Daz" Zottola (left) sits with Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano before Basciano was sent up the river for life in 2007.

The street outside bore signs of the investigation, including discarded blue surgical gloves and small orange cones marking recovered shell casings. A folded yellow towel rested on the ground nearby.

Zottola was apparently home alone while his wife and their two children were down at the Jersey Shore, when the gunfire erupted.

Neighbor Joe Peloso, 78, described the younger Zottola and his relatives as good neighbors who often hosted parties for local residents in their beachfront backyard with its pier and his Jet Skis.

Back in 1999, Salvatore Zottola allowed Basciano’s mistress to stay in one of his Bronx homes — unaware a mob investigator had just moved in across the street and was monitoring his moves. The elder Zottola partnered with the owner of the Hello Gorgeous hair salon in running lucrative Joker Poker machines, court documents showed.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-metro-mobster-shot-bronx-20180711-story.html

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Philadelphia crime family heads down to the shore for the summer as investigations heat up

Philadelphia crime family heads down to the shore for the summer as investigations heat up

  July 10, 2018    Dapper_Don

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Gambino family soldier to pay funeral costs for young girl killed after being caught in crossfire during shootout

Gambino family soldier to pay funeral costs for young girl killed after being caught in crossfire during shootout

  July 07, 2018    Dapper_Don

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A lawyer says a former member of the Gambino crime family will pay for the funeral of a 9-year-old girl who police say was killed by crossfire during a shootout between two groups while waiting in a car in Cleveland.
The lawyer for Carmine "The Bull" Agnello tells Cleveland.com Agnello offered Friday to cover funeral expenses for Saniyah Nicholson of Maple Heights, and her mother agreed.
Saniyah was shot Wednesday. Four teenagers have been arrested and a fifth is being sought.
Attorney Ian Freidman says Agnello wants to be an example of doing the right thing. His offer comes a year after Agnello avoided prison with a plea deal in a case that authorities described as a multi-million dollar scam involving stolen cars and scrap metal.

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180623/gambino-crime-family-ex-member-to-pay-for-slain-girls-funeral?template=ampart

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The mafia still wields influence over the New Jersey ports

The mafia still wields influence over the New Jersey ports

  July 05, 2018    Dapper_Don

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The Huck Finn on Morris Avenue in Union is an unremarkable, typical Jersey diner, where the usual three-egg omelets and burgers share the menu with Greek salads, tuna sandwiches and, of course, meatloaf.
But it has a more notorious claim to fame. In November 2005, authorities made a gruesome discovery in the trunk of a silver Acura that had sat undisturbed for weeks in the back of the diner’s big parking lot.
Alerted by a foul odor and the swarming of flies around the car, police found the decomposing body of Lawrence Ricci—an alleged Genovese crime family capo with hooks into the waterfront, who had disappeared weeks earlier in the midst of his own racketeering trial.
Face down with a grey sweatshirt over his head, somebody had put a bullet in his brain.

Lawrence Ricci

Connections with organized crime

The death of Ricci marked the last known mob hit tied to the waterfront, say investigators, and the murder has never been solved.
But more than a decade later, law enforcement officials say organized crime still stalks the docks.
Since January 2017, records show at least 10 dockworkers have had their registrations revoked, or had their applications denied by the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor because of friendships or associations with those deemed to have organized crime connections.
Another four applications for registration were withdrawn or surrendered without an administrative hearing, and one individual seeking a restoration of his registration was denied.
Among those cases included a $350,000-a-year longshoreman barred over his alleged friendship with an admitted loan shark who authorities say was connected to a Colombo crime family bribery scheme involving debris removal from the World Trade Center site.
Just last month, another longshoreman who supervised the delivery and maintenance of refrigerated containers was banned from the port by the Waterfront Commission, citing his alleged ties to Pasquale “Patty” Falcetti, Sr., a reputed member of the Genovese crime family.
Falcetti was convicted of defrauding the employee pension and welfare fund for longshoremen, noted the commission, which also concluded that the banned supervisor had a friendship with Andrew Gigante, the son of the late crime boss Vincent “The Chin” Gigante.

Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan's 1954 film On the Waterfront.

The influence remains

The movie classic On the Waterfront told a story of crime and corruption on the docks of New York and New Jersey. It followed a series of Pulitzer Prize winning stories by reporter Malcolm Johnson in The New York Sun that exposed the racketeering and violence endemic on the piers, and led to major reforms aimed at ridding the port of mob influence.
More than 60 years later, Jan Gilhooly, a former special agent in charge of the Secret Service in New Jersey who served on the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, said the mob’s influence remains, despite a litany of criminal cases in recent years.
“The port is a perfect setting for organized crime and it always has been,” said Gilhooly. “There’s so much money involved.”
He added the influence remains even after prosecutors make arrests.
“That’s the way organized crime works. One part goes away, and another tentacle takes its place,” he said.

