Saturday, February 15, 2025
Long Island couple files $50M lawsuit against the Gotti family over high school brawl
The black Long Island family allegedly assaulted by the wife and daughter of John “Junior” Gotti in a race-fueled rage at a high school basketball game have sued the mother-daughter duo for $50 million.
Jean and Crystal Etienne claim Kimberly and Gianna Gotti allegedly called their son a “f–king monkey,” “f–king faggot,” “f–king bitch,” and told him, “f–k your mother,” according to a Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit.
The explosive February 2024 incident during the Oyster Bay vs Locust Valley game at Locust Valley High School — resulted in assault charges for Kimberly, wife of Junior and daughter-in-law of the late Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, along with her daughter Gianna.
But the case went sideways in October on a technicality and the charges were dismissed.
Kimberly’s son, Joe Gotti, was playing for Oyster Bay and Etienne’s son, identified only as S.S., was on the Locust Valley team. Both Mama Bears claimed they were trying to protect their sons from verbal abuse from the stands.
The Gottis have vehemently denied using racial slurs and insisted Crystal Etienne was the aggressor who hurled insults at their son.
But Crystal Etienne, 48, said Kimberly Gotti, 56, and Gianna, 24, were “yelling ‘shut up’ and getting in some of the faces of other children in the stands” before Crystal’s son entered the game.
“Please do not call my son. Please do not. They’re just kids,” Etienne allegedly begged the pair.
The dispute then turned physical, with Etienne allegedly suffering a head injury as the Gotti women tried to rip her wig off.
“In a fit of race fueled rage, the Gottis, along with unknown cohorts physically assaulted both Etiennes and their child,” including punching, scratching and hitting them while school officials did nothing, according to court papers.
The Etienne family further alleged that the “aggressive behavior had gone on for the whole entire game without any intervention by, direction from, or warnings from” Locust Valley Central School District officials.
The ugly, caught-on-video episode was the culmination of years of “racist and degrading” behavior at Locust Vally High School, claimed the Etiennes, a pair of wealthy business owners who live in a $6 million mansion in the tony enclave of Upper Brookville.
“Students and instructors have repeatedly voiced, and utilized electronic devices to utter racial words, including but not limited to, the ‘n’ word being played in classes,” according to court papers.
S.S. has also been falsely accused by school officials of marijuana use and assaulting a girl, the family contended.
The Gottis repeatedly rejected plea deals in the case from Nassau County prosecutors, and insisted their famous last name is what sparked criminal charges.
Their lawyer called the new lawsuit “absolute hog wash, totally frivolous and a waste of time.”
“They should leave the Gotti family alone. The case was dismissed because it had no merit,” said attorney Gerard Marrone. “Crystal started the entire fight.”
He pointed to the fact that Crystal Etienne was charged with grand larceny in 2015 for allegedly embezzling $50,000 from a car dealership where she worked. She pleaded guilty in 2016 to petty larceny and was sentenced to probation and restitution, according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s office.
“I guess Crystal needs $50,000 to pay the restitution she owes,” Marrone quipped, calling any allegation of racial slurs being slung in the incident “pure bullsh-t.”
Junior Gotti served six years and five months behind bars for racketeering and was the target of four federal trials between 2004 and 2009, which all ended in mistrials.
A spokeswoman for the Locust Valley Central School District declined to comment on the litigation.
A lawyer for the Etiennes declined comment.
https://nypost.com/2025/02/15/us-news/long-island-family-wants-50-million-from-gottis-for-hs-brawl/
Monday, February 10, 2025
Saturday, February 8, 2025
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Son and grandson of former Colombo Acting Boss busted with ghost guns on Staten Island
The
son and grandson of a Colombo crime family capo were busted Wednesday
after an NYPD joint task uncovered a staggering cache of weapons and
illegal firearm-making equipment, including ghost guns.
Members
of the NYPD Financial Crimes Task Force executed a warrant at the
Staten Island home of 57-year-old Joseph Orapallo and his son, Frank
Orapallo, 22, at their home on Locust Ave. near Edison St. in New Dorp
around 6 a.m. after an investigation led the division to believe the men
had ghost guns, police sources said.
The
alleged father-and-son crime duo are descendants of Joseph T.
Tomasello, a notorious organized crime boss arrested in 1998. Joseph
Orapallo, opting to distance himself from his late father, uses his
mother’s maiden name.
The
NYPD and federal agents raided the home the Orapallos share with Joseph
Orapallo’s wife, as well as Frank Orapallo’s baby and the mother of his
child.
During
the raid, authorities seized five ghost guns and 3D printing equipment
used to assemble them. Police also found a stash of handguns, silencers,
14 unregistered rifles and hunting guns, as well as large amounts of
ammunition and clips, according to police sources.
Both
Orapallos now face multiple federal weapons charges, including
possession of ghost guns. It is still being investigated if the men are
involved in organized crime, police sources said.
Tomasello’s capture in the ’90s came after his son, Joseph Orapallo, and his sister-in-law unknowingly led FBI agents to his hideout in the Catskills on the night of Orapallo’s wedding, the Daily News reported at the time.
For
six years, Tomasello, a street boss with the Colombo crime family, had
dodged federal agents after a notorious mob war in 1991 and 1992 that
left 10 people dead. Tomasello was accused of participating in five of
those slayings.
But
in 1998, federal agents staked out Joseph Orapallo’s Staten Island
wedding, where they followed his aunt to Tomasello’s hideaway in
Catskill, N.Y., about 25 miles south of Albany, The News previously
reported.
After
days of surveillance, agents spotted Orapallo and his new wife drive up
to the house with Tomasello; the then-66-year-old man was taken into
custody and was hit with racketeering and murder charges.
Tomasello was in federal prison until 2005, records show. He died in 2016.
https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/02/05/son-grandson-of-colombo-family-mob-boss-collared-in-staten-island-ghost-gun-bust/
Friday, January 31, 2025
Lucchese soldier facing 20 years in prison as he agrees to $4M forfeiture in plea deal
Five Mafia members and associates have pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering and gambling charges for running an illegal betting operation in New York City, according to prosecutors.
The Lucchese organized crime family figures admitted to running a large-scale gambling enterprise that prosecutors say brought millions in illicit profits annually.
Among them was Anthony Villani, a Lucchese soldier who agreed to a plea deal Thursday in which he’ll pay $4 million in forfeiture, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York.
Prosecutors said that since the early 2000s, the 60-year-old Elmsford resident owned and operated Rhino Sports, an online business that also employed Mafia figures as local bookmakers to pay and collect winnings.
They said the operation was concentrated in the Bronx and nearby Westchester County, took bets from roughly 400 to 1,300 individuals each week and collected at least $1 million annually.
“Illegal gambling businesses require enforcement and protection from mob rivals that carry the persistent threat of violence,” John Durham, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement. “However, the defendants’ luck ran out and, thanks to the hard work of the team of prosecutors and investigators, they will be held accountable for their crimes and pay their debt to society.”
Prosecutors say Villani faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday.
Four others pleaded guilty in recent days to federal charges related to the scheme, according to prosecutors. A sixth defendant remains at large.
https://apnews.com/article/mafia-bronx-lucchese-gambling-racketeering-f7facab0c427cc28b4eaa1a62d302744
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Friday, December 27, 2024
FBI disbands Boston organized crime squad
On an October afternoon in 1989, mobsters from Connecticut, Rhode
Island, and Massachusetts gathered at a modest home in Medford for a
secret ritual: the induction of four soldiers into the New England
Mafia, which marked a new beginning after their underboss was killed by a
renegade faction.
“It’s going to be the life of the heaven,” consigliere Joseph “J.R.”
