bonanno - Blog 2.0 - Gangsters Inc. - www.gangstersinc.org
2024-03-29T12:14:09Z
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The Bonanno Crime Family - From Joe Bonanno to Joe Massino
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family
2023-07-01T08:30:00.000Z
2023-07-01T08:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:x-large;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9236997868,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236997868,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9236997868?profile=original" width="600" /></a></span></span></div>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">Estimate members</span>: Around 100<br /> <span style="font-weight:bold;">First Boss</span>: Joseph Bonanno.<br /> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Primary activities</span>: Involved in narcotics trafficking, home video pornography, robbery, extortion, loan sharking, gambling, phony telemarketing schemes, pizza parlors and espresso cafes.<br /> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Boss</span>: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-boss-michael-mancuso">Michael Mancuso</a><br /> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Acting Boss</span>: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/meet-the-new-street-boss-of-the-bonanno-crime-family">Joseph Cammarano Jr.</a></p>
<div style="text-align:center;"><span class="font-size-4"><strong>BOSSES:</strong></span><br /> <br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/meet-the-new-street-boss-of-the-bonanno-crime-family">Joseph Cammarano Jr.</a> (in freedom)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-acting-boss-thomas-di-fiore">Thomas Di Fiore</a> (in freedom)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-boss-michael-mancuso">Michael Mancuso</a> (in prison)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-boss-salvatore">Salvatore Montagna</a> (whacked)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-boss-joseph-massino">Joseph Massino</a> (flipped)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/death-in-the-afternoon-the">Carmine Galante</a> (whacked)<br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-weight:bold;">CONSIGLIERI</span>:</span><br /> <br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-consigliere-anthony">Anthony "T.G." Graziano</a> (dead, natural causes)<br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-weight:bold;">CAPI</span>:</span><br /> <br /> <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/bonanno-mafia-family-capo-turned-snitch-now-president-of-arizona">Richard "Shellackhead" Cantarella</a> (flipped)</div>
<div style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/take-responsibility-as-a-captain-to-your-family-profile-bonanno-c">Joseph "Joe Valet" Sabella</a> (in prison)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-bonanno-crime-family-capo-ronald-giallanzo">Ronald "Ronnie G." Giallanzo</a> (in prison)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-bonanno-crime-family-capo-joseph-sammartino-sr">Joseph Sammartino Sr.</a> (in freedom)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-bonanno-family-capo-anthony-pipitone">Anthony Pipitone</a> (prison)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-bonanno-crime-family-capo-jack-bonventre">Jack Bonventre</a> (prison)<br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-weight:bold;">SOLDIERS</span>:</span><br /> <br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/they-don-t-have-the-balls-to-kill-me-profile-of-bonanno-mafia-fam">Thomas “Tommy Karate” Pitera</a> (prison)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-soldier-benjamin">Benjamin "Lefty Guns" Ruggiero</a> (dead, natural causes)<br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-weight:bold;">ASSOCIATES</span>:</span><br /> <br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/cocaine-and-gelato-profile-of-bonanno-mafia-family-mobster-salvat">Salvatore Russo</a> (prison)<br /> <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/the-father-the-son-the-mafia-the-bloods-gang-and-greed">Sylvester "Sally Daz" Zottola</a> (whacked)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-wiseguy-of-donnie-brasco-fame-remains-behind-bars">Ronald "Monkey Man" Filocomo</a> (prison)<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-bonanno-family-associate-joseph-gambina">Joseph Gambina</a> (flipped)<br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-size:large;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">ARTICLES:</span></span></span><br /> <br /> <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/blood-and-money-when-they-fell-bringing-down-the-zips">Blood and Money. When They Fell. Bringing down the Zips.</a><br /> <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/the-father-the-son-the-mafia-the-bloods-gang-and-greed">The Father, the Son… the Mafia, the Bloods Gang, and Greed</a><br /> <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/the-glare-of-a-killer">The Glare of a Killer</a><br /> <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/i-m-going-to-put-him-under-the-fucking-bridge-nine-mobsters-of-ge">“I’m going to put him under the fucking bridge” – Nine mobsters of Genovese and Bonanno families busted</a><br /> <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/bonanno-mafia-family-capo-turned-snitch-now-president-of-arizona">Bonanno Mafia family capo-turned-snitch now president of Arizona's Italian American club</a><br /> “He feared nothing.” - <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/he-feared-nothing-daughter-of-mafia-boss-carmine-galante-talks-ab">Daughter of Mafia boss Carmine Galante talks about her infamous father</a><br /> <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/real-donnie-brasco-fbi-agent-joe-pistone-still-in-hiding-at-age-8">Real Donnie Brasco, FBI agent Joe Pistone, still in hiding at age 81:</a> "But I don't constantly worry about it”<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mob-murder-a-cold-case-in-maryland-and-the-mafia">Mob Murder: A Cold Case in Maryland. And the Mafia</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fitness-behind-bars-gangsters-tell-how-they-train-their-bodies-an">Fitness Behind Bars:</a> Mafia boss Vincent Basciano's prison workout routine<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-shoot-out-on-troutman-street-the-mafia-at-war">The Shoot-Out on Troutman Street: The Mafia at War</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-york-mafia-associate-paul-ragusa-sentenced-to-6-years-in-pris">Paul Ragusa sentenced to 6 years in prison on gun charges</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/former-bonanno-mafia-family-consigliere-anthony-graziano-dead-at">Consigliere Anthony Graziano dead at 78, his “Mob Wives” daughter reports</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/if-a-man-looks-like-a-mobster-is-he-also-guilty-of-being-one">If a man looks like a mobster, is he also guilty of being one?</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/high-ranking-bloods-gangster-arrested-for-organizing-murder-of-bo">Bloods gangster arrested for murder of Bonanno mobster</a><br /> Murder at the Drive-Thru: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/murder-at-the-drive-thru-bonanno-family-mobster-shot-in-the-head">Bonanno family mobster shot in the head while getting coffee at McDonald’s<br /> VIDEO:</a> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-mobster-shot-in-front-of-his-bronx-mansion-salvato">Bonanno family mobster shot in front of his Bronx mansion</a> Salvatore Zottola in critical condition<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-crime-family-capo-and-soldiers-plead-guilty-to-racketeeri">Bonanno crime family capo and soldiers plead guilty</a> to racketeering conspiracy, will forfeit $2.25 million<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-street-boss-joseph-cammarano-jr-and-other-mobsters">Boss Cammarano Jr. and others hit with extortion, assault charges</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/operation-otremens-how-mafia-families-in-new-york-and-canada-cont">How Mafia families in New York and Canada cooperate in global drug trade</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-mobster-vincent-asaro-and-john-gotti-s-grandson-plead-gui">Vinny Asaro and grandson of mob boss John Gotti plead guilty</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/goodfellas-mobster-and-grandson-of-new-york-mob-boss-john-gotti-a">Vinny Asaro busted with grandson of mob boss John Gotti</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-personal-table-at-rao-s-bonanno-mobsters-chat-about-loot-from-l">Mobsters chat about loot from Lufthansa heist at famous East-Harlem restaurant Rao's</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/keeping-the-new-york-docks-in-the-mafia-family-from-the-gigantes">Keeping the New York docks in the (Mafia) family:</a> The Gigantes to the daughter of Donnie Brasco's “Lefty”<br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-wiseguy-of-donnie-brasco-fame-remains-behind-bars">Bonanno mobster of Donnie Brasco fame remains behind bars</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-capo-sent-back-to-prison-for-2-more-years">Bonanno capo sent back to prison for 2 more years</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/six-plead-guilty-in-murder-of-ex-bonanno-family-mob-boss">Six plead guilty in murder of ex-Bonanno family mob boss</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/anonymous-mobster-says-vinny-asaro-was-part-of-lufthansa-heist">Anonymous mobster says Vinny Asaro was part of Lufthansa heist</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-capo-smashed-glass-in-face-of-sushi-lounge-owner">Bonanno capo smashed glass in face of sushi lounge owner</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-report-goodfella-vincent-asaro-s-trial">Gangsters Inc. Court Report: “Goodfella” Vincent Asaro’s trial</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-bonanno-goodfellas-whacked-lufthansa-loot">How Bonanno goodfellas whacked Lufthansa heist loot</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/wtc-contractor-with-mob-ties-busted-for-1-5m-fraud">WTC contractor with mob ties busted for $1.5M fraud</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/former-bonanno-boss-massino-s-hq-becomes-bakery">Former Bonanno boss Massino’s HQ becomes bakery</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-canadian-connection-flooding-the-u-s-with-dope">The Canadian Connection: Flooding the U.S. with dope</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-goodfellas-turned-in-by-former-boss-massino">Bonanno goodfellas turned in by former boss Massino</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/montreal-mafia-boss-vito-rizzuto-1946-2013">Montreal Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto (1946 - 2013)</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-leadership-busted">Bonanno Family Leadership Busted</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-boss-murdered-near-montreal">Bonanno Boss Murdered Near Montreal</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-the-sicilian-mafia-flooded">How the Sicilian Mafia flooded the US with heroin</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/montreal-mafia-bust-project">Montreal Bust: Project Colisée</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-mafia-of-montreal-a-short">Mafia of Montréal: A Short History</a><br /> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/aftermath-of-a-hit-the-murder">Aftermath of a Hit (Murder of the three captains)</a></div>
<p> </p></div>
Fitness Behind Bars: Gangsters tell how they train their bodies and minds in prison
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/fitness-behind-bars-gangsters-tell-how-they-train-their-bodies-an
2021-05-19T17:30:00.000Z
2021-05-19T17:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fitness-behind-bars-gangsters-tell-how-they-train-their-bodies-an" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237151455,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237151455?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Doing time is no picnic. In prison you’re away from your loved ones, your home, and surrounded by stone-cold killers, gangsters, and crazies, who could shank you if they feel like it. How does one remain sane and healthy in such an environment? Gangsters Inc. sat down with two guys who tell us how to come out of prison fitter than ever.</p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cecchetelli" target="_blank">David “Chicky” Cecchetelli</a> is no stranger to doing time or hanging around with serious individuals. As an alleged associate in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-springfield-mafia-crew-of-western-massachusetts-a-family-busi" target="_blank">Springfield crew</a> of late <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese crime family</a> capo <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-hit-how-the-genovese" target="_blank">Adolfo Bruno</a>, he dealt with the pressures of working under the always watchful eye of law enforcement and the subsequent heat that came with it. He spent several stints in prison for bookmaking conspiracy. Rather than let it get him down, he made the best of it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237151479,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237151479?profile=original" width="192" height="331" /></a>“People don’t realize that if you put your head on straight in there it is real easy,” Cecchetelli (right) tells us. “You do your time and don’t let the time do you.” While serving his time in Canaan penitentiary in the mid-2000s, he got straight into his routine. “I walked 6 miles every day in the morning and afternoon. I didn’t have new weights but I made do. I ate healthy. I ordered off the commissary, cause you’re not gonna eat and lose weight off of the food they give you. You do a routine and you’re not drinking, not smoking cigarettes, and then you can come out looking like a movie star.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/top-5-of-true-stand-up-wiseguys" target="_blank"><strong>Top 5 of True Stand Up Wiseguys</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Cecchetelli says he has always struggled with his weight. He goes up and down like a yoyo. “Back then I was huge when I went in. In less than a year I lost almost 200 pounds. I had a tan and looked like I had done a spa thing on the Bahamas.”</p>
<p>Former drug kingpin and writer/producer of hit Netflix documentary “WHITE BOY” <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ferranti" target="_blank">Seth Ferranti</a> can relate. “I would do cardio, pushups, pull ups, burpees, planks, and set ups every day for an hour or two,” he writes to Gangsters Inc. “Distance running and sprints and the exercise bike. Plus I played a lot of sports too. Soccer, basketball, football, volleyball, softball, I did it all.”</p>
<p>He had plenty of time to do it. While still in his teens, Ferranti (right) set up a drug ring that spanned five states, selling <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">marijuana</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LSD" target="_blank">LSD</a> to college kids. He was caught by the DEA in 1993 when he was 22 years old. Authorities slapped the kingpin label on him and sentenced him to over 25 years in prison. He was released in 2015 after serving 21 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237151901,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237151901?profile=original" width="183" height="328" /></a>Serving the long stretch that Ferranti (right) served, he also watched his diet. “I used to get a guy from the kitchen to smuggle me vegetables like onions and green peppers. I paid the butcher in the kitchen to bring me raw meat which I would cook in the prison microwaves. I would usually mix this with some rice and then boom I had a nice and healthy home cooked meal. I ate a lot of tuna and oatmeal too plus peanut butter and protein bars were the staples of my diet. I combined this with a vigorous exercise routine.”</p>
<p>Despite his vigorous workout routine, Ferranti says there were other inmates whose workouts made his look tame. Ferranti: “They would lift weights all day - bench press, squats, deadlifts. I used to hit the weights when I was younger but as I did time and got older I moved away from weights and did mostly body weight exercises. Some guys did Tabata routines or CrossFit type of stuff. They were vicious with it. There would always be a crew of dudes that seemed to be out on the yard working out all day. And they were shredded up and cock diesel.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Working out with Mafia boss Vinny Basciano</strong></span></p>
<p>Cecchetelli knows the type, but was especially impressed by the mental toughness of some fellow inmates facing life in prison, or worse, like alleged <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a> boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Basciano" target="_blank">Vincent Basciano</a>, who was housed in the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan, New York. “It's a bad place,” Cecchetelli says of the MCC. “You’re in lock down all the time. It's a heavy hitter joint. I was there before I was transferred to Canaan penitentiary.”</p>
<p>He was only there for 2 months, but immediately hit it off with Basciano. “He took a liking to me for no other reason than I made him laugh,” Cecchetelli explains.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-personal-table-at-rao-s-bonanno-mobsters-chat-about-loot-from-l" target="_blank">A personal table at Rao’s</a>: Bonanno mobsters chat about loot from Lufthansa heist at famous East-Harlem restaurant</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>While they were housed together, Cecchtelli got an up-close look at Basciano’s discipline and focus. “I have never seen a guy do better time than Vinny Basciano. He would run up and down the stairs between the bottom and top tier and sweat would drip to the floor. It was a great workout and Vinny was religious in doing that every single day.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237152866,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237152866?profile=original" /></a>Basciano (right) had a strict routine that began with a shave and shower in the morning. At 8 o’ clock sharp, he would be in the prison library studying his books to fight his case. He would work on that all days until around 4 pm. Then he’d put on his sweatpants, shirt and sneakers and do his workout consisting of running the stairs and bodyweight exercises like burpees.</p>
<p>“I would watch him for a week and then he would bust my chops,” Cecchetelli says. “’Come on! Let's go! Join me!’ he would say, but I could never keep up with him. He would run up the stairs back and forth forever. But by doing the steps, walking the stairs with Vinny I was losing a lot of weight in those 2 months.”</p>
<p>What struck him most, was how relaxed Basciano looked. “He was always smiling, tan, like he was on vacation. I was in there for a lousy bookmaking case and he was in there facing the death penalty so that was a big difference. This guy is going in for the rest of his life and he’s laughing with me!”</p>
<p>Inside, all you have is a positive mindset to keep you going. And if you want to stay fit you have to think outside the box. Despite what you may have seen on television, prison is not outfitted like a gym. Inmates have to get creative.</p>
<p>Cecchetelli: “Guys would take a broom and unscrew the broom off the stick. Then they would take these big plastic milk cartons which would hold 4 gallons of milk and replace the milk with rocks or sand from the yard and put them on the stick so they had a barbel of dumbbell for weightlifting.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237153093,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237153093?profile=original" /></a><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Gang workouts</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237153486,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237153486?profile=original" /></a>Working out helps one to cope with the insanity that goes on in prison. It keeps the mind quiet and the body lean. In turn, this helps when things get dangerous, which, behind bars, can happen in the blink of an eye. If you are attacked, you need to be able to defend yourself. A strong body helps with that. No wonder then that members of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">prison gangs</a> have turned a simple workout into something else altogether.</p>
<p>Cecchetelli: “Everyone does these workouts, but these groups do it altogether and it sets them apart from the regular prisoners. You might have six Italian guys working out together, to keep each other company, but not in the numbers that these guys are doing it in. That's very noticeable when you are in a yard with these people.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>ALSO READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/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>“The Surenos would be out en mass doing burpees on the yard,” Ferranti adds. “Their routine consisted of 113 Navy Seal style burpees (see video below by Moses Cuevas for an example). Then they would hit the track for a five mile run. These dudes didn’t fuck around. There would be 20-30 of them exercising together. Shirts tied around their heads, tattoos representing their hoods and gang affiliations. It was quite a sight. They were known as the most vicious dudes on the yard and their exercise routine confirmed. They didn’t fuck around in anything they did. They went hard as fuck.”</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ijm1mtRKv8I?wmode=opaque" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Back on the streets</strong></span></p>
<p>As inmates are finishing up their sentence, they should be looking like a million bucks of pure muscle, ready to impress the ladies. But back home, they are stripped of their strict regime and faced with lots of temptations.</p>
<p>“I got out and was buff and trained,” Cecchetelli tells us. “Got out and was in a parole house in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Boston" target="_blank">Boston</a>. Still kept good. I was enjoying the food again, but I watched what I ate and ate healthy. Then as time goes on, on a date or with the fellas, I would have a glass of swine. In the life, no matter where you go, there is food. No matter where you went there was food. Go to their houses: food. Go to dinner: food. Food is everything! When people die, there is food. When people celebrate, there is food. When people are sad, they have food. Whether people are happy or sad, they have food. Now, anything, whether it's gambling, sex or food, anything in abundance is no good No matter what it is.”</p>
<p>With age comes wisdom. After getting to know his pitfalls, Cecchetelli has adapted. He goes for walks and loves to swim. He has his cheat meals on a specific day and tries to eat healthy the rest of the week. “Everyone needs that break. You gotta pick and choose your battles. In prison you can be a lot more structured. You don't have to worry about the outside world as long as your kids are healthy, your wife is happy, and you got money coming in. The only worries you have are about working out, getting through your time and finishing your sentence. That's it so when you're in there it's a lot easier losing weight. A lot easier than when you’re on the street.” </p>
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<li><strong>Back to the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">Organized crime in the United States section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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<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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<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>
How gangsters try (and fail) to evade government surveillance
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/how-gangsters-try-and-fail-to-evade-government-surveillance
2021-03-15T16:31:47.000Z