A man identified by law enforcement officials as Stephen Depiro leaves the federal courthouse in Newark in 2011, after at least 15 people were arrested in New Jersey in connection with a waterfront corruption scheme involving the collection of "Christmas tribute" money exacted from dockworkers.

Kickbacks and racketeering

According to court filings, Ricci had reported to the late New Jersey mobster Tino Fiumara, a feared Genovese member with a ruthless reputation, who had long controlled the rackets on the waterfront. After Ricci turned up dead, he was replaced by Stephen Depiro, said the FBI in a 2010 affidavit.
The affidavit said Depiro “took over handling for Fiumara and the Genovese crime family extortion payments at Christmas from port union members, loansharking at the ports, illegal gambling at the ports, kickbacks for giving union-related jobs to individuals, and kickbacks from vendors for favorable treatment by port unions.”
Depiro ultimately pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges for his role in a decades-long scheme to extort Christmastime tribute payments from ILA members. He was charged with taking a cut out of the annual year-end bonuses longshoremen receive based on the number of containers moved through the Port of New York and New Jersey, and sentenced in 2015 to three years in prison.
But his arrest and conviction did not represent a knockout blow to the mob on the waterfront, said former U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, whose office prosecuted Depiro and two others tied to the shakedown scheme.
“You always hope that every case makes an incremental improvement, but guys like that don’t get wiped out in a day,” said Fishman, who said he believes organized crime still wields “considerable influence” at the port.

Nighttime on the waterfront.

Whack-a-Mole...

A similar assessment came from Robert Stewart, former head of the federal Organized Crime Strike Force in New Jersey, who traces the entrenchment of organized crime at the port to the 1940s, first with the Irish gangs and then with the Mafia.
The operations at the port are less violent, and far more lucrative, and it has only gotten more sophisticated, he said.
“You’re not seeing anything. There’s no bodies. But that suggests a higher level of ability to work,” observed Stewart.

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"You're not seeing anything. There's no bodies..."

— Robert Stewart, former head of the Organized Crime Strike Force in N.J.

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Tossing down a series of dossiers one-by-one onto a table as he read the names of close relatives of known organized crime figures with high-paying port jobs, Walter Arsenault, the executive director of the Waterfront Commission, asserted that “the mob is very much a presence at the port.”
At a hearing before a New York legislative committee in June, Arsenault volunteered a 15-page list of ‘made’ men from the seven Mafia families in New York and New Jersey, who he said all had relatives at the port. “You can't throw a stone at the port without hitting the son, the daughter, the son-in-law, the nephew, the cousin, the godson of a ‘made’ guy,” he told the committee.
Whenever someone is removed for having mob ties, he complained the spot is immediately filled by another family member. “It’s like Whack-a-Mole,” he said, the arcade game that players seldom beat.

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2018/07/at_jerseys_ports_the_shadow_of_the_mob_never_goes.html#incart_2box_nj-homepage-featured

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Man killed in Montreal had mafia ties

Man killed in Montreal had mafia ties

  July 04, 2018    Dapper_Don

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The 45-year-old man who was fatally shot in Laval Wednesday night had ties to leaders in the Montreal Mafia.

The victim of the shooting is Laval resident Steve Ovadia, according to the Sûreté du Québec. He was shot in the head in the parking lot of a strip mall on Samson Blvd. shortly after 8 p.m. Two men were seen fleeing the scene of the shooting, but no arrests have been made. The investigation has been turned over to the SQ because of Ovadia’s ties to organized crime.

They are looking for a four-door vehicle that is either pale grey or pale blue, and police dogs are arriving on scene to search for clues.

In recent years, police sources have told the Montreal Gazette that Ovadia had been observed meeting with alleged Mafia leaders like Stefano Sollecito and Leonardo Rizzuto while both men were under police surveillance. That included a meeting at a restaurant in September 2015 with Sollecito and Marco Campellone, a 24-year-old drug dealer who was involved in a conflict with rival dealers in eastern Montreal. Campellone was killed days after the meeting was held.

Laval police clean up the scene of shooting death of Steve Ovadia, a Laval man with ties to the Montreal Mafia, June 28, 2018.

Ovadia’s name was also mentioned a few times during a bail hearing held for Andrea "Andrew" Scoppa, the alleged leader of a Calabrian clan within the Montreal Mafia, when the latter was arrested for drug trafficking last year. During the bail hearing, held over the course of two days in April 2017, a police investigator testified that Scoppa was secretly recorded on Sept. 15, 2016 as he spoke to an associate and commented on how Ovadia had been arrested that day.

The arrest and search warrants carried out that day were covered by various media and the fact that Ovadia was taken into custody appeared to spook Scoppa. He told his associate that he was considering fleeing Canada because of Ovadia’s arrest.