Russo promised the new recruits, who pricked blood from their trigger
fingers, burned holy cards and promised to kill anyone — even their own
sons if necessary — to protect La Cosa Nostra, Italian for “This Thing
of Ours.” As an FBI bug recorded the infamous ceremony, a historic
moment for the law enforcement agency, Russo boasted that the secret
Sicilian-born organization had thrived for seven generations, spreading
to New York, Boston, Providence, Hartford, Chicago, and other cities
across the country.
Those days are gone, according to former law enforcement officials and organized crime experts.
So much so that the FBI’s Boston office, which oversees much of New
England, quietly disbanded its organized crime squad recently and
re-assigned agents to other priorities, according to several people
familiar with the move.
The agency will still monitor any organized crime groups, as needed. But
the disbandment of a unit that was largely built to target the Mafia
signaled a death notice of sorts — an end of a dark era — for what was
once one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the region, as
well as the storied unit that was built to combat it.
“I don’t think there’s much of anything left with traditional organized
crime,” said Fred Wyshak, a former federal prosecutor who won the
convictions of local Italian and Irish organized crime figures,
including the late former Mafia boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme,
notorious gangster Stephen Flemmi, and South Boston crime boss James
“Whitey” Bulger. “I think the leadership was destroyed and nobody really
has the strength to step in and fill that void. I don’t think there’s a
lot of desire to do so.”
The death earlier this month of 97-year-old Luigi “Louie” Manocchio, the
last don to lead the Mafia’s New England family from Providence’s
Federal Hill, recalled a bygone era when the Mafia was the region’s most
dominant criminal group. It has been on the decline for decades,
following waves of federal prosecutions dating to the 1980s that sent
eight bosses and underbosses and scores of underlings to prison for
crimes ranging from murder to shaking down strip clubs. Another
deterrent to recruitment was the revelation that some top-ranking
members broke “omerta,” the mob’s code of silence, to become informants
or cooperating witnesses.
“They’re just not at the threat level that they were years ago,” said
Steven O’Donnell, former superintendent of the Rhode Island State
Police. “We can’t sit back on our laurels, as organized crime still
exists and always will exist, but there are other entities that are a
greater threat in this country.”
He estimated there are currently only about 30 “made” members of the New
England Mafia, compared to hundreds during its heyday decades ago.
Kristen Setera, a spokesperson for the FBI, declined to discuss the
disbandment of the squad, but said the Boston office “continues to
dedicate significant resources to work and eradicate transnational and
regional organized criminal enterprises.”
In an email, she said “Every year, every field office across the FBI
takes a hard look at the threats in their respective area of
responsibility and adjusts resources assigned to mitigate those threats
to ensure each one is adequately being worked.”
Richard DesLauriers, who served as head of the FBI’s Boston office from
2010 to 2013, said the Mafia is no longer considered a serious threat
because the FBI’s organized crime unit, along with other federal, state
and local law enforcement agencies, has been so successful at
dismantling it. Now, he said, the FBI has greater concerns.
“I think they were significant back in the early 20th century,”
DesLauriers said. “Back then we did not have the threat of terrorism,
foreign spies stealing our secrets, and cyber crime.”
The bureau’s focus has shifted since 9/11 to those latter concerns, he said.
But in the 1960s the Mafia was one of the FBI’s top priorities, leading
to the creation of federal units to prosecute organized crime. The New
England Organized Crime Strike Force brought its first major case in
Boston against the local mob after the FBI planted a bug inside the
North End headquarters of underboss Gennaro “Jerry” Angiulo in 1981 and
captured him ordering murders and directing a lucrative gambling and
loansharking operation. He was convicted of racketeering, along with the
rest of the Mafia’s leadership in Boston, and sentenced to 45 years in
prison.
In 1989, the FBI’s organized crime squad captured the first-ever
recording of a Mafia induction ceremony, at the Medford home with the
baptism of new recruits, which served as the cornerstone of another
sweeping racketeering indictment that sent Mafia boss Raymond “Junior”
Patriarca and his underlings to prison.
Those high-profile successes were overshadowed in the late 1990s when it
was publicly revealed that the FBI used Bulger and Flemmi as informants
against their rivals in the Mafia and that corrupt agents took payoffs
from the pair and protected them from prosecution even as they were
committing murders and other crimes. Bulger fled to evade charges in
1995 and spent 16 years on the run. He was killed in prison in 2018
while serving a life sentence for 11 murders. Retired FBI agent John J.
Connolly Jr., Bulger’s handler, was convicted of murder.
Boston attorney Anthony Cardinale, who represented a number of Mafiosi,
including Angiulo and Salemme, and helped expose the FBI’s corrupt
relationship with Bulger and Flemmi, said the dismantling of the FBI’s
organized crime squad “came about 50 years too [expletive] late.”
Cardinale said that the FBI built exaggerated cases against the Mafia
and that the agency falsely portrayed a group of Italian Americans in
Boston as being part of a “multinational, worldwide criminal conspiracy
of vast proportions, when in fact it’s a few Italian guys running a
bookmaking operation and a barbut game in the North End.”
Yet, the FBI cases offer a chilling glimpse into violent exploits of the local mob.
In 2011, reputed New England Mafia boss Anthony DiNunzio was secretly
recorded during a meeting in Malden telling a mob associate that if
someone dared defy his rule, “I get to watch you die in the ground,”
according to wiretaps detailed in court filings.
The following year, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Rhode Island
to racketeering conspiracy and was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.
DiNunzio had taken the lead as boss from his brother, Carmen “The
Cheeseman” DiNunzio, who served five years in prison for delivering a
$10,000 bribe to an undercover FBI agent posing as a state official,
part of a conspiracy to secure a $6 million Big Dig contract. Law
enforcement officials say Carmen DiNunzio resumed his leadership
position after his release from prison nine years ago.
But the New England Mafia is now “a shell of itself,” said Steve
Johnson, a retired Massachusetts State Police detective lieutenant and
longtime organized crime investigator.
“It’s mostly figurehead people and wannabes ... people pretending they
are doing their best Sopranos act,” he said. “It’s mostly just in name.
They are certainly not what they used to be.”
Former federal prosecutor, Brian T. Kelly, part of the team that
prosecuted Salemme, Bulger, and Flemmi, said the disbanding of the FBI’s
traditional organized crime squad is a good sign and “we shouldn’t
lament it” if it means organized crime in Boston is on the wane.
“It’s probably the one area of law enforcement where they’ve had a resounding success,” he said.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/22/metro/mafia-boston-organized-crime-fbi/#:~:text=So%20much%20so%20that%20the,organized%20crime%20groups%2C%20as%20needed
Thursday, December 26, 2024
Supreme Court hears gun charge appeal from Genovese associate called Fat Sal
Dropping poison in a drink. Serving food gone dangerously bad. Or, hiring hitmen to take out a foe.
Are those violent crimes?
The Supreme Court appeared unconvinced Tuesday by a New York crime family associate’s argument that his conviction in a foiled murder-for-hire plot does not qualify as a “crime of violence” because he used no physical force. However, the justices seemed open to ruling that some crimes committed through inaction cannot be deemed violent.
Salvatore Delligatti, a Genovese crime family associate also known as “Fat Sal,” was found guilty of charges including racketeering and attempted murder after plotting to kill a local “bully.” He hired members of the Crips street gang and provided them with a .38 revolver and getaway car, but police intervened before the plot was carried out.
Delligatti was also convicted of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a “crime of violence,” which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five consecutive years in prison. He was sentenced to 25-year prison term in total.
Delligatti lawyer Allon Kedem argued Tuesday that a crime requiring death or bodily injury like murder, but committed through inaction, cannot be deemed a “crime of violence.” He asked the justices to throw out that conviction.
