Five Families of New York City

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

Monday, June 16, 2025

Canada takes down leadership of Rizzuto Crime Family in major operation

  June 16, 2025    Dapper_Don



The alleged leaders of the Rizzuto crime family have been arrested in a sweeping police operation that one expert says has “effectively decapitated” what remains of Montreal’s most notorious Mafia clan. Leonardo Rizzuto, 56, and Stefano Sollecito, 57, were among 11 suspects taken into custody on Thursday with another five sought as part of Project Alliance, a three-year investigation into organized crime in Quebec. Rizzuto — the son of the late mob boss Vito Rizzuto — appeared in court by video, where his lawyer entered a not guilty plea. Sollecito, who appeared frail and in a wheelchair, remains in custody. The charges against the men relate to a series of killings between 2011 and 2021. The arrests followed co-ordinated raids by nearly 150 officers across Montreal, Laval, Quebec City and nearby regions. Also detained were Nicola Spagnolo, Davide Barberio and Jean-Richard Larivière, a longtime member of the Hells Angels. Antonio Nicaso, an expert on organized crime and a professor at Queen’s University, called the arrests a serious setback for the Rizzuto network. “It is a devastating blow that effectively decapitates the leadership of the Rizzuto crime family, an organization that for some years now has lost the power it once held in Montreal,” Nicaso told The Gazette. Criminologist Maria Mourani said the operation reflects the importance of the targets. “We see several very important members of the Italian Mafia in Montreal who are being targeted,” she said. “This is good news.” She said it remains to be seen what happens, but the arrests may bring about a possible “slight destabilization” of Montreal’s criminal landscape. “Every time there are police operations, there are individuals who will replace other individuals,” Mourani said. “You can expect that some groups will try to take the dishes.”

This is the third major operation targeting the Rizzuto network in less than two decades, following Project Colisée in 2006 and Project Magot-Mastiff in 2015. The latter collapsed after allegations of police misconduct, and charges were dropped. Authorities say the latest probe is notable for its murder charges. Though police did not confirm it on Thursday, the probe was largely built on information from Frédérick Silva, a convicted hit man now serving multiple life sentences. Several search warrants related to the current investigation were carried out during December 2023. Back then, the Sûreté du Québec said in a statement the search warrants were “part of a major criminal investigation, which aims to elucidate several murders linked to organized crime that occurred in Montreal and (north of Montreal) from the middle of the 1990s until today. Certain individuals associated with notorious groups such as the Italian Mafia, the Hells Angels and criminalized street gangs are targeted by the investigation.” On Thursday, Mourani said there is no sole leader in Quebec’s organized crime but instead there are just “different groups and families.” The Sicilian-rooted Rizzuto family once dominated Montreal’s underworld, but its influence has since waned. “Will these individuals be convicted? Will they stay off the streets?” Mourani said. “We’ll have to watch closely.”

https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/local-crime/article986717.html

