The former best friend of John A. "Junior" Gotti says that the famous mob offspring collected drug money and ordered shootings of rivals.
Gambino crime family associate John Alite testified about Gotti's alleged misdeeds on Monday at the Brooklyn trial of a Gambino soldier accused of murder. Alite took the stand as part of a plea deal.
He told the jury that on orders from Gotti, he drove a car used in a drive-by shooting in the 1980s. He also claimed Gotti, son of notorious Gambino boss John Gotti, collected monthly cash payments from a drug-dealing operation.
Alite is expected to be a key government witness when Gotti goes on trial later this year. Gotti is charged with involvement in three gangland murders and cocaine trafficking.
Thanks to Newsday
Showing posts with label Junior Gotti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Junior Gotti. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Did "Sammy the Bull" Spare Junior Gotti to Save His Own Son?
John A. (Junior) Gotti's role in a 1990 rubout at the World Trade Center was a gangland secret for years because of a "son for a son" deal between his father and a Mafia turncoat, a government witness revealed Monday.
Before federal prosecutors charged Junior last year with the murder of Gambino soldier Louis DiBono, the mob scion's name had never surfaced in connection with the hit ordered by John Gotti Sr.
That's because infamous turncoat Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano - who implicated the Dapper Don, underboss Frank Locascio and others in the murder conspiracy - never fingered Junior, and apparently with good reason, according to former capo Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo.
"Guys were going away for a long time and others were being left out. It was a mystery," DiLeonardo said Monday at the racketeering trial of reputed soldier Charles Carneglia in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Gambino capo Edward Garafola - Gravano's brother-in-law - provided the answer about a year after the murder, DiLeonardo said.
Although Gravano sent scores of Gambinos to prison, he spared Junior in a "son for a son" deal with Gotti Sr. in the hope that his own son, Gerard, would not be punished for his father's decision to break the Mafia oath of silence.
"It was the first time I learned that John Jr. was involved in the [DiBono] hit," DiLeonardo said.
Gotti Sr. was convicted in 1992 of ordering the murder of DiBono because he had ignored an order to meet with the crime boss when called.
Junior - who faces his own upcoming murder trial - assembled the hit team, prosecutors contend in court papers.
Carneglia is charged with sneaking up behind DiBono in the World Trade Center garage and pumping seven bullets into his head and body.
The reason Gravano did not implicate Carneglia at the time he fingered Gotti Sr. was not disclosed.
Although DiLeonardo has testified in 10 previous trials, he had not previously revealed the alleged son for a son deal. "It is implausible that after testifying against John [Jr.] three times, DiLeonardo suddenly remembered information about a murder charge," said Junior's attorney, Seth Ginsberg.
At the time he took the stand against the Teflon Don, Gravano was the highest ranking member of a Mafia family ever to cooperate with the feds.
Prosecutors ripped up Gravano's deal after he was caught trafficking Ecstasy pills with his wife, son and daughter in the witness protection program in Arizona. He is serving a 19-year sentence in the federal Supermax prison in Colorado. Gerard Gravano has nearly completed a nine-year term.
Thanks to John Marzulli
Before federal prosecutors charged Junior last year with the murder of Gambino soldier Louis DiBono, the mob scion's name had never surfaced in connection with the hit ordered by John Gotti Sr.
That's because infamous turncoat Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano - who implicated the Dapper Don, underboss Frank Locascio and others in the murder conspiracy - never fingered Junior, and apparently with good reason, according to former capo Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo.
"Guys were going away for a long time and others were being left out. It was a mystery," DiLeonardo said Monday at the racketeering trial of reputed soldier Charles Carneglia in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Gambino capo Edward Garafola - Gravano's brother-in-law - provided the answer about a year after the murder, DiLeonardo said.
Although Gravano sent scores of Gambinos to prison, he spared Junior in a "son for a son" deal with Gotti Sr. in the hope that his own son, Gerard, would not be punished for his father's decision to break the Mafia oath of silence.
"It was the first time I learned that John Jr. was involved in the [DiBono] hit," DiLeonardo said.
Gotti Sr. was convicted in 1992 of ordering the murder of DiBono because he had ignored an order to meet with the crime boss when called.
Junior - who faces his own upcoming murder trial - assembled the hit team, prosecutors contend in court papers.
Carneglia is charged with sneaking up behind DiBono in the World Trade Center garage and pumping seven bullets into his head and body.
The reason Gravano did not implicate Carneglia at the time he fingered Gotti Sr. was not disclosed.
Although DiLeonardo has testified in 10 previous trials, he had not previously revealed the alleged son for a son deal. "It is implausible that after testifying against John [Jr.] three times, DiLeonardo suddenly remembered information about a murder charge," said Junior's attorney, Seth Ginsberg.
At the time he took the stand against the Teflon Don, Gravano was the highest ranking member of a Mafia family ever to cooperate with the feds.
Prosecutors ripped up Gravano's deal after he was caught trafficking Ecstasy pills with his wife, son and daughter in the witness protection program in Arizona. He is serving a 19-year sentence in the federal Supermax prison in Colorado. Gerard Gravano has nearly completed a nine-year term.
Thanks to John Marzulli
Monday, February 02, 2009
Memo to Mobsters: Don't "Adopt" Anyone - He May Turn Out to be a Rat
Memo to mobsters: Don't "adopt" anyone - he may turn out to be a rat.
John A. (Junior) Gotti learned that the hard way with "adopted" son Lewis Kasman, who taped Gotti family meetings for the feds.
Reputed killer Charles Carneglia is about to get a taste of the same medicine with "adopted" kid brother Kevin McMahon.
Both mob turncoats are to testify in Carneglia's ongoing murder trial in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Kasman, a former Long Island garment exec who wormed his way into Gotti's inner circle and called himself the adopted son of the late Gambino crime boss, wasn't close to Carneglia.
McMahon was as close as you can get without being a relative. "When Kevin walks into that courtroom I would expect Charles will want to jump over the table and strangle him," a law enforcement official said.
McMahon was not only a member of Carneglia's crime crew, he was like a member of the Carneglia family.
In 1980, McMahon was a 12-year-old Irish kid from Howard Beach "at the beginning of his long and extraordinarily close relationship" with Charles Carneglia and his brother John, court papers show. McMahon is 20 years younger than Charles, 62, and John, 64.
On a fateful day in March, McMahon lent his minibike to mob scion Frank Gotti who was accidentally hit and killed by neighbor John Favara as he drove home from work. Favara was slain on Gotti's orders and, prosecutors say, Charles Carneglia dissolved his body in a barrel of acid.
Before the incident, McMahon had been "informally adopted" by John and Charles Carneglia. Charles Carneglia promised to protect the lad from retaliation for his role in Frankie's death.
McMahon was treated as a member of the Carneglia family, living with them for long stretches, attending family dinners and going on Carneglia family vacations, Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Burlingame said.
Former capo Michael DiLeonardo has testified that McMahon was a "goofy kid" who taunted FBI agents, running up to them and grabbing his crotch.
McMahon had jobs with Local 638 steamfitters union and Local 52 motion pictures mechanics union, but those paid only $40,000 a year, chump change for a wanna-be Gambino associate with an ailing wife and two kids.
Prosecutors say he and Carneglia took part in extortions, art fraud and robberies, including the stickup of an armored car at Kennedy Airport in 1990 in which guard Jose Rivera Delgado was shot to death. McMahon dropped a baseball cap at the scene. DNA tests linked him to a strand of hair in the hat.
Shortly after he was arrested in 2005 on an indictment charging him with racketeering for the Gambinos in Tampa, McMahon sent a "thank you" letter to Brooklyn Magistrate Robert Levy for releasing him on bail.
"As I was leaving the courtroom you said to me, 'Don't let me down.' I assure you I have not," he wrote. "As soon as I'm acquitted I'll write you again."
McMahon turned on his adoptive mob family after he was convicted and faced 20 years behind bars. He is cooperating in hopes of winning a lesser prison term.
Thanks to John Marzulli
John A. (Junior) Gotti learned that the hard way with "adopted" son Lewis Kasman, who taped Gotti family meetings for the feds.
Reputed killer Charles Carneglia is about to get a taste of the same medicine with "adopted" kid brother Kevin McMahon.
Both mob turncoats are to testify in Carneglia's ongoing murder trial in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Kasman, a former Long Island garment exec who wormed his way into Gotti's inner circle and called himself the adopted son of the late Gambino crime boss, wasn't close to Carneglia.
McMahon was as close as you can get without being a relative. "When Kevin walks into that courtroom I would expect Charles will want to jump over the table and strangle him," a law enforcement official said.
McMahon was not only a member of Carneglia's crime crew, he was like a member of the Carneglia family.
In 1980, McMahon was a 12-year-old Irish kid from Howard Beach "at the beginning of his long and extraordinarily close relationship" with Charles Carneglia and his brother John, court papers show. McMahon is 20 years younger than Charles, 62, and John, 64.
On a fateful day in March, McMahon lent his minibike to mob scion Frank Gotti who was accidentally hit and killed by neighbor John Favara as he drove home from work. Favara was slain on Gotti's orders and, prosecutors say, Charles Carneglia dissolved his body in a barrel of acid.
Before the incident, McMahon had been "informally adopted" by John and Charles Carneglia. Charles Carneglia promised to protect the lad from retaliation for his role in Frankie's death.
McMahon was treated as a member of the Carneglia family, living with them for long stretches, attending family dinners and going on Carneglia family vacations, Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Burlingame said.
Former capo Michael DiLeonardo has testified that McMahon was a "goofy kid" who taunted FBI agents, running up to them and grabbing his crotch.
McMahon had jobs with Local 638 steamfitters union and Local 52 motion pictures mechanics union, but those paid only $40,000 a year, chump change for a wanna-be Gambino associate with an ailing wife and two kids.
Prosecutors say he and Carneglia took part in extortions, art fraud and robberies, including the stickup of an armored car at Kennedy Airport in 1990 in which guard Jose Rivera Delgado was shot to death. McMahon dropped a baseball cap at the scene. DNA tests linked him to a strand of hair in the hat.
Shortly after he was arrested in 2005 on an indictment charging him with racketeering for the Gambinos in Tampa, McMahon sent a "thank you" letter to Brooklyn Magistrate Robert Levy for releasing him on bail.
"As I was leaving the courtroom you said to me, 'Don't let me down.' I assure you I have not," he wrote. "As soon as I'm acquitted I'll write you again."
McMahon turned on his adoptive mob family after he was convicted and faced 20 years behind bars. He is cooperating in hopes of winning a lesser prison term.
Thanks to John Marzulli
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Reputed Mob Hit Man, Charles Carneglia, Given Extreme Makeover in Time for Trial
Fearsome reputed hit man Charles Carneglia has undergone a wiseguy makeover on the eve of his federal trial.
A prison barber did wonders for Carneglia, transforming him from a scary Charles Manson look-alike to a craggy Gorton's Fisherman. Carneglia's ponytail is gone. The stringy, white hair and flowing beard have been neatly trimmed.
The fearsome enforcer for the Gambino crime family, who is charged with five murders, wore a cardigan sweater for jury selection Monday and a powder-blue pullover Tuesday.
Despite the radical change, Carneglia's previous look was apparently burned indelibly in the mind of at least one prospective juror who got a glimpse of the old Charles last week in Brooklyn Federal Court on the first day of jury selection.
"His appearance gave me the impression he was guilty," the anonymous juror told Judge Jack Weinstein. "He looked a little bit on the shady side with the ponytail and the beard."
The juror was excused, and Carneglia glared at him as he left the room.
Defense lawyer Curtis Farber insisted there is no plan to make Carneglia look less sinister. "He looks the same to me," Farber said, adding that Carneglia had trouble getting in to see the barber and having his dentures fixed over the 11 months he has been in the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Federal prosecutors have lined up at least 10 cooperating witnesses to testify at the blockbuster Mafia trial beginning Thursday.
