Did @RealDonaldTrump Join Investors with Reputed Mobs Ties on First Casino?

For years, Donald Trump has boasted that his casinos are free of the taint of organized crime, using this claim to distinguish his gambling ventures from competitors. But Trump's casinos turn out not to be so squeaky clean.

One of his prime Atlantic City developments, the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, relied on a partnership with two investors reputedly linked to the mob, prompting New Jersey regulators to force Trump to buy them out. And he employed a known Asian organized crime figure as a vice president at his Taj Mahal casino for five years, defending the executive against regulators’ attempts to take away his license, according to law enforcement officials.

As the famously brash developer now considers a run for the presidency, this history could complicate his efforts to project an image of a trusted power in the business world. It exposes a seamy underside to Trump's rise to fortune -- one that involved intimate links to unsavory characters.

As voters learn more about such links between Trump and reputed organized crime figures, "it will get more difficult for him," says John Geer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University. "Under that withering examination, his past associations and troubles will all emerge and could make it tough in a Republican primary."

In his 2000 book, “The America We Deserve,” released to coincide with an earlier prospective presidential campaign, Trump boasted:

“One thing you can say about Trump, as the holder of a casino gaming license, is that I’m 100 percent clean -- something you can’t say with certainty about our current group of presidential candidates.”

Trump has sought to lean on such claims while sometimes intimating that industry competitors are themselves tainted by mob associations -- in order to saddle them with restrictions on their casino licenses.

On Oct. 5, 1993, Trump told a Congressional panel examining the rise of Indian casinos -- then, a rapidly emerging threat to Atlantic City -- that the proprietors were vulnerable to organized crime.

It is “obvious that organized crime is rampant,” Trump told the panel, according to a transcript, drawing a direct contrast to his own operations. “At the Taj Mahal I spent more money on security and security systems than most Indians building their entire casino, and I will tell you that there is no way the Indians are going to protect themselves from the mob.”

That broadside garnered Trump a reprimand from then-House Interior Committee Chairman George Miller, a California Democrat, who complained that he had never heard more irresponsible testimony. But Trump continued, predicting that Indian casinos would spawn “the biggest crime problem in the nation’s history.”

Trump’s neglected to mention that his initial partners on his first deal in Atlantic City reputedly had their own organized crime connections: Kenneth Shapiro was identified by state and federal prosecutors as the investment banker for late Philadelphia mob boss Nicky Scarfo according to reports issued by New Jersey state commissions examining the influence of organized crime, and Danny Sullivan, a former Teamsters Union official, is described in an FBI file as having mob acquaintances. Both controlled a company that leased parcels of land to Trump for the 39-story hotel-casino.

Trump teamed up with the duo in 1980 soon after arriving in Atlantic City, according to numerous news reports and his real estate broker on the deal, Paul Longo. The developer seized on a prime piece of property and partnered with Shapiro and Sullivan, but the state’s gambling regulators were concerned enough about Shapiro and Sullivan’s mob links that they required Trump to end the partnership and buy out their shares, according to several Trump biographies.

Trump's office did not respond to requests for comment. Both Sullivan and Shapiro died in the early 1990s.

Trump later confided to a biographer that the twosome were “tough guys,” relaying a rumor that Sullivan, a 6-foot, 5-inch bear of a man, killed Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters boss who disappeared in July 1975.

“Because I heard that rumor, I kept my guard up. I said, ‘Hey, I don’t want to be friends with this guy.’ I’ll bet you that if I didn’t hear that rumor, maybe I wouldn’t be here right now,” Trump told Timothy L. O’Brien, the author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald” and current national editor of The Huffington Post.

Trump told a different story to casino regulators who were deciding whether to grant him the lucrative gambling license. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with these people,” he said about Shapiro and Sullivan during licensing hearings in 1982, according to "TrumpNation : The Art of Being The Donald." “Many of them have been in Atlantic City for many, many years and I think they are well thought of.”

Sullivan's unsavory reputation did not stop Trump from later arranging for him to be hired as a labor negotiator for the Grand Hyatt, a hotel project on Manhattan’s East Side, according to People magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Trump also introduced Sullivan to his own banker at Chase, though he declined to guarantee a loan to Sullivan, reported the L.A. Times.