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Thursday, June 12, 2025

Colombo mobster busted in Florida for medicare fraud

  June 12, 2025    Dapper_Don


Thomas “Tom Mix” Farese, the reputed Colombo crime family’s consigliere, has gotten into trouble again with the feds in Florida, authorities say. This week, Farese and three associates in the durable medical equipment business were charged with swindling millions of dollars out of the Medicare program for senior citizens. They’re accused of submitting false bills to the taxpayer-funded program for unnecessary braces and paying kickbacks to telemedicine companies in exchange for supplying a pipeline of patients and physicians. Farese, 82, and the other defendants made their first appearances in federal court in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday. Farese, who authorities say has been a notorious fixture in the mob rackets in New York and South Florida for decades, pleaded guilty last month to a money-laundering charge in a similar federal case in New Jersey that alleged a $93 million healthcare fraud scheme against Medicare and other government programs. He faces sentencing in July. Broward conspirators: feds Farese, who formerly owned a luxury townhome in Delray Beach and now lives in Florida, is accused of conspiring with Parkland couple Ed and Robbyn Cannatelli and Virgina Lockett, of Margate, to use a handful of medical equipment “fronts” to submit false Medicare bills for knee, back and wrist braces, according to an indictment. The indictment, filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay G. Trezevant, says the Florida fronts — Embrace All, Progressive Medical and Advance Medical — were owned by Ed Cannatelli, Farese and his longtime Colombo family associate, Patsy Truglia, who was charged in a related case in 2021. Truglia, formerly of Parkland, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud federal healthcare programs, including Medicare, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to repay $18 million to the U.S. government. The latest indictment does not mention that Farese is connected to the Colombo crime family in New York, though his role as its consigliere has been widely reported by news media. The Miami Herald was unable to locate defense lawyers for the Cannatellis, Farese and Lockett because their case, returned by a grand jury in the Middle District of Florida based in Tampa, had not been filed in the federal court system. The Herald obtained the indictment from that office. Life and times of Tommy Farese Starting in the 1970s, Farese has been involved in an array of South Florida rackets — such as using his shipping company to smuggle marijuana and his strip clubs to launder drug money — years before expanding into the hotbed of healthcare fraud. Farese first made headlines in Fort Lauderdale following his 1978 indictment for being the “mastermind” of a large marijuana smuggling and distribution operation under the cover of his Olympic Shipping Lines operation, according to a story in the Florida Bulldog. The case was sensational because it included allegations of bribery against a pair of former state representatives that arose out of conversations tape-recorded by police who bugged Farese’s office. Organized crime strike force prosecutors convicted Farese in 1980. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but was released in 1994. Soon after, undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents posing as dealers began targeting him with a plan to wash more than $1 million through his strip clubs. Farese had hidden interests in Hialeah’s Club Pink Pussycat, Goldfinger in Sunrise, and Club Diamonds in West Palm Beach. Agents said that for a fee Farese laundered the purported drug money for them. Farese was charged with racketeering in January 1996, and later pleaded guilty and got 10 years. He was released from prison in 2005. Farese was arrested again in January 2012, this time on money-laundering charges. Truglia was charged with him. After a December 2012 trial in federal court in Brooklyn, Farese was acquitted but Truglia was convicted. The New York Daily News reported the case was “severely hobbled by the absence of two mob rats who secretly recorded the evidence, but were kept off the witness stand because they had been engaging in misconduct while working as informants.”

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article308464880.html#storylink=cpy

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Killer Colombo hitman serving life for 4 murders denied compassionate release

  June 12, 2025    Dapper_Don


A Mafia killer who whacked other members of his own Colombo crime family hit crew— and shoved the severed penis of one murder victim into the dead man’s mouth — will not get compassionate release, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled.

John Pappa, 50, won’t get a break on his two life sentences plus 65 years for four gangland murders in the 1990s, Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Pamela Chen ruled, describing his crimes as “brutal and senseless” and suggesting the remorse he showed at a hearing last year was a cynical act.

“The court cannot shake the impression, after observing and listening to defendant over the course of the two-hour April proceeding, that he feels no remorse about committing the four murders nor empathy for the victims or their families,” Chen wrote. “Defendant’s statements … felt hollow and performative.”

Pappa, who has the creed “Morte prima di disonore” — meaning “death before dishonor” — tattooed across his back, committed the 12th and final murder of the bloody Colombo civil war of the early 1990s, then killed a fellow button man because he wanted credit for the slay.

The whole sordid affair was laid out in Chen’s ruling, filed May 30.

Pappa and another mobster, John Sparacino, were part of a three-man “hit team” assembled by Eric Curcio, and on Oct. 20, 1993, they rubbed out Colombo underboss Joseph Scopo, ambushing him as he pulled up to his Queens home in Ozone Park.

Sparacino sprayed Scopo’s car with bullets, but Scopo managed to get out of his car and run off.

Pappa ran after him, shot him three times and killed him.

Sparacino began taking credit for the killing, which angered Pappa and Curcio, so the two started plotting to kill him. But first, they went after one of Sparacino’s friends, Rolando Rivera. because he told his girlfriend that Curcio warned him to stay away from Sparacino.

Rivera’s loose lips doomed him. On June 7, 1994, Curcio and Pappa drove with Rivera in a stolen van to Staten Island, and when they crossed into the Forgotten Borough, they shot him four times and shoved him out of the van while it was moving.

An off-duty cop found Rivera alive, but he died shortly after.