They include the late John Gotti's self-described "adopted son" Lewis Kasman and Gambino associate John Alite, who will be the star witness against John A. (Junior) Gotti at his trial late this year.
Thanks to John Marzulli
A prison barber did wonders for Carneglia, transforming him from a scary Charles Manson look-alike to a craggy Gorton's Fisherman. Carneglia's ponytail is gone. The stringy, white hair and flowing beard have been neatly trimmed.
The fearsome enforcer for the Gambino crime family, who is charged with five murders, wore a cardigan sweater for jury selection Monday and a powder-blue pullover Tuesday.
Despite the radical change, Carneglia's previous look was apparently burned indelibly in the mind of at least one prospective juror who got a glimpse of the old Charles last week in Brooklyn Federal Court on the first day of jury selection.
"His appearance gave me the impression he was guilty," the anonymous juror told Judge Jack Weinstein. "He looked a little bit on the shady side with the ponytail and the beard."
The juror was excused, and Carneglia glared at him as he left the room.
Defense lawyer Curtis Farber insisted there is no plan to make Carneglia look less sinister. "He looks the same to me," Farber said, adding that Carneglia had trouble getting in to see the barber and having his dentures fixed over the 11 months he has been in the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Federal prosecutors have lined up at least 10 cooperating witnesses to testify at the blockbuster Mafia trial beginning Thursday.
They include the late John Gotti's self-described "adopted son" Lewis Kasman and Gambino associate John Alite, who will be the star witness against John A. (Junior) Gotti at his trial late this year.
Thanks to John Marzulli
Monday, January 12, 2009
Junior Gotti Witness, John Alite, Targeted in Planned Hit
Mobsters ordered the murder of a witness against John A. (Junior) Gotti days after he was indicted for three gangland slayings, prosecutors revealed Friday.
The contract on Gotti childhood pal John Alite circulated through a Florida prison in a handwritten note last summer, Manhattan Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Honig said in court papers.
Honig said the feds have no evidence linking Gotti, 44, to the plot, but they raised it in asking a judge to reject Gotti's efforts to be freed on bail awaiting trial.
"The government mentions the contract here simply to show the Gambino crime family has many loyal followers and supporters who are willing to use extreme measures to protect Gotti and others from prosecution," Honig wrote. "Throughout his life in the Mafia, a simple word from Gotti has been enough to order the commission of crimes, including violent attacks and murder. The same is true now."
Gotti's lawyer, Charles Carnesi, had a different view: "It was put in [the bail motion] to be inflammatory," he said. "Even they acknowledge he had nothing to do with it."
In September, Florida prosecutors said they had uncovered a jailhouse plot by the Latin Kings to kill an unidentified witness. That witness appears to be Alite.
The note written on a rag was addressed to the "Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation" and added, "the [terminate on sight] is in lockdown now. How iz u gunna get to him now?! We know hes locked up in Pine County. Pep in da street is payin good to get the job done. So finish that [terminate on sight] ASAP."
In a 2003 jailhouse chat intercepted by the feds, Gotti said he had become so tired of mob life that he wished he was a member of the notorious Hispanic street gang. "I'm ashamed of who I am," Gotti said. "I'd rather be a Latin King."
Prosecutors confirmed that Alite, who ran Gambino crime family operations in Tampa, will be taking the stand against his old pal. He pleaded guilty to two mob slayings and has been cooperating since February 2007.
Gotti is expected in New York next week following a Florida judge's order transferring the case to Manhattan Federal Court. He's being held in an Atlanta federal lockup.
Gotti is scheduled to appear in Manhattan Federal Court on Thursday.
Thanks to Thomas Zambito
The contract on Gotti childhood pal John Alite circulated through a Florida prison in a handwritten note last summer, Manhattan Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Honig said in court papers.
Honig said the feds have no evidence linking Gotti, 44, to the plot, but they raised it in asking a judge to reject Gotti's efforts to be freed on bail awaiting trial.
"The government mentions the contract here simply to show the Gambino crime family has many loyal followers and supporters who are willing to use extreme measures to protect Gotti and others from prosecution," Honig wrote. "Throughout his life in the Mafia, a simple word from Gotti has been enough to order the commission of crimes, including violent attacks and murder. The same is true now."
Gotti's lawyer, Charles Carnesi, had a different view: "It was put in [the bail motion] to be inflammatory," he said. "Even they acknowledge he had nothing to do with it."
In September, Florida prosecutors said they had uncovered a jailhouse plot by the Latin Kings to kill an unidentified witness. That witness appears to be Alite.
The note written on a rag was addressed to the "Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation" and added, "the [terminate on sight] is in lockdown now. How iz u gunna get to him now?! We know hes locked up in Pine County. Pep in da street is payin good to get the job done. So finish that [terminate on sight] ASAP."
In a 2003 jailhouse chat intercepted by the feds, Gotti said he had become so tired of mob life that he wished he was a member of the notorious Hispanic street gang. "I'm ashamed of who I am," Gotti said. "I'd rather be a Latin King."
Prosecutors confirmed that Alite, who ran Gambino crime family operations in Tampa, will be taking the stand against his old pal. He pleaded guilty to two mob slayings and has been cooperating since February 2007.
Gotti is expected in New York next week following a Florida judge's order transferring the case to Manhattan Federal Court. He's being held in an Atlanta federal lockup.
Gotti is scheduled to appear in Manhattan Federal Court on Thursday.
Thanks to Thomas Zambito
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Junior Gotti Requests to be Freed on Bail
Mob heir John A. "Junior" Gotti should be freed on bail while he awaits trial on racketeering charges, his lawyers argued Monday.
Gotti's lawyers said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that their client should be freed because he has always complied with bail conditions, there is strong evidence he is no longer connected to organized crime and he is not a risk to flee.
The lawyers said he also should benefit from the fact prosecutors made inaccurate claims regarding his possible danger to the community before three other Manhattan racketeering trials, which ended in hung juries.
"In this case, as in the previous three trials, the government will undoubtedly struggle to cobble together some attenuated theory with which it will attempt to defeat Gotti's defense that he withdrew from the charged conspiracy and renounced his former life of crime," the lawyers said.
Gotti's lawyers said new evidence gathered by prosecutors through cooperating witnesses in the last two years has shown members of organized crime no longer consider Gotti among their ranks.
The court papers also noted that the government in February 2008 did not include Gotti when it indicted 62 people accused of being members and associates of the Gambino family, which was headed by his father, John Gotti, before he was convicted of racketeering. The elder Gotti died in prison while serving a life sentence.
The younger Gotti was arrested last year on an indictment brought against him in Tampa, Fla. A judge there found the charges in the case similar to those he had faced in the three New York racketeering trials and transferred the case to Manhattan. Gotti has not yet been moved to New York.
Gotti's lawyers described as "nonsensical" the government's argument that he should not get bail because a conviction could result in a life sentence. "He has a proven record of standing to face whatever fight is before him," they said.
Prosecutors declined through a spokeswoman to comment on the defense submission.
Thanks to Larry Neumeister
Gotti's lawyers said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that their client should be freed because he has always complied with bail conditions, there is strong evidence he is no longer connected to organized crime and he is not a risk to flee.
The lawyers said he also should benefit from the fact prosecutors made inaccurate claims regarding his possible danger to the community before three other Manhattan racketeering trials, which ended in hung juries.
"In this case, as in the previous three trials, the government will undoubtedly struggle to cobble together some attenuated theory with which it will attempt to defeat Gotti's defense that he withdrew from the charged conspiracy and renounced his former life of crime," the lawyers said.
Gotti's lawyers said new evidence gathered by prosecutors through cooperating witnesses in the last two years has shown members of organized crime no longer consider Gotti among their ranks.
The court papers also noted that the government in February 2008 did not include Gotti when it indicted 62 people accused of being members and associates of the Gambino family, which was headed by his father, John Gotti, before he was convicted of racketeering. The elder Gotti died in prison while serving a life sentence.
The younger Gotti was arrested last year on an indictment brought against him in Tampa, Fla. A judge there found the charges in the case similar to those he had faced in the three New York racketeering trials and transferred the case to Manhattan. Gotti has not yet been moved to New York.
Gotti's lawyers described as "nonsensical" the government's argument that he should not get bail because a conviction could result in a life sentence. "He has a proven record of standing to face whatever fight is before him," they said.
Prosecutors declined through a spokeswoman to comment on the defense submission.
Thanks to Larry Neumeister
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Judge Finds the Feds Forum Shopped the Junior Gotti Trial and Orders it Moved to New York
A Florida judge ordered the latest prosecution of John A. "Junior" Gotti returned to Manhattan, finding that the government left the "unmistakeable and disquieting impression" it had shopped for a trial location where it might finally win.
U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday said Tuesday that an indictment brought against Gotti in Tampa features the same racketeering conspiracy charge that had failed to result in a conviction after three trials in Manhattan.
He said Gotti's notoriety, his apparently acknowledged role in organized crime before he announced he had left the life behind and the frustration prosecutors feel after repeated losses "contribute to the temptation to extend to Florida the 'quest' to convict Gotti."
Merryday added that the U.S. attorney in Florida "oddly" chose to charge a crime of RICO conspiracy that allegedly occurred largely outside that state.
"In this context, the charging decision of the United States, apparently unaccountable on neutral principles, creates the unmistakeable and disquieting impression of 'forum shopping,'" the judge said.
Gotti was charged last year with crimes involving three gangland slayings. He has denied wrongdoing.
A spokesman for federal prosecutors in Florida did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment. Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in New York, said her office had no comment.
Charles Carnesi, Gotti's New York lawyer, said the tone of the ruling made it seem the judge believed the decision to prosecute in Florida "was just a strategic move to try to deprive him of his ability to put forth his defense."
He said he would probably seek bail in Florida so Gotti could return to New York out of custody. "I'm looking forward to having him home for Christmas," Carnesi said.
Three juries in Manhattan have deadlocked on charges against Gotti. His lawyers asserted in his defense that he had quit the Gambino family by July 1999, protecting him from charges because the statute of limitations — five years for racketeering charges — would have expired.
Prosecutors have said Gotti assumed control of the powerful Gambino family after his father's 1992 conviction on racketeering and murder charges. His father died in prison in 2002.
Thanks to Larry Neumeister
U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday said Tuesday that an indictment brought against Gotti in Tampa features the same racketeering conspiracy charge that had failed to result in a conviction after three trials in Manhattan.
He said Gotti's notoriety, his apparently acknowledged role in organized crime before he announced he had left the life behind and the frustration prosecutors feel after repeated losses "contribute to the temptation to extend to Florida the 'quest' to convict Gotti."
Merryday added that the U.S. attorney in Florida "oddly" chose to charge a crime of RICO conspiracy that allegedly occurred largely outside that state.
"In this context, the charging decision of the United States, apparently unaccountable on neutral principles, creates the unmistakeable and disquieting impression of 'forum shopping,'" the judge said.
Gotti was charged last year with crimes involving three gangland slayings. He has denied wrongdoing.
A spokesman for federal prosecutors in Florida did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment. Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in New York, said her office had no comment.
Charles Carnesi, Gotti's New York lawyer, said the tone of the ruling made it seem the judge believed the decision to prosecute in Florida "was just a strategic move to try to deprive him of his ability to put forth his defense."
He said he would probably seek bail in Florida so Gotti could return to New York out of custody. "I'm looking forward to having him home for Christmas," Carnesi said.
Three juries in Manhattan have deadlocked on charges against Gotti. His lawyers asserted in his defense that he had quit the Gambino family by July 1999, protecting him from charges because the statute of limitations — five years for racketeering charges — would have expired.
