5 Things to Know about the Lucchese Crime Family Arrests #OperationTheVigIsUp

Authorities have arrested the alleged Mafia-linked members of the 'largest' loansharking and bookmaking operation ever investigated by the state Attorney General's Office.

The operation centered on Westchester County and the details, as presented by the Attorney General’s Office, paint a picture that might have been taken out of a Hollywood Mafia movie.

Here are five things to know about the arrests announced by the attorney general.

1. Yes, they’re allegedly Italian mafia

• Among those arrested in what Attorney General Eric T. Shneiderman called the “largest such operation ever investigated by the New York attorney general,” was Dominick Capelli, allegedly a “made member” of the Lucchese crime family.
• In addition to Capelli, who lives in New Rochelle, officials charged Robert Wagner, Frank McKiernan, Anthony Martino, Michael Wagner, Steve Murray, Seth Trustman, Richard Caccavale, Jessica Bismark and Robert Wagner Jr., some of whom were identified as Lucchese “associates” or “non-made” crew members in Westchester and the Bronx.

2. The alleged operation was HUGE

• Most of the charges centered on loan-sharking, and the numbers are staggering, with the defendants allegedly charging huge, unpayable interest rates on loans, “averaging over 200 percent per year, effectively creating a high-cost debt trap,” according to a statement from Schneiderman.
• Those payments exceeded $1 million from 47 alleged victims.

3. Police said they caught them on tape

• Included in the indictment are a series of conversations police say were between the suspects.
• “What do these people expect? Don’t they realize how it works?” Bismark allegedly said to McKiernan about a specific victim.
• Police said they talked about individual payments: “He gave me 15,” Michael Wagner allegedly said to Robert Wagner. “He said he’d see you with the five tomorrow.”

 4. There was a lot of surveillance involved

• The indictment is 70 pages long and the investigation lasted a year.
• In that time, Schneiderman said investigators used all the tools available, including wiretaps, covert surveillance cameras, a car bug, undercover police officers and hidden cameras.
• The operation was called “Operation The Vig Is Up.”

 5. There were also illegal gambling and drugs charges

• Two indictments were also filed, police alleging that two New Rochelle residents, Michael Lepore and Vincent Tardibuono, ran an online bookmaking operation via website ezplay2001.com, which generated over $1.5 million in annual wagers.
• In addition, Lucien Cappello of New Rochelle was charged with second-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, a felony, six felony counts of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and seven misdemeanor counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Thanks to Jordan Fenster.

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10 Reputed Mobsters & Associates with the Lucchese #OrganizedCrime Family Indicted on Loan Sharking #OperationTheVigIsUp

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the arrests and indictment of 10 individuals on charges stemming from the alleged operation of lucrative loan sharking and gambling activities controlled by the Lucchese Organized Crime Family.

The long-term investigation — deemed “Operation The Vig Is Up” — involved the alleged loan sharking and bookmaking activities of alleged Lucchese “made member” Dominick Capelli and alleged Lucchese “Associates” or “non-made” crew members in Westchester and the Bronx.

The loan sharking operation is the largest such operation ever investigated by the New York Attorney General, with usurious interest payouts exceeding a million dollars just during the approximately one-year investigation.

“As we allege, this brazen ring of criminals preyed on New Yorkers – using a gambling operation to funnel victims into their loan sharking operation, and then saddling them with usurious loan payments,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “My office will continue to work with our partners in law enforcement to root out organized crime and prosecute these criminals to the fullest extent of the law.”

As part of the long-term investigation, investigators utilized wiretaps, covert surveillance cameras, a car bug, undercover police officers, and hidden cameras. Additional evidence came as a result of search warrants executed at defendant Robert Wagner’s home in New Rochelle and at McKiernan’s Lawton Street Tavern in New Rochelle.

In total, investigators identified over 47 distinct loan sharking victims, many with multiple loans, who were preyed on by the defendants. Loan sharking victims were allegedly required to make weekly, high interest “vig” payments, either by directly paying individual defendants, or by dropping off cash payments at two New Rochelle businesses: McKiernan’s Lawton Street Tavern and The Glass Room, a smoke shop. Victims were allegedly charged exorbitant weekly loan rates averaging over 200 percent per year, effectively creating a high-cost debt trap for all individuals taking out such loans.

