Vito Rizzuto, The Teflon Don, Seeks Attendance at Slain Son's Funeral

At Nick Rizzuto's wedding in 1995, RCMP and Laval police officers were so shutter-happy the guests might have taken them for official wedding photographers.

Now that the reputed Canadian Godfather's eldest son is about to be buried, all eyes — and lenses — will be focused on his funeral.

Gunned down Monday outside a real-estate developer's office in Montreal, no date has yet been set for Nick Rizzuto Jr.'s funeral.

Vito Rizzuto, the slain man's father, though previously known as the Teflon Don, is currently serving a 10-year sentence in the United States for racketeering, related to three murders that occurred in the 1980s. His sentence will end in 2012.

It will be up to the prison warden of a Colorado jail to decide whether he will be able to attend his son's funeral in the coming days. Rizzuto can request permission to leave the jail and cross the border, and if granted would have to pay for whatever travel expenses that would entail, as well as pass all security measures, said U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Felicia Ponce.

Ponce could not comment on whether the elder Rizzuto has made such a request, however.

Whether Rizzuto's grandfather and namesake, Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., will attend the funeral is also a matter of speculation.

He is the only one of six Mafia leaders arrested in Montreal in 2006 and sentenced for gangsterism-related charges who is not behind bars, but must obey the conditions of his probation — including not to associate with known criminals.

Whoever is able to attend the funeral will likely be under close scrutiny by both police and criminal elements assessing the strength of the once very powerful crime syndicate.

Adrian Humphreys, author of The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto— a Rizzuto biography — and an organized crime reporter for the National Post, expects the funeral to be a large affair with people coming from across Canada, the United States and Italy to pay their respects.

"The funeral will be a terribly sad affair featuring a large and loving family weeping for a young father cut down early in life," Humphreys said Wednesday. "It will also be seen as an occasion for criminal associates of all stripes to pay respects to a family who have dominated the criminal landscape of Canada for decades. Police will also be watching closely. Investigators look for signs of who is showing their respect to whom and who avoids whom."

Not since the murder of crime boss Paolo Violi in 1978 has someone as prominent as the son of the reputed head of the Mafia been the target of an assassination. Indeed, it was Violi's assassination that solidified the hegemony of the Rizzuto clan in Montreal.

Having immigrated to Montreal from Sicily in 1954 — when Vito was eight — Nicolo Rizzuto Sr. was a so-called "man of honour" among other Mafiosi until Violi was shot in the back of the head while having dinner at a restaurant.

Both Nicolo Sr. and Vito were out of the country when the killing occurred, but three men associated with the Rizzutos were later convicted of Violi's murder.

After the murder of three Mafia captains in New York — for which Vito Rizzuto was arrested in 2004 and pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in 2007 — Vito became known as the Godfather of the Canadian Mafia.

Nicolo Sr. and Vito both moved into palatial homes in the north end of Montreal that came to be known as "Mafia row" as other family members followed suit. But with Vito Rizzuto now behind bars, Nick Jr. has been said by police to be looking after the Rizzutos' financial dealings and allegedly acting as the point of contact between the Mafia and other criminal factions in Montreal.

He had no criminal convictions however, other than for impaired driving.

According to Humphreys, Nick Jr., as the eldest son of the reputed Godfather and the namesake of the family's patriarch: "was a tremendously powerful symbolic target. However, police did not believe he was next in line to lead the Rizzuto criminal organization. He was not the crowned prince."

Nick Jr. was revealed by construction company proprietor Tony Magi to have been involved with the real estate business of late.

Magi was the victim of an attempted murder last year.

Nick Rizzuto Jr. was 42 when he was shot dead just after noon on Monday not far from the offices of FTM Construction, owned by Magi.

Thanks to Catherine Solyom

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Holiday Dinner Plans for a Mobster

What does a reputed Chicago mob boss under house arrest do for holiday dinner?

First, if possible, get a judge to let you outside your house.

Next, don't waste the opportunity and get approval to go to the swanky Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab in downtown Chicago on Christmas Eve.

That's just what reputed Cicero mob boss Michael "The Large Guy" Sarno did.

A federal magistrate judge recently approved that trip for Sarno, 51, of Westchester, to have dinner with his extended family at Joe's Seafood, 60 E. Grand.

Sarno, out on $1 million bond, is typically allowed outside his home only to go to church, the doctor or court.

