Turncoat Lucchese Soldier tells his life story
Monday, March 24, 2025
Bonanno Soldier gets an additional 37 months in prison for forcing loanshark victim to strip naked
Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, John Ragano, also known as “Bazoo,” a member of the Bonanno organized crime family, was sentenced by United States District Judge Hector Gonzalez to 37 months in prison for extortionate collection of credit in connection with a $150,000 loan. The sentence imposed today will be served following the completion of Ragano’s 57-month sentence for the conspiracy to commit extortionate collection of credit of the same victim. Additionally, as part of the sentence, Ragano was ordered to pay the government $3,000 in forfeiture. Ragano was convicted of the charge in October 2024 following a four-day jury trial.
John J. Durham, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and Leslie R. Backschies, Acting Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the sentence.
“Today’s sentence punishes Ragano’s blatant disregard for the law, even while under court supervision for crimes brazenly carried out within the federal courthouse,” stated United States Attorney Durham. “This prosecution represents my Office’s steadfast commitment to combatting the Mafia in our district.”
“Despite previous arrests and detention, John Ragano tormented his victim to make weekly exorbitant loan payments and enforced humiliating methods when faced with resistance,” stated Acting FBI Assistant Director in Charge Backschies. “His actions reflected his apathy to the criminal justice system as he repeatedly attempted to extort his victims in the midst of active legal proceedings. Today’s verdict emphasizes the FBI’s intolerance of the mob’s historical inclination to utilize coercive and threatening tactics to fulfill their greedy demands.
In early 2021, the defendant Ragano loaned the victim $150,000 in cash and required the victim to make interest payments of approximately $1,800 a week. These payments did not reduce the principal of the $150,000 loan. On September 14, 2021, Ragano was arrested in connection with the extortionate loan to the victim, as well as separate schemes to traffic marijuana and commit fraud. After Ragano was released on bond from the Metropolitan Detention Center in December 2021, he continued to try to collect the $150,000 loan from the victim while under pretrial supervision. He did so by approaching the victim in-person at status conferences held at the federal courthouse, and by directing another individual (Individual #1) to contact the victim. On November 28, 2022, Ragano pleaded guilty to conspiring to issue the extortionate loan to the victim. However, in 2023, despite his previous guilty plea, ongoing court supervision, and sentence to 57 months’ imprisonment in connection with his previous guilty plea as to the 2021 loan, Ragano continued to extort the victim to collect payments on the 2021 loan, which resulted in a subsequent indictment for extortionate collection of credit and harassment of a witness.
As proven during Ragano’s October 2024 trial, on March 25, 2023, the victim recorded a meeting with Individual #1, who explained that Ragano wanted the entire amount of the loan repaid and that “nobody’s looking for anybody to get hurt.” A week later, on March 31, 2023, Individual #1 told the victim that Ragano was “a little upset” that the loan was outstanding. On July 5, 2023, the victim went to a used auto parts yard where Ragano worked to discuss the loan. Unbeknownst to Ragano, the victim recorded the meeting. The victim told Ragano that he was going to stop repaying the loan. Ragano accused the victim of cooperating with the government and demanded that he remove all his clothes. Ragano stated: “Okay, well then take off your f--king s--t right now my man. Take off your f--king pants right now, lemme see, I want to see.” At Ragano’s insistence, the victim complied and took off all his clothing. At that point, two men at the business walked up behind Ragano, one of whom was holding metal tools. Ragano then demanded the victim pay the money the defendant believed he was owed, telling him, “You owe me my f---king money, let’s see how you’re gonna do when I get out.” Despite being forced to strip naked, the victim was still able to record the confrontation, including Ragano’s parting words, “I’ll see you when I get out tough guy…Don’t forget I know where you’re at now.”
The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Devon Lash and Andrew D. Reich are in charge of the prosecution with the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Kristina Kim. Assistant United States Attorney Tanisha Payne of the Office’s Asset Recovery Section is handling forfeiture matters.
The Defendant:
JOHN RAGANO (also known as “Bazoo”)
Age: 62
Franklin Square, Long Island
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 24-CR-50 (HG)
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/bonanno-crime-family-soldier-sentenced-37-months-imprisonment-extortionate-collection
Sunday, March 23, 2025
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Gambino Soldier gets nearly 12 years for $400 million fraud
James LaForte Brutally Assaulted Receivership Attorney, Threatened Government Witnesses, Extorted Merchants
PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that James LaForte, 48, of New York, New York, was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Mark A. Kearney to 137 months’ imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release to include 12 months’ home confinement, for crimes committed as part of a criminal enterprise that ran a fraudulent investment vehicle[1] known as Complete Business Solutions Group, Inc., d/b/a Par Funding (“Par Funding”) for a number of years, before it was taken over by a court-appointed receivership pursuant to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. LaForte was also ordered to pay $2,488,645 in restitution, representing the portion of investor proceeds that he illegally diverted from Par Funding’s numerous investors for his own use through sham merchant contracts and other self-dealing conduct.
In February 2024, the defendant, his brother Joseph LaForte, Par Funding’s president and CEO, and Joseph Cole Barleta, Par Funding’s chief financial officer, were charged in an amended second superseding indictment with racketeering conspiracy and related crimes.
James LaForte pleaded guilty in September 2024 to racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud, and extortionate collection of debt, as well as obstruction of justice, for his violent assault on one of the Par Funding receivership’s Philadelphia attorneys, and retaliation, for threatening several government witnesses.
“James LaForte served as one of his brother’s enforcers,” said U.S. Attorney Metcalf. “He not only used threats of violence to collect on Par Funding’s debt, but stalked and assaulted an attorney, in retaliation for that man’s efforts to hold the LaForte family responsible for one of the largest financial frauds in Philadelphia’s history. As today’s sentence shows, this brand of brazen and violent lawbreaking simply won’t be tolerated in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.”
“Since its earliest days, the FBI has been dedicated to investigating complex financial crimes,” said Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Philadelphia. “James LaForte participated in a criminal enterprise driven by greed and sustained through threats and violence. The FBI is proud to stand with our partners in the pursuit of justice — disrupting these schemes and ensuring restitution for victims.”
“The defendant in this case was brought to justice for his participation in a criminal enterprise that caused significant financial harm to numerous investors,” said Special Agent in Charge Patricia Tarasca of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General (FDIC OIG), New York Region. “The FDIC OIG will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to pursue those who commit such egregious crimes that threaten investors and the safety and soundness of our Nation's financial institutions.”
Joseph LaForte also pleaded guilty in September 2024 to racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud, and related crimes and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 26, 2025. Barleta pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of racketeering conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 2, 2025.
This case was investigated by the FBI, Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew Newcomer, Samuel Dalke, and Eric Gill.
The SEC in Florida investigated and litigated the civil securities fraud charges, which formed the basis of a portion of the Par Funding criminal prosecution.
[1] On January 21, 2025, the Court found the Par Funding fraud scheme caused an actual fraud loss of approximately $404,000,000, which it reduced to $288,395,088 after factoring in credit for collateral seized from Par Funding by federal authorities when the investigation became public in July 2020.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/par-funding-enforcer-sentenced-11-12-years-prison-rico-conspiracy-obstruction-justice
Turncoat Gambino hitman linked to the Gotti family now a New Jersey Councilman
He’s gone from lawbreaker to lawmaker.
John Alite, a former Gambino crime family enforcer-turned-mob turncoat, was sworn in Wednesday as a councilman representing the sleepy New Jersey borough of Englishtown.
“You know what? I can really do some good. I already had a bad past, and I’m here to redeem my whole life, and I would like to go out doing everything in a positive way,” Alite, 62, told The Post.
His work in the 1980s and 1990s as a top “earner” for the “Teflon Don,” Gambino boss John Gotti, and son John “Junior” Gotti, will serve him well in politics, he explained.