“Using physical force against another requires taking some step to bring force into contact with the victim,” Kedem said. “That can happen directly, as with a kick or punch, or indirectly, such as giving a gentle push to someone teetering on the edge of a cliff. But it does not involve an offense that can be committed by pure omission, such as failing to render aid to someone suffering from a natural disorder.”
In court filings, Delligatti’s counsel contended that — while perhaps “morally reprehensible” — failing to provide a person with necessary medical care or nutrition, causing serious injury or death, does not involve the use of any force. The same is true in Delligatti’s case, where no one pulled the trigger, he said.
The justices seemed skeptical, posing several hypothetical questions about whether inaction can still be violent.
Justice Elena Kagan asked whether offering an enemy food so spoiled it was “completely toxic” would qualify as a violent crime, while Justice Sonia Sotomayor raised scenarios about choosing not to offer the Heimlich maneuver to a random person choking versus one’s own child, noting the obligation to act.
Justice Samuel Alito called the legal arguments “fascinating,” but noted that Delligatti’s crime is perhaps more cut-and-dry than others.
“Would you argue that your client is not the kind of armed career criminal that Congress was trying to get at when they enacted this statute?” he asked.
“We would not argue that,” Kedem replied.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, pointing specifically to states with Good Samaritan statutes, questioned if letting a “little old lady” step into a manhole without intervening would qualify.
“Physical force (is), I guess, the gravity — what more powerful force in the universe is there than that?” Gorsuch said. “Would that, in your view, fall within the government’s understanding of what will qualify as the application of violent force?”
“It would have to,” Kedem replied. “The government’s view, essentially, is, anytime you have a bad result, you know that there must have been violent physical force. Which means that, not only would the death or other injury in your example be violent physical force, it would also be involved in literally every death since the beginning of time, because in every death, something bad happens.”
Eric Feigin, deputy solicitor general, strongly pushed back.
“It’s hard to believe that we’re actually here debating whether murder is a crime of violence,” Feigin argued before the justices Tuesday.
Despite the justices’ skepticism of Delligatti’s position, sharp hypothetical questions were asked of the government, as well.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson posed a scenario where a lifeguard sees a child she “hates” get into the pool; when the child starts drowning, she doesn’t jump into the water to save him.
“Is it your position that she uses physical force against this kid if she doesn’t jump into the water when she sees him drowning?” Jackson asked.
Federal appeals courts have split over how to apply the gun charge to other cases, with two of 10 appeals courts that have weighed the matter determining that use of force is not an element of such crimes if the crime can be committed by inaction, as Delligatti contends.
In an unusual move, the government agreed that the justices should hear Delligatti’s appeal to give lower courts better clarity, despite opposing it.
A decision is expected by next summer.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4986375-supreme-court-crime-violence-delligatti-case/
Former Genovese Acting Captain gets 30 months for illegal gambling
A former acting captain in the Genovese organized crime family was sentenced on Friday to 30 months in prison, federal prosecutors said.
Carmelo Polito, also known as "Carmine Polito" was sentenced for racketeering in connection to operating an illegal gambling business at the Gran Caffé in Lynbrook, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace announced.
Polito, 64, of Queens, also attempted to extort someone who owed him money stemming from a separate online sports betting business, prosecutors said.
"The cards did not favor Carmelo Polito's illicit gambling parlor or his extortionate methods,” stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Dennehy. “His illegitimate business and death threats financed the operations of two crime families.
Polito is a longtime, inducted member of the Genovese organized crime family.
As detailed in earlier court filings, for years, numerous members and associates of the Genovese
and
Bonanno organized crime families operated several illegal gambling
operations, the U.S. Attorney said. The Genovese and Bonanno families
jointly operated a lucrative illegal gambling parlor concealed inside a
coffee shop called the Gran Caffé in Lynbrook.
Polito is the first person sentenced in this case and a related case against four members and associates of the Bonanno organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra.
Awaiting sentencing are:
- Joseph Macario, 69, (also known as "Joe Fish"), of West Islip
- Salvatore Rubino, 60, ("Sal the Shoemaker"), of Bethpage
- Joseph Rutigliano, 65, (also known as "Joe Box"), of Commack
- Mark Feuer, 61, of Oceanside
Thursday, December 12, 2024
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Sunday, December 8, 2024
Former Boss of New England's Patriarca Crime Family dead at 97
Louis Manocchio, the last Rhode Island boss of the New England crime family, has died. He was 97.
12 News law enforcement analyst Steven O’Donnell, a former Rhode Island State Police colonel, said Manocchio died early Sunday morning. Manocchio had been living at the R.I. Veterans Home in Bristol.
Manocchio — whose given name was Luigi – was given several nicknames over the years by members and associates of the crime family as well as investigators that kept watch on him. But the one that ultimately stuck was his alias in court documents from his arrest in 2011, when the former Mafia don was referred to as “Baby Shacks.”
The unassuming and notoriously health-conscious mobster rose to the underworld’s top job in 1995 following the arrest of then-boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, who was a close ally to Manocchio.
Despite being the subject of intense surveillance by state and federal investigators, Manocchio was largely able to fly under the radar, avoiding any significant legal headaches until 2008. That year Manocchio was approached by two veteran FBI agents – Special Agents Joseph Degnan and Jeffrey Cady – while dining on soup at a Federal Hill restaurant. Manocchio, investigators said in court documents, had just been handed an envelope full of cash which the FBI was able to trace back to a Providence strip club.
The money, they would later allege, was an extortion payment.
While the moment didn’t immediately lead to charges, it proved to be Manocchio’s undoing: he soon stepped down as the boss of the crime family, and in 2011 he was indicted as part of a sweeping crackdown into organized crime that ultimately sent him to a federal prison for more than five years.
He was released in 2015.
Early life
Luigi Manocchio was born in Providence on June 23, 1927, to his parents Mary and Nicola. He is the second of three sons, the elder Andrew and the youngest Anthony, who would become a gynecologist.
Veterans Administration records show Manocchio served in U.S. Army from Jan. 10, 1946, to March 14, 1947. It’s unclear what ended his short stint in the armed services – investigators would later spot Manocchio going in for doctor’s appointments at the VA Hospital in Providence – but public records show he received a monthly pension from the U.S. military.
A review of Providence police intelligence reports shows Manocchio had some minor scrapes with the law as a juvenile, but his first arrest as an adult came four days before Christmas in 1952. The arrest report – which lists the nicknames “Baby Face” and “Baby Shanks” – shows Manocchio was charged with two counts of assault and robbery, illegal possession of a revolver, and driving a stolen car. Everything but the weapons charge was dropped, and he escaped prison time, given a five-year suspended sentence.
But his underworld notoriety came under intense scrutiny in April 1968 when two renegade bookmakers, Rudolph Marfeo and Anthony Melei, were gunned down while shopping at Pannone’s market in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Providence. Investigators at the time said Marfeo was murdered because he defied then-mob boss Raymond Patriarca’s order to shut down a gambling operation. Melei was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, working as Marfeo’s bodyguard.
Detectives pegged Manocchio not as the triggerman, but as a conspirator who took part in the planning of the gangland slaying. Arrested six months after the murder, Manocchio escaped from custody after a judge granted him bail, then went on the lam for the next decade.
Manocchio had become an international fugitive, investigators said, spending the 1970s hiding out in Europe — including France and Italy — where he learned to speak several languages.
Using a dummy passport, according to police, Manocchio was able to make his way to New York City from time to time, going through great lengths to disguise himself, even dressing up as a woman to avoid capture.
