Jerry Bruno & the Young Guns

The Young Guns were a sort of farm team for the Gambino Family in the 1990’s and they were with Gambino Capo Ronald Trucchio who ran Ozone Park Queens.  It was during this time that Genaro “Jerry” Bruno was part of the Young Guns crew.  They were dedicated to making money any way they could, and that meant extortion, bank robbery, narcotics and murder. They moved thousands of Valiums in Queens for many years, bringing in millions of dollars to themselves and the Gambino Family.

Martin Bosshard was another member of the Young Guns crew.  The crew was importing thousands of pounds of marijuana from Canada.  Martin decided that he wanted to cut out from the marijuana business Gambino soldier Michael Rocca Forte.  The higher ups in the Gambino Family were not about to let this happen.  The order was given and passed down to the Young Guns Crew.  Just a few weeks after Martin Bosshart was released from prison, Todd LaBarca and Jerry Bruno lured him to 155th Street and Lahan in Queens.  He was taking a piss against a fence on the North side of the street around 9:30 pm, when Jerry allegedly fired one shot into the back of his head.  Martin would be found face up dead a short time later.

This did not slow down Jerry and Todd because they were soon hooked up with the Tony Piccolo Carting Company based in Rockaway, Queens and Deer Park.  They were working as enforcers for the company, scaring away competitors.  Tony Piccolo then bought  J.B. & Sons Carting Corporation and the Rags Contracting Corp and Jerry and Todd were soon shaking down other carting companies for the right to pick up from their customers.

The Tony Piccolo company and the two new companies would bring in 2.3 million in a year.  Their biggest customers were Brooklyn, Brookdale and Kings County Hospitals and they would bribe employees up to 1,000 a month to sign off on phony invoices.  

Everyone involved in the shakedown was arrested.  Both Jerry and Todd plead guilty in October of 2002 and they would serve their time.  Jerry Bruno would be in a new crew under JoJo Corozzo which the FBI calls the Corozzo Faction and Todd Labarca would be in a crew under Louis Mastrangelo. In 2011 Todd LaBarca was purposed for membership in the Gambino Family, his name was passed around to the other families and his induction was set. The FBI threw a wrench into his plans when they swooped in and arrested everyone.  Todd would end up pleading guilty to racketeering and murder including Martin Bosshart and be sentenced to 23 years.  

Jerry Bruno fared a little better until just a few days ago. Jerry had gotten married and moved out to Las Vegas to get some things started out there when the FBI came and picked him up for Racketeering including moving more than a 1000 kilos of Marijuana, Thousands of Valiums, Carting Extortion and the murder of Martin Bosshart.

The Mafia is alive and well.

Alessandro Taloni & Vito Rizzuto

Charged with importing over 100,000 Kilograms of marijuana from Canada to New York and Philadelphia between 1998 and 2012, this drug trafficking organization reached from California to Montreal and took in over a Billion dollars.  They worked with the Hells Angeles, Mexican Cartels, Bonanno Family and the Rizzuto Family.

A large amount of the Marijuana was grown hydroponically in Canada and then smuggled across the border in the US via the Indian Reservations that straddle the US-Canadian border.  This was an easy way for them to bypass US Customs at other entry points on the border.

They would use profits from marijuana to purchase cocaine from the Sinaloa Cartel and distribute it across the East Coast and Canada. They would obtain sizable loads of cocaine from the Cartel. They would break them down to between five and ten kilo's to smuggle into Canada.

The indictment has so many counts of exporting in excess of 1,000 kilograms of marijuana that it is hard to follow.  Then they had the problem that was recently so well portrayed by Walter White on Breaking Bad. They had to do something with all the cash. The Feds posed as money launderers that could help move money and make it clean.

Alessandro Taloni is a name most people have never heard.  He was an important part of the Bonanno Family's drug connection.  Taloni was born in Italy but has lived in Montreal for many years.  It was here that he became friendly with Vito Rizzuto and his crime family.  Taloni was an unknown until the head of the Drug Trafficking asked a DEA informant to move 1 million dollars in cash for him.  The Informant and the DEA told them they would move 200,000 at a time for a 6% charge which means they would launder 188,000 for the organization. A man in Los Angeles met with the Informant and after that meeting he was followed back to the Beverly Hills Hotel where he met Taloni and gave him a large suitcase which he placed in his trunk.  Taloni then left and drove to a home in Woodland Hills where he took the suitcase from the trunk and brought it inside.  The DEA sat on them in the house until Taloni left.   The DEA later pulled him over and found $80,000 in cash, a couple prepaid cell phones and an encrypted Blackberry.  The big surprise came when they searched his person and found Taloni was carrying a business card for a man named “Vito Rizz” and another for his Café Consenza in Montreal that served as his branch of the Bonanno family’s headquarters.

Vito Rizzuto

This was an eye opener for the DEA because Vito was as big as you get in International Organized Crime.  The DEA then went to the house in Woodland Hills and searched it where they found 49 kilo's of cocaine and 1.7 million in cash, numerous prepaid cellphones and a encrypted Blackberry.  Taloni had dropped off the cash but this was not the first time he had been observed in the company of the drug dealers. A few months before the Anaheim Police were watching a local cocaine dealer who met a man named Marc Canel-Pierre.  They followed Marc to Beverly Hills where he met Taloni in a parking lot.  They spoke for a few minutes and then Taloni removed a large bag from his trunk and gave it to Marc.  They then followed Marc to his home where they got a search warrant and found 34 kilo's of Cocaine and 1.6 million in cash.

Taloni loved Ferrari cars and the Ferrari racing team.  Many of his support letters from friends and family speak about his love of the cars.  All the cocaine was stamped Ferrari so I wonder how much pull he had in the organization.  I’ve read all his letters of support and one of them is a blessing from the Pope! I guess it didn't help much because he was given 10 years just the other day.  The one thing I find interesting is the fact that Taloni, who had a hair product business that sold to hair salons kept doing business in Beverly Hills.  That city seems to be very popular with the Zips.