corruption - Blog - Gangsters Inc. - www.gangstersinc.org
2024-03-29T10:27:02Z
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/feed/tag/corruption
Wells Fargo branch manager sent to prison for laundering money of drug traffickers
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/wells-fargo-branch-manager-sent-to-prison-for-laundering-money-of
2023-03-10T07:02:37.000Z
2023-03-10T07:02:37.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10995418258?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>A former Wells Fargo branch manager has been ordered to federal prison for helping a drug trafficking ring launder their money through his bank. 36-year-old Stephen Roland Reyna pleaded guilty September 1, 2021, and was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Thursday.</p>
<p>At the hearing, the court said that Reyna was given and held a position of trust with the bank, of which he took advantage. In handing down the sentence, the court noted the amount of money Reyna laundered and the sequence of events in which he participated.</p>
<p>“If you help drug traffickers ‘clean’ their money, you will be prosecuted,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani. “It is especially disappointing that a bank manager for Wells Fargo chose to violate his position of trust for easy money, money from organizations that are destroying our communities.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-russian-oligarchs-turned-the-country-of-latvia-into-their-own" target="_blank"><strong>How Russian oligarchs turned Latvia into their money laundering machine</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Reyna was the manager of a Wells Fargo branch in Harlingen. Using his position and knowledge of the banking industry, he assisted a drug trafficking organization to launder $410,000 in drug sale proceeds.</p>
<p>The organization would transport multi-kilogram cocaine loads from the Rio Grande Valley to northern states. Upon successful delivery, thousands of dollars in drug proceeds would then be dispersed through multiple Wells Fargo bank accounts in the northern states.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/rabobank-taken-to-court-on-charges-it-laundered-money-for-me" target="_blank"><strong>Rabobank in court over Mexican drug cartel money laundering charges</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Reyna would coordinate with multiple co-conspirators in the Rio Grande Valley to launder the funds through their accounts at Wells Fargo. He ensured the proceeds were successfully withdrawn from his branch in Harlingen.</p>
<p>Co-conspirators would frequently pay Reyna in cash right after he helped them get their drug proceeds out of the bank. Reyna ultimately admitted he suspected the funds were from illegal activity, including narcotics trafficking.</p>
<p>The disgraced banker was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">Organized Crime in North America section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
Crooked: Former Los Angeles City politician José Huizar pleads guilty to racketeering and tax charges
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/crooked-former-los-angeles-city-politician-jose-huizar-pleads-gui
2023-01-24T06:27:34.000Z
2023-01-24T06:27:34.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10947451664?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Former Los Angeles City Councilmember José Huizar pleaded guilty on Friday to federal criminal charges for using his powerful position at City Hall to enrich himself and his associates, and for cheating on his taxes.</p>
<p>Huizar, 54, of Boyle Heights, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and one count of tax evasion. The plea agreement was filed Thursday in United States District Court.</p>
<p>Huizar represented Council District 14 (CD-14), which includes downtown Los Angeles and its surrounding communities, from 2005 until his resignation in 2020.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Council District 14 and the pay-to-play scheme</strong></span></p>
<p>In his plea agreement, Huizar admitted to leading the CD-14 Enterprise, which operated as a pay-to-play scheme in which Huizar – assisted by others – unlawfully used his office to give favorable treatment to real estate developers who financed and facilitated bribes and other illicit financial benefits.</p>
<p>Specifically, Huizar and other city officials demanded and accepted cash bribes, casino gambling chips, prostitution and escort services, political contributions, flights on private jets and commercial airlines, stays at luxury hotels and casinos, expensive meals, tickets to concerts and sporting events, and other benefits.</p>
<p>Huizar also admitted to accepting a $600,000 bribe in the form of collateral from a billionaire real estate developer for Huizar to confidentially settle a pending sexual harassment lawsuit against Huizar by a former staffer.</p>
<p>“Huizar has admitted to orchestrating a racketeering scheme that enriched himself and others as they sought to monopolize political power at the expense of Los Angeles residents,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “This is one of the most wide-ranging and brazen public corruption cases ever uncovered in this district, demonstrating that our office will use all the tools of the federal government to vigorously prosecute crooked politicians whose betrayal of the public trust significantly erodes confidence in our local government.”</p>
<p>“Mr. Huizar's actions, to include accepting a staggering amount of bribe money and lavish gifts, eroded the trust in the office he held for many years,” said Donald Alway, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office. “Angelenos deserve better than being used for the personal enrichment of politicians grifting the system and foreign investors whose currency is corruption. I'm proud of the investigators and prosecutors whose hard work led to today's admission of guilt.”</p>
<p>Huizar led the CD-14 Enterprise from at least February 2013 until July 2020, including for several years when he chaired the city’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee, which oversaw major commercial and residential development projects in the city.</p>
<p>Members and associates of the CD-14 Enterprise also included lobbyists, consultants, and other city officials and staffers, who sought to personally enrich themselves and their families and associates in exchange for official acts. These members included George Esparza, Huizar’s former special assistant, real estate development consultant George Chiang, political fundraiser Justin Jangwoo Kim, and lobbyist Morrie Goldman, among others. Each of these individuals has pleaded guilty in this case, is cooperating with the government’s investigation, and awaits sentencing.</p>
<p>The enterprise’s members and associates raised and solicited funds from developers and their proxies with projects in CD-14 to be paid to Huizar’s desired accounts and political action committees, including to benefit a Huizar relative’s campaign for the CD-14 seat.</p>
<p>In exchange for these benefits, Huizar, Esparza and other city officials agreed to perform and performed official acts, including:</p>
<ul>
<li> presenting motions and resolutions in various city committees to benefit projects;</li>
<li> voting on projects in various city committees, including the PLUM Committee, and City Council;</li>
<li> taking, or not taking, action in the PLUM Committee to expedite or delay the approval process and affect project costs;</li>
<li> exerting pressure on city officials to influence the approval and/or permitting process of projects;</li>
<li> using their office to negotiate with and exert pressure on labor unions to resolve issues on projects;</li>
<li> leveraging voting and scheduling power to pressure developers with projects pending before the city to affect their business practices; and</li>
<li> introducing or voting on city resolutions to enhance the professional reputation and marketability of businesspersons in the city.</li>
</ul>
<p>In return for Huizar pleading guilty to the two felony counts, prosecutors have agreed to seek no more than 13 years in prison for Huizar, who also has agreed to forfeit $129,000 in cash that law enforcement found during a law enforcement search of his home in November 2018. The government also intends to seek more than $1 million in restitution on the city’s behalf.</p>
<p>As part of the plea agreement, Huizar has agreed to seek a sentence of no less than nine years in prison.</p>
<p>United States District Judge John F. Walter scheduled an April 3 sentencing hearing for Huizar.</p>
<p>The plea agreement is “binding,” which means the court must accept or reject all aspects of it. Should the court reject the plea agreement, any party may withdraw from it. Judge Walter said at today’s hearing that he would make that decision prior to Huizar’s sentencing date.</p>
<p>In June 2022, real estate developer Dae Yong Lee, a.k.a. “David Lee,” 57, of Bel Air and one of his companies, 940 Hill LLC, were found guilty of providing $500,000 in cash to Huizar and Esparza in exchange for their help in resolving a labor organization’s appeal of their downtown Los Angeles development project. Both defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on May 5.</p>
<p>In November 2022, downtown Los Angeles-based company Shen Zhen New World I LLC was found guilty of eight felonies for – through the actions of its owner, billionaire real estate developer and fugitive Wei Huang, 57, of Shenzhen, China – paying more than $1 million in bribes – including luxury trip expenses, casino gambling chips and the $600,000 sham loan – to Huizar to obtain city approval to build a 77-story skyscraper. The company’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 12. Huang, who is charged with several felonies, has yet to make a court appearance in this case and is considered a fugitive believed to be in China.</p>
<p>On February 21, former Los Angeles deputy mayor and co-defendant Raymond She Wah Chan, 66, of Monterey Park, is scheduled to go on trial. Chan, who is accused of being a member of the corrupt CD-14 Enterprise, has pleaded not guilty to charges of RICO conspiracy, bribery, honest services fraud and lying to federal agents.</p>
<p>In a related case, Huizar’s brother, Salvador Huizar, 56, of Boyle Heights, pleaded guilty in October 2022 to lying to federal investigators and a federal grand jury about accepting cash from his brother on numerous occasions in exchange for paying certain of Huizar’s bills. Salvador Huizar’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 15.</p>
<p>The FBI is investigating this matter, with assistance from IRS Criminal Investigation. </p>
<ul>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
Magnitsky case money launderer arrested in Spain as Russia’s dirty money was put into Spanish real estate
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/magnitsky-case-money-launderer-arrested-in-spain-as-russia-s-dirt
2022-12-21T12:17:53.000Z
2022-12-21T12:17:53.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10915430852?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Spanish authorities together with Europol and Eurojust took down a criminal gang laundering dirty money linked to the Magnitsky case, a €219 million corruption case in Russia, Europol reported last week. </p>
<p>The money laundering ring is believed to have funneled millions of euros through bank accounts in Europe before sending the funds to Spain to purchase real estate.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/the-billion-dollar-don" target="_blank"><strong>The Billion Dollar Mafia Don</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The individual at the center of this money laundering scheme has been arrested in the Canary Islands. A total of 75 properties have been seized so far across Spain for a cumulative value of €25 million.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Who was Sergei Magnitsky?</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10915424088,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10915424088?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="330" /></a>The €219 million at the heart of the fraud is known as the Magnitsky case. Its name derives from the Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky (right), an anticorruption specialist who uncovered massive tax fraud carried out by Russian tax officials. </p>