It was in Europe Manocchio became an avid and risk-taking downhill skier. (Former investigators have said even in his older years, he would ski mountains that required a helicopter to get to.)
Ultimately it was Manocchio who turned himself in on July 13, 1979. It took four years for the trial to take place, with Manocchio prosecuted alongside five other defendants. He was convicted of both accessory to commit murder and conspiracy, and sent to the Adult Corrections Institution to serve two life sentences, plus 10 years for good measure.
O’Donnell was a correctional officer at the state prison in 1983 when he first met Manocchio, who was in custody on the murder charge. He said he initially mistook the organized crime figure for a lawyer.
“He was in a suit and tie holding a briefcase. He was on the way to court,” O’Donnell said. “He was very polished.”
Despite that polished image, O’Donnell said Manocchio was someone to be feared.
“Nobody should be misguided by the allure of Manocchio,” O’Donnell said.
But just two years into his prison sentence, a key witness against Manocchio was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and admitted to lying in another related case. It was a disaster for prosecutors. Manocchio was able to cut a deal, pleading no contest to conspiracy, and given credit for time served.
Manocchio was set free, and his underworld prestige soared.
Rise to boss
In the years following his release, Manocchio’s continued to climb in the ranks of the New England La Cosa Nostra. He became a “capo regime” — or captain — operating a crew of bookmakers, loan sharks and thieves in Rhode Island.
It was during that time that he forged a relationship with Salemme, who took the reins as boss after the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Raymond “Junior” Patriarca, the son of the man whose surname still adorns the crime family in New England. (The elder Patriarca died in 1984 of a heart attack.) Investigators in Boston captured photos of Manocchio and Salemme, who operated out of Boston, meeting on multiple occasions.
Being a rising star in the crime family, however, came with risks.
A federal case in Boston decades later revealed Manocchio was likely the target of an assassination attempt by notorious hitman Kevin Hanrahan. An FBI informant told investigators Hanrahan attempted to purchase explosives to be placed in a suitcase and sent into Federal Hill restaurant Euro Bistro, which Manocchio was allegedly a silent partner in and frequented.
But the dramatic hit on Manocchio’s life never happened.
In 1992 – shortly after the informant said Salemme hatched the plan – Hanrahan was shot multiple times in the head while walking out of another Atwells Avenue restaurant. Court documents in 2018 indicated former Rhode Island mob capo Robert “Bobby” DeLuca was poised to testify that Salemme ordered the hit and Manocchio helped plan it. Neither were charged and the case remains unsolved.
Following Salemme’s arrest as part of a sweeping 1995 indictment that also included infamous Irish gangster James J. “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, the center of New England’s organized crime universe shifted back to Providence: Manocchio was elevated to boss.
Multiple people familiar with Manocchio interviewed over the years described his style as “old school.” Manocchio was not seen being chauffeured around in a Cadillac or living in a lush suburban home while pulling the strings of a powerful ongoing criminal operation. Rather he drove himself around in an older model white Nissan Maxima and lived in a modest apartment above Euro Bistro.
Standing 5’9″, Manocchio was always in impeccable shape, described as a “health nut” by many observers. Undercover detectives and agents would often spy him rising early to jog several mornings a week around Triggs golf course in Providence, stopping at a specific tree to do a set of pull-ups, then continue his run. Possibly getting the bug from his years as a fugitive, Manocchio continued to be an avid traveler – a factor prosecutors would later cite in arguing to keep him detained following his final arrest.
In an interview in 2011, former state police detective Anthony Pesare said Manocchio “adhered to the historical Sicilian mobster image.”
“Maintain a low profile, don’t dress flashy, don’t make yourself a target by being showy,” Pesare said.
But that didn’t stop federal and state law enforcement from trying to pin a case on him.
In 1996 Manocchio got jammed up in an unlikely snafu: getting a new washer and dryer installed in his elderly mother’s house. The problem for Manocchio was that the appliances were stolen, and investigators said they were “tribute” payments as homage to his stature in the crime family.
But it wasn’t a major case, and in 1999 Manocchio pleaded no contest to the charges, receiving three years’ probation. From time to time his name would appear in federal court documents linked to other organized crime investigations – labeled by the FBI as boss – but he was never charged for his role as the reputed CEO of crime family. That changed in 2011.
Two years after agents Degnan and Cady surprised the aging Mafia don over his soup, Manocchio was arrested boarding a plane in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a return flight to Rhode Island.
He was instead taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service, and bounced around the country for weeks before being brought into U.S. District Court in Providence to face six federal counts including extortion, conspiracy, and RICO conspiracy. His decision to step down as mob boss had not spared him liability in a national crackdown into organized crime by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The thrust of the case against Manocchio was that he extorted protection payments from multiple Rhode Island strip clubs. The cash the FBI agents confiscated from Manocchio that night on Federal Hill contained marked bills which were traced back to the Cadillac Lounge in Providence.
In all, the multiyear joint federal and state investigation ensnared nine members or associates of the New England La Cosa Nostra, wiping out the upper echelons of the crime family and all but crippling its ability to operate like it had in decades past.
As part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Manocchio admitted guilt to one count of RICO conspiracy, and on May 11, 2012, U.S. District Judge William Smith sentenced the defendant to 5 1/2 years in prison. (He was given credit for time served as he had been in custody since his arrest.)
Three years later, Manocchio was released from a federal prison in North Carolina and placed on home confinement, and six months after that he was free to walk around Federal Hill once again. He completed his probation three years later.
“It’s been remarkable journey in La Cosa Nostra,” O’Donnell said. “For 80 years he lived in that life, that world.”
Details of the funeral arrangements have not yet been released.
https://www.wpri.com/target-12/manocchio-last-new-england-mob-boss-from-rhode-island-dead-at-97/
Saturday, December 7, 2024
Thursday, December 5, 2024
Monday, December 2, 2024
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Long Island gambling operation linked to Bonanno family busted
Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced the
indictments of five individuals for operating an illegal gambling
operation in Nassau County between September 2023 and April 2024.
DA Donnelly said that in July 2023 NCDA began a 14-month long
investigation, involving wire taps and other covert surveillance, into a
supposed illegal online sportsbook allegedly operated by Anthony
Frascone and Anthony Pellegrino.
According to the indictment, investigators discovered that between
September 2023 and April 2024, associates Joseph Pietaro – a former New
York City Police Officer – along with Philip Carucci and Frank LoNigro
allegedly operated as runners for the sports book, each having multiple
bettors under them.
Pellegrino allegedly established accounts through a website for the
runners with unique usernames and passwords. The runners allegedly used
these accounts to access and manage the bets of their bettors, as well
as to keep track of their profits, a portion of which they retained and a
portion of which were given to Pellegrino.
Pietaro, Carucci, and LoNigro, allegedly also supplied usernames and
passwords to bettors, and settled debts with bettors offline, in person.
The profits were then allegedly shared with Pellegrino, who was
responsible for keeping track of the figures related to the sports book.
Frascone, the alleged leader of the outfit, also kept records of and
received a portion of the profits generated from the sports book and,
according to the investigation, also shared a portion with other
associates in the Bronx.
“These five individuals allegedly operated a sophisticated online sports
betting operation in Nassau County, profiting off of hundreds of bets
that took place during the 14-month period of our investigation,” said
DA Donnelly. “One bettor alone owed more than $150,000 in debt to this
alleged operation, showing the breadth of this illegal book. My office
is committed to taking down illegal gambling networks and holding
accountable the bookkeepers, runners, and other agents who try to skirt
state laws toward their own selfish ends.”
NCDA determined that hundreds of bets were placed through the alleged
illegal gambling operation and runners accepted multiple bets for
thousands of dollars during the course of the investigation.
