Agent - Blog 2.0 - Gangsters Inc. - www.gangstersinc.org
2024-03-28T14:56:45Z
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The Real Narcos: Profile of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Mexico’s “El Padrino” of drug lords
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-real-narcos-profile-of-miguel-angel-felix-gallardo-mexico-s-e
2018-11-17T13:50:26.000Z
2018-11-17T13:50:26.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-real-narcos-profile-of-miguel-angel-felix-gallardo-mexico-s-e" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237118097,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237118097?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Men with vision always make it into the history books. No matter which world they inhabit, if they start a groundbreaking movement, they will be remembered. So it is with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (photo above), the founder of Mexico’s cartel underworld.</p>
<p>Gallardo’s rise follows a path of humble beginnings, setbacks, and that one moment that propelled him to unworldly power. Born on January 8, 1946, on the fringes of Culiacán, Gallardo didn’t set out to become a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels" target="_blank">narco trafficante</a>. Well, not as his official occupation. He joined the Mexican Federal Judicial Police and rose rapidly thanks to his ability to make connections to influential people.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Friends in powerful places</strong></span></p>
<p>While still only a twenty-some year-old he became part of the protection detail of Sinaloa governor Leopoldo Sanchez Celis. Under Sanchez’ tutelage and protection, the soft-spoken Gallardo began learning about the ins and outs of the drug trade. In those years, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mexico" target="_blank">Mexico</a> was divided up between several <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels" target="_blank">drug lords</a> who each controlled an important piece of the pie: trafficking routes, plantations etc. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">Marijuana</a> was their main product back then and they faced increasing pressure from the United States.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/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>U.S. authorities were pressuring the Mexican government to eradicate narcotics production in its country by burning down the plantations where <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Opium" target="_blank">opium</a> and marijuana crops were being cultivated. Instead of halting drug production, however, the operations did little to stem the flow of narcotics. Many traffickers from the area’s targeted in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Sinaloa" target="_blank">Sinaloa</a> during Operation Condor, for instance, simply moved to Guadalajara in the state of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Jalisco" target="_blank">Jalisco</a>. Matter of fact, it only helped set the stage for a professionalization of the trade.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The Guadalajara Cartel</strong></span></p>
<p>After a powerful drug lord named Pedro Avilés was killed by police in a shootout in 1978, Gallardo quickly pounced on the opening and took over his operations. Together with Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo he established the Guadalajara Cartel, which changed the way the Mexican drug bosses did business.</p>
<p>Rather than competing with each other, Gallardo saw more profit in working together and ensuring a stable, high price for their product. Thanks to his corrupt contacts in all layers of politics and law enforcement, he was also able to provide protection for all of those involved in the cooperation.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/los-zetas-teenage-hitmen-torture-and-drugs-wolf-boys-gives-intima" target="_blank"><strong>Wolf Boys gives intimate look into hellish Cartel underworld</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>While marijuana was the drug of choice in the 1960s and 70s, the 1980s saw the explosion of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> and the Narcos quickly seized on the opportunity. Again, Gallardo played an integral part by brokering a lucrative deal with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Escobar" target="_blank">Pablo Escobar</a>’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Medellin" target="_blank">Medellin Cartel</a> via a middle-man named Juan Ramon Matta-Ballesteros, who himself was a major Honduran drug trafficker.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237118270,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237118270?profile=original" /></a><em>Photo: Gallardo's story is currently depicted in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/video-narcos-restarts-in-mexico-with-focus-on-cartel-origins-and" target="_blank">Narcos: Mexico on Netflix</a><br /> </em></p>
