Five Families of New York City

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

Monday, November 3, 2025

Judge denies $5M bail package for Gambino Soldier over witness tampering fears

  November 03, 2025    Dapper_Don


The accused mobster son of a legendary Mafioso named “Quack Quack” was denied bail Tuesday in the sensational case involving NBA-tied rigged card games — over concerns he’d return to his witness-tampering ways.

Lawyers for Angelo Ruggiero Jr., 53, had pushed for a $5 million bond insured by his family and friends during the reputed Gambino mobster’s bail hearing in Brooklyn federal court.

But Judge Joseph Marutollo agreed with prosecutors that Ruggiero’s history foreshadows what he’d do if released: tamper with a witness.

Marutollo noted that Ruggiero, when incarcerated in a past case, had threatened to kill a witness.
“He made his hand in the shape of a gun and said, ‘You know how we take care of rats up close and personal,” the judge said of the son of notorious late mobster Angelo Ruggiero Sr., whose motor-mouthed honking earned him the nickname “Quack Quack.”

Ruggiero sat glum in a tan prison outfit as Marutollo denied the bail package.

Soon afterward, co-defendant Curtis Meeks, 41, pleaded not guilty to wire fraud and money-laundering charges.

Meeks, a former boxer who allegedly supplied cheating technology used in rigged card games, received a $250,000 bond.

The feds pushed for Meeks to be barred from gambling – a potential problem for the professional gambler.

“I play in the World Series of Poker. If [the government] doesn’t want me to play, that’s fine,” Meeks said in court.

The judge ultimately said Meeks will need to notify pre-trial services about any gambling and travel.

The back-to-back hearings stemmed from explosive federal indictments last week that exposed alleged Mafia sports gambling and poker-rigging schemes intertwined with NBA players.

Ruggiero played on cheating poker teams inside 80 Washington Ave., a luxe Greenwich Village pad, the feds alleged.

The townhouse was one of two Manhattan locations where high-stakes poker games were held by four of the city’s most powerful crime families, including the Gambinos, the feds alleged.

The crooks allegedly used NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, 49, the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and former NBA player Damon Jones, 49, to act as “face cards” to attract high rollers to the rigged big-money games.

One purported victim who, along with his poker buddies, was allegedly scammed out of $1 million claimed a former NFL player also had acted as the front man during his losing game.

The feds have said the son of “Quack Quack” not only took his dad’s full Ruggiero name but also his Mafia mantle.

The elder Ruggiero was a close friend famed Gambino boss John Gotti and ended up an unwitting stool pigeon in the feds’ 1980s probe into the mob family when he was caught on wiretaps characteristically blabbing incriminating dirt.

Angelo Ruggiero Jr. is a made man in the Gambino family, with a mobbed-up rap sheet that includes a conviction for threatening to kill a witness while still in prison, the feds detailed in a court filing last week.

“Ultimately, while together with the witness in their cell, the defendant made his hand into the shape of a gun, pointed it at the witness’s head, and stated, in sum and substance: ‘you know how we take care of rats, we get up-close and personal,’” court papers state.

Ruggiero’s lawyer, James Frocarro, argued that his client should be out on bail because all of the other alleged mobsters accused in the NBA scheme were allowed out and that they, too, have been accused of having committed serious offenses.

“Did I offer too much to secure his release?” Frocarro said. “He has five million reasons to comply.”

When pressed by the judge about Ruggiero’s gun-finger move, Frocarro accused the government of purposely putting the cooperating witness in his cell to make Ruggiero mad.

“Did they expect him to give him a kiss? He didn’t lay a hand on him!” Frocarro said.

https://nypost.com/2025/10/28/us-news/gambino-mobster-in-nba-gambling-scandal-denied-bail-over-fears-hed-resort-to-his-witness-tampering-methods/

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Friday, October 24, 2025

Gambino Captain busted in NBA poker scheme just pled guilty in NYC trash hauling probe

  October 24, 2025    Dapper_Don



A reputed mobster arrested in Thursday’s explosive NBA gambling scandal pleaded guilty just last week to unrelated charges that he violently tried to take over the Big Apple’s garbage business.

Alleged Gambino capo Joseph Lanni, aka “Mommino,” was accused Thursday of taking part in a multimillion-dollar ring of rigged poker games run by mobsters who enlisted NBA notables — Portland Trail Blazers coach and former player Chancey Billups and ex-Cavalier Damon Jones — to attract victims to play.

The arrest occurred less than a week after he pleaded guilty Oct. 17 alongside six other reputed wiseguys to heading a sprawling racket that used extortion, witness retaliation and other crimes to try to bring the city’s trash and demolition business under his control, prosecutors said at the time.

Lanni, 54, was hit with a new unrelated indictment Thursday charging him with one count of operation of an illegal gambling business for allegedly getting paid proceeds from the ill-gotten gains taken off victims in the poker games.

The new case, which charged 31 people in all, including the two NBA greats, accuses Lanni and two other alleged Gambino crime family members of collecting payments from a group of people who staged underground poker games run out of 80 Washington Place in Greenwich Village.

The mobsters allegedly arranged for payments to Billups and Jones to act as “face cards” to attract victims who wanted the opportunity to play against a former pro athlete. The victims allegedly lost millions of dollars in the con, prosecutors claimed.

The feds asked that Lanni be held without bail pending trial in his new case on the grounds he has a history of criminal convictions and violence.

They noted that he also allegedly kept in touch with other made men while he was out free in the city trash business scheme, violating the conditions of his release.

Lanni — who lives on Staten Island and is also known as “Joe Brooklyn” — was first convicted in 1999 on securities fraud and sentenced to 2.5 years behind bars. He was convicted again in 2014 for promoting gambling and was hit with one year in jail, prosecutors said in court papers.

The suspected mobster was also involved in allegedly intimidating a witness in 2021 who he and two others mobsters believed snitched on them, prosecutors alleged.

In addition, Lanni and alleged goon Vincent “Vinny Slick” Minsquero got into a wild confrontation with the married owners of a restaurant in Toms River, NJ, in September 2023 after the couple asked them to leave for getting into an argument with patrons.

Things reached a fever pitch when Lanni and his crony threatened to burn down the establishment “with you in it” and allegedly beat the couple up later that night, court papers alleged.

The mobbed-up duo allegedly went so far as to buy a gas container at a station across the street from the restaurant to make good on the threat. But they returned the container afterward, the feds claimed. They were not charged in that incident.

Lanni faces up to five years in prison if convicted on the new charge in the rigged gambling case. He’s yet to be sentenced for the racketeering conspiracy guilty plea, for which he could receive somewhere in the range of 6.5 to 8 years, a judge in that case said last week.

The rigged poker games were run from 2019 out of Miami, Las Vegas, the Hamptons and two locations in Manhattan, including the Washington Place townhouse where Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott lived in 2021 when the influencer was pregnant with their second child, authorities said.

The famous couple was not mentioned in the indictment, and there wasn’t any indication they knew what was going on.

Four of the five New York City La Cosa Nostra families were alleged to be involved in the fixed poker games: the Gambinos, Genoveses, Luccheses and Bonannos, according to prosecutors.