There are a limited number of licenses available in New York State for
the operation of legitimate sports books. These licensed sports books
are closely scrutinized, operate under strict guidelines from the state,
and a portion of their profits are subject to New York State taxes.
Anthony Frascone, 75, of East Meadow, was arraigned today before Judge
Robert Schwartz on seven counts of Promoting Gambling in the First
Degree (an E felony); Criminal Usury in the First Degree (a C felony);
Criminal Usury in the Second Degree (an E felony); 54 counts of
Promoting Gambling in the Second Degree (an A misdemeanor); Conspiracy
in the Fourth Degree (an E Felony); and Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree
(an A misdemeanor). The defendant pleaded not guilty and was released on
his own recognizance. He is due back in court on December 18, 2024.
Frascone faces up to five to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Anthony Pellegrino, 59, of Merrick, was arraigned today before Judge
Schwartz on seven counts of Promoting Gambling in the First Degree (an E
felony); Criminal Usury in the First Degree (a C felony); Criminal
Usury in the Second Degree (an E felony); 54 counts of Promoting
Gambling in the Second Degree (an A misdemeanor); Conspiracy in the
Fourth Degree (an E felony); and Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree (an A
misdemeanor). The defendant pleaded not guilty and was released on his
own recognizance. He is due back in court on December 19, 2024.
Pellegrino faces up to five to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Philip Carucci, 59, of Levittown, was arraigned today before Judge
Schwartz on charges of Promoting Gambling in the First Degree (an E
felony); Possession of Gambling Records in the First Degree (an E
felony) and Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree (an A misdemeanor). The
defendant pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognizance.
He is due back in court on December 18, 2024. Carucci faces up to one to
three years in prison if convicted.
Joseph Pietaro, 57, of West Islip, Suffolk County, was arraigned today
before Judge Schwartz on fifty counts of Promoting Gambling in the
Second Degree (an A misdemeanor) and one count of Conspiracy in the
Fifth Degree (an A misdemeanor). The defendant pleaded not guilty and
was released on his own recognizance. He is due back in court on
December 18, 2024. Pietaro faces up to one to three years in prison if
convicted.
Frank LoNigro, 51, of Merrick, was arraigned today before Judge Schwartz
on six counts of Promoting Gambling in the First Degree (an E felony);
one count of Promoting Gambling in the Second Degree (an A misdemeanor);
and one count of Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree (an A misdemeanor).
The defendant pleaded not guilty and was released on his own
recognizance. He is due back in court on December 19, 2024. LoNigro
faces up to one to three years in prison if convicted.
In addition to operating the illegal sports book, Pellegrino and
Frascone also allegedly engaged in illegal loansharking activities,
issuing a usurious loan to at least one individual for thousands of
dollars and penalizing him three points, or three percent interest, each
week over the life of the loan. The interest rate equates to an annual
interest percentage rate of approximately 156%.
Frascone also allegedly received a portion of the interest payments on
that loan after payments were made by the victim to Pellegrino.
The defendants all surrendered to NCDA Detective Investigators on November 7, 2024.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney
Kelsey Lorer of the Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau, under the
supervision of Bureau Chief Jeremy Glicksman and the overall supervision
of Executive Assistant District Attorney for the Investigations
Division Rick Whelan. Frascone is represented by Murray Richman, Esq.
Pellegrino is represented by Dennis Lemke, Esq. Pietaro is represented
by Michael Schillinger, Esq. Carucci is represented by Gregory Zak, Esq.
and LoNigro is represented by Eric Franz, Esq.
The charges are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless found guilty.
https://www.nassauda.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1716
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Ex-husband of Real Housewives of New Jersey star gets 7 years for hiring Lucchese Soldier to beat up new husband
Dina Manzo’s ex-husband was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison after being convicted of hiring a mobster to attack the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” alum’s new spouse.
The US Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced in a press release that Thomas “Tommy” Manzo was ordered to serve “84 months in prison for hiring, then assisting, a soldier in the Lucchese Crime Family to assault his ex-wife’s current husband.”
A jury convicted Tommy, 59, on June 4 of one count of committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering, one count of conspiracy to commit a violent crime in aid of racketeering and one count of falsifying and concealing documents related to a federal investigation.
In addition to prison time, Judge Susan D. Wigenton sentenced Tommy to three years of supervised release.
“Whether you’re actually in the Mafia or not, hiring the mob to assault someone because of your marital problems is abhorrent,” US Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said in a statement Tuesday. “Covering up the role you played only makes it worse. The jury’s verdict, and today’s sentence, make clear that this office will spare no resources to hold accountable anyone who commits such crimes.”
Dina, 52, has not publicly commented on her ex’s sentencing, but she did post a cryptic quote to her Instagram Story on Tuesday.
“Because at the end of the day, the right people fight for you. The right people show up. The right people care, not only when life is convenient, but when it is difficult and messy and it aches all over,” the quote read.
Tommy was accused of hiring Lucchese crime family member John Perna to physically assault Cantin, who Dina’s boyfriend at the time, at a strip mall parking lot in New Jersey in 2015.
Prosecutors claimed Tommy had hired Perna because he was “outraged that his former wife became romantically involved with another man.”
Perna was also convicted after pleading guilty in 2020 to committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity. He was released from prison in 2023.
“The facts and circumstances in this case read like something from a bad TV crime drama, but the evidence and testimony presented in court prove it was reality,” James E. Dennehy, the head of FBI’s Newark field office, said in a statement in June after Tommy’s guilty verdict.
Dina, who has not starred on “RHONJ” since 2014, married Cantin in 2017. They recently moved to Montecito, Calif.
https://pagesix.com/2024/10/16/celebrity-news/rhonj-dina-manzos-ex-tommy-sentenced-to-7-years-in-prison/Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Former DEA agent linked to Buffalo Mafia convicted of protecting drug traffickers
A former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Buffalo, New York, was convicted of corruption Thursday following a second trial on charges he used his position to protect drug traffickers he believed were associated with organized crime.
Jurors found Joseph Bongiovanni, 60, guilty on seven of the 11 counts he faced.
Prosecutors said Bongiovanni, for at least a decade, shielded childhood friends who became drug dealers and other suspects with ties to organized crime, tipping them off to investigations and falsifying DEA reports. He was accused of taking at least $250,000 in bribes that prosecutors said he used for necessities, as well as trips and other luxuries.
“This jury determined he was a corrupt federal agent,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi said at a news conference after the verdict, “and he violated his oath and duties to protect those that he should have been investigating and arresting.”
The case cast a harsh light on the DEA’s supervision of agents amid a string of corruption scandals at the agency. Bongiovanni is among at least 16 DEA agents brought up on federal charges since 2015. Many of the cases resulted in prison terms, including two former DEA supervisors sentenced in a Miami bribery scandal involving intelligence leaks to defense attorneys.
Bongiovanni was convicted of four counts of obstruction of justice, as well as single counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and making false statements to law enforcement.
Jurors acquitted him of a bribery charge, and additional fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges.
Bongiovanni’s attorney, Robert Singer, said he would appeal.
Thursday’s verdict comes after a jury in April convicted the former Buffalo agent of lying to federal authorities about a DEA file he kept at home, but could not not reach agreement on most other charges.
During a retrial on the unresolved counts that began Aug. 5, jurors heard from more than 60 witnesses.
Bongiovanni did not testify at either trial.
“This was a hard fought road to justice,” U.S. Attorney Trini Ross said. “But in the end we got there.”
