'No-show' trash company workers sentenced

Carmine Dominicus, 43, of 7 Bragdon Ave., Danbury, CT, was sentenced March 14 to six months of home confinement and two years of probation for conspiring to defraud the IRS through a no-show job with Automated Waste Disposal (AWD) of Danbury, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney of the District of Connecticut. He was also fined $40,000.

In June 2006, Dominicus was named along with 28 other people and 10 businesses, including AWD, in a racketeeering indictment. He pleaded guilty to a single count in the indictment, acknowledging that he received employee compensation, health insurance benefits and the use of a company vehicle from January 2000 to July 2005 though he provided no employee services to AWD.

Last month, Anna Priskie, 45, of Deerfield Lane, Cortland Manor, NY, received an identical sentence. She also pleaded guilty to holding a no-show job with AWD.

Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, bigshot in the Genovese Crime Family, was named in the original indictment, as was western Connecticut trash hauling czar James Galante of New Fairfield, CT. They were charged with leading a "property rights" racket in the waste hauling industry. Through that racket, company territories would be secured, eliminating competition and allowing higher prices to be charged to customers.

Ianniello pleaded guilty to racketeering in December. Galante maintains his innocence.

Related MobNews posts:

• Text of Ianniello plea agreement 12-21-06
• Ianiello pleads guilty to trash racketeering 12-20-06
• School bus union boss charged with racketeering 11-21-2006
• NYC schoolbus drivers want mob out of union 11-09-2006
• Galante employee admits hockey-trash link 11-02-2006
• CT mulls waste hauling regulation 09-24-06
• 'Matty the Horse' pleads guilty to racketeering 09-15-06
• Feds: Galante diverted millions 08-10-06
• Galante waste companies could be sold 07-17-06
• Trash racket defendants want court delay 07-12-06
• Indicted garbage co. tries to hold onto contracts 07-10-06
• Strict conditions set for Galante release 07-01-06
• Trash king Galante to stay in jail for now 06-28-06
• Feds run CT waste biz 06-13-06
• Indicted hauler's hockey team suspends operations 06-13-06
• 29 charged in CT-NY trash hauling rackets 06-10-06
• Garbage 'property rights' 04-28-06
• Guilty hauler 04-28-06

Battle Jr. sentenced to 15+ years, $642M forfeit

A federal court in Miami has sentenced Jose Miguel Battle Jr. to serve 15 years and eight months in prison and to forfeit $642 million in assets, according to a story in today's Miami Herald.


He was convicted of conspiring with his father and two other men in a racketeering venture known as "The Corporation" or "The Cuba Mafia." Authorities say the group was responsible for illegal gambling, drug trafficking, money laundering and murder in a territory that included New York City, New Jersey and south Florida, according to a Reuters story on Carribean Net News.

Prosecutors say Battle oversaw money-laundering operations in Peru, Spain, Panama, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Curacao, the Dominican Republica and the British Virgin Islands, as a participant in an underworld organization that engaged in "violence and intimidation, including the commission of multiple murders," according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Jose Miguel Battle Sr. (left), an exile from Cuba and a veteran of the Bay of Pigs invasion, was sentenced in January to 20 years in prison.


Related MobNews posts:

• Ailing Cuban mobster gets 20 years 01-15-07
• Ailing Cuban mobster agrees to plea deal 05-04-06

Familiar-sounding names in Detroit gambling case

A federal racketeering case in Detroit features two surnames long connected with Michigan organized crime: Giacalone and Tocco. But the individuals involved are not the infamous mobsters.

Jack V. Giacalone, 56, of West Bloomfield, MI, is a nephew of Anthony "Tony Jacks" Giacalone, believed to be one of the men responsible for the disappearance of union bigshot Jimmy Hoffa, and the son of convicted Mafioso Vito Giacalone, according to an Associated Press story published in today's Michigan Business Review. Jack V. Giacalone has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering and extortion. Officials say he plans to fight the charges in court.

Peter Dominic Tocco, 59, of Troy, MI, is the nephew of former Detroit mob boss Jack Tocco (his relatives include crime boss William "Black Bill" Tocco and the Zerilli family of Detroit, and there are family ties to the Profaci and Bonanno clans of Brooklyn). He has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy.

In addition to Giacalone and Tocco, there are 13 other defendants in a case that resulted from a probe into illegal sports gambling. Charges included the laundering of gambling proceeds through legitimate businesses operated by the defendants. Tocco and two associates were accused of using gambling profits to buy cars at auto auctions, which were then sold to earn laundered income, according to a story by Amanda Lee of the Macomb Daily. According to prosecutors, the Detroit-area gambling ring accumulated $5.9 million between 1998 and 2006.

Defendants Peter Joseph Messina, 51, of Roseville, MI; Thomas James Mackey, 50, of Clinton Township, MI; John William Manettas, 52, of Harrison Township, MI; and Wayne Joseph Kassab, 50, of Sterling Heights, MI; have also pleaded guilty. Under plea agreements, they face sentences of up to 46 months in prison. They collectively agree to forfeit up to $3 million in gambling income. No sentencing date had been announced.


Tocco, Messina and Mackey pleaded guilty on Wednesday. The guilty pleas of Manettas and Kassab were entered yesterday, according to a story by Paul Egan of the Detroit News.

Prosecutors say they are arranging plea deals with many of the remaining defendants.

The original federal indictment dated March 3, 2006, named 15 defendants. Joining Giacalone, Tocco, Messina, Mackey, Manettas and Kassab were:

• David John Aceto, 48, of Roseville, MI;
• Dominic Corrado, 35, of Glen Ellyn, IL;
• Ronald S. Yourofsky, 64, of Warren, MI;
• Alan H. Russell, 54, of Sterling Heights, MI;
• Vincenzo Bronzino, 40, of Macomb, MI;
• Joseph Messina, 48, of Macomb, MI;
• Virginia Nava, 36, of Roseville, MI (Joseph Messina's sister);
• William John Manettas, 27, of St. Clair Shores, MI;
• Peter Tocco, 27, of Macomb, MI (son of Peter Dominic Tocco).

Corrado (whose relatives are shown in a WLS-TV graphic at right), a resident of Illinois, was processed in federal district court in that state. According to investigators, while Corrado resides within the territory of the Chicago Outfit, his bloodline includes a number of Detroit "Combination" bigshots.