Meanwhile, a separate indictment, also unsealed Thursday, accused Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, aka “Scary Terry,” and ex-Cleveland Cavaliers player Jones of doling out insider info on teams and players for bets on games.

While Billups was not charged in the second case, he is believed to be “Co-Conspirator 8” in its court papers, which allege he tipped off bettors that the Blazers were going to tank their March 24, 2023, game against the Chicago Bulls — a tip that netted the gamblers big winnings, court papers allege.

Billups and Rozier were placed on leave from their teams, according to the NBA, which said it was cooperating with the feds.

“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the NBA said in a statement Thursday.

Lanni’s lawyers in the racketeering case did not immediately return a Post request for comment Friday morning. It was not immediately clear who is representing him in the new case.

No one answered the door at Lanni’s house during a Post visit there Friday, nor did anyone pick up the phone when The Post called numbers listed for him.

https://nypost.com/2025/10/24/sports/reputed-nba-mobster-joseph-lanni-pleaded-guilty-last-week-in-separate-case/

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Thursday, October 23, 2025

Who were the NYC mobsters busted in NBA poker scheme?

  October 23, 2025    Dapper_Don



The son of a legendary mafia capo, a newbie made man and a mobster who did time for an infamous Queens racial attack were among the 13 reputed mobsters busted alongside NBA stars in a sweeping historic gambling bust, according to a new federal indictment.

Among the most prominent of the gangsters who were dealt into the high-stakes scams is Angelo Ruggiero Jr, the son of the late Gambino captain Angelo “Quack Quack” Ruggiero Sr.

Ruggiero Jr’s father was close friends with notorious Gambino boss John Gotti, who helped plan the murder of Gambino leader Paul Castellano in 1985.

When Gotti became head of the crime family, he promoted Ruggiero, who later acted as a liaison for the family while Gotti stood trial for murder in 1992.

The gangster — who earned his ducky nickname because of his penchant for talking a lot and who did things like threaten to feed people to sharks — became infamous because the feds picked him up on wiretaps complaining about his mob bosses and used his comments in case against Castellano.

The younger Ruggiero, who is also a made man, now stands accused of receiving “proceeds” of the rigged poker games “on behalf of the Gambino crime family.”

A second wiseguy arrested for his alleged role in the FBI’s gambling and poker probe is Ernest “Ernie” Aiello — who made headlines for inquiring in court about how he can avoid mob ties and still eat at his favorite Italian bakery back in 2018.

The 43-year-old Bonanno crime family mobster was busted for loansharking, gambling and drug dealing in July 2013, but ultimately walked free after a mistrial in May 2017.

During a court hearing the next year, a judge warned him not to commiserate with fellow mobsters —which Aiello said may spoil his breakfast, since he frequents a beloved Italian bakery in Brooklyn.

The judge, in turn, warned him to simply keep his visits to Fortunato Brothers Cafe in Williamsburg short and sweet, according to the Daily News.

He’s now accused of receiving a portion of the criminal proceeds from the rigged poker games on behalf of the Bonanno crime family.

Busted Gambino wiseguy Lee Fama, meanwhile, has a history of cleaning up at the poker table.

In 2012, as the Drug Enforcement Administration probed him for drug charges he won big playing poker at casinos in Vegas and Atlantic City, The Post reported at the time.

Fama raked in more than $22,000 at poker tournaments at the Borgata in Atlantic City and $666 at a Las Vegas’s Rio hotel as Drug Enforcement Administration officials probed him for conspiring to distribute marijuana in 2012.

He was later arrested for allegedly buying and selling several pounds of marijuana.

He’s now accused of getting proceeds from the rigged card games on behalf of the Gambino crime family.

Nicholas “Fat Nick” Minucci — a Gambino associate who was convicted of beating a black kid with a baseball bat while shouting the N-word in 2005 — was also busted in the NBA gambling case.

Minucci, 39, of East Northport, was convicted of the hate crime after chasing down battery victim Glenn Moore.

At the time, Fat Nick claimed he was not a bigot and said he only chased down Moore because he thought he’d come to Howard Beach to steal cars. He was ultimately sentenced to 15 years in prison.

He’s now accused of participating on “cheating teams” during the rigged card games.

Matthew “The Wrestler” Daddino — a hulking newbie Genovese made man and former star high school wrestler from Long Island— was also indicted during the historic gambling bust.

Daddino is “a recently inducted member” and “rising star” of the crime family.

He’s accused of receiving cash from the rigged card games on behalf of the Genovese family.

In total, 13 alleged members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese, and Genovese crime families were arrested in the gambling and sports betting bust. Among other reputed gangsters charged was Thomas “Tommy Juice” Gelardo, who received proceeds on behalf of the Bonanno family.

Other suspects with suspicious names were also busted, including Ammar “Flapper Poker” Awawdeh, Zhen “Scruli” Hu and Robert “Black Rob” Stroud who helped organize the games and Tony “Black Tony” Goodson and Shane “Sugar” Hennen who helped supply the marks.

https://nypost.com/2025/10/23/us-news/from-the-son-of-a-legendary-mafia-capo-to-a-wiseguy-poker-pro-these-are-the-mobsters-charged-in-the-nba-gambling-scandal/

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Latest indictment shows NYC mafia families are still in business

  October 23, 2025    Dapper_Don



In New York City, it seems, the mob’s five families still have a few cards to play.

That was on full display Thursday when federal and local officials announced charges against a grab bag of gangsters from four of the families, including leaders, made men and associates, saying they oversaw a complex scheme to rig illegal poker games that raked in millions of dollars. The victims were lured to the high-stakes tables by the presence of current and former N.B.A. luminaries, officials said.

While the mob’s outright stranglehold on a host of industries, from construction and trucking to control of the waterfront and garment center, is a thing of the past, organized crime remains alive and well, if less visible, according to current and former investigators. Its presence is perhaps most vibrant in the New York City metropolitan area.

This stubborn resilience continues, they said, despite more than four decades of aggressive investigations and prosecutions that have decimated the leadership of the five families and secured thousands of convictions — and the recruitment of an army of chatty informants.

Over the years, the mob’s savvier operators have learned that violence — not to mention the antics of strutting crime family peacocks like the Gambino boss John Gotti — attracts law enforcement attention, which can land them in prison, where moneymaking opportunities are decidedly fewer and farther between.

The Italian Mafia, known as La Cosa Nostra, “is still alive and well in the New York City area, they just changed some of their methods in the way they operate,” said F.B.I. supervisor Mike Mullahy, a veteran mob investigator who oversaw the agents who made the poker case.

“Being brazen and up front in how they operate has not always worked out well for them,” he added, “so they have changed their methods and modes of operation, and we have changed our method of investigating them.”

The poker indictment was unsealed on Thursday along with an unrelated case with no mob involvement that accused three current and former N.B.A. players and coaches and three other men of defrauding gamblers and online betting firms out of millions of dollars.

In the poker case, prosecutors charged 32 men, accusing 11 of them of being leaders, members or associates of the Genovese, Gambino, Bonanno and Lucchese families, including one Bonanno figure, Ernest Aiello, who was reputed to be the family’s acting street boss. The charges include wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, operating an illegal gambling enterprise and conspiracies to commit extortion and robbery.

