Reputed Mafia Boss Bashkim Osmani Posts Bail #OperationCasino

Bashkim Osmani, the alleged mafia boss who was arrested in February this year, has been released from Palma prison having paid bail of 400,000 euros. On Tuesday, a court in Palma agreed to his release. His passport has been taken away and he must report to a court twice a month.

Bashkim Osmani

In February, there was a huge operation against money laundering and drugs trafficking. Operation Casino, which was centred on Mallorca, involved the Guardia Civil and National Police as well as a number of European police forces and the FBI.

Osmani's lawyer, Jaime Campaner, told the court that having had access to the file, which had remained secret for almost four years, "there was no evidence" against his client and so requested his release on bail.

Kosovar Bashkim Osmani came to Mallorca in 1999. He bought the Ritzi de Portals restaurant, which at that time had another name. He then bought an apartment in the area and later commissioned the building of a five million euro mansion in Camp de Mar. In 2018, the Guardia Civil opened a thorough investigation into Osmani and his alleged criminal organisation.

Some 600 police took part in Operation Casino. Osmani was traced to a hotel he owns in Croatia. He was arrested by Croatian police and extradited to Spain - to Mallorca, specifically, Investigators maintain that his network moved huge amounts of cocaine between South America and Europe and laundered the proceeds.

Thanks to Andrew Ede.

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Vincent “Chickie” DeMartino Released from Prison Early Due to Medical Problems

A Brooklyn judge sprang a violent mobster from prison because he said the federal Bureau of Prisons did a lousy job taking care of the wiseguy’s medical problems.

Federal Court Judge Raymond Dearie issued a scathing ruling Thursday, saying the feds weren’t competently treating made man Vincent “Chickie” DeMartino’s maladies. The goodfella had more than two years left of his 25-year sentence for an attempted hit on a fellow Colombo family member.

Vincent DeMartino AKA "Chickie"

“Mr. DeMartino’s age, the amount of time he has served in prison, his deteriorating health — in particular, complications with his right eye — and the Bureau of Prison’s cavalier attitude in addressing these conditions, present extraordinary and compelling circumstances,” Dearie wrote, ordering DeMartino be released from West Virginia prison FCC Hazelton to home confinement.

DeMartino, 66, was convicted of the 2001 botched hit of Joseph Campanella as he was packing a beach chair into his car in Coney Island. DeMartino fired at least four shots at the rival mobster, hitting him in the arm and foot, but leaving him alive and willing to testify against him.

It wasn’t DeMartino’s first run in with the law. He was convicted of threatening to murder a man in 1983 and breaking every window in the guy’s house with a baseball bat. He was also found guilty of a 1985 armed robbery of a Chase bank branch in Brooklyn.

DeMartino is also a publicly named — though never charged — suspect in the 1999 rubout of William “Wild Bill” Cutolo.

Since his conviction in the Campanella shooting in 2004, DeMartino’s list of medical conditions has grown, and the federal jailers responsible for taking care of his health have failed to do so, Judge Dearie said.

“Mr. DeMartino’s circumstances are made all the more extraordinary and compelling by the BOP’s lack of responsiveness and candor with respect to his medical conditions,” Dearie wrote.

The jurist noted DeMartino’s documented “high blood pressure, high choleterol, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiac arrhythmia, obesity, and knee problems,” but said that the “gravest threat” to the mobster’s health is his incredibly serious eye issues.

“The record reflects a consistent pattern on the part of the [Bureau of Prisons] of downplaying Mr. DeMartino’s conditions and delaying treatment. Despite the severity of his ocular conditions, it has been a herculean task for Mr. DeMartino to see an ophthalmologist,” Dearie wrote.

“The [Bureau of Prisons] is not a common jailor. Theirs is a far more challenging and vital responsibility. Human beings are entrusted to their care for decades on end. There is no excuse for inaction or dissembling and, in this Court’s view, no alternative to immediate release,” Dearie concluded.

The feds declined to comment.

“We are grateful to the court for acknowledging what the Federal Bureau of Prisons would not: that Mr. DeMartino suffers from serious health problems that require urgent and ongoing attention and treatment,” said DeMartino’s lawyer, Benjamin Yaster.

Thanks to Noah Goldberg.

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Lennon, the Mobster & the Lawyer: The Untold Story #TheBeatles #OrganizedCrime #NewReleases

Before John Lennon retreated peacefully into private life in 1975, he fought a major legal battle that went under the public radar.

Just as his Rock 'n' Roll oldies album hit the market, Morris Levy, the Mob-connected owner of Roulette Records, released Roots, an unauthorized version of the same record. Levy had used rough mixes of John's unfinished Rock 'n' Roll recordings-and claimed the former Beatle had verbally agreed to the arrangement. The clash led to a lawsuit and countersuit between Levy and Lennon.

Attorney Jay Bergen, a partner in a prestigious New York City law firm, represented John in this epic battle over the rights to his own recordings. Millions of dollars were at stake.

