The Genovese Family and “Operation Fistful”

It is a crime group that people claim is “dead,” yet law enforcement keeps taking down different crews that still pull down cash. The latest bust went down in New Jersey, called “Operation Fistful.”  It was a joint investigation by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, conducted with assistance from the New York and Queens County District Attorneys’ Offices and other law enforcement agencies.

The operation targeted a group of associates that were part of a New Jersey crew operating under the supervision and control of two alleged “made” members of the Genovese crime family: Charles “Chuckie” Tuzzo, 82, of Bayside, N.Y., (“capo”), and Vito Alberti, 57, of Morristown NJ, a Genovese “soldier.”

The investigation centered on the check cashing businesses of Genovese associate Domenick Pucillo. He ran both legal and illegal check cashing business that he used to launder and shylock money through. The shylock operation was a simple but profitable enterprise.  Pucillo would make loans to those close to him for 1 point or 1% a week which comes to 52% a year.  The other shylocks would add a half point or much more, and then put it to work by loaning it out.  The business took in 4.7 million dollars in interest alone while the investigation had them under surveillance.

The operation was mainly based out of Tri-State Check Cashing, Inc., with headquarters at 17 Avenue A in Newark, NJ which was owned by Pucillo.  Vito Alberti got a piece of the whole shylock business and loans that he handled he took 2 points off the top.  They would have people who got the loans give them checks which they would cash weekly at the check cashing business so it looked like a legitimate transaction.

Vincent Coppola, the son of Genovese Capo Michael Coppola, ran a sports betting operation that took in 1.7 million and generated 400k in profits that he shared with Alberti and Capo Chuckie Tuzzo at the same time.

They also had a very lucrative side business which they named Viriato Corp. Viriato was used for their illegal check cashing business that was run out of a neighborhood bar.  They cashed over 400 million in checks and took in 9 million in tax free fees, which they all split.  People would write them large checks to cover under the table payroll or whatever they wanted to get cash for that was not traceable.  They did not have to file a CTR aka Currency Transaction Report like you do at a bank for anything over or totaling 10k.  

Viriato Corp got the cash from Tri-State Check Cashing and cashed checks, which they deposited and then wrote big checks to Tri-State which they filed CTRs on.

They then gained control of GTS Auto Carriers which transported cars from the docks to other locations.  They looted the company and used it to launder more checks through while the task force was watching.

The whole operation was a cash machine.  They took in almost 700k in cash from a drug dealer who paid them a fee to launder it, and then they used that cash to cash checks.  

It's a circle of undeclared cash kept in play by mixing it up with their legitimate businesses.  So much for a dying crime industry. The mafia is alive and well in New York and New Jersey.  This was just one small part of a crew that involved one made guy in the family and his capo. Imagine what the rest of the family has going on.

Frank "Curly" Lino

Born on October 30th, 1938 in Gravesend Brooklyn Frank "Curly" Lino had his life's path already mapped out for him.   Frank's mother married Frank Lino Sr in a marriage arranged by the boss of the Genovese Family, Vito Genovese.  Frank would never get past the 10th grade at Lafayette High School in Brooklyn because he started running with a Mafia farm team: the Avenue U Boys.  He used to pull off robberies with the Avenue U Boys but he was soon running a floating game for a made Genovese Soldier.

Frank has lived a charmed life.  It may not have been the best life but he lived it to the max.  In May of 1962 he got involved with two other men to pull off a robbery of a tobacco store in Brooklyn.  While it was going down two NYPD Brooklyn Detectives were shot and killed.  Frank was picked up soon afterward and beaten severely in the station house by other detectives who he claimed stapled his hand and shoved a broomstick up his ass.  He did have a broken leg and arm.  The NYPD has put broomsticks up others asses, so who knows.

The court placed him on 3 years probation after he threatened to sue the city.  The other men were given the death penalty that was later commuted to life in prison.