Their attention turned back to Sparacino after learning he’d dissed Curcio and Pappa at a nightclub. So they enlisted a pal in the drug trade, Calvin Hennigar, to lure Sparacino to his Staten Island home. There, Hennigar shot him in the back of the head.

Pappa and Hennigar drove Sparacino’s body to another spot on Staten Island in a stolen car, and lit the vehicle on fire, their victim still inside.

An autopsy revealed Sparacinio’s gruesome fate — he had been hog–tied and mutilated, with a flap of skin cut from his face and his severed penis shoved in his mouth.

Finally, Pappa turned on Curcio, who he thought wasn’t giving him credit for the Scopo kill, and who may have killed one of his close friends.

“I killed Joe Scopo, I did all the work,” Pappa complained to Joseph Iborti, who testified at Pappa’s 1999 trial.

No one would help Pappa with the hit, so he went solo, ambushing Curcio outside his place of business on Oct. 4, 1994 — shooting him more than 10 times.

Pappa was convicted of all four killings in 1999, while Hennigar was found guilty of the Sparacino slay.

Pappa put in for compassionate release in 2022, arguing that his history growing up led him into the arms of La Cosa Nostra. His father was a Genovese gangster murdered by the Colombo crime family in retaliation for committing two slayings — a story people told Pappa as a child — and his stepfather was locked up for drug and tax evasion charges.

“Pappa was raised in a life of organized crime and drug dealing, and after his father was killed and his stepfather was incarcerated, he
began to look up to organized crime members to fill the fatherhood gap,” wrote his lawyer, Shon Hopwood.

At a tense hearing last year, the loved ones of Pappa’s victims spoke out, asking Chen to keep him locked away forever.

“You’re a phony, you’re a fake, you’re a loser, and you’re a killer, and that’s all you’ll ever be. Remember that. You’ve taken lives. You’ve
gotten that taste. Don’t act like you deserve anything from anybody. You deserve nothing but suffering like we’ve suffered,” said Michelle Gedz, who was five months pregnant with Rivera’s daughter when he died. “You are pure evil and you are the spawn of evil, and there is nothing else you will ever be.”

At the April 2024 hearing, Pappa told Chen he found his humanity in prison.

“It’s been productive. It’s been transformative. I’ve completely changed my way of thinking, my belief system. I’ve learned that working as hard as you possibly can, being honest and helping others, that those are the three keys to a meaningful life,” he said. “I now see things clearly, act correctly, and my actions are positive, effective, and completely unselfish.”

Sparacino’s brother, Salvadore, interrupted Pappa as he spoke, declaring: “And the Oscar goes to you.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/06/08/colombo-killer-john-pappa-jailed-for-life-in-4-nyc-rubouts-denied-compassionate-release/

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Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Gotti grandsons busted for beating down mob associate in Queens

  June 03, 2025    Dapper_Don


Two grandsons of the late Gambino crime boss John Gotti were arrested and charged with assaulting a former family friend.

Cops said brothers Frankie Gotti, 27, and John Gotti, 31, son of the late crime boss’ youngest son, Peter, were arrested after assaulting Gino Gabrielli, who was accused of breaking into a home associated with one of the brothers and stealing $3,300.

Gabrielli, an alleged mob associate, was arrested Sunday and charged with burglary, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property after the break-in.

Not satisfied with the arrest, the brothers tracked Gabrielli down to his mother’s house in Howard Beach and administered a beatdown in front of his own mother, officials said.

Frankie and John Gotti were arraigned before Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cullar in Queens Criminal Court early Tuesday evening. They were released on their own recognizance without bail and are scheduled to return to court Aug 7. They said nothing as they left court.

In 2015, federal authorities said, Gabrielli accidentally set himself on fire while torching the Mercedes-Benz of a Queens businessman who had stopped making his annual payoffs to an irate mob captain involved in an extortion scheme.

The victim’s home security video system caught Gabrielli, first seen dousing the year-old car with an accelerant, fleeing the scene with his pants ablaze.

Gabrielli pleaded guilty to the arson in August 2016.

In 2017, John Gotti, the grandson, was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to selling oxycodone pills in New York City.

