Operation Shark Bait & Salvatore DeMeo

The New York Attorney General's office just concluded an operation they called Shark Bait.

They targeted a group of mafia-connected online bookmakers that mostly took bets in the New York area. I understand that gambling is illegal unless state run (OTB, lotto) or on Indian land.

My question for you is, why do they waste so much money and time going after a few guys who are only providing what the public wants?  In my humble opinion, if they spent as much time and effort going after illegal aliens, who are costing the state 5.1 billion a year, the money and effort might be better spent.  Law Enforcement wastes an enormous amount of taxpayer money on something that really does not affect the rest of the citizens, only willing participants who seek out a loan and have connections.  The indictment says they loaned out cash to customers at outrageous weekly interest rates. Here it is again.  I can guarantee you that not one person who was loaned money was forced to take out a loan. They know the terms before they take the cash and they have to know somebody in the life to get it.  It’s not like they do a credit check.  I understand that it is against the law and that they use the cash to fund other enterprises, but how about all of the those people killed in shootings in high crime areas?  If less time, energy and money was spent chasing after loan sharks, maybe more time could be spent in high crime areas bringing down violent crime rates.

Well enough of me on my soapbox.

Anyway, they took down 13 people in the bust of 4Spades.org which is a Genovese family operation.  The man behind it is Salvatore “Sallie” DeMeo a made Genovese guy.  DeMeo has a long history of high profile criminal acts including bank robbery.  He was the head of a bank robbery crew in the late 1990’s.  He helped plan out a robbery in Manalapan N.J. where my buddy Andrew DiDonato jumped over the counter and they made off with over 400,000 dollars in cash.  Sallie received a full share of that robbery even though he was not one of the upfront guys because he was an integral part.  He is the real deal and very well respected by everyone in the life.  The crew also took down an armoured car in Manhattan.  He would later be charged by the FBI, but when they went to arrest him he had already gone on the lam.

In the old days his capo was Rosario “Ross” Gangi, another well respected Genovese guy.

They were not only charged with the bookmaking operation, but with loan sharking and selling bootleg cigarettes.

They did sell more than thirty thousand thousand untaxed cigarettes in the New York area.

They smuggled the cigarettes into the state and then used fake tax stamps so they could move them in bulk.

This is a pretty typical mafia operation which shows that the mafia is still alive and well in the country.

In other mafia news, New Jersey DeCavalcante Cape Charles Stango admitted to offering two undercover FBI agents fifty thousand dollars to murder a person he thought disrespected another family member.

He was on parole for another crime and living in Henderson Nevada at the time.

He will be doing a few years.

JoJo Corozzo - Gambino Racketeer

This will be the last blog for 2014, so I thought I would end it with the Gambino Consigliere JoJo Corozzo.  I am reading over his court documents and find it amusing to see the full page of medication that JoJo has to take every day.  How does this 71 year old man have the time or the health to commit crimes.  Well, JoJo made time for crime, and he has been at it since the 1980s when he was one of John Gotti Sr.’s most loyal and biggest moneymakers.  He ran large parts of Queens and Howard Beach for the Gambinos. In October of 2005, JoJo was picked up on tape by a confidential witness (CW) talking about why John “Baby” Gotti did not like him.  John Sr would tell JoJo to tell Jr not to do this or do that.  Then all guys in Queens would go to JoJo instead of Jr.  This made Jr. crazy and it made him hate JoJo.  

During the 1980s and 1990s JoJo built up a power base and brought in a number of young up-and-comers including Ronald Trucchio, Alphonse Trucchio and Louis Mastrangelo who all later became Capos in the family, and Bartolomeo Vernace who became a Capo and also served on the panel and many others that are soldiers or associates in the family.  

JoJo used to take the whole neighborhood to the movies to encourage others into the life.  A prime example is Howard Santos who JoJo met when he was in his 40s and Santos was a teenager.  He made Howard who became his driver and was later put in charge of his social club and other rackets that were run out of the club.  Santos was well thought of and trusted until he flipped in 2009.

JoJo Corozzo has the Mafia distinction of being convicted of racketeering in 3 decades: the  1990s, 2000s and 2010s.

