Colombo admits gambling, denies intimidation

Defense attorney Jeremy Schneider acknowledges that his client, Chris Colombo, is guilty of gambling, but the attorney insists Colombo did not run an underworld organization that extorted money from its victims, according to a story by Kati Cornell of the New York Post.

Brother Chris and Anthony Colombo, sons of slain crime boss Joseph Colombo, face racketeering charges in federal court in Manhattan. Prosecutors say they used their family name to terrorize victims and generate income through gambling, loan-sharking, extortion and fraud.

The brothers found themselves on the losing end of a civil war within the Colombo Crime Family, prosecutors say, and struck out on their own.

In pretrial hearings, defense attorneys asked that prosecutors be prevented from making reference to the Mafia organization once run by Joseph Colombo. Prosecutors responded by charging that the brothers used the family connection to their advantage in underworld business dealings.

Joseph Colombo was mortally wounded by an assassin in 1971. He died in 1978.

Chris Colombo was featured in a short-lived 2005 HBO reality show entitled "House Arrest."

Related MobNews posts:

• Colombo's sons head to trial this week 01-16-07
• Colombo son objects to use of crime family name 11-30-06

Netherlands to ban Hells Angels

A Netherlands court in Leeuwarden is considering a ban on the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, according to stories on DutchNews.nl and Playfuls.com.

Prosecutors have asked for the ban because of the organization's persistent involvement in crime. The club's Northeast Chapter, based in the town of Harlingen, is named as a defendant in the case.

Officials labeled the Hells Angels the second-largest crime organization in the world, behind only the Mafia. In October 2005, police reportedly found weapons, ammunition and cannabis-growing operations during raids of Hells Angels locations that resulted in 45 arrests.

A dozen members of the disbanded Nomads wing of the Hells Angels are currently facing murder charges. They are accused of killing and mutilating three members of their group. The victims bodies were discovered in 2004.

Kidnapping shows breakdown in Mafia authority

Italian officials believe the recent kidnapping of a rich Sicilian landowner is a signal that the prestige of old line Mafia bosses is in decline, according to a story by Malcolm Moore of the UK Telegraph.

Pietro Licari, 68, was abducted last weekend near his home outside Palermo, in a blatant violation of a Mafia ban on kidnappings that dates back to the 1960s. The relatively small amount of money demanded for Licari's release and other factors have caused investigators to blame the crime on a non-Mafia gang.

According to the story, Cinisi crime boss Gaetano Badalamenti outlawed kidnappings in the late 60s. Badalamenti was later jailed in the United States for heroin trafficking. The ban was violated just once, in 1976, when a youth gang outside of the Mafia abducted a woman. The Sicilian underworld was able to persuade the gang to release the woman.

UK 'Godmother' arrested

Ann Hathaway, 44, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of helping to run the Rinzivillo Mafia empire, according to a story by Pat Hurst of the UK Independent.

Police detained Hathaway at her home near Manchester, England, after the Italian government issued an extradition warrant. Italian officials charge that she has administered the underworld assets of her husband, Antonio Rinzivillo, since he has been in prison.

Rinzivillo is serving 30 years.

Related MobNews post:

• UK press tracks Mafia 'godmother' 01-08-07

Former NJ prosecutor charged

Paul Bergrin, a former New Jersey prosecutor, was one of three men charged last week in Manhattan with conspiracy, promoting prostitution and money laundering, according to a story in Newsday.

Bergrin, 51, and his co-defendants are accused of laundering more than $800,000 in credit card proceeds from an escort agency, NY Confidential, through a company called Gotham Steak. The attorney is in custody in New Jersey.

Bergrin has recently worked as a defense lawyer. In a recent high profile case, he defended an army reservist charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib.

Watch video: Former prosecutor charged in laundering scheme (WCBS-TV New York).

Colombo's sons head to trial this week

The racketeering conspiracy trial of Anthony (right) and Christopher Colombo, sons of slain crime boss Joseph Colombo, will begin this week, according to a story by Thomas Zambito of the New York Daily News. The brothers are charged with running an offshoot of the Colombo Crime Family that engaged in extortion and loansharking. Prosecutors say the Colombos were squeezed out of the Mafia clan that continues to bear their surname and started up an operation known as the Colombo Brothers Crew. In pretrial hearings, defense attorney Aaron Goldsmith asked that prosecutors be forbidden from mentioning the Mafia organization or Joseph Colombo's role in it. Goldsmith argued that such mentions would unfairly prejudice a jury. Prosecutors argued that the Colombo brothers themselves revealed their family connections in order to intimidate their victims. With the approval of boss of bosses Carlo Gambino, Joseph Colombo (left) took over the old Profaci family after the deaths of Joseph Profaci and successor Joseph Magliocco in the early 1960s. Colombo was a highly visible organizer of Italian unity causes and publicly insisted that he was being targeted by the FBI solely because of his ethnic background. It is believed that other crime bosses were alarmed at his courtship of the press and arranged for his assassination. Colombo was mortally wounded in a 1971 shooting. He remained in a coma until his death in 1978. Related MobNews post:

• Colombo son objects to use of crime family name 11-30-06

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Ailing Cuban mobster gets 20 years

Jose Miguel Battle Sr., once the boss of a Cuban-American criminal organization and a veteran of the Bay of Pigs invasion, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to a story by Jay Weaver of the Miami Herald.