Longo, the real estate broker Trump used in Atlantic City on the Trump Plaza deal, says he wasn’t aware of Shapiro or Sullivan having any mob ties, and insisted Trump didn’t have any problems at all obtaining his gaming license. “In AC, you always had to be careful who you were dealing with, but Donald did things on the level,” Longo told The Huffington Post. But Wayne Barrett’s biography, “Trump: The Deals and the Downfall,” alleges Trump considered using Shapiro as a go-between to deliver campaign contributions to Atlantic City mayor Michael Matthews, in violation of state law.

Casino executives are prohibited from contributing to Atlantic City political campaigns in New Jersey. Sullivan later claimed that he was present when Trump proposed funneling contributions through Shapiro. Trump denied the allegation in an interview with O’Brien. Matthews, who was later forced out of office and served time in prison for extortion, did not return calls from HuffPost.

Barrett also reported that Trump once met Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, front boss of the Genovese crime family, at the Manhattan townhouse of their mutual lawyer -- infamous J. Edgar Hoover sidekick Roy Cohn. The author explained that Salerno’s company supplied all the concrete used in the Trump Towers in New York.

At the time of its publication, Trump slammed Barrett's book as “boring, nonfactual and highly inaccurate.”

Barrett's book prompted New Jersey casino regulators to investigate some of its allegations, but the state never brought any charges. "If there had been a provable charge, they would have brought it,” said former casino commission chairman Steven P. Perskie.

While Trump was making his bold statements about the integrity of the Taj Mahal at the 1993 congressional hearing on Indian gaming, a reputed organized crime figure was running junkets for the hotel, bringing in well-heeled gamblers from Canada. Danny Leung, the hotel’s former vice president for foreign marketing, was identified by a 1991 Senate subcommittee on investigations as a member of the 14K Triad, a Hong Kong group linked to murder, extortion and heroin smuggling, according to the New York Daily News.

Canadian police testified at a 1995 hearing before New Jersey’s casino commission that they observed Leung working in illegal gambling dens in Toronto alongside Asian gang leaders. Leung, who denied any affiliation with organized crime, had his license renewed by the commission over the objection of the Division of Gaming Enforcement.

Back in the early 1980s, just as Trump was dipping his toes into Atlantic City real estate, the developer did express concern to the FBI that his casino ventures might expose him to the mob and “tarnish his family’s name.” He even offered to place undercover FBI agents in his casinos, according to an FBI memo uncovered by TheSmokingGun.com. When Trump asked one of the agents his “personal opinion” on whether he should build in Atlantic City, the agent replied that there were “easier ways that Trump could invest his money.”

That proved prescient: In early 2009, Trump’s casino company in Atlantic City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, just days after Trump resigned from the board.

Thanks to Marcus Baram

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MS-13 Gang Leaders Face New Charge of Murder

As part of an ongoing investigation into the criminal activities of leaders, members, and associates of the criminal organization “La Mara Salvatrucha,” or “MS-13,” a federal grand jury has handed down a fourth superseding indictment adding allegations that six members of MS-13 murdered a 16-year-old in July 2015.

Oscar Noe Recinos-Garcia, a/k/a “Psycho;” German Hernandez-Escobar, a/k/a “Terible;” Noe Salvador Perez-Vasquez, a/k/a “Crazy;” Jose Rene Andrade, a/k/a “Triste,” a/k/a “Inocente;” Josue Alexis De Paz, a/k/a “Gato;” and Manuel Diaz-Granados, a/k/a “Perverso,” are charged with federal racketeering conspiracy, the object of which included the murder of Jose Aguilar-Villanueva, a/k/a “Fantasma”, age 16, who was stabbed to death in O’Connell Park in Lawrence on July 5, 2015. Four of these six individuals -- Recinos-Garcia, Hernandez-Escobar,  Perez-Vasquez, and Andrade -- were previously charged with racketeering conspiracy. De Paz and Diaz-Granados are newly charged. In documents previously filed with the Court, Hernandez-Escobar and Perez-Vasquez are identified as leaders of MS-13’s Everett Loco Salvatrucha (ELS) clique.

