Bonanno Crime Family Linked to BetonSports

Friends of ours: Bonanno Crime Family

A newspaper in Costa Rica is reporting that BetOnSports is linked to the Mafia. They state, "a year ago, New York and federal officials busted a $360 million gambling operation linked to the mob and to a sports book in Costa Rica. It turns out the sports book, being used as a virtual wire room for persons linked to the Bonanno Mafia crime family, according to New York officials, was part of the BetonSports operation, using the name Safe Deposit Sports. The administrative contact for safedepositsports.com was Pablo Quiros Valenciano, who has a betonsports.com e-mail address, according to a lookup of the Safe Deposit Internet domain.

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Overheard: Mafia Weather

The Weather Channel reported a power outage in New York's LaGuardia Airport last week due to record-high heat. It's really bad back East. In New Jersey, three guys suffocated inside a car trunk before they could die of their gunshot wounds.

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Keep Family Business Out of Trial Say Reputed Mobster's Attorneys

Friends of ours: Frank Calabrese Sr., Nicholas W. Calabrese, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo
Friends of mine: Frank Calabrese Jr.

Attorneys for a reputed mobster said Friday it would be "morally repugnant" for jurors at his upcoming trial to hear about telephone conversations with his wife that were tapped by federal investigators.

"This case involves enough of a distasteful spectacle due to the fact that the defendant's son and brother may testify against him," attorneys for Frank Calabrese Sr. said in papers filed in U.S. District Court. Calabrese, 69, of Oak Brook is among 14 defendants charged in the FBI's wide-ranging Operation Family Secrets investigation of 18 mob murders that went unsolved for years.

Brother Nicholas W. Calabrese, 63, of Chicago also is charged and son Frank Calabrese Jr. may take the witness stand at the trial currently scheduled for May 2007. Calabrese Jr. is not charged in the case.

The court papers said it would be "morally repugnant to see the defendant's spouse on the witness stand and the government attempting to reveal confidences" that were exchanged in telephone talks between them while she was at home and he was in the federal prison at Milan, Mich. "These conversations revolved around family matters and other family business," the court papers said. One such discussion in May 2000 concerned an alleged break-in at wife Diane Calabrese's Wisconsin home.

The Family Secrets case is the result of the biggest mob investigation in the Chicago area in decades. Among the murders involved is that of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, the Chicago "Outfit's" longtime man in Las Vegas, who was killed and buried in an Indiana cornfield in an act of mob vengeance.

Defendants include Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, the reputed mobster known for his zany sense of humor who went on the lam after the indictment was returned and became the target of an intense FBI manhunt. Agents captured him in suburban Elmwood Park in January.

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