2021-03-15T16:31:47.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-gangsters-try-and-fail-to-evade-government-surveillance" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237157497,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237157497?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Drug traffickers and gangsters all over the globe were shocked to find their encrypted text messages in the hands of law enforcement agencies in Europe and the United States. Large service providers called EncroChat and Sky ECC were hacked by authorities and revealed a treasure trove of messages where criminals talked openly about drug shipments and gangland killings. How can gangsters communicate without the government listening in or finding out? Gangsters Inc. did some spying around.</p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/europe-overview" target="_blank">Europe’s narco kingpins</a> were sweating and ducking for cover last week when it became <a href="https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/new-major-interventions-to-block-encrypted-communications-of-criminal-networks" target="_blank">known</a> that police in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands had hacked into the servers of Sky ECC, a company that provided an encrypted communication network for its 170,000 customers worldwide. The tool, which has its own infrastructure and applications and is operated from the United States and Canada, uses computer servers based in Europe. On a global scale, around three million messages are being exchanged each day via Sky ECC. Over 20 percent of the users are based in Belgium and the Netherlands. These services are in high demand in the underworld and investigators were not surprised to find hundreds of millions of text messages on these servers which they could directly link to narcotics trafficking and violence.</p>
<p>So far Belgian police <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/belgium-police-swoop-in-on-organized-crime-in-drugs-sting/a-56812408" target="_blank">arrested dozens of individuals</a>, including a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bikers-amp-outlaw-motorcycle" target="_blank">Hells Angel</a>, a member of the Aquino family (which is alleged to have ties to the ‘<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-overview" target="_blank">Ndrangheta</a>), a famous professional <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Kickboxing" target="_blank">kickboxer</a>, and various prominent narcotics traffickers. They searched around 200 premises. Police in the Netherlands also made several arrests. Both countries say more will be announced as the investigation continues.</p>
<p>The fallout from this hack is similar to the crackdown that followed hacks like that of Ennetcom (in 2016), PGPSafe (in 2017), and EncroChat (in 2020). These resulted in global seizures of multiple tons of drugs, ranging from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Meth" target="_blank">meth</a> to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">marijuana</a>, and the arrest of some of the world’s biggest drug kingpins.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Profile of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-spanish-drug-boss-sito-minanco-who-can-t-stop-smugglin" target="_blank">Spanish drug boss Sito Miñanco</a>, who can’t stop smuggling tons of cocaine despite his fame</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The use of these encryption services became popular with many European gangsters and crime bosses, who viewed it as a fast and secretive way of communicating with underlings and associates alike, no matter in what country they resided, without authorities being able to read along over their shoulders.</p>
<p>Things worked great for several years and authorities had serious issues finding out who were behind some of the most heinous <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murders</a> and biggest <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug</a> shipments. Thinking they were safe and that investigators had no way of monitoring their messages, gangsters began talking much more openly about crimes – even about wanting certain prosecutors and lawyers murdered.</p>
<p>It was bound to blow up in their faces. Authorities stepped up their game and slowly but surely began making process. Once a server was seized and hacked by authorities, things quickly went very bad for the texting gangsters.</p>
<p>Could it have been prevented? What could they have done differently? Gangsters have been trying to evade the eyes and ears of the law since they began committing crimes. The encrypted text messages are just the latest in a long list of attempts. What do these attempts have in common and why do they fail or work?</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Walk talks and carpool talks</strong></span></p>
<p>Members of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in" target="_blank">American Mafia</a> are involved in so many intricate schemes and rackets that it is important for them to stay up to date. They would get together at <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/another-mob-social-club-bites" target="_blank">mob social clubs</a> to discuss business, but quickly realized law enforcement was prone to bug their premises. The <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> would place bugs in a lot of social clubs and homes of La Cosa Nostra members, including the mansion of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino family</a> boss Paul Castellano, the social clubs of Gambino boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gotti" target="_blank">John Gotti</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese family</a> boss Anthony Salerno, and many more. As a result, many of these social clubs would have signs inside reminding patrons that the walls have ears.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-map-shows-mob-social-clubs-in-new-york" target="_blank"><strong>Map shows mob social clubs in New York</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>To combat this surveillance, the parties involved go outside, preferably a busy street, and go for a walk. Meanwhile they discuss the issue at hand. It is called a “walk talk”. As an extra precaution they might place their hands in front of their mouths so police or FBI agents can’t read their lips. This tactic was made famous in the movie <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-truth-behind-movie-classic-casino" target="_blank">Casino</a>, see below.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kz0n__Np3Ck?wmode=opaque" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>Another attempt to evade the law is by discussing business in the car, on the move and far away from federal agents it was deemed safer than discussing business at the office. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family" target="_blank">Lucchese Mafia family</a> boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Corallo" target="_blank">Anthony “Tony Ducks” Corallo</a> would have long talks with his chauffeur, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Avellino" target="_blank">Salvatore Avellino</a>, as he was driven in Avellino’s Jaguar from mob meeting to mob meeting. Unbeknownst to both men, the feds had placed a bug in the car and were listening in and recording every conversation. The tapes cost “Tony Ducks” and other Mafia bosses dearly as it helped prove a conspiracy that earned them all a life sentence in what was known as The Commission Case, aimed at the hierarchy of the New York mob.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/one-mafia-murder-and-everyone-ends-up-in-prison-lucchese-crime-fa" target="_blank">One Mafia murder and everyone ends up in prison</a>– Lucchese crime family bosses and hitmen found guilty</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Lesson learned. So some mobsters began switching cars after one ride. This made surveillance a lot harder. Others, like <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a> soldier <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/they-don-t-have-the-balls-to-kill-me-profile-of-bonanno-mafia-fam" target="_blank">“Tommy Karate” Pitera</a>, simply turned up the radio in the car and whispered in the ear of the person they were talking to. This made eavesdropping or bugging almost impossible.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Quack Quack” on the phone</strong></span></p>
<p>Face to face meetings continued to be the best way to avoid the law’s eyes and ears, but gangsters are always on the move and there’s only so much time in the day. So phones were a favored tool to communicate or set up meetings to talk more openly.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237158081,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237158081?profile=original" /></a>If they were smart, they didn’t use their home phones. If they fucked up, they paid dearly. Like <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino family</a> soldier Angelo “Quack Quack” Ruggiero (right). As his nickname suggests, Ruggiero liked to run his mouth. He told whoever wanted to hear that he only talked business on his daughter’s phone, which had a separate landline and was listed in her name. He figured it was enough to throw the FBI off his trail. Which might’ve been correct, if he hadn’t shared this piece of intel with men who were secretly working for the feds. The FBI began tapping Ruggiero’s daughter’s phone and picked up enough information on <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a> trafficking to take down a bunch of powerful figures in the Gambino family.</p>
<p>Again, talking about criminal activities on your home phone is not a smart move. Preferably, mobsters used pay phones. As even Ruggiero himself did on frequent occasions. Mobsters walked around with pocket change and made calls throughout the day. As an extra safety measure the smartest guys in the crew would never use the same pay phone twice and also use pay phones in other areas than where they worked or lived. This made it much more difficult for law enforcement to tap their conversations.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Pizzini”</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236982066,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9236982066?profile=original" /></a>But it was best to avoid phones entirely, most mobsters agreed. In <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Sicily" target="_blank">Sicily</a>, Mafia bosses use small pieces of paper to communicate with underlings. These “pizzini” contain hand-written instructions and messages. Cosa Nostra boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/cosa-nostra-boss-of-bosses-bernardo-provenzano-dead-at-83" target="_blank">Bernardo Provenzano</a> (right) was a master at using this method of communication. His notes were steeped in religion and contained bible verses. Beneath it all, however, were subtle hints and messages for his underlings and other Mafia bosses.</p>
<p>Provenzano also used the Caesar cipher to encrypt his “pizzini”. Once used by Rome emperor Julius Caesar, this code involves shifting each letter of the alphabet forward three places. As far as encryption goes it is not the most secure method and for experienced code crackers it is one easy to discover and decode.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/secrets-and-lies-bringing-down-the-mafia-and-the-italian-state" target="_blank"><strong>Secrets & Lies: Bringing down the Mafia and Italian State</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>His evasion skills and methods to avoid law enforcement scrutiny served Provenzano well. In 1963, he became a fugitive and as the decades progressed he remained an invisible force. After authorities arrested <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sicilian-mafia-boss-toto-riina-dead-at-87" target="_blank">Salvatore Riina</a> in 1993, Provenzano became the new boss of bosses and the most wanted man in Italy. Still, he continued to evade capture until 2006 after spending a stunning 43 years on the run.</p>
<p>Though his position in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sicilian-cosa-nostra-overview" target="_blank">Cosa Nostra</a> and his many <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/pax-mafiosa-guilty-verdicts-as-prosecutors-prove-secret-pact-betw" target="_blank">powerful connections</a> no doubt helped him evade capture, his skills and discipline helped him during his decades as a fugitive. While he was in prison he continued using his “pizzini” to communicate and was placed under special surveillance as a result.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Kites”</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237158663,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237158663?profile=original" width="220" height="235" /></a>The crafty Sicilian Mafia boss wasn’t the only one who used small notes to communicate behind bars. Shot callers from various Hispanic, black, and white American prison <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">gangs</a> have become masters at this type of communication. Instead of “pizzini”, they call these notes “kites”. A “kite” is a piece of paper tied to a long piece of string, which is swung to a cell nearby and may contain a variety of instructions.</p>
<p>These instructions are hidden inside the regular text and only decipherable if you know the code used. Sometimes the inmates hide the text by using invisible ink, which they make from urine or citrus juice. The words will remain invisible until exposed to direct heat. This tactic is also used to communicate with inmates in other prisons. The <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/prison-gangs-the-aryan-brotherhood" target="_blank">Aryan Brotherhood</a> used it to launch a nationwide attack on a rival prison gang in the 1990s until authorities caught on.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>All about discipline</strong></span></p>
<p>As long as there is surveillance there will be individuals who will find ways to evade it. For gangsters, especially, it is of the utmost importance to remain in the shadows and communicate in secret. They will continue to try to do so with various degrees of success – and fail once investigators crack the code.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-real-john-wick-separating-fact-from-fiction-in-hollywood-s-vi" target="_blank">The Real John Wick</a>: Separating fact from fiction in Hollywood’s violent gangster vengeance blockbuster</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>What is clear, however, is that regardless of the methods or the advanced digital skills, the most important aspects of evasion are intelligence and discipline. First, a gangster has to know how his enemies are trying to take him down (phone tap). Then he has to take measures to ensure this does not happen (by using pay phones, walk talks etc.). And he has to continue this lifestyle until he retires or he will get caught slipping, like Gambino mobster “Quack Quack” Ruggiero, and end up in a cell.</p>
<p>The best encryption in the world is meaningless if it is cracked. That is why it is only one part of the evasion puzzle. The security measures are endless and always evolving. The game never stops.</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>
<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>
“They don’t have the balls to kill me” – Profile of Bonanno Mafia family hitman “Tommy Karate” Pitera
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/they-don-t-have-the-balls-to-kill-me-profile-of-bonanno-mafia-fam
2021-01-23T12:32:06.000Z
2021-01-23T12:32:06.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/they-don-t-have-the-balls-to-kill-me-profile-of-bonanno-mafia-fam" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237157670,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237157670?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Mafia hitman or crazy serial killer? Every so often people ask this question when they come upon a very capable and active mob assassin. A murderer like Bonanno crime family soldier “Tommy Karate” Pitera brings up the same discussion. Was he just very good at his job or did he enjoy the art of death a little too much?</p>
<p>Thomas Pitera was born on December 2, 1954, in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gravesend" target="_blank">Gravesend</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brooklyn" target="_blank">Brooklyn</a>, New York. His father was a candy salesman and was an honest, hard-working citizen, who did his best to provide and care for his wife and two children; his son Thomas and his daughter Theresa.</p>
<p>Growing up, Tommy Pitera was bullied relentlessly. He had a high-pitched voice that made him a laughing stock of the neighborhood. Both boys and girls would laugh in his face. He was frequently attacked – slapped, kicked, and spit on. The bullying killed something inside the younger Pitera.</p>
<p>It also lit a fire that would turn him into a deadly killing machine.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Becoming “Tommy Karate”</strong></span></p>
<p>After watching Bruce Lee’s Kato character kick ass in television series The Green Hornet, Pitera was certain he had found his calling: He would become a martial artist! After persuading his mom and dad, he joined a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Karate" target="_blank">karate</a> school in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn and quickly became one of the class’ best students.</p>
<p>His teacher noticed his pupil’s progress. To prove his skills, Pitera signed up for a big martial arts tournament. He beat seven opponents to win the championship. Along with the accolades, came a cash prize and a ticket to live in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Japan" target="_blank">Japan</a> and learn martial arts from the local masters. He went to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Tokyo" target="_blank">Tokyo</a> and studied under sensei Hiroshi Masumi. He ended up staying in Japan for 27 months.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237157880,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237157880?profile=original" /></a><em><strong>Photo: An aging Pitera showing his Van Damme move in prison.</strong></em></p>
<p>When Pitera returned to New York in 1976, he came back as a man. He had confidence, walked tall, and held his chin up high. His hands now were, to use a cliché, deadly weapons. Gone were the days that anyone could hurt Tommy Pitera.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Making his bones</strong></span></p>
<p>But people might still smirk when they heard his voice. In order to totally silence everyone around him, he had to go beyond a black belt. He had to hook up with a shadowy, secretive organization that ruled Gravesend and many parts of New York, the United States, and beyond. He had to join the Mafia, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LCN" target="_blank">La Cosa Nostra</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-personal-table-at-rao-s-bonanno-mobsters-chat-about-loot-from-l" target="_blank">A personal table at Rao’s</a>: Bonanno mobsters chat about loot from Lufthansa heist at famous East-Harlem restaurant</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>It wasn’t hard for a guy with Pitera’s skillset to be welcomed by the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a>. Especially since they all knew him from the neighborhood. He had grown up around them and they trusted him. Now it was time to see if he had what it took to be one of them.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237158097,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237158097?profile=original" /></a><em><strong>Photo: Pitera (right) with an underling.</strong></em></p>
<p>He became close to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a> mobster Anthony Indelicato, the son of “Sonny Red” Indelicato, a powerful capo in the Bonannos. Bruno was known as a stone-killer with a bad cocaine habit. Because of who his father was and also his capabilities as a hitman, the Mafia chose to ignore his drug use.</p>
<p>After hooking up with Indelicato, Pitera became immersed in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a> and its various players. He showed they could count on him when it came to executing murder contracts or getting rid of bodies. Besides being a skilled martial artist, Pitera had become an expert on how one can hurt, kill, and dispose of the human body. He read countless books on torture and killing and was eager to put his new knowledge in practice.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-hook-life-and-bloody-crimes-of-feared-chicago-mafia-enforcer" target="_blank">The Hook</a>: Life and bloody crimes of feared Chicago Mafia enforcer Harry Aleman</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Things were going according to plan, but then Mafia politics almost blew apart Pitera’s mob career and ended his life along with it.</p>
<p>After Bonanno family boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/death-in-the-afternoon-the" target="_blank">Carmine Galante</a> was gunned down in the summer of 1979, various factions within the family began vying for the top spot. Pitera, being Indelicato’s right-hand man, was part of the faction that ultimately lost the power struggle. Indelicato’s father and two other captains were killed in one swoop and Indelicato’s life was only spared after he promised not to seek vengeance. Knowing how the world of Cosa Nostra worked, he backed down and promised to toe the line.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>A “Made” Man</strong></span></p>
<p>Pitera’s mentor had lost a lot of clout. But he had no problem finding new mentors. The new powers - men like <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-boss-joseph-massino" target="_blank">Joseph Massino</a> and Anthony Spero - could put his deadly talents to good use, and frequently did. They found that when they handed Pitera a contract, he would take care of it immediately and exactly as ordered.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237157670,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237157670?profile=original" /></a><em><strong>Photo: Bonanno crime family underboss Anthony Spero (left) and Pitera.</strong></em></p>
<p>As a result of his stellar track record, in the 1980s Pitera was initiated into the Bonanno crime family and became a “made” member of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a>. Now the days of smirks and disrespect were officially long gone. Whenever he walked the streets or sat down in a restaurant, people would know who he was and who he was with. No one would dare look at him funny. Pitera finally had achieved what he always wanted.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/murder-at-the-drive-thru-bonanno-family-mobster-shot-in-the-head" target="_blank">Murder at the Drive-Thru</a>: Bonanno family mobster shot in the head while getting coffee at McDonald’s</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Pitera’s mob connections gave him a direct in with some of the country’s biggest narcotics traffickers. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">Drugs</a> became his primary racket and source of income. He invested some of the money in two bars; the Cypress Bar and Grill and the Just Us Bar, which he used as his headquarters.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Killing machine</strong></span></p>
<p>His unique selling point, however, was his ability to kill and dispose of bodies. His reputation grew to such an extent that even other families began asking him to take care of certain jobs. Like Gambino crime family capo Edward Lino, who himself was a capable hitman, who allegedly approached Pitera to help him whack one of Gambino mob boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gotti" target="_blank">John Gotti</a>’s longtime associates, “Willie Boy” Johnson.</p>
<p>Johnson, it turned out, was an informant. When Gotti found out, he went ballistic and ordered him killed. He handed the contract to Lino, who then called on Pitera. Johnson was shot to death on August 29, 1988, precisely as ordered. Pitera once again came through for his friends.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Trafficking drugs and dismembering bodies with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/trafficking-drugs-and-dismembering-bodies-with-the-graewe-brother" target="_blank">the Graewe brothers</a>, associates of the Cleveland Mafia</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>As the years progressed, Pitera added more notches to his belt. He had no hesitation when it came to pulling the trigger. He would shoot a guy in the head and not think twice about it. Matter of fact, he would then strip the body naked, pull it into a bath tub and dismember it. Afterwards he would put the various body parts in different bags and bury them at one of his favorite burial grounds in Staten Island. Before he would get in his car, he would step into the bloody bathtub and clean himself until no trace of the gruesome job was left.</p>
