FBI and Brooklyn federal prosecutors attend Mafia summit in Italy
Handout picture of Frank Cali released on February 7, 2008 by Italian Police THE FEDS and Italian law enforcement officials convened a summit in Rome and Palermo last week targeting Mafia families on both sides of the Atlantic, the Daily News has learned.A U.S. contingent — led by Janice Fedarcyk, the FBI’s assistant director who heads the New York office, and Belle Chen, the head of the office’s organized crime section — held five days of meetings with their counterparts in Italy.
Four agents and three federal prosecutors from the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office also participated.
“Authorities from both countries are mindful that there are business relations between members of organized crime groups in Italy and New York City,” said FBI spokesman James Margolin.
There were discussions about ongoing investigations and “operational” matters at the high-level sitdowns, two other sources told The News.
Margolin declined to comment on the substance of the trip or whether a mob takedown is imminent.
Italian police were part of the historic roundup of more than 100 mobsters in the U.S. in January 2011 and the takedown of 62 members and associates of the Gambino crime family in 2008.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have identified Sicilian-born gangster Domenico "Dom from 18th Ave" Cefalu as the current boss of the Gambino family. Cefalu lives with his mother in Bensonhurst and holds a job as a salesman for a baking company. His lawyer could not be reached for comment.
Two powerful Gambino capos, Bartolomeo "Baboots" Vernace and Frank Cali, also have roots in Sicily. Cali is related by marriage to members of the Inzerillo crime family in Palermo.
During the visit, the New York feds attended a memorial service marking the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Italian Judge Giovanni Falcone, who was killed by a roadside bomb gangsters planted.
All five New York crime families have ties to the old country to varying degrees, but the Gambinos currently have the strongest.
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