Get Caught Up for the Next Season of Boardwalk Empire

Get Caught Up for Next Season: Boardwalk Empire on DVD & Blu-Ray!

Tweet

Billionaire Mafia Founder Loves Attention from "Vegas High Rollers"

Addicted to reality TV villains? Odds are good you'll love or loathe Russian diva Lana Fuchs of TLC's "Vegas High Rollers."

She's clearly running out of friends after storming out of a cocktail reception during a weekend film shoot.

Just three weeks into a three-month shoot with the local socialites, the fireworks erupted Friday when the fashion designer's cast mates, concerned about her bad-mouthing, confronted her to clear the air.

Fuchs walked out, with cameras - and eyes - rolling.

"She seems to have an issue with everybody," a source said.

Fuchs appears to love the attention. At their opening shoot at the Hard Rock Hotel's pools, she arrived with an entourage of little people and bodyguards for the Black and White Party, an AIDS benefit.

Fuchs, who grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., after leaving Russia, is the founder of Billionaire Mafia and Lana Fuchs Couture.

Billionaire Mafia has been a hit with the hip-hop crowd and club scenesters.

The shooting has been taking place throughout the city, from staid Las Vegas Country Club to restaurant hot spots Firefly and Marche Baccus to Rain nightclub at the Palms for a pole dancing expo.

Thanks to Norm Clarke.

Tweet

Anthony DiNunzio, Head of New England Mafia, Pleads Guilty to Racketeering

The head of the New England Mafia pleaded guilty to racketeering in federal court in Rhode Island, in yet another blow to organized crime in the region.

Anthony DiNunzio, 53, of East Boston, could serve to 63 to 78 months in prison through an agreement he reached with federal prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit racketeering and is slated to be sentenced Nov. 14.

Outside the courthouse in Providence this morning, Rhode Island US Attorney Peter Neronha said the case was the product of a strong investigation that has already led to convictions of DiNunzio’s underlings in Rhode Island. “We have driven a stake through the heart of organized crime in Rhode Island and we have cut off its head in Boston,” Neronha said.

During a brief hearing this morning, Assistant US Attorney William Ferland told the court that DiNunzio assumed control of the area’s faction of La Cosa Nostra, which oversees eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, after former boss Luigi Manocchio stepped down in 2009.

DiNunzio quickly sought to continue Manocchio’s operations in Rhode Island, including the extortion of protection payments from area strip clubs. “He ultimately assumed a leadership role in the enterprise,” Ferland said

DiNunzio, wearing olive green prison garb and glasses, looked to his lawyer for answers as the proceedings continued. He answered loudly “guilty” when asked how he would plead.

Outside the courtroom, Neronha promised that the investigation into organized crime and the New England Mafia will continue, targeting anyone looking to assume DiNunzio‘s position. “When there’s money to be made, the criminal element will step up to take their place,” he said.

Thanks to Milton J. Valencia.

Tweet

Jerry Castaldo Discusses "Brooklyn New York: A Grim Retrospective" on Crime Beat Radio

On September 20, Comedian Jerry Castaldo discusses his fascinating memoir Brooklyn New York: A Grim Retrospective, on Crime Beat Radio.

On the air since January 28, 2011, Crime Beat is a weekly hour-long radio program that airs every Thursday at 8 p.m. EST. Crime Beat presents fascinating topics that bring listeners closer to the dynamic underbelly of the world of crime. Guests have included ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, sports officials, informants, prisoners, drug dealers and investigative journalists, who have provided insights and fresh information about the world’s most fascinating subject: crime.

Crime Beat is currently averaging 130,000 listeners plus each week, and the figure is growing. Crime Beat is hosted by award-winning crime writer and documentary producer Ron Chepesiuk (www.ronchepesiuk.com) and broadcast journalist and freelance writer Will Hryb.

Tweet

Dixie Mafia Flashback - The Assassination of Judge Vincent Sherry

This month marks the 25th anniversary of the murder of Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife, Margaret, whose deaths at the hands of the so-called Dixie Mafia exposed the lawlessness and corruption that had overtaken Mississippi’s Gulf Coast in the 1980s.

“It was out of control,” said retired Special Agent Keith Bell, referring to the level of corruption in Biloxi and Harrison County—so much so that in 1983 federal authorities would designate the entire Harrison County Sheriff’s Office as a criminal enterprise. Special Agent Royce Hignight initiated the investigation of the sheriff and was soon joined by Bell.