The superseding indictment alleges that on July 5, 2015, the defendants stabbed Aguilar-Villanueva to death in O’Connell Park in Lawrence.  Including the murder of Aguilar-Villanueva, the fourth superseding indictment now alleges that a total of 17 members of MS-13 are responsible for six murders from October 2014 to January 2016 in Chelsea, East Boston, and Lawrence, as well as the attempted murders of at least 15 people. Two MS-13 members -- Edwin Gonzalez, a/k/a “Sangriento;” and Noe Perez-Vasquez, a/k/a “Crazy,” are named as participants in two of the RICO murders. The fourth superseding indictment re-alleges that more than fifty leaders, members, and associates of MS-13 conspired to commit murder, attempted murder, and drug trafficking. Various other defendants are also charged with drug trafficking, firearm violations, immigration offenses, and fraudulent document charges.

The charge of RICO conspiracy provides a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, or life if the violation is based on racketeering activity for which the maximum penalty includes life imprisonment; three years of supervised release; and a fine of $250,000.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Jonathan Blodgett, Essex County District Attorney; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Matthew Etre, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; Colonel Richard D. McKeon, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Chief James X. Fitzpatrick of the Lawrence Police Department; Commissioner  Thomas Turco of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections; Sheriff Frank G. Cousins, Jr. of the Essex County Sheriff Department; Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department; Daniel F. Conley, Suffolk County District Attorney; Marian T. Ryan, Middlesex County District Attorney; Boston Police Commissioner William Evans; Chief Brian A. Kyes of the Chelsea Police Department; Chief Steven A. Mazzie of the Everett Police Department; Chief Kevin Coppinger of the Lynn Police Department; Chief Joseph Cafarelli of the Revere Police Department; and Chief David Fallon of the Somerville Police Department, made the announcement.

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#SouthSideCartel Gangster Pleads Guilty to Racketeering, Carjacking, Robbery and Drug Charges

A Newark, New Jersey, man pleaded guilty to his role in a violent and long-running racketeering conspiracy perpetuated by the “South Side Cartel,” a set of the Bloods street gang based in Newark, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman of the District of New Jersey.

Malik Lowery, aka Leek, 35, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in the District of New Jersey to multiple counts of a second superseding indictment charging him with racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, carjacking, robbery affecting interstate commerce and conspiracy to distribute, and to possess with intent to distribute, one kilogram or more of heroin and 280 grams or more of crack cocaine. Lowery is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 6, 2016.

In pleading guilty to the racketeering charges, Lowery admitted that he was involved in the murder of a South Side Cartel member on Oct. 20, 2007; committing an armed carjacking with fellow South Side Cartel members on Jan. 3, 2008; and robbing a drug dealer on Feb. 3, 2008, among other acts.

The South Side Cartel was once known among law enforcement and the FBI as the most violent street gang operating in Newark, committing numerous murders, shootings, robberies and other violent acts in furtherance of the enterprise. The gang is a subset of the Bloods street gang that has operated primarily from two apartment buildings, dubbed the “Twin Towers,” located on Hawthorne Avenue in Newark. Local law enforcement has made repeated narcotics and gun-related arrests at these buildings from 2002 to 2010. Many of the South Side Cartel members have tattoos depicting these buildings and the gang’s initials. At its peak, the South Side Cartel had about 20 members or associates, many of whom have since been killed in gang-related murders or are serving prison sentences for gang-related crimes.

Lowery and his co-defendants, Mark Williams, aka B.G., and Farad Roland, aka B.U., represent the last of the gang’s active members. On Aug. 10, 2016, Williams pleaded guilty to racketeering and related charges before Judge Salas. Roland is scheduled to begin trial in September 2017 on five murder charges.

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John Bills Sentenced to Ten Years for Corruption in Awarding of Chicago Red-Light Camera Contracts

The former assistant transportation commissioner for the city of Chicago was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for his role in a corruption scheme involving the city’s red-light camera contracts.

