Cash - Blog 2.0 - Gangsters Inc. - www.gangstersinc.org
2024-03-29T09:41:06Z
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Colombo Mafia family soldier “The Mask” Difalco sentenced to 3 years in prison for racketeering
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/colombo-mafia-family-soldier-the-mask-difalco-sentenced-to-3-year
2020-08-07T10:46:01.000Z
2020-08-07T10:46:01.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/colombo-mafia-family-soldier-the-mask-difalco-sentenced-to-3-year" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237149685,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237149685?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family" target="_blank">Colombo Mafia family</a> soldier Vito “The Mask” Difalco (photo above) was sentenced to just over 3 years in prison for racketeering on Wednesday. The 65-year-old mobster ran <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Loansharking" target="_blank">loansharking</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling" target="_blank">gambling</a> operations from his <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brooklyn" target="_blank">Brooklyn</a> bar named The Tryst Lounge.</p>
<p>Working with Joseph Maratea, who ran a pawn shop out of the same Dyker Heights building where Difalco’s bar was located, Difalco operated a loansharking business, extending loans at exorbitant interest rates and the added threat that if a debtor did not make his payments in time, he would face violent consequences. Specifically, the Colombo gangsters charged $15 in weekly interest payments on every $500 extended, which amounted to 3% weekly interest payments or 156% annual interest.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-a-rat-brought-down-the-colombo-mafia-family-crew-of-fat-jerry" target="_blank">How a rat brought down the Colombo Mafia family crew</a> of “Fat Jerry,” “The Mask,” and “Mumbles”</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>To ensure both that they could locate their debtors and that their debtors understood that Difalco and Maratea knew where they resided, they required debtors to provide copies of their driver’s licenses and their contact information.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>"Put the Benz on fire"</strong></span></p>
<p>On April 19, 2018, Difalco and Matera had the following conversation about a debtor’s missed payments:</p>
<p><em>DIFALCO: Alright stretch out, ‘cause we are going to take a ride in a little while.</em></p>
<p><em>MARATEA: Alright.</em></p>
<p><em>DIFALCO: I’ll be here, then we’ll take a ride up there.</em></p>
<p><em>MARATEA: Where by [John Doe #8]?</em></p>
<p><em>DIFALCO: Yeah, we’ll go by [John Doe #8].</em></p>
<p><em>MARATEA: Did you call him?</em></p>
<p><em>DIFALCO: I called him, he didn’t pick up. I figure I’ll ring the bell and flood the house.</em></p>
<p>In another recording, Difalco was taped saying: “Good things happen to me when I stay calm. See, like, I was by your house the other day. Four years ago I would have put the Benz on fire.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-two-sides-of-new-york-mob-boss-joe-colombo-and-how-his-murder" target="_blank">The two sides of New York mob boss Joe Colombo</a> and how his murder remains unsolved for over forty years</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Difalco also earned illegal proceeds through his gambling business, which included illegal sports-betting and video gambling machines. He used a legitimate business – a bar called Tryst which he operated – to facilitate his illicit activities and limit detection by law enforcement. At the bar he could attract new loansharking customers and use his employees to collect loansharking payments. He also used the bar to operate and promote his illegal gambling businesses.</p>
<p>Maratea pleaded guilty to racketeering and was sentenced in April 2020 to time served and 2 years’ probation with the first 4 months to be served under house arrest.</p>
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Genovese Mafia family made man and underlings plead guilty to role in sophisticated multi-million-dollar scheme
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/genovese-mafia-family-made-man-and-underlings-plead-guilty-to-rol
2019-05-04T15:56:27.000Z
2019-05-04T15:56:27.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-mafia-family-made-man-and-underlings-plead-guilty-to-rol" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237123076,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237123076?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>It took a few years, but several Genovese crime family mobsters busted back in 2014 during Operation Fistful finally decided to plead guilty to their role in a multi-million-dollar criminal enterprise on Wednesday. The group includes made man Vito Alberti, who collected “tribute” payments that were kicked up the Mafia ladder.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="https://st2.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234866091?profile=RESIZE_710x" alt="2234866091?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>60-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Alberti" target="_blank">Alberti</a> allegedly worked under supervision of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese family</a> capo <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Tuzzo" target="_blank">Charles Tuzzo</a>. In turn, Alberti ran a crew comprised of several enterprising criminals, including 61-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Pucillo" target="_blank">Domenick Pucillo</a>, who ran licensed and unlicensed check-cashing businesses in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Newark" target="_blank">Newark</a>. Pucillo used these to launder illicit revenue from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Loansharking" target="_blank">loansharking</a> operations. A very <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-crew-charged-with-multi-million-dollar-scheme" target="_blank">sophisticated scheme</a> that proved very profitable.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Making millions a year</strong></span></p>
