South Florida racketeers get jail time

Three South Florida men accused of working in league with the New York-based Genovese Crime Family were sentenced March 30 to prison terms and supervised release, according to an AP account published in the Gainesville FL Sun.

Mitchell Wiessman, 54, was sentenced to 97 months (about eight years) in prison and a subsequent two-year substance abuse program. Joseph Dennis Colasacco, 55, will serve 73 months (about six years) before heading into two years of anger management courses. Charles Steinberg, 31, has two years of gambling counseling to look forward to as he serves his 41 months (nearly three and a half years) in prison.

The three men pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy. Wiessman and Colasacco were facing possible 100-year terms if convicted after trial on the charges against them.

Wiessman, Colasacco and Steinberg were arrested in June 2006 along with four other men, including a reputed Genovese soldier, 96-year-old Albert "Chinky" Facchiano, and a reputed local capo, Renaldi Ruggiero, 73. The other men charged in the case were Clement Santoro of New York and Francis J. O'Donnell of Cooper City, FL. All the defendants reached plea arrangements. Ruggiero's plea deal included his acknowledgement that he served as a capo in the Genovese organization.

Related MobNews posts:

• 'Chinky' Facchiano, 96, pleads guilty 02-28-07
• Ruggiero admits to being Genovese capo 02-02-07
• Facchiano indicted in two states 01-04-07
• Guilty plea from Fla. Genovese associate 12-30-06
• Florida Mafia case based on wiretaps 08-16-06
• Four Floridians held without bail 07-08-06
• Feds break up Florida arm of Genovese family 07-01-06

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