April 2017 Mafia Court Tales

In the real world, as opposed to the make believe world of Hollywood, most defendants facing charges never go to trial.  97% of federal defendants take plea deals. In state court, 94% take deals.

Considering these facts, it comes as no surprise that some of the Bonanno family defendants that have been held for four years with a deadlocked jury, facing retrial, chose to take a deal.

Anthony Santoro, Vito Badano and Ernest Aiello all plead guilty on April 7, 2017. They had been charged with enterprise corruption, loansharking, bookmaking and drug sales.  They sold Viagra and Cialis to customers.

They are all in a crew that is overseen by Bonanno capo Nicky Santora, who did not plead guilty.

The NYPD had their phones tapped and had placed a bug in Nicky Santora’s car.  Anthony Santoro was caught on tape threatening people and running the bookmaking operation.  He would freeze customers accounts, set credit limits and handle the day to day business.  

Anthony Santoro, also known as “Skinny,” took a gamble and went to trial.  He is a funny, personable guy, and there ended up being a mistrial.

This time he decided to take a plea deal.  He pleaded out to attempted enterprise corruption and will forfeit $45,900.00.  He is facing a sentence of 4 to 8 years, according to the deal.  He also still has an 8 month federal sentence to serve for another gambling case in Connecticut.

Vito Badano and Ernest Aiello also plead guilty to attempted enterprise corruption and face 3-7 and 2-4 years in prison.

In other mafia news, Gregorio Gigliotti, the owner of the Queens restaurant Cucino a Modo Mio, was sentenced to 18 years for his part in a smuggling group that brought 120 kilos of cocaine into the United States hidden in a food shipment.  Gregorio had ties to the Ndrangheta in Italy and his son Angelo had ties to the Genovese family in New York.  

Gregorio’s wife Eleonora has plead guilty to conspiracy for her role in the group, which included transporting cash to Central America for the cocaine.  She is still awaiting sentencing.  

Angelo will face a judge for his sentencing.

In yet more mafia news, Joey Merlino, also known as “Skinny Joey,” who was and may still be the boss of the Philadelphia crime family, has been offered a plea deal along with the other 45 men arrested in his case.

It has been said that they took the racketeering charges away from many of those charged and offered them a very good deal instead.

They had to do this because the FBI agents who handled informant John Rubio, a Genovese associate, did not debrief him correctly, or record him.  Two of the agents and a supervisor are also being probed for leaking confidential information to Gangland News.

Who knows if Joey Merlino or Genovese capo Pasquale “Patsy” Parrello will take the deal or push for trial.  Only time will tell.  

Merlino had just been released from supervision for 2001 conviction in Philadelphia.  He was released from prison in 2011 after which he moved to Florida, where he was going straight running a restaurant.  Most of these new charges take place while he was serving his 3 years of supervised release.

These guys never seem to learn that crime does not pay.

The New Pizza Connection

The quiet, hardworking Queen's pizza maker Gregorio Gigliotti who owned Cucino A Modo Mio (I Cook My Way) was really a member of the blood thirsty Ndrangheta.

The Ndrangheta hail from Calabria and control a huge amount of the drugs in Europe.  They only allow those with blood or marriage ties into their organization.  This cuts down on turncoats.  They have intermarried with many other Mafia families so they have a lot of power.

Gregorio ran the US part of a large Ndrangheta smuggling ring that imported cocaine from Costa Rica in shipments of cassava and yucca. They would pack the drugs in the roots in Costa Rica and they would be sent to Philadelphia or Delaware.

They would repackage them and hide them in the walls of cardboard boxes and they would be shipped to the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.  

Law Enforcement intercepted  shipments totaling 125 lbs of cocaine over the last year headed to both Philly and Delaware.  The FBI working with Italian authorities started watching the Queen's Pizzeria.  They soon had wires on all their phones and inside the restaurant.  They had them in their cars and homes and they started paying off.

The FBI soon came up with a name, Operation Columbus, and it went on for 10 months.  They picked up a lot of Gregorio and his violent temper. He wanted to dissolve  two Mafia debtors in acid or use baseball bats on them.  He was mad at Franco and Pino Fazio for them not paying on a consignment of drugs. They were two brothers who worked with as couriers between Costa Rica, United States and Italy.   The FBI watched as Franco, known as the Ambassador, dropped off 170k in payment to South American drug traffickers.

Even as the FBI was closing on them Gregorio sent his wife to Costa Rica with 400k to give to the suppliers. They intercepted some of the cocaine shipments to another New York business that Gregorio owned.  Fresh Farms Export Corp was started to handle the shipments from Costa Rica and to Europe.  

The FBI took down a shipment of 40 kilos of cocaine secreted inside boxes of cassava bound for Fresh Farms in October of 2014.

That didn't slow down Gregorio because the Ambassador, Franco Fazio, made two more money trips to Costa Rica before they seized another shipment of 15 kilos of cocaine.  It was again headed to Fresh Farms but this time it was hidden in produce.