<p>Magnitsky was arrested and imprisoned for 11 months without a trial after he began investigating the case. Russian officials tried to pressure him into recanting his testimony, but he refused. As a result he was moved to worse prisons each time.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/spanish-court-rules-that-investments-of-tambovskaya-malyshevskaya" target="_blank"><strong>Spanish court rules investments of Tambovskaya-Malyshevskaya Russian Mafia clan not criminal</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>He was not given adequate care during the entire time he spent in prison and suffered frequent assaults. He died in Matrosskaya Tishina prison in 2009 at age 37.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Laundromat</strong></span></p>
<p>Spanish investigators were able to uncover how part of that dirty money ended up in Spanish real estate. A group of individuals were identified – all Russian nationals with little or no ties to Spain, alongside a number of shell companies with no real economic activity. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/how-russian-oligarchs-turned-the-country-of-latvia-into-their-own" target="_blank"><strong>How Russian oligarchs turned Latvia into their money laundering machine</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The dirty money was either sent to the bank accounts of these Russian citizens supposedly residing in Spain for them to purchase properties, or sent to Spanish real estate agencies with strong ties to the Russian community which would buy real estate on behalf of alleged clients. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview">Russian Mafia section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
Former FIFA official gets 16 months in prison for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/former-fifa-official-gets-16-months-in-prison-for-accepting-hundr
2022-10-02T09:22:57.000Z
2022-10-02T09:22:57.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10832624460?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Reynaldo Vasquez, the former president of the El Salvadorean soccer federation, was sentenced on Thursday, in federal court in Brooklyn, to 16 months’ imprisonment in connection with over $350,000 in bribes that he and other soccer officials from El Salvador received from an American company in exchange for the sale of broadcast rights to the El Salvador soccer team’s World Cup qualifier and friendly matches.</p>
<p>Vasquez pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy in August 2021. The defendant was indicted in November 2015 and extradited to the United States from El Salvador in 2021. As part of his plea agreement, Vasquez had previously agreed to forfeit $360,000 to the government.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/fifa-capo-sepp-blatter-boozing-with-russian-mob-boss" target="_blank"><strong>FIFA capo Sepp Blatter boozing with Russian mob boss</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>“The defendant and his co-conspirators, motivated by greed, disgraced themselves by lining their pockets with hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, at the expense of a beautiful sport, El Salvador’s soccer federation, and the community it served,” stated Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “Vasquez has now been held to account, like the many other corrupt soccer officials who have been exposed by the government’s investigation.”</p>
<p>From approximately 2009 through 2011, Vasquez served as the President of the Federación Salvadoreña de Fútbol. Vasquez and his co-conspirators participated in and corrupted an enterprise comprising soccer organizing bodies and sports marketing companies.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/rise-in-sports-corruption-as-mafia-groups-step-up-involvement-mee" target="_blank"><strong>Rise in sports corruption as Mafia groups step up involvement - Meeting at Europol about combating these crimes</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>As part of his association with that enterprise, Vasquez and others solicited and received bribes and kickbacks in exchange for awarding lucrative media and marketing contracts. In 2012, Vasquez, together with other current and former officials of the federation, received approximately $350,000 in bribes in connection with the sale of media and marketing rights to El Salvador World Cup qualifying matches to be played in advance of the 2018 World Cup.</p>
<p>This bribe payment was wired from a sports marketing company’s bank account in the United States. Vasquez ultimately received a portion of his bribe money through a wire transfer sent through the United States. In 2014 and 2015, Vasquez and others agreed to receive tens of thousands of dollars in bribes in connection with the participation of the Salvadorean national team in friendly matches to be played in the United States.</p>
<p>The sentence announced Thursday is part of a long-running investigation into corruption in international soccer led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the FBI New York Field Office, and the IRS-CI Los Angeles Field Office.</p>
<p>To date, the prosecution has resulted in 27 individual guilty pleas, 4 corporate guilty pleas, and 2 convictions at trial, among other resolutions.</p>
<p>The prosecutors in Brooklyn have received considerable assistance from attorneys in various parts of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in Washington, D.C., including the Office of International Affairs, the Organized Crime and Gang Section, the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, and the Fraud Section, as well as from INTERPOL Washington, and various foreign governments.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
The Corner on Pleasant Avenue: The Mafia, crooked cops and drugs
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/the-corner-on-pleasant-avenue-the-mafia-crooked-cops-and-drugs
2022-10-01T13:27:37.000Z
2022-10-01T13:27:37.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10832189458?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By Thom L. Jones for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>David Durk, who was born in 1935, joined the New York Police in 1963, and by the closing of the 1960s, was a detective attached to the city’s Department of Investigation, which served as an independent and non-partisan watchdog for New York City government. Their job was to examine and investigate corruption and other failings within the local government’s many divisions. An endless job in a city with more than its fair share of crime, fraud and graft.</p>
<p>Sometime towards the end of 1968, he met an old man who worked as a printer for one of the city’s many newspapers. The man had approached him as Durk left a shop in Greenwich village, and said, “You look like an honest cop”, and so it began. He asked Durk to help him try to save his son, Vinnie, who was being dragged into the underworld’s <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10832184085,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10832184085?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="300" /></a>drug trafficking, in and around East Harlem on Manhattan’s upper east-side. He was being offered $1,000 a week or more, to peddle heroin from someone called “Ernie Boy.” He would be Oreste Abbamonte (left), an up and coming young hoodlum attached to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino crime family</a>, who operated his business from a store-front on 1st Avenue, one block west of Pleasant Avenue.</p>
<p>In early February, Durk and the old man drove to the avenue, and sat in the car as snow fell softly while the printer described what was happening around them. Durk, who had never been involved in police activities that operated to detect and arrest drug-dealers, was astonished at what was going on. He could well have been a stranger in a foreign land trying to understand a social grouping as divorced from his life as a visitor from Mars.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/one-mafia-murder-and-everyone-ends-up-in-prison-lucchese-crime-fa"><strong>One Mafia murder and everyone ends up in prison – Lucchese crime family bosses and hitmen found guilty</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>In the months ahead, he would become not only familiar with drugs, drug dealers, street criminals and Mafiosi, but would also find himself caught up in a vortex of scandal, graft and media frenzy as he triggered his own investigation into deception and the worst level of malfeasance among his fellow New York police officers.</p>
<p>Although everyone knows of Frank Serpico and his epic struggle to end the cycle of police misconduct in The Big Apple, it was in fact Durk who began the crusade, and then Serpico joined him to carry on the fight. They had met each other in 1966, and stayed friends, before becoming allies in a war on police corruption.</p>
<p>Between midnight and dawn there was an endless train of gangsters, hoodlums, thieves and drug-traffickers passing through and hanging out on the comer of 117th Street and Pleasant Avenue. It was a neighborhood long tainted with the stench of Mafia criminals. Generations of them had honed their skills on the avenue, and surrounding streets, which sat in the original Little Italy of New York, long before Mulberry Street assumed that mantle.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/rumble-at-rao-s-it-s-not-over-till-the-fat-lady-sings-the-night-l"><strong>Rumble at Rao’s</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>By the 1920s, there were over 100,000 Italians living in an area of fifty square blocks that made up Harlem. Mafia had been infiltrating this part of the city since before the turn of the twentieth-century. The alleged boss of all Mafia bosses, Giuseppe Morello, had lived for a time on East 138 Street, barely a mile from the avenue. The smell of organized crime carried in the wind across the Harlem River as though its very odor was a part of the community it was infesting.</p>
<p>In the tradition of so many Mafia legends, Morello will die by the gun, shot in an office in August 1930, only a few hundred yards from the corner.</p>
<p>By the end of 1968, it’s as busy a junction as will be found in a borough of 200,000. Except, so much of it was not the usual traffic flow you would expect to see. Cars would stop and park illegally, double or triple, while drivers did their business with men who glided over the side walk, packages in hand, or simply leaned into open windows to talk to their customers.</p>
<p>A police surveillance image catches the activity one summer afternoon. A dozen men hanging about outside their base, The Pleasant Avenue Tavern, in their raggedy shirts, or wife-beaters** and baggy pants, smoking, talking to each other, almost always one of them using one of the two pay phones booths on the side-walk. And always, one lounging against the wall, the look-out guy.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10832183273,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10832183273?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><strong><em>Photo: Surveillance photo of Ernie boy and Johnny Echoes. Includes surveillance markings.</em></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10832184463,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10832184463?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="143" /></a>Durk (right) would find out from the old man the names and street handles of these dealers, who were creating what officials later referred to as the biggest drug trafficking ring in New York.</p>