“They were doing anything and everything illegal down here,” said Bell, who grew up on the Gulf Coast. “For money, the sheriff and officers loyal to him would release prisoners from the county jail, safeguard drug shipments, and hide fugitives. Anything you can think of, they were involved in.”

Bell is quick to point out that there were plenty of honest officers on the force, and some would later help the FBI put an end to the culture of corruption in Biloxi. But for a long time, Sheriff Leroy Hobbs and his Dixie Mafia associates held sway.

The Dixie Mafia had no ties to La Cosa Nostra. They were a loose confederation of thugs and crooks who conducted their criminal activity in the Southeastern United States. When word got out that Biloxi—with its history of strip clubs and illicit gambling—was a safe haven, the criminals settled in.

At the same time, members of the organization incarcerated at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola were running a “lonely hearts” extortion scam with associates on the street. The scam targeted homosexuals and brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars—money they entrusted to their lawyer, Pete Halat. But Halat, who would later become mayor of Biloxi, spent the money. When it came time to hand it over to the crooks, he said the cash had been taken by his former law partner, Vincent Sherry. So the mob ordered a hit on Sherry, a sitting state circuit judge who had no direct ties to the criminals. On September 14, 1987, Sherry and his wife were murdered in their home.

“Gulf Coast residents were shocked by the murders,” Bell said. Local authorities worked the case unsuccessfully for two years. The FBI opened an investigation in 1989, and Bell was assisted in the investigation by Capt. Randy Cook of the revamped sheriff’s office—Leroy Hobbs was convicted of racketeering in 1984 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The federal investigation into the Sherry murders lasted eight years. In the final trial in 1997, Pete Halat was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Kirksey McCord Nix—the Dixie Mafia kingpin at Angola who ordered the hits—as well as the hit man who killed the Sherrys each received life sentences.

As a result of the cases, Bell said, “Gulf Coast citizens started demanding more professional law enforcement and better government.” Bell—who wanted to be an FBI agent since he first watched The FBI television series as a child—added, “It meant a lot to me to return to my home and do something about the corruption that had worked its way into government and law enforcement there.” He added, “The majority of citizens realized that if the FBI had not stepped in, the lawlessness and corruption would likely have continued unabated.”

Tweet

In Remembrance of September 11th

In Remembrance: September 11th Anniversary Collection

Tweet

Carl Gibson, Founder of US UNcut, to Discuss Wall Street Crimes and More on Crime Beat Radio

On September 13, Carl Gibson, founder of US UNcut discusses corporate greed, Wall Street crimes and Occupy Wall Street movement on Crime Beat Radio.

On the air since January 28, 2011, Crime Beat is a weekly hour-long radio program that airs every Thursday at 8 p.m. EST. Crime Beat presents fascinating topics that bring listeners closer to the dynamic underbelly of the world of crime. Guests have included ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, sports officials, informants, prisoners, drug dealers and investigative journalists, who have provided insights and fresh information about the world’s most fascinating subject: crime.

Crime Beat is currently averaging 130,000 listeners plus each week, and the figure is growing. Crime Beat is hosted by award-winning crime writer and documentary producer Ron Chepesiuk (www.ronchepesiuk.com) and broadcast journalist and freelance writer Will Hryb.

Tweet

Gunshots Hit Chicago School Bus Packed with Children

Police say no one was injured when a bullet ripped through a school bus taking students to a Catholic school in the South Deering neighborhood of Chicago on Friday.

The bus had 25 children onboard and was picking up two more children for school around 7:48 a.m. at 106th Street and Calhoun Avenue when shots rang out, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak told NBC News.

Kubiak said a bullet entered the bus through a passenger side window, shattered the glass as it went through a seat and exited through the driver's side window.

The school bus was headed to Our Lady of Guadalupe School at 9050 S. Burley Ave. when it was struck by what appeared to be a bullet, according to Ryan Blackburn from the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Officer of Catholic Schools. The incident happened about two miles from the school.

"Gratefully none of the students were harmed, and this incident demonstrates why the school's mission is so critical to its families," Blackburn told The Chicago Tribune. "Teaching our students to learn well and live as disciples of Jesus Christ is what we do, and any action that threatens our children's safety cannot be tolerated."

The bus driver told investigators he didn't know what had hit the bus, and drove the bus to the school, Kubiak said.