This shows how these Mafia connected groups have sprung up again.  They are all similar to the Pizza Connection back in the 1980s.  Keep in mind that most of the guys from the Pizza Connection are now free men. The FBI is busy working terrorism now, so it gives them a lot of time to grow.  Since they do not take part in a lot of the family business in the US like bookmaking and shylocking, they do not get the same attention the Cosa Nostra gets.  

The central hub for this group was the Pizzeria in Queens.  The family worked there and the place served a great pie.  The FBI raided it last month and they got over 100k in cash, 7 guns and a pair of brass knuckles. They found more cash in their homes and they are now moving to seize up to 12 million in assets.

This is where the Cosa Nostra is headed.

War on Drugs: Failing

The war on drugs?  America has been engaged in this war for 42 years. The prohibition against drugs is a total failure and it fills our prison system with those that cannot afford to mount a defense. There are 196,574 incarcerated in the Federal system and of those 99,426 are drug offenses.  Compare this to 11,688 for violent offenses!  The State Prison systems around the US incarcerate 1,341,797 of these 222,738 are for drug offenses and 55,013 are for simple possession of drugs.   This prohibition is a huge business.  It starts with Law Enforcement, then prison systems, many prisons are nothing more than economic hubs for areas that certain politicians control.  Probation and parole double the numbers of those under the control of Law Enforcement.  

Last week I wrote about how a major player in the Pizza Connection Heroin smuggling ring was able to get his name on the list of those being considered for a Presidential Pardon. It was still on the list when President Clinton ended his last day in office and although no pardon was issued the fact that Sal Gambino was even considered for a pardon is a joke.

The FBI traced money that was paid to the president’s brother to a made member of the Gambino family.  That man helped bring others from his clan to the US in the late 1970's when they were losing a Mafia war in Italy.

I wrote about where the Gambino Family and others will go in the future.  The old social clubs are gone and the new leaders are not local Brooklyn/Queens Toughs who deal in street crime. The new leadership is hidden, deep underground and not as known. The Cosa Nostra is going back to what it was supposed to be... A SECRET ORGANIZATION.

The FBI Took down a small crew of Mafia Connected drug dealers and it made headlines but what is behind those headlines?

Franco Lupoi was one of those arrested by the FBI in Brooklyn.  Lupoi is very well connected with the 'Ndrangheta in Italy and Gambino Family in New York. The 'Ndrangheta is a Calabria based criminal organization that operates separately from the Sicilian Mafia and is considered to be the largest criminal organization in the world.  

Lupoi is no ordinary Gambino associate he is with Pietro "Tall Pete" Inzerillo, a made Gambino member and Frank Cali the underboss of the Gambino Family.  Inzerillo is also part of the Sicilians that escaped the Mafia wars in the late 1970's and he is related to the Cherry Hill Gambinos.  The Cherry Hill Gambinos are John and Rosario Gambino and they are the ones who gave Roger Clinton 50,000 dollars and a gold Rolex.  I was there and reported to the FBI Inzerillo's close ties with Colombo Family Members who went to meet him at a place at Henry and Union Street in Brooklyn.  A few doors down is a former wholesale coffee distribution business that has been tied to Sicilian drug traffickers.

Lupoi has traveled abroad with Frank Cali and his Father-in-law is a member of the 'Ndrngheta.  A cousin is street boss of the Ursino clan.  

The FBI got an undercover agent inside the operation and when Members traveled from Italy to discuss ships containing drugs and shipments he recorded it.

The FBI Agent did such a good job that he was able to buy 1.3 Kilograms of Heroin from Lupoi and Ursino in Europe and another Kilogram of Heroin in the US.

Rafealle Valente is a made member of 'Ndrangheta who was putting together an armed group of 'Ndrangheta Soldiers to protect the drugs in the US. Valente sold the FBI Agent a 9mm pistol with a silencer in New York.

Lupoi and Valente set up a shipment of 500 kilograms of cocaine to be hidden in blocks of frozen fish with each fish containing between 100 to 200 grams of cocaine. This shipment was going from Guyana to Gioia Tauro the largest port in Europe and where Lupoi's Father-in-law had connections to let 7 to 12 shipping containers get through Customs.

They also conspired with a Mexican National named Jose Alfredo Garcia who worked for a Cartel and Chinese man named Alexander Chan who had been busted in 1997 for Heroin sales to ship the cocaine to Europe.

The men were also able to import 300lbs of marijuana a month from other clan members in Canada. The FBI Agent was also able to launder 500,000 in the US thanks to these men.

This is the new "Mafia" and with the US fighting the war on drugs in US cities, picking up petty users, these new "Mob Guys" will slowly flood the country with their product.

The 'Ndrangheta is a 44 billion Euro a year organization and they can field an army so this is where the danger in the future will come from.