Prosecutors have said Gotti assumed control of the powerful Gambino family after his father's 1992 conviction on racketeering and murder charges. His father died in prison in 2002.
Thanks to Larry Neumeister
Monday, November 24, 2008
8 Members of the Lucchese Crime Family Arrested on Illegal Gambling and Narcotics Charges
FBI agents arrested eight members of New York's Luchese organized crime family Monday on illegal gambling and narcotics charges, the federal prosecutor said.
An acting "capo" in the Luchese family and seven others were nabbed, US Attorney Michael Garcia said.
Anthony Croce, the man described as the capo, faces a maximum sentence of five years prison if convicted on the gambling charges.
Three others face heavier sentences of between five and 40 years if convicted on cocaine distribution charges, the prosecutor said.
New York's five mafia crime families -- the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luchese -- have taken big hits in the last decade as veteran leaders died and turncoats helped the authorities make strings of arrests.
This August, New York police arrested the alleged former capo of the Gambinos, John "Junior" Gotti. He is due to be tried in Florida on racketeering charges.
An acting "capo" in the Luchese family and seven others were nabbed, US Attorney Michael Garcia said.
Anthony Croce, the man described as the capo, faces a maximum sentence of five years prison if convicted on the gambling charges.
Three others face heavier sentences of between five and 40 years if convicted on cocaine distribution charges, the prosecutor said.
New York's five mafia crime families -- the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luchese -- have taken big hits in the last decade as veteran leaders died and turncoats helped the authorities make strings of arrests.
This August, New York police arrested the alleged former capo of the Gambinos, John "Junior" Gotti. He is due to be tried in Florida on racketeering charges.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Junior Says Tampa Trial is Not Fair
John A. "Junior" Gotti thinks it's just not fair for prosecutors to insist that his mob racketeering trial take place in Tampa.
Charles Carnesi, 1 of Gotti's attorneys, told a judge Thursday that having the trial in Tampa would put a "crushing burden" on the Mafia scion and his family financially, plus make if difficult to get defense witnesses here to testify.
Gotti - the son of former Gambino family crime boss John Gotti - wants the trial moved to New York.
Prosecutor Jay Trezevant argued that the indictment grew out of an investigation of the criminal activity of Gotti and members of his crew in Tampa, so it's proper to have the trial here.
Charles Carnesi, 1 of Gotti's attorneys, told a judge Thursday that having the trial in Tampa would put a "crushing burden" on the Mafia scion and his family financially, plus make if difficult to get defense witnesses here to testify.
Gotti - the son of former Gambino family crime boss John Gotti - wants the trial moved to New York.
Prosecutor Jay Trezevant argued that the indictment grew out of an investigation of the criminal activity of Gotti and members of his crew in Tampa, so it's proper to have the trial here.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Bond Denied for Reputed Tampa Gambino James Cadicamo
A man the government says directed a Gambino crew that muscled into Tampa is emerging as a key figure in the case against a Tampa man accused of being part of the notorious organized crime family. After hearing arguments, a federal judge denied bail today for James V. Cadicamo, who was arrested in August along with four other men charged with participating in a vast racketeering conspiracy under the umbrella of the Gambino crime family. At the same time, John A. "Junior" Gotti was named in a separate, similar indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Tampa.
Cadicamo's defense attorney, Ronald K. Cacciatore, said a key witness against his client will be John Alite, who is awaiting trial on similar charges. Alite was part of a case that went to trial in 2005 against Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio and three others. But Alite was in prison in Brazil after fleeing to Latin America.
Cacciatore and a federal prosecutor agree that John Alite was a dangerous criminal when he was on the streets, but they differ on Cadicamo's relationship with Alite.
Prosecutors described Alite as a crime crew leader who answered to Trucchio and was friends with Gotti.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Trezevant said Alite was thinking about cooperating with the government when he fled the country in 2003 after hearing threats against his life. Trezevant said Cadicamo was in frequent contact with Alite as he traveled in Cuba, South America, Greece and Africa. After he was arrested, Alite called Cadicamo from a prison in Brazil.
Cacciatore said in court papers that Alite extorted and threatened Cadicamo. A witness says Alite said he was going to hurt Cadicamo before Alite went to jail, Cacciatore said. He told the same witness he was going to persuade another witness to turn on Cadicamo and hurt him, Cacciatore said.
"I've counted at least 15 people who Mr. Alite has threatened," Cacciatore said. "Prior to Mr. Alite's arrest, … he threatened a lawyer in New York, threatened to whack him."
Cadicamo, on the other hand, has never been convicted of a violent felony and is "not going to harm anybody," Cacciatore said. "He's not going anyplace" if he is freed on bail.
Trezevant described Cadicamo as a dangerous person who committed crimes while he was on probation. He associated with members of a crew in New York that was called the "Young Guns," Trezevant said, and made plans to harm a federal witness.
Trezevant played a portion of a recorded conversation between Cadicamo and his father, Victor, after Cadicamo was arrested. Cadicamo can be heard telling his father to get rid of items. Trezevant suggested this involved evidence Cadicamo didn't want authorities to find.
"I want you to go in my closet downstairs," Cadicamo says at one point.
"I took care of it already," his father responds.
Asked about the recording after the hearing, Victor Cadicamo said his son was talking about watches he didn't want anyone to steal.
Thanks to Elaine Silvestrini
Cadicamo's defense attorney, Ronald K. Cacciatore, said a key witness against his client will be John Alite, who is awaiting trial on similar charges. Alite was part of a case that went to trial in 2005 against Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio and three others. But Alite was in prison in Brazil after fleeing to Latin America.
Cacciatore and a federal prosecutor agree that John Alite was a dangerous criminal when he was on the streets, but they differ on Cadicamo's relationship with Alite.
Prosecutors described Alite as a crime crew leader who answered to Trucchio and was friends with Gotti.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Trezevant said Alite was thinking about cooperating with the government when he fled the country in 2003 after hearing threats against his life. Trezevant said Cadicamo was in frequent contact with Alite as he traveled in Cuba, South America, Greece and Africa. After he was arrested, Alite called Cadicamo from a prison in Brazil.
Cacciatore said in court papers that Alite extorted and threatened Cadicamo. A witness says Alite said he was going to hurt Cadicamo before Alite went to jail, Cacciatore said. He told the same witness he was going to persuade another witness to turn on Cadicamo and hurt him, Cacciatore said.
"I've counted at least 15 people who Mr. Alite has threatened," Cacciatore said. "Prior to Mr. Alite's arrest, … he threatened a lawyer in New York, threatened to whack him."
Cadicamo, on the other hand, has never been convicted of a violent felony and is "not going to harm anybody," Cacciatore said. "He's not going anyplace" if he is freed on bail.
Trezevant described Cadicamo as a dangerous person who committed crimes while he was on probation. He associated with members of a crew in New York that was called the "Young Guns," Trezevant said, and made plans to harm a federal witness.
Trezevant played a portion of a recorded conversation between Cadicamo and his father, Victor, after Cadicamo was arrested. Cadicamo can be heard telling his father to get rid of items. Trezevant suggested this involved evidence Cadicamo didn't want authorities to find.
"I want you to go in my closet downstairs," Cadicamo says at one point.
"I took care of it already," his father responds.
Asked about the recording after the hearing, Victor Cadicamo said his son was talking about watches he didn't want anyone to steal.
Thanks to Elaine Silvestrini
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Junior Gotti Awakens Mob Ghosts in Tampa
The ghosts of Tampa's old-time wiseguys awakened this summer when Mafia scion John "Junior" Gotti came to town in handcuffs, accused of pulling the strings in a bunch of classic mobster crimes.
The federal indictment against him reads like a plot summary for "The Sopranos." The 44-year-old Gotti — son of the late "Dapper Don" of the notorious Gambino crime family — allegedly had his fingers in everything: whacking rivals, trafficking cocaine, bribery, kidnapping and money-laundering. Earlier convictions show Gambino crews have worked for years to get a foothold in the Tampa area's criminal underworld.
If the charges against Gotti are true, then he was a Johnny-come-lately to organized crime around here.
The fabric of the Tampa region's history is richly woven with stories of ruthless gangsters who first grabbed control of illegal gambling and liquor distribution during Prohibition, executed rivals with point-blank shotgun blasts, bribed public officials, controlled the narcotics trade and eventually broadened their influence across the Sunshine State and pre-Castro Cuba.
They were menacing, old-school mobsters who went by nicknames like "The Hammer," "Scarface," "Cowboy," "The Fat Man," "The Colonel," "Big Joe" and "Silent Sam."
Infamous in the city's lore is the "Era of Blood," when 25 gangsters were gunned down on the streets as Italian, Cuban and Anglo underworld factions battled for power from the 1920s to the '50s. And a Godfather-like legend surrounds Tampa-born crime boss Santo Trafficante Jr., who took over the Sicilian Mafia in Florida from his father in 1954 and built a criminal empire that was the envy of mob families across the country.
"Trafficante was the boss of Florida," says Joseph D. Pistone, a former FBI agent whose six years undercover with the mob were chronicled in the 1997 Johnny Depp movie "Donnie Brasco." "Miami was an open city, like Las Vegas. But if you operated in Tampa or other parts of the state, you had to go through Trafficante."
During his last two years with Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano's Bonanno family crew, Pistone came to Florida often to help broker an alliance with Trafficante, whose blessing was needed for the Brooklyn crew to operate an illegal gambling joint northwest of Tampa. The eventual FBI takedown of the Kings Court club in 1981 is depicted in "Donnie Brasco."
In another movie, "Goodfellas" (1990), New York gangsters played by Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro come to Tampa in 1970 and put the screws to a guy who won't pay his gambling debts. He finally agrees to pay up after they take him to the city zoo and threaten to feed him to the lions.
That all really happened — except for the lion part. Lucchese family soldiers Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke just gave the welcher an old-fashioned beating, ending up at a dingy north Tampa bar that still stands across the street from the Busch Gardens amusement park. But it's true that the beaten bettor had a sister who worked in the Tampa FBI office, which led to arrests and prison terms for the two wiseguys.
That's trivia that few but Scott Deitche remember. He literally wrote the book on Tampa's organized crime history — called "Cigar City Mafia: A Complete History of the Tampa Underworld" — and followed it up last year with a Trafficante biography
.
Miami might be more associated with mob activity, but Deitche says organized crime in Florida is firmly rooted in Tampa, where Cuban, Spanish and Italian immigrants established communities in the city's cigar-making center of Ybor City in the early 20th century. One of the early rackets was bolita, a popular, low-stakes lottery game.
"You had drugs, prostitution, rum-running, bootlegging during Prohibition, some alien smuggling, but bolita was the main moneymaker," says Deitche over lunch recently at Ybor City's historic Columbia restaurant — a favorite dining spot of Trafficante and a host of mobsters over the years.
"Through bolita you got into corruption of the local government, corruption of the sheriff's department," he says. "So from there you really saw the emergence of the Italian Mafia, and the Italian Mafia eventually eclipsed all the other ones."
Howard Abadinsky, an organized-crime expert who teaches a class on the subject at St. John's University, says the growth of organized crime in Florida mirrored what was happening in society at-large. There was opportunity and money to be made in Florida, attracting not only aboveboard entrepreneurs but mobsters from the five New York Mafia families as well. Many bought houses and lived here for part of the year.
"The mob moved to Florida just like legitimate people," Abadinsky says. "There was plenty of money for everyone."
But it was the soft-spoken, even-tempered Trafficante — known as the "Silent Don" — who put the mob on the map in Florida. He also became the most influential Mafia figure in Cuba, running hotels and casinos, buying up property and laundering money through the island before Fidel Castro came to power in 1959 and kicked him out.