At the time, his lawyer, Gerard Marrone, said his client’s name was a blessing and a curse.

“His last name is what his last name is and he’s always walking around with a target on his back,” Marrone said. “It’s a double-edge sword, I think sometimes the name is a cross [to bear], but sometimes I think it’s a blessing. They’re a beautiful family, they’re very supportive of him since Day One. They really stick together, the entire family.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/06/03/gotti-grandsons-busted-queens-beatdown-reputed-mob-associate/

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Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Former Colombo Street Boss plotted to kill federal officials who sent him to prison

  May 21, 2025    Dapper_Don



FBI agents allege Ralph DeLeo, a former reputed street boss of the Colombo crime family, was arrested this month for plotting to kill at least three people who helped put him behind bars in 2012, according to newly filed court documents.

The Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed in the court documents that federal agents “received a tip from a confidential source reporting that DeLeo is actively planning to kill two current and one former federal official.” The federal officials were all involved in DeLeo’s conviction more than a decade ago, according to court documents.

As Target 12 first reported, DeLeo, 82, was arrested on May 15, but federal officials didn’t publicly release details about his arrest until filing the new court documents on Tuesday night. DeLeo’s criminal history dates back decades and the FBI alleged he served in the 1970s as an associate of the Patriarca crime family, which operated out of Providence.

In 2012, DeLeo was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for racketeering, among other crimes. He got out of prison under supervised release in May 2024, and federal agents alleged he’s recently been planning to kill the people who put him away. (The people were not publicly identified.)
The confidential source told agents DeLeo shared with him that an associate of La Cosa Nostra, or the Mafia, had obtained “tools” on his behalf, which federal officials took to mean firearms. DeLeo was also seeking a silencer, according to court documents.

DeLeo was allegedly asking around for personal information about the people he was targeting, “including the home addresses and names of immediate family members,” according to court documents.

Federal agents conducted search warrants on him and his home earlier this month and found “hard copy packets of personal information for multiple people,” including two of the federal officials. The source told agents he asked DeLeo about the information, and the aging mafioso told him “they were his ‘retribution.'”

FBI agent Molly Driscoll wrote in a sworn affidavit that DeLeo initially claimed he collected the officials’ personal information himself, but agents later determined he was lying.

“Specifically, law enforcement obtained text messages between DeLeo and a third party demonstrating that DeLeo asked the third party for information related to the targeted individuals,” Driscoll wrote. Court documents show he was communicating with convicted felons, including people he was indicted with on sweeping racketeering charges in 2009.

Agents also recovered from his home a burglary kit, marijuana, vials of steroids, “and a handwritten note regarding silicone masks,” according to court documents.

The burglary kit contained “tools including a pry-bar, mini crowbar, bolt cutters, and a lock-picking kit,” according to Driscoll.

Federal officials alleged DeLeo has shown a history of resentment toward the people who convicted him. While in prison, DeLeo told a confidential informant in 2014 he was going to “chop off” the head of one of the federal officials who became the target of his most recent kill plot, according to court documents.

Prosecutors also detailed DeLeo’s extensive criminal history over the past six decades, which they said started when he was convicted of multiple armed robberies and other crimes at 16 years old.

“DeLeo’s entire life has been devoted to crime,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam Deitch and Lauren Maynard wrote in a motion for detention filed Tuesday evening.


“His criminal record is riddled with violence spanning the course of decades,” they added. “And just as aging had no impact on his activity in the past, DeLeo’s current advanced age has no bearing on his willingness or ability to continue engaging in criminal activity.”

DeLeo committed crimes in the 1970s, including armed robbery and attempted kidnapping, earning him a sentence of 25 to 40 years. But he ended up escaping custody and went on the run in Ohio, where he committed armed bank robbery and kidnapped a bank manager, according to court documents.

“While still in Ohio, DeLeo committed his most gruesome offense: kidnapping for hire a prominent physician with the intent to castrate him, but instead shooting and killing the victim when he resisted DeLeo’s attempted abduction,” wrote the prosecutors.

DeLeo was released early on a commuted sentence in 1997, and he eventually rose to prominence in the Colombo crime syndicate, one of the five families of New York, according to FBI agents. He ran his own violent gang in the Boston area known as the “DeLeo Crew,” according to prosecutors.