<p>Over a two-year period, Pucillo had approximately $3 million in usurious loans on the street and collected around $1.3 million in interest per year. It is alleged that 71-year-old Genovese associate <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Spagnola" target="_blank">Robert “Bobby Spags” Spagnola</a> partnered with Pucillo in the loansharking business and received a commission of one point on each loan he secured for Pucillo.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Pay me</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237123272,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237123272?profile=original" /></a>Debtors were required to pay interest on a weekly basis. The <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-crew-charged-with-multi-million-dollar-scheme" target="_blank">scheme</a> was designed so that, when the they made loan payments by check, it appeared that they were cashing checks in the ordinary course of Pucillo’s check-cashing business. When they took out loans, victims were required to sign partially completed checks, which Pucillo and his crew could complete and cash through the check-cashing business to collect weekly interest or payments of principal. Debtors could also pay in cash.</p>
<p>After pleading guilty to first-degree conspiracy to commit money laundering, Pucillo faces a decade behind bars. Alberti and Spagnola pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal usury and face a 5-year prison sentence.</p>
<p><em>For more on this criminal scheme and how it worked,</em> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-crew-charged-with-multi-million-dollar-scheme" target="_blank"><em>read Genovese crew charged with multi-million-dollar scheme</em></a></p>
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Spanish money laundering network fronting as kebab meat supplier busted by police
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/spanish-money-laundering-network-fronting-as-kebab-meat-supplier
2018-03-10T08:47:48.000Z
2018-03-10T08:47:48.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/spanish-money-laundering-network-fronting-as-kebab-meat-supplier" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237100069,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237100069?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>The Spanish Guardia Civil busted a criminal enterprise operating in Spain and Germany this week, which used a network of food establishments, including kebab meat suppliers, to conceal their activities and launder €36 million of its ill-gotten gains.</p>
<p>Five individuals were arrested, while more face charges. The Guardia Civil’s investigations, supported by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Europol" target="_blank">Europol</a>, began in the summer of 2015 when police agents from the Barcelona-El Prat airport discovered that money was a being sent from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Spain" target="_blank">Spain</a> to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Germany" target="_blank">Germany</a> on a weekly basis. Running its activities from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Barcelona" target="_blank">Barcelona</a> and Alicante, the criminal organization was transferring large sums of money between the two countries, ranging from €90,000 to €300,000 euros.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-gangs-invade" target="_blank">Organized crime gangs invade Spain</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The money laundering criminal structure justified the transfers to the airport authorities as payments of Spanish companies to a German company for kebab meat supply. The investigation revealed that the Spanish companies did not even run real commercial activities.</p>
<p>In the course of the investigation it was established that the organization, operating since 2012, had built up a network of front companies involved in money laundering. It is possible that some companies were not even aware that their data was being used to justify false invoices.</p>
<p>Spanish authorities estimate that around €36 million euros have been transferred and laundered by the criminal network justified as payments for trade activities which were not accounted for and reported to the National Treasury.</p>
<p>As a result of the operation, the Spanish Guardia Civil blocked 36 bank accounts and financial products and 35 credit cards and seized 5 properties in the province of Alicante worth approximately €470,000 euros.</p>
<p>“This investigation shows once again that criminal business is still largely done in cash,” Simon Riondet, Head of Financial Intelligence at Europol, explained. “Professional money laundering syndicates offer cash courier and compensation laundering services for illicit proceeds. Very often networks of front and shell companies are established in order to facilitate the movement of the money and to provide justification for the proceeds. These activities are further enabled by the lack of cash payment restrictions in some EU countries which allow justifying large cash amounts as payments for trade activities.”</p>