 

JoJo has been the boss of a sports betting business for many years and raked in untold millions in profit both for him and the Gambino family.  The bookmaking business is a huge money maker for organized crime because it does not take a lot overhead, unlike other crimes like drugs or stealing.  When taking bets the bookie gets the vig or 10% win or lose.  The main thing, unlike drugs or anything else criminal, is that it is all just numbers on a page.  What I mean is that they are not out any physical thing so If someone skips out they just lose numbers in a ledger.  Its not real cash.  

I am sure that JoJo has no intention of going straight or retiring from the Gambinos. He has put in the time and work to reach the pinnacle of the mafia.  This is what JoJo and his brother Nicky have worked so hard for all their adult lives.  Nicky also ran a vast gambling enterprise like the one Andrew DiDonato wrote about in his book, “Surviving the Mob.”  Andrew details his time around Nicky from his teens until well into manhood.  

If anyone would like a look inside the Gambino family, especially the Corozzo crew, they should read Andrew’s book.  The show Mob Wives will have a new edition this season named Natalie DiDonato who is related to or married to someone. The DiDonato name is not common but Andrew is the real deal.

One of the best stories in Andrew's book is when Andrew was driving one night with JoJo’s son Joseph and they got into a traffic altercation with another car. At a stop light the two cars stopped and a guy got out with a butcher knife and came out of the car.  Andrew was asleep and Joseph started screaming like a girl to shoot him.  So Andrew shot him in the groin and they drove off.  This was huge trouble for Andrew because not only was it JoJo’s son, but also his car.  They found out who the guy was and what hospital he was in and they sent some guys over there to see him.  They offered the guy 10k to forget what happened or die so the guy accepted. This would come up later because Joseph later became a lawyer who represented mafia guys including his father and uncle.  It is all in Federal court records.  He represented Teddy Persico Jr. when I got him some more time.  Joseph had nothing good to say about me, in fact he ranted about me for an hour to another lawyer.  The funny thing is he never called me in to ask about the tapes I made.

JoJo will be locked away until 2016 when he will be released under supervision.  He will have to pay 8k installments to the government to pay his forfeiture.  Nicky is now locked up in SuperMax in Florence, Colorado until 2020 and for the sake of the citizens lets hope he never gets released.

Mob Con 2013

Andrew DiDonato, Me, Frank Calabrese Jr.

This weekend was Mob Con 2013 and it was fun! Great audience and so many good speakers.  

I spent most of my time with Frank Calabrese Jr and Andrew DiDonato, great guys!

Frank told a story about how he was taken down by the FBI in Chicago. He was downstairs in his place and his family was in their beds, when the FBI knocked on his door and asked for him to come out.  Frank got his shirt on and then went to his front closet, because his alarm box was in the closet, and he noticed Agents watching him warily through the window. Frank yelled “I'm just turning off the alarm!” to assure them he wasn’t reaching for a gun, and then he opened the door. They told him that he was being arrested.  As he was getting cuffed his wife came to the top of the stairs and asked what was going on.

Frank: Its the FBI, I’m just getting arrested.  Go back to bed.  

Wife: What?  What should I do?  

Frank: Call my Father.  

FBI: We already got him, Frank.

Frank: Okay, call my Uncle.  

FBI We picked him up already too.

Frank: Okay, then just call my brother.  

FBI: We got him tonight also.  

Frank: Honey, just wait for me to call.  

Frank’s story is not just a Mafia story, it is the story of a dysfunctional family and the evil that is Organized Crime.  I highly recommend his book Operation Family Secrets.

Andrew DiDonato had some great stories about being a working street guy in a Gambino Crew. One of those stories was about when he went on the lam.  He was out on parole and one night he got a call from his parole officer who wanted to see him the next day in his office.  Andrew instantly knew that something was wrong because he had already checked in once that week and he had never been asked to come twice.  So he shows up to his P.O.s office and he is sitting there when two guys he knew where FBI agents were buzzed in to the office.  They were giving him the hard stare when they went into the inner office and then the front door buzzed and Andrew made a split second decision and he scrambled through the door. He had his lawyer call his P.O. that night and arrange for his surrender but the P.O. would not tell him a thing.  So his lawyer said fine you find mister DiDonato and hung up.  That started Andrews last 14 months on the street as a Gambino associate.

This was a great weekend because all of us have a kind of support system and its nice to speak with people who have been through the same things in life.