<p>Most of the players in this crowded house were members or associates of the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family" target="_blank">Lucchese Mafia family</a>, historically based in The Bronx. They had been in the drug business for years. The infamous “French Connection” case of the early 1960s involved members and confederates of the gang controlled since 1951 by Tommy Lucchese until his death in 1967.</p>
<p>Besides Abbamonte there were at least three Nunzi’s, (one a <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino</a> to-be, another a Lucchese to-be, and yet another, simply a wannabe,) along with Gerry “Z” Zanfardino, Louis “Gigi The Whale” Inglese,” Johnny “Hooks” Capra, Joe Sparracio, Tommy “Moe” Lentini, and lot’s more.</p>
<p>Their only real competition was based in lower Manhattan, in a police station near the Fulton Fish Market, which was the headquarters of the Special Investigations Unit, the infamous SIU. A police officer in this law enforcement group of seventy, would become tagged by the media in due course as a “Prince of the City.”</p>
<p>In the late 1960s and early 1970s hundreds of kilos of drugs were being peddled by officers whose job was to take down drug-dealers. David Durk would stumble upon this as he tried to get his head around the hoodlums he was discovering and their jabberwocky style of talking when discussing heroin deals. They talked about shirts and socks, pants and shoes. A kilo of heroin was a boy’s shirt, while if dealing in cocaine, it was a girl’s shirt. He also discovered early in his investigation that at least one police officer was selling guns to the mobsters, sometimes using The Delightful, a coffee shop on the corner of 116 Street and 1st Avenue as their meeting place.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10832188858,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10832188858?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><strong><em>Photo: Johnny Capra, Louis Inglese, and Gerry Zanfardino</em></strong></p>
<p>Durk started his long, exhausting and frustrating journey of discovery into police corruption by reporting first to his boss, then discussing his findings with officers from the SIU, and finally, in desperation called on an old political friend who was an aide to mayor John Lindsay. Nothing seemed to work for him, and he would uncover in the fullness of time that the mayor’s office had known about the smell of police corruption and a wide-spreading involvement linking police officers and heroin dealing as early as 1966.</p>
<p>Durk was quoted once as saying: “The fact is that almost wherever we turned in the Police Department, wherever we turned in the city administration, and almost wherever we went in the rest of the city, we were met not with cooperation, not with appreciation, not with an eagerness to seek out the truth, but with suspicion and hostility and laziness and inattention, and with our fear that at any moment our efforts might be betrayed.”</p>
<p>The “we” refers to Frank Serpico, who teamed up with Durk to attack the system from within. He gets himself shot on a drug-bust and almost dies. Retires from the force and makes headlines in a book and movie that stars Al Pacino playing him on the screen.</p>
<p>Complicating matters, David Durk wasn’t the only one investigating crooked New York cops. Running almost parallel with his own vendetta against corruption in the lines of blue, was one run by Federal investigators involving Robert Leuci, part of the SIU. A Prince who had turned against his peers. He also, in due course, gets the book and the movie treatment.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-man-who-stole-the-french"><strong>The Man Who Stole the French Connection</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>And still the narcotics keep pouring in. Coming from Marseilles, Amsterdam, Paris, Israel often channeling down from Toronto or Montreal in Canada, and the wholesalers on Pleasant Avenue are pumping it into New York and as far away as Detroit.</p>
<p>Early morning on the corner it was bookies taking bets, Louis Fats and his cronies doing numbers, and loan sharking taking place. From afternoon onwards, often until early next morning, it was the stamping ground for the drug-dealers. In an ironic twist, they were not only destroying their neighborhood through flooding it and the city with their poisons for sale, but at the same time, pumping work and income into a relatively impoverished part of New York by paying people to sort, pack and warehouse the goods in cutting rooms, mostly within a short radius of the corner in special controlled rooms behind candy stores and bakeries and coffee shops. In the unholy trinity of lies, power and violence, the men who ran the drugs ring held all the cards that really mattered.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10832186069,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10832186069?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><strong><em>Photo: The corner showing Zanfardino, second left and Inglese fourth left</em></strong></p>
<p>It’s Keynesian economics at its most basic: Spending from one consumer becomes income for a business that then spends on equipment, worker wages, energy, materials, purchased services, taxes, and investor returns. That worker’s income can then be spent, and the cycle continues. Of course, in maintaining the cycle, the process is also destroying the fabric of the society that supports it.</p>
<p>During the summer 0f 1971, one block north and east of the corner, art imitates life in only the way it can in the strange, noir world of crime and the Mafia.</p>
<p>A film-company 2nd Unit set up a pivotal scene for a movie that would forever change how the world, and its own members, would view organized crime, the Italian-American way.</p>
<p>“The Godfather” would open in cinemas in 1973 to a massive critical and commercial success, becoming a lodestar that mobsters in the underworld will follow in the years ahead. Using 700 locals as extras, the cameras ran for four days as Sonny Corleone beats-up his brother-in-law, Carlo Rizzi.</p>
<p>Adding even more layers to the blending of fact and fiction, producer Albert Ruddy is being harassed by the real-life Mafia, in the form of <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-two-sides-of-new-york-mob-boss-joe-colombo-and-how-his-murder" target="_blank">Joe Colombo</a>, who ran his own family in the south of Brooklyn who insisted that the film never mentions Mafia or Cosa Nostra, which it never does. It’s been alleged that men from the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family" target="_blank">Colombo family</a> supervised this condition, enabling the production to proceed without massive disturbance by union disruptions. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-two-sides-of-new-york-mob-boss-joe-colombo-and-how-his-murder"><strong>The two sides of New York mob boss Joe Colombo and how his murder remains unsolved for over forty years</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The mob that ran the drugs in this part of East Harlem also employed a pack of lookouts, paying women and children to be their eyes and ears. Pleasant Avenue, north to south, runs only for six blocks, and any sniff of police presence in the area would be quickly passed down the line to the men on the corner. Zanfardino and Capra and “Johnny Echoes” were as smart and relentless as hyenas tracking their prey, and especially so in keeping their packages secure as they moved in transit through their zone. They often using a barber shop on the avenue between 117 and 118 Streets as their meeting place.</p>
<p>Careful as they were, the dealers did not pick up that the head of the New York’s police intelligence unit, Assistant Chief Inspector Arthur Gruber, who was an ally that David Durk finally gained, had arranged early in 1972 for undercover officers to occupy an apartment on the corner of 118th Street, one block north of the corner.</p>
<p>Posing as itinerant gypsy cabdrivers, five detectives carried out surveillance that resulted in over a thousand hours of film and videotape recordings of the corner in all its kinetic activity. Because a lot of the hoodlums used cocaine as part of their daily routine, they often seemed to have unlimited energy, jostling each other, strutting around the corner like peacocks in heat as they passed their time, waiting for the deals to go down. On one occasion, the police observers saw them firing off marine flare guns into the air. And never the sign of a police car. The local precinct avoided the area as though it were out of bounds.</p>
<p>In April 1970, <em>The New York Times</em> began a series of articles based on information Durk had supplied to one of its investigative reporters. Having tried to get some kind of reaction from his superiors, and the mayor’s office to seemingly no avail, the fourth estate seemed his only option. In one article, they reported that drug dealers, gamblers and merchants were making illicit payments of millions of dollars a year to the police officers of New York.</p>
<p>The heat this generated moved the mayor of the city, John V. Lindsay, to create The Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption (known informally as the Knapp Commission, after its chairman Whitman Knapp). The panel confirmed the existence of widespread corruption and made several recommendations in its 264 page document submitted in December 1972.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/the-fat-fuck-stole-my-money-gambino-mafia-family-wiseguy-guilty-o"><strong>“The fat fuck stole my money!” - Gambino Mafia family wiseguy guilty of shooting Lucchese family pal in the head</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>David Durk was a principal witness, giving evidence before the commission on December 21, 1971.</p>
<p>The “Hook” was a man behind the scene. He rarely, if ever, turned up at the intersection. Along with Jewish gangster, Herbie Sperling, and a Lebanese dealer, he organized the buying and shipping of drugs into New York, leaving the trench-work for the strange and motley crew who seemingly lived their lives on the side-walk near the tavern. In a landscape of twisting and diverging paths, life on the corner would eventually follow only way-go directly to jail.</p>
<p>Capra and the drug-dealing crew were living on borrowed time as 1973 arrived and the police and federal agents closed in on the junction and its gangster inhabitants. “Operation Undercover,” the biggest organized crime investigation carried out at that time involved not only the surveillance on Pleasant Avenue but also taps on two public telephones in Diane’s Bar, on 2nd Avenue and 105 Street in 1972, which recorded conversations and messages over a period of about a year, and these police initiatives lead to the arrests and indictments of 86 suspects in April 1973.</p>
<p>Another nail in their coffin was Dolores Martinez.</p>
<p>She and her husband, Pedro Melicio, were drug peddlers who sourced their product through the men on the avenue. Arrested by the police, she agreed to cooperate with the law and to wear a wire. She became another source in the river of information that fed the investigation.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10832187276,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10832187276?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="155" /></a>“The Hook” (right) became a capo or crew skipper in the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family" target="_blank">Lucchese Mafia Family</a>. Following his twenty-year sentence for the Pleasant Avenue bust, he did time in the early 2000s for extortion and illegal gambling.</p>