A jury in January convicted JOHN BILLS, 55, of Chicago, on all counts against him.  The conviction included nine counts of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud, one count of extortion under color of official right, one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, three counts of bribery, and three counts of filing false tax returns.

In addition to the 120-month prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall also ordered restitution in the amount of $2,032,959.50.

The sentence was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Michael J. Anderson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Joseph M. Ferguson, Inspector General for the City of Chicago; and James D. Robnett, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago.

In 2003, as an assistant transportation commissioner, Bills was a voting member of the city’s Request for Proposal (RFP) evaluation committee, which sought vendors under the city’s Digital Automated Red Light Enforcement Program.  In May 2003, the committee recommended awarding contracts to Phoenix-based Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., to install cameras that automatically record and ticket drivers who run red lights.  Evidence at trial revealed that from approximately 2003 to 2011, Bills used his influence to expand Redflex’s business with the city, resulting in millions of dollars in contracts for the installation of hundreds of red-light cameras.  In exchange for his efforts, Redflex provided Bills with cash and personal benefits, including meals, golf outings, rental cars, airline tickets, hotel rooms and other entertainment.

Some of the benefits were given directly to Bills, while hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash was funneled to him through a friend, MARTIN O’MALLEY.  Redflex hired O’Malley as a contractor and paid him lavish bonuses as new cameras were added in Chicago.  O’Malley testified at trial that he often stuffed the bonus money into envelopes and gave it to Bills during meals in Chicago restaurants.  In addition, O’Malley testified that he used some of the bonus money paid to him by Redflex to purchase and pay all expenses for a condo in Arizona that Bills used as his own.  O’Malley, of Worth, pleaded guilty in December 2014 to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.  He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Kendall on Sept. 12, 2016.

After KAREN FINLEY became CEO of Redflex, O’Malley’s commissions escalated and Bills assisted Redflex in being awarded a “sole-source” contract for additional cameras.  The sole source contract was rescinded when a competitor complained.  As the city began the process of issuing a second RFP in 2007, Bills, in his capacity as a non-voting, advisory member of the 2007 evaluation committee, assisted in ensuring that the RFP favored Redflex.  Finley, of Cave Creek, Ariz., pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.  She is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Kendall on Nov. 10, 2016.

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Shootings and Murders in Chicago Continue to Spike

Even before the high-profile shooting death of Nykea Aldridge, NBA star Dwyane Wade's cousin, Chicago had been battling a citywide spike in violent crime. While the connection to one of the country's best-known athletes has drawn national attention to the city's problem with gun violence, the underlying problem remains all too familiar for many Chicago residents.

Following Aldridge's death, nine people were killed and nearly 50 were shot across Chicago over the weekend, ABC Chicago station WLS-TV reported. Aldridge's death took place just one day after Wade participated in an ESPN Town Hall on gun violence in the Windy City, an event also attended by Wade's mother, the pastor Jolinda Wade.

"Just sat up on a panel yesterday, The Undefeated, talking about the violence that's going on within our city of Chicago, never knowing that the next day we would be the ones that would be actually living and experiencing it," she said. "We're still going to try and help these people to transform their minds and give them a different direction, so this thing won't keep happening."

Murders have spiked by 49 percent this year compared to last year, and 81 percent over the same time period in 2014.

With more than 450 murders so far in 2015, Chicago is on pace for its highest overall murder count since at least 2012, when 504 were recorded in the entire year.

Overall shooting incidents -- at more than 2,200 and counting -- have mirrored that rise, with a 48 percent spike so far in 2016.

Police blame gangs for a disproportionate share of the city's violent crime.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said on Saturday that about 1,400 people -- many of them gangs members -- are driving 85 percent of the city's gun violence. The two suspects in Aldridge's death are both documented gang members, police said.

Tragically, many of the shooting victims get caught in the crossfire.

Aldridge, 32, was hit by stray bullets as she pushed her newborn in a stroller after enrolling one of her children in school, WLS-TV reported.

This year's shootings have intensified with the summer heat. This July alone, Chicago saw 65 homicides — the most for that month since 2006, the Associated Press reported.