Andrew DiDonato wearing a "Breakshot: The Game is Rigged" Shirt

I was thinking a lot this weekend about all the times I was in Las Vegas with the LA guys.  Hitting Nicky Blairs with Jimmy Caci. Eating at Johnny Mashes place with Steve Cino or meeting up with Steve before he was put in the Black Book.  Watching Keely Smith and Bobby Milano put on a great show.  Old times and even some good times. The good times were good but it does not change what the life was and that was and always will be a dead end.

I have a Las Vegas story that I will tell.  I went with Fat Steve Cino to a Blueberry Hill restaurant in Henderson NV.  Steve could go to Blueberry Hill because they had tables, not just booths, as he was too big to fit into booths.  I liked Steve because he was a gentleman, but he was way, way, way overweight! He was so big that he used to go to his friends salvage yard drive his car onto the scale and they would weigh the car.  He would get out and they would weigh it again!  That was how big he was then!

We were meeting John Bronco and Tony Angeletti at Blueberry Hill for a talk about everything that was going on in Vegas.  They brought a guy with them named Tony Muso who at one time had worked for Ted Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe Casino.  John Branco had two things he wanted to get out.  One was he and Tony claimed that Herbie Blitzstien was a rat. They had a card made of a rats body with Herbie head on it and had brought a newspaper article about Herbie going into some jewelry store for the Cops.  They claimed that this made Herbie a rat.  

They wanted to do something to him. This was their idea and they were pushing it.  Steve Cino told them to chill out but they kept up. Steve told them that he was doing things with Herbie.  They then moved onto Ted Binion who John Bronco wanted to rob.  John owned a lawn service, so he mowed Ted's yard. These guys were petty and between John and Tony Muso they had the whole Binion heist planned.  I left with Steve and both of us shook our heads. I found out later that Ted Binion was warned by Law Enforcement that there was a threat to rob him, but Herbie was never warned.

What a waste.  

Vegas brought back old memories, good and bad, and we created some new ones. It was great swapping stories with Andrew and Frank and I'm already looking forward to doing it again at MOB Con 2014 next year!

New Women's Breakshot Shirts

Selling shirts at Mob Con 2013

Frank Calabrese Jr and I on stage speaking at Mob Con 2013

Frank Cullota

“I liked Jewelry stores because they had a lot of cash.”  - Frank Cullota

Frank was the Leader of the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a very success crew that pulled scores in Las Vegas when the Chicago Outfit reigned supreme in Sin City.

Frank Cullota

Frank was born June 20, 1938 in Chicago.  He met the man who would become his best friend in his criminal career when he was 13 years old.  That man was Tony Spilatro.  Tony would work his way up from a street thug to the Outfit’s man in Las Vegas.  

I was speaking to Frank on the phone the other day and I asked him a few questions.

First, I wanted to know about Herbie Blitzstein.  I liked Herbie, I always felt he was a good guy who just did what he knew.  A lot of people refer to him as an enforcer but I never got that vibe when I was around him. The FBI was running Operation Button Down and Operation Thin Crust in 1995 in Las Vegas.  The LA Family was once more trying to regroup and Las Vegas was one of the places they were working on.  

Fat Steve Cino lived there along with a host of associates, so LA Capo Jimmy Caci and I would drive out there frequently.  Jimmy was out on an appeal bond for a Telemarketing deal gone bad, so we were trying to get things moving.  Jimmy and his brother Bobby Milano liked Herbie and so did Steve Cino.  

Jimmy would get picked up by LAPD because he was around an FBI informant named Ori Spado in Beverly Hills.  Ori had gone out on a collection in the Valley and Jimmy was in his car.  Ori went into this business and he started running his mouth selling wolf tickets, the guy had enough of Ori’s crap and he decked Ori with a tape dispenser.  Ori was on the ground and the guy had a pistol out when Jimmy came into the office and stopped the guy.  The guy knew Jimmy from the track so he chilled and he explained his situation.  The guy had a business that went bankrupt everything was in bankruptcy so he had nothing.  Jimmy helped Ori to the car where he dressed Ori down for acting so foolish.  Ori never told Jimmy what he was doing there or Jimmy would not have even gone with him.  

A week later I went to dinner with Jimmy and Ori at Frankie’s after dinner Jimmy went to Ori's apartment.  While there, Ori had to get something from his car.  The next thing Jimmy knew there was a knock at Ori's door.  Ori ran to open it, and it was the LAPD OC Squad.  