Tweet

James Holmes is Profiled by Renown Forensic Psychiatrist and Tracker of Elusive Serial Killer Discusses Her Discovery

Tomorrow, on Crime Beat Radio, Paula Todd discusses how she tracked down an elusive serial killer and discovered a mother of three. Also, Dr. Michael Stone, world renowned forensic psychiatrist, will profile alleged mass murderer James Holmes and the Aurora, Colorado massacre.

On the air since January 28, 2011, Crime Beat is a weekly hour-long radio program that airs every Thursday at 8 p.m. EST. Crime Beat presents fascinating topics that bring listeners closer to the dynamic underbelly of the world of crime. Guests have included ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, sports officials, informants, prisoners, drug dealers and investigative journalists, who have provided insights and fresh information about the world’s most fascinating subject: crime.

Crime Beat is currently averaging 130,000 listeners plus each week, and the figure is growing. Crime Beat is hosted by award-winning crime writer and documentary producer Ron Chepesiuk (www.ronchepesiuk.com) and broadcast journalist and freelance writer Will Hryb.

Tweet

Griselda Blanco, "Godmother of Cocaine" Killed by Motorcycle Hitman

A 69-year-old woman known throughout the drug world as the "Godmother of Cocaine" was gunned down by an assassin on a motorcycle in Colombia Monday, according to international news reports.

Griselda Blanco, once listed alongside Pablo Escobar as one of the "most notorious drug lords of the 1980s" by the Drug Enforcement Administration, was fatally shot as she left a butcher's shop in western Medellin Monday afternoon, according to a report by Univision and El Colombiano. Colombia's El Espectador reported authorities are looking for Blanco's killers and are investigating possible motives for the killing.

Blanco served nearly 20 years in an American prison on drug trafficking charges and was at one point tied to as many as 40 murders in the U.S., according to a 1997 Senate testimony given by then-director of DEA international operations Michael Horn. Horn said that Blanco ordered a Florida mall shooting in 1979 that left two dead and four injured, and she apparently enjoyed her line of work.

"To foster her reputation as the 'Godmother' of cocaine, [Blanco] named her fourth son Michael Corleone, after the fictional mob character portrayed in the movie 'The Godfather,'" Horn said.

Court documents filed in 1988, three years after Blanco was caught, detail the shadowy, decade-long hunt for the queenpin that involved federal agents chasing false identities and checking Miami hospitals for gunshot wound victims that matched Blanco's description. But she wasn't able to elude them forever and after being captured in 1985 in Irvin, Calif. and serving nearly two decades behind bars in America, Blanco was released from prison and deported back to Colombia in 2004.

The DEA referred all inquiries into Blanco's death to Colombian authorities, telling ABC News, "she served her time here." The Colombian National Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this report.

Thanks to Lee Ferran.

Tweet

$30 off the Inspector Lewis Ultimate Collection

$30 off the Inspector Lewis Ultimate Collection - a ShopPBS exclusive! (Exp. 9/30/2012)

Tweet

Where Does The Mob Keep Its Money?

THE global financial crisis has been a blessing for organized crime. A series of recent scandals have exposed the connection between some of the biggest global banks and the seamy underworld of mobsters, smugglers, drug traffickers and arms dealers. American banks have profited from money laundering by Latin American drug cartels, while the European debt crisis has strengthened the grip of the loan sharks and speculators who control the vast underground economies in countries like Spain and Greece.

Mutually beneficial relationships between bankers and gangsters aren’t new, but what’s remarkable is their reach at the highest levels of global finance. In 2010, Wachovia admitted that it had essentially helped finance the murderous drug war in Mexico by failing to identify and stop illicit transactions. The bank, which was acquired by Wells Fargo during the financial crisis, agreed to pay $160 million in fines and penalties for tolerating the laundering, which occurred between 2004 and 2007.

Last month, Senate investigators found that HSBC had for a decade improperly facilitated transactions by Mexican drug traffickers, Saudi financiers with ties to Al Qaeda and Iranian bankers trying to circumvent United States sanctions. The bank set aside $700 million to cover fines, settlements and other expenses related to the inquiry, and its chief of compliance resigned.

ABN Amro, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Lloyds and ING have reached expensive settlements with regulators after admitting to executing the transactions of clients in disreputable countries like Cuba, Iran, Libya, Myanmar and Sudan.