The case is part of a sex-trafficking prosecution involving the Pharoah’s Gentlemen’s Club outside Buffalo. Bongiovanni was childhood friends with the strip club’s owner, Peter Gerace Jr., who authorities say has close ties to both the Buffalo Mafia and the violent Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Gerace is awaiting trial on numerous charges, including that he bribed Bongiovanni. He has pleaded not guilty.
Judge Lawrence Vilardo allowed Bongiovanni to remain out of custody but required him to wear an ankle monitor pending sentencing June 9. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
https://apnews.com/article/dea-corruption-bongiovanni-organized-crime-837b08fc6e1ed59c8ba752d9f6b857a7
Jury finds Bonanno Soldier guilty of extortion and threatening turncoat debtor
A Bonanno crime-family member who threatened to “slap the s–t out” of a turncoat and then forced him to strip butt naked to find a wire was found guilty of extortion Friday by a Brooklyn federal jury.
John Ragano, a hulking solider nicknamed “The Maniac,” was convicted following a four-day trial where the mobster was caught on tape threatening to beat down Vincent Martino, a mob informant who owed him $150,000 in illegal loans.
The July 2023 recording was captured just five days before Ragano was sent to prison on a separate racketeering conviction — when the portly gangster met Martino, who accused Ragano, 62, of being a rat in the back of A&G Auto Dismantlers in Ridgewood.
The Mafioso can be heard acting dumbfounded by Martino’s accusation before he accuses the mob associate of wearing a wire and demanding him to drop his trow.
“Then take off your f–king shit right now, man. Take off your f–king pants right now,” a raging Ragano says in the recording.
“Let me see — I want to see. I don’t have a wire on me either.”
Martino testified Wednesday that his pants were around his ankles and his shirt as the made man searched for a wire and continued lacing him, telling him he was going to “f–king slap the shit out of [him]” if he ratted him out to the feds.
“You owe me my f–king money. Let’s see how you’re going to do when I get out,” Ragano seethes in the recording.
The strip search failed to find the hidden microphone, which was attached to Martino’s clothes, prosecutors said.
Martino, a mob associate, said that he noticed two men were approaching him from behind with what appeared to be a tire iron and another metal weapon so he grabbed his pants and ran to his car to call the feds — as Ragano’s last words on the recording warn Martino that he knows where he lives.
Martino was one of the key witnesses at trial after he found himself $275,000 in the hole to the mob after taking a series of loans out when he fell on hard times.
He said he began cooperating with the feds to dig himself out of the debt hole to the mob.
Ragano, who’s serving a nearly five year sentence for the racketeering, was acquitted of extortion conspiracy, witness harassment and witness tampering.
“The defendant’s extortion of a victim while on pre-trial release, carried out even in the sanctity of the federal courthouse, is an affront to the criminal justice system and a glaring example of this Bonanno mobster’s flagrant disrespect for the law,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. “With today’s verdict, the jury has delivered a clear message that the rule of law will prevail over extortionate threats.”
The wiseguy will be sentenced at a later date and faces up to 20 years in prison.
https://nypost.com/2024/10/11/us-news/bonanno-wiseguy-convicted-of-threatening-forcing-turncoat-to-strip-naked-over-debt/
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Bonanno Soldier forced loan sharking victim to strip naked
A Bonanno crime-family soldier called “The Maniac” forced one of his loan-sharking victims to get naked to see if he was wearing a wire, barking, “Take off your f–king pants right now!” prosecutors said Tuesday.
John Ragano, 62, allegedly made associate Vincent Martino strip while threatening to “slap the s–t out of him” if he was wearing a wire for the feds during a meeting July 5, 2023, just five days before Ragano was to be sent to prison in a Brooklyn federal racketeering case.
“OK, well, then take off your f–king s–t right now, my man. Take off your f–king pants right now, lemme see, I want to see,” a raging Ragano allegedly instructed Martino at his office when the underling denied being wired up.
Martino, who apparently had a wire on his clothes, followed Ragano’s instructions — and somehow still managed to secretly record the whole meeting anyway, even as he stood naked while two other men stood behind him with a crowbar and another with a tire iron, federal prosecutors have said.
“John Ragano forced a man who owed money to strip naked in a garage in Queens and threatened to slap the s–t out of him,” federal prosecutor Andrew Reich said at the beginning of Ragano’s trial in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Another mob associate, Broadway-show-tunes singer-turned-criminal Andrew Koslosky, 66, testified that he collected loan payments from Martino for Ragano — who he painted as a hair-trigger-tempered “big fella.
“He made it clear that people didn’t want to cross him,” Koslosky said.
During Kolosky’s testimony, jurors were shown a photo of how he recorded payments in an envelope named “Italian” — while another photo showed stacks of cash amounting to $6,200 that was paid by Martino in April 2021.
“When he put his fist down on the desk, the whole room shook,” Koslosky said of Ragano, who is charged with extortion, harassing a witness and witness tampering.
Martino — who went into the marijuana trafficking business with Ragano — had taken a $150,000 loan from Ragano in February 2021 and he agreed to pay $2,050 in interest per week until the loan was paid off in full in cash, according to prosecutors.
But Martino stopped making payments at some point, and he began working with the feds in March 2023, when he agreed to start recording any conversations he had with Ragano and his debt collectors, Reich said.
Martino went on to make a slew of $1,000 payments after cooperating with the feds, but in June 2023, he was told by one of Ragano’s guys that the Mafioso wanted to discuss “an issue” with the loan in person, prosecutors alleged.
Martino then met with Ragano that July 5 and told Ragano that he wanted to stop repaying the loan.
Both men accused each other of working for the feds before Ragano made him strip off his clothes, according to court papers.
The alleged shakedown came just five days before Ragano was to report to prison for nearly five years after pleading guilty to extortion charges in November 2022.
Martino testified late Tuesday that he resorted to taking “street loans” — slang for taking cash from the Mafia — during the pandemic in 2020 after falling on hard times when his construction company failed to take off in 2018.
He racked up $125,000 in debt from members of the Colombo crime family before turning to the Bonannos for another $150,000 because he was falling behind on debt payments, Martino testified.
Martino wound up owing the mob $275,000, according to prosecutors.
Both Ragano and Martino were named in a major racketeering case that took down the Colombos — including boss Andrew “Mush” Russo — related to the infiltration of a Queens labor union in 2021.
Martino pleaded guilty in the same case in December 2022 to conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
Ragano, also known by the nickname “Bazoo,” had previously served a 10-year prison stint after he was convicted in state court for kidnapping in 1999.
Martino will continue testifying Wednesday as he details how he snitched on Ragano.
Ragano’s lawyer, Ken Womble, admitted to jurors that Ragano was a member of the Mafia while downplaying the intimidation tactics alleged by prosecutors in his opening statements.
“This is a case about money amongst mobsters. That’s the whole story of this case,” Womble said, adding that “asking for a loan to be paid back is not a crime at all.
https://nypost.com/2024/10/08/us-news/bonanno-wiseguy-john-ragano-forced-loan-shark-victim-to-strip-naked-feds/
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Longtime wealthy Genovese associate is union boss resposible for nationwide port strike
Harold Daggett — the union boss who has vowed to “cripple” the US economy if ports don’t ban automation and raise dockworkers’ wages sharply — had a Bentley convertible parked outside his sprawling mansion in New Jersey this week, exclusive photos obtained by The Post reveal.
Photos taken by drone on Tuesday show the British luxury car parked with its top up outside what appears to be a five-car garage that’s connected to his 7,136-square-foot, Tudor-style home by a covered skyway.
The hulking, two-story mansion — located on a 10-acre property in Sparta, a leafy enclave 50 miles west of New York City — encircles a spacious backyard patio with an amoeba-shaped pool. A covered outdoor bar is situated next to what appears to be a massive, brick pizza oven.