<p>The increased profits meant buying ever bigger shipments of drugs and laundering ever larger amounts of drug money. By the mid-1980s, Gallardo’s Guadalajara Cartel was the country’s most powerful organization controlling all drug routes from start to finish. Gallardo had achieved his aim. Back when he started, he had a vision hardly anyone believed in, yet now, not only did everyone see it clearly, he could make them feel it as well.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The torture and murder of “Kiki”</strong></span></p>
<p>Though Gallardo refrained from using violence, he was not opposed to using it if it was necessary. But when is it necessary? In a business as violent and extreme as the drug trade, necessity can differ depending on your point of view. What looks like a grave insult in the evening, may look like a funny story the next morning. So what does one do when he hears about a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=DEA" target="_blank">DEA</a> agent who infiltrated his Cartel?</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/top-5-drug-lords-killed-while-on-the-run" target="_blank"><strong>Top 5 drug lords killed while on the run</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>That is where Gallardo made his biggest mistake.</p>
<p>Upon hearing about undercover DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena’s actions, Gallardo ordered Jalisco police officers on his payroll to kidnap the agent who had bravely been collecting information on the Cartel’s flow of business. They did as they were told and captured Camarena on February 7, 1985.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237118489,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237118489?profile=original" /></a>To find out how much Camarena (right) knew his interrogators brutally tortured him over a period of more than a day at one of Gallardo’s ranches. Camarena was eventually murdered when his killer bore a hole in his head with an electric drill.</p>
<p>They then dumped his body in a shallow grave where it was found by authorities.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>DEA goes to war</strong></span></p>
<p>Confronted with the gruesomely mutilated corpse of one of their own, the DEA went to war. It began Operation Leyenda and sent scores of agents over to Mexico to investigate the murder. It didn’t take them long to identify the man behind Camarena’s killing, but to arrest him was a different story.</p>
<p>Gallardo’s years of cultivating political contacts, offered him a Teflon layer of defense. It took the DEA until April 8, 1989, when they finally caught their man. To be able to stay out of reach of the world’s biggest superpower for several years is a testament to Gallardo’s incredible influence.</p>
<p>No wonder then, that after his arrest, he continued running his Cartel from behind prison bars. It was to be business as usual, but with a twist. All territories would be divided among the members of the Cartel. It was to be as it was before Gallardo’s rise, but with the smooth working relationships and political protection that came during and after it.</p>
<p>The Arellano Felix brothers got the Tijuana territory and became known as the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Tijuana" target="_blank">Tijuana Cartel</a>. “The Lord of the Skies” Amado Carrillo Fuentes got Ciudad Juárez and headed the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Juarez" target="_blank">Juarez Cartel</a>. Miguel Caro Quintero and the Beltrán Leyva family got Sonora. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Guzman" target="_blank">Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán</a> and Ismael Zambada García got the Pacific coast, forming the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Sinaloa" target="_blank">Sinaloa Cartel</a>.</p>
<p>Using cell phones, Gallardo stayed in contact with the main players, getting updates and giving orders. But when he was moved to the maximum-security prison in Altiplano – the same prison from which Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/video-hammering-audible-just-before-el-chapo-s-prison-break" target="_blank">escaped</a> a few years ago - his reign officially came to an end by the early 1990s.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/prison-breaks-from-mobsters-and-hitmen-to-serial-killers-and-drug" target="_blank">Prison Breaks</a>: From mobsters to drug lords, the men who escaped from jail</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>A vision of horror</strong></span></p>
<p>72-year-old Gallardo is currently serving a 37-year prison sentence for the drug trafficking, kidnapping, and the murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena. Now an old man, with various health issues, he continues to be heralded in narcocorridos as Mexico’s founding Cartel Godfather, “El Padrino,” the boss of bosses, lord of drug lords.</p>
<p>From his cell, he bore witness as fighting erupted among the various Cartels he had left behind. Hundreds of thousands were viciously slaughtered over billion-dollar drug routes as each Cartel tried to intimidate its rival with ever more gruesome tactics.</p>
<p>One wonders if Gallardo was able to envision such violence when he began making his own dream a reality. If not, he has time to think about the legacy of horror he leaves behind.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>UPDATE - September 14, 2022</strong></span>: Mexico’s “El Padrino” of Narcos, <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/mexico-s-el-padrino-of-narcos-miguel-angel-felix-gallardo-leaves">Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, leaves prison after serving 33 years</a> and is granted house arrest.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels">Drug Cartels 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>
