Lucchese Family and Sports Betting

Last week 6 Lucchese crime family members pleaded guilty to running a massive sports betting operation.  The size and scope of the operation and the amount of time the men will do demonstrates why the Mafia wants to stay in the gambling business.

They took in $2.2 billion in bets in 15 months on sporting events.  Here’s a little gambling math for you:  they got the Vig right off the top.  That is 10 dollars for every 100 dollars wagered.  That means IF that were all they made, they took $200 million off the top in 15 months time.  Then add in all the cash from parlays and teasers, and it's a much bigger profit.

They did this all using Costa Rican wire rooms and password protected websites that were based on servers in Costa Rica.  Gambling is all legal in Costa Rica.   In the US it is only okay in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, because there the huge corporations handle it.

There would be few large sporting events without gaming and all the shows and news that go with them.

The Lucchese guys had the wire rooms aka phone banks based in Costa Rica.  They give a customer a code name and an 800 number to call in their action.  They use local books to recruit customers, collect and pay off.  The money never actually makes it to Costa Rica because it is all done in cash in person in local bars.  Customers have a password for the website and a username.  They will have credit and collect from the bookie during the week.

One of the principals in the operation was Matthew Madonna, a name that many Mafia readers will know.  Matty was part of the Pleasant Avenue Connection of heroin selling fame.  Matty used to have cars full  of heroin dropped off to black heroin kingpin Leroy Nicky Barnes.  Nicky would get the keys to the car and later he would drop it back off filled with cash.  It was a sweet operation for them, that was later derailed because of Nicky's flashy ways.  

Matty went away and was given 30 years for selling heroin. He was summoned before a grand jury but never said a word and was given another year and a half for not cooperating.

Once he was released, he was inducted into the Lucchese family and quickly rose to Capo and soon he was on the ruling panel that ran the family.

Ralph V. Perna was the Capo who ran the New Jersey faction of the Lucchese family which included two of his sons Joseph and John.  He follows a long line of guys who ran the family in new Jersey.   For awhile Nicky Scarfo’s son was said to be running the faction, but he is down for a long time now.  Tumac was the longtime boss until the crazy crack smoker Gaspipe went on his murderous rampage.  

Joseph DiNapoli is another Lucchese Capo who went down for the sports betting operation.  DiNapoli was also on the ruling panel with Matty.  He made big money from labor racketeering and stock fraud. He has two brothers who are made in the Genovese family.

Back to the gambling bust.  Marty Taccetta, who is already serving life in prison, will get an extra 8 years tagged on his sentence.  All in all it is not that bad.  Ralph Perna will get 8 years while his sons will get 10 years.  Matty will get 5 years while rest will get 8 years.  The time is not a lot for the amount of cash they pulled down.  Did the Feds stop sports betting?  Not a chance.  That is why the lines are posted all over for every event.

Nicodemo Scarfo & Lucchese Scams

Halloween night 1989.  A lone man walks into Dante & Luigi's restaurant in South Philly wearing a Batman mask.  He walks straight towards a table of three men pulls out a Mac 10 and opens fire.  He fires five times at one man, striking him in the chest twice, the neck and arm, until he falls on the floor in a pool of blood. The masked man quickly exits the restaurant and drops the Mac 10 on the sidewalk outside.

Nicodemo Scarfo Jr.

Lying in the pool of blood: Nicodemo Scarfo Jr.  Luck was on his side that night because none of the wounds were life threatening.  In fact he didn't even need a blood transfusion. The bullets missed vital organs and blood vessels.  That is the way hits go sometimes.

The shooting gave the FBI an inside look into the mind of the 24 year old up and coming Mobster.  He had thrown his weight around because his father was the boss and one of the most violent in the country. Times had changed and  Nicodemo Scarfo Sr was now locked up in Federal Prison for the rest of his life.  They recovered a laptop computer belonging to the young Scarfo and they soon discovered bookmaking and shylocking records.  This was new because very few Mobsters even knew what a computer was at the time.

The shooter would be identified in court years later as Skinny Joey Merlino, the son of imprisoned Underboss Salvatore "Chuckie" Merlino.  Skinny Joey and Nicodemo Jr had been close friends at one time, but when the elder Scarfo had a falling out with the Merlinos they stopped being friends.  Joey was tired of Nicodemo Jr acting like he was the new boss of Philly and he was trying to lead his young turks into a power position.  Nicodemo Jr was also collecting street tax and bringing messages from his father at the time, so this could have been a message to his father.

Nicodemo not only survived, but thanks to a close friendship that his father has with Lucchese Family boss Vic Amuso, he was Made into the Lucchese Family.  He quickly left Philly and started working with the Lucchese New Jersey crew.  The Lucchese Family has always had a strong presence in New Jersey so it was a good choice.  

The FBI would would also install a key logger system on Nicodemo Jrs computer so they could monitor his usage and passwords.  They had to use this "Bug" because he was using an encryption software called PGP and they could not get into his files.  Nicodemo would challenge this in pretrial motions, but like all things FBI they claimed that after the 9-11 attacks they had to use software like this and keep it secret.  They would use the information to indict him on racketeering charges.

Once he was out of prison, he was right back at things with Lucchese family in New Jersey.  He was promoted to Capo and he helped run the Lucchese's New Jersey factions Gambling business.  They went online and started taking action using the website BIGACTIONSPORTS.COM.  They also had a wireroom in San Jose, Costa Rica, with more than 20 people working the room and processing the bets.  In 2007 Nicodemo Jr was no longer in charge because he had moved on to bigger things. He would brag to people that he could steal more with a computer than 10 guys with guns.  They started calling him “Nick Promo”, “Mr. Apple” and “Mr. Macintosh” for his computer skills.

The state would launch an investigation aimed at taking down the Lucchese Family in New Jersey.  It would last a  year and was called Operation Heat.  This time they took down 34 people on gambling charges.  In the 15 months they were watching the crew they recorded 2.2 billion dollars in wagers!  Just so Operation Heat would get even more headlines, the State also indicted Edwin and Dwayne Spears , Edwin Spears is a high ranking member of the Nine Trey Gangster set Bloods.  They called it an alliance but it was just two Lucchese guys: Joseph Perna and Michael Cetta, financing an operation with a corrections officer to smuggle cellphones and drugs into prison. So much for the Mafia Bloods connection.

Nicodemo Scarfo Sr

Nicodemo was working on something much bigger at this time.  He and Sal Pellulo decided to target a company in Texas called First Plus Financial Group, a publicly traded company.  First Plus Finacial Group was a Texas Based Mortgage company.   In April of 2007 they replaced its management and board of directors with their own people.  They then had the board purchase two corporations owned by Nicodemo Jr and Sal Pellulo for millions of dollars and thousands of shares of stock..  The problem was the two companies had little or no value.  They then had the board pay out huge amounts of cash that went to them as consultants.  Nicodemo Jr bought a huge house using $250,000 he got from the scam.  He set up trusts for his kids that were used to launder the cash from the scam.  Sal Pellulo bought an $800,000 jet to travel to Texas and Florida. Then the best part of the scam is that they then helped the stock price rise and they sold their shares for a profit!  Nicodemo Scarfo Sr and Vic Amuso were on the indictment as indicted co conspirators in the whole scam.  They were called Uncle Nicky, Mr MacArthur and Uncle Vic or Papa.  They were helping him, calling shots, two bosses that were locked up for life!

We shall see soon what happens because they are set to begin trial and neither Nicodemo Jr nor Sal Pellulo ever had their names on any of the paperwork.