Sarno -- described in court documents as a made member of the Chicago mob -- is awaiting trial next year for allegedly overseeing the bombing of a Berwyn business that was competing against the mob in the lucrative video poker business.

Federal officials also believe that Sarno discussed putting out juice loans with an associate who is a reputed high-ranking member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang, records show.

In 1995, Sarno was sentenced to 6½ years in prison for his role in a mob racketeering case.

Sarno, also dubbed "Fat Ass" by some colleagues, has denied any wrongdoing in the current case. His attorney could not be reached for comment.

A manager at Joe's Seafood had nothing to say Tuesday about Sarno's choice of restaurant.

The good news for Sarno is that the restaurant's specialty, stone crabs, are in season. Jumbo stone crabs -- three per order -- go for $57.95, according to the restaurant's online menu.

If he has a taste for steak, the bone-in New York strip will run him $45.95. And he can wash it all down with a bottle of Chateau Pavie at $490 a bottle on the restaurant's reserve wine list.

Prosecutors wanted it made clear to Sarno that he could make no trips other than to the restaurant on Christmas Eve, and he could only mix with family members -- not his alleged crime family -- and the judge agreed.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir

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Organized Crime Continues to Flourish

Editor's note: Misha Glenny covered Central Europe for The Guardian and the BBC, writing about the end of the Soviet empire and the wars in the former Yugoslavia. He is the author of "McMafia: Crime Without Frontiers" and three books about eastern Europe and the Balkans. Glenny discussed international organized crime in his talk at the TEDGlobal conference in July and in the following interview by Antonia Ward for the September issue of "design mind" magazine, the publication of the global innovation firm, frog design.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, while chronicling the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and in the Balkan states, journalist and TEDGlobal speaker Misha Glenny gained a deep understanding of the influence of eastern European privatized law enforcement -- otherwise known as the mafia. This led him to write a book called "McMafia: Seriously Organized Crime," for which he traveled the world, talking to victims, criminals, and the police officers trying to catch them. Glenny speaks about his research and the risks he took to get the story.

Antonia Ward: At TEDGlobal, you mentioned the growth of counterfeit goods, the rise in fake malaria drugs and the threat to cyber infrastructure. Why are we seeing these kinds of atypical mafia activities?

Misha Glenny: Just like any other business in a recession, some of organized crime's main trading activities take a nosedive. But while sales of some commodities dwindle, other goods and services record significant increases. As the credit crunch started to bite last autumn, police forces throughout Europe noticed a shift in the focus of large criminal syndicates away from their traditional activities of drugs and prostitutes towards counterfeit and financial crimes.

According to the U.N.'s Vienna-based drug czar, Antonio Maria Costa, the mob is already acting as a banker not only to consumers but to banks themselves. His team has uncovered information that the mob's money "has been feeding the financial sector since the second half of last year. ... While hard to prove, there are nonetheless indications that some banks have even been saved from going under in this way."

Ward: What was the most frightening experience you had while doing the research for McMafia?

Glenny: I was sick with fear when going to meet representatives of the FARC in Cali, Colombia, largely because kidnapping journalists and holding them for years in appalling conditions in the jungle is one of the group's stock-in-trades. The meeting, when it happened, involved several moves from one part of Cali to another. I received a new text message each time to indicate our next destination. The FARC was clearly monitoring us to see if the police or the [Drug Enforcement Administration] had also come along for the party, but eventually they were convinced that my translator and I were alone. In the end, these interviewees were courteous, serious and more aware of their role in a global economy than most of those I interviewed.

The least pleasant meeting was with a gang boss in Odessa, Ukraine. It had taken me months of persistence to get him to agree to see me. When we met in a cafe, he was an archetype -- short, thuggish-looking, and sporting a permanent scowl. He had brought along two of his henchmen. He was extremely edgy, and whenever I strayed from the agreed topics of conversation, he reminded me of our prior agreement to avoid certain subjects.

Since the book was published, I have been sent two covert warnings about my writings by Balkan groups, and the book has been banned in Dubai -- something I wear as a badge of honor.

Ward: Why were so many of the people in your book willing to talk to you, an author and journalist, about the intimate details of their operation? Weren't they afraid they'd be found out?

Glenny: This depends on multiple factors. In the Balkans and eastern Europe for example, several people involved in the trade I spoke to were very open about their activities. But they pointed out that because in the early 1990s states had collapsed all over the region and the economies were in chaos, these gangsters were the only force that could actually ensure that people got food on their tables. Sure, they took the lion's share for themselves, but they were the essential "midwives of capitalism," as I refer to them. So they often felt quite proud about their role and were unwilling to express contrition.