Both indictments were brought by prosecutors from the office of the Brooklyn U.S. attorney, Joseph Nocella Jr., after separate investigations by his office and several other agencies. In the poker inquiry, they included the F.B.I., the Police Department and the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, which, like the U.S. attorney’s office, has long been among the agencies at the forefront of investigating the mob.

The two cases were not directly related. But three men — none of them accused mob figures — were charged in both indictments, so the inquiries were coordinated and conducted in parallel and the cases were announced together.

Illegal gambling has long been a lucrative mob staple, with its attendant crimes of loan-sharking and extortion, and it continues to be a big moneymaker for all five families, investigators said. But the scheme outlined in the poker indictment took it to another level, leaving nothing to chance.

High rollers were lured to the tables at the mob-sanctioned games in Manhattan, the Hamptons and elsewhere, where, unbeknown to them, the players were interspersed with members of what the indictment said defendants referred to as “cheating teams.” Shuffling machines were altered with chips that could read all the cards in the deck so each player’s hand could be determined in real time and communicated to one of the scheme’s participants at the table, referred to as the “quarterback” or “driver.”

While the indictment said the victims thought they were playing in a “straight” illegal card game “gambling against other participants on equal footing,” in reality, they were facing the cheating team, a lineup of the defendants and their co-conspirators.

At the end of the day, the sophistication of the scheme, and the involvement of four of New York’s five families, strongly indicate that the mob is still thriving. It has hummed along in the background as law enforcement’s priorities have shifted elsewhere — to terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks and, more recently, immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.

“Having worked these families firsthand for 15 years, I can tell you they never really disappear,” said Seamus McElearney, a retired F.B.I. agent who supervised cases against three crime families and has written a book about his time investigating the mob. “They adjust and find ways to cash in.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/nyregion/nba-gambling-mafia-gambino-genovese-bonanno-luchese.html

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NBA stars and NYC crime families indicted in poker scheme

  October 23, 2025    Dapper_Don

Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups has been charged in a sweeping federal probe into an alleged illegal poker scheme tied to organized crime, sources told The Post.

The 49-year-old former NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons was arrested in Oregon Thursday morning, the night after coaching his team in their season opener.

Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier aka “Scary Terry” was charged as well, in a separate but related illegal gambling case, ABC reported.

Billups, an NBA Hall of Famer, has been charged with partaking in an alleged illegal poker ring tied to the Gambino, Bonanno and Genovese crime families, sources told the Post.

A total of 31 people across the country are charged with running rigged games, which took place in Manhattan, the Hamptons and Las Vegas, sources said.

The players involved were being paid by mobsters to play in card games fixed with technology and card shuffling machines to give the house the advantage, sources familiar with the case said.

The athletes were told to take a dive when they had to and win when they were told. It didn’t appear as if they were attempting to pay off any debts, sources said.

Former NBA player Damon Jones, 49, who spent 11 years in the league with multiple teams, is also charged in the FBI’s investigation, according to sources.

Rozier previously had been under investigation for unusual betting activity during his time with the Hornets, specifically a March 2023 contest. However, the NBA did not find any violation.

Rozier’s attorney Jim Trusty, said that his client met with NBA and FBI officials during 2023 regarding the case and slammed the manner in which he was taken into custody Thursday morning.

“A long time ago we reached out to these prosecutors to tell them we should have an open line of communication. They characterized Terry as a subject, not a target, but at 6 a.m. this morning they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel,” Trusty told the Post.

“It is unfortunate that instead of allowing him to self surrender they opted for a photo op. They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case,” he continued.

“Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight,” the attorney said.

Former NBA player Damon Jones, 49, who spent 11 years in the league with multiple teams, is also charged in the FBI’s investigation, according to sources.

The charges come less than a year after former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter pleaded guilty to tipping off gamblers to games he purposely was going to rig — and earning them $1 million — in an effort to clear his own gambling debt.

Billups is scheduled to make his initial appearance in Oregon federal court on Thursday, but will eventually appear in Brooklyn federal court in the Eastern District of New York, which handled the case against Porter.

Billups, a five-time All-Star, was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame last year.

Prosecutors and FBI Director Kash Patel are expected to announce further details about the alleged schemes at a press conference in Brooklyn on Thursday morning. Also named in the sweeping case is reputed gangster Tommy Gelardo.

https://nypost.com/2025/10/23/sports/portland-trail-blazers-coach-chauncey-billups-arrested-in-alleged-poker-scheme/

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Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Monday, September 22, 2025

Former Boss of the Patriarca Crime Family dies at 68

  September 22, 2025    Dapper_Don



Carmen “The Cheeseman” DiNunzio, the reputed boss of the Patriarca crime family, has died. He was 68 years old.

The longtime Boston mobster was born on Aug. 17, 1957, and “passed away peacefully” on Sunday, according to an obituary posted online.

DiNunzio rose through the ranks of the Patriarca crime family, running illegal gambling and loan operations for the Mafia. By the mid-2000s, he had been named underboss and was considered the top Boston member of the crime family named after the late Raymond L.S. Patriarca of Providence, according to FBI documents filed in court.

DiNunzio helped in various leadership roles after reputed former boss Luigi “Baby Shacks” Manocchio stepped down amid a federal investigation into him shaking down Providence strip clubs for protection payments. Mannochio, who died last year, was charged in 2011 and sentenced to federal prison.

DiNunzio’s nickname, “The Cheeseman,” stems from his longtime ownership of a cheese shop in Boston’s North End. He took over leadership of the shattered and dysfunctional crime family roughly eight years ago.

DiNunzio faced his own legal problems over the years, including corruption charges for allegedly trying to bribe officials to secure a multimillion-dollar contract tied to the “Big Dig” project in Boston. He ultimately served five years in federal prison.

DiNunzio’s death signals a broader leadership vacuum within the crime family, which has lost much of its power and influence over the past two decades. Edward “Eddie” Lato, who served as underboss out of Providence, died last year.

The FBI Boston office quietly disbanded its organized crime unit last December, according to a report in The Boston Globe.

DiNunzio is survived by several family members, including his brother Anthony DiNunzio, who is also a reputed member of the New England Crime Family.

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/carmen-the-cheeseman-dinunzio-reputed-mob-boss-dead-at-68/

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Friday, August 29, 2025

Philly man arrested for murder of mob associate in 1999

  August 29, 2025    Dapper_Don



Richard Leidy, 60, has been arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder and other related offenses, court documents say.

Law enforcement sources tell FOX 29’s Steve Keeley the arrest and charges are in connection to the 1999 murder of Gino Marconi.

On April 10, 1999, Marconi, 42, and his 31-year-old girlfriend were shot on the 2400 block of South 20th Street.

One day later, Marconi succumbed to his injuries.

Despite being shot three times, the 31-year-old survived.

Now, 26 years later, Philadelphia police arrested Leidy at his home in South Philly on Monday, August 25.

According to court documents, Leidy has been charged with murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm, possession of an instrument of crime, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle/other vehicles.

https://www.fox29.com/news/richard-leidy-charged-1999-philly-murder-gino-marconi-court-documents-police-sources

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Judge denies early release for feared Chicago mobster The Large Guy

  August 29, 2025    Dapper_Don



Convicted mobster Michael “The Large Guy” Sarno has lost his latest bid for early release from prison after a judge ruled the onetime leader of the Outfit’s Cicero faction was still a danger to continue with mob activities despite his declining health.