On Aug. 8, nine people were murdered in Chicago, making it the bloodiest day in 13 years, according to the Chicago Tribune. The victims that day included a 10-year-old boy shot in the back as he played on his front porch, the Tribune reported. Some 27 children younger than 13 have been shot in Chicago so far this year, according to WLS-TV.

Thanks to J.J. Gallagher.

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Full Track List for #Mafia3 Plus Expanded Game Score

Mafia III (Expanded Game Score)

? And The Mysterians: “Ninety-Six Tears”

The Animals: “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”

Aretha Franklin: “Chain of Fools,” “Respect”

Barry Maguire: “Eve of Destruction”

Beach Boys: “Help Me, Rhonda,” “Heroes and Villains,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”

Beethoven Ben: “Dance of the Hours”

Big Brother & The Holding Company: “Piece of My Heart”

Blue Cheer: “Good Times Are So Hard To Find”

Bobby Fuller Four: “I Fought The Law”

Box Tops: “The Letter”

Canned Heat: “On The Road Again”

Chambers Brothers: “I Can’t Turn You Loose”

Clarence Carter: “Slip Away”

Clifton Chenier: “Ay-Tete-Fee”

Count Five: “Psychotic Reaction”

Cream: “White Room”

Creedence Clearwater Revival: “Proud Mary,” “Fortunate Son,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Born on the Bayou”

Del Shannon: “Runaway,” “Keep Searchin’ (We’ll Follow The Sun)”

Delta Rae: “Bottom of the River”

Dewey Edwards: “I Let A Good Thing Go By”

Diana Ross & The Supremes: “Love Child”

Dusty Springfield: “Son of a Preacher Man”

Eddie Floyd: “Knock on Wood”

Elvis: “A Little Less Conversation”

Etta James: “Don’t Go To Strangers”

Four Tops: “Reach Out, I’ll Be There”

Freddie Cannon: “Palisades Park”

Iron Butterfly: “In A Gadda Da Vida”

James Brown: “I Got You (I Feel Good)”

Jefferson Airplane: “Somebody to Love,” “White Rabbit”

John Lee Hooker: “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”

Johnny Cash: “Folsom Prison Blues (Live),” “Ring of Fire”

Jr. Walker and the All Stars: “Shotgun”

L.C. Cooke: “Take Me For What I Am”

Lightnin’ Hopkins: “Black Ghost Blues,” “Sinner’s Prayer,” “The Howling Wolf”

Lightnin’ Slim: “G.I. Blues”

Little Richard: “Long Tall Sally”

Lonnie Youngblood: “Go Go Shoes”

Martha and the Vendellas: “Nowhere to Run”

Marvin Gaye: “You”

Mercy Dee Walton: “Five Card Hand”

Misfits: “You Belong To Me”

Mourning Ritual (ft. Peter Dreimanis): “Bad Moon Rising”

Otis Redding: “Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay,” “Hard To Handle”

Otis Redding & Carla Thomas: “Tramp”

Otis Spann: “Must Have Been The Devil”

Patsy Cline: “Crazy”

Paul Revere and the Raiders: “Kicks”

Ramones: “Palisades Park”

Roger Miller: “King of the Road”

Roosevelt Sykes: “Hey Big Momma”

Roy Orbison: “Running Scared”

Rufus Thomas: “Walking The Dog”

Sam and Dave: “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” “Soul Man”

Sam Cooke: “Chain Gang,” “Wonderful World,” “Bring It On Home To Me,” “Another Saturday Night,” “I’m Gonna Forget About You”

Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs: “Li’l Red Riding Hood”

Sonny Rhodes: “You Better Stop”

Status Quo: “Pictures Of Matchstick Men”

Steppenwolf: “Desperation,” “Born To Be Wild”

Supremes: You Keep Me Hangin’ On

Temptations: “I Wish It Would Rain”

The Animals: “House of the Rising Sun”

The Avengers: “Paint It Black”

The Band: “The Weight”

The Chambers Brothers: “Time Has Come Today”

The Dramatics: “Get Up and Get Down”

The Duprees: “You Belong To Me”