<p>“Ernie Boy” got his button into the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino Crime Family</a>, and then kept going to jail, mainly on drug and extortion indictments. Following his sentence for the Pleasant Avenue conviction, he did time in 1983, was back again in 1987, both times on drug trafficking charges, then in 1995 and 2005, He recently did a five-year stretch in 2014 for extortion. His police record shows he started getting noticed by the law when he was a mere fourteen-year-old, and he seems to have spent almost half his life behind bars.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10832187678,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10832187678?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="110" /></a>“Gerry Z” (left) went down for twenty-five years, and was released from prison in 1983. He died in 2011, aged 83. “Johnny Echoes” Louis Inglese and Tommy Lentini all served terms for their part in the Pleasant Avenue connection.</p>
<p>The old man who started it all was dead by 1976.</p>
<p>David Durk died at his home in Putnam County, New York, in November 2012. He was 77. He had stayed in the police and reached the rank of lieutenant, and then he quit. A Don Quixote of the new world, his windmills were the kind that fought not just nature but the beast of man itself. An iconoclast who never turned away from difficult decisions, his work was more than a job, truly, a vocation.</p>
<p>He joined the biggest police force in America that was rotten, systematically, from top to bottom. In trying to close a cancerous drug-ring that was helping to destroy the lives of thousands of people, instead of cooperation, he met only with a bureaucracy overwhelmingly intent on blocking, evading and avoiding its duty, simply because so many of its officers were part of the problem, and never, ever going to be the solution.</p>
<p>Pope Francis claimed, “corruption is paid by the poor.”</p>
<p>They were the ones that lived in East Harlem, and other run-down suburbs of New York, the ones most affected by the corner and its transient drug-dealers. The same ones most damaged by a police who had lost its way, over generations of neglect, greed and indifference.</p>
<p>In 1972, David Durk received an honorary doctorate of laws degree from Amherst College in Massachusetts. His Alma mater, from where he graduated in 1957. In its citation, his school refers to him as “A Good Cop.”</p>
<p>He was, it seems, one of the few.</p>
<p>His good friend, Robert Shaw, remembered him in a quote from Shakespeare:</p>
<p>“He was a man, take him for all in all. I shall not look upon his like again.” </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10837581496,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10837581496?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><strong><em>Photo: Current view of The Corner.</em> </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10832193700,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10832193700?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>** There is a famous case and a newspaper picture from 1947 that probably gave the wife beater its name. That year, in Detroit, a man named James Hartford Jr. was arrested for beating his wife to death. Because of the nature and seriousness of Hartford’s crime, the story didn’t just stay in Detroit; it went national and featured on the pages of newspapers around the country. Headlines included the words “wife beater” and Hartford was pictured being walked out of his home after his arrest wearing an A-style white tank top. It’s alleged this is the origin of the term.</em></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><em>Sources:</em></span></p>
<p><em>Durk, David & Arlene, Silverman, Ira. The Pleasant Avenue Connection: New York: Harper & Row, 1976.</em></p>
<p><em>Harlem’s Hidden History-medium.com/harlem focus</em></p>
<p><em>Critchley, David, The Origin of Organized Crime: New York: Routledge, 2009.</em></p>
<p><em>Gotham Gazette August 27,2008. An Affluent, white Harlem?</em></p>
<p><em>Deitche, Scott M, Hitmen: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022.</em></p>
<p><em>Washington Post, 11-13-2012. Of Note: David Durk, police detective, obituary.</em></p>
<p><em>USA Court of Appeals for 2nd Circuit, Capra et al. January 3, 1074.</em></p>
<p><em>New York Post, 28-12-2015, 5 Police corruption scandals that rocked New York.</em></p>
<p><em>The Village Voice, 1-3-1973, The Knapp Connection.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/trivia/">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/trivia/</a></em></p>
<p><em>US Appalee v John Capra et al. Defendants-appellants, 501 F.2nd 267 (2nd Cir.1974)</em></p>
<p><em>US Court of Appeals v Solomon Glover, Southern District Court, April, 1974.</em></p>
<p><em>legacy.com/us/obituaries/newsday/name/gennaro</em></p>
<p><em>New York Times, 31-11-2012, David Durk, Serpico’s Ally Against Graft, Dies at 77.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/magazine/in_memory/1957/daviddurk">https://www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/magazine/in_memory/1957/daviddurk</a></em></p>
<p><em>Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. William Shakespeare.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/thom-l-jones-mob-corner">Thom L. Jones' Mob Corner</a> or the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">American Mafia section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Thom L. Jones & Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10837582258,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10837582258?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></strong></p></div>
Blue Murder: Profile of Australian crime boss “Neddy” Smith
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/blue-murder-profile-of-australian-crime-boss-neddy-smith
2022-09-12T18:46:20.000Z
2022-09-12T18:46:20.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10810103483?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>In the underworld there’s rarely a happy ending. Gangsters can make millions, only to end up in prison without being able to enjoy their wealth. If they don’t end up dead. The best one can hope for in that way of life is being immortalized in a television show or movie. In that respect, Australian crime boss Neddy Smith achieved more than he ever could’ve hoped for.</p>
<p>Born on November 27, 1944 in <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-australia" target="_blank">Sydney, Australia</a>, as Arthur Stanley Smith, he was quickly dubbed “Ned” or “Neddy” by those around him. Not by his biological father, though. He never knew him. His father was an American sailor who had slept with his Australian mother while on a break from fighting World War II.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Heists and heroin</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10810088290,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="300" alt="10810088290?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>Smith got involved in crime when he was a teenager and gradually descended deeper into the underworld of Sydney. A convicted rapist, he was an imposing figure after growing up and becoming a man. Standing at 6 feet 5 inches, and weighing in at more than 200 lbs., he struck fear in any opponent daring to stand eye to eye with him. He’d get into fights and frequently walked away the winner.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/fat-joe-versace-and-the-calabrian-mafia-a-murder-in-australia"><strong>Fat Joe Versace and the Calabrian Mafia: A Murder in Australia</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>He made his first real money committing bank robberies. In the 1970s, he began trafficking heroin for Murray Riley, a former Olympic rower-turned-crime boss. That was when he got his first taste of true riches. It wasn’t long before he headed up his own network, importing heroin from Thailand and smuggling it into Australia.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Get-out-of-jail-free card</strong></span></p>
<p>His illicit activities made him money hand over fist, but they also got him in frequent trouble with the law. He spent several stints behind bars. The first from 1963 to 1965, then from 1968 to 1975 and later from 1978 to 1980. Only to get locked up again in 1989.</p>
<p>It wasn’t that he didn’t do everything in his power to avoid prison. He worked closely with police to stay out on the streets. He fed them information and cash from his crimes. In return, they let him run his criminal business.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/murder-blue-two-dogs-cops-have-to-die"><strong>Murder Blue: “Two dogs (cops) have to die!”</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>You didn’t think Boston crime boss <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/revenge-is-a-dish-best-served-cold-the-men-charged-with-killing-m" target="_blank">James “Whitey” Bulger</a> was the only one to use such tactics, did you? </p>
<p>But it wasn’t until June 27 of 1981 that he created something of a blood bond with his corrupt cop friends. That is when Smith’s life of crime took a turn that saw him rise to the top of Sydney’s underworld.</p>
<p>Why? Because that day he delivered drug dealer Warren Lanfranchi to police detective Roger Rogerson. As requested by the cop. In return, Smith later said, Rogerson and his corrupt cop buddies gave him a green light to commit crimes.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Untouchable killers</strong></span></p>
<p>Lanfranchi, meanwhile, was shot to death by Rogerson while he was trying to arrest him. Or so his story goes.</p>
<p>Lanfranchi’s girlfriend, prostitute Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, disagreed with Rogerson’s version of events and decided to speak up about her boyfriend’s cold-blooded murder in 1986. She publicly accused Rogerson and Smith of forming a corrupt partnership.</p>
<p>In a sign of Rogerson and Smith’s sheer arrogance and pure confidence in their untouchable position, Huckstepp’s dead body was found floating in a pond in Centennial Park, Sydney, that same year.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/squizzy-taylor-the-roaring-twenties-fast-cars-guns-crime-death-do"><strong>Squizzy Taylor: The roaring twenties, fast cars, guns, crime & death down under</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Smith was charged with Huckstepp’s murder, but later acquitted. A pattern emerged that tended to back up his claim that he’d been given a green light to commit crimes. Smith was a suspect in at least fourteen murders and charged with eight. But suspicions and charges aside, he was only convicted of two slayings.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10810101076,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10810101076?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>By giving police information and cash, Smith was able to dodge many charges and convictions. Right up until the time that he wasn’t.</p>
<p>In the mid-1980s, his heroin source dried up and he resorted back to armed robberies for income. He was pretty successful. One score netted him half a million.</p>
<p>His relationship with Rogerson, however, was under pressure. All the media pressure was getting to the detective. In April of 1986, he went on national television and outed Smith as a snitch.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-mob-war-in-australia"><strong>‘Ndrangheta Mob War in Australia</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The next night, Smith was the victim of a hit and run. He suffered a broken leg, eight broken ribs, two spinal fractures, and a broken collar bone. While we’re listing all his injuries it should be noted that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1981.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Road rage</strong></span></p>
<p>As he did all his life, Smith walked on. But his protective shield was showing cracks.</p>