<p>It was just a part of work.</p>
<p>Or was it?</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Hitman or Serial Killer?</strong></span></p>
<p>Killing is part of the Mafia underworld – or any underworld for that matter. But most mobsters draw a line when it comes to killing those outside of their criminal world. Be they civilians, cops or women and children.</p>
<p>Pitera did not draw those lines. When the love of his life, a woman by the name of Celeste LiPari, died from a drug overdose, it became clear that Pitera was an equal opportunity murderer. LiPari was beautiful, but she was also a junkie.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237158695,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237158695?profile=original" /></a><em><strong>Photo: Pitera with Celeste LiPari</strong></em></p>
<p>LiPari went out clubbing and used cocaine and heroin to have a good time. She was usually accompanied by her good friend Phyllis Burdi, who was similar to LiPari in that she was another pretty neighborhood girl who had gotten addicted to the product peddled by many of the area’s mobsters.</p>
<p>Though both women had chosen this lifestyle, Pitera blamed Burdi for having a bad influence on LiPari. When she OD’ed, Burdi’s days were numbered.</p>
<p>Burdi was close to Frank Gangi, a member of Pitera’s crew. Pitera had ordered him to let him know when he saw Burdi, but Gangi could not bring himself to hand over the woman he had such a special relationship with.</p>
<p>Like LiPari and Burdi, Gangi too was a junkie. He snorted cocaine to get high and drank booze to fall asleep. After hanging with Pitera and being present when “Tommy Karate” killed people and dismembered their corpses, his drug use only increased.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-chopped-him-up-so-bad-profile-of-decavalcante-mafia-family-sol" target="_blank">“I chopped him up so bad”</a> - Profile of DeCavalcante Mafia family soldier Anthony Capo</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>After running into Burdi, Gangi succumbed to her charm and the pair went on a cocaine binge. At one point they ran out of coke and Gangi phoned an associate asking him whether he could come get some more stuff. He and Burdi then went the associate’s apartment. The man in question, an Israeli drug dealer, was also an associate of Pitera. While Burdi and Gangi were there, Pitera called the man.</p>
<p>But the Israeli was out on a morning run and Gangi picked up the phone. He was unable to lie to Pitera, purely out of fear, and told him Burdi was with him. Pitera told him to keep her there and that he would come right over.</p>
<p>Pitera arrived, walked into the bedroom where Burdi was sleeping and pumped three bullets into her. He then moved her body into the bathroom and began dismembering her body in the jacuzzi. He placed her severed head on the edge of the tub, creating an image that would haunt Gangi for the rest of his life.</p>
<p>Killing a woman is not that much of a stretch for a Mafia assassin. But it did put Pitera in a select group of Mafiosi. What sets Pitera apart from most of them, however, is that he would take certain things off the body of his victim – jewelry etc. – and keep it at his home. This behavior is usually seen in serial killers and it clashed with Pitera’s modus operandi of a secretive, careful mobster, who tries to erase any proof of his crimes.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-the-sicilian-mafia-flooded" target="_blank"><strong>How the Sicilian Mafia flooded the US with heroin</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Because despite this foolish behavior, Pitera was known among both fellow mobsters and members of law enforcement as a man who was very aware of his surroundings and did his best to evade the eyes of police and federal agents. He would cover his mouth when he went on walk talks with other gangsters, would use evasive tactics when driving his car to a meeting, switch cars, wear disguises, and he never talked on the phone.</p>
<p>Of course, all of that does not matter when your own people stand up to testify against you. Pitera’s murders had a profound effect on his underling <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gangi" target="_blank">Frank Gangi</a>. After seeing his close friend Burdi killed and beheaded by Pitera, he cracked and told authorities all about his boss’ deadly activities.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Death touch</strong></span></p>
<p>Authorities pounced on Pitera on June 4, 1990, when they arrested him and several crew members and charged him with drug trafficking and seven murders – though prosecutors believed him to be involved in over sixty gangland killings. During a search of his home in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gravesend" target="_blank">Gravesend</a>, federal agents found all sorts of tools of his trade: from automatic weapons to knives and Samurai swords, as well as countless books about assassination techniques, torture and the dismemberment of cadavers.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237159300,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237159300?profile=original" /></a><em><strong>Photo: Pitera after his arrest by DEA agents. They broke his nose as they wrestled him to the ground.</strong></em></p>
<p>Prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Pitera. His life was hanging in the balance during his trial. If that bothered Pitera, he didn’t show it. After a short but eventful trial, he was convicted on June 25, 1992, of six murders and operating a large-scale drug ring. He was acquitted of murdering “Willie Boy” Johnson.</p>
<p>As the jury deliberated on Pitera’s sentencing, he turned to one of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=DEA" target="_blank">DEA</a> agents who had been hunting him. “I bet you they don’t have the balls to kill me,” Pitera told the agent. Whether it was about “balls” is up for debate, but the jury indeed rejected the death penalty and Pitera was sentenced to life in prison, instead.</p>
<p>Pitera continues serving his sentence and has remained loyal to the code of silence. Inside prison, he has taken up drawing. He sells his drawings online via a website. You can also find his work on Instagram where he has an account.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno 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>
Lucchese Mafia family boss and hitmen get life in prison for 2013 gangland murder
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/lucchese-mafia-family-boss-and-hitmen-get-life-in-prison-for-2013
2020-07-29T11:00:00.000Z
2020-07-29T11:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-mafia-family-boss-and-hitmen-get-life-in-prison-for-2013" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237144280,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237144280?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>The career of 84-year-old Lucchese Mafia family acting boss Matthew Madonna (photo above, middle) has officially come to an end. On Monday, he was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction for the 2013 murder of Purple Gang hitman Michael Meldish and various racketeering charges.</p>
<p>45-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family" target="_blank">Lucchese family</a> soldier Christopher Londonio (photo above, left) and 61-year-old Lucchese associate Terrence Caldwell (photo above, right) were sentenced to life behind bars for the same gangland slaying. Lucchese family underboss Steven Crea was also found guilty and will receive the same sentence at a later date.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Madonna ordered it, Londonio set it up, and Caldwell pulled the trigger”</strong></span></p>
<p>“Matty Madonna, Christopher Londonio, and Terrence Caldwell – respectively, the Acting Boss, a soldier, and an associate of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family" target="_blank">Luchese Family</a> – were responsible for the execution-style murder of Michael Meldish seven years ago,” Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said. “Madonna ordered it, Londonio set it up, and Caldwell pulled the trigger. Now all three have been sentenced to serve the rest of their lives in federal prison. Thanks to the outstanding investigative work of the FBI and NYPD, we continue our commitment to render La Cosa Nostra a thing of the past.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Mafia murder</strong></span></p>
<p>In 2013, Madonna became displeased with Michael Meldish, a longtime organized crime associate who had refused to pay debts he owed to the Lucchese mob boss. Madonna subsequently ordered Meldish killed. Acting under the orders of Madonna and Crea, Londonio helped set up Meldish, who was a personal friend of his – to be killed, and acted as the getaway driver for the murder.</p>
<p>Caldwell acted as triggerman. He met Meldish and drove with him to a Bronx neighborhood to meet Londonio. As Meldish got out of his car, Caldwell shot him once in the head, killing him instantly. He and Londonio then drove off.</p>
<p>The Lucchese family used Caldwell as well in the ambush of a rival Bonanno family mobster in Manhattan on May 29, 2013.</p>
<p><em>For more on this recent episode in the Lucchese family’s violent history check out the articles below:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/one-mafia-murder-and-everyone-ends-up-in-prison-lucchese-crime-fa" target="_blank">One Mafia murder and everyone ends up in prison</a> – Lucchese crime family bosses and hitmen found guilty</li>
<li>“Fuck you! Pay me!” – <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fuck-you-pay-me-lucchese-mafia-family-boss-ordered-hit-on-gangste" target="_blank">Lucchese boss ordered hit on gangster who refused to pay his $100K debt</a></li>
<li><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-mafia-boss-vic-amuso-may-be-imprisoned-for-life-but-his" target="_blank">Vic Amuso may be imprisoned for life</a>, but his word is still law on the streets of New York</li>
<li><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-family-mobster-planned-to-escape-from-metropolitan-deten" target="_blank">Lucchese family mobster planned to escape</a> from Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, prosecutors say</li>
<li><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-york-s-lucchese-mafia-family-deadly-as-ever-in-2017-prosecuto" target="_blank">New York’s Lucchese Mafia family deadly as ever in 2017</a>, prosecutors say after indicting bosses and underlings</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese 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>
One Mafia murder and everyone ends up in prison – Lucchese crime family bosses and hitmen found guilty
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/one-mafia-murder-and-everyone-ends-up-in-prison-lucchese-crime-fa
2019-11-17T10:30:00.000Z
2019-11-17T10:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/one-mafia-murder-and-everyone-ends-up-in-prison-lucchese-crime-fa" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237139891,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237139891?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>For a few years, the New York Mafia seemed to have quieted down. Increased scrutiny from law enforcement coupled with RICO made mobsters rethink their violent deeds, opting for less conspicuous ways of getting things done. But in the underworld a dog without bite is seen as food. No wonder then that every once in a while, New York’s five La Cosa Nostra families have to flex their muscles and pull the trigger on someone.</p>
<p>That’s what happened when longtime gangster <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Meldish" target="_blank">Michael Meldish</a> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fuck-you-pay-me-lucchese-mafia-family-boss-ordered-hit-on-gangste" target="_blank">refused to pay a debt</a> he owed <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family" target="_blank">Lucchese crime family</a> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237140270,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237140270?profile=original" /></a>leader <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Madonna" target="_blank">Matthew Madonna</a> (right). This was unacceptable for any self-respecting mob boss. So, Madonna sat down with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-acting-boss-steven" target="_blank">Steven Crea</a>, his acting underboss, to discuss the next steps.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Murder contract</strong></span></p>
<p>The murder contract was handed to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family" target="_blank">Lucchese family</a> soldier <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Londonio" target="_blank">Christopher Londonio</a>. He was close to Meldish and would be able to lure him out of his house for a meeting. Londonio recruited Lucchese family associate <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Caldwell" target="_blank">Terrence Caldwell</a> as the shooter.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-york-s-lucchese-mafia-family-deadly-as-ever-in-2017-prosecuto" target="_blank">New York’s Lucchese Mafia family deadly as ever in 2017</a>, prosecutors say after indicting bosses and underlings</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>On November 15, 2013, Meldish’s time was up. Caldwell met Meldish and drove with him to a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bronx" target="_blank">Bronx</a> neighborhood to meet Londonio. As Meldish got out of his car, Caldwell shot him once in the head, killing him instantly. He then got in the car with Londonio as they made a hasty getaway from the murder scene.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Guilty</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237140454,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237140454?profile=original" /></a>After a six-week trial, on Friday November 15, a jury found all four men guilty of murder, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and other felonies. The verdict means that they will most certainly die behind bars. For 84-year-old Madonna an acceptable outcome. 72-year-old Crea (right) might also have accepted spending his senior years in a cell. For 45-year-old Londonio and 61-year-old Caldwell the realization of spending their remaining years locked up might come as a bigger shock.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Baseball bat assault and shooting</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237140500,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237140500?profile=original" /></a>Londonio (left) was also found guilty of conspiracy to distribute <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">narcotics</a>, which carries a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison. He also carried firearms and other weapons, beat an associate of a rival crime family with a baseball bat, and personally participated in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Extortion" target="_blank">extortion</a>, operating illegal <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling" target="_blank">gambling</a> businesses, among other crimes. He was acquitted of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-family-mobster-planned-to-escape-from-metropolitan-deten" target="_blank">attempting to escape</a> from the Metropolitan Detention Center using a stack of bedsheets he had been collecting.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fuck-you-pay-me-lucchese-mafia-family-boss-ordered-hit-on-gangste" target="_blank">Vic Amuso may be imprisoned for life</a>, but his word is still law on the streets of New York</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Being the all too willing triggerman, Caldwell was also found guilty of ambushing a member of the rival <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a> in Manhattan on May 29, 2013. He fired several shots into the victim’s car at close range and struck him once in the chest, but the victim survived. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for his actions.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Good run</strong></span></p>
<p>For several years, the Lucchese family had a good run. After the years being led by the bloodthirsty bosses <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-lucchese-crime-family-boss-vittorio-vic-amuso" target="_blank">Vic Amuso</a> and Anthony Casso, they toned it down and flourished. Then, in the winter of 2013, they commit one murder and the entire house falls on top of them. It ain’t easy running a Mafia family nowadays.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese 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>
Cocaine and Gelato: Profile of Bonanno Mafia family mobster Salvatore Russo
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/cocaine-and-gelato-profile-of-bonanno-mafia-family-mobster-salvat
2019-09-19T08:30:00.000Z
2019-09-19T08:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/cocaine-and-gelato-profile-of-bonanno-mafia-family-mobster-salvat" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237131655,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237131655?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-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a> associate Salvatore Russo is considered trustworthy by his peers in the organization. He went on to prove himself after being caught up in a wide-ranging law enforcement operation aimed at <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a> groups in New York and Canada.</p>
<p>Born in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Sicily" target="_blank">Sicily</a>, Russo became a naturalized United States citizen. Instead of making a life for himself as a legitimate businessman and contribute to society, he decided to hook up with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">New York’s Bonanno family</a>. He is close to Bonanno capo <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Zummo" target="_blank">Damiano Zummo</a>, who introduces Russo as his cousin.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Selling coke from a Manhattan ice cream parlor</strong></span></p>
<p>He made one such introduction during a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> deal. Zummo wanted to emphasize that Russo had his full backing, before putting him in charge of future <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug sales</a>. “I'll just bring the kid Sal, that's it,” Zummo said during a recorded conversation. “He's the one that brings it.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-the-sicilian-mafia-flooded" target="_blank"><strong>How the Sicilian Mafia flooded the US with heroin</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>And bring it, they did. The two mobsters planned to sell over five kilograms of cocaine between July and October 2017. Their distribution center was a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Manhattan" target="_blank">Manhattan</a> store that sold gelato, Italian-style ice cream. On September 14, 2017, one kilo of cocaine was sold there for nearly $40,000.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Bust</strong></span></p>
<p>Unbeknownst to Russo and Zummo, the feds were listening and watching after having placed a confidential informant in their midst. On November 9, 2017, members and associates of the Bonanno and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino</a> crime families were arrested by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> agents. Across the border in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Canada" target="_blank">Canada</a>, officers made arrests in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ontario" target="_blank">Ontario</a>, where mobsters of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Todaro" target="_blank">Todaro family</a> in Hamilton were charged with large-scale drug trafficking.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/operation-otremens-how-mafia-families-in-new-york-and-canada-cont" target="_blank">Operation OTremens</a>: How Mafia families in New York and Canada continue cooperating in global drug trade</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Guilty</strong></span></p>
<p>Russo was charged with the coke deal in the ice cream store. He pleaded guilty to the crime on September 5, 2019. The 46-year-old Sicilian-American Mafioso agreed to serve the mandatory minimum sentence of five years and faces a fine of up to $5 million.</p>
<p>He is currently out on $500,000 bail as he awaits his sentencing, which, as of this writing, has not been scheduled yet.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno 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>
“Take responsibility as a captain to your family” - Profile: Bonanno crime family capo Joseph Sabella
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/take-responsibility-as-a-captain-to-your-family-profile-bonanno-c
2019-08-02T07:50:27.000Z
2019-08-02T07:50:27.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><strong><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/take-responsibility-as-a-captain-to-your-family-profile-bonanno-c" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237123664,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237123664?profile=original" /></a></strong>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Bonanno crime family captain Joseph “Joe Valet” Sabella is a prime example of the persistence of the American Mafia. At age 54, he has held a senior position in the New York mob during the 2010s. In that period, he’s done pretty much the same as what a typical mobster did in the 1960s.</p>
<p>Coming up through the ranks of New York’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a>, Sabella had to outmaneuver not just his rivals, but his snitching leaders as well. After a long and stable reign under boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-boss-joseph-massino" target="_blank">Joseph Massino</a>, the family began to crumble after one Bonanno gangster after another turned state’s evidence.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237123690,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237123690?profile=original" /></a>Ultimate betrayal</strong></span></p>
<p>All of it led to the downfall of Massino, who was convicted of seven <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murders</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Arson" target="_blank">arson</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Extortion" target="_blank">extortion</a>, and money laundering in 2004. Rather than take the hit like a boss, pun intended, Massino decided to flip it back: he made a deal with the feds and wore a wire inside prison to trap his successor <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Basciano" target="_blank">Vincent Basciano</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/top-5-of-true-stand-up-wiseguys" target="_blank"><strong>Top 5 of True Stand Up Wiseguys</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>It was an unheard-of act and sent the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a> into even bigger chaos. The same year, 2004, Sabella (right) pleaded guilty to various charges as a member, or soldier, of the Bonanno crime family. Unlike his boss, he did his time and kept his mouth shut. </p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Capo</strong></span></p>
<p>It was much appreciated and when he got out, he was rewarded with a promotion to captain. Sabella kept himself busy. He earned his money as mobsters have done for decades, getting involved in extortion and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Fraud" target="_blank">fraud</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/former-bonanno-boss-massino-s-hq-becomes-bakery" target="_blank"><strong>Former Bonanno boss Massino’s HQ becomes bakery</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>He was the shadow man and puppet master behind a dump site in Rossville where mobbed up companies rid themselves of hazardous waste between 2013 and 2016. Without any oversight, this being a criminal enterprise and all, the companies could dump any amount of whatever material they wanted at a discount.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Acting like Tony Soprano</strong></span></p>
