FBI raids Staten Island home of self proclaimed boss of the Genovese family
The FBI is investigating a gun-toting, self-proclaimed Genovese mob “boss” who has drugged two girlfriends since 2018, court papers claim.
A search warrant for the Staten Island home of Stephen “Stevie Westside” Blanco quietly unsealed in Brooklyn Federal Court details the feds’ ongoing investigation for illegal gun possession, gambling and interstate stalking. The probe began in June when one of Blanco’s exes walked into an NYPD precinct on the island’s south shore.
“Blanco often carried a firearm and large amounts of cash. Blanco told her, on more than one occasion, that he was a member of organized crime,” FBI Special Agent Joseph Costello wrote in a July 23 document in federal court explaining the investigation.
Blanco “frequently boasted...about being a member and ’boss’ in the Genovese organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra,” the agent wrote. Blanco allegedly told the woman, who was not identified in papers, that he was inducted into the family around the same time as Frank Cali, the reputed head of the Gambino crime family who was gunned down in front of his family home last year.
Notably, the FBI agent does not write that he believes Blanco is actually a mobster.
Reached by phone, Blanco said the feds had the wrong guy and did not search his home. He said he has a pistol permit and no criminal record. “I have a fiancee. I have no idea what all this is,” Blanco said.
His former flame told cops Blanco kept a gun hidden behind a bidet in the second floor of his Ashland Ave. home and a second handgun in a Louis Vuitton handbag stashed in the trunk of his car.
The woman rekindled a romance with Blanco from 2018 to March 2019 and tagged along with him while he collected debts for a Costa Rica-based gambling operation, she said. The relationship took a darker turn when Blanco persuaded her to keep $20,900 in cash at his house, she said. Blanco later told her he gave the money to a neighbor for a piece of property and that she’d agreed to the deal the prior evening, according to the filing. The woman believed Blanco drugged her.
“You know who I am... you’re not going to f--k me, right?” Blanco allegedly told the woman in June 2020 as he returned some of her belongings.
A neighbor of Blanco’s who declined to be named said the FBI and NYPD blocked her driveway while searching his home about a month ago.
“I wish them well. Hopefully everything is okay. We just want to live in peace. That’s what everyone wants. With all the crap that’s going on now, he’s the least of our problems. This city has gone nuts. We need to support the cops. It’s getting ridiculous. You can’t let the criminals rule the streets,” the neighbor said.
Another of Blanco’s ex-girlfriends told authorities she had an abusive relationship with him between 2017 and 2018, according to the FBI agent.
“Woman-2 believed BLANCO frequently drugged her by serving her drinks mixed with Xanax,” the agent wrote.
That relationship ended in November 2018 after Blanco allegedly texted her an audio clip of him raping her while she was under the influence, according to the filing.
The NYPD confirmed a 57-year-old woman had filed a harassment complaint against Blanco at that time, but no arrest was made.
Papers indicate Blanco was convicted in 1999 of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-genovese-staten-raid-20200905-isuqj655ejcm7doloihtcdkure-story.html
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