The Fun Sons: “Hang Ten”

The Miracles: “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me”

The Rolling Stones: “Mother’s Little Helper,” “Paint It Black,” “Sympathy For The Devil,” “Street Fighting Man,”

The Searchers: “Take Me For What I’m Worth,” “Needles & Pins”

The Shadows of Knight: “I Got My Mojo Working”

The Supremes: “Baby Love”

The Tams: “What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)”

The Temptations: “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”

The Troggs: “Wild Thing”

Three Dog Night: “One”

Vanilla Fudge: “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”

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Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia

It was a case that took years to make. Former NYPD Detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were accused of taking part in at least eight gangland murders in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, most while still on the job. In the end they were found guilty; but the judge threw out their convictions, saying the statute of limitations had expired, even though he believed the evidence showed overwhelmingly that the officers were guilty.

“It's sort of crazy and sensible,” explained Guy Lawson, co-author of the book “Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia” about the case. “It's like New York City, it's a paradox. It all makes sense at each stage, but when you put it all together, it seems like madness.”

It makes for a story that is better than fiction. “[It had] murder, kidnapping, and intrigue, and the mafia and hit men,” said co-author of “Brotherhoods”, William Oldham. “[It had] a guy who killed 30 people, and a “good guy” who only killed six people."

Oldham was one of a team of investigators who made the case. He and Lawson have written the first book about it, a book that begins with Oldham's story. “In 1990, I went to work with Stephen Caracappa in the major case squad,” recalled Oldham.

The allegations against Eppolito and Caracappa emerged in the mid-90s, but prosecutors did not have enough evidence to charge them. That is when Oldham started investigating the detectives. “In 1997, everyone had sort of packed up their tents and gone home, and I thought that these two deserved a trial and I began an investigation that lasted seven years,” said Oldham.

“I think the secret to why Oldham took this case is because it was so damn hard,” added Lawson. “You know, there's a certain kind of intelligence that wants to do the hardest thing.”

Oldham eventually produced the key witness, Burton Kaplan, a marijuana dealer who said he was the main contact between the officers and the Luchese family. “The thing about a RICO case, it's a number of criminal instants strung together and you sort of do need a story teller to connect the dots,” explained Oldham.


Thanks to Solana Pyne

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The Mafia in Gomorrah, Reminiscent of The Wire and The Sopranos

A pair of Mafia lieutenants, filling a jerry can at a Naples gas station, pass the time discussing the foibles of modern youth. “She put a picture of me and her mom on ‘book,’” the older one says. “Facebook,” his younger colleague tells him. “All the kids have it.” Gangsters — they’re just like us!

That’s the opening scene of “Gomorrah,” the highly popular Italian television series that makes its American debut on SundanceTV on Wednesday. Based on a 2007 nonfiction investigative work by Roberto Saviano, Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System, that has also been adapted into a well-known film, the series arrives with a deserved reputation for unrelenting violence — the gas in that can is quickly put to use in a vivid and unpleasant way. But brutality isn’t the whole story. “Gomorrah” operates on two planes. It’s a grim, detailed, quotidian drama about the inner workings of organized crime (which has drawn comparisons to “The Wire”) and at the same time it’s a traditional Mafia saga, a clan melodrama centering on succession and the ups and downs of the family business (which has drawn comparisons to “The Sopranos” and “The Godfather”). Either of these by itself might not be very interesting, but the combination is handled so adroitly that the show sucks you in. It doesn’t have the emotional or stylistic highs of those predecessors, but it carries you along like one of the sleek Italian motorcycles preferred by its wealthier characters.

The 12-episode first season (a second has already been shown in Europe) centers on two members of a drug gang in the Naples suburbs who are like a foster-family version of Sonny and Michael Corleone. Gennaro (Salvatore Esposito) is a Sonny-like hothead, unfit to be in charge but eventually thrust into the role because he’s the only son of the boss. Ciro (Marco D’Amore, whose quiet charisma holds your attention) is a coldly efficient killer and canny strategist — he’s the Michael, but because he’s not in the family, he has to work with Gennaro, or appear to.