At the time, Scoppa was being investigated for having distributed kilograms of cocaine to lower-level drug dealers. He was charged in 2017, but for reasons that were never made clear in open court, on May 11 the prosecution suddenly announced it was dropping the case.

Surete du Quebec crime scene investigators inspect the pavement behind a vehicle at the scene of the shooting death of Steve Ovadia, a Laval man with ties to the Montreal Mafia.

Ovadia’s arrest in September 2016 was part of an investigation of a small group of men who were alleged to have been trafficking in cocaine with Scoppa. While Ovadia was not charged in the case, another man who was arrested that day, a 62-year-old Laval resident, was charged with drug trafficking at the Laval courthouse at the same time Scoppa was charged in Montreal in 2017. The man is scheduled to have a trial in August.

Ovadia did not have a criminal record in Quebec, but in 2000, he agreed to follow the conditions set out in a peace bond after having been charged with threatening someone.

The homicide was carried out one day after John Mckenzie, 48, a man with alleged ties to the West End Gang, was shot in Laval. McKenzie survived the attempt on his life.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/man-killed-in-laval-had-ties-to-highest-levels-of-montreal-mafia

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Notorious Chicago mobster dies in jail after being denied pardon by President Trump

Notorious Chicago mobster dies in jail after being denied pardon by President Trump

  July 04, 2018    Dapper_Don

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The prime suspect in Chicago's last known Outfit murder will never be charged in the case.

Anthony "Tough Tony" Calabrese died of cancer Tuesday while serving time at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Calabrese, 57, was in prison for several armed robberies.

After learning of his terminal illness he had applied for Justice Department clemency but the request was denied by President Trump in April.

Tough Tony's attorney, Joe "The Shark" Lopez, was still arguing in federal court for a last-minute "compassionate release" from prison so that Calabrese could die at home in Chicago.

Death arrived before the judge's ruling.

In the last court filing ten days ago, Lopez claimed that prison officials had made an "arbitrary and capricious" decision to keep Calabrese locked up "in an attempt to get Mr. Calabrese to waive his 5th amendment right" against self-incrimination.

Federal investigators tried to squeeze Calabrese for 17 years about the gangland killing of Outfit lieutenant Anthony "The Hatch" Chiaramonti in west suburban Lyons-believed to be Chicago's last mob hit before the bosses realized blood was bad for business.

The FBI had pegged Calabrese as shooter in that Thanksgiving Day 2001 killing of Chiaramonti, 67, the result of a mob power struggle in Cicero. Chiaramonti was hunted down like a turkey and chased into a fast-food parking lot according to investigators, until the assassin could squeeze off the kill shot.

Federal agents also suspected he was involved in the plot to murder Chinatown hoodlum Ronnie Jarrett two years earlier. They were the two most recent of more than 1100 mob hits in Chicago since the Roaring 20's-most of them still unsolved.

Calabrese is not related to the more notorious Outfit family with the same last name-led by the late hitman Frank "the Breeze" Calabrese-but authorities say they were all wrapped up in the same rackets. As the I-Team has reported over the years, Tough Tony was sometimes known as "The *Other* Calabrese."

Anthony Calabrese was sentenced in 2008 to 62 years in prison for robbing a leather shop, a butcher shop and a tattoo parlor in the suburbs. The crimes all involved guns and required strict, lengthy sentencing under federal guidelines. He was not due out until July 19, 2061.

While never charged with the Chiaramonti or Jarrett hits, prosecutors depicted Calabrese as a stone-cold enforcer. They played a secretly-recorded tape at his robbery trial, in which he is heard brutally beating a man suspected of cooperating with the government.

"Strip off your clothes," barks a twitchy Calabrese on tape, concerned one of his underlings had turned on him and was wearing a hidden FBI tape recorder, which he was. But Calabrese never found it.

"You know to keep your mouth shut. I mean, you understand what'll happen?" asked Calabrese.

"Tony, do I look like I wanna be dead?" answered the associate.

During the stick-up of the tattoo parlor, he also ordered the owner's hands to be pounded with a hammer as revenge for tatting up the underage daughter of a mob boss.

Calabrese died Tuesday morning, still locked away in federal prison. The Bureau of Prisons website, that was slow to catch up with his death, by Wednesday afternoon was finally listing him as "Deceased...06/05/2018." A spokesperson for the prison in Terre Haute told the I-Team that he died of "esophageal carcinoma."

According to his attorney Joe Lopez, the end came as predicted ... before he could be released ... and before the feds put him on the hook for the city's last Outfit killing.

"He went out two feet standing up and that is that," said Lopez on Tuesday evening.

http://abc7chicago.com/mobster-denied-pardon-by-trump-takes-gangland-secrets-to-grave/3565783/

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