Sarno, 67, a once-feared boss known for his impressive girth, was convicted of racketeering and sentenced in 2012 to 25 years in prison. He’s filed several motions seeking early release over the years, attacking his sentence as overly harsh, and citing exposure to COVID-19 and other health concerns.

The latest effort included a typed letter from Sarno himself, who told U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis that even though he walked into prison at 6 foot 3 inches and 400 pounds, he was working out “and was in good health.”

“However, while incarcerated, I experienced health issue after health issue,” Sarno wrote, describing his “2 frozen shoulders,” a long-delayed knee replacement, and being wheelchair-bound for the past six years and dependent on others to help bring him to the bathroom.

“When not in a wheelchair, I have laid in bed for weeks and months at a time,” Sarno wrote. “…This is very humiliating and this has humbled me as well. I walked into prison a healthy man and I am now a pathetic shadow of the man I once was.”

In her ruling Wednesday, however, Ellis noted Sarno “was the leader of a criminal enterprise that engaged in multiple ventures, escalating to the point of bombing a competitor,” and that there “remains a need to protect the public from Sarno committing further crimes.”

“Sarno remains a risk to the community because he remains capable of continuing his role in the criminal enterprise, despite his diminished physical health,” Ellis wrote in the four-page order.

Sarno, who is currently housed at a federal medical prison in Springfield, Missouri, is not due to be released from custody until May 2031, when he’d be 73, prison records show.

Sarno and four co-defendants were found guilty by a jury in 2010 on a total of 15 counts. During the five-week trial, prosecutors outlined how the Sarno crew ran a lucrative — and illegal — video poker racket, pulled off a string of armed robberies that spanned three years and four states, and protected their gambling franchise by planting a bomb in front of a Berwyn business that encroached on their turf.

Sarno’s crew also engaged in smash-and-grab robberies in which hundreds of thousands of dollars in gems were stolen from jewelry stores and then fenced at a Cicero pawnshop operated by the Outlaws motorcycle gang, according to prosecutors.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/judge-denies-early-release-convicted-154600250.html

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Friday, July 11, 2025

Lucchese mobster sentenced to 21 months for $25 million illegal gambling racket

  July 11, 2025    Dapper_Don


That’s a La Cosa No-No-stra.

A mobster was sentenced Wednesday for running an illegal online betting operation that netted nearly $25 million over the past 25 years, according to federal prosecutors.

US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto gave Anthony Villani, a reputed Lucchese crime family soldier, 21 months in the slammer for his involvement in the racket, officials said.

Villani, a 60-year-old resident of Elmsford, pleaded guilty earlier in the year to racketeering, money laundering and illegal gambling.

The captain owned Rhino Sports, an online business employing Mafia figures as local bookmakers.

The operation, which was based in the Bronx and Westchester county, took in at least $1 million annually from thousands of gamblers, federal prosecutors said.

Villani recruited and employed “trusted associates” to help him manage the illegal gambling outfit, officials said.

He also extorted someone between October 2019 and October 2020, threatening them over $300,000 they stole from Rhino Sports, according to prosecutors.

“I’m not going to repeat myself. I’m not going to ever say this again. We’re just going to have a problem if I find out. Alright? And I don’t want to threaten you with my friends or anything, I’m not gonna, you put me in a f—–g hole with this guy,” Villani reportedly warned on April 27, 2020.

“Listen, get the f—–g money. I’m telling you right now, you don’t get this money – f—–g run away,” he said, according to prosecutors. “Go get this f—–g money,” Villani demanded months later, prosecutors said.

The man on the receiving end of the threats believed Villani or other members of the Lucchese crime family would physically hurt or kill him if he did not repay the debt.

The case was investigated by the Eastern District of New York’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section.

https://nypost.com/2025/07/09/us-news/lucchese-captain-anthony-villani-sentenced-for-illegal-gambling-racket/

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Monday, June 16, 2025

Canada takes down leadership of Rizzuto Crime Family in major operation

  June 16, 2025    Dapper_Don



The alleged leaders of the Rizzuto crime family have been arrested in a sweeping police operation that one expert says has “effectively decapitated” what remains of Montreal’s most notorious Mafia clan. Leonardo Rizzuto, 56, and Stefano Sollecito, 57, were among 11 suspects taken into custody on Thursday with another five sought as part of Project Alliance, a three-year investigation into organized crime in Quebec. Rizzuto — the son of the late mob boss Vito Rizzuto — appeared in court by video, where his lawyer entered a not guilty plea. Sollecito, who appeared frail and in a wheelchair, remains in custody. The charges against the men relate to a series of killings between 2011 and 2021. The arrests followed co-ordinated raids by nearly 150 officers across Montreal, Laval, Quebec City and nearby regions. Also detained were Nicola Spagnolo, Davide Barberio and Jean-Richard Larivière, a longtime member of the Hells Angels. Antonio Nicaso, an expert on organized crime and a professor at Queen’s University, called the arrests a serious setback for the Rizzuto network. “It is a devastating blow that effectively decapitates the leadership of the Rizzuto crime family, an organization that for some years now has lost the power it once held in Montreal,” Nicaso told The Gazette. Criminologist Maria Mourani said the operation reflects the importance of the targets. “We see several very important members of the Italian Mafia in Montreal who are being targeted,” she said. “This is good news.” She said it remains to be seen what happens, but the arrests may bring about a possible “slight destabilization” of Montreal’s criminal landscape. “Every time there are police operations, there are individuals who will replace other individuals,” Mourani said. “You can expect that some groups will try to take the dishes.”

This is the third major operation targeting the Rizzuto network in less than two decades, following Project Colisée in 2006 and Project Magot-Mastiff in 2015. The latter collapsed after allegations of police misconduct, and charges were dropped. Authorities say the latest probe is notable for its murder charges. Though police did not confirm it on Thursday, the probe was largely built on information from Frédérick Silva, a convicted hit man now serving multiple life sentences. Several search warrants related to the current investigation were carried out during December 2023. Back then, the Sûreté du Québec said in a statement the search warrants were “part of a major criminal investigation, which aims to elucidate several murders linked to organized crime that occurred in Montreal and (north of Montreal) from the middle of the 1990s until today. Certain individuals associated with notorious groups such as the Italian Mafia, the Hells Angels and criminalized street gangs are targeted by the investigation.” On Thursday, Mourani said there is no sole leader in Quebec’s organized crime but instead there are just “different groups and families.” The Sicilian-rooted Rizzuto family once dominated Montreal’s underworld, but its influence has since waned. “Will these individuals be convicted? Will they stay off the streets?” Mourani said. “We’ll have to watch closely.”

https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/local-crime/article986717.html