Trafficante, in public hearings, acknowledged cooperating with secret U.S. government efforts to kill Castro. And his name is often mentioned in a conspiracy theory surrounding President John F. Kennedy's assassination, but he vehemently denied having anything to do with it. He never spent a night in an American jail.
Trafficante's death after heart surgery in 1987 ended the Mafia's heyday in Florida, but the experts say it hasn't been snuffed out. A 2006 federal trial in Tampa exposed the activities of a Gambino crew led by capo Ronald Trucchio, who because of a deformed limb was known by the nickname "Ronnie One-Arm."
His crew was accused of a slew of wiseguy crimes, including trying to control the lucrative valet parking business in Tampa. He and three other Gambino associates were convicted of racketeering and conspiracy to commit extortion, with Trucchio getting life in prison.
Now comes Junior Gotti, who was arrested at his Long Island home in August and hauled to Tampa. His attorney scoffs at the charges, saying the feds have mounted an "epic quest" to take Gotti down after failing to convict him in three federal trials in New York. Gotti says he retired years ago from the criminal life and has pleaded not guilty to the Tampa charges. He remains jailed without bond pending a trial, which could happen sometime next year.
Abadinsky says the mob is still around, in Florida, New York and elsewhere, but it's a shadow of its former self. Gangsters today don't wield the power, control the unions or have the political connections of their predecessors.
While the "The Sopranos," the wildly popular HBO TV series about a New Jersey mob family, was a great recruiting tool for the Mafia, there are fewer young men willing to take up the life these days, Abadinsky says.
"The new guys," he says, "are whole lot less interesting."
Thanks to Mitch Stacy
The federal indictment against him reads like a plot summary for "The Sopranos." The 44-year-old Gotti — son of the late "Dapper Don" of the notorious Gambino crime family — allegedly had his fingers in everything: whacking rivals, trafficking cocaine, bribery, kidnapping and money-laundering. Earlier convictions show Gambino crews have worked for years to get a foothold in the Tampa area's criminal underworld.
If the charges against Gotti are true, then he was a Johnny-come-lately to organized crime around here.
The fabric of the Tampa region's history is richly woven with stories of ruthless gangsters who first grabbed control of illegal gambling and liquor distribution during Prohibition, executed rivals with point-blank shotgun blasts, bribed public officials, controlled the narcotics trade and eventually broadened their influence across the Sunshine State and pre-Castro Cuba.
They were menacing, old-school mobsters who went by nicknames like "The Hammer," "Scarface," "Cowboy," "The Fat Man," "The Colonel," "Big Joe" and "Silent Sam."
Infamous in the city's lore is the "Era of Blood," when 25 gangsters were gunned down on the streets as Italian, Cuban and Anglo underworld factions battled for power from the 1920s to the '50s. And a Godfather-like legend surrounds Tampa-born crime boss Santo Trafficante Jr., who took over the Sicilian Mafia in Florida from his father in 1954 and built a criminal empire that was the envy of mob families across the country.
"Trafficante was the boss of Florida," says Joseph D. Pistone, a former FBI agent whose six years undercover with the mob were chronicled in the 1997 Johnny Depp movie "Donnie Brasco." "Miami was an open city, like Las Vegas. But if you operated in Tampa or other parts of the state, you had to go through Trafficante."
During his last two years with Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano's Bonanno family crew, Pistone came to Florida often to help broker an alliance with Trafficante, whose blessing was needed for the Brooklyn crew to operate an illegal gambling joint northwest of Tampa. The eventual FBI takedown of the Kings Court club in 1981 is depicted in "Donnie Brasco."
In another movie, "Goodfellas" (1990), New York gangsters played by Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro come to Tampa in 1970 and put the screws to a guy who won't pay his gambling debts. He finally agrees to pay up after they take him to the city zoo and threaten to feed him to the lions.
That all really happened — except for the lion part. Lucchese family soldiers Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke just gave the welcher an old-fashioned beating, ending up at a dingy north Tampa bar that still stands across the street from the Busch Gardens amusement park. But it's true that the beaten bettor had a sister who worked in the Tampa FBI office, which led to arrests and prison terms for the two wiseguys.
That's trivia that few but Scott Deitche remember. He literally wrote the book on Tampa's organized crime history — called "Cigar City Mafia: A Complete History of the Tampa Underworld" — and followed it up last year with a Trafficante biography
.Miami might be more associated with mob activity, but Deitche says organized crime in Florida is firmly rooted in Tampa, where Cuban, Spanish and Italian immigrants established communities in the city's cigar-making center of Ybor City in the early 20th century. One of the early rackets was bolita, a popular, low-stakes lottery game.
"You had drugs, prostitution, rum-running, bootlegging during Prohibition, some alien smuggling, but bolita was the main moneymaker," says Deitche over lunch recently at Ybor City's historic Columbia restaurant — a favorite dining spot of Trafficante and a host of mobsters over the years.
"Through bolita you got into corruption of the local government, corruption of the sheriff's department," he says. "So from there you really saw the emergence of the Italian Mafia, and the Italian Mafia eventually eclipsed all the other ones."
Howard Abadinsky, an organized-crime expert who teaches a class on the subject at St. John's University, says the growth of organized crime in Florida mirrored what was happening in society at-large. There was opportunity and money to be made in Florida, attracting not only aboveboard entrepreneurs but mobsters from the five New York Mafia families as well. Many bought houses and lived here for part of the year.
"The mob moved to Florida just like legitimate people," Abadinsky says. "There was plenty of money for everyone."
But it was the soft-spoken, even-tempered Trafficante — known as the "Silent Don" — who put the mob on the map in Florida. He also became the most influential Mafia figure in Cuba, running hotels and casinos, buying up property and laundering money through the island before Fidel Castro came to power in 1959 and kicked him out.
Trafficante, in public hearings, acknowledged cooperating with secret U.S. government efforts to kill Castro. And his name is often mentioned in a conspiracy theory surrounding President John F. Kennedy's assassination, but he vehemently denied having anything to do with it. He never spent a night in an American jail.
Trafficante's death after heart surgery in 1987 ended the Mafia's heyday in Florida, but the experts say it hasn't been snuffed out. A 2006 federal trial in Tampa exposed the activities of a Gambino crew led by capo Ronald Trucchio, who because of a deformed limb was known by the nickname "Ronnie One-Arm."
His crew was accused of a slew of wiseguy crimes, including trying to control the lucrative valet parking business in Tampa. He and three other Gambino associates were convicted of racketeering and conspiracy to commit extortion, with Trucchio getting life in prison.
Now comes Junior Gotti, who was arrested at his Long Island home in August and hauled to Tampa. His attorney scoffs at the charges, saying the feds have mounted an "epic quest" to take Gotti down after failing to convict him in three federal trials in New York. Gotti says he retired years ago from the criminal life and has pleaded not guilty to the Tampa charges. He remains jailed without bond pending a trial, which could happen sometime next year.
Abadinsky says the mob is still around, in Florida, New York and elsewhere, but it's a shadow of its former self. Gangsters today don't wield the power, control the unions or have the political connections of their predecessors.
While the "The Sopranos," the wildly popular HBO TV series about a New Jersey mob family, was a great recruiting tool for the Mafia, there are fewer young men willing to take up the life these days, Abadinsky says.
"The new guys," he says, "are whole lot less interesting."
Thanks to Mitch Stacy
Friday, August 29, 2008
Not Guilty Plea from Junior Gotti
John A. "Junior" Gotti has pleaded not guilty to federal racketeering charges in Tampa.
The 44-year-old son of the former Gambino family crime boss was arraigned in federal court Thursday afternoon. He faces conspiracy charges that link him to three mob slayings, cocaine distribution and other crimes.
Dressed in a blue jail jumpsuit and shackled at the ankles, Gotti appeared with his attorneys but didn't speak during the five-minute hearing.
Prosecutors say Gotti was a chief in an arm of the Gambino crime family that operated in Florida and other states going back to 1983.
Gotti denies the charges and has said he has long been retired from organized crime. His attorneys said they plan to ask that the trial be moved to New York.
The 44-year-old son of the former Gambino family crime boss was arraigned in federal court Thursday afternoon. He faces conspiracy charges that link him to three mob slayings, cocaine distribution and other crimes.
Dressed in a blue jail jumpsuit and shackled at the ankles, Gotti appeared with his attorneys but didn't speak during the five-minute hearing.
Prosecutors say Gotti was a chief in an arm of the Gambino crime family that operated in Florida and other states going back to 1983.
Gotti denies the charges and has said he has long been retired from organized crime. His attorneys said they plan to ask that the trial be moved to New York.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Fannie Gotti, Mother of the Dapper Don, Dies at 96
The woman who spawned some of the most notorious and violent gangsters in mob history died peacefully of natural causes in a Long Island nursing home at age 96, her family said yesterday.
Philomena "Fannie" Gotti died of natural causes Tuesday night at a retirement home in Valley Stream, said "Dapper Don" John Gotti's widow, Victoria. "She was an amazing lady," Victoria Gotti told the Post. "One of those strong, strong old-timers."
The announcement of the gangland matriarch's death came just a day before her grandson, John "Junior" Gotti, will be arraigned on murder charges in Tampa, Fla.
His attorney said the death should not have any impact on today's court hearing. "We don't plan on bringing it up," lawyer Seth Ginsberg said.
Fannie Gotti, a Bronx native, was married to construction worker John Joseph Gotti. She gave birth to 13 children in 16 years, two of whom died in childbirth, according to the book "Mob Star" by Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain.
Five of her seven sons would go on to become made members of the Gambino crime family, which her fifth child, John, violently took control of by assassinating the reigning boss Paul Castellano in 1985 in front of Sparks Steak House.
Another one of her brutal boys, Peter, 68, tried to whack Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano, the turncoat who helped put the Teflon Don behind bars.
Vincent Gotti, 56, pleaded guilty earlier this summer to the botched rubout of Howard Beach, Queens, deli owner Angelo Mugnolo, in a fight over a woman. He's awaiting sentencing in Brooklyn federal court.
The late John Gotti, famous for his flamboyant style and swagger before he died in prison in 2002, scoffed at news articles that made his parents out to be Italian immigrants who scraped together meager savings to book passage to America.
"That was one of the things John got mad about," said a source. "The stupid reporters who thought his folks came from Sicily. They were born in The Bronx."
Victoria Gotti, John's widow, described her late mother-in-law as a "typical old-fashioned lady. She was a housewife, a stay-at-home mom."
She said that mom and mob-boss son got along swimmingly, although "I'm sure like any mother and child, they had their little tiffs now and again."
In later years, Fannie took a job at the Bohack supermarket chain, where she worked in the butcher department wrapping meat, Victoria said.
In June 1992, Fannie's husband died of cancer at 85. It was just two days after John was sentenced to life in prison for his career of murder and racketeering.
Fannie was living with her daughter, Marie, in Valley Stream before she moved into a nearby retirement home, Victoria said. Funeral arrangements had not yet been made, she said.
Junior Gotti was "as close as any of the kids could be" with his grandmother, Victoria said. He is accused of ordering three gangland slayings in the late 1980s and early 1990s and running a giant coke dealing operation out of bars in Ozone Park, Queens.
Ginsberg said he would soon file a change-of-venue motion with the Tampa trial judge to have the case moved back to New York.
Thanks to Stephanie Cohen
Philomena "Fannie" Gotti died of natural causes Tuesday night at a retirement home in Valley Stream, said "Dapper Don" John Gotti's widow, Victoria. "She was an amazing lady," Victoria Gotti told the Post. "One of those strong, strong old-timers."
The announcement of the gangland matriarch's death came just a day before her grandson, John "Junior" Gotti, will be arraigned on murder charges in Tampa, Fla.