“I understand the Machiavelli stuff, the treachery,” said Alite.
“I mean every aspect of the street is like the government, so I understand the maneuvering these candidates are doing, so I feel I’ll be able to bring my knowledge and past history into politics.”
Alite said he spent 14 years in prison on convictions that include six murders, at least 37 shootings and countless beatdowns while working as a Gambino henchman.
But he didn’t have to put any rivals in cement boots to score his council seat.
He was appointed to fill a vacancy through the end of the year after being recruited by Englishtown Mayor Daniel Francisco and other local leaders impressed by his civic work helping youths.
At first there were skeptics – including some members of the Council — but Alite eventually convinced them he was someone they couldn’t refuse.
“Yeah, there were people who opposed it — but I don’t run from my past at all,” he said. “I use it as a way to move forward, to influence kids and get them off the street, to turn a negative into a positive.”
The ex-mobster will hold the seat for an additional two years through 2027 — unless someone dares file paperwork by March 21 to challenge him in an election.
“I’ve been told I won’t be challenged because there’s other seats held by people less popular than me, and obviously I’m in the public eye and do lots of media and [motivational] talks around [Monmouth] County,” he said. “Everybody knows me, so I’d be hard to beat in a race.”
The former wiseguy said he’s more qualified than any lefty Democrat currently holding higher office.
“You hear some of these people like [Texas Democratic Rep.] Jasmine Crockett talk, and they don’t sound educated,” added Alite, who graduated Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn and went to University of Tampa on a baseball scholarship only to drop out a few years later after blowing out his arm.
And he’s already looking at his next move.
“I was asked — I can’t talk about names, but I was already asked to go for a higher position,” said Alite, who confided he’s eyeing someday running for Congress, and aims to model himself after President Trump, whom he’s campaigned for since 2016 and personally met five times.
“He’s not your typical politician; he gets the job done; he’s a workaholic. I mean he’s got so many good qualities,” said Alite, who records show has donated $6,501 to Trump and other Republican candidates since 2020.
The Queens-born goodfella reinvented himself since becoming a free man in 2012 — four years after becoming the star government witness in a 2008 racketeering case against his one-time best friend Junior Gotti.
The trial ended in a hung jury.
Alite said he wants to mend fences with Junior, but he’s not holding his breath.
Gotti did not return messages. However, he told The Post in 2016 that he’s a “forgiving guy” — but not when it comes to Alite.
“He is one of the most shameless human beings that God has created . . . He uses the Gotti theme to enhance his career,” Gotti said.
Alite co-authored five books about mob life, is a prolific podcaster and also earns a paycheck as a traveling motivational speaker who tackles topics like domestic violence, bullying and the nation’s drug epidemic.
He makes a good enough living that he waived the modest $3,500-a-year borough council salary, but admitted it’s a far cry from the “millions of dollars” he earned “during a good year” in the mob, when his portfolio included owning four NYC nightclubs and a dozen homes along the East Coast.
At the top of Alite’s political platform is speaking out against the dangers of illegal drugs. His 30-year-old daughter Chelsea died three years ago of a fentanyl overdose. The tragedy led him move to Englishtown.
Alite — who could never rise to being a made man in the Italian mob because he’s 100% Albanian — said he wants to make sure there are enough after-school programs to keep “kids off the street” and away from drugs.
“The drug influence in this county is terrible,” said Alite, whose one-time employer was notorious for trafficking cocaine. “As a kid I was part of that, and now I have a chance to change that.”
Alite, who is divorced and has four sons, was surrounded by his mother and other family members when he was sworn in Wednesday at Englishtown Borough Hall. Afterwards, he participated in his first Council meeting.
On the agenda for the tiny Central Jersey community with a little over 2,300 residents: filling potholes, Christmas lights, eyesore fencing, and appointing an acting police chief.
Francisco, Englishtown’s mayor, said Alite deserves a chance.
“I can only judge him on what I know,” he said. “John is a guy that is quick to being open and friendly. He has vast experience and connections in the political and business world.”
“I know he does a lot of outreach work,” the mayor added. “He shares a vision for development in our local downtown, and I think he’s going to be instrumental to this effort to redefine our community’s landscape.”
https://nypost.com/2025/03/15/us-news/ex-gambino-mobster-john-alite-now-councilman-in-englishtown-new-jersey/
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Mixed verdict in trial of Long Island cop accused of selling his badge to the Bonanno crime family
A former Nassau County cop accused of moonlighting for the mob while still wearing a badge was found guilty Wednesday of making false statements to the FBI — but cleared of an obstruction of justice charge.
A Brooklyn federal court jury deliberated for nine hours over two days before reaching its verdict, with ex-cop Hector Rosario having no visible reaction as the verdict was read.
“We’re glad the jury acquitted on the obstruction, and it’s a relief they did,” his lawyer, Lou Freeman, said outside the courtroom.
Prosecutors said during the eight-day trial that the 51-year-old former cop “sold his badge” to the mob for a $1,500 a month payoff – and even set up phony raids to harass rival Mafiosos.
They said Rosario waged war on the Genovese mob on behalf of his alleged Bonanno family handlers after a deal for the two crime syndicates to split the proceeds from an illegal gambling den called the Gran Caffe fell apart – and then allegedly lied to the feds about his illicit moonlighting gig.
A 15-year veteran of the Nassau County department when he was busted in 2022, Rosario allegedly also tipped off the mob about law enforcement activity.
Federal prosecutors said the former cop lied to the FBI at least 30 times when he was interviewed about his link to the mob in January 2020.
“He chose the crime family over the public he swore to protect,” Assistant US Attorney Anna Karamigios told jurors during opening arguments in US District Court in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors said Rosario pulled off “at least one” phony raid on rival gambling operations run by a Genovese associate, according to federal court documents.
The ex-cop allegedly targeted Salvatore “Sal the Shoemaker” Rubino’s backroom casino inside his Long Island store, Sal’s Shoe Repair.
The Merrick business served as a front for poker games three times a week and computerized gambling machines.
Rubino, who testified at Rosario’s trial, pleaded guilty to charges in April along with his associates.
But Rosario’s lawyer maintained that prosecutors didn’t prove their case – and relied largely on three mob turncoats who cut cooperation deals with the feds.
“We are asking you not to be swayed by the inflammatory evidence of the Mafia,” defense attorney Kestine Thiele said during closing arguments Monday.
“You cannot convict our client on the word of three convicted members of the Mafia who all have lied in the past, who have lied to hundreds of people over the course of their criminal behaviors and in their personal lives,” Thiele said.
Jurors in the case declined to comment on the split verdict as they left court on Wednesday.
Brooklyn prosecutors asked the judge to revoke Rosario’s $500,000 bail, but the request was denied and he remains free until his sentencing, when he will face up to five years in prison.
“This corrupt detective chose to prove his loyalty to an organized crime family over the public he was sworn to protect,” US Attorney John Durham said in a statement after the verdict. “When police officers exploit their positions for personal gain, it erodes public trust in law enforcement.”
https://nypost.com/2025/03/05/us-news/verdict-reached-in-case-of-alleged-long-island-mob-cop-accused-of-selling-his-badge-to-bonanno-crime-family/
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Genovese gangsters werent fooled by fake raid conducted by corrupt Long Island cop working for Bonanno family
This is what happens when you hire bargain-basement wiseguys.
The Nassau County cop who allegedly worked for the Bonanno crime family bungled a raid on a rival family’s gambling den so badly that it totally failed to fool the victimized gangsters — including a gambler named “Mario the Landscaper,” who quickly said, “These are not real police,” a court heard Wednesday.