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Thursday, June 12, 2025

Colombo mobster busted in Florida for medicare fraud

  June 12, 2025    Dapper_Don


Thomas “Tom Mix” Farese, the reputed Colombo crime family’s consigliere, has gotten into trouble again with the feds in Florida, authorities say. This week, Farese and three associates in the durable medical equipment business were charged with swindling millions of dollars out of the Medicare program for senior citizens. They’re accused of submitting false bills to the taxpayer-funded program for unnecessary braces and paying kickbacks to telemedicine companies in exchange for supplying a pipeline of patients and physicians. Farese, 82, and the other defendants made their first appearances in federal court in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday. Farese, who authorities say has been a notorious fixture in the mob rackets in New York and South Florida for decades, pleaded guilty last month to a money-laundering charge in a similar federal case in New Jersey that alleged a $93 million healthcare fraud scheme against Medicare and other government programs. He faces sentencing in July. Broward conspirators: feds Farese, who formerly owned a luxury townhome in Delray Beach and now lives in Florida, is accused of conspiring with Parkland couple Ed and Robbyn Cannatelli and Virgina Lockett, of Margate, to use a handful of medical equipment “fronts” to submit false Medicare bills for knee, back and wrist braces, according to an indictment. The indictment, filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay G. Trezevant, says the Florida fronts — Embrace All, Progressive Medical and Advance Medical — were owned by Ed Cannatelli, Farese and his longtime Colombo family associate, Patsy Truglia, who was charged in a related case in 2021. Truglia, formerly of Parkland, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud federal healthcare programs, including Medicare, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to repay $18 million to the U.S. government. The latest indictment does not mention that Farese is connected to the Colombo crime family in New York, though his role as its consigliere has been widely reported by news media. The Miami Herald was unable to locate defense lawyers for the Cannatellis, Farese and Lockett because their case, returned by a grand jury in the Middle District of Florida based in Tampa, had not been filed in the federal court system. The Herald obtained the indictment from that office. Life and times of Tommy Farese Starting in the 1970s, Farese has been involved in an array of South Florida rackets — such as using his shipping company to smuggle marijuana and his strip clubs to launder drug money — years before expanding into the hotbed of healthcare fraud. Farese first made headlines in Fort Lauderdale following his 1978 indictment for being the “mastermind” of a large marijuana smuggling and distribution operation under the cover of his Olympic Shipping Lines operation, according to a story in the Florida Bulldog. The case was sensational because it included allegations of bribery against a pair of former state representatives that arose out of conversations tape-recorded by police who bugged Farese’s office. Organized crime strike force prosecutors convicted Farese in 1980. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but was released in 1994. Soon after, undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents posing as dealers began targeting him with a plan to wash more than $1 million through his strip clubs. Farese had hidden interests in Hialeah’s Club Pink Pussycat, Goldfinger in Sunrise, and Club Diamonds in West Palm Beach. Agents said that for a fee Farese laundered the purported drug money for them. Farese was charged with racketeering in January 1996, and later pleaded guilty and got 10 years. He was released from prison in 2005. Farese was arrested again in January 2012, this time on money-laundering charges. Truglia was charged with him. After a December 2012 trial in federal court in Brooklyn, Farese was acquitted but Truglia was convicted. The New York Daily News reported the case was “severely hobbled by the absence of two mob rats who secretly recorded the evidence, but were kept off the witness stand because they had been engaging in misconduct while working as informants.”

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article308464880.html#storylink=cpy

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Killer Colombo hitman serving life for 4 murders denied compassionate release

  June 12, 2025    Dapper_Don


A Mafia killer who whacked other members of his own Colombo crime family hit crew— and shoved the severed penis of one murder victim into the dead man’s mouth — will not get compassionate release, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled.

John Pappa, 50, won’t get a break on his two life sentences plus 65 years for four gangland murders in the 1990s, Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Pamela Chen ruled, describing his crimes as “brutal and senseless” and suggesting the remorse he showed at a hearing last year was a cynical act.

“The court cannot shake the impression, after observing and listening to defendant over the course of the two-hour April proceeding, that he feels no remorse about committing the four murders nor empathy for the victims or their families,” Chen wrote. “Defendant’s statements … felt hollow and performative.”

Pappa, who has the creed “Morte prima di disonore” — meaning “death before dishonor” — tattooed across his back, committed the 12th and final murder of the bloody Colombo civil war of the early 1990s, then killed a fellow button man because he wanted credit for the slay.

The whole sordid affair was laid out in Chen’s ruling, filed May 30.

Pappa and another mobster, John Sparacino, were part of a three-man “hit team” assembled by Eric Curcio, and on Oct. 20, 1993, they rubbed out Colombo underboss Joseph Scopo, ambushing him as he pulled up to his Queens home in Ozone Park.

Sparacino sprayed Scopo’s car with bullets, but Scopo managed to get out of his car and run off.

Pappa ran after him, shot him three times and killed him.

Sparacino began taking credit for the killing, which angered Pappa and Curcio, so the two started plotting to kill him. But first, they went after one of Sparacino’s friends, Rolando Rivera. because he told his girlfriend that Curcio warned him to stay away from Sparacino.

Rivera’s loose lips doomed him. On June 7, 1994, Curcio and Pappa drove with Rivera in a stolen van to Staten Island, and when they crossed into the Forgotten Borough, they shot him four times and shoved him out of the van while it was moving.

An off-duty cop found Rivera alive, but he died shortly after.

Their attention turned back to Sparacino after learning he’d dissed Curcio and Pappa at a nightclub. So they enlisted a pal in the drug trade, Calvin Hennigar, to lure Sparacino to his Staten Island home. There, Hennigar shot him in the back of the head.

Pappa and Hennigar drove Sparacino’s body to another spot on Staten Island in a stolen car, and lit the vehicle on fire, their victim still inside.

An autopsy revealed Sparacinio’s gruesome fate — he had been hog–tied and mutilated, with a flap of skin cut from his face and his severed penis shoved in his mouth.

Finally, Pappa turned on Curcio, who he thought wasn’t giving him credit for the Scopo kill, and who may have killed one of his close friends.

“I killed Joe Scopo, I did all the work,” Pappa complained to Joseph Iborti, who testified at Pappa’s 1999 trial.

No one would help Pappa with the hit, so he went solo, ambushing Curcio outside his place of business on Oct. 4, 1994 — shooting him more than 10 times.

Pappa was convicted of all four killings in 1999, while Hennigar was found guilty of the Sparacino slay.

Pappa put in for compassionate release in 2022, arguing that his history growing up led him into the arms of La Cosa Nostra. His father was a Genovese gangster murdered by the Colombo crime family in retaliation for committing two slayings — a story people told Pappa as a child — and his stepfather was locked up for drug and tax evasion charges.

“Pappa was raised in a life of organized crime and drug dealing, and after his father was killed and his stepfather was incarcerated, he
began to look up to organized crime members to fill the fatherhood gap,” wrote his lawyer, Shon Hopwood.

At a tense hearing last year, the loved ones of Pappa’s victims spoke out, asking Chen to keep him locked away forever.

“You’re a phony, you’re a fake, you’re a loser, and you’re a killer, and that’s all you’ll ever be. Remember that. You’ve taken lives. You’ve
gotten that taste. Don’t act like you deserve anything from anybody. You deserve nothing but suffering like we’ve suffered,” said Michelle Gedz, who was five months pregnant with Rivera’s daughter when he died. “You are pure evil and you are the spawn of evil, and there is nothing else you will ever be.”

At the April 2024 hearing, Pappa told Chen he found his humanity in prison.