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“Nothing gets my juices flowing like putting a gun to someone's head” – Profile: Chicago mobster Charles Russell
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/nothing-gets-my-juices-flowing-like-putting-a-gun-to-someone-s-he
2018-04-05T17:00:00.000Z
2018-04-05T17:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nothing-gets-my-juices-flowing-like-putting-a-gun-to-someone-s-he" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237108086,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237108086?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>You can call Charles Russell an old-time hood that just doesn’t know when to quit. As a member of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-chicago-outfit-overview" target="_blank">Chicago mob</a>’s Grand Avenue Crew, which was once headed by infamous boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chicago-boss-joseph-lombardo" target="_blank">Joseph “The Clown” Lombardo</a>, Russell murdered and stole his way through “the life.”</p>
<p>“Nothing gets my juices flowing like putting a gun to someone's head, taking their stuff and making it mine,” Russell was once recorded as saying, according to court documents. “It will be a great Christmas, I’m telling you.”</p>
<p>“The fun for me is the score,” he said explaining his motivations. “That's how I get my adrenaline. You know how long it takes to come to down for me? I counted money one night for so long my hands were filthy.”</p>
<p>Though countless mobsters like to talk a big game, Russell backed his up. He was convicted of murder in 1973. Almost two decades later he added a conviction for aggravated criminal sexual assault. Sentenced to over three decades behind bars, he was paroled in March of 2011.</p>
<p>On the streets, he went back to his friends in the Grand Avenue Crew. By now, the crew was missing their beloved leader “Joey the Clown,” who had been convicted in the infamous Family Secrets case targeting the hierarchy of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-chicago-outfit-overview" target="_blank">Chicago Mafia</a>.</p>
<p>A career-criminal overseeing a group of burglars responsible for hundreds of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Robbery" target="_blank">robberies</a> and home invasions, Russell got right down to business when he approached an associate about getting some guns for a job he was planning.</p>
<p>This being November 2016, the man turned out to be an informant and quickly shared his information with federal agents with the United States Bureau of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=ATF" target="_blank">Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives</a> (ATF).</p>
<p>Up to speed about Russell’s plans, ATF sent in an undercover agent to meet with the Chicago mobster at the Boundary Tavern and Grille in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. As goes without saying, agents had the place bugged and listened on in Dolby Surround Sound.</p>
<p>As the tape was recording, Russell outlined his criminal masterplan. He knew an elderly lawyer living in the suburbs who he believed had around $750,000 dollars tucked away in a safe in his home. Russell wanted that cash and he needed some help.</p>
<p>No worries about the burglary equipment, Russell told the men, he had that squared away. They would get police scanners, masks and a new set of clothes. The lawyer, however, did pose a problem. The man was old and could be scared into a heart attack. “He fuckin’ drops dead, we got a fuckin’ murder,” Russell said.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/when-the-american-government-asked-the-mafia-for-a-favor-the-assa" target="_blank"><strong>When the American government asked the Mafia for a favor</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>He did need one other thing from the undercover agent, though. Guns. A month later the three would-be robbers met again and Russell gave the agent a wish list filled with firearms, including a submachine gun and an AK-47 assault rifle.</p>
<p>And if the guns don’t subdue their victim and make him open the safe, then he had some backup moves. “If he doesn’t open it, we’re gonna make him open it,” Russell said. “They always open for me, believe me. I bring my butane torch, put it on the bottom of their feet, they open it.”</p>
<p>The only thing that was opened for Russell were cell doors when agents brought him in on charges. On April 4, 2018, he pleaded guilty to a single count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. His sentencing is set for August 17 when he is looking at a minimum stretch of 15 years and up to life behind bars.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/tony-spilotro-and-his-hole-in" target="_blank">Chicago mobster Tony Spilotro's Hole in the Wall gang</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>It certainly looks like he’ll be dead before that – getting to August can be considered an achievement. Now 68 years old, Russell was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer soon after his arrest and has been undergoing intensive chemotherapy.</p>