<p>When he wasn’t involved in waste management, he was shaking down other businesses. And he was serious about the money he was owed. In 2012, he beat up a former partner in the valet parking business outside a Staten Island restaurant.</p>
<p>If the waste management and public beatings sound familiar to you, they should! <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Sopranos" target="_blank">Tony Soprano</a> pretty much schemed his way through several seasons of HBO’s hit show The Sopranos operating this way.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Former Bonanno Mafia family consigliere <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/former-bonanno-mafia-family-consigliere-anthony-graziano-dead-at" target="_blank">Anthony Graziano dead at 78</a>, his “Mob Wives” daughter reports</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>And just like Tony Soprano, Sabella was making good <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Money" target="_blank">money</a>. He shook down a New York demolition company for $20,000 a year in protection fees and added more to his bank account when he and two other Bonanno mobsters beat up <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a> associate Steven Sabella – no relation - in December of 2014 and muscled him out of two strip clubs, a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling" target="_blank">gambling</a> operation, and a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Loansharking" target="_blank">loansharking</a> business.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>It all falls down</strong></span></p>
<p>Angered by how he was treated by his fellow Bonanno family mobsters, Steven Sabella turned to the government for help. He became a government’s witness and testified against his attackers.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237123895,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237123895?profile=original" /></a>In 2018, Sabella, along with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-street-boss-joseph-cammarano-jr-and-other-mobsters" target="_blank">nine other Bonanno gangsters</a>, including alleged acting boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/meet-the-new-street-boss-of-the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Joseph “Joe C” Cammarano Jr.</a>, who was recently acquitted on racketeering and extortion charges, was <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-street-boss-joseph-cammarano-jr-and-other-mobsters" target="_blank">hit with racketeering charges</a>.</p>
<p>On February 12 of this year, Sabella pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering and admitted his role in the extortion schemes, the fraud at the dump site, and the assaults on two former business partners.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Omerta</strong></span></p>
<p>Sabella was sentenced to over 7 years in prison on July 19. The judge in the case told Sabella in court that, “You were involved more extensively as a captain, as a leader, and you have to take responsibility as a captain to your family.”</p>
<p>He did. Remaining silent and heading to a prison in North Carolina where he will begin serving his sentence on August 27.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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New York Mafia associate Paul Ragusa sentenced to 6 years in prison on gun charges
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/new-york-mafia-associate-paul-ragusa-sentenced-to-6-years-in-pris
2019-07-11T08:00:00.000Z
2019-07-11T08:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-york-mafia-associate-paul-ragusa-sentenced-to-6-years-in-pris" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237124687,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237124687?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Alleged New York Mafia associate Paul Ragusa was sentenced to 6 years in prison on Tuesday for possessing nine firearms, including three automatic assault rifles and a silencer. 48-year-old Ragusa was busted in Operation OTremens, a joint investigation which unearthed a partnership between Mafia families in New York City and Hamilton, Canada.</p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/operation-otremens-how-mafia-families-in-new-york-and-canada-cont" target="_blank">Operation OTremens</a> lasted more than two years and targeted a mob crew in Hamilton, Ontario, which was especially active in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug trafficking</a>, dealing in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Fentanyl" target="_blank">fentanyl</a>, carfentanil, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Meth" target="_blank">methamphetamine</a>, MDMA, MDA, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LSD" target="_blank">LSD</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Profile of</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/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>The crew was led by brothers Domenico Paolo Violi and Giuseppe Violi, grandsons of the late Giacomo Luppino, who was known to be a founding member of the crimine, a governing body for members of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ndrangheta" target="_blank">’Ndrangheta</a>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>FBI joins the party</strong></span></p>
<p>At the same time as authorities in Canada began <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/operation-otremens-how-mafia-families-in-new-york-and-canada-cont" target="_blank">their investigation</a> into Mafia activities, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> in New York conducted a parallel, but separate investigation into members of the city’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino</a> crime families. Chief among them Damiano Zummo, an acting captain in the Bonanno family, and Paul Semplice, a member of the Gambino family. Paul Ragusa also popped up on the radar as a man working for both the Bonanno and the Gambino crime families.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/operation-otremens-how-mafia-families-in-new-york-and-canada-cont" target="_blank">Operation OTremens</a>: How Mafia families in New York and Canada continue cooperating in global drug trade</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The two investigations were linked when one of the defendants sponsored a man secretly working confidential informant to become a full-fledged member of the Bonanno crime family and as part of the investigation, law enforcement secretly video- and audio-recorded the induction ceremony, which occurred in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Canada" target="_blank">Canada</a>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Stick an ice pick through his head</strong></span></p>
<p>Surrounded by snitches it is impossible to get away with anything without law enforcement knowing about it. So authorities not only knew about Ragusa’s meetings with a cooperating witness between July and October of 2017, but were listening in as well.</p>
<p>During one such conversation, Ragusa agreed to commit a murder-for-hire, stating that he did not need a gun, because he would stick an “ice pick” through the victim’s head. On October 25, 2017, the witness asked Ragusa if he knew anyone who could transport firearms. Ragusa responded, “Yeah, me! I’ll do it!” </p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>$2,000 for a job well done</strong></span></p>
<p>When the eager Ragusa showed up for the job on November 2, 2017, he was met by an undercover FBI agent who drove him to a warehouse in Nassau County, where Ragusa packed nine firearms, including two AK-47 assault rifles and one M16 rifle, into a large bag. Ragusa and the agent drove to a parking lot in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Queens" target="_blank">Queens</a>, where Ragusa loaded the firearms into a waiting undercover <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> vehicle.</p>
<p>For his hard work Ragusa was paid $2,000 in cash. Unbeknownst to him, the firearms were the property of the FBI and had been rendered inoperable.</p>
<p>Faced with overwhelming evidence, Ragusa pleaded guilty to the firearms charge in October 2018, and will have plenty of time to reevaluate his career decisions.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">Gambino 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>
Former Bonanno Mafia family consigliere Anthony Graziano dead at 78, his “Mob Wives” daughter reports
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/former-bonanno-mafia-family-consigliere-anthony-graziano-dead-at
2019-05-25T08:25:33.000Z
2019-05-25T08:25:33.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/former-bonanno-mafia-family-consigliere-anthony-graziano-dead-at" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236994064,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9236994064?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Longtime Bonanno crime family mobster Anthony “T.G.” Graziano passed away on Friday, his daughter Renee reported. He was 78. Graziano was a powerhouse in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a> and a trusted consigliere of boss Joseph Massino. Unlike his leader, however, Graziano stood tall and remained loyal to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Omerta" target="_blank">omerta</a>.</p>
<p>“I can’t believe you’re gone,” his daughter Renee Graziano wrote on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reneegraziano/" target="_blank">her Instagram</a>. “Life will never be the same without you, my hero, my protector, my rock, my dad, and the best man in the world. Thank you for loving me the way I am and for helping guide my son. We are sure gonna miss you. Rest in peace, daddy.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Mob Wives</strong></span></p>
<p>Renee Graziano got her father in a bit of trouble with his <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a> colleagues when she starred in the reality series Mob Wives, which followed several daughters and wives of gangsters and mobsters. Jennifer Graziano, another daughter of Anthony, had created the series.</p>
<p>Luckily for him – and them – he had enough clout within the New York Mafia to keep the television dollars flowing. Though he didn’t speak to his daughters for several years as a result, they eventually set aside their differences.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Friends in high places</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-consigliere-anthony" target="_blank">Graziano</a> had quite the reputation within the underworld. Known as a moneymaker capable of deadly violence, he became a capo in the Bonanno family in the 1980s, authorities listed him as one in 1990.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237124897,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237124897?profile=original" /></a>His close friendship with boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-boss-joseph-massino" target="_blank">Joseph Massino</a> enabled him to rise even higher up the ladder. He became a consigliere to Massino as the 1990s progressed. But his rank did not keep him safe from the law. He served several years for tax evasion in the early 1990s and pleaded guilty to loansharking, cocaine distribution and a murder conspiracy in 2002 for which he went back inside prison walls for 9 years.</p>
<p>Around that same time, he was hit with other charges in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Florida" target="_blank">South Florida</a>. This time for his role in illegal gambling, loan-sharking and boiler room operations. The boiler room operation was a phony tele-marketing scheme that swindled $11.7 million from investors. Graziano pleaded guilty again and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Man and a half”</strong></span></p>
<p>At one of his trials an associate of Graziano was asked by a reporter whether Graziano would cooperate with authorities. He responded: “Are you nuts? That man is a man and a half.”</p>
<p>He was right. Graziano was as stand up as they come. He was released from prison in 2013 and came out to a new world. One in which his daughters had become rich off a show discussing and honoring the life he went to prison for. He needed some time, but he adjusted. He lived by a code based on family first. He just had to find a way to accept the way his daughters had done things.</p>
<p>“T.G.” Graziano was a stone-cold gangster who did the crime and served his time. He loved his family and was loyal to the very end. To both his blood family and the one he pledged his blood to. These types of qualities are rare nowadays.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno 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>
The Real John Wick: Separating fact from fiction in Hollywood’s violent gangster vengeance blockbuster
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-real-john-wick-separating-fact-from-fiction-in-hollywood-s-vi
2019-05-18T08:15:32.000Z
2019-05-18T08:15:32.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><strong><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-real-john-wick-separating-fact-from-fiction-in-hollywood-s-vi" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237129492,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237129492?profile=original" /></a></strong>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Is John Wick indestructible? It sure seems so after watching every chapter of the blockbuster movie franchise starring Keanu Reeves as the skilled assassin placed on a universal hit list by the Italian and Russian Mafias, the Chinese Triads, and the Japanese Yakuza. But how realistic is this highly coordinated underworld?</p>
<p>The world of John Wick is one dominated by a shadow government consisting of powerful crime syndicates, merciless hitmen, and a gangland economy based on the business of murder, with parties offering safe haven, weaponry, armory, communications and intel, and a financial system that runs on gold coins. It’s clear to the viewer that this is a world steeped in tradition. Its inhabitants follow ancient rules and those who don’t get killed.</p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size:14pt;">The Real World</span></strong></p>
<p>The real world of organized crime is diverse and ever changing. Each decade new groups and crime bosses rise and fall to disappear forever. Several organizations, however, have managed to survive and hold on to century-old traditions and rituals. These groups can provide us with an answer regarding the realism of John Wick’s underworld.</p>
<p>In the United States, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in" target="_blank">Italian-American Mafia</a>, known as <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LCN" target="_blank">La Cosa Nostra</a>, is the organization that comes closest to the all-powerful octopus we see in the John Wick franchise. After its members got rich during <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Prohibition" target="_blank">Prohibition</a>, they were able to infiltrate legitimate businesses and politics at the highest levels.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-real-narcos-profile-of-miguel-angel-felix-gallardo-mexico-s-e" target="_blank">The Real Narcos</a>: Profile of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Mexico’s “El Padrino” of drug lords</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>They managed to do so while also bringing structure and a strict hierarchy to their criminal organization. In the 1930s, the various crime clans in New York City officially organized themselves into five separate families, each with its own boss, laying the foundation for the decades to come.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">T<strong>he Commission versus the High Table</strong></span></p>
<p>Making sure all these clans from across the nation would remain safe, the mob formed the Commission, a governing body which settled disputes between various families to ensure no wars would break out between them. As Selwyn Raab wrote in his book <em>Five Families</em>: “The survival of each family and the combined national Mafia overshadowed the needs and safety of the individual Mafioso.”</p>
<p>The Commission in John Wick’s world is known as the High Table, which is comprised of 12 seats, each belonging to a crime clan. Unlike the Commission, the High Table also offers a seat to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a> syndicates from other countries. This makes it a global powerhouse, whereas the Commission primarily held sway in the United States.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mU-4_UPDbrw?wmode=opaque" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>As a governing body, the Commission was used by the Mafia to approve high-level murders and crimes affecting all crime families. Anyone deemed a threat to its safety or sovereignty would meet his or her maker.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Whacking a boss</strong></span></p>
<p>In the film, John Wick is an outlaw, hunted for breaking the rules set by the High Table. He murdered one of its 12 members and thus must pay with his life. Not to mention that he committed murder at The Continental, which functions as a safe haven for traveling assassins. As we settle into our theater seats to watch John Wick 3, our dog-loving hitman must fight a full army of killers out to murder him.</p>
<p>In reality, however, the murder of a member of the Commission never resulted in such harsh penalties. More frequently, the Commission was used by its members as a tool to acquire more power and influence. It’s how bosses like Albert Anastasia and Joseph Bonanno met their demise. One by cold-blooded murder, the other when an intricate power play blew up in his face and saw him stripped of his influence and position and living in exile in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Arizona" target="_blank">Arizona</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-irishman-teamsters-boss-jimmy-hoffa-s-friend-and-the-man-who" target="_blank">The Irishman</a>: Jimmy Hoffa’s friend and the man who put two bullets in the back of his skull</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Also, when families decide to oust their own boss from the inside, the Commission rarely punishes the masterminds. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gotti" target="_blank">John Gotti</a> orchestrated the execution of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino crime family</a> boss Paul Castellano and his underboss Tommy Bilotti, but felt secure knowing he had the backing of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-colombo-crime-family" target="_blank">Colombo</a>, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family" target="_blank">Lucchese</a> crime families.</p>
<p>Though he openly broke the founding principles that one was not to murder a boss, the Commission let it slide. Only <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese crime family</a> boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-boss-vincent-chin" target="_blank">Vincent Gigante</a> felt Gotti had gone too far and began plotting his murder without he himself seeking the Commission’s approval. All of this illustrates how power and influence outrank rules and codes.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Snitches get stitches or worse</strong></span></p>
<p>So killing a boss who holds a seat on the Commission is an offence that can be overlooked. No army of mob hitmen will come looking for you. But what about the biggest rule breaker? Which, in the real world of organized crime, is the rule of silence, omerta. It is strictly forbidden to violate this rule. There is to be no snitching. Snitches get stitches. So much so that the rule is universal, from the United States to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Sicily" target="_blank">Sicily</a> and from Europe to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Asia" target="_blank">Asia</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237131054,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237131054?profile=original" /></a>In <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=China" target="_blank">China</a>, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/triads-overview" target="_blank">Triads</a> have been around for several centuries. Their code and structure are steeped in tradition. New members take oaths on a variety of topics, several of which relate to the code of silence. “I shall not disclose the secrets of the Hung society to my parents, brother or wife,” one such oath begins. “I shall not disclose the secrets for money. I must never reveal Hung society secrets or signs when speaking to outsiders.”</p>
<p>The penalty for breaking one’s oath is clear: “I will be killed by a myriad of swords if I do so.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Slit his throat</strong></span></p>
<p>The <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview" target="_blank">Russian Mafia</a>, known as the Vory v zakone, also adhere to a strict code when it comes to cooperating – or even dealing – with authorities. One thief who had sold out his comrades was simply given the choice of “by cutting or by hanging” by senior mobsters inside a Russian prison, author Mark Galeotti wrote in his book <em>The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia</em>. One of the bosses then slit the informant’s throat and calmly alerted the guards to accept his own fate.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: “For him, I am a god” – Profile of</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/for-him-i-am-a-god-profile-of-russian-mafia-boss-and-vor-v-zakone" target="_blank"><strong>Russian Mafia boss, and vor v zakone, Razhden Shulaya</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Omerta or burn</strong></span></p>
<p>The Italian Mafia’s loyalty to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Omerta" target="_blank">omerta</a>, the code of silence, is widely known. It is driven home when youngsters show an eagerness to join that lifestyle and reiterated once they join the organization as a made member. During their induction ceremony they hold a burning card of a saint in their hands and are told to obey all the rules set by the organization and its leaders and that if they disobey or break these rules that their “flesh would burn like this saint”.</p>
<p>Those that do break omerta are sentenced to death and spend their lives looking over their shoulders. In Italy, even women and children were harmed when a father, brother or son had decided to become an informant. Though less common, in the United States there have also been instances where female relatives of a snitch were targeted in order to get him to recant his testimony.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Postcards from the Yakuza</strong></span></p>
<p>In <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Japan" target="_blank">Japan</a>, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/yakuza-overview" target="_blank">Yakuza</a> also has a way of dealing with those who break the rules of their organization. “Short of death, the heaviest punishment was expulsion” Alex Dubro and David Kaplan wrote in <em>Yakuza: The Explosive Account of Japan’s Criminal Underworld</em>. “After banishing the transgressor, the [Yakuza boss] notified other [gangs] that the [person] was no longer welcome in his group. By general agreement, the outcast could not then join a rival [clan].”</p>
<p>To make certain other <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/yakuza-overview" target="_blank">Yakuza</a> groups don’t let this person into their inner circle, “the gang sends a volley of open-faced postcards via regular mail to the various underworld families. The cards comprise a formal notice of expulsion and ask that the gangs reject any association with the formal member.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/norman-s-cay-from-notorious-cocaine-pipeline-of-the-medellin-cart" target="_blank">Norman’s Cay</a>: From cocaine pipeline of the Medellin Cartel to a fraudulent festival for rich millennials</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Such strict adherence to the code combined with the fact it is spread among other clans is eerily similar to the world of John Wick. Though all the rules are in place to paint a very organized and violent picture, the reality is a lot more chaotic.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Killing rats or making them boss</strong></span></p>