Battle, 77, was leader of "The Corporation," a criminal group controlling rackets in Florida, New Jersey, New York and Latin America. He is widely known as the master of the "bolita" lottery-style racket. He has been in custody since 2004. Last May, he pleaded guilty to a racketeering career spanning four decades. (Click for Battle biography on Wikipedia.)

Prosecutors speculated at that time that the ailing crime boss might not live long enough to be sentenced. He reportedly suffers from renal (kidney) failure and problems with his heart, liver and lungs. A part of a plea deal, sentencing was to be indefinitely postponed and Battle released on bond, so he could die at his home rather than in prison.

His son, Jose Miguel Battle Jr., faces sentencing in March.

Other MobNews post:

• Ailing Cuban mobster agrees to plea deal 05-04-06

Deputy marshal charged with aiding mob

John Thomas Ambrose, 38, a federal deputy marshal, was charged Thursday with providing Chicago's organized crime family information on a government informant, according to an AP story published by MSNBC.

Prosecutors say Ambrose offered to swap information about informant Nicholas Calabrese's travel plans in exchange for the location of reputed Outfit bigshot Joseph Lombardo. The deputy marshal allegedly provided information to an associate of reputed mobster John DiFronzo. At the time Lombardo was a fugitive from justice.

Ambrose's defense attorney said his client is "not connected to the mob at all." He said the federal case is based on a Sept. 6 interview with Ambrose that was mischaracterized by an FBI agent.

Ambrose has been on leave from his duties since September. He faces a possible penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Calabrese and Lombardo are among 15 defendants charged in a sweeping racketeering indictment in Chicago known as "Operation Family Secrets." In 2005, Calabrese provided federal investigators with details relating to the killing of brothers Anthony and Michael Spilotro. Anthony Spilotro was the Outfit's agent in Las Vegas before making too many enemies back home. The Spilotro murders, the historical basis for the movie Casino, are part of the Family Secrets case.


Related MobNews post:

• Chicago commission papers subpoenaed 01-10-07

See also:

• Chicago's Man in Vegas: Anthony Spilotro


• Operation Family Secrets indictments

Feds: Sicilian mobster hid in Florida

Giuseppe Giambrone, 49, will be sent from Florida to New York to answer charges that he made a false statement on an immigration form. Federal officials and Italian authorities believe Gaimbrone is linked with the Vitale Mafia Family in Sicily, according to a report by Pat Gillespie of the Fort Myers News-Press.

Giambrone was captured in South Fort Myers, where authorities believe he has been laying low for the past two years.

As he entered the U.S. in 2002, He reportedly claimed that he had never been convicted of a crime. However, Italian records show he was sentenced to over a year in prison in 1981 for stealing and two years in 1982 for extortion. The Italian government has a warrant for Giambrone's arrest.

'Saint' gets 56 months

Anthony "the Saint" St. Laurent Sr. was sentenced by a Rhode Island federal judge today to 56 months in prison, according to a story by WLNE-TV (ABC-6) in Providence. The 65-year-old St. Laurent (photos date from 1987), reputedly a longtime member of the New England Crime Family, was convicted this past summer of conspiring to extort payments from two victims. He has been in custody since his arrest in April. He faced a possible maximum sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine, according to WPRI-TV (FOX-12) in Providence. However, a plea deal caused prosecutors to recommend the minimum possible term - between three and five years. At sentencing, U.S. District Judge William Smith said he doubted St. Laurent would ever reform. Judge Smith noted 17 convictions on a St. Laurent rap sheet that dated back to the 1960s. According to the Nevada Gaming Commission, St. Laurent's arrest record goes back to 1959. The commission notes that he was once charged with operating a gambling ring from within a prison cell. Saint Laurent was on supervised release from prison (due to a 1999 conviction for gambling, extortion and loansharking) at the time of his attempted shakedown of two Massachusetts men. Related MobNews posts:

• 'Saint' pleads guilty 07-12-2006
• R.I. mobster to plead guilty 07-08-2006

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Interested in Mob history? Visit The American Mafia website: https://mafiahistory.us/

Chicago commission papers subpoenaed

Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 77, reputed boss of the Chicago Outfit, is reportedly hoping that documents in the possession of the Chicago Crime Commission will help his defense in a racketeering trial, according to a story by Steve Warmbir of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Lombardo's attorney Rick Halprin had a subpoena served relating to records that caused the commission to place Lombardo atop an Outfit hierarchy chart created in the 1980s. Haprin noted that the late William Roemer served as both an FBI agent and as a consultant for the crime commission in the assembly of the hierarchy chart. Haprin said he is particularly interested in research that might have been done by the FBI into the September 1974 murder of Daniel Seifert. Lombardo and two others were charged with that killing in 2005.