Many of the illicit transactions preceded the 2008 crisis, but continuing turmoil in the banking industry created an opening for organized crime groups, enabling them to enrich themselves and grow in strength. In 2009, Antonio Maria Costa, an Italian economist who then led the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told the British newspaper The Observer that “in many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital” available to some banks at the height of the crisis. “Interbank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities,” he said. “There were signs that some banks were rescued that way.” The United Nations estimated that $1.6 trillion was laundered globally in 2009, of which about $580 billion was related to drug trafficking and other forms of organized crime.

A study last year by the Colombian economists Alejandro Gaviria and Daniel Mejía concluded that the vast majority of profits from drug trafficking in Colombia were reaped by criminal syndicates in rich countries and laundered by banks in global financial centers like New York and London. They found that bank secrecy and privacy laws in Western countries often impeded transparency and made it easier for criminals to launder their money.

At a Congressional hearing in February, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, a Justice Department official in charge of monitoring money laundering, said that “banks in the U.S. are used to funnel massive amounts of illicit funds.” The laundering, she explained, typically occurs in three stages. First, illicit funds are directly deposited in banks or deposited after being smuggled out of the United States and then back in. Then comes “layering,” the process of separating criminal profits from their origin. Finally comes “integration,” the use of seemingly legitimate transactions to hide ill-gotten gains. Unfortunately, investigators too often focus on the cultivation, production and trafficking of narcotics while missing the bigger, more sophisticated financial activities of crime rings.

Mob financing via banks has ebbed and flowed over the years. In the late 1970s and early 1980s organized crime, which had previously dealt mainly in cash, started working its way into the banking system. This led authorities in Europe and America to take measures to slow international money laundering, prompting a temporary return to cash.

Then the flow reversed again, partly because of the fall of the Soviet Union and the ensuing Russian financial crisis. As early as the mid-1980s, the K.G.B., with help from the Russian mafia, had started hiding Communist Party assets abroad, as the journalist Robert I. Friedman has documented. Perhaps $600 billion had left Russia by the mid-1990s, contributing to the country’s impoverishment. Russian mafia leaders also took advantage of post-Soviet privatization to buy up state property. Then, in 1998, the ruble sharply depreciated, prompting a default on Russia’s public debt.

Although the United States cracked down on terrorist financing after the 9/11 attacks, instability in the financial system, like the Argentine debt default in 2001, continued to give banks an incentive to look the other way. My reporting on the ’Ndrangheta, the powerful criminal syndicate based in Southern Italy, found that much of the money laundering over the last decade simply shifted from America to Europe. The European debt crisis, now three years old, has further emboldened the mob.

IN Greece, as conventional bank lending has gotten tighter, more and more Greeks are relying on usurers. A variety of sources told Reuters last year that the illegal lending business in Greece involved between 5 billion and 10 billion euros each year. The loan-shark business has perhaps quadrupled since 2009 — some of the extortionists charge annualized interest rates starting at 60 percent. In Thessaloniki, the second largest city, the police broke up a criminal ring that was lending money at a weekly interest rate of 5 percent to 15 percent, with punishments for whoever didn’t pay up. According to the Greek Ministry of Finance, much of the illegal loan activity in Greece is connected to gangs from the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

Organized crime also dominates the black market for oil in Greece; perhaps three billion euros (about $3.8 billion) a year of contraband fuel courses through the country. Shipping is Greece’s premier industry, and the price of shipping fuel is set by law at one-third the price of fuel for cars and homes. So traffickers turn shipping fuel into more expensive home and automobile fuel. It is estimated that 20 percent of the gasoline sold in Greece is from the black market. The trafficking not only results in higher prices but also deprives the government of desperately needed revenue.

Greece’s political system is a “parliamentary mafiocracy,” the political expert Panos Kostakos told the energy news agency Oilprice.com earlier this year. “Greece has one of the largest black markets in Europe and the highest corruption levels in Europe,” he said. “There is a sovereign debt that does not mirror the real wealth of the average Greek family. What more evidence do we need to conclude that this is Greek mafia?”

Spain’s crisis, like Greece’s, was prefaced by years of mafia power and money and a lack of effectively enforced rules and regulations. At the moment, Spain is colonized by local criminal groups as well as by Italian, Russian, Colombian and Mexican organizations. Historically, Spain has been a shelter for Italian fugitives, although the situation changed with the enforcement of pan-European arrest warrants. Spanish anti-mafia laws have also improved, but the country continues to offer laundering opportunities, which only increased with the current economic crisis in Europe.