“It wasn’t professionally done — you could see it was fake,” mobster Sal Russo testified Wednesday at ex-officer Hector Rosario’s trial for obstruction and serving as a soldier for the Bonannos in their struggles against the rival Genovese crime family.
“I just heard yelling and screaming, ‘This is the police! This is the police!’” Russo testified about the shocking raid. “They broke the screens on one of the machines, and they kept screaming, ‘This police! This police!’ before they left the store.”
But the fake sortie — which targeted Salvatore “Sal the Shoemaker” Rubino’s illegal casino inside his Merrick store, Sal’s Shoe Repair — was so shoddily done that none of the illicit gamblers thought Rosario and his small crew actually cops.
“These are not real police,” Mario the Landscaper, who Russo described as a “steady player at Sal’s,” allegedly told the others after the initial shock wore off.
“They don’t just come in breaking [things],” Russo said, quoting Mario.
Russo testified that the low budget raid by Rosario — who was only being paid $1,500-a-month by the Mafia — looked so fake he feared he might get clipped by the Genovese bosses in retaliation.
When asked what he thought might happen to him, Russo answered, “Hospital, cemetery … anything.”
The b-grade raid on the gambling den wasn’t the only bungling by the alleged dumb-fella.
At a later point, Rosario tried to play like a movie Mafioso and talk to Russo about a pot growing operation in a code that involved a movie he saw in Netflix.
“When I get the name of the movie, try to watch it. It’s good,” Rosario said in a recording of the phone call played in court.
Russo, however, said he had no idea what the cop was talking about and thought he was really just calling to talk about film.
“I thought he was talking about a movie,” he said.
Rosario, a 51-year-old former detective, conspired to target rival Genovese mafiosos in a feud that erupted after the Cosa Nostra families struck a rare agreement to split the profits of a gelato shop’s backroom gambling den, federal prosecutors said.
But the shaky peace deal didn’t last — and Rosario “sold himself” to the Bonnanos before staging the faux raid, Brooklyn prosecutors have said.
Rosario, who was first busted in 2022 and released on a $500,000 bond, was allegedly put on the payroll by two Bonanno family members and told to target Rubino’s betting parlor in 2013 or 2014.
Rosario has been charged with obstructing a grand jury probe into racketeering and lying to the FBI.
On the trial’s opening day, prosecutors introduced the jurors to a laundry list of alleged mobsters and mapped out a constellation of illegal gambling operations — which led to a sweeping 2022 bust that rounded up eight alleged mobsters and Rosario.
“He chose the crime family over the public he swore to protect,” Anna Karamigios, assistant US attorney for the Eastern District, told jurors in Brooklyn federal court.
Yet despite his criminal allegiance, Rosario doesn’t appear to have been a cunning ally.
Still, Rosario took home $2,500 after the second-rate raid, and launched three others aimed at different backroom casinos run by Genovese and Gambinos gangsters — including one at the Gran Caffe Gelateria in Lynbrook, Russo said.
But they didn’t work out.
Rosario would flash his badge at the camera, the mobster said from the stand. But they would never buzz him in to let him raid the joints.
Still, the Bonannos paid him about $8,000 in total for his escapades, which Russo hoped would prompt the closure of Gran Caffe and push the Bonannos to set up a gambling spot at his Soccer Club in Valley Stream.
“If Gran Caffe closed, I would put [Rosario] on the payroll at soccer club,” Russo said, adding Russo would have made about $1,500 weekly.
The plan never came to fruition, however.
The jury also heard a series of seven wiretapped conversations between Russo and Rosario — including one in which Russo told the crooked cop he wanted him to stage another fake raid to “rob Mexicans” who were dealing heroin.
Rosario agreed — and would have taken home $50,000 in payment.
But the raid never happened.
In another recording, Russo tried to get Rosario to move his weed stash to a buyer.
Rosario pushed back, however, and claimed the feds were watching him.
“They got you by the balls, bro,” Rosario said. “They’re watching you, they’re watching you. They’re just waiting for you to f–k up again.”
“You scratch your ass? They’re watching you,” he said. “They’re waiting for you to s–t.”
The two never ended up selling the marijuana.
https://nypost.com/2025/02/26/us-news/ex-nassau-county-cop-on-mob-payroll-staged-fake-raid-that-didnt-fool-illicit-gamblers-these-are-not-real-police/
Longtime Chicago mob associate busted for tax evasion charges
A mob-connected Chicago businessman has been indicted on tax evasion charges alleging he had a hidden interest in a sweepstakes gaming company run by the now-imprisoned son-in-law of Joe Berrios, the former Cook County assessor.
Robert “Bobby” Dominic, 71, a longtime associate of the Outfit’s Grand Avenue crew known for his connections to Richard’s Bar on the Near West Side, was charged in a five-count indictment made public Tuesday in U.S. District Court with tax evasion and failure to file tax returns.
An arraignment date has not been set. The docket showed that Dominic, of Morton Grove, is currently representing himself. He could not be reached for comment.
The indictment alleged that from 2014 to 2020, Dominic was secretly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars from two sweepstakes gaming companies through a sham entity owned by his then-girlfriend.
A month after his girlfriend died in January 2020, Dominic allegedly set up another phony company through another woman, identified only as Individual B, and continued to receive payments from the sweepstakes businesses, according to the indictment.
On March 30, 2021, the stock certificate for Sham Company B “was amended to reflect that all shares were to transfer to Dominic upon Individual B’s death,” the indictment stated.
Last fall, the U.S. attorney’s office subpoenaed Individual B to appear before a federal grand jury investigating Dominic, and sent a letter to her attorney indicating she would be compelled to testify through a grant of immunity, according to the indictment.
A few days before her scheduled grand jury appearance on Oct. 7, 2024, however, Individual B, who at the time was 80 years old, agreed to marry Dominic in order to prevent her testimony, the indictment stated.
State records show Dominic’s wife, who is not charged, formed a company generically titled Promotional Consulting Inc. on Sept. 19, 2020, listing the business’s address as 725 W. Grand Ave. — the same address as Richard’s Bar and an adjoining single-room occupancy hotel also associated with Dominic.
The agent listed for Promotional Consulting, attorney Edward Eberspacher, also represented Dominic in previous lawsuits involving the hotel, known as the Acacia, records show.
Eberspacher did not return calls Tuesday seeking comment.
The indictment does not state how much Dominic allegedly failed to pay in income taxes over the years, but lists payments he allegedly received from the sweepstakes gaming companies totaling more than $1.2 million. The charges also allege Dominic failed to file personal tax returns reflecting any of that income.
The charges against Dominic are an offshoot of a bombshell investigation into the shady world of sweepstakes gaming machines that brought down former state Rep. Luis Arroyo and businessman James Weiss, who is married to Berrios’ daughter, former state Rep. Maria “Toni” Berrios.
The case also had mob connections simmering in the background. The Tribune first reported last year that the grand jury sent a subpoena to the Illinois Department of Insurance on July 28 seeking applications, communications and other records involving a state Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan in Dominic’s name.
Around that same time, federal prosecutors alleged in a sentencing filing in Weiss’ criminal case that he was allegedly “good friends” with notorious mob hit man Frank “The German” Schweihs and once went to him for protection for his massage parlors being threatened by other gangsters.
Weiss’ brother, in fact, was caught on an FBI wiretap telling someone Weiss had partnered with “a known longtime mob associate” after Weiss had reportedly gone to Schweihs for help.
Details included in the new charges against Dominic reveal that he was the associate referred to on the recording.
“Yeah, well, Jimmy and Frank were good friends, and some Russians were muscling Jimmy, but Frank was on the run,” the brother, Joseph Weiss, told an unidentified person in the wiretapped call. “Frank was in hiding and Jimmy called Frank and … says, hey man, these guys just busted up my (expletive store). Scared the (expletive) out of the girls, this and that, you know, I need your help, where the (expletive) are you?