DeLeo eventually became the reputed street boss of the Colombo family before he was indicted in 2009, according to federal agents. The prosecutors are now asking a federal judge to detain DeLeo for violating the terms of his supervised release. No new criminal case had been filed against DeLeo in federal court as of Tuesday.

“DeLeo has spent his life committing violent crimes,” they wrote. “It appears that he intends to spend his sunset years doing the same. The seriousness of the most recent threats, DeLeo’s long and violent criminal record, and his history of attempting to flee from custody all lead to one conclusion: DeLeo must be detained.”

Defense attorneys for DeLeo have asked that he be released from detention because he’s suffering from multiple health problems, including issues they said will require oral surgery.

The attorneys also argued in court documents that he isn’t receiving the medical attention he needs at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls and should be transferred to a federal prison.

DeLeo’s detention hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/mobster-ralph-deleo-plotted-to-kill-federal-officials-who-put-him-away-court-docs-show/

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Thursday, May 15, 2025

Parole violation sends former Colombo Street Boss back to jail

  May 15, 2025    Dapper_Don




A convicted murderer and reputed former street boss of the Colombo crime family has been arrested in Massachusetts, Target 12 has learned.

Ralph F. DeLeo, 82, was arrested on Thursday, according to new court documents filed in Massachusetts U.S. District Court. DeLeo, who’d been in federal prison for about a decade, was released on parole in 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website.

Details of his arrest haven’t yet been announced, but DeLeo appeared Thursday afternoon for a revocation hearing before Massachusetts U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Levenson. He was advised of his rights and the charges against him before being sent back into the custody of federal officials, according to minutes of the hearing.

DeLeo has been scheduled for a detention hearing at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

FBI Boston spokesperson Kristen Setera said DeLeo was taken into custody “without incident.” She referred all further questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

A spokesperson for Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley declined to comment on the arrest, pending the outcome of the hearing.

DeLeo, who grew up and launched his criminal career in the Boston area, rose to the highest levels of the New York-based Colombo crime family, becoming a reputed “street boss” for about a year around 2008, according to the FBI.

He pleaded guilty in 2012 to sweeping racketeering charges, along with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. As part of the racketeering charge, federal agents accused him of trafficking illegal narcotics, extortion and loan sharking among other things.

The so-called “DeLeo Crew” operated primarily in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Florida and Arkansas, according to the FBI.

The Colombo family is considered one of the five most powerful crime families in New York under the umbrella of La Cosa Nostra.

DeLeo was convicted of murder in Ohio for the 1977 slaying of Dr. Walter Bond, according to The Columbus Dispatch. DeLeo’s sentence was commuted by Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste after serving 12 years.

Celeste told The Dispatch at the time he agreed to commute DeLeo’s sentence because he was assured DeLeo “wasn’t going to be out on the street,” according to the newspaper.

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/mobster-ralph-deleo-arrested-in-massachusetts/

