How Al Capone's Successors Built a National Syndicate & Controlled America

He was dubbed with one of the all-time greatest gangland nicknames, The Fixer. The tag fit Sidney Korshak like a calfskin glove.

Born to immigrant parents, Korshak beamed his bright light on a law career and - with the connections of several underworld mentors - got his start representing wiseguys against criminal charges. But his real value to the Chicago Outfit, as the inheritors of Al Capone's criminal empire came to be called, was as a labor consultant and negotiator.

With Korshak in the foreground, Gus Russo's "Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers" tells the story of how a tightknit claque of mostly Russian Ashkenazi Jews rose from the rough-and-tumble rackets to seats of influence and power in some Fortune 500 companies.

In their heyday, around 1960, the gang had long tentacles in Hollywood, controlled an interest in the Hilton hotel chain and held sway over ally Jimmy Hoffa's Teamster's union. That's to say nothing of their outright, if well-hidden, ownership of several Las Vegas casinos, including the Desert Inn - the high roller's haunt where Frank Sinatra made his Sin City debut.

Organized crime's ultimate objective is to make the lucre go in filthy and come out clean, through investments in legitimate businesses. In this, the Supermob had no equal.

Their most sophisticated scheme involved buying property that Japanese-Americans were forced to sell during World War II. Korshak, his cronies and their man inside the Roosevelt administration's Office of Alien Property, turned this land grab into a dandy cash-washing machine. Their exertions were so diabolically intertwined with legal maneuvers that the exact details have eluded two generations of investigators.

The complete story, the author admits, is still unknown. This complex trail is also difficult to follow, and though germane to the work, makes for some glacially paced reading.

When he wasn't perverting a union or arranging a sweetheart loan, Sidney's activities were far more entertaining. The Fixer hustled Dean Martin out of Chicago in one piece after Dino's roving eye locked on the moll of one of the Outfit's boys. Korshak also hot-wired a hooker-filled hotel room with an infrared camera, blackmailing a Senate investigator into going easy on his Chi-town pals.

"Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers" is chocked with anecdotes like this. The gangland gossip and Hollywood scuttlebutt ultimately outweigh Russo's dissection of Byzantine financial chicanery, and in the end, the book adds up to an exhaustive Who's Who of the dark power players of 20th century America.

Thanks to Peter Pavia

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Transgender Mafia Boss, Giovanna Arrivoli, Murdered After being Brutally Tortured

A transgender mafia boss was brutally tortured and then murdered after going missing for three days.

Giovanna Arrivoli, 41, was born a woman but underwent gender reassignment to become a man.

He was killed in Melito di Napoli, near Naples in southern Italy's Campania region.

Police said Arrivoli had been forced to kneel and had then been shot three times, twice in the head, in an execution-style killing. His body was found half buried in a ditch in remote countryside.

Local media reported that it appeared that he had been tortured before he was killed.

Police had been looking for him since his fiancée reported him missing three days earlier.

Arrivoli was the owner of a local café bar, named Blue Moon, which is rumoured to be a stronghold of the local Pagato Amato mafia crime family.

Local media report that it was where the family drew up their plans and decided who would live and who would die.

Arrivoli was reportedly a high-ranking boss within the family and police have interviewed other members about his death.

Local media reports a wide range of speculation over the reason for his death, ranging from an unpaid drug debt to an attack by a rival clan.

Arrivoli was unusual in the macho world of the mafia in that he was born female but was accepted as a man. He said he had always felt male. He had surgery to have his breasts removed and dressed and acted as a man.

Arrivoli, who was released from a jail term for drug dealing in 2012, was planning to marry his girlfriend.

Thanks to Ruth Halkon.

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Organized Crime Ring Sold Cocaine Out of Pizza Shop

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office has charged five people in an alleged organized crime ring that reportedly sold cocaine out of a local restaurant.

Gilbert Davalos Gonzalez, 44, of Harrisburg; George Velez-Ayala, 31, of Steelton; Sergio Becerra Santiago, 30, of Harrisburg; Carlos Javier Mendoza, 52, of Harrisburg; and Emmanuel Rodriguez Dejesus, 35, of Harrisburg, have all been charged with felony racketeering and conspiracy to commit felony racketeering, as well varying counts of felony drug manufacturing charges after police say they were selling cocaine out of Mendoza’s restaurant, M&J Pizza Shop.

The six-month investigation, which began with an arrest in State College in September, involved numerous controlled purchases, wiretaps and a search of Velez-Ayala’s home, which uncovered about 500 grams of cocaine, according court records.

On Sept. 24, State College Police apprehended a man referred to as T.H. who had been selling cocaine from his apartment, a grand jury finding of facts stated.

T.H. told police he had purchased numerous ounces of cocaine from Mendoza and Gonzalez at Mendoza’s restaurant, police said.

Over the next six months, T.H. assisted police in conducting multiple controlled purchases of cocaine from the group, sometimes in excess of 50 grams each and costing nearly $2,000, according to the grand jury report.

Several of the purchases were allegedly conducted in an office inside M&J Pizza Shop, which is located in the Cedar Cliff Mall.

Through surveillance and court-approved wiretaps, investigators with the Attorney General’s Office were able to connect all five men to the operation, the grand jury report stated.

During some of the phone conversations, the men used automotive language in an attempt to conceal their illicit behavior, court records showed.

In one conversation, the cocaine was referred to as an engine and referred to lower quality cocaine as the “little engine,” according to the grand jury.

Santiago and Gonzalez were denied bail and are currently in Cumberland County Prison.

Mendoza is in Cumberland County Prison in lieu of $150,000 bail.

Dejesus was released on $75,000 unsecured bail, and Velez-Ayala was released from prison after posting $100,000 bail, according to court records.

All five men are schedule to appear in court for preliminary hearings on May 25.