<p>Such times call for a drink. In October 1987, Smith joined Rogerson and several others for a big drinking session and got shit-faced. Smith and a friend left the booze fest and got involved in a collision with a tow-truck. An argument ensued and rather than let everyone have their say, Smith stabbed Ronnie Flavell, the 34-year-old driver, to death at a busy intersection as people looked on in horror. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/australian-ndrangheta-mafia-boss-bruno-romeo-dies-at-87">Australian ‘Ndrangheta Mafia boss Bruno Romeo dies at 87</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>With plenty of witnesses, Smith was looking at serious time. His crooked friends did all they could to help him. There even was a break-in at the local police station. But in the end it was of no use: Smith was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1990.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10810102457,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="511" alt="10810102457?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a><strong><em>Photo: Neddy Smith in prison around 1991.</em> </strong></p>
<p>Locked up with nothing to do, Smith bragged about his violent deeds to a cellmate. Unbeknownst to him, he was being recorded by his fellow inmate. As a result, he was charged with seven murders and went to trial for two: the killing of Sallie-Anne Huckstepp and the murder of brothel owner Harvey Jones, who was shot to death in 1983.</p>
<p>He was acquitted of murdering Huckstepp, but found guilty of shooting Jones, and was sentenced to a second life term.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/underworld-of-pattaya-the-thai-city-that-attracts-the-most-notori"><strong>Underworld of Pattaya: The Thai city that attracts the most notorious gangsters and bikers from the West</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Meanwhile, Smith continued talking. He became a witness for the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Wood Royal Commission looking into corruption at the New South Wales Police in the second half of the 1990s. He testified how he had bribed cops and been given a green light to commit crimes.</p>
<p>Chief among them Roger Rogerson. Confronted by the testimony of his former associate and friend, Rogerson called him a “dog”.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Blue Murder</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10810103659,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="300" alt="10810103659?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>The courtroom drama attracted plenty of attention. Smith and Rogerson and their vicious crimes were immortalized in hit television series <em>Blue Murder</em>. Smith’s murder of Huckstepp is depicted in the series.</p>
<p>From 1989 until the end of his life, Smith sat in prison. Parkinson’s disease wrecked his body and mind. He had to use a walking frame to move around. In 2008 his medication to treat the disease stopped working effectively, further deteriorating his health.</p>
<p>On September 8, 2021, he passed away of natural causes at Sydney’s Long Bay Prison Hospital. He was 76.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-australia">Australian organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
California drug boss who bribed DEA Special Agent sentenced to over 11 years in federal prison
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/california-drug-boss-who-bribed-dea-special-agent-sentenced-to-ov
2022-08-22T14:03:34.000Z
2022-08-22T14:03:34.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10781035301?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>A California drug boss who bribed a DEA agent was sentenced to over 11 years in prison last week. 37-year-old Francisco Gonzalez Benitez had pleaded guilty on April 15, 2021, to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances (including kilogram quantities of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, marijuana, and methamphetamine), distribution of meth, and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.</p>
<p>Known by the nickname “Paco,” Gonzalez Benitez operated a multi-state drug trafficking organization. He and his crew shipped drugs from Southern California to Jacksonville and other locations hidden in U.S. Mail parcels and vehicles being transported on car haulers.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/did-you-make-this-worth-it-crooked-dea-supervisory-agent-bribed-b" target="_blank"><strong>“Did you make this worth it?” – Crooked DEA agent bribed by drug kingpin gets 11 years in prison</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Investigators ultimately identified more than 100 parcels that had been shipped to Jacksonville as part of the conspiracy. The proceeds from this drug business were funneled through various bank accounts in a manner designed to both distribute funds among co-conspirators and conceal the nature and source of those funds.</p>
<p>A financial investigator analyzed the conspirators’ banking activity and estimated that individuals and entities in the Jacksonville-portion of the operation made approximately $416,144 in cash deposits and other transfers into the accounts of individuals and entities in the California-portion of the business.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>DEA agent provided “top cover protection”</strong></span></p>
<p>When confronted by FBI Special Agents about these activities, Gonzalez admitted his role in shipping drugs from California to Jacksonville, but also confirmed that he was a source of supply of controlled substances in Little Rock, Arkansas.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-real-dea-agents-of-narcos-javier-pena-and-steve-murphy-talk-a"><strong>The Real DEA Agents of Narcos Talk Fact & Fiction</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>In addition, he disclosed that, beginning in 2014, he had worked in Jacksonville as a confidential informant with <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/did-you-make-this-worth-it-crooked-dea-supervisory-agent-bribed-b" target="_blank">DEA Special Agent Nathan Koen</a>, but throughout 2016 and 2017, Gonzalez Benitez made several cash payments to that federal agent. Gonzalez Benitez continued to pay Koen after Koen was promoted and transferred to Little Rock.</p>
<p>The periodic payments, as large as $9,000 per transaction, were made for what Gonzalez Benitez called “top cover protection” for his drug operation. This protection included Koen advising Gonzalez Benitez when not to use the mail to ship controlled substances, when to change his phone number, and when he and his potential customers were under investigation by law enforcement.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Doing the time for the crime</strong></span></p>
<p>Koen was subsequently prosecuted and he pleaded guilty on August 18, 2021, to receiving a bribe as a public official. He was sentenced on May 11, 2022, to 11 years and 3 months in federal prison.</p>
<p>On July 16, 2019, Gonzalez Benitez’s brother, 25-year-old Jose Manuel Gonzalez, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances (including cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine) and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. On May 23, 2022, he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">Organized Crime in North America section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
“Did you make this worth it?” – Crooked DEA agent bribed by drug kingpin gets 11 years in prison
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/did-you-make-this-worth-it-crooked-dea-supervisory-agent-bribed-b
2022-05-14T06:32:48.000Z
2022-05-14T06:32:48.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10485901063?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>As crooked as they come. A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent was sentenced to over 11 years in prison on Wednesday for accepting bribes from a drug kingpin. 45-year-old Nathan Koen (photo above) had been charged with drug possession and distribution charges as well, but pleaded guilty to the bribery charge in exchange for dismissal of those.</p>
<p>Koen accepted bribes from a known, large-scale drug boss, known as “Paco,” for the purpose of helping facilitate a drug conspiracy, which involved at least 15 to 45 kilograms of methamphetamine. The drug trafficker and his brother, known as “Stewie,” testified during the hearing and explained that he believed Koen provided was providing sensitive, law enforcement information, which helped him avoid detection by authorities and run his drug organization.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/homicide-at-rough-point-the-billionairess-and-the-mobbed-up-polic" target="_blank"><strong>Homicide at Rough Point: The billionairess and the mobbed up police chief</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The drug boss, who is in federal custody, stated that his organization was responsible for distributing kilogram quantities of methamphetamine cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and marijuana.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Jailhouse talk</strong></span></p>
<p>In 2018, the FBI began investigating Koen, who had been working for the DEA since 2002 and had transferred in 2016 to work as a Group Supervisor in the Little Rock DEA office from Jacksonville, Florida. FBI agents interviewed drug kingpin Paco who told law enforcement he had paid Koen cash for information and protection related to his <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels" target="_blank">drug trafficking</a> activities.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-real-dea-agents-of-narcos-javier-pena-and-steve-murphy-talk-a" target="_blank"><strong>The Real DEA Agents of Narcos Talk Fact & Fiction</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Paco told FBI agents he had been in custody on federal drug charges in 2013-2014 when another inmate told him he should contact Koen and offer to work as an informant, which he did. After his case was resolved, the informant resumed distributing large amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, and cocaine in Florida, California, Arkansas, and elsewhere, while making payments to Koen for protection. The informant paid approximately $31,500 to Koen before he began cooperating with the FBI.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>FBI stings the DEA</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10485901676,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10485901676?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="300" /></a>He agreed with the FBI to set up a controlled delivery of a bribe payment to Koen. Koen and the drug trafficker agreed to meet in Las Vegas on December 3, 2018. FBI agents equipped him with $9,000 cash and multiple audio recording devices.</p>
<p>The two men met on the sidewalk across from the Bellagio hotel and walked together to the Paris Las Vegas hotel, where they went inside a bathroom away from casino cameras. Once inside, the drug boss placed the cash in Koen’s backpack, and they left the hotel, each going in different directions.</p>
<p>Recordings of the encounter revealed that Koen asked him, “Did you make this worth it?” The drug trafficker responded: “Come on, man, you know I always make it worth it for you.” Koen responded: “I know.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/nypd-cop-who-moonlighted-as-bodyguard-for-el-chapo-s-wife-had-sid" target="_blank"><strong>NYPD cop, who moonlighted as bodyguard for El Chapo’s wife, had side gig trafficking cocaine</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Koen also advised the informant that he should get rid of all his phones and change his address because he expected a search warrant to be executed at his home soon. Koen was arrested when he returned to Arkansas later that day, and he admitted to accepting bribes from the informant.</p>
<p>“By protecting a drug trafficking organization and accepting bribes from a drug kingpin, former Group Supervisor Nathan Koen deceived and betrayed his brothers and sisters in the DEA,” FBI Little Rock Special Agent in Charge James A. Dawson said. “His disgraceful and corrupt conduct only strengthens our resolve to continue attacking corruption at all levels.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">Organized Crime in North America section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