<p>Action needs to be taken, Riondet adds. “The continued law enforcement seizures of bulk large denomination banknotes and the prevailing trade-based money laundering schemes reinforce the need to discontinue the production and circulation of 500 and 200-euro banknotes and set an EU-wide framework for restricting or setting a common limit for cash payments.”</p>
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Chinese woman laundered £1.8 million in drugs money for Albanian organized crime group in just two weeks
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/chinese-woman-laundered-1-8-million-in-drugs-money-for-albanian-o
2017-11-22T04:30:00.000Z
2017-11-22T04:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chinese-woman-laundered-1-8-million-in-drugs-money-for-albanian-o" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237095499,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237095499?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>The biggest problem with ill-gotten gains is how to turn them into squeaky clean gotten gains. Because criminal money remains vulnerable to being confiscated by authorities, whereas money laundered clean has no way whatsoever of ever being touched by law enforcement as the recent Panama Papers leak has showed.</p>
<p>Of course, getting caught in the process of laundering these monies will get you – and your money - in trouble. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=China" target="_blank">Chinese</a> money launderer Fen Chen knows this all too well. On Monday, she was sentenced to over 6 years in prison after being found guilty of laundering almost £2 million in criminal cash into <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=London" target="_blank">London</a> high street banks in a period of just two weeks.</p>
<p>32-year-old Chen and three others took bundles of bank notes into dozens of branches between 30 July and 15 August 2016. She was arrested by National Crime Agency officers shortly after accepting a bag containing more than £300,000 from Fation Koka, a 30-year-old who is a reputed member of an <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Albania" target="_blank">Albanian organized crime group</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/albanian-organized-crime-gangs-are-taking-increasing-control-over" target="_blank">Albanian gangs taking increasing control over Europe's drug markets</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Koka previously admitted two counts of money laundering and was jailed for 21 months. He will be deported upon completion of his sentence.</p>
<p>After Fen’s arrest, another £180,000 cash was discovered in bags and hiding places at her flat, along with bank slips detailing hundreds of deposits totaling £1.8 million. A cash counting machine was found in another room.</p>
<p>NCA officers found text messages on Chen’s and Koka’s phones that showed another cash handover happened in the same car park on 31 July 2016. That time, Chen was out of the country and instead sent representatives to collect the money.</p>
<p>“Fen Chen was a prolific <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Money" target="_blank">money launderer</a>, able to process millions of pounds in cash in a very short period of time,” NCA operations manager Kevin Gee said. “[She] was caught red handed in possession of around £300,000 belonging to an Albanian <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drugs</a> gang.”</p>
<p>He continued, “Organized crime groups rely on money launderers like Chen, who play an integral part in allowing them to benefit from and re-invest their criminal profits. Taking money launderers out of the chain, as we have done here, makes life far more difficult and riskier for crooks trying to clean their dirty cash.”</p>
<p>Investigators obtained CCTV bank footage showing Chen, Lin and others deposited cash in smaller amounts to avoid suspicion. You can watch the video below:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BpZbu6448lg?wmode=opaque" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
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Violent New York Asian gang hit with racketeering charges
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/violent-new-york-asian-gang-hit-with-racketeering-charges
2015-12-17T14:23:01.000Z
2015-12-17T14:23:01.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/violent-new-york-asian-gang-hit-with-racketeering-charges"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237040900,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237040900?profile=original" width="475" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Eight members and associates of the Zheng Organization were charged with crimes including racketeering, narcotics trafficking, extortion offenses, illegal gambling, and soliciting assaults on Tuesday. Qian “Cash” Zheng, the gang’s leader, faces a maximum sentence of 164 years in prison if convicted.</p>
<p>Zheng’s organization was based in and around the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn and the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, both known as local <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/triads-overview">Chinatowns</a>. Authorities allege that its members participated in a variety of crimes to enhance the gang’s influence and wealth.</p>
<p>According to the indictment, in August 2013, Qian Zheng hired two individuals to assault a man and a woman. He sought to have one of the victim’s leg broken and the other victim’s face scarred.</p>