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Monday, May 12, 2025

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Friday, April 25, 2025

Son of late New England mobster pleads guilty to killing former girlfriend

  April 25, 2025    Dapper_Don



The son of the late Mafia capo Frank "Bobo" Marrapese admitted on April 24 to killing his ex-girlfriend in a brutal slaying in 2019 in the Edgewood section of Cranston.
Michael Marrapese, 46, pleaded guilty to first-degree domestic murder in the killing of 29-year-old Lauren Ise just as his trial was slated to begin before Superior Court Judge Maureen B. Keough, court records show.
Cranston police went to 245 Bay View Ave. on March 13, 2019, to check on Ise after Providence detectives relayed a tip that she had been murdered by her estranged boyfriend, Marrapese. They found her body and signs of foul play.
Marrapese had lived with Ise in the duplex until shortly before her death. Her mother, Cheryl Palazzo, said during an anti-domestic violence walk in her daughter's honor that Ise had broken up with Marrapese and was living alone at the apartment. Marrapese, Palazzo claimed, had threatened her the night before the slaying.
Ise did not have a protective order against Marrapese, according to the Cranston police. Police had responded to the apartment for domestic disturbances, and Ise had reported feeling threatened after Marrapese moved out.
Marrapese was arrested weeks before the killing for disorderly conduct after Cranston police charged his brother, Steven Andrew Marrapese of Providence, with fighting and assault and battery on Ise while using a folding knife, according to a court complaint.
Steven Marrapese is currently serving time in maximum security at the Adult Correctional Institutions, while his brother is in the high-security unit.
Mafia capo Frank L. “Bobo” Marrapese Jr., known as one of the most vicious enforcers for New England crime boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca, died in December 2017 at Rhode Island Hospital.
Marrapese, 74, had been serving time at the ACI for murder, racketeering and extortion at the time of his death.
The elder Marrapese operated the Acorn Social Club on Federal Hill, a key meeting spot for mobsters from across New England. Marrapese shot mob associate Richard “Dickie” Callei to death at the club on March 15, 1975. He then had the corpse buried near a golf course in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.
After Callei’s murder, it took nearly a decade to catch Marrapese, although he continued to commit other crimes, such as a hijacking case involving stolen La-Z-Boy recliners in the early 1980s.
Marrapese was convicted of Callei’s murder in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison. He was released on parole in 2008.
Within two years, state police alleged, he and other mob figures were running a large-scale sports gambling ring that was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Marrapese was among two dozen associates arrested in May 2011. He was sentenced in 2013 to nine years for racketeering and extortion.
Though Marrapese spent most of his adult life in prison for various crimes, not all the charges stuck. He was acquitted in the murder of Anthony “The Moron” Mirabella at Fidas Restaurant in May 1982, as well as the August 1982 murder of 20-year-old Ronald McElroy, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat after accidentally cutting off Marrapese and other mobsters who were street racing in Providence. Marrapese maintained his innocence in McElroy’s murder.
Marrapese’s time as a Patriarca enforcer spanned from the 1960s to the 1980s.

https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/crime/2025/04/24/son-of-late-mobster-bobo-marrapese-admits-to-killing-ex-girlfriend/83252124007/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook#n1b2060hwcmrw90793srkxozeq248rdk

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Thursday, April 24, 2025

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

95 year old Genovese gangster who plotted to kill John Gotti granted compassionate release

  April 23, 2025    Dapper_Don

 

A 95-year-old mobster who once plotted to whack John Gotti will be allowed to die at home with his family, after a federal judge granted the ailing wiseguy compassionate release.

Louis “Bobby” Manna — who rose to the rank of consigliere, the number three spot in the Genovese Crime Family, before his 1988 arrest on racketeering charges — has served about 36 years of his 80-year federal racketeering sentence. He was denied release back in 2020.

On April 16, New Jersey District Court Judge Robert Kirsch granted Manna compassionate release under the First Step Act, stating that his grim health prognosis and his efforts at rehabilitation behind bars tipped the scales in his favor.

“Mr. Manna’s well-chronicled severe health problems undoubtedly establish ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’ for compassionate release,” Kirsch wrote. Those problems include a stroke, high risk Stage II metastatic lung cancer, chronic kidney disease and a recurring infection.

He was placed in a “Fall Watch” room, under 24-hour medical observation, at the Federal Medical Center prison in Rochester, in September.

Manna will be placed on five years of supervised release, on 24-hour house arrest with electronic monitoring, and won’t be allowed to communicate with anyone but his custodians and probation officials.

“The court is satisfied that these conditions, which essentially render Mr. Manna a dying prisoner in his custodians’ home, reflect the seriousness of his crimes and are just punishment for a man at the very last stage of life,” Kirsch said.

Manna, whose criminal history dates back to at least 1952, oversaw the “Manna Faction” of the Genovese family, and answered at times to underboss “Fat” Tony Salerno and boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante,

He was admired in organized crime circles in his heyday for never turning government informant even as he faced down prison terms, and once refused a shot of Novocaine for a prison tooth extradition because he was afraid he’d break omerta.

Manna was convicted of plotting to kill rival Gambino family boss John Gotti and his brother Gene back in the late ’80s. He was caught discussing the plan on a FBI bug planted in a Hoboken restaurant: “Remember I told you it was a big hit? John Gotti.”

The feds warned Gotti about the plot, and the attempt never got off the ground.