“More and more cases of match-fixing” – Europol and UEFA hold first international conference on match-fixing in football
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/more-and-more-cases-of-match-fixing-europol-and-uefa-hold-first-i
2022-04-29T09:07:28.000Z
2022-04-29T09:07:28.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10447588091?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Football, known in the United States as soccer, is the world’s biggest and most lucrative sport. With an audience of billions the sky is the limit. Though many assumed its prime position would protect it from bad influences, such as shady gamblers, the opposite appears true: match-fixing is a problem in football too.</p>
<p>That is why Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, and UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations, brought key stakeholders together for the first time on Tuesday to identify new ways to investigate and cooperate in cases related to sport corruption and match-fixing. </p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>109 officials from 49 countries</strong></span></p>
<p>A total of 109 senior officials from law enforcement, judicial authorities and national football associations from 49 countries attended the joint Europol-UEFA conference at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-role-of-the-indian-mafia-gangs-and-match-fixing-in-internatio" target="_blank"><strong>The role of the Indian Mafia, gangs and match fixing in international cricket</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Over the course of the day, expert panels analyzed the most pressing current and future threats to protecting the integrity of football and fighting organized crime groups. They discussed topics such as operational collaboration between law enforcement bodies and football Integrity officers, and the early detection of suspicious betting patterns. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/rise-in-sports-corruption-as-mafia-groups-step-up-involvement-mee" target="_blank"><strong>Rise in sports corruption as Mafia groups step up involvement - Meeting at Europol about combating these crimes</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Prevention was also high on the agenda, with discussions focusing on new recently adopted legal frameworks and existing tools designed to prevent match-fixing and facilitate information sharing.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“More and more cases of match-fixing”</strong></span></p>
<p>“Organized crime quickly understood that a lot of football clubs were suffering financially as a consequence of COVID-19,” Burkhard Mühl, Head of Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC), commented. “And where there is less money, players, coaches, officials and even club executives are increasingly vulnerable to being corrupted by fixers. What with the huge profits associated with ‘making the unpredictable predictable’, we are seeing more and more cases of match-fixing and suspicious results. Cooperation between law enforcement and sports organizations is vital to not only detect and investigate suspected corruption in football, but also to stop such fraudulent activities before they can even begin.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/fifa-match-agent-pleads-guilty-to-corruption-charges" target="_blank"><strong>FIFA match agent pleads guilty to corruption charges</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Experts at Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre work with law enforcement authorities across the European Union to identify links between suspicious matches and suspects, and to uncover the organized crime groups who orchestrate these multi-million Euro frauds against sport.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/former-fifa-official-admits-taking-over-350-000-in-bribes" target="_blank"><strong>Former FIFA official admits taking over $350,000 in bribes</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>UEFA’s team of anti-match-fixing experts work on education, intelligence, investigation and cooperation with its network of 55 Integrity Officers as well as key stakeholders and partners, with particular emphasis given to preventing any issues related to match-fixing and betting irregularities.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
‘Ndrangheta clans infiltrated Italy’s railway construction for “no show” jobs that benefited imprisoned mobsters
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/ndrangheta-clans-infiltrated-italy-s-railway-construction-for-no
2022-02-11T18:16:36.000Z
2022-02-11T18:16:36.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10091054868?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Italian police busted 15 individuals today as a result of an investigation into the infiltration of railway construction work across Italy by the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-overview" target="_blank">Calabrian Mafia</a>, known as the ‘Ndrangheta. The country’s biggest railway companies are alleged to be involved in this racket.</p>
<p>Authorities claim ‘Ndrangheta clans from the Crotone region muscled in on railway construction in Lombardy, Veneto, Abruzzo, Lazio, Campania, Calabria and Sicily. The mobsters created so-called “no show” jobs, which netted them €2,000 per month and benefitted imprisoned gangsters.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/how-the-mole-clan-of-the-calabrian-mafia-established-a-cocaine-em" target="_blank">How the Molè Clan of the Calabrian Mafia established a cocaine empire</a> with Navy divers and corrupt politicians</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Some big names in the legitimate world were caught up in this investigation. Among them Maria Antonietta Ventura. She is president of the board of directors of the Ventura Group, which is one of the premier companies involved in railway construction. She was a celebrated figure, but now faces serious accusations of Mafia association and tax crimes. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-overview">'Ndrangheta section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
Former Corrections Officer gets 3 years for smuggling drugs and cell phones into state prison
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/former-corrections-officer-gets-3-years-for-smuggling-drugs-and-c
2022-01-16T09:21:18.000Z
2022-01-16T09:21:18.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10015661455?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Convicts get a bad rap, but when it comes to them having drugs or phones behind bars there is only one responsible party: the prison personnel. 43-year-old Anibal Navarro worked as a corrections officer at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, but had a side hustle supplying inmates with methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and cell phones.</p>
<p>He was sentenced in federal court on Thursday to 3 years in prison.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/fitness-behind-bars-gangsters-tell-how-they-train-their-bodies-an" target="_blank">Fitness Behind Bars</a>: Gangsters tell how they train their bodies and minds in prison</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Navarro pleaded guilty, admitting that he was part of a network of 12 individuals both inside and outside the prison that smuggled in contraband and illegal narcotics. All the other defendants have pleaded guilty and been sentenced.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Mastermind behind bars</strong></span></p>
<p>One of Navarro’s co-conspirators, prison inmate Martin Gomez, organized and directed the other participants, including Navarro, from his cell in California state prisons in San Diego and Los Angeles. Gomez arranged for individuals outside of prison to smuggle contraband into Donovan prison and deliver drugs and cell phones to various inmates through Navarro. Gomez directed those inmates to receive the contraband and deliver it to still other inmates within the prison.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/how-guards-go-on-assaulting-inmates-without-consequences" target="_blank"><strong>How guards keep assaulting inmates without consequences</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Gomez approached Navarro while Gomez was an inmate at Donovan, offering him an avenue to make extra money that Gomez knew Navarro needed. Navarro was paid between $1,000 and $2,000 each time he smuggled contraband into the prison. Gomez continued to lead the conspiracy for over two years, even after he was transferred out of Donovan to another prison. Over 500 grams of methamphetamine, heroin, cell phones, and other contraband were smuggled into Donovan through Navarro at Gomez’s direction while he was incarcerated elsewhere.</p>
<p>The smuggled phones were used to coordinate criminal activity both inside and outside Donovan.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">Street Gangs section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
Homicide at Rough Point: The billionairess and the mobbed up police chief
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/homicide-at-rough-point-the-billionairess-and-the-mobbed-up-polic
2022-01-14T10:58:53.000Z
2022-01-14T10:58:53.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10011593265?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By Peter Lance for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>On the last full day of his life -- October 6th, 1966 -- Eduardo Tirella flew into Newport, RI, the storied summer colony of America’s wealthiest families. Doris Duke, the third richest woman in the world picked him up at the airport and they drove to Rough Point, her English-manor estate on Bellevue Avenue, known to Newporters as “Millionaire’s Row.” Tirella, whose close friends called him “Eddie,” was about to declare that he was leaving Doris after seven years as her constant companion, artistic curator and designer at her estates in New Jersey, Bel Air, Honolulu, and Newport. It was now time to let his patron know, face to face, that he was severing his professional ties with her, for good.</p>
<p><strong><em>Top photo shows Eduardo Tirella and Doris Duke in the mid-1960’s (Providence Journal)</em></strong></p>
<p>The handsome Tirella, a war hero and Renaissance man with movie star looks, had just finished the set design for Don’t Make Waves, a new film starring Tony Curtis and his close friend Sharon Tate. With his Hollywood career amping up, he was anxious to get back to the West Coast, so he’d asked Doris to rent a station wagon. At 42 he was on the edge of an important new career. But nobody left Doris Duke without consequences. A notoriously jealous Scorpio, she was known for her violent temper. A few years back, in a drunken rage, she’d stabbed her common-law husband with a butcher knife when he’d angered her, and Eduardo, who was gay, had been warned by his partner and friends not to test her. He assured them that he could handle Doris and agreed to come back to Newport for one last curating job.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Homicide-Rough-Point-Peter-Lance/dp/0996285598/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10011600281,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="600" alt="10011600281?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>Still, by late the next afternoon, October 7th, servants at Rough Point remember them getting into a heated argument. Doris, then 53, had rented the Dodge Polara wagon from the local AVIS dealership and they were about to head out to pick up an artifact Eddie had deemed worthy. Moments later, as they exited the estate with Tirella behind the wheel, he got out to open the massive wrought iron gates.</p>