His attorney said the death should not have any impact on today's court hearing. "We don't plan on bringing it up," lawyer Seth Ginsberg said.
Fannie Gotti, a Bronx native, was married to construction worker John Joseph Gotti. She gave birth to 13 children in 16 years, two of whom died in childbirth, according to the book "Mob Star" by Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain.
Five of her seven sons would go on to become made members of the Gambino crime family, which her fifth child, John, violently took control of by assassinating the reigning boss Paul Castellano in 1985 in front of Sparks Steak House.
Another one of her brutal boys, Peter, 68, tried to whack Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano, the turncoat who helped put the Teflon Don behind bars.
Vincent Gotti, 56, pleaded guilty earlier this summer to the botched rubout of Howard Beach, Queens, deli owner Angelo Mugnolo, in a fight over a woman. He's awaiting sentencing in Brooklyn federal court.
The late John Gotti, famous for his flamboyant style and swagger before he died in prison in 2002, scoffed at news articles that made his parents out to be Italian immigrants who scraped together meager savings to book passage to America.
"That was one of the things John got mad about," said a source. "The stupid reporters who thought his folks came from Sicily. They were born in The Bronx."
Victoria Gotti, John's widow, described her late mother-in-law as a "typical old-fashioned lady. She was a housewife, a stay-at-home mom."
She said that mom and mob-boss son got along swimmingly, although "I'm sure like any mother and child, they had their little tiffs now and again."
In later years, Fannie took a job at the Bohack supermarket chain, where she worked in the butcher department wrapping meat, Victoria said.
In June 1992, Fannie's husband died of cancer at 85. It was just two days after John was sentenced to life in prison for his career of murder and racketeering.
Fannie was living with her daughter, Marie, in Valley Stream before she moved into a nearby retirement home, Victoria said. Funeral arrangements had not yet been made, she said.
Junior Gotti was "as close as any of the kids could be" with his grandmother, Victoria said. He is accused of ordering three gangland slayings in the late 1980s and early 1990s and running a giant coke dealing operation out of bars in Ozone Park, Queens.
Ginsberg said he would soon file a change-of-venue motion with the Tampa trial judge to have the case moved back to New York.
Thanks to Stephanie Cohen
Friday, August 15, 2008
60 of 62 Mobsters Have Pled Guilty Since Fed Takedown in February
Even for an infamous gang of mobsters already weakened by federal prosecutions spanning decades, Feb. 7, 2008 was an unusually bad day for the Gambino organized crime family.
Hundreds of federal agents fanned out across the city and elsewhere in a roundup of 62 suspects from all walks of Mafia life, from reputed acting boss John "Jackie Nose" D'Amico _ a crony of former boss John Gotti _ to common street thugs.
At the time, authorities made headlines by hailing the takedown as one of the largest in recent memory and predicting it would further cripple a storied crime family formerly led by the legendary "Dapper Don."
Six months later and with far less fanfare, 60 of the defendants have pleaded guilty, with many taking deals that will put them behind bars for three years or less. Two of the pleas were entered Thursday and one case was dismissed last week, leaving a lone defendant charged with murder facing trial.
The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, which has a long history of prosecuting high-profile Mafia cases with lengthy trials and sentences, has called the case a success. But some defense attorneys suggest the many plea deals show the office overreached and became overwhelmed as the judge pushed for a speedy outcome. "There's no such thing as a 62-defendant trial," said one of the lawyers, Avraham Moskowitz. "So what's the point? The point is to make a splash."
Extortion charges against his client, a New Jersey construction official, were quietly dropped earlier this month after prosecutors conceded they didn't have enough evidence against him. But by then, the lawyer said, an innocent man had seen his reputation ruined by stories linking him to co-defendants with nicknames like "Tommy Sneakers" and "Joe Rackets."
"My client's experience suggests they brought an indictment without careful evaluation of the evidence," he said. "He had his name dragged through the mud for no reason."
Former mob prosecutors say there was nothing haphazard about the Gambino case. Instead, they say, it reflected a calculated shift in strategy favoring carpet bombing of the entire enterprise over strategic strikes against leadership.
"In my view, this is groundbreaking," said James Walden, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn who won major convictions against the Bonanno crime family. "They essentially took out the entire organization in one fell swoop" _ an approach designed to reap a new crop of cooperators and rattle those mobsters still on the street but under surveillance.
"It disrupts the family and creates an environment of insecurity," he said. "It causes people to get nervous and talk about things they normally wouldn't talk about."
Prosecutors in Tampa, Fla., took a separate shot at the Gambinos last week, naming John A. "Junior" Gotti in a murder and drug trafficking indictment linking him to three New York City murders from the 1980s and '90s. Three previous cases brought against the Gotti scion since 2005 ended in mistrials.
Randy Mastro, another ex-prosecutor who targeted mob ties to construction as a deputy mayor to Rudy Giuliani, said the two cases have demonstrated the government's resolve to combat a resilient foe. The Brooklyn prosecution, in particular, was "an innovative approach to an endemic historical problem," he said. "Whether it will work, time will tell."
The 80-count Gambino indictment charged the defendants with seven murders, three dating back more than a quarter century, "mob-tax" extortion of the construction industry and racketeering. Among the crime were the slaying of a court officer and extortion at a failed NASCAR track.
Authorities said the case was built with the help of an informant in the construction industry who made three years worth of secret recordings implicating many of the defendants. The arrests, they added, coincided with a smaller sweep of accused gangsters in Italy in a bid to sever the relationship between the Sicilian Mafia and the Gambino family.
On Thursday, reputed capo "Little Nick" Corozzo and co-defendant Vincent DeCongilio avoided a trial scheduled for next week by pleading guilty. The indictment alleged Corozzo ordered the Jan. 26, 1996, murder of a rival mobster. Corozzo now faces 12 to 15 years in prison for murder conspiracy _ by far the harshest term for any of the defendants _ and DeCongilio 12 to 18 months for lesser crimes.
According to prosecutors, Corozzo, 68, was part of a three-man committee of capos formed in 1994 to help "Junior" run New York's Gambino family while his father was in prison, serving a life sentence for murder and racketeering; the elder Gotti died behind bars in 2002.
In May, D'Amico, the acting boss originally charged with racketeering, pleaded guilty to extorting a cement company out of $100,000 and could serve less than two years in prison. The plea, his lawyer said afterward, shows "a lack of evidence and quality of evidence."
Thanks to Tom Hays
Hundreds of federal agents fanned out across the city and elsewhere in a roundup of 62 suspects from all walks of Mafia life, from reputed acting boss John "Jackie Nose" D'Amico _ a crony of former boss John Gotti _ to common street thugs.
At the time, authorities made headlines by hailing the takedown as one of the largest in recent memory and predicting it would further cripple a storied crime family formerly led by the legendary "Dapper Don."
Six months later and with far less fanfare, 60 of the defendants have pleaded guilty, with many taking deals that will put them behind bars for three years or less. Two of the pleas were entered Thursday and one case was dismissed last week, leaving a lone defendant charged with murder facing trial.
The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, which has a long history of prosecuting high-profile Mafia cases with lengthy trials and sentences, has called the case a success. But some defense attorneys suggest the many plea deals show the office overreached and became overwhelmed as the judge pushed for a speedy outcome. "There's no such thing as a 62-defendant trial," said one of the lawyers, Avraham Moskowitz. "So what's the point? The point is to make a splash."
Extortion charges against his client, a New Jersey construction official, were quietly dropped earlier this month after prosecutors conceded they didn't have enough evidence against him. But by then, the lawyer said, an innocent man had seen his reputation ruined by stories linking him to co-defendants with nicknames like "Tommy Sneakers" and "Joe Rackets."
"My client's experience suggests they brought an indictment without careful evaluation of the evidence," he said. "He had his name dragged through the mud for no reason."
Former mob prosecutors say there was nothing haphazard about the Gambino case. Instead, they say, it reflected a calculated shift in strategy favoring carpet bombing of the entire enterprise over strategic strikes against leadership.
"In my view, this is groundbreaking," said James Walden, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn who won major convictions against the Bonanno crime family. "They essentially took out the entire organization in one fell swoop" _ an approach designed to reap a new crop of cooperators and rattle those mobsters still on the street but under surveillance.
"It disrupts the family and creates an environment of insecurity," he said. "It causes people to get nervous and talk about things they normally wouldn't talk about."
Prosecutors in Tampa, Fla., took a separate shot at the Gambinos last week, naming John A. "Junior" Gotti in a murder and drug trafficking indictment linking him to three New York City murders from the 1980s and '90s. Three previous cases brought against the Gotti scion since 2005 ended in mistrials.
Randy Mastro, another ex-prosecutor who targeted mob ties to construction as a deputy mayor to Rudy Giuliani, said the two cases have demonstrated the government's resolve to combat a resilient foe. The Brooklyn prosecution, in particular, was "an innovative approach to an endemic historical problem," he said. "Whether it will work, time will tell."
The 80-count Gambino indictment charged the defendants with seven murders, three dating back more than a quarter century, "mob-tax" extortion of the construction industry and racketeering. Among the crime were the slaying of a court officer and extortion at a failed NASCAR track.
Authorities said the case was built with the help of an informant in the construction industry who made three years worth of secret recordings implicating many of the defendants. The arrests, they added, coincided with a smaller sweep of accused gangsters in Italy in a bid to sever the relationship between the Sicilian Mafia and the Gambino family.
On Thursday, reputed capo "Little Nick" Corozzo and co-defendant Vincent DeCongilio avoided a trial scheduled for next week by pleading guilty. The indictment alleged Corozzo ordered the Jan. 26, 1996, murder of a rival mobster. Corozzo now faces 12 to 15 years in prison for murder conspiracy _ by far the harshest term for any of the defendants _ and DeCongilio 12 to 18 months for lesser crimes.
According to prosecutors, Corozzo, 68, was part of a three-man committee of capos formed in 1994 to help "Junior" run New York's Gambino family while his father was in prison, serving a life sentence for murder and racketeering; the elder Gotti died behind bars in 2002.
In May, D'Amico, the acting boss originally charged with racketeering, pleaded guilty to extorting a cement company out of $100,000 and could serve less than two years in prison. The plea, his lawyer said afterward, shows "a lack of evidence and quality of evidence."
Thanks to Tom Hays
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Entire John "Junior" Gotti Tampa Gambino Crime Family Indictment
United States Attorney Robert E. O'Neill and Steven E. Ibison, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI), announced the unsealing of two related indictments charging six men with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ("RICO") statute, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d), and charging two of the six men with other crimes. The first case charges John A. Gotti, also known as “John, Jr.,” and “Junior,” a 44 year old resident of Oyster Bay, New York, with RICO conspiracy, and specifically alleges possession of, and trafficking in, more than five kilograms of cocaine, as well as the murders of three men: George Grosso (murdered December 20, 1988 in Queens, New York); Louis DiBono (murdered October 4, 1990 in the parking garage of the former World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York); and Bruce John Gotterup (murdered November 20, 1991 at the Boardwalk at the Rockaways in Queens, New York). GOTTI faces life imprisonment if convicted.
The second case includes four counts. Count One charges John A. Burke, a 47 year old New York state correctional facility inmate, James V. Cadicamo, a 33 year old resident of Tampa, Florida, David D'Arpino, a 33 year old resident of Howard Beach, New York, Michael D. Finnerty, a 43 year old resident of Oceanside, New York, and Guy T. Peden, a 47 year old resident of Wantagh, New York, with RICO conspiracy, and specifically alleges that: (1) BURKE and PEDEN possessed, and trafficked in, more than five kilograms of cocaine; (2) BURKE and PEDEN also participated in the murder of Bruce John Gotterup; and (3) BURKE and D'ARPINO participated in the murder of a man named John Gebert (murdered July 12, 1996 in the Woodhaven section of Queens, New York). Count Two charges D'ARPINO with murder in aid of a racketeering activity, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a)(1), relating to the murder of John Gebert. Count Three charges CADICAMO with conspiracy to kill and/or beat a man named Michael Malone to prevent MALONE from providing information to a federal law enforcement officer and from testifying as a witness in Case No. 8:04-cr-348-T-24TGW, a RICO conspiracy case tried in Tampa, Florida before U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew in the fall of 2006. Count Four further charges CADICAMO with conspiracy to retaliate against MALONE for his cooperation in the government's ongoing RICO investigations and for testifying in the 2006 RICO conspiracy trial in Tampa.