Ori lived in a secured building.  

Thanks to Ori,  Jimmy was away on January 6, 1996 when some wannabee low class robbers broke into Herbie’s condo and murdered him.

This was not a Mafia crime in anyway shape or form.  The only guys I heard that wanted him dead were the two FBI informants John Bronco and Fat Tony. They both owed Herbie money.  The FBI used it in a RICO case against Steve Cino and Bobby Panera but it was a joke.

Speaking to Frank about Herbie helped me learn some more about Herbie.

Herbie was a bookmaker in Chicago and he made juice loans but he was not a tough guy.  He was in too big to go on scores but he always had money on him.  He would carry 20k in his pockets because the IRS would take anything of value from him.  He owed them for unpaid taxes.  Frank was asked by his boss in Chicago to move out to Las Vegas to help Tony out in the 70's when he got out of prison. It was not an order just a nudge to go out to Las Vegas.  

Tony opened up a jewelry store in Las Vegas called Gold Rush Ltd where they bought and sold Jewelry.  Tony told Frank that he was bringing out the Jew to help, that is what they called Herbie.  Herbie mostly worked in the back room removing jewels from settings and melting down the gold.  He bought hot merchandise.

Frank told me that Herbie was never a hard guy he just looked it.  

I asked Frank who he admired most in his criminal life and he came back with two answers.  One guy he liked was Sam Giancana who was tough and smart.  Sam used to tell him that he was too quick with his fists because Frank was young and angry.  He told him that it would get him in trouble someday.  The other guy is a criminal legend. Tony Accardo, Joe Batters the man who was in the Outfit since Al Capone and never spent a night in jail.  He would see Tony at the Golden Bear Pancake house and after the first time Tony saw him there he would say hello. Nobody got close to Tony but he knew who everyone was everywhere he went. If Tony would have been legit he would be a Billionaire today.

I cannot do justice to Frank’s story on this blog, you can read all about his life in his book Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster, and Government Witness. Frank has a lot to say and anyone who wants to gain a better understanding about the Life should attend Mob-Con Sept. 7 and 8 in Las Vegas at the Palace Station.  You can meet Frank and ask him any questions about the life.  Others I have featured on previous blog posts will be there also:

Andrew DiDonato

Andrew Didanato, Frank Calabrese, Tony Montana, Tim Redsull as well as Law enforcement speakers and authors.

Hear from Andrew about life in a crew where one wrong step could mean death and that went for the boss's son John Gotti Jr.

Frank Calabrese

Speak to Frank Calabrese about growing up in a Mafia house hold and then running his father street rackets.  

For more information check out the convention’s website:

http://mob-con.net/

Andrew Didonato: Life in the Gambino Crew Part 2

Bank Robbery is a full time job. If anyone tells you it is not it is because they have no idea. Andrew, no longer able to work with the same guys he had always worked with now that he was wanted for absconding on his parole, hooked up with a serious crew.  These were Genovese guys and they would take their time looking for a big score so they didn't have to step out more than once a year on a job.

And rew would get up early and go watch an armoured car depot. The crew had a tipster inside that gave them the truck to follow. They watched it make its scheduled drop at the bank they were studying.  They learned that the bank employees, busy when the cash delivery arrived, would store the bags of cash behind the counter until later when they would move it into the vault.

The members of the robbery crew were friendly with an old guy who lived a few miles from the bank.  On the day of the robbery, they staged at the old guys house. The getaway car was parked in back of the bank and the driver was the old guy.  Andrew went in, jumped over the counter and grabbed four bags that had been dropped off earlier that day and had not been moved to the safe.  While they were inside a women saw them and ran screaming outside. They walked past her and got into the car and ducked while the old guy calmly drove away.  They knew the police would set up roadblocks.  They heard later that they were looking for the crew and a woman.  They thought that the woman was part of the crew!

They would hide out at the old guys house until the heat died down.  They opened the four bags and only two of them had cash.  There was still over 400,000 dollars to be split up amongst them.

Andrew’s world was getting smaller by the day. He was wanted and Nicky Corrozzo was having guys reach out to the Genovese Crew to see how much cash he was making.  Nicky was not happy that one of his men was pulling in cash and not giving him a cut.  No matter what Andrew was facing or how much he needed, Nicky wanted his end.