At the time, Schweihs had been charged in the landmark Family Secrets mob case and was on the run. According to the brother’s story, The German told Weiss, “‘Jim, I’m underground right now … but I’ll have someone call you right back.’”
“Somebody called Jimmy” and told him to go see Dominic, who “straightened it all out,” Joseph Weiss said, according to prosecutors.
“Ever since then, they’re partners on everything,” Joseph Weiss said. “The problem is (Dominic’s) like a gangster but he’s an honest guy. If you’re his friend, you’re his friend.”
Prosecutors called the description of Dominic as a gangster “an apt one.” In a separate undercover recording, Dominic admitted that James Weiss ‘is with me,’ referencing their joint involvement with gaming machines,” the filing stated.
“Insofar as (James) Weiss seeks to portray himself as a community-minded and otherwise law-abiding individual, his longtime partnership with (Dominic) and his own brother’s recording discussing his prior association with his ‘good friend,’ mob killer Frank Schweihs, demonstrates otherwise,” prosecutors wrote.
The filing also alleged that Dominic’s now-deceased girlfriend was a partner in one of James Weiss’ gambling businesses and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from him.
Schweihs, who according to authorities spent decades as a reputed enforcer for the mob’s Grand Avenue street crew, died of cancer in 2008 while awaiting trial.
Weiss’ brother, Joseph Weiss, was charged in 2023 with lying to federal investigators about his brother’s reputed mob ties, including his previous contacts with Schweihs and Dominic.
James Weiss’ attorney, Ilia Usharovich, said his client had no ties at all to Schweihs.
“Jim denies ever speaking to Mr. Schweihs, ever meeting with Mr. Schweihs and ever doing business with Mr. Schweihs,” Usharovich said.
The Tribune has previously reported that James Weiss’ sweepstakes company, V.S.S., was connected to a former Chicago police officer, John Adreani, through a complex web of corporations, many of which list the same address in a south suburban strip mall as their headquarters.
Adreani was fired from the Chicago Police Department in 2015 for associating with a major drug trafficker after he was captured on a wiretap discussing gambling and drinking excursions and real estate ventures with him, according to Chicago Police Board records.
Adreani was not charged; however, his name came up several times during James Weiss’ trial.
Another one of Weiss’ business entities, Mac-T Retail LLC, which was formed in 2015, shares the same address in the 800 block of Sibley Boulevard in Dolton with V.S.S., state records show.
At least three companies that include “Mac-T” in their titles appear to be linked, according to state records. The first of them, Mac-T LLC, was organized by Anthony DeMarco of River Grove in 2014 and was also registered to the Sibley Boulevard address.
DeMarco originally incorporated Mac-T using the Grand Avenue address for the building that houses both the Acacia Hotel and Richard’s, as well as the Italian restaurant La Scarola.
La Scarola was the scene of a 2012 lunch meeting with top Grand Avenue crew members that led to the FBI sting of hit man Steve Mandell, who was plotting, among other things, to kidnap, rob and murder a mobbed-up strip club owner.
Richard’s is owned, on paper at least, by the sister of Dominic, a reputed Outfit associate who, according to FBI and Chicago records, ran pornography and gambling interests for the Grand Avenue crew, which was headed by legendary mobster Joseph “The Clown” Lombardo.
James Weiss was convicted by a jury in June of seven counts of bribery, wire fraud, mail fraud and making false statements. The charges alleged Weiss then agreed to pay monthly $2,500 bribes to get language helping his sweepstakes business added to state gambling legislation, first to state Arroyo and later to state Sen. Terry Link, who was a chief sponsor of the gambling bill in the Senate.
Arroyo and Weiss didn’t know that Link, a Vernon Hills Democrat, was cooperating with the FBI. Link, who is hoping for a break in his own federal tax conviction in exchange for his cooperation, testified over two days about his undercover role.
Arroyo, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to bribery for his role in the scheme but did not agree to cooperate with prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger sentenced Arroyo to nearly five years in prison last year, calling him a “corruption superspreader.”
Arroyo was released to a halfway house late last year, federal prison records show.
James Weiss was sentenced in October 2023 to 5 ½ years in prison. He’s currently serving his term in Leavenworth, Kansas, and is due to be released in March 2027, records show.
Joseph Weiss pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to two months in jail.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/25/mob-connected-chicago-businessman-indicted-on-tax-charges-alleging-hidden-interest-in-sweepstakes-gaming/
Corrupt Long Island cop worked for the Bonanno family to bust rival Genovese gambling operations
Mob justice is best served cold.
A crooked Nassau County police detective moonlighting as a Bonanno soldier helped fuel a mini-mob war on Long Island — choosing “the crime family over the public he swore to protect,” a court heard Tuesday.
Ex-Det. Hector Rosario conspired to target rival Genovese mafiosos in the feud that spilled out after the organized crime clans struck an unusual agreement to split the proceeds of a gelato shop’s backroom gambling den, according to the feds.
But peace didn’t last and Rosario “sold himself” to the Bonnanos — even staging a fake police raid at a covert casino run by the Genoveses, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said in opening remarks at the alleged dirty cop’s trial.
“He and other men barged in acting like actual police officers, broke a gambling machine and sent a message,” Anna Karamigios, assistant US attorney for the Eastern District, told jurors.
The Bonannos and Genovese – two of the Five Families in the American
mafia – generally kept to their separate spheres during the 1980s and
into the early 2000s, said a long-time mob investigator.
“There
were no beefs and no sit-downs,” the investigator said. “As far as
business, there were no major schemes that they worked on together.
“Back then, ‘The Chin’ (Vincent Gigante), the head of the Genovese family, did not respect (Bonanno boss) Joe Messina, so he would have nothing to do with him.”
Now, the expected two-week trial against Rosario — who is charged with obstructing a grand jury probe into racketeering and lying to the FBI — promises to expose secrets of New York’s alive-and-well mob underworld.
Jurors spent the trial’s first day of testimony Tuesday being introduced to a Who’s-Who of wiseguys, from Sal Russo to “Sal the Shoemaker.”
They also learned about a constellation of illegal gambling operations — leading to a sweeping bust in 2022 that rounded up eight alleged mobsters and Rosario, who’s accused of being on the take for $1,500 a month.
“He chose the crime family over the public he swore to protect,” Karamigios said.
The then-detective’s nefarious side gig as Bonanno stooge came in handy for the family sometime around 2012, according to trial testimony.
A former Bonanno soldier — Damiano Zummo, 51 — testified that the family had entered into an arrangement with their Genovese brethren to share profits from Gran Caffe, a gelato shop in Lynbrook that doubled as a covert casino.
The shop had two card tables in the back, along with poker machines in a small room, Zummo, the first witness to testify, said.
The owner originally split profits 50-50 with a Genovese family member, but that arrangement ended when the mobster got sent to prison, Zummo testified.
The Bonannos got involved after the owner sought protection after being beaten up, Zummo said. They reached an uneasy agreement for a 25% each share of profits, effectively making it a joint Bonanno-Genovese mob venture, he said.
The understanding between mob families was that they could not operate competing gambling parlors within a 5-mile radius, Zummo said.
But tensions boiled over when a down-on-his-luck gambler opted to stop patronizing the gelato shop in favor of gambling at Sal’s Shoe Repairs, which was run by Salvatore “Sal the Shoemaker” Rubino, a Genovese mobster, Zummo testified.
The move resulted in the Bonanno family — which was pulling in $10,000 — “losing money,” Zummo said.
He said Sal Russo, a Bonanno, wanted to “intimidate” the Genovese by using Rosario.
“Russo came up with the idea of a fake raid and I was all for it,” Zummo testified.
“For Hector to go in there, to Sal’s Shoe Repairs, and intimidate them in hopes they close down.”