If convicted of the RICO conspiracy charge, BURKE, CADICAMO, D'ARPINO, FINNERTY, and PEDEN each face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. If convicted of Count Two, the murder in aid of racketeering charge, D'ARPINO faces an additional sentence of life imprisonment or death. If convicted of Counts Three and Four, CADICAMO faces additional prison sentences of up to 30 years and 20 years, respectively.
According to the RICO conspiracy charge against GOTTI, from in or about 1983 and continuing through July 24, 2008, GOTTI and other members and associates of the Gambino organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra (the “Gambino Crime Family”) constituted an enterprise (the “GCF Enterprise”) which engaged in an array of criminal conduct including murder, robbery, bribery, kidnaping, extortion, gambling, illegal drug trafficking, loansharking, collecting unlawful debts, jury tampering, victim and witness tampering, burglary, home invasions, aggravated assaults and batteries, and money laundering. The indictment specifies that GOTTI, the son of former and deceased Gambino Crime Family boss, John J. Gotti, occupied various roles in the GCF Enterprise during the period charged, including associate, soldier, captain, and de facto boss of the Gambino Crime Family, and served as a member of the committee of captains formed in the early 1990's to assist in the administration of the Gambino Crime Family.
The indictment further charges that GCF Enterprise members engaged in public acts and displays of violence – shootings, stabbings, baseball bat beatings, and murder – designed to create and maintain fear and dread in others so that the GCF Enterprise could defend and expand its unlawful dominion and influence in certain geographical areas and over certain:
Also per the indictment, GCF Enterprise members worked to establish and maintain GCF
Enterprise footholds, or operational bases, in various parts of the United States of America, specifically including the city of Tampa, Florida, in the Middle District of Florida.
The Special Sentencing Allegations section of the RICO conspiracy charge specifies some of the more egregious criminal activity alleged against GOTTI, including possession and trafficking in more than five kilograms of cocaine, and the murders of George Grosso, Louis DiBono, and Bruce John Gotterup. GOTTI is the first person charged for the murder of George Grosso, which was previously listed as an unsolved homicide and was investigated with the assistance of the NYPD Cold Case Squad.
According to Count One of the indictment charging BURKE, CADICAMO, D'ARPINO, FINNERTY, and PEDEN with RICO conspiracy, from in or about 1983 and continuing through July 31, 2008, the five men, along with MALONE, and Pasquale J. Andriano, and others, constituted an enterprise (the "Criminal Enterprise") which engaged in an array of criminal conduct including murder, robbery, bribery, kidnaping, extortion, gambling, illegal drug trafficking, loansharking, collecting unlawful debts, jury tampering, victim and witness tampering, burglary, home invasions, aggravated assaults and batteries, and money laundering.
The indictment alleges that the Criminal Enterprise operated at times under the influence and control of the Gambino Crime Family and was directed by John E. Alite, who shared the resulting criminal proceeds with members of the Gambino Crime Family, including John A. Gotti, Charles Carneglia, and Ronald J. Trucchio. MALONE, ANDRIANO, TRUCCHIO, and ALITE were all charged in 2004 as defendants in Case No. 8:04-cr-348-T-24TGW, a RICO conspiracy case charged and tried in Tampa in the fall of 2006. ANDRIANO pleaded guilty prior to trial, as did MALONE, who later testified at trial and admitted his role in the RICO conspiracy and testified as to the details of the 1996 murder of John Gebert in Queens, New York. TRUCCHIO was convicted at the fall 2006 Tampa trial and sentenced to life imprisonment. Also charged and convicted in the case were Steven Catalano, Kevin M. McMahon, and Terry L. Scaglione. CATALANO and SCAGLIONE have since been sentenced to prison terms of 192 months and 57 months, respectively. ALITE, who was apprehended in Brazil in November 2004, was extradited to the United States in December 2006. ALITE's case remains before U.S. District Judge Bucklew, as do the cases concerning MALONE and MCMAHON.
It was revealed through testimony and evidence during the 2006 Tampa trial that ALITE was, at one time, a powerful associate of the Gambino Crime Family and had, at various times, an ownership or management interest in a number of valet parking service businesses operating in and around the Tampa Bay area, including Prestige Valet, Inc.
The current indictment also charges that Criminal Enterprise members invested some of their criminal income for the acquisition of interests in other businesses, or "Investment Enterprises," including window/glass businesses, valet parking service businesses, and bars\clubs, such as “Club Mirage,” a nightclub business located at 3605 West Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa.
The Special Sentencing Allegations section of the RICO conspiracy charge specifically alleges that BURKE and PEDEN possessed and trafficked in more than five kilograms of cocaine, that both men also participated in the murder of Bruce John Gotterup, and that BURKE and D'ARPINO participated in the murder of John Gebert. Count Two of the indictment charges D'ARPINO separately for his role in the murder of John Gebert. Count Three charges CADICAMO with conspiracy to kill and/or beat MALONE to prevent MALONE from providing information to a federal law enforcement officer and from testifying as a witness in the 2006 Tampa trial. Count Four further charges CADICAMO with conspiracy to retaliate against MALONE for his cooperation in the government's ongoing RICO investigations and for testifying.
The indictments are the latest results of a lengthy ongoing investigation coordinated by the Tampa and New York FBI Divisions, specifically the Clearwater, Florida, and the Brooklyn Queens Metropolitan FBI offices, and included the Miami and Philadelphia FBI offices, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, the Tampa Police Department, the New York City Police Department, the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, the FBI Legal Attache! to Brazil, the Brazilian federal police, and Interpol. The two cases were investigated by and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jay G. Trezevant.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.
The second case includes four counts. Count One charges John A. Burke, a 47 year old New York state correctional facility inmate, James V. Cadicamo, a 33 year old resident of Tampa, Florida, David D'Arpino, a 33 year old resident of Howard Beach, New York, Michael D. Finnerty, a 43 year old resident of Oceanside, New York, and Guy T. Peden, a 47 year old resident of Wantagh, New York, with RICO conspiracy, and specifically alleges that: (1) BURKE and PEDEN possessed, and trafficked in, more than five kilograms of cocaine; (2) BURKE and PEDEN also participated in the murder of Bruce John Gotterup; and (3) BURKE and D'ARPINO participated in the murder of a man named John Gebert (murdered July 12, 1996 in the Woodhaven section of Queens, New York). Count Two charges D'ARPINO with murder in aid of a racketeering activity, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a)(1), relating to the murder of John Gebert. Count Three charges CADICAMO with conspiracy to kill and/or beat a man named Michael Malone to prevent MALONE from providing information to a federal law enforcement officer and from testifying as a witness in Case No. 8:04-cr-348-T-24TGW, a RICO conspiracy case tried in Tampa, Florida before U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew in the fall of 2006. Count Four further charges CADICAMO with conspiracy to retaliate against MALONE for his cooperation in the government's ongoing RICO investigations and for testifying in the 2006 RICO conspiracy trial in Tampa.
If convicted of the RICO conspiracy charge, BURKE, CADICAMO, D'ARPINO, FINNERTY, and PEDEN each face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. If convicted of Count Two, the murder in aid of racketeering charge, D'ARPINO faces an additional sentence of life imprisonment or death. If convicted of Counts Three and Four, CADICAMO faces additional prison sentences of up to 30 years and 20 years, respectively.
The GOTTI Case
According to the RICO conspiracy charge against GOTTI, from in or about 1983 and continuing through July 24, 2008, GOTTI and other members and associates of the Gambino organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra (the “Gambino Crime Family”) constituted an enterprise (the “GCF Enterprise”) which engaged in an array of criminal conduct including murder, robbery, bribery, kidnaping, extortion, gambling, illegal drug trafficking, loansharking, collecting unlawful debts, jury tampering, victim and witness tampering, burglary, home invasions, aggravated assaults and batteries, and money laundering. The indictment specifies that GOTTI, the son of former and deceased Gambino Crime Family boss, John J. Gotti, occupied various roles in the GCF Enterprise during the period charged, including associate, soldier, captain, and de facto boss of the Gambino Crime Family, and served as a member of the committee of captains formed in the early 1990's to assist in the administration of the Gambino Crime Family.
The indictment further charges that GCF Enterprise members engaged in public acts and displays of violence – shootings, stabbings, baseball bat beatings, and murder – designed to create and maintain fear and dread in others so that the GCF Enterprise could defend and expand its unlawful dominion and influence in certain geographical areas and over certain:
- (i) legal businesses, such as the business of operating restaurants, the business of operating bars/pubs, the business of providing bar security, and the business of providing valet parking services;
- (ii) legal industries, such as the construction and trucking industries;
- (iii) unions’ locals, and
- (iv) illegal businesses, such as the business of illegally dealing in controlled substances, the business of illegal gambling, and the business of collection of unlawful debts.
Also per the indictment, GCF Enterprise members worked to establish and maintain GCF
Enterprise footholds, or operational bases, in various parts of the United States of America, specifically including the city of Tampa, Florida, in the Middle District of Florida.
The Special Sentencing Allegations section of the RICO conspiracy charge specifies some of the more egregious criminal activity alleged against GOTTI, including possession and trafficking in more than five kilograms of cocaine, and the murders of George Grosso, Louis DiBono, and Bruce John Gotterup. GOTTI is the first person charged for the murder of George Grosso, which was previously listed as an unsolved homicide and was investigated with the assistance of the NYPD Cold Case Squad.
The Criminal Enterprise Case
According to Count One of the indictment charging BURKE, CADICAMO, D'ARPINO, FINNERTY, and PEDEN with RICO conspiracy, from in or about 1983 and continuing through July 31, 2008, the five men, along with MALONE, and Pasquale J. Andriano, and others, constituted an enterprise (the "Criminal Enterprise") which engaged in an array of criminal conduct including murder, robbery, bribery, kidnaping, extortion, gambling, illegal drug trafficking, loansharking, collecting unlawful debts, jury tampering, victim and witness tampering, burglary, home invasions, aggravated assaults and batteries, and money laundering.
The indictment alleges that the Criminal Enterprise operated at times under the influence and control of the Gambino Crime Family and was directed by John E. Alite, who shared the resulting criminal proceeds with members of the Gambino Crime Family, including John A. Gotti, Charles Carneglia, and Ronald J. Trucchio. MALONE, ANDRIANO, TRUCCHIO, and ALITE were all charged in 2004 as defendants in Case No. 8:04-cr-348-T-24TGW, a RICO conspiracy case charged and tried in Tampa in the fall of 2006. ANDRIANO pleaded guilty prior to trial, as did MALONE, who later testified at trial and admitted his role in the RICO conspiracy and testified as to the details of the 1996 murder of John Gebert in Queens, New York. TRUCCHIO was convicted at the fall 2006 Tampa trial and sentenced to life imprisonment. Also charged and convicted in the case were Steven Catalano, Kevin M. McMahon, and Terry L. Scaglione. CATALANO and SCAGLIONE have since been sentenced to prison terms of 192 months and 57 months, respectively. ALITE, who was apprehended in Brazil in November 2004, was extradited to the United States in December 2006. ALITE's case remains before U.S. District Judge Bucklew, as do the cases concerning MALONE and MCMAHON.