A gate on the far side of the patio opens toward what looks like a free-standing sauna surrounded by a spacious wooden deck. A expansive swathe of forest surrounds the property on all sides.
The posh compound is nestled in a picturesque section of the Garden State near the Delaware Water Gap, where five-bedroom homes list for as much as $6 million, according to Zillow.
One realtor who spoke to The Post said that Daggett put the four-bedroom, six-and-a-half bathroom property on the market in 2004 at a listing price of $3.1 million before reducing it to $2.9 million. He eventually took it off the market.
Daggett, who fought back federal accusation of having Mafia ties, became president of the International Longshoremen’s Association in 2011, a job that comes with a salary of $728,000 annually on top of an additional $173,000 from ILA-Local 1804-1.
In 2005, he was accused of steering union benefits contracts to firms that paid kickbacks to organized crime at a Brooklyn trial, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Daggett took the witness stand that year after federal prosecutors charged him and two others with racketeering.
He described himself as a target of the mob – though a turncoat Mafia member had testified Daggett was a member of the Genovese crime family, The New York Times reported.
During the course of the trial, one of Daggett’s co-defendants – Lawrence Ricci, an alleged Genovese associate – disappeared. His body was found weeks later decomposing in the trunk of a car outside a New Jersey diner.
Ricci’s death remained unsolved, though speculation circulated that he was killed after refusing to plead guilty to avoid news reports of the trial.
Daggett was acquitted, along with the other co-defendants.
The 78-year-old boss — who is often seen in public sporting a polo shirt and a chunky gold medallion around his neck while casting himself as a staunch advocate for blue-collar workers — also previously owned a 76-foot yacht, according to reports.
“They’re gonna be like this,” Daggett said, grabbing his neck in a choking gesture during an interview last month as it became apparent that the union and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), the group negotiating for the ports, would fail to reach agreement on a new contract.
“I’ll cripple you. I will cripple you and you have no idea what that means. Nobody does,” he said.
The foul-mouthed union boss has apparently dug in his heels for a protracted strike.
“I don’t have a f—ing crystal ball between my legs, but it will last very long, I would tell you that,” he told The Wall Street Journal.
More than 45,000 dockworkers went on strike on Tuesday, shutting down 36 ports from Maine to Texas for the first time in nearly half a century.
The dockworkers’ strike, their first since 1977, could snarl supply chains and cause shortages and higher prices if it stretches on for more than a few weeks. It is also costing the US economy more than $3 billion per day.
Beginning after midnight, the workers walked picket lines Tuesday and carried signs calling for more money and a ban on automation that could cost workers their jobs.
Experts say consumers won’t likely notice shortages for at least a few weeks, if the strike lasts that long, though some perishable items such as bananas could disappear from grocery stores — although at this time of year, most other fruits and vegetables are domestically grown and not processed at ports, according to Alan Siger, president of the Produce Distributors Association.
In anticipation of a strike, most major retailers also stocked up on goods, moving ahead shipments of holiday gift items.
The USMX said both sides did budge from their initial positions.
The alliance offered 50% raises over the six-year life of the contract.
Comments from the union’s leadership had briefly suggested a move to 61.5%, but the union has since signaled that it’s sticking with its initial demand for a 77% pay increase over six years.
“We have demonstrated a commitment to doing our part to end the completely avoidable ILA strike,” the alliance said Tuesday.
The ports’ pay offer is more than every other recent union settlement, the group said.
“We look forward to hearing from the Union about how we can return to the table and actually bargain, which is the only way to reach a resolution,” the statement said.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration put pressure on port employers to raise their offer to secure a deal with dockworkers.
Administration officials led by Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su have been urging both sides to return to the bargaining table.
https://nypost.com/2024/10/02/business/harold-daggetts-sprawling-nj-mansion-has-bentley-5-car-garage-and-guest-house/
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Grandson of deceased Gambino Boss pleads guilty to COVID relief fraud
The grandson of John Gotti, the infamous former boss of the Gambino crime family, pleaded guilty on Thursday to fraudulently collecting more than $1 million in Covid disaster relief loans, much of which he invested in cryptocurrency.
The grandson, Carmine G. Agnello Jr., 38, was arraigned on Thursday in a federal courthouse in Central Islip, Long Island, on charges of wire fraud. Mr. Agnello faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $2.2 million.
Breon S. Peace, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement that Mr. Agnello had “shamefully” used the pandemic “as an opportunity to line his pockets.”
On Thursday, Mr. Agnello appeared alert and solemn as he entered his plea in court, answering the judge in one-word answers. He stood beside his lawyer, James R. Froccaro Jr., wearing a blue checkered blazer and a white silk pocket square. His hair was pulled back in a bun, and he had a fading tan. He appeared anxious, until his mother, Victoria Gotti, arrived in court.
Ms. Gotti sat behind her son in the gallery, wearing knee-high patent leather boots and carrying a Louis Vuitton bag. At one point, she wiped tears from her eyes. While being questioned by the judge, Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, about the bond, Ms. Gotti described her son as “my song.”
After the proceedings, Mr. Agnello left the federal courthouse under a cloudy sky, declining to speak with reporters before driving off in a Mercedes Maybach.
Mr. Agnello’s grandfather, who died in 2002, seized control of the Gambino family in a murderous coup and went on to run the organization through the late 1980s, when it was the nation’s most powerful crime ring.
Mr. Agnello’s mother, a novelist and a former columnist for The New York Post, married his father, Carmine "the Bull" Agnello, another Gambino family mobster, in 1984. The pair divorced in the early 2000s, not long after the elder Mr. Agnello had been sentenced to prison.
A former Gambino family associate reportedly testified in 2007 that about three decades earlier, Mr. Gotti had ordered him to wound Mr. Agnello after learning that Mr. Agnello had beaten up his daughter; the associate said he shot him in the rear. Ms. Gotti called the accusation a lie.
The junior Mr. Agnello starred alongside his mother and his two brothers, Frank and John, in “Growing Up Gotti,” a reality television show showcasing their Long Island mansion, its marble-and-leopard-skin décor and their unique family life. The show ran for three seasons on A&E, starting in 2004, before it was canceled.
The charges against Mr. Agnello concern a scheme that began in April 2020, when he fraudulently applied for at least three loans through a Covid-era relief program that provided loans for small businesses affected by the pandemic. Mr. Agnello applied on behalf of Crown Auto Parts & Recycling L.L.C., a Queens-based business he operated.
In order to get the loans, prosecutors say, Mr. Agnello submitted documents with false information, including his intended use for the loans. He also submitted a statement saying that he did not have a criminal record, despite charges against him from an earlier case.
Between April 2020 and November 2021, prosecutors say, Mr. Agnello stole $1.1 million in relief funds from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which he used to line his pockets — for example, by investing about $420,000 in a cryptocurrency business.
He is due back in court for his sentencing on May 7.
The charges are not Mr. Agnello’s first brush with law enforcement officials.
In 2018, Mr. Agnello was charged with operating an unlicensed scrapyard in Queens and falsifying business records, according to news reports. In that case, Mr. Agnello was accused of crushing hundreds of vehicles at his business, LSM Auto Parts & Recycling, with no license to do so. Mr. Agnello pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and served no prison time for the charges.
This July, Mr. Agnello’s business agreed to pay at least $210,000 in fines and clean up toxic fluids that had leaked out of the business's scrap yard in Queens, according to a settlement announced by the New York attorney general, Letitia James.
But scrapyard schemes, it seems, are something of a family trait.