<p>A few months later, in October 2013, gang members Billy Chen (42) and Jiayo Jiang (45) extorted a man. Later, Zheng joined in on the scheme and hired two individuals to carry out the extortion and instructed them to beat the man and fire shots into his restaurant so that he would pay an alleged debt.</p>
<p>A year later, Zheng and fellow gang member Guifu Gao (35) solicited the assault of another man. Gao made clear that this one needed to be crippled and that he should be beaten until he was half dead. Zheng similarly instructed those hired to carry out the beating to beat the man severely.</p>
<p>The violent collections continued as, on May 28, 2015, Zheng sent his underlings, including Xin Lin, Kai Huan Huang, and Xue Jiang Gao, to collect money from a man at his gambling parlor. When he insisted that he did not owe any money, Lin, Huang, and Jiang Gao beat him with their fists and wooden stools, breaking a bone in the man’s hand.</p>
<p>44-year-old crime boss Zheng and his cronies also profited by narcotics trafficking and illegal gambling. All face decades behind bars if found guilty.</p>
<p> “For years, Zheng and his associates committed violent acts to make money, protect their territory, and as retribution for perceived slights. Violent gangs are a blight on our neighborhoods, and we will do all in our power to prevent them from casting a shadow of violence over our streets,” stated United States Attorney Robert L. Capers.</p>
<p>“The Zheng Organization used violence and an array of criminal activities to enhance their power and protect their territory. It’s gang related activity like this that infects our communities with an illness that kills our neighborhoods’ safety and growth. However, there is an antidote to this that is made of law enforcement working at both the federal and local level to get gangs like this off the street,” said Assistant Director-in-Charge, Diego Rodriguez.</p>
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<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/triads-overview">Triads section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Corrupt cop sold info to international drug gangs and bikers
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/corrupt-cop-sold-info-to-international-drug-gangs-and-bikers
2015-10-09T15:30:00.000Z
2015-10-09T15:30:00.000Z
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/corrupt-cop-sold-info-to-international-drug-gangs-and-bikers"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236997283,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9236997283?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>A corruption scandal involving two outlaw motorcycle gangs and international drug trafficking organizations has erupted in the Netherlands. Dutch newspaper NRC Next discovered that Mark M., a 28-year-old detective from the National Police had been selling sensitive intelligence to leaders of biker gangs and drug groups over a period of several years.</p>
<p>The detective is under arrest and has been charged with corruption, neglect of duty, and money laundering. During searches at four locations, police seized computers, police jammers, drugs, and €235,000 in cash. A 45-year-old man he allegedly sold intelligence to has also been arrested. He's been charged with bribery, money laundering, and drug possession.</p>
<p>According to journalist <a href="http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2015/10/08/agent-aangehouden-die-op-grote-schaal-informatie-verkocht-aan-onderwereld/" target="_blank">Marcel Haenen’s piece</a> in <a href="http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2015/10/08/agent-aangehouden-die-op-grote-schaal-informatie-verkocht-aan-onderwereld/" target="_blank">NRC Next</a>, the detective had access to all big organized crime and drug cases and investigations in the Netherlands. He allegedly sold this sensitive information to drug trafficking organizations and outlaw motorcycle gangs in the province of Brabant. He is rumored to have had close links to the leaders of outlaw biker gangs <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/outlaw-bikers-joining-fight-against-isis-in-iraq">No Surrender</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bikers-amp-outlaw-motorcycle">Satudarah MC</a>.</p>
<p>This leak poses a significant risk to active informants and witnesses who were working with police during investigations.</p>
<p>Police and the Attorney General’s office are calling it the country's biggest police corruption scandal since the 1990s, when agents were caught trafficking large quantities of narcotics with help of the gangsters they were supposed to bring down.</p>
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Genovese crew charged with multi-million dollar scheme
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/genovese-crew-charged-with-multi-million-dollar-scheme
2014-10-22T18:00:00.000Z
2014-10-22T18:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-crew-charged-with-multi-million-dollar-scheme"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237036689,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237036689?profile=original" width="520" /></a></p>
<p>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Eleven members and associates of the Genovese crime family were charged with racketeering charges for allegedly reaping millions of dollars in criminal profits in New Jersey through loansharking, unlicensed check cashing, gambling and money laundering, including laundering of proceeds from narcotics trafficking. Using advanced techniques the mob crew did its best to stay one step ahead of the law.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237037075,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237037075?profile=original" width="149" /></a>Among the eleven defendants, two stand out as actual members of the New York-based <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese family</a>. Charles “Chuckie” Tuzzo (80) of Bayside, New York, is a “capo” or captain in the organization, and Vito Alberti (55) of New Providence, New Jersey, is a Genovese soldier. Both men are alleged to be the ultimate power behind the New Jersey crew charged in this indictment.</p>