<p>“Mr. Russell will not live to serve […] a sentence, and it is unknown whether he even will live until the day he is sentenced,” his lawyer stated.</p>
<p>The judge tends to agree. Russell was allowed to await his verdict and sentencing at home with his girlfriend Patricia Spilotro. If that name rings a bell then you’re right. Patricia is a relative of infamous Chicago mobsters <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Spilotro" target="_blank">Anthony and Michael Spilotro</a>, whose stories were detailed in the classic gangster flick <em><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-truth-behind-movie-classic-casino" target="_blank">Casino</a></em>, directed by Martin Scorsese.</p>
<p>In Chicago the underworld remains a tight-knit affair.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-chicago-outfit-overview">Chicago Outfit 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>
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New Jersey Mafia capo gets 10 years for plans to whack crime family rival
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/new-jersey-mafia-capo-gets-10-years-for-plans-to-whack-crime-fami
2017-03-29T14:35:58.000Z
2017-03-29T14:35:58.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-jersey-mafia-capo-gets-10-years-for-plans-to-whack-crime-fami" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237078468,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237078468?profile=original" width="400" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>DeCavalcante crime family capo <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-decavalcante-crime-family-capo-charles-stango" target="_blank">Charles Stango</a> was sentenced to 10 years behind bars yesterday for using a telephone to plan the murder of a rival mobster. In addition to the prison term, the judge sentenced 73-year-old Stango to three years of supervised release.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-decavalcante-crime-family-capo-charles-stango" target="_blank">Profile of DeCavalcante family capo Charles Stango</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The New Jersey Mafia captain had previously pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly using an interstate facility – the telephone – with the intent to murder a rival. He also pleaded guilty to violating the terms of his supervised release, which he was serving following his imprisonment on racketeering charges in New York.</p>
<p>Stango was arrested on April 14, 2015, as part of a sweep of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-decavalcante-crime-family" target="_blank">DeCavalcante crime family</a> wiseguys that operated in New Jersey and elsewhere. Based on tape-recorded evidence uncovered during the investigation, Stango believed that his mob rival had falsely held himself out to be a “made man” within the DeCavalcante family. Stango refused to recognize the man’s alleged new status.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-jersey-mob-boss-francesco-guarraci-dies-at-age-61" target="_blank">Profile of DeCavalcante family boss Francesco Guarraci</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Adding insult to injury, Stango then believed his mob rival to have intentionally insulted a high-ranking family member, which he felt deserved the ultimate punishment: Death. He offered up to $50,000 to two assassins to carry out the order. The two assassins were, in fact, undercover FBI agents. Law enforcement officials closed down the investigation to ensure Stango’s intended victim’s safety, and he was never harmed. </p>
<p>Six of Stango’s co-defendants, including his son, Anthony Stango, have pleaded guilty to various crimes – including distribution of significant amounts of cocaine and attempting to set up a prostitution business – to enrich crew members and the crime family.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-decavalcante-crime-family">DeCavalcante 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>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
Two DeCavalcante family mobsters admit distributing cocaine
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/two-decavalcante-family-mobsters-admit-distributing-cocaine
2015-12-04T09:00:00.000Z
2015-12-04T09:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/two-decavalcante-family-mobsters-admit-distributing-cocaine"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237040652,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237040652?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Two associates of the DeCavalcante crime family of La Cosa Nostra Wednesday admitted their roles in distributing more than 500 grams of cocaine. John “Johnny Balls” Capozzi (34) of Union, New Jersey, and Mario Galli (23) of Toms River, New Jersey, each pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of more than 500 grams of cocaine.</p>