The relationship of these two up-and-comers, playing out amid a large cast of other familiar Mafia-drama types (the ruthless but declining boss, the calculating mother, the good soldier, the aggrieved wife), proceeds through an arc of increasingly operatic violence, as rival clans fight for turf and one massacre begets another. The story line is dark, and so is the screen. Under the guidance of the showrunner, Stefano Sollima, the show makes a fetish of low light and shadow. Its most characteristic scenes are not chases and shootouts but small groups of nervous or celebratory men meeting in the dark. They gather on street corners, in crowded discos and in abandoned buildings that serve as drug markets, their faces obscured or invisible. Even during the day, they’re in curtained rooms or prison cells.

The cinematography and lighting fit with the show’s overall sense of desolation, a depiction of the Neapolitan environment as rubble-filled, overgrown and derelict. (Scenes set in Milan offer a pointed comparison to the less prosperous south.) Much of the action is set in faceless, towering apartment blocks that recall the settings of Italian neorealist films, though touches of lyricism creep in, like a beach scene in which a pair of horse carts passing in the background feel like early Fellini.

Mr. Sollima and his colleagues are certainly aware of the many influences to be sorted through in making a modern gangster tale. At one point a young hood, describing the botched job that got him imprisoned, says that cops and helicopters arrived “just like an American movie.” In “Gomorrah,” they’ve achieved a satisfying international blend.

Thanks to Mike Hale.

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Hells Angels Biker Gang Readying a Comeback

The weekend funeral of a Hells Angel member provided valuable information for law enforcement officers monitoring the group's attempt to rebuild after being decimated by arrests, said several organized crime experts.

Kenny Bédard, 51, had only recently become a full member of the biker gang when he was killed in a road accident in New Brunswick last month.But his newcomer status didn't seem to matter to the hundreds of gang members who gathered at a church in Pointe-Saint-Charles for the funeral on Saturday. 

The funeral doubled as a strategic bit of theatre, said one expert, who pointed out the gang has been in restructuring mode since a large police operation in 2009 that led to the arrests of more than 150 members.


"It was a chance for the bikers to show that they're close to each other and at the same time, a demonstration of their strength to other bikers who are their enemies," said Pierre de Champlain, a historian of organized crime in Montreal.

"It shows, 'Us bikers, we are in control of the territory in terms of the sale of drugs.'"

On Saturday, police officers could be seen taking footage of gang members gathering outside the church — a sign, said another expert, that law enforcement is readying itself for the gang's resurgence."These guys are returning," said Guy Ryan, a former organized crime investigator with Montreal police. "They will start reconquering their territory and selling drugs."

Several experts noted the Hells appeared to be no longer keeping a low profile, as they had in the years after Operation SharQc in 2009.

Sylvain Tremblay, a former provincial police officer, believes the gang was emboldened by the failure to prosecute some of the more high-profile cases that stemmed from those arrests.

Five Hells Angels picked up in 2009 on murder and conspiracy charges were released last year when a judge ruled the Crown had violated rules on sharing evidence with the defence."We could say that 2016, even the end of 2015, saw the return of the Hells Angels," Tremblay told Radio-Canada. "I think we'll be seeing them more and more in Quebec."

Thanks to CBC.

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No Bail for Mob Boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme

He left his life as a Mafia don decades ago, disappeared into the federal witness protection program, and was living quietly in Atlanta as Richard Parker, an unassuming octogenarian who loved to read and exercise.But Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme’s past caught up with him Wednesday, when he was arrested at a Connecticut hotel and escorted to a Boston courthouse in handcuffs to face a new charge for an old crime: the 1993 murder of a witness during a federal investigation.

It was deja vu for Salemme, a contemporary of James “Whitey” Bulger’s who will turn 83 this month. Arriving in court, he smiled slightly when he spotted Fred Wyshak, the veteran prosecutor who helped send him to prison twice before, seated at the prosecution table and quipped, “Hey, Fred, fancy seeing you here!”

His casual demeanor belied the severity of the charge, which allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Salemme, who served as boss of the New England Mafia in the 1990s, is charged with the May 10, 1993, slaying of South Boston nightclub manager Steven A. DiSarro, whose remains were discovered in March by investigators acting on a tip. DiSarro was buried in a Providence lot owned by a man facing federal drug charges.