<p>It is undeniable that snitching on organized crime is bad for your health. Especially back in the old days when a hit squad like <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-did-the-infamous-mafia-hit-squad-murder-inc-get-its-name" target="_blank">Murder Inc.</a> roamed the streets and made it its full-time occupation to hunt and kill those who were placed on its list. But for those expecting that the underworld would pull out all the John Wick splendor in its hatred for snitches: You are about to be disappointed.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Willie the Pimp</strong></span></p>
<p>More often than not, the murder of a snitch happens by a combination of pure luck and stupidity. Take the case of “Willie the Pimp” Bioff, a union racketeer who testified against a long line of powerful Chicago mobsters, including bosses Frank Nitti and Paul Ricca. His words earned them a guilty verdict and several years in prison after they had <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-the-chicago-outfit-made" target="_blank">extorted millions of dollars from Hollywood</a>’s biggest movie studios in the 1930s and 40s.</p>
<p>Despite getting a new identity, Bioff decided not to seek new surroundings. Instead of avoiding areas and regions with a heavy Mafia presence, he settled in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/las-vegas-sin-city" target="_blank">Las Vegas</a>. Of all places he decided that Sin City, with its mob casinos and glitter and glamor, was the place to law low and start a new life.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sometimes-the-most-obvious-is-the-best-way-the-kansas-city-mob-an" target="_blank"><strong>The Kansas City Mob and the skimming of Las Vegas casinos</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Known as William Nelson he got himself a job at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino run by his friend Gus Greenbaum, managing workers and trying to help keep their salaries down. Greenbaum had taken over operations at the casino after the murder of the Flamingo’s former manager, crime boss Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel.</p>
<p>How they expected to keep this a secret remains a mystery, but despite the lack of Instagram and Facebook it didn’t take long for people to start recognizing the man who ratted out the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-chicago-outfit-overview" target="_blank">Chicago Mafia</a>’s leadership.</p>
<p>On November 4, 1955 “Willie the Pimp” got in his car. When he turned the ignition, a bomb ripped his body apart and blew it all over the driveway of his Phoenix home. Three years later, Greenbaum and his wife were found with their throats slashed, bleeding all over the floor of their Phoenix residence.</p>
<p>It’s what you call a typical John Wick ending to a gangster flick.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Sammy the Bull</strong></span></p>
<p>Informants don’t always end up as Hollywood as that though. Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano is probably the most famous rat alive. After turning on his boss, Gambino family leader John Gotti, he made all the front pages and primetime news shows. His testimony got him an extremely lenient sentence and a shot at a new life under the name of Jimmy Moran in sunny Arizona with his family.</p>
<p>But what’s a shot at a new life when you can’t flaunt it in people’s face? Hell, what’s the use of your old life if you can’t use it to impress people? So, the former New York Mafia underboss didn’t try to hide who he was and pretty soon was outed by the press.</p>
<p>When word got back to his old stomping grounds, his former associates were incensed. John Gotti had already made it crystal clear how he felt about his former colleague. “That’s a bill that’s gotta be paid some day, just like every other bill, you know what I mean,” he told his brother Peter in a taped conversation in prison.</p>
<p>Peter Gotti knew what his brother meant and remembered those words when the news of Gravano’s life in Arizona surfaced in the media. With the imprisonment of John and recent legal troubles of John Junior, Peter had become head of the crime family. As such he now had the authority to set in motion the murder machine.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sammy-the-bull-gravano-is-a-free-man-but-more-importantly-a-poste" target="_blank">Sammy the Bull Gravano is a free man</a>, but also a poster boy for the dangers of dealing with gangsters</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>In 1999, he ordered Gambino family soldiers Thomas “Huck” Carbonaro and Edward “Cousin Eddie” Garafola to go to Arizona and whack Gravano. He gave them unlimited funds to handle this problem. For over six months, the mobsters surveilled Gravano and scouted for locations to take him out. Carbonaro even began dressing up as an outlaw biker as to not draw attention to himself as a Mafioso, growing a beard and getting tattoos.</p>
<p>All the efforts turned out to be in vain when Gravano was taken down by law enforcement in February of 2000 for his involvement in running a multi-million-dollar <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ecstasy" target="_blank">ecstasy</a> ring with a local youth gang called The Devil Dogs. He was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison and was recently released.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Shrimp Boy</strong></span></p>
<p>Still, though the Mafia didn’t get their guy, they spared no expenses and went hunting, right? Just like in John Wick. Though that is technically true, recent events show that things have changed.</p>
<p>Take the case of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-rat-who-became-king-triad-boss-raymond-chow" target="_blank">Raymond Chow</a>. In the 1970s and 1980s he made a big name for himself in the underworld of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Under the wing of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/triad-boss-peter-chong" target="_blank">Triad boss Peter Chong</a>, he had big plans for creating a nationwide criminal organization that was comprised of all Asian Triad gangs. But when it was time to face the music in the 1990s, Chow opted to testify against his former partner-in-crime instead.</p>
<p>Thanks to his testimony, Chow was released from prison in 2003. He claimed he was a reformed man and turned his focus on helping young kids stay away from gangs and crime. To do so he went back to the same streets in San Francisco’s Chinatown. A pretty ballsy move for someone who had snitched. One would expect him to be welcomed by a volley of bullets.</p>
<p>In a John Wick movie, perhaps. But in reality it was Chow doing the firing. Rather than being shunned, his old gang welcomed him back. Apparently, there is no “stop snitchin’” movement in Chinatown. Using their muscle, he even took back his spot atop of the throne by arranging the murder of his successor.</p>
<p>Once again, it came down to authorities to take the snitch down. In 2016, he was sentenced to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/san-francisco-crime-boss-shrimp-boy-chow-gets-two-life-terms-in-p" target="_blank">two life sentences</a> for various racketeering charges.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>My old hometown</strong></span></p>
<p>Though it totally contradicts the mantra of organized crime – as well as many of the gangster movies made in Hollywood – snitches tend to get away quite often nowadays. In 2017, former Genovese family mobster Anthony Arillotta chose to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-mob-family-turncoat-returns-to-old-stomping-grounds-in-s" target="_blank">return to his old stomping grounds</a> in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Springfield" target="_blank">Springfield</a>, Massachusetts. After climbing to the top of the city’s mob crew by arranging the 2003 murder of his predecessor, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-hit-how-the-genovese" target="_blank">capo Adolfo Bruno</a>, he left town with his tail between his legs after he became a witness for the government and testified against the Springfield and New York mobsters below and above him. But apparently, that does not mean he needs to keep a low profile or pick a new hometown.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Welcome, Mr. Wick</strong></span></p>
<p>In the world of John Wick there is a highly structured underworld with connections around the world and all particles moving as one. In the real world things don’t work like that. As the Bioff hit illustrates, despite there being a formidable organization, these groups rely on the right people making the right connections. Someone needs to recognize the snitch and communicate it up the chain. And even then, it remains within that chain.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237131296,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237131296?profile=original" /></a>If a member of the Yakuza is branded as a rat and is blacklisted in Japan, what stops him from setting up shop in the United States? Or other parts of Asia even? There is no global communications hotline that these groups check in on. They rather not communicate about sensitive subjects for fear of authorities listening in.</p>
<p>And if shit does hit the fan, and someone needs to be taken out, most of these groups tend to weigh the pros and cons first. Going hunting or fighting a war costs a lot of money and hinders business. Money is why these groups do what they do. If you make them money, then they tend to overlook stuff like you breaking certain rules. If you cost them money, however, you end up dead quicker than you can ask for the check after a nice dinner.</p>
<p>In the real world of organized crime money comes first. Honor comes second. If honor was placed first, then there is no doubt that a person placed on a hit list would be in a very dire situation and would need all the skills of a John Wick to survive for the end of the film – let alone two sequels.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-s-showbiz">Showbiz section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
If a man looks like a mobster, is he also guilty of being one?
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/if-a-man-looks-like-a-mobster-is-he-also-guilty-of-being-one
2019-03-01T18:30:00.000Z
2019-03-01T18:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/if-a-man-looks-like-a-mobster-is-he-also-guilty-of-being-one" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237117686,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237117686?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>The trial of alleged Bonanno crime family boss Joseph “Joe C” Cammarano Jr. began last week and he showed up looking the part. It brought up the question: Does looking like a mobster, make you guilty of being one?</p>
<p>A stupid question, of course, but one that needs to be addressed. With his gray hair, wearing a big silver ring, and dressed in a navy-blue blazer, light blue dress shirt, striped-tie and gray pants, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/meet-the-new-street-boss-of-the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Cammarano Jr.</a> reminded the courtroom and onlookers of actors <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/now-go-home-and-get-your-fucking-shine-box-iconic-actor-frank-vin" target="_blank">Frank Vincent</a> or Vinny Vella, both famous for their roles as mobsters in films like <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-truth-behind-movie-classic-goodfellas" target="_blank">Goodfellas</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-truth-behind-movie-classic-casino" target="_blank">Casino</a> and television series <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Sopranos" target="_blank">The Sopranos</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Profile of</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/meet-the-new-street-boss-of-the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank"><strong>Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Cammarano Jr.</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong><a href="https://nypost.com/2019/02/25/dont-convict-my-client-for-looking-like-a-mobster-lawyer/" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237118466,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237118466?profile=original" /></a>Cloud your judgement</strong></span></p>
<p>“Looking like you stepped out of a central casting in a mob movie doesn’t make you a part of one of these groups,” Cammarano Jr.’s lawyer Jennifer Louis-Jeune said during opening statements in his Manhattan federal court racketeering trial, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/02/25/dont-convict-my-client-for-looking-like-a-mobster-lawyer/" target="_blank">New York Post</a>. “Don’t be distracted. Don’t let what you have seen in movies or on TV or whatever you have heard about the Mafia cloud your judgement.”</p>
<p>Cammarano Jr. (right, <em>photo by Erik Thomas for the <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/02/25/dont-convict-my-client-for-looking-like-a-mobster-lawyer/" target="_blank">New York Post</a></em>) was <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-street-boss-joseph-cammarano-jr-and-other-mobsters" target="_blank">arrested</a> in January of 2018 along with nine other Bonanno gangsters and is charged with racketeering conspiracy and extortion. He faces 20 years in prison on each count. He allegedly became the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a>’s leader in 2015.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Suits, saggy pants, a hoody or tattoos</strong></span></p>
<p>What do you think? Does looking like a mobster, make you guilty of being one? Or just guilty of being a wannabe? How about saggy pants and a hoody? Or an all-red outfit?</p>
<p>What about <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Tattoos" target="_blank">tattoos</a>? Tattoos in the neck? Maybe a teardrop under the eye? In Japan you are prohibited from entering a sauna if you have tattoos because members of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/yakuza-overview" target="_blank">Japanese Mafia</a>, known as the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/yakuza-overview" target="_blank">Yakuza</a>, proudly flaunt their gang affiliation through their body art. </p>
<p>Perhaps, Cammarano Jr. should be more worried about his longtime connections to the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a> and his criminal record. Though both are by no means an indication of his guilt, they probably carry more weight with the jury than his shining silver ring and expensive suit.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
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Murder at the Drive-Thru: Bonanno family mobster shot in the head while getting coffee at McDonald’s
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/murder-at-the-drive-thru-bonanno-family-mobster-shot-in-the-head
2018-10-05T09:30:00.000Z
2018-10-05T09:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/murder-at-the-drive-thru-bonanno-family-mobster-shot-in-the-head" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237105477,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237105477?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Sylvester Zottola had problems. The Bonanno family mobster was beefing with someone and that person was intent on murdering him over it. After surviving several attempts on his life, Zottola’s number was finally up on yesterday evening when an assassin shot him dead while he waited for his coffee at a McDonald’s drive-thru in the Bronx.</p>
<p>One medium coffee at a McDonald’s on Webster Avenue in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bronx" target="_blank">the Bronx</a> was the last order 71-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Zottola" target="_blank">Sylvester Zottola</a> got to place in his life. He didn’t even get to enjoy it. While he waited in his SUV around 5 p.m., another car pulled up and blocked his escape. A man got out and fired five closely placed shots through the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bonanno" target="_blank">Bonanno</a> gangster’s car window.</p>
<p>Zottola was hit in the head, chest and shoulder and was pronounced dead on the scene. The <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Hitman" target="_blank">hitman</a> escaped and police have not made any arrest thus far.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237106088,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237106088?profile=original" width="600" /></a><em>Closely placed bullet holes show gunman's precision</em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Like Father Like Son</strong></span></p>
<p>In July, Sylvester’s son was the target and victim of a gangland hit when a gunman fired several shots at him from close range in front of his family home. The whole murder attempt was <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-mobster-shot-in-front-of-his-bronx-mansion-salvato" target="_blank">caught on video</a>. 41-year-old Salvatore Zottola was hit by multiple bullets but miraculously survived the assassination attempt.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>WATCH & READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-mobster-shot-in-front-of-his-bronx-mansion-salvato" target="_blank"><strong>Video shows how Bonanno family gangster is shot in front of his Bronx mansion</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>As is custom for those involved with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LCN" target="_blank">La Cosa Nostra</a>, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in" target="_blank">American Mafia</a>, Salvatore refused to talk to police after the incident.</p>
<p>The attempt on Salvatore’s life was seen by investigators as a message to Sylvester, who himself survived three attacks in the past year. He was beaten over the head with a club outside his Bronx residence in September of 2017, threatened by a gunman who tried to get in his car a few months later, and stabbed in the neck by a burglar who had invaded his home.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237106289,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237106289?profile=original" width="600" /></a><em>Sylvester Zottola (left) with Bonanno crime family leader Vincent Basciano (right)</em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Murder Motive</strong></span></p>
<p>Though it remains unclear why someone wanted Sylvester Zottola dead, it is believed there is a link between these gangland-style attacks and his position as an associate of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">New York’s Bonanno crime family</a>. He had close ties to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Basciano" target="_blank">Vincent Basciano</a>, who was the family’s boss in the 2000s and is currently imprisoned for life for murder and racketeering.</p>
<p>Court documents show father and son Zottola supplied and serviced <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling" target="_blank">Joker Poker machines</a> to businesses controlled by the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a> during the 1990s and 2000s with their company D.A.Z. Amusements. Sylvester Zottola’s nickname was “Sally Daz”.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/high-ranking-bloods-gangster-arrested-for-organizing-murder-of-bo"><strong>Bloods gangster arrested for organizing murder of Bonanno mobster</strong></a></p>
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New York Lucchese Mafia family hitman pleads guilty to attempted murder of Bonanno family mobster
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/new-york-lucchese-mafia-family-hitman-pleads-guilty-to-attempted
2018-09-16T16:32:51.000Z
2018-09-16T16:32:51.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-york-lucchese-mafia-family-hitman-pleads-guilty-to-attempted" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237109257,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237109257?profile=original" width="499" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>It’s the sort of vendetta violence the American Mafia is known for. After a Bonanno family mobster insulted a leader of the Lucchese family, the boss ordered his death. On Friday, the hitman who was handed the murder contract admitted his guilt in the plot.</p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family" target="_blank">Lucchese crime family</a> associate Vincent Bruno pleaded guilty to attempting to kill, and conspiring to kill, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bronx" target="_blank">Bronx</a> man in 2012. The counts carry a maximum sentence of 15 years for the 34-year-old mobster, who will do his time.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-york-s-lucchese-mafia-family-deadly-as-ever-in-2017-prosecuto" target="_blank"><strong>Lucchese Mafia family deadly as ever in 2017</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Disrespecting a Mafia boss</strong></span></p>
<p>The murder plot occurred in 2012, when armed mobsters of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a> forced their way into a Bronx social club controlled by the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Lucchese" target="_blank">Lucchese family</a>. During the ensuing confrontation, one of the Bonanno family associates acted in a manner that <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-acting-boss-steven" target="_blank">Steven Crea</a> (photo above), a leader of the Lucchese family, perceived as a personal affront.</p>
<p>To restore his honor and avenge this act of disrespect, Crea ordered his son, Steven D. Crea Junior, to have the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bonanno" target="_blank">Bonanno</a> gangster whacked. Crea Jr. passed the order to Paul “Paulie Roast Beef” Cassano Jr. and Bruno.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-family-mobster-planned-to-escape-from-metropolitan-deten" target="_blank"><strong>Lucchese mobster planned to escape from Detention Center in Manhattan</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>One night, both men travelled to the Bonanno associate’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bronx" target="_blank">Bronx</a> residence. There Bruno, armed with a gun, tried to find and kill him, but failed. The dispute between the rival families was then resolved before the murder was carried out.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Indicted</strong></span></p>
<p>Lucchese family boss Steven Crea Sr., his son, Bruno, Cassano, and fifteen other leaders, captains, members, and associates of the Lucchese family were <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-york-s-lucchese-mafia-family-deadly-as-ever-in-2017-prosecuto" target="_blank">arrested and charged</a> in a nine-count indictment in May of 2017, for their involvement in offenses including racketeering, murder, attempted murder, narcotics trafficking, and gun crimes. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Hanging with hitmen and Eddie Murphy:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-lucchese-family-capo-fat-pete-chiodo" target="_blank"><strong>Profile of Lucchese capo "Fat Pete" Chiodo</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Since the unsealing of the Indictment, Bruno, Cassano and eight other defendants have pled guilty, and have been or will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel. Father and son Crea are also charged with attempting to have the Bonanno mobster killed along with various other crimes and are scheduled to begin trial in 2019.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Stand-up</strong></span></p>
<p>The Creas won’t find Bruno standing across from them in the courtroom, however. He pleaded guilty and will do his time. Something worth noting in this day and age. It’s sobering to know some Mafiosi will still accept punishment for their crimes.</p>
<p>He now serves as a warning to others who refuse to cooperate. “Bruno’s attempt to murder a man at the behest of his mob superiors has ended where it should: With Bruno behind bars,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said. “We will continue to work with the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> and our other partners in law enforcement to stamp out the remnants of La Cosa Nostra.”</p>
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VIDEO: Bonanno family mobster shot in front of his Bronx mansion – Salvatore Zottola in critical condition