<p>Both men were <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-decavalcante-crime-family-capo-charles-stango">busted in March of this year</a> along with eight members of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-decavalcante-crime-family">DeCavalcante family</a>, including consigliere Frank Nigro and capo <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-decavalcante-crime-family-capo-charles-stango">Charles Stango</a>. Capozzi and Galli were loyal members of Stango’s crew and, according to wiretaps, “were willing to confront members of a rival group if called upon to do so.”</p>
<p>An undercover FBI agent managed to infiltrate Stango’s crew, however, and spread out over six occasions between December of 2014 to March 2015 purchased a total of 1,2 kilos of cocaine from Capozzi, Galli, and Charles Stango’s son Anthony.</p>
<p>After winning the gang’s trust, the undercover agent made his biggest “score” on March 6, 2015, when he met Stango, Capozzi, and Galli at a location in Union, New Jersey. During the course of the meeting, which was audio recorded, another mobster delivered over 500 grams of cocaine to the three Decavalcante wiseguys who, in turn, provided that cocaine to the undercover agent. The FBI agent then paid $27,500 in cash for the coke.</p>
<p>The drug distribution count to which Capozzi and Galli each pleaded guilty carries a mandatory minimum of five years, a maximum of 40 years in prison, and a $5 million fine. Sentencing for both defendants is scheduled for March 21, 2016.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-decavalcante-crime-family">DeCavalcante 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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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
Profile of DeCavalcante crime family capo Charles Stango
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/profile-of-decavalcante-crime-family-capo-charles-stango
2015-08-21T12:30:00.000Z
2015-08-21T12:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-decavalcante-crime-family-capo-charles-stango"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237052058,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237052058?profile=original" width="400" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Long distance relationships are hard, but running a New Jersey Mafia crew from Las Vegas is close to impossible. New Jersey mob captain Charles Stango (photo above) tried, though. In the process he gave the FBI gems like this: “The ending ain’t going to be good. I’m taking no prisoners.” The feds do take prisoners and hit him with murder and racketeering charges.</p>
<p>New Jersey’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-decavalcante-crime-family">DeCavalcante crime family</a> has always been considered the smaller cousin of the surrounding five families in New York and the one in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-crime-family">Philadelphia</a>. Labeled everything from “peasants” to “the famers” the DeCavalcante family was looked down upon by many involved in “the life.” Despite being a small family they did have control over the unions and construction which enabled them to carve out a nice piece of the pie. However, after some pressuring they eventually fell firmly under the influence of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">New York Gambino family</a>.</p>
<p>Or, as DeCavalcante captain Charles Stango puts it, “And now we run under the fuckin’ Gambinos.”</p>
<p>Stango has a way with words. After serving over ten years in prison he was released in 2012 and settled in the city of Henderson, a suburb of Las Vegas. Voted as America’s safest and best place to live multiple times in recent years, Henderson is not exactly a town you’d expect a guy like Charles Stango to live in.</p>
<p>Especially since he allegedly did so much to make the streets of the United States unsafe. Even his reason for being and living there sounds ominous coming from him: “Now me. I planted the fuckin’ flag in fuckin’ New Orleans, in Las Vegas, fuckin’ L.A. okay?” When Stango says “planted a flag” he means that he has claimed a piece of the local action for the DeCavalcante family back in Jersey.</p>
<p>A family that he remains in contact with despite the distance between them. Depending mostly on telephone calls Stango gave out orders, advice, and more to his son Anthony, a DeCavalcante associate and his proxy. He also got orders and advice from family higher ups.</p>
<p>But talking on the phone has been a mob no-no ever since, well… Since they realized someone could be listening in on them. Many guys are behind bars now because they were caught talking about their crimes on a phone line. Everyone knows about the dangers, many mobsters refuse to use phones. Of course, in this day and age that is almost impossible to imagine or do.</p>
<p>That is why criminals do the next best thing. They have multiple phones, prepaid phones, phones they use once and throw away. Stango also used several phones to maintain some form of secrecy and shield him from the FBI’s taps.</p>
<p>The only thing is, it didn’t work.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237052099,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237052099?profile=original" width="230" /></a>The FBI had placed an undercover operative in Stango’s crew back in New Jersey and the agent had gotten pretty close to his son Anthony (right). It didn’t take long before the feds had all their phones tapped and the agent was getting the New Jersey wiseguys to talk about some serious illegal business.</p>