It was revealed through testimony and evidence during the 2006 Tampa trial that ALITE was, at one time, a powerful associate of the Gambino Crime Family and had, at various times, an ownership or management interest in a number of valet parking service businesses operating in and around the Tampa Bay area, including Prestige Valet, Inc.
The current indictment also charges that Criminal Enterprise members invested some of their criminal income for the acquisition of interests in other businesses, or "Investment Enterprises," including window/glass businesses, valet parking service businesses, and bars\clubs, such as “Club Mirage,” a nightclub business located at 3605 West Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa.The Special Sentencing Allegations section of the RICO conspiracy charge specifically alleges that BURKE and PEDEN possessed and trafficked in more than five kilograms of cocaine, that both men also participated in the murder of Bruce John Gotterup, and that BURKE and D'ARPINO participated in the murder of John Gebert. Count Two of the indictment charges D'ARPINO separately for his role in the murder of John Gebert. Count Three charges CADICAMO with conspiracy to kill and/or beat MALONE to prevent MALONE from providing information to a federal law enforcement officer and from testifying as a witness in the 2006 Tampa trial. Count Four further charges CADICAMO with conspiracy to retaliate against MALONE for his cooperation in the government's ongoing RICO investigations and for testifying.
The indictments are the latest results of a lengthy ongoing investigation coordinated by the Tampa and New York FBI Divisions, specifically the Clearwater, Florida, and the Brooklyn Queens Metropolitan FBI offices, and included the Miami and Philadelphia FBI offices, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, the Tampa Police Department, the New York City Police Department, the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, the FBI Legal Attache! to Brazil, the Brazilian federal police, and Interpol. The two cases were investigated by and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jay G. Trezevant.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Junior Gotti is not the Only Tampa Connection to Mafia Activity
Tampa again finds itself in the center of the latest chapter of mob intrigue.
Reported organized crime boss John Gotti Jr. was arrested in New York on Tuesday, and will be arraigned in Tampa on murder conspiracy charges stemming from an investigation that began in the Bay area.
As mob towns go
Tampa is no New York, Chicago or even Philadelphia. But over the years Tampa has found itself with at least a tenuous connection to the latest news from the organized crime world.
Consider:
In the 1940s, Sicilian immigrant Santo Trafficante Sr., a known member of the Mafia, took over organized crime in Tampa. The Tampa mob ran gambling, loansharking operations, drug trafficking, stolen property rings, strip clubs, fraud and political corruption, according to Scott Deitche, author of the book, "Cigar City Mafia."
When Trafficante Jr. took over, the man authorities called Florida's "boss of bosses" testified in front of a 1978 U.S. House panel that he was involved in a plot to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro. He denied knowledge of any mob plot to kill President Kennedy.
In 2006, four alleged members of the Gambino crime family went to trial in U.S. District Court in Tampa on charges of racketeering and extortion. Authorities said the group, led by Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio, committed robbery, extortion and murder from New York to Miami. They reportedly ran valet parking businesses at restaurants, hospitals and strip clubs. In 2007, Trucchio was sentenced to spend life behind bars.
The city's sometimes unseemly criminal landscape has wooed Hollywood filmmakers as well.
The 1990 crime classic "Goodfellas" featured a scene at Lowry Park Zoo in which Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta, and James Burke, played by Robert De Niro, terrorized a local bar owner who refused to pay a gambling debt by dangling him over the lion cage. The "Goodfellas" depiction is pretty close to the real thing, according to Deitche.
Apparently, the owner of Char-Pal Lounge at 3711 E. Busch Blvd. asked Hill and Burke to come to Tampa to persuade Gaspar Ciaccio to pay his $13,000 debt, Deitche said. They dined at the Columbia Restaurant before tracking down Ciaccio.
Hill and Burke apparently beat up Ciaccio in the back room of the Char-Pal and then threatened him at the lion cage at Busch Gardens
, said Nicholas Pileggi, who adapted his book "Wiseguy" into the screenplay for "Goodfellas."
"It all really happened," said Pileggi, who came to Tampa to take pictures of the area and interview people for his book.
The reason organized crime appeared to flourish in Tampa seems as varied as the experts who have studied it.
Pileggi said Tampa's organized crime spun off from Prohibition days in the 1920s and '30s.
Many of Florida's elected leaders and law enforcement officers either didn't enforce the laws or were in cahoots with bootleggers, Pileggi said. "There was an infrastructure of corruption," he said.
Deitche focuses on the large influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants.
Mob bosses in New York and Chicago generally didn't speak Spanish, so the Trafficantes leveraged their links with Cuba and Latin America to dominate organized crime in Florida for more than three decades, he said.
Authorities credit the Trafficante family with creating a mob language known as "Tampan," a hybrid of Italian and Spanish created to confuse police.
Howard Abadinsky, an organized crime expert and professor of criminal justice and legal studies at St. John's University, said the reason the mob moved into Tampa and South Florida had more to do with the shifting economy. The mob bosses followed the money, he said.
They saw thousands of retirees from the East Coast and rustbelt states flee to sunny Florida for the winter, bringing their money and spare time.
Tampa's growing population would have been irresistible for organized crime families with ties to garbage hauling unions, shipping interests, gambling, bars, strip clubs and other ventures. "They are always on the prowl for opportunity," he said.
Deitche, Abadinsky and others agree on thing: High-profile, organized criminal activity has been on the decline for decades. Criminal investigations are credited with part of the decline. But mostly, the old-time mob bosses have died off.
Trafficante Jr. died March 17, 1987, after heart surgery in Houston.
"Since then, it's sort of subsided," said Bill Iler, who worked for the Tampa Police Department from 1966 to 1986, much of it investigating organized crime. "All the old guys hooked up with the Mafia are about dead now."
Thanks to Baird Helgeson
Reported organized crime boss John Gotti Jr. was arrested in New York on Tuesday, and will be arraigned in Tampa on murder conspiracy charges stemming from an investigation that began in the Bay area.
As mob towns go
Tampa is no New York, Chicago or even Philadelphia. But over the years Tampa has found itself with at least a tenuous connection to the latest news from the organized crime world.Consider:
In the 1940s, Sicilian immigrant Santo Trafficante Sr., a known member of the Mafia, took over organized crime in Tampa. The Tampa mob ran gambling, loansharking operations, drug trafficking, stolen property rings, strip clubs, fraud and political corruption, according to Scott Deitche, author of the book, "Cigar City Mafia."
When Trafficante Jr. took over, the man authorities called Florida's "boss of bosses" testified in front of a 1978 U.S. House panel that he was involved in a plot to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro. He denied knowledge of any mob plot to kill President Kennedy.
In 2006, four alleged members of the Gambino crime family went to trial in U.S. District Court in Tampa on charges of racketeering and extortion. Authorities said the group, led by Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio, committed robbery, extortion and murder from New York to Miami. They reportedly ran valet parking businesses at restaurants, hospitals and strip clubs. In 2007, Trucchio was sentenced to spend life behind bars.
The city's sometimes unseemly criminal landscape has wooed Hollywood filmmakers as well.
The 1990 crime classic "Goodfellas" featured a scene at Lowry Park Zoo in which Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta, and James Burke, played by Robert De Niro, terrorized a local bar owner who refused to pay a gambling debt by dangling him over the lion cage. The "Goodfellas" depiction is pretty close to the real thing, according to Deitche.
Apparently, the owner of Char-Pal Lounge at 3711 E. Busch Blvd. asked Hill and Burke to come to Tampa to persuade Gaspar Ciaccio to pay his $13,000 debt, Deitche said. They dined at the Columbia Restaurant before tracking down Ciaccio.
Hill and Burke apparently beat up Ciaccio in the back room of the Char-Pal and then threatened him at the lion cage at Busch Gardens
, said Nicholas Pileggi, who adapted his book "Wiseguy" into the screenplay for "Goodfellas.""It all really happened," said Pileggi, who came to Tampa to take pictures of the area and interview people for his book.
The reason organized crime appeared to flourish in Tampa seems as varied as the experts who have studied it.
Pileggi said Tampa's organized crime spun off from Prohibition days in the 1920s and '30s.
Many of Florida's elected leaders and law enforcement officers either didn't enforce the laws or were in cahoots with bootleggers, Pileggi said. "There was an infrastructure of corruption," he said.
Deitche focuses on the large influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants.
Mob bosses in New York and Chicago generally didn't speak Spanish, so the Trafficantes leveraged their links with Cuba and Latin America to dominate organized crime in Florida for more than three decades, he said.
Authorities credit the Trafficante family with creating a mob language known as "Tampan," a hybrid of Italian and Spanish created to confuse police.
Howard Abadinsky, an organized crime expert and professor of criminal justice and legal studies at St. John's University, said the reason the mob moved into Tampa and South Florida had more to do with the shifting economy. The mob bosses followed the money, he said.
They saw thousands of retirees from the East Coast and rustbelt states flee to sunny Florida for the winter, bringing their money and spare time.
Tampa's growing population would have been irresistible for organized crime families with ties to garbage hauling unions, shipping interests, gambling, bars, strip clubs and other ventures. "They are always on the prowl for opportunity," he said.
Deitche, Abadinsky and others agree on thing: High-profile, organized criminal activity has been on the decline for decades. Criminal investigations are credited with part of the decline. But mostly, the old-time mob bosses have died off.
Trafficante Jr. died March 17, 1987, after heart surgery in Houston.
"Since then, it's sort of subsided," said Bill Iler, who worked for the Tampa Police Department from 1966 to 1986, much of it investigating organized crime. "All the old guys hooked up with the Mafia are about dead now."
Thanks to Baird Helgeson
Victoria Gotti Defends Her Brother, Junior Gotti
Just hours after John "Junior" Gotti was indicted on charges linking him to cocaine trafficking and three slayings, Victoria Gotti 
is now coming to her brother's defense, speaking to CBS 2 in New York. She says the government is not just after her brother, but her entire family, and especially her father, despite his passing.
"It's obvious. If they could take my father out of the grave, and retry him and win again and again, they would," she said.
Once again, Victoria has to stand up for her brother, on the verge of yet another trial. Only this time, John A. Gotti will be tried for murder. Three murders, the government says. Two of the dead the feds say were allegedly part of drug deals with Gotti that go back 17 years ago. But a third, Louis Di Bono, was an associate of Gotti's father.
"What you have here is you have the Gambino crime family reaching out to Tampa, Florida, so you have a number of New York related gangsters and mobsters coming down to the Tampa area, and this indictment relates to their trying to get a foothold here," said Robert O'Neill of the U.S. Attorney's Office. But Victoria Gotti says there's more to the story than meets the eye.
"I don't know, I feel like saying, you know, it's this vendetta, but I'm so tired of hearing it myself from other people that you try to convince yourself its not, and you try to convince yourself these are supposed to be the good guys and it's just not working for me," she said. "If they were to come back at him, they would look like absolute fools," she said.
Victoria Gotti also said about the witnesses against her brother, like Mikey "Scars" DiLeonardo and Sammy Gravano, if they know so much, then what they were doing back then?
With charges as serious as murder, it wouldn't be surprising to find out that someone was wearing a wire and that there are tapes.
Watch the Pablo Guzman's entire video with Victoria Gotti.
is now coming to her brother's defense, speaking to CBS 2 in New York. She says the government is not just after her brother, but her entire family, and especially her father, despite his passing."It's obvious. If they could take my father out of the grave, and retry him and win again and again, they would," she said.
Once again, Victoria has to stand up for her brother, on the verge of yet another trial. Only this time, John A. Gotti will be tried for murder. Three murders, the government says. Two of the dead the feds say were allegedly part of drug deals with Gotti that go back 17 years ago. But a third, Louis Di Bono, was an associate of Gotti's father.
