The Mafia Lives On

One of the things that makes the Mafia so dangerous when compared to drug trafficking groups or other criminal groups is their ability to keep doing business no matter what.   The Bonanno family has been hit hard in the recent years.  The FBI went after them with a vengeance and they took down the administration.  The Bonanno family had been the only one of the five families in New York that had never had a made guy turn rat.  That all changed when underboss Sal Vitale flipped on the family and his brother in law the boss Joey Massino.  Then Joey Massino did the unthinkable: he flipped.  Joey not only flipped, he also wore a wire on acting boss Vinny Basciano and took him down.  One of the guys caught up in the prosecution was John Palazzolo.

Palazzolo was inducted into the Bonanno family in 1977 just like Massino, during that time it was under the leadership of boss Rusty Rastelli.    Palazzolo was tasked with killing another made guy named Anthony Coglitore, who was involved in blowing up another member.  

In 1991 Palazzolo was called again to take part in another murder.  This time it was another made guy, Russell Mauro.  Mauro had been involved in selling drugs, but when everyone else went down and he did not, the Bonannos figured he was cooperating.  They decided to murder him and Palazzolo was the guy to lure him to the murder site.  Mauro was killed, stuffed into a body bag and placed in the trunk of a 1985 Lincoln that was left on a street in Queens.

The body was badly decomposed by the time the cops found it and there were few clues.

Palazzolo, as you can see, has a long criminal history that included fraud, theft of interstate shipments, loansharking and extortion.  When he was picked up in the big Bonanno family take down, he had just finished parole.  He ended up pleading guilty to conspiracy to murder Mauro in aid of racketeering in April of 2006, and he was sentenced to 10 years.  

Palazzolo was released in 2012 at the age of 80, and he was right back to work with the Bonanno family. He was on parole and was not supposed to associate with felons.  Palazzolo was soon the street boss of the Bronx faction of the Bonanno family. Things were not going well and the Bronx faction was losing power to the others in Queens, so Palazzolo decided to make his move.

He started meeting with various men in the family.  One of those he met with was Fat Anthony Rabito. Fat Anthony is the Consigliore of the family and is a long time member of the family.  Fat Anthony had taken part in the murder of the three Capos during the internal war and had pleaded guilty to Racketeering.    

The problem is the FBI was watching when Palazzo and Fat Anthony had a lengthy meeting outside a Bayside Queens Diner parking lot.   Palazzo then met with another family man who was close to the boss Mikey “Nose” Mancuso.

The FBI decided they needed to make a move because they believed that Palazzo was going to make a move and it would cause more violence in the family.

Last week they took him down, which is surprising because the last time Palazzo was sentenced, back in 2006, he claimed that he had prostate cancer, Crohns disease and that he had to take 12 pills a day.  Today he is 82 years old and a veteran of the mafia.  Guys like him are the most dangerous because they have the years of knowledge.

The judge who was on his last case back in 2006 was the same judge on his case this week. The judge asked the US Attorney. “Is there still a leadership of the Bonanno family?” and she replied  “Unfortunately, yes.”  No matter who is locked up, or who dies, there is always someone else willing to step up and take the role.  

The DeCavalcante Organized Crime Family

I was just having a conversation about the FBI using deep undercover agents like Donnie Brasco and Jack Falcone.  The people I was discussing the subject were wondering why the FBI would spend so much time and money on the Cosa Nostra.  They felt that it was no longer a threat.  I explained to them that the Cosa Nostra was still International in scope and much more dangerous than the flavor-of-the-moment crime group.  

Lets go back to the 80s.  Jamaican Posse, Medellín Cartel and many Mexican groups along the border, but they have no staying power. The Cosa Nostra is like a cancer that you can't get rid of, even with aggressive treatment.  They are able to bounce back because of their structure and because they are a secret group.  When the FBI takes down a crew or the administration, others, known and unknown, can step up and keep running the organization.  

I was surprised when I heard the FBI took down a crew in the DeCavalcante family of New Jersey.  The other families in New York have such a foothold in New Jersey that I forget that the state has its own family.  The FBI had an agent undercover for 3 years in the DeCavalcante family and they were active.  Charles Stango lived in Henderson, Nevada just outside of Las Vegas, but he was still a Capo in the DeCavalcante family.  Anthony Stango, his son, lived in Brick Township, New Jersey and handled his father’s day-to-day operations in New Jersey.  Charles Stango, also known as “Beeps,” took money from the undercover FBI Agent who has been under since 2012.  The Agent had become close to Beeps and last year, just before Christmas, Beeps shared his plans to murder a member of the family.  

Beeps had given the contract to the FBI undercover and told him to kill or maim the other man known as the “Pet” because he had disrespected an older member of the family.  He wanted him shot or blown up in his business in Elizabeth, NJ.  

The order was given in Las Vegas in a meeting between Beeps and the FBI agent and it was recorded by the agent.  Beeps had assured the agent that the DeCavalcante Administration was on board with the murder.  The FBI had the proof because they had intercepted calls between Frank Nigro the family Consigliere and Paul Colella who was the go-between to higher ups in the administration. They all sought and were given permission to murder the wayward member.

Beep’s son and other crew members also distributed cocaine on a large scale in New Jersey and were caught by the FBI.

They were looking to expand into Toms River, New Jersey, where they were going to open a nightclub as cover for a high-end escort business that would cater to businessmen in the area.

Sex sells, and the amount of money that a high end escort business can bring in is staggering.

When I told the FBI and IRS about Nici’s Girls and Exotica 2000 they could not believe the amount of money they made.

In all, the FBI was able to take down 10 members and associates of the DeCavalcante Family from two crews. This was a different bust than other recent ones, because they didn't take down a gambling or shylock operation, which is the staple of Mafia.  They did bust them for selling large amounts of cigarettes.

This quote from U.S. Attorney Fisherman sums it up well, “Though its ranks have been thinned by countless convictions and its own internal bloodletting, traditional organized crime remains a real problem.”