<p>One of the main issues at hand was the beef Stango and his crew were having with Luigi Oliveri, a soldier in another DeCavalcante crew operating out of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Oliveri was made by now deceased boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-jersey-decavalcante-family-boss-john-riggi-dies">John Riggi</a> and many DeCavalcante mobsters found that he did not deserve to become a member.</p>
<p>Tensions rose quickly and Stango had trouble keeping his emotions in check. When the undercover agent visited him in Las Vegas, Stango told him that Oliveri was “out of control” and that he “had to meet death or you gotta maim him or you just gotta put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life or somebody’s gotta get a fuckin’ jar of acid and throw it in his fuckin’ face…”</p>
<p>As the <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/that-escalated-quickly" target="_blank">internet meme</a> goes, that escalated quickly.</p>
<p>Afterwards he told the undercover agent that he expected him to take care of it. A scene reminiscent of what happened to famed FBI agent Joseph Pistone when he infiltrated the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno family</a> posing as jewel thief Donnie Brasco and received the contract to murder “Bruno” Indelicato.</p>
<p>When Stango met the agent again in Las Vegas on February 1, 2015, they discussed the plan to kill Oliveri even further. The agent explained Stango he’d use two members of an outlaw motorcycle gang to shoot and kill Oliveri. They needed to pay each of the men $25,000 dollars to allow them to stay in Elizabeth to scout the area where the hit would occur. Stango then gave the agent two copies of a photograph of Oliveri and insisted that mob higher-ups knew of the hit and would support his decision once Oliveri was dead.</p>
<p>The feds had taken their undercover operation as far as they could. With the murder plot in the works and all those involved caught on tape it was time to bring out the handcuffs.</p>
<p>On Thursday, March 12, 2015, authorities arrested ten members and associates of the DeCavalcante crime family, including Stango and his son, and Frank Nigro, the family’s consigliere. They were charged with various plots to commit murder, distribute drugs, and run a prostitution business.</p>
<p>Everything was caught on tape.</p>
<p>This week, his son Anthony pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal. 72-year-old Charles Stango has not yet made any plea deal despite looking at 40 years in prison if found guilty. Then again, why would he? At age 72 even a sweet plea deal carrying a five year sentence can mean dying in a cell.</p>
<p>UPDATE: On December 7, 2016, Charles Stango pleaded guilty to various racketeering charges, including making plans to murder Oliveri. Read the whole story here: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/decavalcante-crime-family-capo-admits-planning-mob-rival-s-murder">DeCavalcante family capo admits planning mob rival's murder</a></p>
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Polish-American Arms Trafficker is Feeling the Heat
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/polish-american-arms-trafficker-is-feeling-the-heat
2014-05-07T17:00:00.000Z
2014-05-07T17:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/polish-american-arms-trafficker-is-feeling-the-heat"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237016659,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237016659?profile=original" width="500" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>When the Soviet Union crumbled there were plenty of men who used the absence of a strong government to enrich themselves. The fall of the Iron Curtain ushered in the rise of the powerful oligarchs and introduced the world to Eastern European gangsters with access to the best and most advanced weaponry money can buy. One of those men currently is under a lot of scrutiny in Poland. Our very own Ron Fino was onto him while working with the FBI and CIA in rounding up bad guys in Europe.</p>
<p>“There is a lot that I cannot mention,” <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-mafia-and-labor-racketeering">Ron Fino</a> begins. The former FBI and CIA operative-turned <a href="http://amzn.to/19cjPLa" target="_blank">author</a> is cautious not to hinder any ongoing investigation, but knows all the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/from-mobbed-up-unions-to-cold-war-spying">details</a>. Working as an undercover he infiltrated the network of one of the world’s largest weapons dealers.</p>
<p>“Around 1998, I was informed that a dual citizen (Poland-USA) named Wieslaw “Wesley” Michalczyk was involved in getting large shipments of military equipment to Iran, Syria, and numerous African nations. While in Belarus, I learned that Michalczyk was a partner of Vladimir Peftiev, who ran a large arms trading company based in Belarus called “Beltechexport”. Both men were utilizing a myriad of corporations to cloak many of their transactions.”</p>
<p>“In order to maintain an appearance of legitimacy,” Fino explains, “[Michalczyk] purchased a Chicago restaurant that was featured in the 1989 movie ‘Roadhouse’ with Patrick Swayze. However, the limited business proceeds could not cloak his vast sums of illicit cash. After consulting with his associates in the U.S., Poland, and Eastern Europe He opened up off shelf corporations and off-shore bank accounts in Cyprus, Switzerland, Bahamas, Barbados, Virgin Islands, and in the United Kingdom. This answered part of the problem.”</p>