He also ordered the August 1987 rub-out of Irwin Schiff, an FBI informant who was also skimming cash from the Genovese family. A masked gunman, selected by Manna, walked out of the bathroom of the Bravo Sergio Restaurant on the Upper East Side and shot Schiff twice in the head.

Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, President Trump’s late sister, handed down Manna’s sentence in 1989. Trump signed the First Step Act, which ultimately led to Manna’s release, during his first term as president.


https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/04/23/genovese-gangster-95-who-once-plotted-to-kill-john-gotti-gets-compassionate-release/

  

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Friday, April 18, 2025

Supreme Court rules Genovese associate committed a violent act

  April 18, 2025    Dapper_Don

Whether attempted murder rose to a crime of violence split the Supreme Court 7-2 on Friday, with the majority finding that an associate of the infamous Genovese crime family committed a violent act despite his unsuccessful murder-for-hire plot. 
In a 7-2 ruling, the justices ruled that Salvatore Delligatti’s attempted murder plot was a crime of violence. 
“Delligatti insists that his position — that murder is not a crime of violence — is not as outlandish as it sounds,” Justice Clarence Thomas, a George H.W. Bush appointee, wrote for the majority. 
Thomas said Delligatti’s argument defied precedent, congressional intent and logic. 
“Intentional murder is the prototypical ‘crime of violence,’ and it has long been understood to incorporate liability for both act and omission,” Thomas wrote. 
Justices Neil Gorsuch, a Donald Trump appointee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Joe Biden appointee, dissented. 
Delligatti planned to murder Joseph Bonelli, a local “bully” suspected of threatening the Genovese family’s gambling business. He gave his partner $5,000 and a .38 revolver to kill Bonelli, but police intercepted the accomplice and several members of the Crips gang before the crime took place.
A jury convicted Delligatti on six charges including conspiring to murder for hire, operating an illegal gambling business, racketeering and attempted murder. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. 
Violent crime carries a mandatory minimum sentence under the Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering Act. Facing an additional six years in prison, Delligatti sought to convince the court that his crimes fell short of the statute’s use of force requirement because his murder plot failed. 
The high court disagreed, finding that the firearms sentencing enhancement applied when an individual intends to cause bodily injury — whether or not those intentions materialize. 
Thomas said it is impossible to deliberately cause physical harm without the use of physical force. Delligatti’s second-degree murder conviction proved that he intentionally caused the death of another person. 
Delligatti can’t escape that conclusion under harm by omission, the court ruled, because a person can use something by deliberate inaction, such as using the rain to wash a car by leaving it parked on the street. 
“The knowing or intentional causation of injury or death, whether by act or omission, necessarily involves the use of physical force against another person,” Thomas wrote. 
Gorsuch chastised the majority for diverging from the statute’s text, arguing that the ruling was too broad. A lifeguard who sees someone struggling to swim and does nothing to save them, Gorsuch claimed, could now be convicted of a crime of violence if the person drowned. 
“In cases like that, prosecutors can prevail simply by showing that a defendant did nothing when he had a legal duty to do something,” Gorsuch wrote. “And because a defendant can be convicted of the crime without proof that he used, attempted to use, or threatened to use physical force against anyone or anything at all, New York’s offense cannot qualify as a crime of violence.” 
Gorsuch said the decision “comes up short on every count,” neglecting definitional terms, ignoring contextual clues and misinterpreting precedent. He added that his position didn’t guarantee a lighter sentence for Delligatti because the judges have imposed a sentence of up to 28 years. 
“With or without a §924(c)(1) enhancement, those convicted of serious offenses in our federal criminal justice system routinely face serious sentences and judges amply equipped with the means to issue them,” Gorsuch wrote. 
https://www.courthousenews.com/supreme-court-rebukes-genovese-crime-family-associate-finding-attempted-murder-is-violent/

  

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Thursday, April 17, 2025

Monday, April 14, 2025

Feds round up Lucchese family's New Jersey crew

  April 14, 2025    Dapper_Don



Buncha wiseguys.

A New Jersey councilman and high-ranking Lucchese crime family members are among dozens nabbed in a massive mobbed-up gambling ring allegedly run out of restaurants across the Garden State, officials announced Friday.

