The Gotti Follies

The name Gotti brings to mind the image of John Gotti as boss of the Gambino crime family, dressed in a two thousand dollar suit.  The public doesn’t understand the lasting negative effect John Gotti Sr. had on the Gambinos.  The truth is, John Gotti Sr. helped the feds weaken the crime family through his actions.

The Gambino family had a lot of crews in multiple states.  John Sr. started making all his capos check in every week at the Ravenite club in Little Italy. This made it easy for the law to keep tabs on who was doing what.  He held meetings inside an apartment above the club that the Feds had wired up.  He bragged, and they caught him on tape.  Sammy Gravano, the family underboss, flipped to team USA.

John Sr. went away for life and he left his son John Jr. as the acting boss.  Junior would later talk to the Feds when he had a proffer session.   He gave up guys for crimes.

Then his daughter Victoria had a reality show, “Growing up Gotti.” Today, they are shooting a movie about John Gotti.  I wonder if they will include anything about Gotti’s neighbor, John Favara, a hard-working man who “disappeared” after accidentally hitting and killing Gotti’s son Frank, who at the time he was hit was driving an illegal mini bike and not obeying basic traffic rules.

There is Gotti news in 2016.  John’s brother Gene, who did many years for dealing heroin, will be up for release soon.  

John Gotti Sr.’s grandson, John Gotti, the son of Peter Gotti, was arrested on June 30th for possessing 205 Oxycodone pills, Testosterone, Xanax, Marijuana and 18 methadone pills. He also had over $7k in cash on him along with the drugs, and was arrested while driving with a suspended license.  

On August 4th the NYPD concluded Operation Beach Party with the raiding of the former Queens home of John Gotti Sr., where his grandson John Gotti lived with his father Peter. The NYPD found a safe with $40k and over 500 Oxycodone pills inside.  They also raided the Rebel Ink Tattoo parlor and arrested seven other people involved in the drug crew.  The NYPD seized $200k from one of the players, who was said to be holding it for John Gotti.

Grandson John Gotti is now in a Rikers Island drug rehab where he awaits trial. A judge denied his bid to be freed on a $2 million bond because he is facing 25 years if convicted.

That is not all of the recent news in the Gotti saga. Victoria Gotti had her Long Island mansion raided by the IRS on September 14th. They also raided an Auto Parts store in Queens owned by her ex-husband Carmine Agnello, a made member of the Gambino family who is awaiting trial in Cleveland, Ohio where he ran some scrap yards.  The store is currently being run by Victoria and her three sons, who were all reality stars in her show.

Agnello, now divorced from Victoria, is facing charges for his part in a stolen car ring.

The Gottis are not keeping a low profile, although that seems like the best thing to be doing in their situation. Last year a tape was played in the trial of Vincent Asaro, a Bonanno family capo.  Asaro was inside the auto parts store when one of the Gottis said hello to him.

To continue the life of crime with the Gotti name seems crazy.

The Junk Mine - Carmine Agnello

Carmine Agnello is the former husband of Victoria Gotti and the father of 3 boys who starred in the reality show, “Growing up Gotti.”  A more appropriate title would have been, “Growing up Agnello,” but the public doesn’t have a fascination with Agnellos.

Carmine had to really love Victoria and/or fear her father, John Gotti.  Legend has it he was beaten and shot in the ass by some guys John Gotti Sr sent after him because of something he did to Victoria.  He ended up marrying her in a wedding that was attended by 1500 of their closest friends like something out of a B movie.

Carmine ran a junk yard in Willets Point, Queens and he virtually dominated the scrap metal business in the area. That was because Carmine's father-in-law, John Gotti Sr, became the boss of the Gambino Family and Carmine was inducted into the family.  

Carmine brought in huge amounts of money for Organized Crime.  In the 1990’s there were over 50,000 cars stolen in and around New York City.  It became such a problem that local law enforcement set up special squads to combat this problem.  They succeeded, but the business itself changed.

Carmine started with Jamaica Auto Salvage at 20 years old where he learned to strip cars of their parts and send the rest to metal dealers who bought the metal from him.

This brought him to where he was.  By the 2000’s New York Shredding was the biggest scrap metal wholesaler in the state.  It brought in over 250k a week.  Carmine was helped along by a deal he had with Caterpillar.  They provided the equipment and purchased his scrap.  

The hitch is Carmine needed a steady supply of scrap metal.  The NYPD set up a fake auto salvage where they paid more than he did per car and it put a dent in his operation.  He threatened them and had their place firebombed. A lot of this was caught on tape.

He would end up taking a 9 year sentence and making a 10 million dollar payment to the Government for his crimes.  During that time he got divorced from Victoria Gotti and his father-in-law John Gotti Sr passed away while incarcerated.

Carmine had a fresh start and while he was in prison he met a new woman named Danielle who he later moved to Cleveland to start a new life with away from Queens and the Gambino Family.

He started a towing company called Charity that hauled autos that were donated to charity.

He started a new scrap business and an auto parts place.  Life seemed to be on the right track for Carmine.

That was until July of this year when Cleveland Ohio District Attorney announced that Carmine was arrested in an operation they called Operation Goodfella where he was the target.  

They claimed that he was injecting racehorses he owned with performance enhancing drugs.  They also claimed that he was up to his old tricks in the salvage business.  

They claim he made upwards of 3 million dollars in a scam where he sold crushed cars full of sand to wholesalers.  They claim he was also buying stolen cars from thieves around town.

Carmine, not one to sit on the sidelines. has already struck back at the locals by filing a lawsuit against the locals that says they seized his property just to put his company's Eagle 1 and Eagle 2 out of business.  He claims in the suit that they raided his businesses for evidence of his doping racehorses and money laundering yet they took car crushers. heavy equipment, forklifts and many other pieces of equipment that he needs to do business.

It is always amazing to me when a guy like Carmine gets a second chance at life outside of the mafia.  A guy who left New York with money and a new wife and a fresh start.  

Well, it appears he fell into his old ways.  Time will tell.   Where there's smoke, there's fire.  

We will see where this will go.