"What you have here is you have the Gambino crime family reaching out to Tampa, Florida, so you have a number of New York related gangsters and mobsters coming down to the Tampa area, and this indictment relates to their trying to get a foothold here," said Robert O'Neill of the U.S. Attorney's Office. But Victoria Gotti says there's more to the story than meets the eye.
"I don't know, I feel like saying, you know, it's this vendetta, but I'm so tired of hearing it myself from other people that you try to convince yourself its not, and you try to convince yourself these are supposed to be the good guys and it's just not working for me," she said. "If they were to come back at him, they would look like absolute fools," she said.
Victoria Gotti also said about the witnesses against her brother, like Mikey "Scars" DiLeonardo and Sammy Gravano, if they know so much, then what they were doing back then?
With charges as serious as murder, it wouldn't be surprising to find out that someone was wearing a wire and that there are tapes.
Watch the Pablo Guzman's entire video with Victoria Gotti.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
John Alite Expected to be Key Witness Against Junior Gotti
The last time John Alite was arrested, he made it clear he didn't want to go back to prison.
The longtime friend of Junior Gotti had done three years on a gun rap and three months for smuggling a mobster's sperm out of the pen.
Now he faced serious time in a racketeering case and was fighting extradition from Brazil while his associates were on trial.
"I've lost everything," he moaned on a smuggled cell phone to the St. Petersburg Times from a Rio lockup in 2006. "I don't get to watch my son play baseball. I don't get to watch my daughter go to school. ... Am I bitter? Yeah, I'm bitter. Who wouldn't be."
He was also afraid.
By his account, he had two choices - both of which could get him killed: Sing to the feds about Gotti or wait for trial in a U.S. prison.
In the end, sources told the Daily News, he picked the former, and Alite, 45, is poised to be a key witness in the government's latest attempt to convict Gotti.
His friendship with Junior goes back 25 years to when Gotti was the swaggering son of a mob boss and Alite was a tough college dropout basking in reflected Gambino glory.
Alite wasn't Italian - his family is from Albania - so he claims he was never taken into the fold. But others tell a different story.
One mob informant has said that in the mid-'80s Alite helped Junior rob Howard Beach, Queens, drug dealers and resell the product.
In 1989, the two were busted, along with crony Steven Kaplan, for brutalizing three people outside a Long Island nightclub.
Alite allegedly touched off the brawl by hitting on someone's wife - but the case never went to trial because the victims developed a sudden memory loss and were unable to identify their attackers. The next time Alite got into trouble, he wasn't as lucky, and notched a conviction for aggravated assault.
The felony made it illegal for him to carry a gun, so when he was stopped on a New Jersey bridge with a .38 in 1995, he went to prison for three years.
Inside, he met wiseguy Antonio Parlavecchio, who persuaded him to help smuggle out his sperm so he could impregnate his wife. Alite got three months in the pen for bringing sperm collection kits to a corrupt guard at the federal prison in Allentown, Pa. "Her biological clock was ticking," he later explained. "She wanted to have a baby. I couldn't believe I got sent to prison for something like that."
His next indictment was more conventional.
In 2004, Alite was charged with running a Florida-based crew for the Gambino family that dabbled in robbery, murder, gambling and kidnapping.
During his co-defendants' trial, he was portrayed as a ruthless thug who used his mob connections and violence to intimidate rivals of his valet-parking front. "John Alite is capable of doing some pretty nasty things," one business partner testified.
From the Rio prison, Alite denied he'd done anything worse than raise his voice and insisted he was being persecuted for ties he cut long ago. "Was I friends with John Gotti? Yes," he said. "Am I friends with him now? No."
Safe to say, that's truer today than ever.
Thanks to John Marzulli and Tracy Connor
The longtime friend of Junior Gotti had done three years on a gun rap and three months for smuggling a mobster's sperm out of the pen.Now he faced serious time in a racketeering case and was fighting extradition from Brazil while his associates were on trial.
"I've lost everything," he moaned on a smuggled cell phone to the St. Petersburg Times from a Rio lockup in 2006. "I don't get to watch my son play baseball. I don't get to watch my daughter go to school. ... Am I bitter? Yeah, I'm bitter. Who wouldn't be."
He was also afraid.
By his account, he had two choices - both of which could get him killed: Sing to the feds about Gotti or wait for trial in a U.S. prison.
In the end, sources told the Daily News, he picked the former, and Alite, 45, is poised to be a key witness in the government's latest attempt to convict Gotti.
His friendship with Junior goes back 25 years to when Gotti was the swaggering son of a mob boss and Alite was a tough college dropout basking in reflected Gambino glory.
Alite wasn't Italian - his family is from Albania - so he claims he was never taken into the fold. But others tell a different story.
One mob informant has said that in the mid-'80s Alite helped Junior rob Howard Beach, Queens, drug dealers and resell the product.
In 1989, the two were busted, along with crony Steven Kaplan, for brutalizing three people outside a Long Island nightclub.
Alite allegedly touched off the brawl by hitting on someone's wife - but the case never went to trial because the victims developed a sudden memory loss and were unable to identify their attackers. The next time Alite got into trouble, he wasn't as lucky, and notched a conviction for aggravated assault.
The felony made it illegal for him to carry a gun, so when he was stopped on a New Jersey bridge with a .38 in 1995, he went to prison for three years.
Inside, he met wiseguy Antonio Parlavecchio, who persuaded him to help smuggle out his sperm so he could impregnate his wife. Alite got three months in the pen for bringing sperm collection kits to a corrupt guard at the federal prison in Allentown, Pa. "Her biological clock was ticking," he later explained. "She wanted to have a baby. I couldn't believe I got sent to prison for something like that."
His next indictment was more conventional.
In 2004, Alite was charged with running a Florida-based crew for the Gambino family that dabbled in robbery, murder, gambling and kidnapping.
During his co-defendants' trial, he was portrayed as a ruthless thug who used his mob connections and violence to intimidate rivals of his valet-parking front. "John Alite is capable of doing some pretty nasty things," one business partner testified.
From the Rio prison, Alite denied he'd done anything worse than raise his voice and insisted he was being persecuted for ties he cut long ago. "Was I friends with John Gotti? Yes," he said. "Am I friends with him now? No."
Safe to say, that's truer today than ever.
Thanks to John Marzulli and Tracy Connor
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Indictment of "Junior" Gotti Includes Conspiracy Charges Tied to Cocaine Trafficking and 3 Murders
John A. "Junior" Gotti has been indicted on conspiracy charges in Florida, linking him to large-scale cocaine trafficking and the slayings of three New York men in the late 1980s and early 1990s, federal officials said Tuesday.
Federal prosecutor Robert O'Neill announced the indictment of the 44-year-old Gotti and five other men at a news conference. He said the indictment showed that the men were "trying to gain a foothold" in the area.
"What should be noted today is whether you violate the federal law today, tomorrow, or 20 years ago, the FBI and its law enforcement partners will pursue the matter to its logical conclusions," said Steven E. Ibison, special agent-in-charge of the Tampa FBI office.
Gotti — the son of the late Gambino family crime boss John Gotti — was arrested at his Long Island home and is expected to appear later Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
The conspiracy indictment against Gotti accuses him of being a chief in an arm of the Gambino crime family that operated in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania since about 1983. That enterprise was involved in everything from murder and kidnapping to witness tampering and money laundering, and had its fingers in legal and illegal businesses and union locals, federal authorities said.
It says he was involved in the slayings of George Grosso in Queens, NY, in 1988; Louis DiBono, who was killed in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in Manhattan in 1990; and Bruce John Gotterup, killed in 1991 at the Boardwalk at the Rockaways in Queens. It also accuses him of possession and trafficking of more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.
A second indictment charges Gotti associates John A. Burke, 47, who is in prison in New York; James V. Cadicamo, 33, of Tampa; David D'Arpino, 33, of Howard Beach, NY; Michael D. Finnerty, 43, of Oceanside, NY; and Guy T. Peden, 47, of Wantagh, NY.
Both indictments were handed up last month.
In 1999, Junior Gotti pleaded guilty to racketeering crimes including bribery, extortion, gambling and fraud. He was sentenced to 77 months in prison and was released in 2005.
Gotti also was tried three times in Manhattan on racketeering charges for an alleged plot to kidnap Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa. The trials in 2005 and 2006 ended in hung juries and mistrials.
Federal prosecutors announced at the time that they were giving up — and Gotti said he had long since retired from his life of crime.
"They tried very hard to convict him up here. They spared no resources and it didn't work," said Gotti's attorney, Charles Carnesi. "It's tragic for him and his family to have to continually go through this. It's almost laughable."
Federal authorities in Florida successfully convicted other suspected members of the Tampa-area Gambino enterprise in 2006, including Michael Malone, Charles Carneglia and Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio. The former alleged boss of the Tampa enterprise, John E. Alite, is awaiting trial in Tampa after being captured and extradited from Brazil.
Thanks to Christine Armario and Thomas Hays
Federal prosecutor Robert O'Neill announced the indictment of the 44-year-old Gotti and five other men at a news conference. He said the indictment showed that the men were "trying to gain a foothold" in the area.
"What should be noted today is whether you violate the federal law today, tomorrow, or 20 years ago, the FBI and its law enforcement partners will pursue the matter to its logical conclusions," said Steven E. Ibison, special agent-in-charge of the Tampa FBI office.
Gotti — the son of the late Gambino family crime boss John Gotti — was arrested at his Long Island home and is expected to appear later Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. If convicted, he faces life in prison.The conspiracy indictment against Gotti accuses him of being a chief in an arm of the Gambino crime family that operated in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania since about 1983. That enterprise was involved in everything from murder and kidnapping to witness tampering and money laundering, and had its fingers in legal and illegal businesses and union locals, federal authorities said.
It says he was involved in the slayings of George Grosso in Queens, NY, in 1988; Louis DiBono, who was killed in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in Manhattan in 1990; and Bruce John Gotterup, killed in 1991 at the Boardwalk at the Rockaways in Queens. It also accuses him of possession and trafficking of more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.
A second indictment charges Gotti associates John A. Burke, 47, who is in prison in New York; James V. Cadicamo, 33, of Tampa; David D'Arpino, 33, of Howard Beach, NY; Michael D. Finnerty, 43, of Oceanside, NY; and Guy T. Peden, 47, of Wantagh, NY.
Both indictments were handed up last month.
In 1999, Junior Gotti pleaded guilty to racketeering crimes including bribery, extortion, gambling and fraud. He was sentenced to 77 months in prison and was released in 2005.
Gotti also was tried three times in Manhattan on racketeering charges for an alleged plot to kidnap Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa. The trials in 2005 and 2006 ended in hung juries and mistrials.
Federal prosecutors announced at the time that they were giving up — and Gotti said he had long since retired from his life of crime.
"They tried very hard to convict him up here. They spared no resources and it didn't work," said Gotti's attorney, Charles Carnesi. "It's tragic for him and his family to have to continually go through this. It's almost laughable."
Federal authorities in Florida successfully convicted other suspected members of the Tampa-area Gambino enterprise in 2006, including Michael Malone, Charles Carneglia and Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio. The former alleged boss of the Tampa enterprise, John E. Alite, is awaiting trial in Tampa after being captured and extradited from Brazil.
Thanks to Christine Armario and Thomas Hays
Junior Gotti Said to Have Been Arrested on Murder Conspiracy Charge
A law enforcement official says John A. "Junior" Gotti has been arrested on a murder conspiracy charge.The official says the charge stemmed from a federal investigation originating in Tampa, Fla. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the charge had not been officially announced.
Gotti has had three criminal trials end in mistrial. He is expected to make an appearance in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday for a removal hearing.
A call to his attorney seeking comment was not immediately returned.
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