This is the way the Mafia works: money flows up, never down.  Back when Andrew needed $5,000 to pay his Lawyer he had asked Nicky for a loan and what do you think Nicky said to him?  Nicky said "You are not a good investment at this time" That is always nice to hear from a guy you have been loyal to for many years.

Years before when Andrew had gotten out of prison he had asked permission to whack out a guy who was really bad to a relative. Nicky had given the okay, so his friend and fellow Gambino Crew member Mikey Yanotti came up with a plan.  They would call the guy, who was a plumber, and they would tell him that Mikey had a problem in his place.  Mikey lived in a three story apartment home and his place was in the middle.  There was a stairway down to the garage from his place so it was private.  They would have him come up through the garage and when he did they would kill him.  They decided against it in the end for whatever reason.

Around the time of the bank robbery, Mikey Yanotti called him and asked him to come by his place.  Andrew went to Mikey’s place.   They were upstairs and just when they started to talk Mikey put his finger to his lips and pointed at the ceiling (Meaning his place was wired) He motioned for Andrew to follow him down to the garage.  Andrew could not help notice the lights were off, so as he walked behind Mikey he fingered his pistol in his waistband.  He thought for sure that someone was waiting to pop him in the dark, but as he got towards the ground there was some light and he could see the place was empty.  They went outside and Mikey talked about what they would do to the Luchese Crew that was after him.  Mikey was talking about Danny Cutia, Sal Cutia, John Baudanza and Craig Marino (who was a Colombo).  John and Craig had asked Robert Arena where Andrew lived on Staten Island like they were going to do something to him.  I personally know both of those guys and the only thing they are capable of is shooting their friends in the back. As Andrew stood talking to Mikey, the only thing going through his mind was that this entire conversation is window dressing, and Mikey had just pulled a dry run on him to see if he would play along.  The next time he was invited over to “talk” the real hit would take place.  It reminded him a lot of their old plot to hit the plumber.

Andrew went out on a score with another crew soon after this incident, he was hoping to raise some cash fast.  This was not an armed robbery but a bank burglary.  They went and stole a piece of heavy equipment from a construction site to bust out a night deposit box and chute.  The bank was in the Bronx and they had cased it good. They went there on the night of the burglary and the idiot kid driving the machine accidentally drove it through the wall!  He didn't use the scoop to bust open the chute as planned, and pretty soon the building collapsed.  They had to make a run for it! No cash on that job.

Andrew laid low from the cops better this time than he did after a previous shooting he had done on the streets.   The previous time he had flown to Los Angeles and then taken a plane to Las Vegas and from there a bus to Laughlin. This was in 1988 and Laughlin was a small dusty town with only a few hotels.  Andrew was there with his dad hiding out and had just gotten to sleep when there was a loud pounding on the adjoining door to his room. Andrew was sure it was the Feds coming to grab him and take him back to New York.  The pounding grew louder and a voice was screaming,”What are you doing in there!”  Andrew jumped out of the window and started running down the street in his underwear.  It didn’t take long for his father to yell at him to get back in the room.  Andrew was already pretty far away and people started looking at him in his underwear with bare feet. It turns out that an elderly couple had the room next to their room and maybe the guy had never been in a hotel before because he thought the door was another part of his own room.

The more experienced on-the-run Andrew stayed low in the tri-state area.  Nicky would have meetings at diners at 3am or later in out of the way places in order to avoid the Feds.  This was a good idea because the FBI likes to work 9 to 5 Monday through Friday.  He sent for Andrew one night and they met at a diner.  Nicky wanted cash from the Bank jobs to pay some legal bills.  They spoke about the Lucchese Family problem and his troubles. Nicky was pissed because of the headache Andrew had caused him, and he didn't even make anything from it.  Then Nicky wanted Andrew to bring the kids he had been getting cash from drug deals to meet the crew.  Andrew knew right then that they were going to kill him because in all the years Nicky had never asked him to meet anyone.  He never needed to meet them, because he had Andrew to be the middle man.  Andrew knew that it was only a matter of time before the Genovese crew would have to give him up to the Gambino's (Nicky) so that was the end of his run on the street as a bank robber with the Genoveses.