Salemme denies he killed DiSarro and “is ready to fight this case tooth and nail,” Salemme’s attorney, Steven Boozang, said after the court hearing. “This is old stuff that has been dredged up from the past, but he’ll face it head-on as he always has.”

The murder in question stretches back more than two decades, to a time when the mob in New England was being battered by federal prosecutions. DiSarro was 43 when he vanished 23 years ago and was presumed murdered.

The recent discovery of his remains let his family finally lay him to rest. “We buried him this weekend and had a small ceremony,” DiSarro’s son, Nick, said during a brief telephone interview Wednesday. “I am really glad that there is progress and they are moving forward. I’m looking forward to finding out the details.”

The magistrate judge granted a request by the prosecution to keep an FBI affidavit filed in support of Salemme’s arrest under seal.

While Salemme is charged with murdering a witness, authorities have not disclosed whether DiSarro was cooperating with authorities when he vanished, or whether investigators were planning to call him as a witness during a federal investigation that was underway in 1993 against Salemme and his son, Frank.

DiSarro had acquired The Channel, a now-defunct nightclub, between 1990 and 1991 and Salemme and his son had a hidden interest in the club, according to court filings by the government in prior cases.

The new charge against Salemme marks the first time anyone has been charged with DiSarro’s murder. However, Salemme pleaded guilty in 2008 to lying and obstruction of justice for denying any knowledge about DiSarro’s death and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Salemme also spent 15 years in prison for attempting to kill an Everett lawyer in 1968 by planting dynamite in his car. The lawyer lost a leg in the explosion.

After his release, Salemme was being groomed to take over as mob boss, igniting a war with a renegade faction. He survived after being shot by rival gangsters outside a Saugus pancake house in 1989 and was indicted on federal racketeering charges in 1995 along with others, including Bulger, gangster Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, and Rhode Island mobster Robert “Bobby” DeLuca.

In 1999, after learning that Bulger and Flemmi were longtime FBI informants, Salemme agreed to cooperate with authorities against the pair and their handler, retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. In exchange he served only eight years in prison and was admitted to the federal witness protection program.

In 2003, Flemmi began cooperating with authorities and claimed he walked in on the murder of DiSarro at Salemme’s estranged wife’s home in 1993, according to a US Drug Enforcement Administration report filed in federal court in Boston. He claimed that Salemme’s son, Frank, was strangling DiSarro, while Salemme, his brother John Salemme, and another man, Paul Weadick, watched.


Flemmi said Salemme was concerned about DiSarro’s friendship with a man who was cooperating in the federal investigation targeting Salemme and his son. He also told investigators that Salemme later told him DeLuca was present when they buried DiSarro.

Salemme’s son Frank died in 1995.

Salemme was kicked out of the witness protection program in 2004 when he was charged with lying about DiSarro’s killing but was allowed back into the program in 2009 after finishing his sentence.

Court filings indicated that Salemme was using the name Richard Parker while in Georgia.

He was living “a healthy lifestyle,” exercised as much as possible, and was a voracious reader, Boozang said.“He’s a guy that learned his lesson,” Boozang said. “He paid his debt to society. For 21 years he hasn’t been in trouble.”But, Nick DiSarro said, “None of that takes away the fact that he murdered someone.”

Dressed in a short-sleeved navy blue polo shirt and olive green khakis when he appeared in court Wednesday, the gray haired former Mafia don was slightly tanned and looked fit and trim. When told to rise, he took a few moments to get to his feet.

US Magistrate Judge Donald L. Cabell ordered Salemme held without bail pending the resolution of the case. The prosecutor said Salemme had a history of fleeing to avoid charges and recently fled Atlanta, where he was in the witness protection program, and was captured in Connecticut.

Salemme did not challenge the government’s request to hold him without bail. However, Boozang insisted that Salemme was not in hiding, but rather, “He was on his way back to answer any charges that might have been coming forth.”

Thanks to Shelley Murphy.

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