Sal’s Shoe Repair had a card table in the back room with three or four gambling machines, Zummo said.
The fake raid of the shoe repair gambling den didn’t result in any arrests or citations, prosecutors said.
Zummo said that Rosario carried out an aborted raid at a coffee shop with a gambling den in Valley Stream owned by the Gambino family, because it was less than a mile from “Soccer Club,” a Bonanno-operated parlor owned by Sal Russo.
But the would-be raid went south when Rosario and a crew of a few guys weren’t able to get inside the gambling den, Zummo said.
The reason: it had a buzzer and they weren’t allowed inside, Zummo testified.
Rosario liked “again, and again” when pressed by the FBI during interviews in 2020, claiming he didn’t know anything about gambling dens, prosecutors said.
He also pulled information of a rival mob member from a law enforcement database and gave it to the Bonanno family, according to prosecutors.
The Bonanno family paid Rosario $1,500 per month during the time of the raids, which went on for a “few months,” according to Zummo.
Zummo testified that Rosario also tipped him that he was under investigation and to “stay off the phone” because “the feds are listening.”
He testified that he considered Rosario to be a “street guy.”
“Street guy means he’d break the law if he had to,” he said.
Zummo was arrested in 2017 alongside Russo in a drug-trafficking scheme that involved a $40,000 sale of cocaine in a Manhattan gelato shop.
Both are cooperating with the feds in the case.
Rosario’s defense attorney Lou Freeman told jurors that the former cop had made a false statement to authorities, but it was about a marijuana grow house in Queens that wasn’t material to the case.
He also argued that witnesses who are convicted of racketeering, distribution of cocaine and other serious crimes would be testifying against Rosario, who has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail.
“Each of these witnesses were in organized crime,” he said.
Sal Russo, who was once a “close friend” of Rosario’s, had put the former Nassau cop on the feds’ radar in hopes for a more lenient sentence, Freeman said.
“You will hear Sal Russo made up information about Hector Rosario to get one more notch on his belt because more notches on a cooperating witness’s belt mean less jail time,” Freeman said.
The feds confirmed they will be calling three cooperating witnesses during the trial, which resumes Wednesday.
https://nypost.com/2025/02/25/us-news/crooked-ex-li-cop-who-moonlighted-as-a-bonanno-solider-helped-fuel-mini-mob-war-with-rival-genovese/
Monday, February 24, 2025
Monday, February 17, 2025
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Long Island couple files $50M lawsuit against the Gotti family over high school brawl
The black Long Island family allegedly assaulted by the wife and daughter of John “Junior” Gotti in a race-fueled rage at a high school basketball game have sued the mother-daughter duo for $50 million.
Jean and Crystal Etienne claim Kimberly and Gianna Gotti allegedly called their son a “f–king monkey,” “f–king faggot,” “f–king bitch,” and told him, “f–k your mother,” according to a Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit.
The explosive February 2024 incident during the Oyster Bay vs Locust Valley game at Locust Valley High School — resulted in assault charges for Kimberly, wife of Junior and daughter-in-law of the late Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, along with her daughter Gianna.
But the case went sideways in October on a technicality and the charges were dismissed.
Kimberly’s son, Joe Gotti, was playing for Oyster Bay and Etienne’s son, identified only as S.S., was on the Locust Valley team. Both Mama Bears claimed they were trying to protect their sons from verbal abuse from the stands.
The Gottis have vehemently denied using racial slurs and insisted Crystal Etienne was the aggressor who hurled insults at their son.
But Crystal Etienne, 48, said Kimberly Gotti, 56, and Gianna, 24, were “yelling ‘shut up’ and getting in some of the faces of other children in the stands” before Crystal’s son entered the game.
“Please do not call my son. Please do not. They’re just kids,” Etienne allegedly begged the pair.
The dispute then turned physical, with Etienne allegedly suffering a head injury as the Gotti women tried to rip her wig off.
“In a fit of race fueled rage, the Gottis, along with unknown cohorts physically assaulted both Etiennes and their child,” including punching, scratching and hitting them while school officials did nothing, according to court papers.
The Etienne family further alleged that the “aggressive behavior had gone on for the whole entire game without any intervention by, direction from, or warnings from” Locust Valley Central School District officials.
The ugly, caught-on-video episode was the culmination of years of “racist and degrading” behavior at Locust Vally High School, claimed the Etiennes, a pair of wealthy business owners who live in a $6 million mansion in the tony enclave of Upper Brookville.
“Students and instructors have repeatedly voiced, and utilized electronic devices to utter racial words, including but not limited to, the ‘n’ word being played in classes,” according to court papers.
S.S. has also been falsely accused by school officials of marijuana use and assaulting a girl, the family contended.
The Gottis repeatedly rejected plea deals in the case from Nassau County prosecutors, and insisted their famous last name is what sparked criminal charges.
Their lawyer called the new lawsuit “absolute hog wash, totally frivolous and a waste of time.”
“They should leave the Gotti family alone. The case was dismissed because it had no merit,” said attorney Gerard Marrone. “Crystal started the entire fight.”
He pointed to the fact that Crystal Etienne was charged with grand larceny in 2015 for allegedly embezzling $50,000 from a car dealership where she worked. She pleaded guilty in 2016 to petty larceny and was sentenced to probation and restitution, according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s office.
“I guess Crystal needs $50,000 to pay the restitution she owes,” Marrone quipped, calling any allegation of racial slurs being slung in the incident “pure bullsh-t.”
Junior Gotti served six years and five months behind bars for racketeering and was the target of four federal trials between 2004 and 2009, which all ended in mistrials.
A spokeswoman for the Locust Valley Central School District declined to comment on the litigation.
A lawyer for the Etiennes declined comment.
https://nypost.com/2025/02/15/us-news/long-island-family-wants-50-million-from-gottis-for-hs-brawl/
Monday, February 10, 2025
Saturday, February 8, 2025
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Son and grandson of former Colombo Acting Boss busted with ghost guns on Staten Island
The
son and grandson of a Colombo crime family capo were busted Wednesday
after an NYPD joint task uncovered a staggering cache of weapons and
illegal firearm-making equipment, including ghost guns.
Members
of the NYPD Financial Crimes Task Force executed a warrant at the
Staten Island home of 57-year-old Joseph Orapallo and his son, Frank
Orapallo, 22, at their home on Locust Ave. near Edison St. in New Dorp
around 6 a.m. after an investigation led the division to believe the men
had ghost guns, police sources said.
The
alleged father-and-son crime duo are descendants of Joseph T.
Tomasello, a notorious organized crime boss arrested in 1998. Joseph
Orapallo, opting to distance himself from his late father, uses his
mother’s maiden name.
The
NYPD and federal agents raided the home the Orapallos share with Joseph
Orapallo’s wife, as well as Frank Orapallo’s baby and the mother of his
child.
During
the raid, authorities seized five ghost guns and 3D printing equipment
used to assemble them. Police also found a stash of handguns, silencers,
14 unregistered rifles and hunting guns, as well as large amounts of
ammunition and clips, according to police sources.
Both
Orapallos now face multiple federal weapons charges, including
possession of ghost guns. It is still being investigated if the men are
involved in organized crime, police sources said.
Tomasello’s capture in the ’90s came after his son, Joseph Orapallo, and his sister-in-law unknowingly led FBI agents to his hideout in the Catskills on the night of Orapallo’s wedding, the Daily News reported at the time.
For
six years, Tomasello, a street boss with the Colombo crime family, had
dodged federal agents after a notorious mob war in 1991 and 1992 that
left 10 people dead. Tomasello was accused of participating in five of
those slayings.
But
in 1998, federal agents staked out Joseph Orapallo’s Staten Island
wedding, where they followed his aunt to Tomasello’s hideaway in
Catskill, N.Y., about 25 miles south of Albany, The News previously
reported.