Lombardo and 13 other reputed leaders of Chicago's crime family have been charged in a racketeering case known as "Operation Family Secrets" that includes 18 killings and spans four decades.

Charges against the group were revealed in April 2005. Lombardo remained at large for nine months, as police sought him. He was finally apprehended in suburban Elmwood Park, Illinois, in mid-January 2006. When he was captured, Lombardo had long hair and a full gray beard.

DeVecchio case stays with D.A.

U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block rejected another defense motion to transfer the murder case of ex-FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio to federal court, according to a story by John Marzulli of the New York Daily News.

Judge Block noted that DeVecchio is being charged with murders and "nothing to do with his federal duties." Murder is a state-level offense. The Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney's Office will prosecute the case. A similar defense motion was denied in August 2006.

DeVecchio has been charged with providing FBI data to mob informant Gregory Scarpa, reputedly a key man in the Colombo Crime Family. Scarpa used DeVecchio's assistance to kill four underworld rivals. DeVecchio has denied any wrongdoing. He has received vocal support from a large number of former and current FBI agents.

The case has increased friction between the D.A. and federal agencies in Brooklyn. In September, the D.A.'s office said the U.S. Attorney's Office was withholding documents relating to a 1996 investigation of DeVecchio.

Related MobNews posts:

• Kings DA: Feds stonewalling DeVecchio probe 09-25-06
• FBI's DeVecchio denies complicity with mob 09-02-06
• DeVecchio case stays in NY state hands 08-10-06
• Scarpa mistress to testify against DeVecchio 07-05-06
• DeVecchio can watch July 4th fireworks 06-27-06
• DeVecchio defense wanted mobster witnesses at grand jury 06-24-06
• FBI support of DeVecchio concerns senator 06-19-06
• Sleuth ready to quit DeVecchio probe 06-19-06

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Interested in Mob history?
Visit The American Mafia website:
mafiahistory.us

Bus union employee to prison for 5 months

Ann Chiarovano was sentenced Monday to five months in prison for lying to federal agents about mob influence in a New York school bus drivers union, according to a story by Thomas Zambito of the New York Daily News.

Chiarovano, said to be the girlfriend of a Genovese Crime Family associate, pleaded guilty in August. When questioned by agents, she denied informing reputed Genovese capo Ciro Perrone about subpoenas received by Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union. Chiarovano worked as the local's pension fund director and continued at her post after the guilty plea. She faced the possibility of a 20-year sentence when initially charged in the case.

The bus driver's local was taken over by the international in November after federal indictments forced two top officers to step down. Local President Salvatore "Hotdogs" Battaglia, 60, was charged with obstruction of justice and racketeering. Prosecutors say he is an associate of the Genovese family. Local Secretary-Treasurer Julius "Spike" Bernstein pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and has been cooperating in the investigation.

The original indictment in the case also charged Genovese bigshot Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello (left), Perrone, reputed Genovese soldiers Salvatore "Zookie" Esposito and Daniel Cilenti, and reputed Gambino Crime Family asscciate Maurice Napoli. Ianniello reached a plea deal, admitting he concealed payments he arranged between bus companies and union officials. Esposito, Cilenti and Napoli also pleaded guilty. Perrone was acquitted on an obstruction of justice charge but still faces trial for racketeering.

Related MobNews posts:

• School bus union boss charged with racketeering 11-21-06
• NYC schoolbus drivers want mob out of union 11-09-06
• 'Matty the Horse' pleads guilty to racketeering 09-15-06

Gang violence in NY

Video reports from CBS-TV in New York look at three regional incidents of gang-related violence over the past few days:

• One teen was fatally shot and another stabbed during a fight outside the Yonkers NY Portuguese-American Club. Police have made one arrest. They still seek the shooter.
• Two 18-year-old men were shot to death in Newark NJ in daylight hours. One of the men (right) was said to be looking to end his affiliation with a local gang.
• A 17-year-old high school student was stabbed by a butcher's knife during a gang brawl on a subway car. He is expected to survive the injury. Though two police officers were nearby at the time of the fight, the suspects managed to get away on foot.

Mexican president targets organized crime

In his first weeks on the job, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has tackled the issue of organized crime by sending thousands of federal police and military troops into the country's drug-dominated states of Michoacan and Baja California, according to a report by James C. McKinley Jr. of the New York Times.

The forces are attempting to combat rampant corruption in local police forces. They have disarmed police suspected of underworld involvement, burned marijuana crops and arrested those believed part of drug gangs. Four alleged top members of the Valencia drug gang have been taken into custody.

Critics point out that the move of federal forces into the region has done little to slow the gang-related violence there. An estimated 21 people were killed during the last three weeks of December, and a mass grave was found containing what appeared to be seven victims of gang hits.

A special target of Calderon's efforts is Tijuana. In that city, the entire police force was ordered to turn over its weapons, and more than 2,700 soldiers and federal police were called in. Three hundred people, including 25 police officers, were killed in Tijuana last year. Most of those deaths have been linked to drug gangs.

The family of Arellano Felix is still believed to control much of the drug traffic through Tijuana.