Additionally, defendants Capelli, Wagner, and Frank McKiernan are alleged to have run an illegal bookmaking operation, utilizing the gambling website bxbets.com to generate over a half a million dollars in annual wagers.

Attorney General Schneiderman charged the following ten individuals with Enterprise Corruption – with underlying crimes of Usury in the First Degree and Promoting Gambling in the First Degree:

•     Dominick Capelli, 61, of New Rochelle, NY
•     Robert Wagner, 59, of New Rochelle, NY
•     Frank McKiernan, 53, of New Rochelle, NY
•     Anthony Martino, 76, of Port Chester, NY
•     Michael Wagner, 63, of Bronx, NY
•     Steve Murray, 49, of Bethel, CT
•     Seth Trustman, 36, of Bronx, NY
•     Richard Caccavale, 59, of Yorktown Heights, NY
•     Jessica Bismark, 32, of New Rochelle, NY
•     Robert Wagner Jr, 33, of New Rochelle, NY

The Enterprise Corruption charge alone carries a maximum penalty of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison.

Two related indictments were also filed in conjunction with this investigation. A separate bookmaking indictment charged Michael Lepore, 61, of New Rochelle, NY, and Vincent Tardibuono, 41, also of New Rochelle, NY, with running an online bookmaking operation via website ezplay2001.com, which generated over $1.5 million in annual wagers.

Additionally, a related narcotics-based indictment filed by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office and prosecuted by OAG OCTF Assistant Deputy Attorney General Thomas Luzio, charged Lucien Cappello, 38, of New Rochelle, NY with Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the Second Degree, a Class A-II felony, as well as six counts of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree and seven counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree. If convicted, Cappello faces ten years in state prison and five years of post-release supervision.

Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. said, “This investigation and successful take down of this organized crime loan sharking operation was the culmination of a collaborative effort among the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force, the New Rochelle Police, and our office. We commend the work of all involved and will continue to work together to fight organized crime here in Westchester.”

Acting New Rochelle Police Commissioner Joseph F. Schaller said, “I want to commend members of the New Rochelle Police Department’s Special Investigation’s Unit, members of the New York State Attorney General’s Office and members of the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office for their hard work and dedicated efforts in helping to root out illegal gambling and loan-sharking in the City of New Rochelle.”

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Francisco Quiroz-Zamora, Reputed Mexican Sinaloa Cartel Leader, Charged with Smuggling Fentanyl into US

Authorities in New York have indicted a suspected Mexican drug kingpin they say was responsible for trafficking enough fentanyl to kill 10 million people.

Authorities say the arrest of Francisco Quiroz-Zamora provides a window into how the powerful Sinaloa cartel moves drugs from Mexico to the United States. Quiroz-Zamora, a 41-year-old known as "Gordo," or the Fat One, has been charged with operating as a major trafficker, first-degree sale of a controlled substance and second-degree conspiracy.

Quiroz-Zamora and five co-defendants will be arraigned in New York City on Tuesday.

Officials with New York's Special Narcotics Prosecutor indicted Quiroz-Zamora. Officials allege he arranged for 44 pounds, or nearly 20 kilograms, of fentanyl to be shipped to New York — a haul of drugs that had the potential to kill 10 million people. Fentanyl is about 50 times more powerful than heroin, and just a few grains can kill.

Fentanyl, which is made in clandestine labs with cheap chemicals, has become a lucrative business for traffickers. It is often cut into heroin or pressed into counterfeit pills made to resemble legitimate prescription drugs, including OxyContin and Xanax.

For a high-level dealer, Quiroz-Zamora was extremely involved in every aspect of the process that gets drugs from creators to users, officials claim. He organized a pipeline that sent drugs from Mexico to Arizona and California through trucks, cars and drug couriers and authorized transactions between customers and dealers, according to authorities.