After
days of surveillance, agents spotted Orapallo and his new wife drive up
to the house with Tomasello; the then-66-year-old man was taken into
custody and was hit with racketeering and murder charges.
Tomasello was in federal prison until 2005, records show. He died in 2016.
https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/02/05/son-grandson-of-colombo-family-mob-boss-collared-in-staten-island-ghost-gun-bust/
Friday, January 31, 2025
Lucchese soldier facing 20 years in prison as he agrees to $4M forfeiture in plea deal
Five Mafia members and associates have pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering and gambling charges for running an illegal betting operation in New York City, according to prosecutors.
The Lucchese organized crime family figures admitted to running a large-scale gambling enterprise that prosecutors say brought millions in illicit profits annually.
Among them was Anthony Villani, a Lucchese soldier who agreed to a plea deal Thursday in which he’ll pay $4 million in forfeiture, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York.
Prosecutors said that since the early 2000s, the 60-year-old Elmsford resident owned and operated Rhino Sports, an online business that also employed Mafia figures as local bookmakers to pay and collect winnings.
They said the operation was concentrated in the Bronx and nearby Westchester County, took bets from roughly 400 to 1,300 individuals each week and collected at least $1 million annually.
“Illegal gambling businesses require enforcement and protection from mob rivals that carry the persistent threat of violence,” John Durham, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement. “However, the defendants’ luck ran out and, thanks to the hard work of the team of prosecutors and investigators, they will be held accountable for their crimes and pay their debt to society.”
Prosecutors say Villani faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday.
Four others pleaded guilty in recent days to federal charges related to the scheme, according to prosecutors. A sixth defendant remains at large.
https://apnews.com/article/mafia-bronx-lucchese-gambling-racketeering-f7facab0c427cc28b4eaa1a62d302744
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Friday, December 27, 2024
FBI disbands Boston organized crime squad
On an October afternoon in 1989, mobsters from Connecticut, Rhode
Island, and Massachusetts gathered at a modest home in Medford for a
secret ritual: the induction of four soldiers into the New England
Mafia, which marked a new beginning after their underboss was killed by a
renegade faction.
“It’s going to be the life of the heaven,” consigliere Joseph “J.R.”
Russo promised the new recruits, who pricked blood from their trigger
fingers, burned holy cards and promised to kill anyone — even their own
sons if necessary — to protect La Cosa Nostra, Italian for “This Thing
of Ours.” As an FBI bug recorded the infamous ceremony, a historic
moment for the law enforcement agency, Russo boasted that the secret
Sicilian-born organization had thrived for seven generations, spreading
to New York, Boston, Providence, Hartford, Chicago, and other cities
across the country.
Those days are gone, according to former law enforcement officials and organized crime experts.
So much so that the FBI’s Boston office, which oversees much of New
England, quietly disbanded its organized crime squad recently and
re-assigned agents to other priorities, according to several people
familiar with the move.
The agency will still monitor any organized crime groups, as needed. But
the disbandment of a unit that was largely built to target the Mafia
signaled a death notice of sorts — an end of a dark era — for what was
once one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the region, as
well as the storied unit that was built to combat it.
“I don’t think there’s much of anything left with traditional organized
crime,” said Fred Wyshak, a former federal prosecutor who won the
convictions of local Italian and Irish organized crime figures,
including the late former Mafia boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme,
notorious gangster Stephen Flemmi, and South Boston crime boss James
“Whitey” Bulger. “I think the leadership was destroyed and nobody really
has the strength to step in and fill that void. I don’t think there’s a
lot of desire to do so.”
The death earlier this month of 97-year-old Luigi “Louie” Manocchio, the
last don to lead the Mafia’s New England family from Providence’s
Federal Hill, recalled a bygone era when the Mafia was the region’s most
dominant criminal group. It has been on the decline for decades,
following waves of federal prosecutions dating to the 1980s that sent
eight bosses and underbosses and scores of underlings to prison for
crimes ranging from murder to shaking down strip clubs. Another
deterrent to recruitment was the revelation that some top-ranking
members broke “omerta,” the mob’s code of silence, to become informants
or cooperating witnesses.
“They’re just not at the threat level that they were years ago,” said
Steven O’Donnell, former superintendent of the Rhode Island State
Police. “We can’t sit back on our laurels, as organized crime still
exists and always will exist, but there are other entities that are a
greater threat in this country.”
He estimated there are currently only about 30 “made” members of the New
England Mafia, compared to hundreds during its heyday decades ago.
Kristen Setera, a spokesperson for the FBI, declined to discuss the
disbandment of the squad, but said the Boston office “continues to
dedicate significant resources to work and eradicate transnational and
regional organized criminal enterprises.”
In an email, she said “Every year, every field office across the FBI
takes a hard look at the threats in their respective area of
responsibility and adjusts resources assigned to mitigate those threats
to ensure each one is adequately being worked.”
Richard DesLauriers, who served as head of the FBI’s Boston office from
2010 to 2013, said the Mafia is no longer considered a serious threat
because the FBI’s organized crime unit, along with other federal, state
and local law enforcement agencies, has been so successful at
dismantling it. Now, he said, the FBI has greater concerns.
“I think they were significant back in the early 20th century,”
DesLauriers said. “Back then we did not have the threat of terrorism,
foreign spies stealing our secrets, and cyber crime.”
The bureau’s focus has shifted since 9/11 to those latter concerns, he said.
But in the 1960s the Mafia was one of the FBI’s top priorities, leading
to the creation of federal units to prosecute organized crime. The New
England Organized Crime Strike Force brought its first major case in
Boston against the local mob after the FBI planted a bug inside the
North End headquarters of underboss Gennaro “Jerry” Angiulo in 1981 and
captured him ordering murders and directing a lucrative gambling and
loansharking operation. He was convicted of racketeering, along with the
rest of the Mafia’s leadership in Boston, and sentenced to 45 years in
prison.
In 1989, the FBI’s organized crime squad captured the first-ever
recording of a Mafia induction ceremony, at the Medford home with the
baptism of new recruits, which served as the cornerstone of another
sweeping racketeering indictment that sent Mafia boss Raymond “Junior”
Patriarca and his underlings to prison.
Those high-profile successes were overshadowed in the late 1990s when it
was publicly revealed that the FBI used Bulger and Flemmi as informants
against their rivals in the Mafia and that corrupt agents took payoffs
from the pair and protected them from prosecution even as they were
committing murders and other crimes. Bulger fled to evade charges in
1995 and spent 16 years on the run. He was killed in prison in 2018
while serving a life sentence for 11 murders. Retired FBI agent John J.
Connolly Jr., Bulger’s handler, was convicted of murder.
Boston attorney Anthony Cardinale, who represented a number of Mafiosi,
including Angiulo and Salemme, and helped expose the FBI’s corrupt
relationship with Bulger and Flemmi, said the dismantling of the FBI’s
organized crime squad “came about 50 years too [expletive] late.”
Cardinale said that the FBI built exaggerated cases against the Mafia
and that the agency falsely portrayed a group of Italian Americans in
Boston as being part of a “multinational, worldwide criminal conspiracy
of vast proportions, when in fact it’s a few Italian guys running a
bookmaking operation and a barbut game in the North End.”
Yet, the FBI cases offer a chilling glimpse into violent exploits of the local mob.
In 2011, reputed New England Mafia boss Anthony DiNunzio was secretly
recorded during a meeting in Malden telling a mob associate that if
someone dared defy his rule, “I get to watch you die in the ground,”
according to wiretaps detailed in court filings.
The following year, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Rhode Island
to racketeering conspiracy and was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.