<p>Tuzzo is a capo with strong links to the family’s leadership. In 2002, he was among 45 Genovese mobsters accused of infiltrating the waterfront in the New York region and in Miami, financial fraud, extortion, stock fraud and money laundering. Heading the indictment were boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-boss-vincent-chin">Vincent Gigante</a> and his son <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-associate-andrew">Andrew</a>. Tuzzo pleaded guilty and was released from prison in February of 2006.</p>
<p>Now, the 80-year-old wiseguy can prepare himself for another round in court. The charges Tuzzo and the others are facing stem from “Operation Fistful,” and carry consecutive sentences of ten to twenty years in prison for each charge, including lengthy periods of parole ineligibility.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237037657,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237037657?profile=original" width="151" /></a>While the elderly Tuzzo and his trusted soldier Alberti supervised the crew, its street work was done by associates like 56-year-old Domenick Pucillo, who ran licensed and unlicensed check-cashing businesses in Newark through which the illicit revenue allegedly was collected and laundered. A very sophisticated scheme that proved very profitable.</p>
<p>According to prosecutors, the Genovese mobster used his check-cashing businesses for a massive loansharking operation. He runs several businesses, but the main one is Tri-State Check Cashing, Inc., with headquarters at 17 Avenue A in Newark. He allegedly used cash and credit lines extended to his business to loan money “on the street” at usurious rates. He made loans at one to three “points.” A point equals 1% interest, due weekly, so one point equates to 52% annual interest, two points to 104% annual interest, and three points to 156% annual interest. New Jersey law defines criminal usury as loaning money to an individual at an annual interest rate exceeding 30%, and makes it a second-degree crime if the rate exceeds 50% per year.</p>
<p>Over a two-year period, Pucillo had approximately $3 million in usurious loans on the street and collected around $1.3 million in interest per year. It is alleged that Genovese associate Robert “Bobby Spags” Spagnola (67) partnered with Pucillo in the loansharking business and received a commission of one point on each loan he secured for Pucillo. In addition, Pucillo shared the loansharking proceeds up the Genovese chain of command to Alberti and Tuzzo.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237037687,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237037687?profile=original" width="421" /></a></p>
<p>Victims were required to pay interest on a weekly basis. The scheme was designed so that, when the victims made loan payments by check, it appeared that they were cashing checks in the ordinary course of Pucillo’s check-cashing business. When they took out loans, victims were required to sign partially completed checks, which Pucillo and his co-defendants could complete and cash through the check-cashing business to collect weekly interest or payments of principal. Victims also could pay in cash.</p>
<p>In addition to Tri-State Check Cashing and his other licensed check-cashing businesses, Pucillo allegedly financed an unlicensed, illegal check-cashing operation with partners and Genovese associates Abel J. Rodrigues (52) and Manuel Rodriguez (49). This scheme operated out of Portucale Restaurant & Bar at 129 Elm Street in Newark, also known as Viriato Corp. – which is owned by Abel Rodrigues – under the guise that Rodrigues was legally allowed to cash checks as Pucillo’s agent. In reality, this arrangement is illegal, and the defendants allegedly used it to enable clients to launder money and evade taxes. It is alleged that over a four-year period they illegally cashed over $400 million in checks through Portucale Restaurant and collected over $9 million in fees.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237037498,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237037498?profile=original" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>Many customers cashed checks at Portucale Restaurant to launder money, hide income or obtain cash for “under-the-table” payrolls because Abel Rodrigues allegedly did not ask for any identification and would not file proper “currency transaction reports,” or CTRs, for any check or combination of checks exceeding $10,000, as required by federal law.</p>
<p>In return for cashing checks for over $10,000 without scrutiny, customers paid fees of up to 3% percent per check, which exceeds the limit of 2.21% permitted under New Jersey law. Abel Rodrigues allegedly received 1% on each check, and the remainder went to Pucillo. It is alleged that Pucillo in turn provided one-quarter of his fees to Manuel Rodriguez, who shared a portion of his fees up the chain to Alberti, Tuzzo and the Genovese crime family.</p>