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-mobster-shot-in-front-of-his-bronx-mansion-salvato
2018-07-14T07:30:00.000Z
2018-07-14T07:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-mobster-shot-in-front-of-his-bronx-mansion-salvato" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237109082,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237109082?profile=original" width="539" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>An alleged associate of New York’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a> was shot by an unknown hitman in front of his mansion in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bronx" target="_blank">Bronx</a>. Bullets hit 41-year-old Salvatore Zottola in his torso and left hand. He also suffered graze wounds to his head.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Murder at the Drive-Thru:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/murder-at-the-drive-thru-bonanno-family-mobster-shot-in-the-head" target="_blank"><strong>Sylvester Zottola shot in the head while getting coffee at McDonald's</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The hit attempt occurred on Wednesday morning and was caught on camera. The video below shows how Zottola is about to get into his minivan when a dark-colored Nissan Sedan drives by. Inside, a man in the passenger seat fires several shots at the mob associate.</p>
<p>Trying to evade the gunfire, Zottola can be seen rolling away from the gunshots until he is behind his van. The car with his assailants then stops and the gunman - described as a black man wearing a light-colored cap, black hooded sweatshirt and white sneakers - gets out, running to where Zottola is crouched, firing several more shots from close range as Zottola makes another attempt at dodging bullets by rolling away.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9ugSjF7geMs?wmode=opaque" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe></p>
<p>Though it may have seemed futile, Zottola’s desperate maneuvers helped him survive the professional, cold-blooded assassination. He was taken to Jacobi Medical Center where he currently is in critical but stable condition.</p>
<p>Zottola’s family is said to own three luxurious houses in the upper-class Bronx neighborhood, near a yacht club and a marina. The large mansion sports a large Z-logo atop of its façade. A sign with the quote: “Our walls are built thick our love for each is thicker” can be seen as well. Another home has a sign with the saying: “Our foundation is built from love our strength keeps us together.”</p>
<p>Zottola’s 71-year old father, Sylvester, is alleged to have ties to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a> boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Basciano" target="_blank">Vincent Basciano</a>, who is serving a life sentence for racketeering and murder. Sylvester is no stranger to violence either. He reportedly survived a stabbing by burglars last December and was arrested last month for shooting at a man who pulled a gun on him outside his own Bronx home.</p>
<p>Staying true to his <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a> affiliation, Salvatore Zottola refuses to cooperate with authorities and will not give them any information about his attackers.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/high-ranking-bloods-gangster-arrested-for-organizing-murder-of-bo"><strong>Bloods gangster arrested for organizing murder of Bonanno mobster</strong></a></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w9LJ0XfnnM8?wmode=opaque" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
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Bonanno crime family capo and soldiers plead guilty to racketeering conspiracy, will forfeit $2.25 million
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/bonanno-crime-family-capo-and-soldiers-plead-guilty-to-racketeeri
2018-03-21T08:30:00.000Z
2018-03-21T08:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-crime-family-capo-and-soldiers-plead-guilty-to-racketeeri" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237101299,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237101299?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a> capo <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-bonanno-crime-family-capo-ronald-giallanzo" target="_blank">Ronald “Ronnie G” Giallanzo</a> and Bonanno family soldier <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Palmaccio" target="_blank">Michael Palmaccio</a> pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy on Monday, admitting their involvement in multiple acts of loansharking. They face a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison. </p>
<p>Seven co-defendants have previously pleaded guilty in this case. Earlier this month, Bonanno soldier <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Festa" target="_blank">Nicholas “Pudgie” Festa</a> also pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and admitted to additional acts of loansharking. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-bonanno-crime-family-capo-ronald-giallanzo" target="_blank">Profile of Bonanno family captain Ronald Giallanzo</a><br /> </strong></li>
</ul>
<p>“Mobsters are known for lending large amounts of money at exorbitant rates to individuals who they know lack the financial means of paying off their loans,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney. “They intentionally extort their victims over extended periods of time using threats of violence as a means of collecting their weekly payments. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book for these crime families, and they’ve shown no inclination to stop harassing and intimidating communities in our area.”</p>
<p>Giallanzo, Palmaccio and Festa are members of a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bonanno" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a> crew that operated primarily in Howard Beach, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Queens" target="_blank">Queens</a>. Giallanzo operated a lucrative loansharking business in which he provided money to, among others, Palmaccio and Festa to put out on the street. </p>
<p>Even while incarcerated for a prior federal conviction for racketeering and extortion conspiracy, 47-year-old Giallanzo kept watch over his illicit <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Loansharking" target="_blank">loansharking</a> business, directing his associates to commit acts of violence to ensure that the customers paid the exorbitant weekly interest rate. At one point, he had lent over $3 million in extortionate loans to customers. The three men were arrested by the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> in March 2017.</p>
<p>At his guilty plea, Giallanzo admitted to participating in the affairs of the Bonanno family by extending and collecting extortionate loans to five different victims and agreed to forfeit $1.25 million. As part of his agreement with the government, Giallanzo is also required to sell the Howard Beach mansion he constructed with loansharking proceeds while he was on supervised release stemming from his prior federal conviction. </p>
<p>46-year-old Palmaccio and 37-year-old Festa admitted to participating in the affairs of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bonanno" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a> by extending and collecting extortionate loans to several victims and each agreed to forfeit $500,000.</p>
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Mafioso gets over 10 years in prison for cocaine & fentanyl trafficking
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/mafioso-gets-over-10-years-in-prison-for-cocaine-fentanyl-traffic
2018-03-17T01:30:00.000Z
2018-03-17T01:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mafioso-gets-over-10-years-in-prison-for-cocaine-fentanyl-traffic" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237100658,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237100658?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>Mobster Massimigliano Carfagna was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison on Thursday. He had pleaded guilty to trafficking in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> and the opioid drug <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Fentanyl" target="_blank">fentanyl</a>, a gun charge and a drug importation conspiracy charge, newspaper <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/03/15/burlington-man-sentenced-in-drug-trafficking-case.html" target="_blank">The Star reports</a>.</p>
<p>He was arrested as a result of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/operation-otremens-how-mafia-families-in-new-york-and-canada-cont" target="_blank">Operation OTremens</a>, an international law enforcement investigation targeting the Todaro crime family based in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Hamilton" target="_blank">Hamilton</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ontario" target="_blank">Ontario</a>, and New York’s Bonanno and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino</a> crime families. Authorities were able to crack the mob crews thanks to one of their own, a made member of the New York <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a>, becoming an informant.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/operation-otremens-how-mafia-families-in-new-york-and-canada-cont" target="_blank">How Mafia families in NY and Canada</a> continue cooperting in global drug trade</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Carfagna was part of the Hamilton group which was led by 51-year-old Domenico Paolo Violi and his brother Giuseppe Violi. Both men are considered <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a> royalty with both their father and grandfather having been leading mob figures. They are scheduled to take their case to trial.</p>
<p>With his guilty plea, Carfagna just made proving their innocence that bit more difficult. As part of his plea deal, Carfagna stated that “between March 1 and October 28, 2016, he and Giuseppe “Joey” Violi of Hamilton agreed to import 200 to 300 kilograms of cocaine into Canada,” <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/03/15/burlington-man-sentenced-in-drug-trafficking-case.html" target="_blank">The Star reports</a>.</p>
<p>“As part of their plan to organize the cocaine shipment, Carfagna and Violi advised the agent that they had sent […] a male associate of Carfagna’s [...] identified as ‘Porkchop,’ to make arrangements to get the cocaine on consignment in Colombia,” the statement reads. </p>
<p><em><strong>For the entire story check out <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/03/15/burlington-man-sentenced-in-drug-trafficking-case.html" target="_blank">Peter Edwards' article in The Star newspaper</a>.</strong></em></p>
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Bonanno family street boss Joseph Cammarano Jr. and other mobsters hit with extortion, assault charges
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-street-boss-joseph-cammarano-jr-and-other-mobsters
2018-01-12T19:00:00.000Z
2018-01-12T19:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-street-boss-joseph-cammarano-jr-and-other-mobsters" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237094278,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237094278?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso - <em>Updated January 13, 2018</em></p>
<p>Joseph Cammarano Jr., the street boss of New York’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a>, was hit with racketeering charges today. He was arrested along with nine other mobsters, including fellow leading figures John “Porky” Zanocchio and Simone Esposito, and captains Joseph “Joe Valet” Sabella and and George “Grumpy” Tropiano.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/suspected-bonanno-mobsters-busted-racketeering-related-charges-article-1.3753152" target="_blank">the New York Daily News</a>, the high-level gangsters are named in a 16-page federal indictment that charged them “with a variety of charges, including conspiracy to commit murder, extortion and drug dealing.”</p>
<p>The indictment reads a bit differently, stating three counts: racketeering conspiracy; assault resulting in serious bodily injury in aid of racketeering, and aiding and abetting the same; and extortion conspiracy. Cammarano, Zanocchio, Sabella, Tropiano are each charged with counts one and three.</p>
<p>The drug dealing is not mentioned in the indictment as a separate count, but rather as part of a criminal activity the Bonanno crime family is involved in.</p>
<p>Bonanno family soldier Albert Armetta is charged with counts one and two. Prosecutors allege he beat up a victim to gain credibility with higher ups so that he could become a made man.</p>
<p>Cammarano Jr. was taking care of business for imprisoned boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-boss-michael-mancuso" target="_blank">Michael Mancuso</a>, who allegedly approved his rise to the spot in 2015. Cammarano Jr. grew up in the life with a father who was once a Bonanno family underboss. He passed away in 2013 while doing time for murder. His son also got a taste of prison when he did 27 months for extorting a fellow Bonanno gangster.</p>
<p>Gangsters Inc. published a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/meet-the-new-street-boss-of-the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">profile of Cammarano Jr.</a> in 2016 and predicted that his new position as leader of the dysfunctional crime family would more than likely result in his downfall at the hands of the FBI. He faces 20 years in prison on each count.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonannos</a> have taken some big hits in the past decades, with two blows standing out.</p>
<p>The first was when they let an associate by the name of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brasco" target="_blank">Donnie Brasco</a> into its inner circle. Brasco turned out to be undercover <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Pistone" target="_blank">FBI agent Joseph Pistone</a> and sent scores of mobsters to prison – and a few to death at the hands of the mob.</p>
<p>The second blow came in 2003 when respected Bonanno family boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Massino" target="_blank">Joseph Massino</a> decided to become a cooperating witness and rat out all his former underlings.</p>
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Feds bust mobsters of Gambino and Bonanno crime families – Major disruption of Mafia’s activities on Long Island
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/feds-bust-mobsters-of-gambino-and-bonanno-crime-families-major-di
2017-12-13T16:08:05.000Z
2017-12-13T16:08:05.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/feds-bust-mobsters-of-gambino-and-bonanno-crime-families-major-di" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237094701,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237094701?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Seven New York mobsters were charged yesterday with racketeering conspiracy, including loan sharking, illegal gambling, drug trafficking and obstruction of justice conspiracy. The bust represents “a major disruption of La Costra Nostra’s activities on Long Island,” stated Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Bridget Rohde. </p>
<p>In a long-term joint investigation involving the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a>, the Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=ICE" target="_blank">ICE</a>) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York, authorities uncovered alleged criminal activities on Long Island, in Brooklyn, and elsewhere committed by alleged Mafia figures. These included six wiseguys of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino crime family</a> and one made member of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>CAPO AND HIS ASSOCIATES</strong></span></p>
<p>According to the indictment, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ambrosio" target="_blank">John “Johnny Boy” Ambrosio</a>, an acting captain in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambino" target="_blank">Gambino family</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Salerno" target="_blank">Frank “Frankie Boy” Salerno</a>, a soldier in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bonanno" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a>, Thomas Anzalone, Alessandro “Sandro” Damelio, Joseph Durso, Anthony Rodolico and Anthony Saladino, associates of the Gambino family were deeply involved in a criminal conspiracy which occurred between January 2014 and December 2017. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: INTERVIEW: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/interview-john-gotti-jr-sits-down-with-gangsters-inc" target="_blank">Former mob boss John Gotti Jr. sits down with Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Alleged Gambino capo Ambrosio ran a lucrative loan sharking operation in which he, Anzalone, Rodolico, Saladino and others extended loans to numerous individuals, often charging exorbitant interest rates, and employed violent collection methods.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“YOU’LL NEVER WALK AGAIN”</strong></span></p>
<p>In an intercepted conversation between Saladino and Anzalone, the two men discussed various “<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling" target="_blank">gambling</a> debts,” Saladino stated that he would give a debtor “something to be scared about,” but that he didn’t want “beef” at his “club,” because he is “responsible to John [Ambrosio] for what happens there.” </p>
<p>In that same call, Saladino offered to “fix” another gambling debtor, saying “by the time we’re done… he’s not going to have an office to play anywhere.” In another conversation with Ambrosio, an individual asked for Ambrosio’s help collecting a debt and recounted telling the debtor: “I don’t know if you know who I am and where I come from, but I promise you, you will never walk again.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-american-mafia-bets-on-the-world-and-wins-big" target="_blank">The American Mafia bets on the world and wins big</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Ambrosio and Rodolico also allegedly attempted to obstruct the federal grand jury proceeding into their criminal activities by intimidating a loan shark victim into lying to law enforcement.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>GAMBLING ON ADDICTS</strong></span></p>
<p>Ambrosio also was involved with a variety of gambling operations, including unlicensed gambling parlors, electronic gaming machines and internet and sports betting, with Damelio, Durso, Salerno and Saladino being responsible for many of the day-to-day operations.</p>
<p>In one intercepted call, Ambrosio stated that there was no need to travel to a casino because, “You can play right here” and “save gas money.” A search warrant executed on a storage facility belonging to Saladino yielded several electronic gaming machines and other gambling paraphernalia.</p>
<p>As if loansharking and gambling didn’t bring in enough money, Anzalone, Damelio, Durso, Saladino and Salerno also are alleged to have distributed a variety of narcotics, including <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">marijuana</a> and Xanax. Saladino and Salerno, especially, engaged in the distribution of wholesale quantities of cocaine, including twelve separate sales to an undercover member of law enforcement totaling over half a kilogram.</p>
<p>“From operating an illegitimate casino and an illegal loan shark operation to distributing cocaine and marijuana, the charges against these individuals are stacked,” said Angel M. Melendez, special agent in charge of HSI New York. “We remain committed to working with our law enforcement partners in investigating nefarious criminal organizations like La Cosa Nostra and dismantling their operations.”</p>
<p>As Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Bridget Rohde, stated: “[These] arrests represent a major disruption of La Costra Nostra’s activities on Long Island.”</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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Operation OTremens: How Mafia families in New York and Canada continue cooperating in global drug trade
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/operation-otremens-how-mafia-families-in-new-york-and-canada-cont
2017-11-10T11:37:40.000Z
2017-11-10T11:37:40.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/operation-otremens-how-mafia-families-in-new-york-and-canada-cont" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237102100,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237102100?profile=original" width="650" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p><em>“Always the dollars. Always the fuckin' dollars.” – Nicky Santoro, movie Casino</em></p>
<p>Authorities in the United States and Canada arrested a total of thirteen alleged members of the Mafia yesterday for their involvement in a largescale drug trafficking pipeline spanning both countries. Among those arrested are mobsters of New York’s Bonanno and Gambino crime families and the Todaro crime family based in Hamilton, Ontario.</p>
<p>“[This investigation] unearthed and dug up the roots of a partnership extending from New York City to Buffalo and Toronto to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Montreal" target="_blank">Montreal</a>, proving once again that Italian organized crime groups have evolved far beyond the neighborhood cliques of days gone by,” Michael McGarrity of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> told the media.</p>
<p>The takedown is the latest example of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a> groups in the United States and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Canada" target="_blank">Canada</a> working together in the lucrative narcotics trade. When dealing with huge sums of cash and tons of drugs it helps to be part of <em>our thing</em>, mobsters can trust one another – or at least, trust that since they are part of the same type of organization that everyone is playing by the same rulebook.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>THE ‘NDRANGHETA IN HAMILTON</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237101896,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237101896?profile=original" width="600" /></a></strong></span>The coordinated investigation called Operation OTremens lasted more than two years and revealed criminal activity spanning the United States and Canada. The mob crew in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Hamilton" target="_blank">Hamilton</a>, Ontario, was especially active in drug trafficking. Nine indivuduals are charged with 75 offences including trafficking in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Fentanyl" target="_blank">fentanyl</a>, carfentanil, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Meth" target="_blank">methamphetamine</a>, MDMA, MDA, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LSD" target="_blank">LSD</a>.</p>
<p>Undercover operations during this project saw police purchase 6 kilograms of fentanyl and carfentanil over six transactions. These drugs could have been diluted several times, meaning three times the seized drug volume would have been distributed to the streets of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ontario" target="_blank">Ontario</a> today, authorities said.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-canadian-connection-flooding-the-u-s-with-dope" target="_blank">The Canadian Connection: Flooding the U.S. with dope</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>If the dope wasn’t enough, they were also involved in bookmaking and the trafficking of weapons and contraband tobacco. The Contraband Tobacco Enforcement Team in Ontario seized over 3,000,000 cigarettes, which represents a loss tax revenue in excess of $550,000.</p>
<p>Two integral members of the Hamilton group are 51-year-old Domenico Paolo Violi (above, left) and his brother Giuseppe Violi (above, right). They are grandsons of the late Giacomo Luppino, who was known to be a founding member of the <em>crimine</em>, a governing body for members of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ndrangheta" target="_blank">’Ndrangheta</a> and a longstanding associate of the Buffalo crime family. According to Canadian police the Violis have “an international reach.”</p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>A SNITCH IN THEIR MIDST</strong></span></p>