DiNunzio had taken the lead as boss from his brother, Carmen “The
Cheeseman” DiNunzio, who served five years in prison for delivering a
$10,000 bribe to an undercover FBI agent posing as a state official,
part of a conspiracy to secure a $6 million Big Dig contract. Law
enforcement officials say Carmen DiNunzio resumed his leadership
position after his release from prison nine years ago.
But the New England Mafia is now “a shell of itself,” said Steve
Johnson, a retired Massachusetts State Police detective lieutenant and
longtime organized crime investigator.
“It’s mostly figurehead people and wannabes ... people pretending they
are doing their best Sopranos act,” he said. “It’s mostly just in name.
They are certainly not what they used to be.”
Former federal prosecutor, Brian T. Kelly, part of the team that
prosecuted Salemme, Bulger, and Flemmi, said the disbanding of the FBI’s
traditional organized crime squad is a good sign and “we shouldn’t
lament it” if it means organized crime in Boston is on the wane.
“It’s probably the one area of law enforcement where they’ve had a resounding success,” he said.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/22/metro/mafia-boston-organized-crime-fbi/#:~:text=So%20much%20so%20that%20the,organized%20crime%20groups%2C%20as%20needed
Thursday, December 26, 2024
Supreme Court hears gun charge appeal from Genovese associate called Fat Sal
Dropping poison in a drink. Serving food gone dangerously bad. Or, hiring hitmen to take out a foe.
Are those violent crimes?
The Supreme Court appeared unconvinced Tuesday by a New York crime family associate’s argument that his conviction in a foiled murder-for-hire plot does not qualify as a “crime of violence” because he used no physical force. However, the justices seemed open to ruling that some crimes committed through inaction cannot be deemed violent.
Salvatore Delligatti, a Genovese crime family associate also known as “Fat Sal,” was found guilty of charges including racketeering and attempted murder after plotting to kill a local “bully.” He hired members of the Crips street gang and provided them with a .38 revolver and getaway car, but police intervened before the plot was carried out.
Delligatti was also convicted of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a “crime of violence,” which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five consecutive years in prison. He was sentenced to 25-year prison term in total.
Delligatti lawyer Allon Kedem argued Tuesday that a crime requiring death or bodily injury like murder, but committed through inaction, cannot be deemed a “crime of violence.” He asked the justices to throw out that conviction.
“Using physical force against another requires taking some step to bring force into contact with the victim,” Kedem said. “That can happen directly, as with a kick or punch, or indirectly, such as giving a gentle push to someone teetering on the edge of a cliff. But it does not involve an offense that can be committed by pure omission, such as failing to render aid to someone suffering from a natural disorder.”
In court filings, Delligatti’s counsel contended that — while perhaps “morally reprehensible” — failing to provide a person with necessary medical care or nutrition, causing serious injury or death, does not involve the use of any force. The same is true in Delligatti’s case, where no one pulled the trigger, he said.
The justices seemed skeptical, posing several hypothetical questions about whether inaction can still be violent.
Justice Elena Kagan asked whether offering an enemy food so spoiled it was “completely toxic” would qualify as a violent crime, while Justice Sonia Sotomayor raised scenarios about choosing not to offer the Heimlich maneuver to a random person choking versus one’s own child, noting the obligation to act.
Justice Samuel Alito called the legal arguments “fascinating,” but noted that Delligatti’s crime is perhaps more cut-and-dry than others.
“Would you argue that your client is not the kind of armed career criminal that Congress was trying to get at when they enacted this statute?” he asked.
“We would not argue that,” Kedem replied.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, pointing specifically to states with Good Samaritan statutes, questioned if letting a “little old lady” step into a manhole without intervening would qualify.
“Physical force (is), I guess, the gravity — what more powerful force in the universe is there than that?” Gorsuch said. “Would that, in your view, fall within the government’s understanding of what will qualify as the application of violent force?”
“It would have to,” Kedem replied. “The government’s view, essentially, is, anytime you have a bad result, you know that there must have been violent physical force. Which means that, not only would the death or other injury in your example be violent physical force, it would also be involved in literally every death since the beginning of time, because in every death, something bad happens.”
Eric Feigin, deputy solicitor general, strongly pushed back.
“It’s hard to believe that we’re actually here debating whether murder is a crime of violence,” Feigin argued before the justices Tuesday.
Despite the justices’ skepticism of Delligatti’s position, sharp hypothetical questions were asked of the government, as well.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson posed a scenario where a lifeguard sees a child she “hates” get into the pool; when the child starts drowning, she doesn’t jump into the water to save him.
“Is it your position that she uses physical force against this kid if she doesn’t jump into the water when she sees him drowning?” Jackson asked.
Federal appeals courts have split over how to apply the gun charge to other cases, with two of 10 appeals courts that have weighed the matter determining that use of force is not an element of such crimes if the crime can be committed by inaction, as Delligatti contends.
In an unusual move, the government agreed that the justices should hear Delligatti’s appeal to give lower courts better clarity, despite opposing it.
A decision is expected by next summer.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4986375-supreme-court-crime-violence-delligatti-case/
Former Genovese Acting Captain gets 30 months for illegal gambling
A former acting captain in the Genovese organized crime family was sentenced on Friday to 30 months in prison, federal prosecutors said.
Carmelo Polito, also known as "Carmine Polito" was sentenced for racketeering in connection to operating an illegal gambling business at the Gran Caffé in Lynbrook, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace announced.
Polito, 64, of Queens, also attempted to extort someone who owed him money stemming from a separate online sports betting business, prosecutors said.
"The cards did not favor Carmelo Polito's illicit gambling parlor or his extortionate methods,” stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Dennehy. “His illegitimate business and death threats financed the operations of two crime families.
Polito is a longtime, inducted member of the Genovese organized crime family.
As detailed in earlier court filings, for years, numerous members and associates of the Genovese
and
Bonanno organized crime families operated several illegal gambling
operations, the U.S. Attorney said. The Genovese and Bonanno families
jointly operated a lucrative illegal gambling parlor concealed inside a
coffee shop called the Gran Caffé in Lynbrook.
Polito is the first person sentenced in this case and a related case against four members and associates of the Bonanno organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra.
Awaiting sentencing are:
- Joseph Macario, 69, (also known as "Joe Fish"), of West Islip
- Salvatore Rubino, 60, ("Sal the Shoemaker"), of Bethpage
- Joseph Rutigliano, 65, (also known as "Joe Box"), of Commack
- Mark Feuer, 61, of Oceanside
Thursday, December 12, 2024
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Sunday, December 8, 2024
Former Boss of New England's Patriarca Crime Family dead at 97
Louis Manocchio, the last Rhode Island boss of the New England crime family, has died. He was 97.
12 News law enforcement analyst Steven O’Donnell, a former Rhode Island State Police colonel, said Manocchio died early Sunday morning. Manocchio had been living at the R.I. Veterans Home in Bristol.
Manocchio — whose given name was Luigi – was given several nicknames over the years by members and associates of the crime family as well as investigators that kept watch on him. But the one that ultimately stuck was his alias in court documents from his arrest in 2011, when the former Mafia don was referred to as “Baby Shacks.”
The unassuming and notoriously health-conscious mobster rose to the underworld’s top job in 1995 following the arrest of then-boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, who was a close ally to Manocchio.
Despite being the subject of intense surveillance by state and federal investigators, Manocchio was largely able to fly under the radar, avoiding any significant legal headaches until 2008. That year Manocchio was approached by two veteran FBI agents – Special Agents Joseph Degnan and Jeffrey Cady – while dining on soup at a Federal Hill restaurant. Manocchio, investigators said in court documents, had just been handed an envelope full of cash which the FBI was able to trace back to a Providence strip club.
The money, they would later allege, was an extortion payment.