This was not the last time Frank would be a torture victim due to his criminal activity.  During the heyday of the Mafia, the real life “Luca Brazi” for Junior Persico, a man named Hugh "Apples" Macintosh (or just Mac) grabbed Frank out of a bar. Mac brought him to a basement where he beat him and tortured him for two days trying to make him give up the names of his friends that had a beef with Persico.  He never gave up their names even after he was beaten so badly he suffered a weird eye twitch - a blinking twitch that remained for the rest of his life. So Mac let him go after telling him 'the reason you are being let go is because you didn’t rat. If you did we would have killed you"  Frank was so afraid he never looked back until he was well away from that place.

He was made on his 40th Birthday in 1977 in Little Italy.  It has been said it was because of his cousin Eddie Lino who was with John Gotti and a major drug dealer.  Gotti was very close to Joey Massino at this time.  

Frank was asked by his Capo Sonny Red Indelicato to drive him to a peace meeting at a social club in Brooklyn. Sonny Red decided to have Frank drive him to the meeting instead of his son Bruno because he did not really trust the other Capos. He told his son Bruno to kill all the Zips and the rest of the Capos if he did not return. There was a lot of internal strife in the Bonanno Family at the time because the self proclaimed boss Carmine Galante had been murdered by Bruno and others on orders from the Commision. Rusty Rastelli was the real boss but he was locked up, so his most trusted Capo Big Joey Massino was working hard to keep the family together.  The Zip Faction, The Canadian Faction, Sonny Black and Joey Massino all lined up against the other three capos.  Sonny Red, Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone were all opposing Rusty but they were called into this last ditch peace offering.  Things seemed to be going fine when Frank saw three hooded come down the stairs into the club.  He saw Joey Massino hit Sonny Red in the head with something and another man jump out of a closet with a gun.  He saw Giaccone thrown up against a wall and shot before he fled so fast that nobody on the hit team could stop him.

He then went into hiding but the powers that be did not want him dead.  They wanted Bruno who had escaped the massacre.  Frank was close to him and knew where he was hiding out.  He met with the Underboss of the Gambino Family who gave him a chance to live, if he murdered Bruno.  Frank pretended to be looking for Bruno, when he really already knew where he was.  The Bonanno Family powers gave the contract to Sonny Black who then gave it to Lefty Ruggiero and Donnie Brasco.   Things went downhill from there because Donnie Brasco was an undercover FBI Agent and the Commission's case came down and Bruno was picked up.  

Frank was then asked to bring Sonny Black to a meeting because it had come out that Donnie Brasco was an FBI Agent and he was vouched for by Sonny Black.  Sonny knew he was not long for this world so he left his jewelry at home for his wife.  They got to the house where the meeting was to take place and Frank showed him to the basement.  Sonny went first and a few steps down Frank shoved him and when he fell the shooter fired into his body but the gun jammed.  Sonny Black told them to "Hit him one more time, Make it good"  They did.  They would cut off his hands because he shook them with an FBI Agent and Frank Lino's son helped dispose of Sonny Black.  The world of the Mafia is crazy because years later when I was at BaMontes in Brooklyn a guy wearing a black over coat was walking back and forth smoking a cigarette.  I was watching him and Nicky Santoro a Bonanno Capo told me that he was Sonny Black’s kid.  So Sonny's kid is still around those guys.

Frank did it all on the street, from drugs, robbery, pump and dump, extortion to Gambling.  He made money from Family Union contracts with school buses.  He had conspired with the Lucchese Family to kill a Gambino associate until Sal Vitale the Underboss had a sitdown with Nicky Corrozzo who told him I dont care what the kid did, what he stole its done, we have big plans for him.  So that was it for that hit.  Good for Frank because when he was locked up later he was going to get shanked in the yard of a prison.  When the huge Bonanno family indictments came down he learned that Sal Vitale had flipped and he knew it was over.  He flipped becoming the first of many Bonanno's to testify for the Government.  He would implicate his own relatives in many Mafia crimes and for that he was rewarded with just 8 years by the judge and is now out and a free man.

I hope he lives a good life and enjoys his freedom.  He is older and he knows what he did.