In January 2000, Mr. Agnello’s father was indicted on federal charges that he had used strong-arm tactics to dominate a lucrative scrap-metal industry in the Willets Point neighborhood of Queens. The senior Mr. Agnello, who prosecutors said ran the Gambino family’s car theft ring, was charged after threatening a rival scrap company in Queens that was actually run by the Police Department as part of a sting operation.
He later pleaded guilty to federal racketeering and tax charges and was sentenced in October 2001 to nine years in prison.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/26/nyregion/gotti-grandson-guilty-plea.html
Flipped Bonanno Captain dies in Florida while in witness protection
The first domino to fall in the Bonanno crime family was Frank Coppa, a corpulent capo who once survived a car-bomb attack and procured fried chicken for hungry hit men before an execution.
In 2002, he was serving time for securities fraud when he was indicted on racketeering and extortion charges. Facing an even longer prison sentence, he notified the F.B.I. that he wanted to cooperate with the government.
It was the first time a Bonanno member had flipped, violating the mafia’s solemn oath of loyalty, Omertà.
Mr. Coppa’s decision to cooperate with federal prosecutors, knowingly putting his life at risk, led at least 10 other members to do the same and ultimately helped the government convict Joseph Massino, the Bonanno boss, of seven murder charges and immobilize his mafia family.
“Coppa’s cooperation was the first major development in a series of prosecutions which, during their course, resulted in the indictment of virtually every high-ranking member of the Bonanno family,” Amy Busa, a federal prosecutor, wrote in court papers. “Coppa’s cooperation with the government has been truly historic.”
In return, Mr. Coppa was sentenced to time served and entered the federal government’s witness protection program. He died on Oct. 17, 2023, at his home in Sarasota, Fla., according to a death certificate obtained by The New York Times. No cause was listed. He was 82.
His death was first reported last month by “The Sit Down: A Crime History Podcast,” a popular show for aficionados of mafia history.
After Mr. Coppa decided to flip, F.B.I. agents took him to the bureau’s training facility in Quantico, Va., where he spent two weeks explaining the inner workings of the Bonanno family and narrating gruesome details of multiple murders, including two he helped set up.
In 2004, he testified in federal court against Mr. Massino, a close friend whose own rotundity was sneered at in the tabloid newspapers that were feasting on details spilling out of the trial, in Brooklyn.
The Daily News noted that Mr. Coppa had “turned over personal photos of the two fatsos vacationing together in Europe.” The New York Post columnist Steve Dunleavy called Mr. Coppa a “mob turncoat” who “rolled over like a circus dog on a raft of wiseguys.”
Mr. Coppa, known as Big Frank, spent two days on the witness stand describing a world seemingly drawn from a Mario Puzo novel, with characters nicknamed Bobby Wheelchairs, Sally Bagel, Gene the Hat, Patty from the Bronx and Little Nicky Eyeglasses.
At times, it got testy.
“How did you force people to do things, Mr. Coppa?” Mr. Massino’s defense lawyer asked, according to the trial transcript. “You don’t look like such a tough guy.”
“I don’t?” Mr. Coppa replied.
The proceedings were also banal, harrowing and surreal — sometimes all at once.
One afternoon in 1978, Mr. Coppa testified, he left a bagel shop he had invested in and tried to get into his car.
“What happened?” a prosecutor asked.
“I got blown up,” Mr. Coppa said.
“How were you injured?” a prosecutor said.
“Severely,” Mr. Coppa said. “Blown apart.”
He spent several months in a hospital recovering. He suspected that the bomber was another underworld figure with whom he was having a dispute. Mr. Coppa sent several Bonanno members to kill the man. They shot him five times in his driveway in Staten Island. He survived.
A few months later, the man called Mr. Coppa.
“He was trying to see if I did it,” Mr. Coppa testified. “I told him, ‘Don’t worry about it, go about your life.’” He added, “I wasn’t sure if he did it, and I was sorry that I had him shot.”
Mr. Coppa also detailed his role in the death of Dominick Napolitano, a Bonanno member, known as Sony Black, who was executed in 1981 for unwittingly connecting the family with an undercover F. B.I agent, Joseph D. Pistone, who used the alias Donnie Brasco. Mr. Pistone later wrote a book about that experience and was played by Johnny Depp in “Donnie Brasco,” a 1997 film adaptation.
The night of Mr. Napolitano’s murder, Mr. Coppa testified, he had bought fried chicken for the hit men as they prepared for the execution, at a Bonanno member’s house in Queens.
It happened while Mr. Massino waited in a car nearby. Mr. Coppa, guarding the home’s front door, let Mr. Napolitano in for a prearranged meeting in the basement. Mr. Coppa testified that he heard three shots soon after they descended the stairs — one, then a pause, then two more. It turned out that one of the assassin’s guns had jammed. The other Bonanno associate finished the job.
“He died like a man,” Mr. Coppa testified.
Though he carried a .38-caliber revolver most of his life, Mr. Coppa was never accused of pulling the trigger in a murder. His toughness, especially when it came to doing time, was questionable. He acknowledged in court that when he went to prison for the first time, in 1992, he cried uncontrollably for days.
Among law enforcement officials, Mr. Coppa was known as a clever wise guy. He made millions of dollars for himself and the Bonanno family in pump-and-dump schemes, boosting the value of penny stocks to quickly turn a profit. He also shook down underworld figures outside the Bonanno family who were engaging in securities fraud.
“He was one of the smartest mob guys you’re ever going to meet,” a former F.B.I. agent involved in the case said in an interview on the condition of anonymity so that he could speak about the investigation. “He understood how to engineer these financial frauds. He was at a completely different level when it came to most of these guys.”
The former agent said he believed that Mr. Coppa had been remorseful.
“One of the reasons he cooperated is that I think he regretted his participation in the violent stuff when he was younger,” the official said. “He lived off that reputation for many years. But he was actually likable in a way.”
Frank Coppa was born on Sept. 11, 1941, in Brooklyn, according to his death certificate, which listed his parents as Michael Coppa and Marianna Mattera.
During his testimony, Mr. Coppa sketched out a blue-collar upbringing. He said his father was a stevedore. As a teenager, Frank waited tables and bagged groceries. His first arrest was when he was 19, charged with burglarizing a clothing store. He later drove school buses, he testified.
Mr. Coppa testified that he met Mr. Massino in 1977 at the Fulton Fish Market, in the Bronx, and that he became a soldier in the Bonanno family not long after, joining a criminal enterprise founded and ruled by Joseph Bonanno for more than three decades until the mid-1960s. The two men became close friends, even vacationing with their wives in Monte Carlo and Paris, where Mr. Massino bought Mr. Coppa rosary beads to carry in his wallet.
Mr. Massino was convicted in the 2004 trial and received two life sentences. Not long after, he decided to cooperate with the government, serving as a prosecution witness against other mafia figures. He was released into the witness protection program and died last year.
Details of Mr. Coppa’s life after working with the F.B.I. are unclear.
During Mr. Massino’s trial, Mr. Coppa said he hoped the government would let him keep about $2 million that he had stashed away, along with several homes and vehicles. It is believed that Mr. Coppa left the witness protection program years ago, when the depleted Bonanno crime family was no longer a threat to his life.
Public records listed him as residing in Sarasota in a high-rise condominium, which his wife, Marguerite Coppa, purchased in 2010 for $457,500, according to the deed.
Information about his survivors was not available.
While on the witness stand, Mr. Coppa testified about his induction into the Bonanno crime family. He was taken to an apartment in Brooklyn, where he waited in a bathroom as the leadership team inducted other new members in the living room.
Soon it was his turn. He joined hands with the leaders.
“What was the oath that you took?” the prosecutor asked.
“Oath of silence,” Mr. Coppa said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/26/nyregion/frank-coppa-dead.html
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