The Spanish real estate boom, which lasted from 1997 to 2007, was a godsend for criminal organizations, which invested dirty money in Iberian construction. Then, when home sales slowed and the building bubble burst, the mafia profited again — by buying up at bargain prices houses that people put on the market or that otherwise would have gone unsold.

In 2006, Spain’s central bank investigated the vast number of 500-euro bills in circulation. Criminal organizations favor these notes because they don’t take up much room; a 45-centimeter safe deposit box can fit up to 10 million euros. In 2010, British currency exchange offices stopped accepting 500-euro bills after discovering that 90 percent of transactions involving them were connected to criminal activities. Yet 500-euro bills still account for 70 percent of the value of all bank notes in Spain. And in Italy, the mafia can still count on 65 billion euros (about $82 billion) in liquid capital every year. Criminal organizations siphon 100 billion euros from the legal economy, a sum equivalent to 7 percent of G.D.P. — money that ends up in the hands of Mafiosi instead of sustaining the government or law-abiding Italians. “We will defeat the mafia by 2013,” Silvio Berlusconi, then the prime minister, declared in 2009. It was one of many unfulfilled promises. Mario Monti, the current prime minister, has stated that Italy’s dire financial situation is above all a consequence of tax evasion. He has said that even more drastic measures are needed to combat the underground economy generated by the mafia, which is destroying the legal economy.
Today’s mafias are global organizations. They operate everywhere, speak multiple languages, form overseas alliances and joint ventures, and make investments just like any other multinational company. You can’t take on multinational giants locally. Every country needs to do its part, for no country is immune. Organized crime must be hit in its economic engine, which all too often remains untouched because liquid capital is harder to trace and because in times of crisis, many, including the world’s major banks, find it too tempting to resist.

Thanks to Roberto Saviano, a journalist and the author of the book “Gomorrah.” He has lived under police protection since 2006, when he received death threats from organized crime figures in Italy. This essay was translated by Virginia Jewiss from the Italian.

Tweet

Did the Judge Grant a Favor in Sentencing Jerry "The Monk" Scalise?

One of Chicago's most notorious mobsters was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday. But Jerry Scalise's sentence wasn't as long as it could have been.

In this Intelligence Report: Why a federal judge did a favor for Scalise's lawyer.

At the age of 74, Outfit legend Jerry "The Monk" Scalise has what federal prosecutors call an "unbroken history of criminal conduct." So, Scalise wouldn't seem to qualify for favors or special treatment by the justice system. But, Wednesday, that is just what he received when his lawyer asked for a favor in open court; and, even more surprising, received it.

Even as he was a special consultant on the Johnny Depp film about Dillinger, federal authorities say Jerry Scalise was plotting crimes for the Chicago Outfit.

The FBI had Scalise and his burglary crew under surveillance, and in 2010, the trio was arrested in mid-scheme. Scalise pleaded guilty to planning the take down of an armored car and a break-in at the home of a deceased Outfit boss.

Wednesday in court, prosecutors ticked off dozens of crimes Scalise has committed since 1960, including the 1980 theft of the 45-carat Marlborough diamond, still missing.

Assistant U.S. attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said Scalise did crimes for the thrill of hurting people and taking things, and requested a prison sentence of nearly 10 years.

Then Scalise's attorney Ed Genson asked for what he called "one favor for a man who probably doesn't deserve it": Mercy, the lowest legal sentence of eight years and 10 months.

Judge Harry Leinenweber, saying he probably shouldn't grant such a favor, did so anyway.

"It's unusual that I would ask," said Genson. "On the other hand, I don't usually step up for people who I've known for almost 40 years...Jerry Scalise is an extraordinarily exceptional man, exceptional family, he's erudite, he's gregarious, He's just an all-around good person. He's wasted his life. He knows it. This is sad for me because I'm fond of him. Hopefully he will have a few years out and make up for whatever he has done."

The I-Team asked Bhachu if he was surprised the judge granted the lawyer's requested favor. "Our response in court was that this is a man who is not deserving of mercy," said Bhachu. "He's a man who throughout his life has committed crimes and has appeared before any number of judges to be sentenced, and it seems from our position in court-- it seems somewhat incredible that you should be given mercy when you have devoted yourself over your life to the commission of criminal activity."

The rest of Jerry Scalise's mob crew is going to prison too. Wednesday, Robert Pullia received the same sentence as Scalise, after pleading guilty.