Jay tells the intimate story of how he worked closely with John to rebut Levy's outrageous claims. He also recounts how John explained his recording process in poetic, exacting terms before a judge who knew little about the Beatles and John's solo career.

Lennon, the Mobster & the Lawyer: The Untold Story, catches the high drama of the courtroom skirmishes in this previously untold story. It also paints a detailed personal picture of John and his world in 1975-76, when he was soon to have a new son and went into happy seclusion to be a husband and father.

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Federal Agent Felix Cisneros Convicted of taking Bribes from Organized Crime #HomelandSecurity

A former special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) was found guilty by a federal jury of dozens of criminal charges for accepting cash payments and other benefits to help an organized crime-linked person, including taking official action designed to help two foreign nationals gain entry into the United States.

Felix Cisneros Jr., 48, of Murrieta, was found guilty of 30 felonies: one count of conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official, one count of bribery, 26 counts of money laundering and two counts of subscribing to a false tax return. After the verdict was read, Cisneros was ordered immediately remanded into federal custody.

According to evidence presented at his five-day trial, over an 18-month period that started in September 2015, Cisneros accepted cash, checks, private jet travel, luxury hotel stays, meals and other items of value from a person identified in court documents as “Individual 1,” who was associated with a criminal organization. Cisneros received approximately $100,000 in checks and gifts from Individual 1 in 2015 and 2016.

Cisneros accepted the cash and other bribes while employed as a special agent with HSI, which is an agency within the United States Department of Homeland Security. In exchange for the bribes, Cisneros performed a series of official acts at the behest of Individual 1, including:

• Accessing a DHS database for information about a German national identified as W.R., and telling Individual 1 he removed a “hit” on W.R., “thus indicating derogatory information had been removed”;
• Placing an alert in a law enforcement database for an address associated with an illegal marijuana grow operation so Cisneros could learn of law enforcement interest and warn Individual 1;
• Obtaining an official DHS letter signed by an HSI assistant special agent in charge to allow the parole of Individual 1’s brother-in-law into the United States from Mexico, and later providing updates about the brother-in-law’s asylum application; and
• Collecting information on an associate of Individual 1 whose home had been searched by law enforcement and later providing Individual 1 with information about the investigation. 

Cisneros also underreported his total income on his federal income tax returns by at least $20,000 for the year 2015 and at least $73,404 for the year 2016.

Judge R. Gary Klausner has scheduled an August 1 sentencing hearing. The conspiracy charge carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, the bribery count carries a sentence of up to 15 years, each money laundering charge carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, and each tax count carries a statutory maximum sentence of three years in federal prison.

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Joel Tucker, White Supremacist Gang Member with Killer Kracker Pride and Affiliated with Ghost Face Gangster, Pleads Guilty in Project Safe Neighborhoods Case #Georgia

A documented member of a white supremacist organization that is sometimes affiliated with the Ghost Face Gangsters pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a firearm in a Project Safe Neighborhoods case.

Joel Nelson Tucker, 32, of Moultrie, Georgia, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon before U.S. District Judge Louis Sands on Tuesday, April 19. Tucker faces a maximum ten years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release and a maximum $250,000 fine. Sentencing is set for July 27, 2022, at 3:00 p.m. before Judge Sands. There is no parole in the federal system.

“Our region’s most violent and repeat offenders who continue to possess firearms illegally will be held accountable at the federal level,” said U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary. “Through the Project Safe Neighborhoods program, federal prosecutors are working with law enforcement agencies to concentrate enforcement efforts on violent career offenders in an effort to reduce crime and ultimately make our communities safer.”

“Gang members like Tucker continuously plague our communities even after being charged and convicted of multiple crimes,” said Philip Wislar, Acting Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “The FBI is proud to work with our law enforcement partners to enforce federal laws that can provide serious prison time for criminals who refuse to learn from their mistakes and continue to possess firearms and endanger others.”

According to court documents and other evidence, a Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to a citizen’s call about two individuals driving a truck on property behind his residence, which had been the target of several recent thefts. The deputy recognized the driver as Tucker, who had outstanding arrest warrants, was a known convicted felon and had led deputies on a high-speed pursuit in recent months. Tucker, who was wearing a shoulder holster while seated in the front seat, gave a false name to the deputy. The officer saw a gun resting inches away from Tucker’s right hand. When he asked the defendant to exit his vehicle, Tucker replied with an expletive and refused to get out of the truck. The deputy, who had called for law enforcement back-up, gave numerous commands for Tucker to exit the truck. Tucker failed to comply. Tucker moved his hand toward his holster and the deputy deployed his taser. Tucker was handcuffed by another responding deputy and was combative during the arrest.

Tucker, who is a convicted felon, was in illegal possession of a Charter Arms Bulldog .44 special revolver at the time of his arrest. Tucker was on probation at the time of the arrest and has multiple convictions in Colquitt County, Georgia, Superior Court, including for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and burglary. Tucker is a known and validated member the KKP (Killer Kracker Pride), a hybrid gang that originated in the Colquitt County Jail. KKP is a white supremacy organization that is sometimes affiliated with the Ghost Face Gangster.

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