“It’s been productive. It’s been transformative. I’ve completely changed my way of thinking, my belief system. I’ve learned that working as hard as you possibly can, being honest and helping others, that those are the three keys to a meaningful life,” he said. “I now see things clearly, act correctly, and my actions are positive, effective, and completely unselfish.”

Sparacino’s brother, Salvadore, interrupted Pappa as he spoke, declaring: “And the Oscar goes to you.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/06/08/colombo-killer-john-pappa-jailed-for-life-in-4-nyc-rubouts-denied-compassionate-release/

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Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Gotti grandsons busted for beating down mob associate in Queens

  June 03, 2025    Dapper_Don


Two grandsons of the late Gambino crime boss John Gotti were arrested and charged with assaulting a former family friend.

Cops said brothers Frankie Gotti, 27, and John Gotti, 31, son of the late crime boss’ youngest son, Peter, were arrested after assaulting Gino Gabrielli, who was accused of breaking into a home associated with one of the brothers and stealing $3,300.

Gabrielli, an alleged mob associate, was arrested Sunday and charged with burglary, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property after the break-in.

Not satisfied with the arrest, the brothers tracked Gabrielli down to his mother’s house in Howard Beach and administered a beatdown in front of his own mother, officials said.

Frankie and John Gotti were arraigned before Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cullar in Queens Criminal Court early Tuesday evening. They were released on their own recognizance without bail and are scheduled to return to court Aug 7. They said nothing as they left court.

In 2015, federal authorities said, Gabrielli accidentally set himself on fire while torching the Mercedes-Benz of a Queens businessman who had stopped making his annual payoffs to an irate mob captain involved in an extortion scheme.

The victim’s home security video system caught Gabrielli, first seen dousing the year-old car with an accelerant, fleeing the scene with his pants ablaze.

Gabrielli pleaded guilty to the arson in August 2016.

In 2017, John Gotti, the grandson, was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to selling oxycodone pills in New York City.

At the time, his lawyer, Gerard Marrone, said his client’s name was a blessing and a curse.

“His last name is what his last name is and he’s always walking around with a target on his back,” Marrone said. “It’s a double-edge sword, I think sometimes the name is a cross [to bear], but sometimes I think it’s a blessing. They’re a beautiful family, they’re very supportive of him since Day One. They really stick together, the entire family.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/06/03/gotti-grandsons-busted-queens-beatdown-reputed-mob-associate/

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Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Former Colombo Street Boss plotted to kill federal officials who sent him to prison

  May 21, 2025    Dapper_Don



FBI agents allege Ralph DeLeo, a former reputed street boss of the Colombo crime family, was arrested this month for plotting to kill at least three people who helped put him behind bars in 2012, according to newly filed court documents.

The Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed in the court documents that federal agents “received a tip from a confidential source reporting that DeLeo is actively planning to kill two current and one former federal official.” The federal officials were all involved in DeLeo’s conviction more than a decade ago, according to court documents.

As Target 12 first reported, DeLeo, 82, was arrested on May 15, but federal officials didn’t publicly release details about his arrest until filing the new court documents on Tuesday night. DeLeo’s criminal history dates back decades and the FBI alleged he served in the 1970s as an associate of the Patriarca crime family, which operated out of Providence.

In 2012, DeLeo was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for racketeering, among other crimes. He got out of prison under supervised release in May 2024, and federal agents alleged he’s recently been planning to kill the people who put him away. (The people were not publicly identified.)
The confidential source told agents DeLeo shared with him that an associate of La Cosa Nostra, or the Mafia, had obtained “tools” on his behalf, which federal officials took to mean firearms. DeLeo was also seeking a silencer, according to court documents.

DeLeo was allegedly asking around for personal information about the people he was targeting, “including the home addresses and names of immediate family members,” according to court documents.

Federal agents conducted search warrants on him and his home earlier this month and found “hard copy packets of personal information for multiple people,” including two of the federal officials. The source told agents he asked DeLeo about the information, and the aging mafioso told him “they were his ‘retribution.'”

FBI agent Molly Driscoll wrote in a sworn affidavit that DeLeo initially claimed he collected the officials’ personal information himself, but agents later determined he was lying.

“Specifically, law enforcement obtained text messages between DeLeo and a third party demonstrating that DeLeo asked the third party for information related to the targeted individuals,” Driscoll wrote. Court documents show he was communicating with convicted felons, including people he was indicted with on sweeping racketeering charges in 2009.

Agents also recovered from his home a burglary kit, marijuana, vials of steroids, “and a handwritten note regarding silicone masks,” according to court documents.

The burglary kit contained “tools including a pry-bar, mini crowbar, bolt cutters, and a lock-picking kit,” according to Driscoll.

Federal officials alleged DeLeo has shown a history of resentment toward the people who convicted him. While in prison, DeLeo told a confidential informant in 2014 he was going to “chop off” the head of one of the federal officials who became the target of his most recent kill plot, according to court documents.

Prosecutors also detailed DeLeo’s extensive criminal history over the past six decades, which they said started when he was convicted of multiple armed robberies and other crimes at 16 years old.

“DeLeo’s entire life has been devoted to crime,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam Deitch and Lauren Maynard wrote in a motion for detention filed Tuesday evening.


“His criminal record is riddled with violence spanning the course of decades,” they added. “And just as aging had no impact on his activity in the past, DeLeo’s current advanced age has no bearing on his willingness or ability to continue engaging in criminal activity.”

DeLeo committed crimes in the 1970s, including armed robbery and attempted kidnapping, earning him a sentence of 25 to 40 years. But he ended up escaping custody and went on the run in Ohio, where he committed armed bank robbery and kidnapped a bank manager, according to court documents.

“While still in Ohio, DeLeo committed his most gruesome offense: kidnapping for hire a prominent physician with the intent to castrate him, but instead shooting and killing the victim when he resisted DeLeo’s attempted abduction,” wrote the prosecutors.

DeLeo was released early on a commuted sentence in 1997, and he eventually rose to prominence in the Colombo crime syndicate, one of the five families of New York, according to FBI agents. He ran his own violent gang in the Boston area known as the “DeLeo Crew,” according to prosecutors.

DeLeo eventually became the reputed street boss of the Colombo family before he was indicted in 2009, according to federal agents. The prosecutors are now asking a federal judge to detain DeLeo for violating the terms of his supervised release. No new criminal case had been filed against DeLeo in federal court as of Tuesday.

“DeLeo has spent his life committing violent crimes,” they wrote. “It appears that he intends to spend his sunset years doing the same. The seriousness of the most recent threats, DeLeo’s long and violent criminal record, and his history of attempting to flee from custody all lead to one conclusion: DeLeo must be detained.”

Defense attorneys for DeLeo have asked that he be released from detention because he’s suffering from multiple health problems, including issues they said will require oral surgery.

The attorneys also argued in court documents that he isn’t receiving the medical attention he needs at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls and should be transferred to a federal prison.

DeLeo’s detention hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/mobster-ralph-deleo-plotted-to-kill-federal-officials-who-put-him-away-court-docs-show/

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Thursday, May 15, 2025

Parole violation sends former Colombo Street Boss back to jail

  May 15, 2025    Dapper_Don




A convicted murderer and reputed former street boss of the Colombo crime family has been arrested in Massachusetts, Target 12 has learned.