Previously, Art "The Genius" Rachel was convicted at trial and sentenced to about 8 and a half years.

Thanks to Chuck Goudie.

Tweet

Vice Presidential Nominee, Paul Ryan, Tied to Irish Mafia?

Forget Gangs of New York, the 'Irish mafia' has a new power base: Janesville, Wisconsin.

Home to representative Paul Ryan -- Mitt Romney's vice-presidential nominee -- this town of 64,000 people has suddenly been thrown into the spotlight as journalists the world over seek to get a handle on the new Sarah Palin. And, in anything that has been written, the Ryan family association with the so-called Irish mafia of Janesville invariably gets a mention. But as John Nichols -- a Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine -- explains, the Janesville mafia is not quite as sinister as it sounds.

"It's a slightly unfair term in that it's not like the Italian mafia," said Nichols. "It's not a criminal endeavour.

"Janesville was a factory town and a lot of Irish folks came there in the early years of the 20th Century to find jobs. Some of them started construction companies and, because they happened to be Irish, people started referring to them as the Irish mafia," he added.

The Ryan family -- owners of a major road-building company -- was just one of the families who fell under that umbrella.

"In general, you'd say they're known for business success," said Wisconsin state senator Tim Cullen, himself a member of one of the 'mafia' families. "But I think the big thing about being Irish for Paul is that he inherited a lot of the stereotypical Irish skills. He's a good-looking guy, he has a great smile and a great way of greeting people and talking with them," he added.

"He has all the Irish political skill. He's a 'hail fellow, well met' with the gift of the gab. All the clichés that people want to bring into play, he's got them all," agreed Nichols. But just how important is that connection today?

"They're old-school Irish in Janesville," said Nichols. "They like their St Patrick's Day parties. It's a very Catholic town and the people take their Irish connections pretty seriously ... but I wouldn't paint it like some neighbourhoods in New York or Chicago."

"[Ryan] played on his Irish ancestry a lot when he first ran for office," said Cullen, referring to an early campaign ad which showed the then 28-year-old Ryan walking among the tombstones of his ancestors in Janesville. "But he did that to associate himself with Janesville. He hadn't been in Wisconsin from the age of 18 to when he came back to run, so that TV ad was more about identifying him with the Ryan family history in Janesville," he added. And it worked. Ryan became one of the youngest ever members of the House of Representatives and has been re-elected with ease ever since.

Now one of the most influential Republicans in Congress (not to mention the pride and joy of his party's most conservative wing, the Tea Party) Ryan has made a name for himself as a man with a plan for the economy, and a very strict ideological take on government supports such as social security, Medicare and Medicaid.

"He's very conservative and just has complete faith that the free market system has all the answers," said Cullen who, despite coming from the other side of the divide, still speaks fondly of him.

So what would Ryan make of modern-day Ireland?

According to Cullen, there's little chance that he would approve of our "European-style" government. "Almost all his views are the antithesis of the social welfare system. He talks about not letting America become Greece, and you could almost substitute Ireland for Greece," said Cullen.

Regardless of what happens on election day in November, however, Cullen believes Ryan has been catapulted to a higher level in US politics for the rest of his career.

"If he comes out of this thing with a fairly good national reputation and Romney loses, Ryan will be the frontrunner for the 2016 presidential race," he said.

Thanks to Niamh Sweeney.

Tweet

Mara Shalhoup Discusses "Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family" on Crime Beat Radio

Mara Shalhoup, journalist, discusses her riveting book about Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family on August 30th on Crime Beat Radio.

On the air since January 28, 2011, Crime Beat is a weekly hour-long radio program that airs every Thursday at 8 p.m. EST. Crime Beat presents fascinating topics that bring listeners closer to the dynamic underbelly of the world of crime. Guests have included ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, sports officials, informants, prisoners, drug dealers and investigative journalists, who have provided insights and fresh information about the world’s most fascinating subject: crime.

Crime Beat is currently averaging 130,000 listeners plus each week, and the figure is growing. Crime Beat is hosted by award-winning crime writer and documentary producer Ron Chepesiuk (www.ronchepesiuk.com) and broadcast journalist and freelance writer Will Hryb.

Tweet

Julie Davis on Crime Beat Radio Tonight!

Julia Davis, a former Customs and border protection agent and a national security whistleblower, discusses her case against the Department of Homeland Security, as well as national security issues, tonight on Crime Beat Radio.