<p>The takedown was set off when one mobster flipped and began working with the cops. “We had an opportunity to infiltrate some higher level traditional organized crime members,” RCMP Supt. Chris Leather told the media, adding that they had a source “who was respected by traditional organized crime in both Canada and the United States.”</p>
<p>At the same time as authorities in Canada began their investigation into mob activities, the FBI in New York conducted a parallel, but separate investigation into members of the city’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino</a> crime families.</p>
<p>The two were linked when, in 2015, one of the defendants sponsored a confidential informant to become a full-fledged member of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a> and as part of the investigation, law enforcement secretly video- and audio-recorded the induction ceremony, which occurred in Canada.</p>
<p>With such an insider, authorities had unprecedented access to ongoing criminal activities. Or, as stated by Acting United States Attorney Rohde: “The recording of a secret induction ceremony is an extraordinary achievement for law enforcement and deals a significant blow to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LCN" target="_blank">La Cosa Nostra</a>.”</p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>BUSTING THE NEW YORK BONANNOS & GAMBINOS</strong></span></p>
<p>The results of that blow came yesterday, when 44-year-old Damiano Zummo, an acting captain in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a>; 45-year-old Salvatore Russo, an associate of the Bonanno family; 54-year-old Paul Semplice, a member of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview" target="_blank">Gambino family</a>; and 46-year-old Paul Ragusa, an associate of the Bonanno and Gambino families were arrested and charged with cocaine trafficking, loansharking, extortion, and money laundering.</p>
<p>According to the indictment and other court filings, Zummo was involved in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy with Bonanno associate Salvatore Russo and others introduced by the confidential informant. In one deal, on September 14, 2017, Zummo and Russo sold over a kilogram of cocaine inside a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Manhattan" target="_blank">Manhattan</a> gelato store.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-map-shows-mob-social-clubs-in-new-york" target="_blank">Map shows Mafia social clubs in New York City</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Zummo is also charged with laundering over $250,000 in cash by providing business checks issued to a fictitious consulting company that purported to bill the company for consulting services. The Bonanno capo took a fee of approximately 10 percent for each money laundering transaction.</p>
<p>Gambino soldier Semplice is charged with conducting a loansharking scheme in which he and others extended extortionate loans with interest rates of up to 54% per year. The alleged scheme generated thousands of dollars per week for Semplice and his associates. </p>
<p>Paul Ragusa is charged with being a felon in possession of nine firearms, including three automatic assault rifles and one silencer. He allegedly transported the firearms in exchange for $2,000 in cash.</p>
<p>If convicted, Zummo and Russo each face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment; Semplice faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment on each of three loansharking charges; and Ragusa faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment under the Armed Career Criminal Act. </p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>“A GIANT STEP”</strong></span></p>
<p>“Criminal enterprises, both national and international, contribute to the breakdown of a lawful society,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney. “And yet, the allure of this gangland culture is often embraced and glamorized in movies and on television, where the threats posed to our economic and national security are seldom displayed. Dismantling and disrupting major international and national organized criminal enterprises is a longstanding area of FBI expertise, which is significantly enhanced through collaboration with our law enforcement partners and our Canadian partners. While we have more work to do, this operation is a giant step in the right direction.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-and-gambino-crime-family-in-global-drug-bust" target="_blank">'Ndrangheta and New York Gambino family in global drug bust</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>“Those who traffic in illicit drugs and participate in other organized crime activities destroy lives and impact the safety and security of our communities, and we will continue to work to eradicate those dangers.” said Michael LeSage, Criminal Operations Officer for the “O” Division RCMP. “Project OTremens demonstrates how the combined efforts and cooperation of law enforcement agencies and other government departments, here and internationally, can work effectively to combat organized crime.”</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>
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Bonanno mobster Vincent Asaro and John Gotti’s grandson plead guilty and adhere to the code of silence
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/bonanno-mobster-vincent-asaro-and-john-gotti-s-grandson-plead-gui
2017-06-28T09:16:32.000Z
2017-06-28T09:16:32.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-mobster-vincent-asaro-and-john-gotti-s-grandson-plead-gui" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237088466,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237088466?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Longtime Bonanno crime family mobster Vincent Asaro pleaded guilty yesterday to ordering the torching of a man’s car after he cut him off in an April 2012 incident. John Gotti, the 23-year-old grandson of the late Gambino family boss, pleaded guilty to driving the getaway car in the arson ordered by the 82-year-old Bonanno gangster.</p>
<p>Both men face up to two decades behind bars, but despite this, neither man cooperated with authorities for a lesser sentence. “I would never cooperate against anyone,” <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Asaro" target="_blank">Asaro</a> declared during a Brooklyn Federal Court hearing, the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/vincent-asaro-john-gotti-grandson-plead-guilty-car-arson-case-article-1.3282579" target="_blank">New York Daily News</a> reported.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Vincent%2BAsaro%2BTrial" target="_blank">The Trial of Goodfellas mobster Vincent Asaro</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>He had already been put through the wringer a few years ago, when prosecutors charged him with playing a role in the 1978 Lufthansa heist, which was made famous by the movie <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-truth-behind-movie-classic-goodfellas" target="_blank">Goodfellas</a>. The elderly mobster didn’t crack then either and was acquitted after a high-profile trial.</p>
<p>For <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gotti" target="_blank">John Gotti</a> the idea of cooperating is simply absurd. His grandfather was all about keeping his mouth shut and doing his time. Despite his flamboyant behavior, the Dapper Don is known far and wide for adhering to omerta, the code of silence. No wonder then that this young Gotti is taking a page out of his grandfather's playbook.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/interview-john-gotti-jr-sits-down-with-gangsters-inc" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc. interviews former mob boss John Gotti Junior</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Currently, he is already serving an 8-year bid after being convicted of running a prescription painkiller <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug ring</a> in his neighborhood of Howard Beach in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Queens" target="_blank">Queens</a>, New York.</p>
<p>Both men are scheduled to be sentenced on October 24. Their guilty pleas are likely to earn them a more lenient sentence then if they were found guilty after a trial.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Profile: Bonanno crime family capo Ronald Giallanzo
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/profile-bonanno-crime-family-capo-ronald-giallanzo
2017-03-30T07:30:00.000Z
2017-03-30T07:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-bonanno-crime-family-capo-ronald-giallanzo" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237091484,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237091484?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Ronald “Ronnie G.” Giallanzo is described by authorities as a career criminal. His criminal record is pretty voluminous, which isn’t strange considering he’s been a made member of New York’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a> for nearly two decades now. Add to that the fact that his uncle is 82-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Vincent%2BAsaro%2BTrial" target="_blank">Bonanno family capo Vincent Asaro</a>, and you have all the ingredients for a long and interesting career in La Cosa Nostra.</p>
<p>With Vinny Asaro as his Mafia role model, Giallanzo had a very enterprising gangster to look up to. A longtime Bonanno mobster, Asaro goes back to the days of the old mob bosses and was involved in plenty of rackets. He was even alleged to have been a participant in the 1978 Lufthansa heist made famous by the movie <em><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-truth-behind-movie-classic-goodfellas" target="_blank">Goodfellas</a></em>, though he was acquitted in court of those charges in late 2015. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-bonanno-goodfellas-whacked-lufthansa-loot" target="_blank">How Bonanno goodfellas whacked Lufthansa heist loot</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Giallanzo, in turn, was a natural when it came to mob business. Arson, extortion, gambling, and violence were all in a day’s work. Authorities caught on though, and in 2007 he was sent to prison for racketeering and extortion. It was a sentence that came back to haunt him after he got out.</p>
<p>In December of 2015, he and several others attended a Christmas party at Bocelli's restaurant on Staten Island. Just the usual holiday event, a casual observer might say, but authorities saw something different. Behind the socializing lay a much more sinister reason for these men to be there: They were all members of the Bonanno crime family, present to pay tribute to their boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/meet-the-new-street-boss-of-the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Joseph Cammarano Jr.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237090896,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237090896?profile=original" width="635" /></a>Furthermore, Giallanzo’s presence was a direct violation of the conditions of his parole that dictated he do not associate with certain individuals. So, on March 18, 2016, he was on his way back to prison after being sentenced to one year and one day behind bars.</p>
<p>One year and <em>ten</em> days later, 46-year-old Giallanzo was back in handcuffs standing in court together with nine other alleged Bonanno mobsters. Authorities said he had been made an acting capo in the Bonanno family in 2014 and that he ran a violent crew involved in loansharking, illegal gambling, extortion, drugs trafficking, and robbery.</p>
<p>Giallanzo and several crew members were also hit with charges related to their roles in the attempted murder of a drug dealer who was shot and wounded in 2006 - the man had tried to rip them off. Giallanzo is alleged to have gotten rid of a gun used in the incident.</p>
<p>According to the indictment, “On or about June 28, 2006, the defendant RONALD GIALLANZO retrieved from a co-conspirator a firearm that was used to attempt to murder John Doe #5 and discarded the firearm.”</p>
<p>The violence – attempted murder, beatings - was all in order to protect the group’s lucrative businesses, authorities allege. Giallanzo ran a $3 million-dollar loansharking operation that earned him $10,000 a week in interest. He spent his ill-gotten gains on a lavish lifestyle, which included his home in Howard Beach, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Queens" target="_blank">Queens</a>, which he frequently upgraded with renovations causing it to become a bona fide mansion indicative of his stature in the mob.</p>
<p>Prosecutors aim to seize this product of his alleged criminal lifestyle when Giallanzo is convicted. But it seems the Bonanno capo won’t go down without a fight – or at the very least is taking a look at his options. He pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned in court.</p>
<p>He now has time to think. Not just about himself, but his uncle Asaro as well. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/goodfellas-mobster-and-grandson-of-new-york-mob-boss-john-gotti-a" target="_blank">Asaro was busted</a> a week earlier together with the grandson of deceased mob boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gotti" target="_blank">John Gotti</a> and charged with arson. It’s a fitting situation for the two career wiseguys, both from two different generations, but stuck in the exact same predicament.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE</strong>: On March 19, 2018, Giallanzo and Bonanno family soldier Michael Palmaccio <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-crime-family-capo-and-soldiers-plead-guilty-to-racketeeri" target="_blank">pleaded guilty</a> to racketeering conspiracy and loansharking charges. Fellow Bonanno soldier Nicholas Festa had already pleaded guilty. Each man faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno 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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Goodfellas mobster and grandson of New York mob boss John Gotti arrested, charged with arson and robbery
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/goodfellas-mobster-and-grandson-of-new-york-mob-boss-john-gotti-a
2017-03-23T10:00:00.000Z
2017-03-23T10:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/goodfellas-mobster-and-grandson-of-new-york-mob-boss-john-gotti-a" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237094261,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237094261?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, New York, charged Bonanno crime family mobster Vincent Asaro (photo above, right), John J. Gotti (photo above, left), and five other men yesterday with a variety of crimes including arson, robbery, and home invasion. Both Asaro and Gotti – as well as two other defendants - pleaded not guilty late Wednesday.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">It’s the kind of indictment prosecutors love, with big names that will assure the media spotlight. 82-year-old Asaro stood trial two years ago, on charges related to the 1978 Lufthansa heist made famous by the movie <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-truth-behind-movie-classic-goodfellas" target="_blank">Goodfellas</a>. The elderly mobster was acquitted that time, but prosecutors are known to keep an eye out for a rematch.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Vincent%2BAsaro%2BTrial" target="_blank">The Trial of Goodfellas mobster Vincent Asaro</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Just ask the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gotti" target="_blank">Gotti family</a>. Its members have frequently faced justice in court, most cases lost, some cases won, but regardless of the outcome, prosecutors would never let up the pressure. As grandson of “The Teflon Don,” Gambino mob boss John Gotti himself, 23-year-old John J. Gotti knows this all too well. Unfortunately, the lure of easy money and the fast life proved too tempting. He pleaded guilty to selling oxycodone pills and was sentenced to 8 years behind bars earlier this month.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/interview-john-gotti-jr-sits-down-with-gangsters-inc" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc. interviews former mob boss John Gotti Junior</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Besides the big names, the indictment also brings forth a charge so peculiar, it looks like it came straight out of a scene from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Sopranos" target="_blank">The Sopranos</a>.</p>
<p>In April 2012, Asaro was driving his car in Howard Beach, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Queens" target="_blank">Queens</a>, when another motorist cut him off at a traffic light. This pissed Asaro off so much, prosecutors allege, that he later got the home address of the owner and ordered a Mafia associate to set fire to the vehicle.</p>
<p>As is custom in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mob" target="_blank">mob</a>, the associate then passed the orders on down and recruited John J. Gotti and Matthew Rullan, both teenagers at the time, who set the car ablaze quickly thereafter, according to the indictment.</p>
<p>Both youngsters are also charged with their alleged involvement in the robbery of Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan Association weeks after the arson. They allegedly waited in a getaway car while Michael Guidice went inside and handed the teller a note saying: “I HAVE A BOMB.” They made off with $5,491</p>
<p>Other defendants named in the indictments are 26-year-old Christopher “Bald Chris” Boothby, 30-year-old Darren Elliott, and 26-year-old Matthew “Mack” Hattley. Boothby and Hattley are charged with a home invasion in Queens on March 12, 2014 in which they tied up a woman and stole over $50,000 in valuables. Hattley also participated in the robbery of $250,000 in merchandise at a Long Island jewelry store. He and Elliott stole the loot while pointing guns at the employees.</p>
<p><em><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>UPDATE JUNE 28, 2017: Both <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-mobster-vincent-asaro-and-john-gotti-s-grandson-plead-gui" target="_blank">Asaro and Gotti pleaded guilty</a> on June 27. For more <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-mobster-vincent-asaro-and-john-gotti-s-grandson-plead-gui" target="_blank">click here</a>.</strong></span></em></p>
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Genovese family mobster busted for using cocaine and marijuana while out on bail – Judge gives him a pass
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/genovese-family-mobster-busted-for-using-cocaine-and-marijuana-wh
2016-11-02T08:20:58.000Z
2016-11-02T08:20:58.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-family-mobster-busted-for-using-cocaine-and-marijuana-wh"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237069494,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237069494?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Talk about not giving a fuck. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese crime family</a> mobster Bradford Wedra (photo above) was in court on Monday where prosecutors asked the judge to revoke his bail after the 61-year-old wiseguy failed six drug tests – twice for cocaine and six times for marijuana.</p>
<p>The failed drug tests are in violation with his bail terms, prosecutors argued. They made a pretty good case and were helped by Wedra who told the court he has “no intention of stopping” his drug use, the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mobster-busted-drugs-bail-article-1.2853766" target="_blank">New York Daily News</a> reported.</p>
<p>Disregarding the fact that it might not be smart to say such things in court, what will Wedra’s colleagues in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia">Mafia</a> think?</p>
<p>Wedra was scooped up several months ago in a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/philly-mafia-boss-joseph-merlino-and-mobsters-of-5-different-crim">nationwide mob bust</a> netting 46 members and associates of New York’s Genovese, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">Gambino</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese</a>, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno</a> families and Philadelphia’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-crime-family">Bruno family</a>. He is charged with racketeering conspiracy charges related to his suspected role in smuggling $3 million worth’ of untaxed cigarettes. Wedra pleaded not guilty. He already served a 25-year-sentence for a 1980 murder.</p>
<p>As a member of Genovese mob family capo <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-genovese-crime-family-capo-pasquale-parrello">Pasquale Parrello</a>’s crew Wedra was allegedly <em>in the know</em> about a lot of crimes, including an alleged murder conspiracy. Though Parrello and his crew probably already knew about Wedra’s drug use, they might’ve thought it was recreational. Failing drug tests you know are coming due to the fact you are out on bail in a major racketeering case involving five <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LCN">La Cosa Nostra</a> families is anything but recreational. It’s the behavior of an addict, a junkie.</p>
<p>No it isn’t, Wedra’s lawyer claimed. “Mr. Wedra has some developmental disabilities. He has some learning deficits. This has plagued him his entire life. It has been documented by psychiatrists that he has borderline mental retardation. The fact of the matter is, he cannot read and is very limited in his ability to write,” the lawyer explained, according to the New York Daily News.</p>
<p>It’s an explanation the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Genovese">Genovese mob</a> can get behind! <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/genovese-boss-vincent-chin">Vincent “Chin” Gigante</a>, one of its longtime bosses, evaded prison for decades by acting like a crazy person. He took showers in his robe while being sheltered by an umbrella and talked to parking meters while walking the streets of New York, but behind closed doors he ran the most powerful Mafia family in the nation.</p>
<p>For some reason, the crazy act works.</p>
<p>The retard act apparently did as well. The judge accepted Wedra’s lawyer’s explanation and gave the drug-abusing mobster another chance, telling him “This leash is going to be very, very short. We are not going to do this charade all over again, okay.”</p>
<p>Wedra was ordered to attend a drug-treatment program, the <a href="http://nypost.com/2016/11/01/mobster-dodges-jail-time-due-to-borderline-mental-retardation/" target="_blank">New York Post</a> reported. The New York tabloid offers a different account of Wedra’s reaction in court than the New York Daily News. They quoted Wedra as saying, “Your Honor’s 100 percent right. Everything you said I did. But I haven’t smoked in — six days is today. I am going to stop. And I give you my word that I will go to any services they send me to, any treatment.”</p>
<p>Whatever. Party up! Freedoooooom!! Woohooo!!</p>
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<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>
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Montreal mobster murdered at home as violence continues
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/montreal-mobster-murdered-at-home-as-violence-continues
2016-10-17T03:00:00.000Z
2016-10-17T03:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/montreal-mobster-murdered-at-home-as-violence-continues"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237072070,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237072070?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>The violence in the Canadian underworld of Montreal has claimed the life of yet another mobster. 65-year-old Vincenzo Spagnolo was shot to death at his home on Saturday evening. Spagnolo was a good friend and close business associate of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/montreal-mafia-boss-vito-rizzuto-1946-2013">Vito Rizzuto</a>, who ruled the city’s Mafia before dying of natural causes in 2013.</p>
<p>Spagnolo and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Rizzuto">Rizzuto</a> were so close, in fact, that during a phone call while Rizzuto was in prison in the United States, he once told Spagnolo, “You know you’ve always been one of my favorites. When I get permission to make a phone call, I take fifteen minutes for my wife and fifteen minutes for you.”</p>