In Japan, the yakuza were prepared to talk because they believe themselves to be an integral and legitimate part of Japanese society (not a sentiment shared by everyone). In Brazil, you can't stop anyone from talking -- victims, police, lawyers or gangsters. It is just in their culture -- they talk, talk, talk.

Ward: You talk about the systemic threat of organized crime. Just how much trouble are we in?

Glenny: Organized crime poses its greatest challenge to the developing world. Illicit trade flows from the south to the north: Drugs, trafficked women, counterfeit goods, migrant labor and the like move from the developing to the developed world. Therefore, the hubs of global criminal operations tend to be located in countries with weak economies and fragile state institutions.

With two glaring exceptions, Japan and Italy, organized crime groups maintain a low profile in the developed world, where state institutions are usually strong enough to contain the impact. However, as the United States has demonstrated since the 1920s, it can often be a long, hard struggle. But in general, organized crime groups do not like to advertise their presence in the developed world because, in contrast to the other markets, this disrupts their smooth operation.

Too much violence, for example, draws the attention of the media, the public, the police and politicians. So although organized crime is driven by consumer demand in the West, southern nations bear the brunt of the violence and instability which the business engenders.

Thanks to Antonia Ward

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Reputed Mob Underboss Summoned to Court

Martin Taccetta, a reputed former underboss of the Lucchese crime family’s New Jersey faction, has been summoned to a Newark courtroom next week to possibly resolve the charges pending against him in a mob case that has resulted in the convictions of 19 others.

U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler signed an order last week directing the warden of New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where Taccetta is currently incarcerated, to have him brought before the judge for a plea hearing on Tuesday. But Taccetta apparently has not signed off on a plea deal.

“All I can tell you is that there were plea negotiations and its Mr. Taccetta’s position at this point that he’s not going to plea guilty of anything,” his attorney, Maria Noto, said Thursday. “He maintains his innocence.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald D. Wigler, who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment Thursday on the negotiations or the scheduled plea hearing.

Taccetta, 58, of East Hanover, was among 23 reputed members and associates of the Gambino and Lucchese crime families indicted in May 2008 on charges of engaging in what the FBI called a “veritable smorgasbord of criminal activity” – illegal gambling, loan-sharking, extortion, identity theft, fraud and labor racketeering.

The defendants were accused of shaking down lunch truck operators, putting mobsters in no-show jobs, using union muscle to collect bribes to allow non-union workers on construction sites and raking in hefty profits from bettors who wagered more than $1 million a month.

The mob also allegedly targeted a Lowe’s home improvement store in Paterson, where conspirators bought high-ticket power tools and appliances by switching bar code labels from less expensive items and attempted to steal the identities of patrons who applied for Lowe’s credit cards.

Taccetta was charged in only three of the 30 counts in the indictment. He was accused of conspiring to use extortion to collect a loan from an unidentified debtor. He also charged with conspiring with the lead defendant, Andrew Merola, and others to demand and receive about $20,000 in unlawful labor payments to allow non-union labor on a construction project at a Morristown BMW dealership in 2007.

Merola, 42, of East Hanover, is among the defendants still in the case. He is identified in the indictment as one of the Gambino crime family’s highest ranking members in New Jersey and is accused of overseeing a mob crew that profited from gambling, loan-sharking, extortion and labor racketeering.

Also awaiting trial are Edward Deak, 45, of Secaucus, an alleged “gambling agent” charged with one count of operating an illegal gambling business, and Kyle Ragusa, 42, of East Hanover, an alleged associate and member of Merola’s crew, charged with racketeering, operating a gambling business, loan-sharking and wire-fraud.

Taccetta had been under house arrest until July when the New Jersey Supreme Court reinstated his sentence of life plus 10 years in prison in a 1993 state case in which Taccetta was convicted of racketeering and extortion but acquitted of murder in the golf-club beating death of an Ocean County businessman.

Noto said the reinstated life sentence was “the reason I was in negotiations at all, but at this point there is no plea agreement.”

Thanks to Peter J. Sampson

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Junior Gotti's Job Program

Argus reported that Junior Gotti walked free Monday after a New York jury deadlocked for the fourth time over his racketeering charges. Nobody on the jury wants to incur the wrath of the Mafia. It's the only company that's still hiring and will never leave New York.

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