<p>Suddenly, Duke slid into the driver’s seat and seemed to snap. She released the parking brake, shifted into drive and slammed down on the accelerator. The rear tires of the two-ton wagon spun, leaving gouges in the gravel driveway. From a dead stop the wagon roared forward and hit Tirella. To save himself Tirella he up on the hood of the wagon, staring through the windshield at Doris terrified. Then, as determined by Sgt. Fred Newton, chief accident investigator for the Newport, PD, Doris Duke hesitated and tapped the brakes. The wagon stopped and Eduardo rolled off onto Bellevue Avenue. He’d broken his right hip but he was still alive.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/mafia-cops-license-to-kill" target="_blank"><strong>MOB COPS: LICENSE TO KILL</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Seconds went by and they the billionairess decided to commit. She roared forward dragging Tirella under the wheels of the wagon, across Bellevue and up onto a curb, knocking down 20 feet of post and rail fence before smashing into a tree. As Doris sat cold bloodedly behind the wheel, Eduardo’s body lay beneath. With massive injuries to his lungs, spinal cord and brain, his death was instantaneous.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10011596658,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10011596658?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em><strong>Photo: The crash scene showing the Dodge Polara station wagon crashed against a tree across from Rough Point. Sgt. Fred Newton, who proved Doris Duke committed intent-to-kill murder, can be seen at lower right, working the scene. (Ed Quigley Photo courtesy John Quigley)</strong></em></p>
<p>Ninety-six hours later, with no inquest – basing the brief probe of Tirella’s homicide entirely on the word of Miss Duke – the Mafia-related police chief Joseph A. Radice closed the case. Duke escaped without any criminal charges, but not before her lawyers had conspired with Radice to fabricate a “transcript” of an “interrogation” that never took place. It was little more than a three page “script” of a fictional Q&A. But that document furnished the legal “proof” Radice needed to declare to the worldwide media that Eduardo Tirella had died in “an unfortunate accident.”</p>
<p>Seven months after that, the corrupt Chief retired and later bought the first of two condominium units in Hollywood, Florida. Unbeknownst to the public, he’d brokered a murderous quid-pro-quo.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>WATCH: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/videos/notorious-detroit-hitman-kurt-mcgurt-talks-about-crooked-cops-and" target="_blank"><strong>Notorious Detroit hitman Kurt McGurt talks about crooked cops and prison</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Eight days after the homicide, following years of haranguing with Newport after she blocked off Cliff Walk, the pedestrian path surrounding her estate, Doris donated $25,000 to restore it. It was the equivalent of $199,000 today. Next, she gave $10,000 ($80,000 in 2022 dollars) to Newport Hospital, where she’d been hidden away from authorities on the night of the crash while her lawyers traveled from New York to create a cover story. That deal was cut by the corrupt County Medical Examiner, Dr. Phillip C. McAllister who hired on as Doris’s private doctor minutes after he pronounced Tirella dead. In the months that followed, Duke began to set up a foundation that renovated 70 original colonial buildings, turning Newport into a tourist Mecca. All of it was sanctioned by Chief Radice who, years earlier, had literally had “married into the mob.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10011595462,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10011595462?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em><strong>Photo: Chief Joseph A. Radice as a young motorcycle patrolman and on the eve of his retirement from the Newport Police Department. (Newport Daily News photos)</strong></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>THE CHIEF, THE CONDOS & COSA NOSTRA</strong></span></p>
<p>Seven months after summarily covering up Eduardo Tirella’s murder, Chief Radice retired after 42 years on the job. The rumors of how he may have profited by allowing Doris Duke to walk, still rebound on a Newport Facebook Group: “We all know she did it,” wrote one Newporter, “The chief retired to Key Biscayne right next to Bebe Rebozo, Nixon’s buddy.” Another speculated that he “bought an island off the Florida keys.” None of that is how it happened. But like so many aspects of the story I uncovered, the many half-truths may contain the full truth.</p>
<p>Joseph Augustus Radice was a complicated figure. Born in 1899, with only an 8th grade education, he put on a badge in 1925. By 1938 when he made Sergeant, he was already well schooled in the upstairs-downstairs rules that protected the wealthy and supported the working-class officials in Newport who catered to them</p>
<p>Ever since her father’s deathbed warning to “Trust no one,” Doris Duke had been famously paranoid, allowing vicious German Shepherds and Akitas to roam the grounds of her estates in Newport, New Jersey, Beverly Hills and Hawaii, causing repeated passersby to get attacked and bitten. In May of 1964 after two tourists on Cliff Walk were victimized in a single week, Radice ordered “the destruction or removal” of two of her dogs. Counter-puncher that she was, Doris made front page news a month later, after she cut off the Cliff Walk with chain link fences.</p>
<p>But all of that ended eight days after Tirella’s death when The Duke Foundation made what was described as “the first substantial pledge” to The Cliff Walk Foundation then trying to raise $493,000 toward a goal of $1.2 million for the pathway’s restoration. It was a clear message to the City. “Newport was reminded,” wrote her godson Pony Duke,” that “Doris was its only hope for refurbishment.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/deal-with-the-devil-q-a-with-author-peter-lance" target="_blank">Deal with the Devil</a>: How FBI let Colombo Mafia family hitman get away with murder - Q&A with author Peter Lance</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>At the time he left the Newport PD in 1967, Radice’s annual salary was a mere $7,000. Four years later he bought the first of two units at The Warrenton House, a new condominium complex in Hollywood Florida. In order to get a sense of whether any of the funds in his Florida property buys came from Doris Duke, one has to consider his tangled family connections.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10011604869,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" width="159" alt="10011604869?profile=RESIZE_180x180" /></a>In 1970 Radice married into a Mafia-related family when he exchanged vows in Miami with the former Mary Capochiano Flynn. Her brother Dominic (aka Dom) was a bookie for Raymond Patriarca (photo right), <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-new-england-crime-family" target="_blank">Cosa Nostra boss of New England</a>, based in Providence. That’s according to her grandson, Andrew Flynn who loved Radice and considered him his surrogate grandfather.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>MURDER BY TRAIN</strong></span></p>
<p>“My blood grandfather David Flynn was a real violent guy and a nasty drunk,” he said in an interview for my book. “Somebody told him he needed to get out of town, and he was leaving when he got hit by a train.” The details of the 1955 accident were highly suspicious. At the time of the crash, Flynn’s car was parked on a railroad crossing with gates down and lights flashing on either side of it. After impact with the New Haven Railroad’s Merchant Limited, the vehicle was hurled 150 feet (with Flynn pinned inside).</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/how-the-imprisoned-doll-woman-spy-attracted-the-attention-of-the" target="_blank">How the imprisoned "Doll Woman" spy attracted the attention</a> of the sister to future President John F. Kennedy</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Andrew told me that he’s sure it was murder. “He’d been tied to the steering wheel at the time. Word in the family was that the Capochianos killed him.” At that point, Joe Radice had made Captain, but this was one “accident” he didn’t have to investigate, since it took place in Richmond, RI., some 25 miles away from Newport.</p>
<p>Property records in Broward County, Florida show that in 1971, while still maintaining his principal residence in Newport, Radice bought Unit 432 at the Warrenton House, a new four-story complex in Hollywood. The price was $13,900 – the equivalent of $88,588.00 today. He financed it with a down payment of $4,780 which was 68% of his last year’s salary as Chief. In 1976 he bought another apartment, Unit 433, in the same complex for $19,000 and sold the first unit in 1977. Another Warrenton condo, Unit 428 on the same floor, was owned by Mary Radice’s brother Dom (aka Donald) the mob bookie. His widow Betty later sold that apartment to Albert and Mary Paranzino, Al was Dominic Capochiano’s partner in Ann’s Kitchen, a popular local restaurant, and he too, ran numbers for Mafia boss Patriarca.</p>
<p>In fact, the mob ties to the Capochianos date back to 1951 when the Rhode Island State Police raided two variety stores in Newport where bets were being placed. One was co-owned by Dominic whose sister Mary later became Radice’s wife. After the raid she and her then husband David posted bail of $1,500 for two of the arrestees - the equivalent of $14,790.00 today. Since that was an era before credit cards were in wide use, it’s likely that the bond was posted in cash.</p>
<p>David Flynn was the same man who, four years later, was apparently murdered on the railroad tracks by his in-laws in the Capochiano family. Joseph Radice was a Lieutenant at the time of the raids, which State Police conducted in secret without informing the Newport PD.</p>
<p>“That tells you something,” says retired NYPD Detective James Moss, a 20 year veteran of Brooklyn South Homicide, who examined the evidence I uncovered in my investigation. “The violent death of Eduardo Tirella made international headlines at the time. The fact that a local police chief could have ties to Mafia and gambling interests for years gives and continue to run his department, gives you a sense of how confident he was that he could sweep the case under the rug. The power Doris Duke wielded back then made this miscarriage of justice possible.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>EPILOGUE</strong></span></p>
<p>Duke herself, died at the age of 80 in 1993 and today, her Newport mansion – the scene of the crime – attracts hundreds of tourists each year as a museum. After I first reported this story in the July/August issue of Vanity Fair and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Homicide-Rough-Point-Peter-Lance/dp/0996285598/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=" target="_blank">HOMICIDE AT ROUGH POINT</a>, the book, was published in four editions in 2021, the Newport Police Department reopened the case. In a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/08/the-doris-duke-cold-case-reopens-eyewitness-speaks" target="_blank">second VF piece on August 5th</a>, I broke the news that Robert E. “Bob” Walker, Jr., the 13-year-old paperboy for Doris Duke in 1966, had come forward after reading the book and discovering that the details I unearthed, proving Tirella’s murder, synced precisely with his memory of the crash. This is <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/video/watch/an-eyewitnesss-account" target="_blank">a video</a> of my interviews with Bob, outside Rough Point on July 4th, 2021.</p>
<p>The case was reopened after Det. Jacque Wuest, the Newport PD’s cold case detective, interviewed him for two hours on July 2nd and found him credible. Det. Wuest then spent five tortuous months on the new investigation, but despite overwhelming evidence that Duke had killed Eduardo with intent, on November 18th, she declared that there was “no evidence” and fell back on Chief Radice’s corrupt “accident” theory. All of the details, including a <a href="http://peterlance.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/NPD-22Duke-Case22-Timeline-with-links-11.4.21-1.pdf" target="_blank">30-page TIMELINE</a> are available on my website, <a href="http://peterlance.com/wordpress/?p=10975" target="_blank">peterlance.com</a> proof, as underscored by NYPD retired Det. Moss, that Doris Duke still wields power from the grave. This <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Sl7qRnFqg" target="_blank">YouTube video</a> says it all.</p>