Prospect Park Councilman Anand Shah, 42, allegedly managed illegal poker games and ran an online sportsbook tied to four members of the mob family, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin alleged at a press conference in Newark on Friday morning.

“I’m keenly aware of the public’s perception of elected officials in New Jersey and the lack of trust that so many have in their public officials and governmental institutions,” Platkin said. “The arrest of a city council member only adds fuel to that fire.”

Shah was one of 37 people arrested and 39 people charged in the sweeping gambling case that was part of a two-year investigation that uncovered illegal operations in Woodland Park, Garfield, and Totowa that netted $3 million in illegal profits, the AG alleged.

At the top of the racket was George Zappola, 65, of Red Bank, who is part of the Lucchese ruling panel, officials claimed.

Below him was Lucchese captain Joseph “Big Joe” Perna, 56, of Belleville, and below him Lucchese soldiers John Perna, 47, of Little Falls, and Wayne Cross, 75, of Spring Lake, authorities alleged.

On Wednesday, cops raided four illegal poker clubs connected to the Lucchese family, two of which were run out of the backrooms of restaurants. They also searched a business in Paterson that was storing gambling machines and the homes of seven people who were allegedly managing the gambling operation.

The raid led officials to discover more poker clubs and dozens of people who hosted poker games, worked at the clubs, or managed bettors on an illegal online sportsbook on sites outside the US, Platkin said.

“This was a highly structured, highly profitable criminal enterprise run by people who thought they were above the law,” said Theresa Hilton, the director of the Division of Criminal Justice.

There were high-level managers who delegated daily operations to managers, decided how the clubs were run, settled disputes, and used threats to collect debts, the AG said.

The lower-level managers collected dues — called “rents” — from the hosts of the poker games, Platkin said.

Hosts — or the “house” — had to recruit their own players, provide food and beverages for the games, and financially stake them. For this, the hosts collected a percentage of the bets for themselves, called a “rake,” the AG claimed.

The hosts either paid the dealers or gamblers were allowed to work off unpaid debts by acting as a dealers, the AG said.

Attendees could bet on gambling machines inside the clubs if they were waiting to get into a poker game, Platkin said.

As for online gambling, “agents” ran the sportsbooks for gambling sites abroad and would manage a group of bettors — or “packages,” the AG said.

And the agents and sub-agents had to send up a portion of their profits to the high-level management, Platkin alleged.

The websites allowed the mobsters to use the internet and technology to carry out the same criminal activities La Cosa Nostra had been doing the old-fashioned way since the 19th century, Platkin said.

Shah is charged with racketeering, conspiracy to promote gambling and money laundering and other charges for which he could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the top charge.

He is not accused of using his office to carry out the alleged crimes and is not accused of being a made member of the Mafia — but rather an associate of it, officials alleged.

He’s due on Tuesday in Morris County court, where prosecutors will be arguing for him to be kept in jail while his case plays out.

Shah didn’t immediately return an email request for comment. Lawyers for Zappola, Cross, and John Perna didn’t immediately return requests for comment. It was not immediately known who was representing Joe Perna.

https://nypost.com/2025/04/11/us-news/nj-politician-lucchese-mobsters-arrested-in-gambling-ring/

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Sunday, March 30, 2025

Monday, March 24, 2025

Bonanno Soldier gets an additional 37 months in prison for forcing loanshark victim to strip naked

  March 24, 2025    Dapper_Don


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 

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Sunday, March 23, 2025

Sunday, March 16, 2025

Gambino Soldier gets nearly 12 years for $400 million fraud

  March 16, 2025    Dapper_Don


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

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Turncoat Gambino hitman linked to the Gotti family now a New Jersey Councilman

  March 16, 2025    Dapper_Don


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/

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Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Mixed verdict in trial of Long Island cop accused of selling his badge to the Bonanno crime family

  March 05, 2025    Dapper_Don


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/

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Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Genovese gangsters werent fooled by fake raid conducted by corrupt Long Island cop working for Bonanno family

  February 26, 2025    Dapper_Don

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/

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Longtime Chicago mob associate busted for tax evasion charges

  February 26, 2025    Dapper_Don


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/

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