On the air since January 28, 2011, Crime Beat is a weekly hour-long radio program that airs every Thursday at 8 p.m. EST. Crime Beat presents fascinating topics that bring listeners closer to the dynamic underbelly of the world of crime. Guests have included ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, sports officials, informants, prisoners, drug dealers and investigative journalists, who have provided insights and fresh information about the world’s most fascinating subject: crime.

Crime Beat is currently averaging 130,000 listeners plus each week, and the figure is growing. Crime Beat is hosted by award-winning crime writer and documentary producer Ron Chepesiuk (www.ronchepesiuk.com) and broadcast journalist and freelance writer Will Hryb.

Tweet

Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind

Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind tells a story of intrigue, drama, and corruption and reads like an organized crime novel. But it is actually a true story of how labor unions are infiltrating our government and corrupting our political process. This compelling and insightful book exposes how unions have organized federal, state, and local government employees without their consent, and how government employee unions are now a threat to our workers' freedoms, our free and fair elections, and even our American way of life. And, Mallory Factor reveals what's coming next: how unions are targeting millions of Americans--maybe even you--for forced unionization so that unions can collect billions more in forced dues and exert an even greater influence over American politics. A chilling expose, Shadowbosses is also a call to citizen action against those who really hold power in America today.

Tweet

Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia

Cosa Nostra vividly reconstructs the stories of the men and women who have lived and died in the mafia's shadow. It explains how the mafia began, how it responds to threats and challenges and how it maintains its grip on the society where it was born. Cosa Nostra takes us inside the thought-processes of the mafia's leaders and foot soldiers, its friends and its foes. Its cast of characters includes Antonino Giammona, the first man with a claim to the title 'boss of bosses'; Emanuele Notarbartolo, the honest and courageous banker who in 1893 became the mafia's first 'eminent corpse'; New York cop Joe Petrosino who underestimated the Sicilian mafia and paid for this with his life, and Bernardo 'the Tractor' Provenzano, the current boss of bosses who has been in hiding in Sicily since 1963.

Tweet

Chicago Mob Challenged by Organized Crime Gangs from Eastern Europe

Organized crime wears a new face in Chicago — and the retiring special-agent-in-charge of the area’s FBI office says many times, it speaks a foreign language.

At the same time, the FBI’s Robert Grant said, the “Family Secrets” trial did not de-fang the Chicago Outfit.

“It’s like a cancer in remission,” or a bully who’s lost a few teeth, Grant said during the taping of Sunday’s WBBM Newsradio “At Issue” program, which airs at 9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Grant said Eastern European-based organized crime has moved quickly into Chicago and now draws as much manpower and attention from his office as the Mafia.

“Fifteen years ago, we had two organized crime squads (in Chicago) focused strictly on the Outfit,” he said. “Now we have one that, a part of their apparatus is focused on the Outfit, but the other is focused almost exclusively on Eastern European organized crime activity.”

The Outfit, he said, has always been locally run, and has focused most of its illegal activities — gambling, prostitution, juice loans and the like — locally. Not so with these new gangs.

“Some of the actors are here in Chicago. A lot of the actors are in foreign countries,” he said.

Much of that is cyber and financial crime, he said. Grant said the FBI uses much the same techniques that it has in the past with locally-based organized crime and corrupt politicians, including wiretaps and hidden microphones, but said translating can sometimes be a problem. And he said the differences in laws can make it difficult to work with foreign law enforcement, no matter how good their intentions.

“When they pick up an organized crime figure and don’t have a place to put in in a witness protection program or they don’t have the ability to plea down their sentence in return for intelligence and cooperation that affects their ability to get inside of organized crime,” he said.

Grant said in some former Soviet-bloc countries, the distrust of clandestine agencies runs high because of the abuses of the KGB and similar organizations.

That is not to say that the problem is exclusively one with roots elsewhere.

Grant said street gangs also pose a growing problem and said the FBI continues to work closely with local law enforcement. He said that in all, more than 100 of the 500 agents in his office are devoted to organized crime activity.

Grant has headed the Chicago field office of the FBI for more than seven years, but will be stepping down Sept. 3 to work with the global security team at the Walt Disney Co., where he will assess security threats and recommend responses.

Thanks to "At Issue".

Tweet

Navy Seal Inspired Gurkha Special Ops Cigar Set

Navy Seal Inspired Gurkha Special Ops Cigar Set Includes: 10 cigars, Tactical Knife, Sheath, Travel Humidor & Coin!

Tweet