Thanks to The Sentinel.

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Mass Mafia Bust #ProjectClemenza

The RCMP is carrying out a series of arrests in the Montreal area in what the Mounties are calling the third and last phase of an investigation into the Mafia in Montreal that began several years ago.

Included among the people the RCMP arrested Wednesday is Liborio (Pancho) Cuntrera, 47, a man who police sources have described as a potential leader within what remain's of the Rizzuto organization.

Cuntrera is the son of Agostino Cuntrera, a member of the Rizzuto organization who was gunned down in St-Leonard in 2010 when the Mafia clan was under pressure from rivals. While the Rizzuto organization was under pressure to relinquish control of the mob in Montreal, the older Cuntrera remained loyal to the Rizzutos. Liborio Cuntrera also represents the second generation of a group of well known wealthy international drug smugglers known in many parts of the world as the Cuntrera-Caruana organization.

Cuntrera was not arrested on Wednesday because he is currently on vacation. According to sources familiar with the investigation, Cuntrera is currently in Italy, has been in contact with the RCMP and has agreed to turn himself in when he returns to Canada in a few days, one source said.

One man named as a target in the investigation is Martino Caputo, a 42-year-old man who is serving a 12-year prison term in Kingston for his role in a cocaine smuggling conspiracy to bring a tonne of the narcotic into Canada once a month. Caputo also faces charges in Ontario related to a murder carried out in that province back in 2012.

In February 2004, Crivello was sentenced to a three-year prison term for holding a person against their will and aggravated assault.

According to decisions made by the Parole Board of Canada, Crivello hired a group of men to collect $60,000 that he believed had been stolen from him. Three men were held against their will and beaten while Crivello watched and demanded to know what happened to his money. One of the victims suffered injuries that required surgery.

While he was before the parole board, in 2005, Crivello admitted that he had been involved in drug trafficking from the age of 17.

Another man who was arrested Wednesday, Frank Iaconetti, 48, has also done time in a federal penitentiary. In 1999, he pleaded guilty, in a U.S. District court in Massachusetts, to being part of a conspiracy to distribute cocaine. According to court documents filed in that case, on March 15, 1998, Iaconetti brought $250,000 in cash to undercover agents for what what supposed to be a down payment 100 kilograms of cocaine destined for Canada. When he was sentenced in 1999, a judge was told there was very little evidence that Iaconetti knew details about the actual drug transaction. At the time, Iaconetti said he agreed to deliver the money to deal with a serious addiction to gambling that caused him to ask that he be banned from the Montreal casino.

According to a statement issued by the RCMP Wednesday morning, the arrests are the third part of Project Clemenza, an investigation into the drug trafficking activities of various Mafia clans. Project Clemenza had to be put on hold because while it was underway the RCMP uncovered evidence related to the murder of Salvatore Montagna, a Mafia leader from New York who was one of the leaders in the attempt to wrestle power away from the Rizzuto organization about six years ago.

In a sign of how long Project Clemenza was delayed because of Montagna's murder, the charges filed at the Montreal courthouse against Liborio Cuntrera and Marco Pizzi, 46, of Montreal North, date back to 2011. Both men are alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to traffick in cocaine between Sept. 28, 2011 and Oct. 6, 2011.

An RCMP spokesperson told reporters that 15 people were targeted in Wednesday's operation and that the investigation probed drug smuggling and drug trafficking.

"The network imported cocaine through the United States and used its contacts in the commercial ground transport industry," the spokesperson said. "The investigation demonstrated that this (network) transported large quantities of cocaine. The American and Canadian authorities have seized more than 220 kilos of cocaine and placed their hands on (more than $2 million). The impact of this operation on organized crime is significant and will have an affect on drug smuggling activities in the Greater Montreal region."

Another of the men arrested Wednesday was Hansley Joseph, 36, a wel-known member of a Montreal street gang who was often seen interacting with Mafia-tied drug traffickers during Project Colisee, a major investigation into the Mafia that had a huge impact on the Rizzuto organization a decade ago. In 2007, Joseph received a two-year prison term for his role in a drug trafficking network that operated in northern Montreal.

The case brought against Joseph and about two dozen other men in 2005, was significant because it represented one of the first times in Canada that gangsterism charges were brought against street gang members.

According to a decision made in the case in 2007, Joseph was part of a group known as the "Dope Squad" and frequently supplied cocaine to a group known as the Pelletier St. gang that sold crack on Pelletier St., near the corner of Henri Bourassa Blvd.

Thanks to Paul Cherry.

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State Senator and @TheDemocrats Official Charged in Vote Buying Scheme

A Pennsylvania State Senator and a Pennsylvania Democratic Party Official were charged in a federal indictment for their involvement in a bribery and fraud scheme related to the 2011 election for Democratic Ward Leader for Philadelphia’s Eighth Ward.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division made the announcement.

Lawrence “Larry” Farnese, 47, and Ellen Chapman, 62, both of Philadelphia, were charged with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and violations of the Travel Act.  According to the indictment, at the time of the alleged illegal conduct, Farnese was a Pennsylvania State Senator and a candidate for Democratic Ward Leader of the Eighth Ward and Chapman was a member of the Eighth Ward Democratic Committee.

The indictment alleges that from May to December 2011, Farnese and Chapman devised a bribe scheme in which Farnese paid $6,000 to a college study-abroad program for Chapman’s daughter in exchange for Chapman’s agreement to use her position with the Eighth Ward Democratic Committee to support Farnese in the upcoming ward leader election.  According to the indictment, Chapman had originally intended to support a different candidate in the ward leader election.  The indictment also alleges that Farnese made the $6,000 payment using campaign funds and disguised the true purpose of the payment by falsely listing it as a “donation” on the campaign’s finance report.

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