<p><em>The book Homicide at Rough Point by Peter Lance is available at stores everywhere – including Amazon. You can find <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-contributor-peter-lance" target="_blank">Peter Lance</a> at his <a href="http://www.peterlance.com" target="_blank">website</a> or via <a href="https://twitter.com/peterlance_" target="_blank">social media</a>.</em></p>
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<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">Organized Crime in North America section</a> or the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-new-england-crime-family">New England Patriarca crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
How the Molè Clan of the Calabrian Mafia established a cocaine empire with Navy divers and corrupt politicians
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/how-the-mole-clan-of-the-calabrian-mafia-established-a-cocaine-em
2021-11-21T11:20:42.000Z
2021-11-21T11:20:42.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9828938458?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Another win for the Italian government against the powerful ‘Ndrangheta this week as police in Italy arrested over 100 people connected to the Calabrian Mafia. The investigation titled “Nuova Narcos Europa” targeted the Molè Clan and brought to light its criminal operations in Calabria, Tuscany, and Lombardy.</p>
<p>The individuals were arrested on Tuesday and are charged with Mafia association, extortion, drug trafficking, illegal possession of a firearm, usury, fraud, and corruption. Many hailed from Piana di Gioia Tauro and are part of the Molè Clan.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Nuova Narcos Europa</strong></span></p>
<p>The Molè Clan ran a cocaine pipeline from South America into the ports of Gioia Tauro and Livorno. Several dockworkers who worked for the Clan called them the Nuova Narcos Europa, which resulted in authorities using the name for their investigation into the illicit activities.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9828923279,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9828923279?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="700" /></a><em><strong>Photo: Surveillance of members of the Molè Clan</strong></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Young Rocco</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9828920898,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9828920898?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="278" /></a>The group was led by Rocco “Roccuccio” Molè (right). At just 26 years old, he was very young to rule such an organization, but he had the right name and blood coursing through his veins. He was the son of imprisoned <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-overview" target="_blank">‘Ndrangheta</a> Godfather Girolamo "Mommo" Molè and grandson of boss Antonio Molè. His uncle Rocco, also a leader, was murdered on February 1, 2008.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Profile of </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-mafia-defines-who-he-is-profile-of-toronto-ndrangheta-boss-gi" target="_blank"><strong>Toronto ‘Ndrangheta boss Giuseppe “Pino” Ursino</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>In 2017 Molè opted to do community service for the poor and sick to avoid going to prison. It seems this was nothing but a ruse as the priest who had him under his wing later said the young mobster was unable to cut ties with his ‘Ndrangheta family.</p>
<p>While still doing good work, he received a call from his imprisoned father: “The time to play is over. We are at war and we have to deal with these (meaning the Piromalli Clan, longtime allies-turned-enemies). I’m betting on you.”</p>
<p>Young Rocco stepped up and took control.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Navy divers and cocaine bricks</strong></span></p>
<p>Tons of cocaine flooded into Italy and parts of Europe. Cocaine bricks seized by police were branded with the logo of the Real Madrid football team or with Masonic symbols.</p>
<p>Former Peruvian Navy divers were enlisted to recover cans loaded with cocaine in the waters around the Livorno docks. The Clan also hired workers at the ports who would let them enter the port area so they could unload loads of cocaine from the containers. They were given yellow bibs to be able to move freely in the harbor area.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/coked-up-europe-increase-in-cocaine-traffic-more-players-and-viol" target="_blank">Coked Up Europe</a>: Increase in cocaine traffic, more players and violence, but ‘Ndrangheta remains key</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>South American chemists helped the Molès with processing the cocaine. They lived and were held in isolation in apartments in Gioia Tauro – the divers were too. Factories were set up in the countryside where the coke was refined and packaged.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Fish market</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9828929088,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9828929088?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="119" /></a>Like all Mafia organizations, the Molè Clan also liked to diversify its portfolio. They controlled a large section of the fish market in Gioia Tauro. The man overseeing operations was Antonio “Mastro Ninnu” Albanese, Girolamo Molè’s (right) father-in-law. The <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-overview" target="_blank">‘Ndrangheta</a> likes to keep things in the family.</p>
<p>Traders were forced to buy fish from companies that belonged to the Molè Clan. All the fishing boats had to bring their produce to the auction run by Albanese’s company and businesses were then forced to participate in the auction without being able to buy directly from the fishermen. The Molès were the broker pocketing a large percentage of the money - some of which was used to support the families of imprisoned ‘Ndrangheta members.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Infiltrating the north</strong></span></p>
<p>The north of Italy has seen an increase in cases against the ‘Ndrangheta after it became clear the group had established a vast criminal empire there to invest and launder its dirty money. Along the way, they expanded into regional drug trafficking and corruption of local politics.</p>
<p>As was the case in various previous investigations into the ‘Ndrangheta, this one, too, brought to light the corrupting influence the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-overview" target="_blank">Calabrian Mafia</a> has on the country’s politics and institutions.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/fugitive-ndrangheta-boss-60-caught-in-bunker-with-partner-34-and" target="_blank"><strong>Fugitive 'Ndrangheta boss (60) caught in bunker with partner (34) and child</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>An agent of the financial police, provided information to the Molè Clan, while an employee of the Ministry of the Interior serving at the police station of Legnano allegedly created passports. These were authentic but with false general information. The group used these for fugitive members traveling abroad. In the Lombardy province, the former mayor of Lomazzo and a former town councilor there were suspected of helping the Molè Clan.</p>
<p>Prosecutor Riccardo Targetti appealed to Italian society not to “play with fire” by flirting with 'Ndrangheta clans, according to Italian news agency <a href="https://www.ansa.it" target="_blank">ANSA</a>. He said they were capable of “taking control” of society.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The heat is on</strong></span></p>
<p>The <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-overview" target="_blank">Calabrian Mafia</a> enjoyed its time in the shadows, letting the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/camorra-overview" target="_blank">Camorra</a> and <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/sicilian-cosa-nostra-overview" target="_blank">Cosa Nostra</a> take most of the heat, but it now has become a priority for authorities worldwide as its power is seen as a threat to society.</p>
<p>Hundreds of Calabrian mobsters are currently in court in <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/70-ndrangheta-members-convicted-as-maxi-trial-against-calabrian-m" target="_blank">the biggest trial ever</a> against the ‘Ndrangheta. 70 members were <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/70-ndrangheta-members-convicted-as-maxi-trial-against-calabrian-m" target="_blank">convicted</a> of various crimes earlier this month and 355 members still face trial.</p>
<p>It seems the good old days of operating in secret have finally come to an end.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-overview">'Ndrangheta section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
Former FIFA official admits taking over $350,000 in bribes
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/former-fifa-official-admits-taking-over-350-000-in-bribes
2021-08-25T09:14:26.000Z
2021-08-25T09:14:26.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9471110685?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>This guy won’t be getting the FIFA Fair Play award anytime soon. Reynaldo Vasquez, the former president of the El Salvadorean soccer federation, on Monday admitted accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.</p>
<p>Officially, in court, those crimes were part of a racketeering conspiracy in which 65-year-old Vasquez participated. Vasquez and others solicited and received bribes and kickbacks in exchange for awarding lucrative media and marketing contracts.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>FIFA World Cup</strong></span></p>
<p>In 2012, Vasquez, together with other current and former officials of the El Salvadorean soccer federation, received approximately $350,000 in bribes in connection with the sale of media and marketing rights to El Salvador World Cup qualifying matches to be played in advance of the 2018 World Cup.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fifa-capo-sepp-blatter-boozing-with-russian-mob-boss" target="_blank"><strong>FIFA president Sepp Blatter boozing with Russian mob boss</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>This bribe payment was wired from a sports marketing company’s bank account in the United States. Vasquez ultimately received a portion of his bribe money through a wire transfer sent through the United States. In 2014 and 2015, Vasquez and others agreed to receive tens of thousands of dollars in bribes in connection with the participation of the Salvadorean national team in friendly matches to be played in the United States. Vasquez was extradited from El Salvador to the United States on January 29, 2021.</p>
<p>Vasquez agreed to forfeit $360,000 and multiple bank accounts and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.</p>
<p>“With today’s guilty plea, Vasquez admits to engaging in a decades-long racketeering conspiracy to accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks that corrupted the game of soccer,” stated Acting United States Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis. “Together with our law enforcement partners, this Office is committed to rooting out fraud and corruption in international soccer and to protecting the integrity of the U.S. financial system.”</p>
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<li><strong>Get the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at the <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc. News feed</a>.</strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>