Ralph F. DeLeo, 82, was arrested on Thursday, according to new court documents filed in Massachusetts U.S. District Court. DeLeo, who’d been in federal prison for about a decade, was released on parole in 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website.

Details of his arrest haven’t yet been announced, but DeLeo appeared Thursday afternoon for a revocation hearing before Massachusetts U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Levenson. He was advised of his rights and the charges against him before being sent back into the custody of federal officials, according to minutes of the hearing.

DeLeo has been scheduled for a detention hearing at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

FBI Boston spokesperson Kristen Setera said DeLeo was taken into custody “without incident.” She referred all further questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

A spokesperson for Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley declined to comment on the arrest, pending the outcome of the hearing.

DeLeo, who grew up and launched his criminal career in the Boston area, rose to the highest levels of the New York-based Colombo crime family, becoming a reputed “street boss” for about a year around 2008, according to the FBI.

He pleaded guilty in 2012 to sweeping racketeering charges, along with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. As part of the racketeering charge, federal agents accused him of trafficking illegal narcotics, extortion and loan sharking among other things.

The so-called “DeLeo Crew” operated primarily in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Florida and Arkansas, according to the FBI.

The Colombo family is considered one of the five most powerful crime families in New York under the umbrella of La Cosa Nostra.

DeLeo was convicted of murder in Ohio for the 1977 slaying of Dr. Walter Bond, according to The Columbus Dispatch. DeLeo’s sentence was commuted by Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste after serving 12 years.

Celeste told The Dispatch at the time he agreed to commute DeLeo’s sentence because he was assured DeLeo “wasn’t going to be out on the street,” according to the newspaper.

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/mobster-ralph-deleo-arrested-in-massachusetts/

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Monday, May 12, 2025

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Friday, April 25, 2025

Son of late New England mobster pleads guilty to killing former girlfriend

  April 25, 2025    Dapper_Don



The son of the late Mafia capo Frank "Bobo" Marrapese admitted on April 24 to killing his ex-girlfriend in a brutal slaying in 2019 in the Edgewood section of Cranston.
Michael Marrapese, 46, pleaded guilty to first-degree domestic murder in the killing of 29-year-old Lauren Ise just as his trial was slated to begin before Superior Court Judge Maureen B. Keough, court records show.
Cranston police went to 245 Bay View Ave. on March 13, 2019, to check on Ise after Providence detectives relayed a tip that she had been murdered by her estranged boyfriend, Marrapese. They found her body and signs of foul play.
Marrapese had lived with Ise in the duplex until shortly before her death. Her mother, Cheryl Palazzo, said during an anti-domestic violence walk in her daughter's honor that Ise had broken up with Marrapese and was living alone at the apartment. Marrapese, Palazzo claimed, had threatened her the night before the slaying.
Ise did not have a protective order against Marrapese, according to the Cranston police. Police had responded to the apartment for domestic disturbances, and Ise had reported feeling threatened after Marrapese moved out.
Marrapese was arrested weeks before the killing for disorderly conduct after Cranston police charged his brother, Steven Andrew Marrapese of Providence, with fighting and assault and battery on Ise while using a folding knife, according to a court complaint.
Steven Marrapese is currently serving time in maximum security at the Adult Correctional Institutions, while his brother is in the high-security unit.
Mafia capo Frank L. “Bobo” Marrapese Jr., known as one of the most vicious enforcers for New England crime boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca, died in December 2017 at Rhode Island Hospital.
Marrapese, 74, had been serving time at the ACI for murder, racketeering and extortion at the time of his death.
The elder Marrapese operated the Acorn Social Club on Federal Hill, a key meeting spot for mobsters from across New England. Marrapese shot mob associate Richard “Dickie” Callei to death at the club on March 15, 1975. He then had the corpse buried near a golf course in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.
After Callei’s murder, it took nearly a decade to catch Marrapese, although he continued to commit other crimes, such as a hijacking case involving stolen La-Z-Boy recliners in the early 1980s.
Marrapese was convicted of Callei’s murder in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison. He was released on parole in 2008.
Within two years, state police alleged, he and other mob figures were running a large-scale sports gambling ring that was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Marrapese was among two dozen associates arrested in May 2011. He was sentenced in 2013 to nine years for racketeering and extortion.
Though Marrapese spent most of his adult life in prison for various crimes, not all the charges stuck. He was acquitted in the murder of Anthony “The Moron” Mirabella at Fidas Restaurant in May 1982, as well as the August 1982 murder of 20-year-old Ronald McElroy, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat after accidentally cutting off Marrapese and other mobsters who were street racing in Providence. Marrapese maintained his innocence in McElroy’s murder.
Marrapese’s time as a Patriarca enforcer spanned from the 1960s to the 1980s.

https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/crime/2025/04/24/son-of-late-mobster-bobo-marrapese-admits-to-killing-ex-girlfriend/83252124007/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook#n1b2060hwcmrw90793srkxozeq248rdk

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Thursday, April 24, 2025

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

95 year old Genovese gangster who plotted to kill John Gotti granted compassionate release

  April 23, 2025    Dapper_Don

 

A 95-year-old mobster who once plotted to whack John Gotti will be allowed to die at home with his family, after a federal judge granted the ailing wiseguy compassionate release.

Louis “Bobby” Manna — who rose to the rank of consigliere, the number three spot in the Genovese Crime Family, before his 1988 arrest on racketeering charges — has served about 36 years of his 80-year federal racketeering sentence. He was denied release back in 2020.

On April 16, New Jersey District Court Judge Robert Kirsch granted Manna compassionate release under the First Step Act, stating that his grim health prognosis and his efforts at rehabilitation behind bars tipped the scales in his favor.

“Mr. Manna’s well-chronicled severe health problems undoubtedly establish ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’ for compassionate release,” Kirsch wrote. Those problems include a stroke, high risk Stage II metastatic lung cancer, chronic kidney disease and a recurring infection.

He was placed in a “Fall Watch” room, under 24-hour medical observation, at the Federal Medical Center prison in Rochester, in September.

Manna will be placed on five years of supervised release, on 24-hour house arrest with electronic monitoring, and won’t be allowed to communicate with anyone but his custodians and probation officials.

“The court is satisfied that these conditions, which essentially render Mr. Manna a dying prisoner in his custodians’ home, reflect the seriousness of his crimes and are just punishment for a man at the very last stage of life,” Kirsch said.

Manna, whose criminal history dates back to at least 1952, oversaw the “Manna Faction” of the Genovese family, and answered at times to underboss “Fat” Tony Salerno and boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante,

He was admired in organized crime circles in his heyday for never turning government informant even as he faced down prison terms, and once refused a shot of Novocaine for a prison tooth extradition because he was afraid he’d break omerta.

Manna was convicted of plotting to kill rival Gambino family boss John Gotti and his brother Gene back in the late ’80s. He was caught discussing the plan on a FBI bug planted in a Hoboken restaurant: “Remember I told you it was a big hit? John Gotti.”

The feds warned Gotti about the plot, and the attempt never got off the ground.