<p>In January 2012, Pucillo acquired a check-cashing business in Hialeah, Florida, called I&T Financial Services. It is alleged that he subsequently entered into an agreement to launder and transfer drug money from New York and New Jersey to Florida. The drug traffickers allegedly would deliver cash at Tri-State Check Cashing in Newark. The money then was wired under the fictitious company name “Gold Shiny” to Florida, where it was laundered through I&T Financial’s business accounts and was received by the client, whose identity remained concealed. Pucillo allegedly laundered and transferred $666,000 in this manner, collecting $22,500 in fees on the transactions.</p>
<p>If proven in court and thus true, these mobsters ran an ingenious and very profitable racket. One we came to expect from the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese crime family</a>, which is considered the most powerful and well-run mob family in the United States.</p>
<p>The indictment also shows that, for some, it is not just a family in name only, some are just following in the footsteps of a close relative. Like 37-year-old Vincent P. Coppola, son of imprisoned Genovese capo Michael Coppola, who allegedly was part of a network of Genovese associates who ran a multi-million dollar illegal sports gambling enterprise in New Jersey that utilized an off-shore “wire room” in Costa Rica to process bets.</p>
<p>Coppola allegedly was an “agent” who managed sub-agents or package holders, each of whom had a “package” of bettors under him. Agents decide which bettors can open accounts and gamble using the enterprise’s website and toll-free phone number. They also dictate how much a bettor can gamble per game and per week, and monitor the action and balances of the packages they oversee. Eventually, Coppola allegedly gave his sub-agents more complete control of the bettors in their packages. In a single year, in 2011, Coppola’s sub-agents allegedly handled more than $1.7 million in bets, and Coppola and the Genovese crime family – through Alberti and Tuzzo – made more than $400,000 in profits.</p>
<p>Off-shore gambling has become a favorite operation among mobsters. A law enforcement source explained why to Gangsters Inc., “The mob is always learning from previous cases and investigations against them. How they got caught, what techniques were used, what informants were used, etc. Some of their lawyers even educate them on the various investigative techniques used and the rule of law. As a result, they are constantly morphing in order to try to outsmart law enforcement. There is so much money in bookmaking which is what it is all about for them. Protecting their “bread and butter” is their big priority. The mob, through these new gambling methods, can now give you the opportunity to gamble in the comfort of your own home. Also, by having you call a toll free telephone number to place bets in Costa Rica, it insures that law enforcement cannot raid the Mafia’s local “wire rooms”. It’s a game of cat and mouse, or in this case, cops and robbers. They are getting smarter, but so is law enforcement.”</p>
<p>Sentiments echoed by Acting Attorney General Hoffman, who said, “We charge that this crew of the Genovese crime family was up to many of the Mafia’s old tricks in New Jersey, including loansharking and illegal gambling, to the tune of millions of dollars. History teaches us that as long as demand exists for illegal loans, illicit gambling, drugs, and other black-market goods and services, organized crime is going to turn a profit by preying on society. Our message to the Mafia is that as long as they do, we’re going to be here to send them to prison.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>UPDATE: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-mafia-family-made-man-and-underlings-plead-guilty-to-rol" target="_blank">Genovese Mafia family made man and underlings plead guilty</a> to role in sophisticated multi-million-dollar scheme</strong></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese 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>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
The Queen of Baltimore: Profile of female drug boss Jean Brown
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/female-drug-boss-jean-brown
2013-10-15T12:30:00.000Z
2013-10-15T12:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/female-drug-boss-jean-brown"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237021269,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237021269?profile=original" width="380" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>The criminal underworld is, and always has been, a man’s world. But women frequently manage to carve out their own place and territory in ganglands the world over. Among them Jean Brown, a 43-year-old woman from Jamaica, who ran a multi-million dollar drug business operating in Jamaica and multiple U.S. cities.</p>
<p>Call it a mom and pop business. The trucking companies operated by Jean Brown and her boyfriend Carl Smith were doing tremendously well. With branches on the East and West Coast of the United States their company had a nationwide reach. Their trucks could pick up, move, and deliver goods anywhere in the country. It was a good, solid business. One that could benefit the couple’s young child one day. Unfortunately, the company was nothing more than a front for a much more lucrative business: drug trafficking.</p>
<p>Jamaican born Jean Brown and Carl Smith used their strategically located trucking companies to move marijuana from their suppliers in Arizona and California to their distributors in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York. Starting in 2000, trucks drove from east to west once or twice a month with each truck transporting 1,000 pounds of marijuana per load. The “sticky icky” netted the couple around $1 million dollars every month, tax free. The money was then smuggled by couriers to Jamaica, where it was invested into real estate by Brown and her relatives.</p>