<p>During this period, Fino found out that Michalczyk was playing all ends. “In 1994 Beltechexport sold a Russian SA 300 (Sam 10) anti-missile defense system to the US -Canadian firm Athos for 500 million dollars. ATHOS was run by Emmanuel Weigensberg, an Iran-Contra figure and a close associate of former United States General Richard Sicord, who was also President of Trans World Arms. Eventually the deal was canceled by Russian authorities. The Russians were upset over Belarus selling secrets. I was informed by a Belarusian citizen named Anatoly Neverov that the technology of the SA 300 specs and design had in fact already been transferred to North America.”</p>
<p>Neverov moved around in a dangerous <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/investigating-the-russian-mafia-on-its-home-turf">world</a>, but that didn’t stop him from openly berating Michalczyk. “I expressed my worry,” Fino says. “I told him that these guys are heavyweights and that he might get killed unless he stops publically demeaning them. Burley, unshaven, and constantly drunk Neverov became a constant companion and would introduce me to his friends including former KGB agents. At a drinking session in the basement of KGB headquarters there is the KGB Club where we would go to have a few pops. One evening he went into a tirade about Michalczyk and his being an American spy and that he had a penis implant and a hand pump that would bring stiffness to his penis. One of the former KGB agents told him to shut up and that he didn’t know the full story.”</p>
<p>On September 11, 2001, gunmen visited the home of Neverov and murdered him in front of his wife and children. His killing has never been solved. “I was in Belarus early that fateful morning and was watching the tragic events that were taking place in the United States. The Neverov killing never made it into the media, at least then, and I did not learn of it until I returned back to America. When I did return to Belarus, I renewed my efforts to unravel the mystery surrounding Michalczyk. Eventually utilizing a business deal, we got together at first in Warsaw, Poland, then Minsk, as well as at his business locations in the United States, in the Chicago area.”</p>
<p>Vladimir Peftiev and Wieslaw Michalczyk were doing great for themselves. Around 2002, Michalczyk purchased a large yacht that was parked in one of the rivers running through Moscow. He moved around while constantly surrounded by bodyguards. When Fino met him at a party Michalczyk had twenty bodyguards making sure he would not be harmed.</p>
<p>“They were selling so much equipment to Syria, Iran, and Iraq that some of their equipment was ending up in Chechnya and used to kill Russian soldiers and its loyalists. In a conversation I had with Gennady Troshev at a party in Moscow, the former Commander of the Russian Army in Chechnya just after he was relieved by Putin, he said to me, “How do I fight an enemy that is constantly being supplied with technology and weapons by my own country?”</p>
<p>In the summer of 2000, Peftiev was spotted in Minsk with Austrian national Norbert Furst, a weapons dealer and president of the Redway Holding Corporation, which was registered in 2003 in Road Town, British Virgin Islands. Peftiev also met with some Middle-Eastern men in Geneva, Switzerland. Fino later met a source who confirmed that Peftiev and Michalczyk were supplying terrorist organizations. <a href="http://amzn.to/19cjPLa" target="_blank">Fino</a>: “There is a lot more, a lot, that I can’t get into.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Polish media is turning up the heat on Michalczyk. A new documentary (see below) investigates Wieslaw Michalczyk and his vast empire in Poland and Eastern Europe. Ron Fino was interviewed by the journalists involved in this project as well and can be seen in the opening minutes. “There have been and continue to be investigations taking place in Poland, and Interpol is looking into Michalczyk as well. I can tell from the documentary that they have uncovered quite a lot about his operations there. I have documentation as well as names, corporation records, associates, and methods these war merchants use to filter the illegal funds received from weapon sales.”</p>
<p>Bringing down Michalczyk won’t be easy. He’s a shrewd man, as Ron Fino quickly learned during those years. “When I had brought it to the attention of the FBI, the CIA of course was interested, and then all of a sudden they didn’t let me go in and investigate anymore. It was shutdown. Now that tells me that he, Michalczyk, was playing both ends. I believe Wesley was what you may call a triple agent, he’s worked for Belarus, Russia, and the United States. I say the U.S. because he was beneficial in obtaining SA-3 technology and shipping it to the United States.”</p>
<p>Men like that usually find a way to continue playing all ends in order to survive. And as long as most of the parties involved find he is worthy to their cause, he will live in freedom yet another day.</p>
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