<p>In their extensive account of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Montreal">Montreal Mafia</a> titled <em>Mafia Inc.</em>, authors André Cédilot and André Noël detail Spagnolo’s longstanding friendship with Rizzuto. “Back in 1988, [Spagnolo] had offered to post $1 million dollars bail for Vito after the seizure of 32 tonnes of hashish […] The judge refused,” they wrote.</p>
<p>Spagnolo owned Buffet Le Mirage, a banquet hall in Saint-Léonard, and was in frequent contact with both Vito and his father Nicolo as well as other members of the Mafia group. In January of 2003, Spagnolo joined Vito Rizzuto and Montreal Mafia members <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/montreal-mafia-boss-arcadi-to-be-released-soon">Francesco Arcadi</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mobster-di-maulo-14th-victim-of-montreal-mafia-war">Joe Di Maulo</a>, Paolo Renda, Giuseppe Triassi, and Domenico Chimienti, on a golfing trip to the Dominican Republic.</p>
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Bonanno mobster of Donnie Brasco fame remains behind bars
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-wiseguy-of-donnie-brasco-fame-remains-behind-bars
2016-10-05T14:18:06.000Z
2016-10-05T14:18:06.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-family-wiseguy-of-donnie-brasco-fame-remains-behind-bars"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237065469,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237065469?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>Bonanno crime family associate Ronald “Monkey Man” Filocomo’s bid for an early release from prison on compassionate grounds has been shot down by Brooklyn Judge Nicholas Garaufis, keeping him locked up for four more years for his involvement in the infamous 1981 murder of capo Sonny Black.</p>
<p>“Mr. Filocomo asserts the fact he is a well-liked prisoner amongst inmates and staff, always friendly and willing to help others,” the mobster wrote from a Miami federal prison, the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/brooklyn-judge-rejects-ill-monkey-man-mobster-plea-article-1.2816333" target="_blank">New York Daily News reported</a>. The request sounded good, if not that such a request must come from the prison warden as well, Garaufis ruled.</p>
<p>66-year-old Filocomo provided the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno family</a> his parents’ home on Staten Island, New York, so they had a place to murder captain Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano. The family leadership decided Sonny Black had to be whacked because he had let jewel thief <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brasco">Donnie Brasco</a> get entrenched within his crew and subsequently the family. It turned out Brasco was an undercover FBI agent named <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Pistone">Joseph Pistone</a>.</p>
<p>Napolitano knew his fate was sealed and walked into the meeting knowing he’d get killed. As he was led into the basement of Filocomo’s parents’ home by Bonanno mobster Frank Lino, he was ready. Downstairs, Filocomo waited with Robert Lino Sr. When Napolitano arrived, he was shot by Robert Lino Sr. But the gun jammed and as he tried to resolve the issue, Napolitano asked his former colleagues to finish him off: “Hit me one more time. Make it good.”</p>
<p>They obliged.</p>
<p>In 2004, Filocomo pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder and murdering Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, a place Filocomo is familiar with. Before he became a wiseguy he had worked as a correctional officer. His resume brought him no love from the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia">Mafia</a> as his previous job made sure he could never become an official member of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LCN">La Cosa Nostra</a>.</p>
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Profile: Original New York Mafia family boss Giuseppe Profaci
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/profile-original-new-york-mafia-family-boss-giuseppe-profaci
2016-09-21T10:30:00.000Z
2016-09-21T10:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-original-new-york-mafia-family-boss-giuseppe-profaci"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237069078,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237069078?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Giuseppe Profaci was one of the five original New York mob bosses, leading what would become known later as the Colombo crime family of La Cosa Nostra. His tenure spanned several decades and countless violent incidents, including a Mafia uprising within his own family.</p>
<p>Born in the Sicilian village of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Villabate">Villabate</a> on October 2, 1897, Profaci quickly took to a life of crime. According to mob historian Thomas Hunt, Profaci was sent to prison late in 1920 after he was found guilty of "forgery with intent to defraud." His family was involved with the Villabete Cosa Nostra clan.</p>
<p>Once he got out from prison, Profaci decided to try his luck in the country of endless opportunities: The United States of America. He arrived in New York City in 1921 and eventually settled in Chicago. After several years in which he ran a grocery store and bakery, he decided to return to New York. Back in the Big Apple, he began an olive oil import business.</p>
<p>He also got involved with the city’s criminal element, specifically the Sicilian gangsters in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brooklyn">Brooklyn</a>, a borrow where relatives of the Magliocco clan were already well-established. Within a very short period of just three years since returning to New York, Profaci emerged as a leader while other powerful Mafia figures in Brooklyn were murdered.</p>
<p>His promotion as boss notwithstanding, these were violent and uncertain times for New York’s Italian mobsters as two bosses fought to control it all. In 1930, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/american-mafia-s-boss-of-bosses-whacked-at-his-office">Salvatore Maranzano</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/kill-the-chinaman-1">Giuseppe Masseria</a> turned the city into a warzone in what became known as the Castellammarese War.</p>
<p>While all the smaller families had to choose sides and pick up guns, Profaci took on a different role. According to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Joseph Bonanno</a>, who was a close friend of Profaci and himself a Mafia boss, “Profaci’s sympathies were with the Castellammarese [led by Maranzano], but his Family would never take part in the war directly,” Bonanno wrote in his autobiography. “Maranzano urged Profaci to remain officially neutral and to act as an intermediary with other groups.”</p>
<p>When the big war ended, Maranzano came out on top. But only for a short time. He was considered out of touch with his troops and a faction led by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/luckys-luck-how-charlie">Charles “Lucky” Luciano</a> organized his demise and subsequent murder. Where Maranzano had placed himself at the head of the table as boss of bosses, Luciano opted a different approach, dividing the New York underworld into five different families led by five bosses who held total control over their family and affairs.</p>
<p><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/american-mafia-s-boss-of-bosses-whacked-at-his-office">American Mafia's boss of bosses whacked at his office</a></strong></p>
<p>Giuseppe “Joe” Profaci was one of these five original bosses, alongside <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Luciano">Luciano</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bonanno">Bonanno</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mangano">Vincent Mangano</a>, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gagliano">Tommaso Gagliano</a>. These men all had a seat on the Commission, a governing body that oversaw <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">mob operations in the United States</a>, and included several crime families from other American cities.</p>
<p>The year was 1931, and life was good. These were the golden years for the mob. Profaci raked in money from illegal gambling, extortion, loansharking, and drug trafficking. He also had his legitimate businesses, including a very successful olive oil company, which earned him the nickname “The Olive Oil King” and would later serve as inspiration for Mario Puzo’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Godfather">The Godfather</a> in which character <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Corleone">Vito Corleone</a> runs an olive oil import business, called Genco Olive Oil, as well.</p>
<p>By the 1950s, however, times had changed. Authorities turned on the heat and Profaci was fighting the IRS over unpaid taxes and US Immigration Services who tried to revoke his citizenship. The bomb burst into the open when Profaci was among dozens of other Mafia leaders arrested in Apalachin, where he attended a meeting of mobsters from all over the country.</p>
<p><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mob-meeting-at-apalachin-the">Mob Meeting at Apalachin</a></strong></p>
<p>If that wasn’t enough, the sixties arrived. Depending on who you ask, those were either the best or worst years of their life. For Profaci they were the worst and his last.</p>
<p>His underlings were beginning to grumble. They were unhappy with how much money they earned, chief among them <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mafia-rebel-crazy-joey-gallo">Joseph Gallo</a>, a soldier who operated out of Red Hook, Brooklyn. In February of 1961, Gallo and his crew did something that was so ballsy, no one saw it coming.</p>
<p><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mafia-rebel-crazy-joey-gallo">Profile of Mafia rebel “Crazy Joe” Gallo</a></strong></p>
<p>They kidnapped several men who were very close to Profaci. Though it remains sketchy as to who exactly were kidnapped, several names pop up frequently. They were: Profaci’s right-hand man Joseph Magliocco, his brother Salvatore "Frank" Profaci, John Scimone, Sally "The Sheik" Mussachio, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Colombo">Joseph Colombo</a>. They also tried to kidnap Profaci himself, but he managed to escape and flee to Florida, while his family was undergoing a civil war.</p>
<p>Profaci was seething. But like any Sicilian Mafioso worth his salt, he didn’t act like it. He began negotiations with the Gallo crew, promising them more money and operations. At the same time, he got one of Gallo’s crew members, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/colombo-boss-carmine-persico">Carmine Persico</a>, to switch sides. Persico then helped Profaci set up Joe Gallo’s brother Larry by luring him to a bar where he was to be strangled to death. As the rope cut tight around Larry Gallo’s throat, a cop walked by the bar and interrupted the hit attempt, saving Gallo’s life.</p>
<p>From that point on both sides were fighting each other out in the open. They “went to the mattresses,” as they say. Armed soldiers drove around the city looking for their rivals.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the war caused loss of income and stress for the other families as well. At a Commission meeting, the other bosses told Profaci about their concerns. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-boss-carlo-gambino">Carlo Gambino</a> urged Profaci to step down as boss and retire to put an end to the unrest within his family. Gambino was supported by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lucchese-boss-gaetano-lucchese">Gaetano Lucchese</a>.</p>
<p>Profaci, however, was angered by their proposal. As was his close ally Joseph Bonanno. Faced with an all-out mob war between four families, Gambino and Lucchese backed down and Profaci continued as boss.</p>
<p>Around this time, Profaci was already very ill. He had liver cancer and knew time was running out. While the war raged on, he died on June 6, 1962, in South Side Hospital in Bay Shore, New York. The Gallos were no longer his problem, but would continue to cause plenty of headaches for several of his successors in the years to come.</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Thomas Hunt for his help with this profile.</em></p>
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Philly Mafia boss Joseph Merlino and mobsters of 5 different crime families charged with racketeering
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/philly-mafia-boss-joseph-merlino-and-mobsters-of-5-different-crim
2016-08-04T17:00:00.000Z
2016-08-04T17:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/philly-mafia-boss-joseph-merlino-and-mobsters-of-5-different-crim"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237067858,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237067858?profile=original" width="519" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Federal agents arrested over 40 members and associates of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">Gambino</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese</a>, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno</a> crime families in New York and the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-crime-family">Bruno crime family</a> in Philadelphia this morning in a racketeering bust ranging from New York to Florida. The men are charged with a long list of crimes including <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Extortion">extortion</a>, arson, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Loansharking">loansharking</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling">illegal gambling</a>, health care and credit card fraud, selling untaxed cigarettes, trafficking firearms, and assault.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237068066,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237068066?profile=original" width="250" /></a>The biggest name among the group of wiseguys is <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-crime-family">Philadelphia</a> boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, who was recently <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/high-profile-philadelphia-mafia-boss-joseph-merlino-latest-gangst">banned from setting foot in any Pennsylvania casino</a>. Merlino got out of prison in 2011 after serving over a decade behind bars on racketeering charges. He popped up in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/joey-merlino-living-like-a-boss-in-florida">Florida</a> where he got into the restaurant business. He claimed to be retired from the Mafia.</p>
<p>Prosecutors disagree. They say 54-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Merlino">Merlino</a> (right) was part of several illegal gambling operations, including one that utilized a company named <em>Costa Rican International Sportsbook</em> in Costa Rica. Furthermore, he is charged with health care fraud in which he, together with various other gangsters, got corrupt doctors to issue unnecessary and excessive prescriptions for expensive compound cream that were then billed to insurers.</p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese family</a> mobster <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-genovese-crime-family-capo-pasquale-parrello">Pasquale “Patsy” Parrello</a> features prominently in the indictment. Prosecutors allege he was involved in loansharking, illegal gambling, health care and credit card fraud, assault, and involvement in the sale of $3 million worth of contraband cigarettes.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237068671,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237068671?profile=original" width="165" /></a>According to the indictment, 72-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-genovese-crime-family-capo-pasquale-parrello">Parrello</a> (left) and his crew obtained hundreds of cases of contraband cigarettes which did not bear a stamp of evincing payment of applicable taxes, earning that a huge payday on the streets.</p>
<p>According to the indictment, Merlino, Parrello, and the others were part of, what prosecutors call, the “East Coast La Cosa Nostra Enterprise,” a group that consisted of members and associates of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">Gambino</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno</a>, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-crime-family">Philadelphia</a> crime families. Its members would use coded language to arrange meetings, which were held at rest stops along highways and at restaurants.</p>
<p>The group ran a gambling club in Yonkers, New York, which, “several nights a week […] held poker tournaments, dice tournaments, and took bets on horse races. The owners took a percentage of the proceeds.” To add more revenue, the group installed illegal poker machines.</p>
<p>To protect their illegal operations, the group wasn’t afraid to use violence. When a rival bookmaker set up shop nearby in 2011, they set fire to his car. In the summer of 2011, Parello, who owns a restaurant on Arthur Ave. in the Bronx, ordered several of the defendants to break a nearby panhandler's knees for bothering his customers.</p>
<p>As we’ve come to expect from the new generation of mobsters, at first, they grabbed the wrong guy. But they couldn’t be fooled twice and got the right guy the second time, beating him “with glass jars, sharp objects and steel-tipped boots, causing bodily harm,” according to the indictment.</p>
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$15 million drug ring led by New York Mafia families busted
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/15-million-drug-ring-led-by-gambino-crime-family-busted
2016-07-20T13:30:00.000Z
2016-07-20T13:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/15-million-drug-ring-led-by-gambino-crime-family-busted"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237072462,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237072462?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>A $15 million drug ring led by members and associates of New York's Gambino, Bonanno, Genovese, and Colombo crime families was busted yesterday. Twenty-two people were charged as being part of a lucrative marijuana smuggling network that shipped the stuff from California to New York. Chief among them are 76-year-old Gambino capo Michael Paradiso, 60-year-old distributor Frank Parisi, and 51-year-old smuggler Richard Sinde.</p>
<p>The group brought in $350,000 worth’ of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana">marijuana</a> from California to New York every month for almost two years, prosecutors allege. The total amount of money made during this period was put at $15 million dollars. They also pulled in profits by selling <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Oxycodone">oxycodone pills</a> and running a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling">gambling</a> operation, according to the indictment.</p>
<p>“Whether the alleged offer was marijuana, pills, or a return on bets placed through an unlawful gambling operation, the defendants developed a comprehensive system of monetizing illicit activities and trade,” said District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance. “In this case, the alleged schemes generated millions of dollars in illegal revenue for the defendants, virtually none of which was reported, and likely all of which went straight into the defendants’ pockets. Profiting on unlawful conduct will not be tolerated in New York, and I thank our partners for their shared commitment to rooting out those who seek to make money through illegal practices.”</p>
<p>The marijuana shipments were coordinated by 52-year-old John Kelly and 51-year-old Richard Sinde, a reputed <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno crime family</a> associate, who smuggled the product using either postal mail for individual packages weighing between 5-to-15 lbs., or packed into boxes and loaded into vans and other vehicles for transport, each holding between 100-to-150 lbs.</p>
<p>After Sinde was arrested on criminal charges, he was replaced by 33-year-old Lawrence Dentico, the grandson of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese crime family</a> capo Lawrence Dentico, who lives in California and had no problems overseeing that side of the operation.</p>
<p>They got the weed from medical-grade marijuana farms in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=California">California</a>, purchasing it from other local growers for export to New York. “They were overgrowing during their natural harvest season,” Inspector John Denesopolis of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=NYPD">NYPD</a>'s Criminal Enterprise Investigation Unit told the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/mob-family-members-face-arrest-15m-pot-ring-article-1.2718049" target="_blank">New York Daily News</a>. “They also used hydroponics inside, and also they grew this marijuana inside of greenhouses. They were doing it in excess of the amount they were allowed.”</p>
<p>Frank Parisi, prosecutors claim, then distributed the drug via the same building that houses his family-owned Parisi Bakery on Mott Street in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Manhattan">Manhattan</a>’s Little Italy. When authorities raided the bakery to arrest Parisi, they discovered 20 pounds of marijuana. Besides the drug trafficking and tax charges, Parisi (photo above, middle) was also charged with running an illegal gambling website, which made the family over $1 million dollars.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237072867,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237072867?profile=original" width="185" /></a>Other crew members were also involved in selling hundreds of prescription pills including oxycodone for at least $18,000, the indictment states. On two occasions they were caught selling pills to undercover detectives.</p>
<p>Longtime <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">Gambino family</a> captain Michael “Mickey Boy” Paradiso (right) was hit with just a conspiracy charge. The old timer was made a capo by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-boss-john-gotti-sr">John Gotti Sr.</a> after he became the new boss. Paradiso earned a reputation as a prolific narcotics trafficker during his days – even butting heads with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gaspipe">Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso</a>, the notorious <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-lucchese-crime-family">Lucchese family</a> underboss, over splitting the proceeds of a drug deal both men were involved in.</p>
<p>He was released from prison in 2011 and is now looking at, perhaps, spending the final years of his life in a cell.</p>
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Bonanno capo sent back to prison for 2 more years
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/bonanno-capo-sent-back-to-prison-for-2-more-years
2016-06-24T15:00:00.000Z
2016-06-24T15:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-capo-sent-back-to-prison-for-2-more-years"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237068300,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237068300?profile=original" width="350" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>Mobsters are known to lie, cheat, steal, and generally break the rules. But when <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno crime family</a> capo <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-bonanno-family-capo-anthony-pipitone">Anthony Pipitone</a> told the court he was done with the gangster lifestyle, its judge believed him.</p>
<p>You can imagine the anger then, when Pipitone was caught violating his probation by attending a Christmas party attended by the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mob">mob</a> family’s leadership and dozens of its members as well as two other Mafia meetings.</p>
<p><strong>Read Gangsters Inc.’s profile of Bonanno family capo <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-bonanno-family-capo-anthony-pipitone">Anthony Pipitone</a></strong></p>
<p>“The defendant has not given any indication to me that he is willing to extricate himself from the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bonanno">Bonanno</a> family,” Brooklyn federal court Judge Nicholas Garaufis said Tuesday.</p>
<p>Thanks to his sneaky actions, Pipitone was sentenced to two more years behind bars.</p>
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