While the moment didn’t immediately lead to charges, it proved to be Manocchio’s undoing: he soon stepped down as the boss of the crime family, and in 2011 he was indicted as part of a sweeping crackdown into organized crime that ultimately sent him to a federal prison for more than five years.
He was released in 2015.
Early life
Luigi Manocchio was born in Providence on June 23, 1927, to his parents Mary and Nicola. He is the second of three sons, the elder Andrew and the youngest Anthony, who would become a gynecologist.
Veterans Administration records show Manocchio served in U.S. Army from Jan. 10, 1946, to March 14, 1947. It’s unclear what ended his short stint in the armed services – investigators would later spot Manocchio going in for doctor’s appointments at the VA Hospital in Providence – but public records show he received a monthly pension from the U.S. military.
A review of Providence police intelligence reports shows Manocchio had some minor scrapes with the law as a juvenile, but his first arrest as an adult came four days before Christmas in 1952. The arrest report – which lists the nicknames “Baby Face” and “Baby Shanks” – shows Manocchio was charged with two counts of assault and robbery, illegal possession of a revolver, and driving a stolen car. Everything but the weapons charge was dropped, and he escaped prison time, given a five-year suspended sentence.
But his underworld notoriety came under intense scrutiny in April 1968 when two renegade bookmakers, Rudolph Marfeo and Anthony Melei, were gunned down while shopping at Pannone’s market in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Providence. Investigators at the time said Marfeo was murdered because he defied then-mob boss Raymond Patriarca’s order to shut down a gambling operation. Melei was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, working as Marfeo’s bodyguard.
Detectives pegged Manocchio not as the triggerman, but as a conspirator who took part in the planning of the gangland slaying. Arrested six months after the murder, Manocchio escaped from custody after a judge granted him bail, then went on the lam for the next decade.
Manocchio had become an international fugitive, investigators said, spending the 1970s hiding out in Europe — including France and Italy — where he learned to speak several languages.
Using a dummy passport, according to police, Manocchio was able to make his way to New York City from time to time, going through great lengths to disguise himself, even dressing up as a woman to avoid capture.
It was in Europe Manocchio became an avid and risk-taking downhill skier. (Former investigators have said even in his older years, he would ski mountains that required a helicopter to get to.)
Ultimately it was Manocchio who turned himself in on July 13, 1979. It took four years for the trial to take place, with Manocchio prosecuted alongside five other defendants. He was convicted of both accessory to commit murder and conspiracy, and sent to the Adult Corrections Institution to serve two life sentences, plus 10 years for good measure.
O’Donnell was a correctional officer at the state prison in 1983 when he first met Manocchio, who was in custody on the murder charge. He said he initially mistook the organized crime figure for a lawyer.
“He was in a suit and tie holding a briefcase. He was on the way to court,” O’Donnell said. “He was very polished.”
Despite that polished image, O’Donnell said Manocchio was someone to be feared.
“Nobody should be misguided by the allure of Manocchio,” O’Donnell said.
But just two years into his prison sentence, a key witness against Manocchio was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and admitted to lying in another related case. It was a disaster for prosecutors. Manocchio was able to cut a deal, pleading no contest to conspiracy, and given credit for time served.
Manocchio was set free, and his underworld prestige soared.
Rise to boss
In the years following his release, Manocchio’s continued to climb in the ranks of the New England La Cosa Nostra. He became a “capo regime” — or captain — operating a crew of bookmakers, loan sharks and thieves in Rhode Island.
It was during that time that he forged a relationship with Salemme, who took the reins as boss after the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Raymond “Junior” Patriarca, the son of the man whose surname still adorns the crime family in New England. (The elder Patriarca died in 1984 of a heart attack.) Investigators in Boston captured photos of Manocchio and Salemme, who operated out of Boston, meeting on multiple occasions.
Being a rising star in the crime family, however, came with risks.
A federal case in Boston decades later revealed Manocchio was likely the target of an assassination attempt by notorious hitman Kevin Hanrahan. An FBI informant told investigators Hanrahan attempted to purchase explosives to be placed in a suitcase and sent into Federal Hill restaurant Euro Bistro, which Manocchio was allegedly a silent partner in and frequented.
But the dramatic hit on Manocchio’s life never happened.
In 1992 – shortly after the informant said Salemme hatched the plan – Hanrahan was shot multiple times in the head while walking out of another Atwells Avenue restaurant. Court documents in 2018 indicated former Rhode Island mob capo Robert “Bobby” DeLuca was poised to testify that Salemme ordered the hit and Manocchio helped plan it. Neither were charged and the case remains unsolved.
Following Salemme’s arrest as part of a sweeping 1995 indictment that also included infamous Irish gangster James J. “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, the center of New England’s organized crime universe shifted back to Providence: Manocchio was elevated to boss.
Multiple people familiar with Manocchio interviewed over the years described his style as “old school.” Manocchio was not seen being chauffeured around in a Cadillac or living in a lush suburban home while pulling the strings of a powerful ongoing criminal operation. Rather he drove himself around in an older model white Nissan Maxima and lived in a modest apartment above Euro Bistro.
Standing 5’9″, Manocchio was always in impeccable shape, described as a “health nut” by many observers. Undercover detectives and agents would often spy him rising early to jog several mornings a week around Triggs golf course in Providence, stopping at a specific tree to do a set of pull-ups, then continue his run. Possibly getting the bug from his years as a fugitive, Manocchio continued to be an avid traveler – a factor prosecutors would later cite in arguing to keep him detained following his final arrest.
In an interview in 2011, former state police detective Anthony Pesare said Manocchio “adhered to the historical Sicilian mobster image.”
“Maintain a low profile, don’t dress flashy, don’t make yourself a target by being showy,” Pesare said.
But that didn’t stop federal and state law enforcement from trying to pin a case on him.
In 1996 Manocchio got jammed up in an unlikely snafu: getting a new washer and dryer installed in his elderly mother’s house. The problem for Manocchio was that the appliances were stolen, and investigators said they were “tribute” payments as homage to his stature in the crime family.
But it wasn’t a major case, and in 1999 Manocchio pleaded no contest to the charges, receiving three years’ probation. From time to time his name would appear in federal court documents linked to other organized crime investigations – labeled by the FBI as boss – but he was never charged for his role as the reputed CEO of crime family. That changed in 2011.
Two years after agents Degnan and Cady surprised the aging Mafia don over his soup, Manocchio was arrested boarding a plane in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a return flight to Rhode Island.
He was instead taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service, and bounced around the country for weeks before being brought into U.S. District Court in Providence to face six federal counts including extortion, conspiracy, and RICO conspiracy. His decision to step down as mob boss had not spared him liability in a national crackdown into organized crime by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The thrust of the case against Manocchio was that he extorted protection payments from multiple Rhode Island strip clubs. The cash the FBI agents confiscated from Manocchio that night on Federal Hill contained marked bills which were traced back to the Cadillac Lounge in Providence.
In all, the multiyear joint federal and state investigation ensnared nine members or associates of the New England La Cosa Nostra, wiping out the upper echelons of the crime family and all but crippling its ability to operate like it had in decades past.
As part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Manocchio admitted guilt to one count of RICO conspiracy, and on May 11, 2012, U.S. District Judge William Smith sentenced the defendant to 5 1/2 years in prison. (He was given credit for time served as he had been in custody since his arrest.)
Three years later, Manocchio was released from a federal prison in North Carolina and placed on home confinement, and six months after that he was free to walk around Federal Hill once again. He completed his probation three years later.
“It’s been remarkable journey in La Cosa Nostra,” O’Donnell said. “For 80 years he lived in that life, that world.”
Details of the funeral arrangements have not yet been released.
https://www.wpri.com/target-12/manocchio-last-new-england-mob-boss-from-rhode-island-dead-at-97/
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