Mexican trafficking groups are attempting to turn New York into their distribution hub, and fentanyl is now their main product. The amount of fentanyl seized by the Special Narcotics Prosecutor in New York rose from 35 pounds in 2016 to 491 pounds last year.

The drugs are now managed by inconspicuous dealers. They include a middle-aged couple who authorities said came to New York to broker the sale of 141 pounds of fentanyl seized from a Queens apartment.

Quiroz-Zamora allegedly was planning for a lucrative payday. He negotiated a going rate of between $45,000 and $50,000 per kilo of fentanyl. Officials seized the fentanyl as the result of two undercover sales they said were organized by Quiroz-Zamora.

In one instance, the drugs were stuffed in a duffel bag and placed atop a vending machine at the Umbrella Hotel in the Bronx in June.

In another, authorities said they found more than five pounds of fentanyl in a $4,000-a-month apartment on Central Park West, along with $12,000 in cash and a loaded gun. Thousands of packages of drugs ready for sale with names including "Uber" and "Wild Card" were discovered in the apartment. A man who left the apartment in an Uber was arrested along with the driver after heroin was found in the car.

Authorities allege Quiroz-Zamora went to New York in November to collect money he thought he was owed. He was arrested at Penn Station in New York City after arriving in in an extremely roundabout way. He allegedly flew from Texas to Connecticut and went to Delaware, where he boarded a train that took him to Penn Station.

Thanks to Katie Zezima.

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MS-13 #Gangster Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison for RICO Conspiracy Involving Murder Charges #OrganizedCrime

An MS-13 gangster was sentenced in federal court in Boston to racketeering conspiracy involving murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder.

Bryan Galicia Barillas, a/k/a “Chucky,” 21, a Guatemalan national who resided in Chelsea, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 22 years in prison and five years of supervised release. Galicia Barillas will be subject to deportation upon completion of this sentence.  In October 2017, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity, more commonly referred to as RICO conspiracy.

The racketeering activity by Galicia Barillas, a member of MS-13’s Enfermos Criminales Salvatrucha (ECS) clique, included his involvement in the death of an innocent bystander in Chelsea. On Oct. 18, 2014, Galicia Barillas and Hector Ramires, a/k/a “Cuervo,” another member of the ECS clique, encountered a group of individuals in Chelsea suspected of belonging to a rival gang.  Ramires, who was armed with a weapon that Galicia Barillas had provided on an earlier occasion, shot at one of the suspected gang rivals and missed, killing an innocent bystander who was looking out a nearby window of a room she shared with her three children. Galicia Barillas was a juvenile at the time of the murder.

Galicia Barillas also accepted responsibility for his role in a Sept. 8, 2014, stabbing and attempted murder of an individual in Chelsea, which Galicia Barillas also committed when he was a juvenile.  Shortly after he turned 18, Galicia Barillas was involved in an April 2015 conspiracy to kill an MS-13 member that the gang believed was cooperating with law enforcement, and a May 26, 2015 stabbing and attempted murder of a suspected rival gang member in Chelsea.

Ramires pleaded guilty in October 2017 to RICO conspiracy involving murder and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 11, 2018.

After a three-year investigation, Galicia Barillas and Ramires were two of 61 persons named in a fifth superseding indictment targeting the criminal activities of alleged leaders, members, and associates of MS-13 in Massachusetts. MS-13 is one of the largest criminal organizations in the United States with thousands of members across the country, including a sizeable presence in Massachusetts. MS-13 members are required to commit acts of violence, including murder, against suspected gang rivals and those suspected of cooperating with law enforcement. The fifth superseding indictment alleges that, from approximately 2014 to 2016, MS-13 cliques in Massachusetts were responsible for, among other things, six murders and approximately 20 attempted murders, as well as robberies and drug trafficking.

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Author @TinaAlexisAllen to Appear on #CrimeBeatRadio Tonight to Discuss "Hiding Out: A Memoir of Drugs, Deception, and Double Lives"

Tina Alexis Allen, author of "Hiding Out: A Memoir of Drugs, Deception, and Double Lives" will appear on Crime Beat Radio tonight.

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.

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