<p>The organization of Brown and Smith consisted of transporters (of weed and money) and enforcers to keep everyone in line. Their marijuana <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels">connection</a> was based in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels">Mexico</a>. Julio Carlos Meza-Mendez, Leo Alvarez Tostado Gastellium, and Gabrial Campa-Mayen supplied them with the green stuff and had the clout to get it across the U.S. border.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9237021488,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237021488,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237021488?profile=original" width="250" /></a>With millions of dollars and thousands of pounds of drugs being handled by the organization every month trust and loyalty were paramount. Each member had to follow the rules or the smooth operation would come to a screeching halt. Lacking police and prosecutors, in the underworld the task of law and order falls on the people at the top of the pyramid. If Brown and Smith chose to be lenient they would lose money, maybe even their lives.</p>
<p>So when money courier Michael Knight (50, photo left) was entrusted with $1 million dollars in cash for safekeeping it was his job to make sure each and every dollar was there when Brown and Smith came knocking. But in December of 2009, he had a serious problem. He was missing a few dollars. 250,000 of them to be exact.</p>
<p>It is at these times when people know for 100 percent whether they have stepped over to the dark side or whether they stayed on a train too long and now desperately want to get off at the first station in sight because they are in over their heads.</p>
<p>Confronted with the missing $250,000, Brown showed which side she was on as she went full Tony “<a href="http://amzn.to/19kab9m" target="_blank">Scarface</a>” Montana on her courier. Any sign of a soft feminine touch quickly evaporated<a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9237022257,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237022257,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237022257?profile=original" width="200" /></a> when she joined Smith and a crew of Jamaican enforcers consisting of Peter Blake (55), Hubert “Doc” Downer (52) and Dean “Journey” Myrie (39, photo right) as they snatched Knight off the street and took him to an apartment in White Marsh, Maryland.</p>
<p>Inside the apartment, Knight, no doubt extremely fearful for his life, tied up with a telephone cord, unable to move or defend himself, underwent a vicious interrogation by Brown, Smith, and their three enforcers. Brown demanded Knight to tell her where the $250,000 was. When she didn’t get the answer she wanted, she started hitting Knight. She got angrier with every useless answer and kept on beating Knight in the head. Harder and harder. After one particular blow one of his eyes was dislodged from its socket.</p>
<p>Surrounded by violent men Brown had no qualms about playing along. Maybe even beating them at their own brutal game.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9237022294,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237022294,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237022294?profile=original" width="207" /></a>Having beaten her former courier to a bloody pulp, Brown knew she would not get her missing money back. She told Blake, Downer (left), and Myrie to finish Knight off and get rid of his body. Blake and Downer dragged Knight to the bathroom where they laid him in the bathtub. As Blake held him face down, he and Downer stabbed him to death. The following days, Blake, Downer, and Myrie dismembered the body with power saws and threw away the body parts in various dumpsters across the Baltimore region.</p>
<p>His body would never be found. The only thing that was left of this horrible crime was Knight’s blood in the bathroom where he was killed. The traces of blood were uncovered much later as authorities were closing in on Brown’s organization.</p>
<p>In 2010, a few months after the murder of Michael Knight, Baltimore County police began to suspect that Brown was linked to his disappearance, and investigators traveled to her luxurious residence in Miramar, Florida, to speak with her. The visit startled Brown and soon after her talk with the detectives she and her boyfriend Smith went to Mexico to plan their next move without fear of the law.</p>
<p>All was not well in paradise, however, and the couple soon had a falling out when Smith told Brown he wanted to leave the organization. In April of 2010, Brown contacted her Mexican marijuana suppliers and offered to pay them for the murder of her ex-boyfriend and father of her child, Carl Smith. They accepted the job. Leo Alvarez Tostado-Gastellium caught up with Smith in Tijuana and shot him in the head. After the execution had taken place, Brown called the hit man to make sure everything had gone as planned. It did. Brown had just taken away her child’s father forever. In true <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/godmother-griselda-blanco-gunned-down-in-colombia">Griselda Blanco</a> style.</p>
<p>But, she would probably tell herself, these were necessary murders. They’re a part of doing business. Her courier needed to be made an example of after he stole from her. And her boyfriend was likely to rat her out after breaking with the group. These murders needed to happen in order for Brown to continue her life of crime.</p>
<p>The opposite turned out to be true.</p>
