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

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

NYPD nabs runaway Albanian gangster in Chicago


The suspect wanted in the slaying of a Staten Island groom-to-be was apprehended earlier this afternoon in a city just outside of Chicago, The Post has learned.
The NYPD Fugitive Task Force collared Redinel Dervishaj, 35, at 12:30 p.m. at his aunt’s home in Palos Hills, a small community in Cook County just southwest of the Windy City, senior law enforcement sources confirmed today.
Aiding the capture was the SI Homicide Squad, the 123rd Precinct Detective Squad, the US Marshals and local authorities, sources added.
Surveillance video taken at Espana restaurant on Annadale Road had showed victim Anthony Lacertosa and his boozing buddies throw Dervishaj to the ground — but the alleged Albanian gangster then allegedly killed Lacertosa with a butcher knife, sources said.
Redinel Dervishaj today.
Espana restaurant
 
Investigators believe Dervishaj – who was shot in the arm during a 2007 gangland extortion attempt – had fled the city with the aid of friends, sources added.
Surveillance footage taken outside the eatery during Lacertosa’s engagement party Saturday shows the 27-year-old bricklayer and his pals trashing the joint’s patio furniture and knocking Dervishaj to the ground, a law-enforcement source said.
The video shows restaurant manager Ridi Zeneli brandishing a gun as Dervishaj — who is missing a finger — fetched a knife from inside to confront Lacertosa and his crew, said another law-enforcement source.
Zeneli allegedly tried to fire his weapon, but the gun jammed. Dervishaj then stabbed Lacertosa in the torso, killing him in front of his horrified fiancée, the sources said.
Police found the bloody knife in a trash bin outside a nearby deli, a source said, and yesterday, two restaurant employees cleaned the blood off the ground with a mop.
In 2007, Dervishaj went with a fellow Albanian gangster to a man’s house in Queens, threatening to kill the man’s family if he didn’t cough up $20,000. The man refused, instead shooting Dervishaj in the arm and killing his partner with a .357 Magnum. Dervishaj pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny and was sentenced to time served, a law-enforcement source said.
The violence runs in the family. Dervishaj’s brother, Plaurent Dervishaj, 39, is wanted in Albania for allegedly murdering at least four rival gang leaders, including one with an anti-tank weapon. Albanian law-enforcement officials declared Plaurent Dervishaj their most wanted fugitive.
Lacertosa – who went by the nickname “The Hulk” – was arrested for marijuana in 2011.
Fiancee Bridgette Schneider, 24, was too distraught to speak yesterday.
“My sister isn’t up to talking,” said one of her sister’s outside Schneider’s home.


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