He also ordered the August 1987 rub-out of Irwin Schiff, an FBI informant who was also skimming cash from the Genovese family. A masked gunman, selected by Manna, walked out of the bathroom of the Bravo Sergio Restaurant on the Upper East Side and shot Schiff twice in the head.

Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, President Trump’s late sister, handed down Manna’s sentence in 1989. Trump signed the First Step Act, which ultimately led to Manna’s release, during his first term as president.


https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/04/23/genovese-gangster-95-who-once-plotted-to-kill-john-gotti-gets-compassionate-release/

  

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Friday, April 18, 2025

Supreme Court rules Genovese associate committed a violent act

  April 18, 2025    Dapper_Don

Whether attempted murder rose to a crime of violence split the Supreme Court 7-2 on Friday, with the majority finding that an associate of the infamous Genovese crime family committed a violent act despite his unsuccessful murder-for-hire plot. 
In a 7-2 ruling, the justices ruled that Salvatore Delligatti’s attempted murder plot was a crime of violence. 
“Delligatti insists that his position — that murder is not a crime of violence — is not as outlandish as it sounds,” Justice Clarence Thomas, a George H.W. Bush appointee, wrote for the majority. 
Thomas said Delligatti’s argument defied precedent, congressional intent and logic. 
“Intentional murder is the prototypical ‘crime of violence,’ and it has long been understood to incorporate liability for both act and omission,” Thomas wrote. 
Justices Neil Gorsuch, a Donald Trump appointee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Joe Biden appointee, dissented. 
Delligatti planned to murder Joseph Bonelli, a local “bully” suspected of threatening the Genovese family’s gambling business. He gave his partner $5,000 and a .38 revolver to kill Bonelli, but police intercepted the accomplice and several members of the Crips gang before the crime took place.
A jury convicted Delligatti on six charges including conspiring to murder for hire, operating an illegal gambling business, racketeering and attempted murder. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. 
Violent crime carries a mandatory minimum sentence under the Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering Act. Facing an additional six years in prison, Delligatti sought to convince the court that his crimes fell short of the statute’s use of force requirement because his murder plot failed. 
The high court disagreed, finding that the firearms sentencing enhancement applied when an individual intends to cause bodily injury — whether or not those intentions materialize. 
Thomas said it is impossible to deliberately cause physical harm without the use of physical force. Delligatti’s second-degree murder conviction proved that he intentionally caused the death of another person. 
Delligatti can’t escape that conclusion under harm by omission, the court ruled, because a person can use something by deliberate inaction, such as using the rain to wash a car by leaving it parked on the street. 
“The knowing or intentional causation of injury or death, whether by act or omission, necessarily involves the use of physical force against another person,” Thomas wrote. 
Gorsuch chastised the majority for diverging from the statute’s text, arguing that the ruling was too broad. A lifeguard who sees someone struggling to swim and does nothing to save them, Gorsuch claimed, could now be convicted of a crime of violence if the person drowned. 
“In cases like that, prosecutors can prevail simply by showing that a defendant did nothing when he had a legal duty to do something,” Gorsuch wrote. “And because a defendant can be convicted of the crime without proof that he used, attempted to use, or threatened to use physical force against anyone or anything at all, New York’s offense cannot qualify as a crime of violence.” 
Gorsuch said the decision “comes up short on every count,” neglecting definitional terms, ignoring contextual clues and misinterpreting precedent. He added that his position didn’t guarantee a lighter sentence for Delligatti because the judges have imposed a sentence of up to 28 years. 
“With or without a §924(c)(1) enhancement, those convicted of serious offenses in our federal criminal justice system routinely face serious sentences and judges amply equipped with the means to issue them,” Gorsuch wrote. 
https://www.courthousenews.com/supreme-court-rebukes-genovese-crime-family-associate-finding-attempted-murder-is-violent/

  

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Thursday, April 17, 2025

Monday, April 14, 2025

Feds round up Lucchese family's New Jersey crew

  April 14, 2025    Dapper_Don



Buncha wiseguys.

A New Jersey councilman and high-ranking Lucchese crime family members are among dozens nabbed in a massive mobbed-up gambling ring allegedly run out of restaurants across the Garden State, officials announced Friday.

Prospect Park Councilman Anand Shah, 42, allegedly managed illegal poker games and ran an online sportsbook tied to four members of the mob family, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin alleged at a press conference in Newark on Friday morning.

“I’m keenly aware of the public’s perception of elected officials in New Jersey and the lack of trust that so many have in their public officials and governmental institutions,” Platkin said. “The arrest of a city council member only adds fuel to that fire.”

Shah was one of 37 people arrested and 39 people charged in the sweeping gambling case that was part of a two-year investigation that uncovered illegal operations in Woodland Park, Garfield, and Totowa that netted $3 million in illegal profits, the AG alleged.

At the top of the racket was George Zappola, 65, of Red Bank, who is part of the Lucchese ruling panel, officials claimed.

Below him was Lucchese captain Joseph “Big Joe” Perna, 56, of Belleville, and below him Lucchese soldiers John Perna, 47, of Little Falls, and Wayne Cross, 75, of Spring Lake, authorities alleged.

On Wednesday, cops raided four illegal poker clubs connected to the Lucchese family, two of which were run out of the backrooms of restaurants. They also searched a business in Paterson that was storing gambling machines and the homes of seven people who were allegedly managing the gambling operation.

The raid led officials to discover more poker clubs and dozens of people who hosted poker games, worked at the clubs, or managed bettors on an illegal online sportsbook on sites outside the US, Platkin said.

“This was a highly structured, highly profitable criminal enterprise run by people who thought they were above the law,” said Theresa Hilton, the director of the Division of Criminal Justice.

There were high-level managers who delegated daily operations to managers, decided how the clubs were run, settled disputes, and used threats to collect debts, the AG said.

The lower-level managers collected dues — called “rents” — from the hosts of the poker games, Platkin said.

Hosts — or the “house” — had to recruit their own players, provide food and beverages for the games, and financially stake them. For this, the hosts collected a percentage of the bets for themselves, called a “rake,” the AG claimed.

The hosts either paid the dealers or gamblers were allowed to work off unpaid debts by acting as a dealers, the AG said.

Attendees could bet on gambling machines inside the clubs if they were waiting to get into a poker game, Platkin said.

As for online gambling, “agents” ran the sportsbooks for gambling sites abroad and would manage a group of bettors — or “packages,” the AG said.

And the agents and sub-agents had to send up a portion of their profits to the high-level management, Platkin alleged.

The websites allowed the mobsters to use the internet and technology to carry out the same criminal activities La Cosa Nostra had been doing the old-fashioned way since the 19th century, Platkin said.

Shah is charged with racketeering, conspiracy to promote gambling and money laundering and other charges for which he could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the top charge.

He is not accused of using his office to carry out the alleged crimes and is not accused of being a made member of the Mafia — but rather an associate of it, officials alleged.

He’s due on Tuesday in Morris County court, where prosecutors will be arguing for him to be kept in jail while his case plays out.

Shah didn’t immediately return an email request for comment. Lawyers for Zappola, Cross, and John Perna didn’t immediately return requests for comment. It was not immediately known who was representing Joe Perna.

https://nypost.com/2025/04/11/us-news/nj-politician-lucchese-mobsters-arrested-in-gambling-ring/

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