<p>A few months after her hubby’s murder, cops were knocking at Brown’s door. Federal prosecutors had charged her with giving Michael Knight and two other couriers more than half a million dollars to smuggle to Jamaica.</p>
<p>Faced with all the evidence, Brown decided to plead guilty. She admitted that shortly before December 25, 2008, she gave three individuals a total of $562,190 in cash to conceal in their luggage before boarding a flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica. Brown provided the plane tickets, and instructed the couriers not to declare the cash in customs and to deliver the money to her family who would meet them in the airport in Jamaica. However, when they arrived in Jamaica, Customs there picked out the couriers and found the cash, bringing the whole house down. After pleading guilty, Brown received 37 months in federal prison.</p>
<p>Knowing that law enforcement had her checkmate, she agreed to cooperate with Baltimore County homicide detectives who were investigating the murder of Knight. But apparently she still felt she had a chance to win this game as she told police anything but the truth.</p>
<p>“I did not kill nobody,” she said, according to a tape of a police interview. “God knows the truth.” Detectives disagreed. “In the first interview,” Ian Duncan of <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-brown-hearing-20130104,0,4141377.story" target="_blank">The Baltimore Sun</a> reports, “Brown appeared breezily confident, eating a fast-food dinner and chatting with the officers — all the while shackled by her ankle to a wall. After one interview, the detectives drove Brown past the White Marsh apartment where they believe Knight was killed. It was an attempt to rattle her, Detective Carroll Bollinger testified in court. ‘As we got closer and closer to the address I watched her. … She got visibly nervous,’ Bollinger said. ‘We got our point across.’”</p>
<p>Yes, they did. In another interview Brown expressed her awareness that police were looking at her as more than a witness. “You going to prosecute me then?” she asked. “It seems like here there's a case where you're going to prosecute me then.”</p>
<p>Indeed, they were.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9237022482,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237022482,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237022482?profile=original" width="250" /></a>After a trial filled with witnesses testifying against her, Brown (right) was found guilty of kidnapping and murder in aid of a racketeering conspiracy. In March 2013, a U.S. District Judge sentenced her to life in prison. The murders she had ordered to stay out of prison eventually proved to be the ones that landed her there for the rest of her life.</p>
<p>Life in prison. A fitting prison sentence for a drug kingpin found guilty of murder, kidnapping, and racketeering. Nothing unusual there. But still, the sentence wasn’t handed down to a muscular tough guy, or even a shady old man. Nope. The sentence was handed down to a 43-year-old Jamaican woman.</p>
<p>It’s the only unusual thing about Brown. Her gender. Apart from that she behaved in exactly the same manner as scores of vicious men before her. Building up a lucrative drug smuggling operation, getting robbed by an underling, torturing and murdering said underling, and killing people who might become an informant: all familiar activities and actions when you’re in the underworld.</p>
<p>You could say it’s all in the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cryMVK1PwuQ" target="_blank">game</a>.</p>
<p><strong>You might also be interested in the following stories:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/godmother-griselda-blanco-gunned-down-in-colombia">Godmother Griselda Blanco shot to death in Colombia</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Female Camorra Boss: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/camorra-boss-maria-licciardi">Maria Licciardi</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime">Black organized crime</a> section 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>
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<p> </p></div>
Chinese gangster loses phone, we invade his privacy
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/chinese-gangster-loses-phone-we-invade-his-privacy
2012-03-26T12:30:00.000Z
2012-03-26T12:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chinese-gangster-loses-phone-we-invade-his-privacy"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237066680,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237066680?profile=original" width="400" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>It’s never fun when you lose your cell phone. No one can reach you, you can’t reach anyone. Worse: All your dick pics and various other shameful photos and data are lying around somewhere waiting for some stranger to take a peek at them. Imagine if you were a gangster living the high life, spending bricks of cash, driving expensive cars, and torturing some people. Yeah, you wouldn’t want to lose that phone!</p>
<p>Yet, that is exactly what happened to some <em>poor</em> Chinese gangster from an unknown location. He lost his cell phone and in the process he lost his privacy when several incriminating photos were posted online showing him flaunting his wealth and abusing a victim.</p>
<p>Here are the photos:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237067452,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237067452?profile=original" width="600" /></a></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/triads-overview">Triads 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></div>