Two tried for shaking down NY strip club

Reputed Gambino Crime Family capo Salvatore "Fat Sal" Scala and his aide Thomas "Monk" Sassano sucked hundreds of thousands of dollars out of a Manhattan strip club from the mid-1990s to 2002, according to the prosecution's opening statement in Manhattan federal court yesterday. The opening of the trial was reported by Kati Cornell of the New York Post.

Scala (left), 64, reportedly drew so much cash from the VIP Club that it was unable to pay its taxes. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Snyder said he "bled it dry."

The prosecution charges that Sassano, 61, was placed in charged of the extortion operation when Scala was jailed in an unrelated case.

Judge holds Coppola on $1M bond, orders DNA test

Judge Paul W. Armstrong of the Superior Court in Somerville NJ yesterday set bail for alleged mob assassin Michael Coppola (right) at $1 million and ordered DNA tests that could link Coppola to the 1977 murder of John "Johnny Cokes" Lardiere, according to a story by Chad Hemenway of the Asbury Park Press.

Coppola was apprehended last week after more than a decade on the run. He disappeared after hearing he was ordered to provide DNA samples in the Lardiere murder investigation back in 1996.

Coppola's attorney Thomas Cammarata entered a not guilty plea on behalf of his client. Cammarata took issue with prosecutors' description of Coppola as a fugitive from justice. The attorney noted that Coppola was never actually served with the order to provide the DNA samples.

New Jersey Assistant Attorney General Robert B. Leaman argued for $20 million bail. Leaman charged that Coppola had "unlimited access to funds" during the past 11 years while he was apparently not employed. Leaman charged that Coppola was part of the Genovese Crime Family.

Lardiere was shot to death on April 10, 1977, as he began a 26-hour furlough from a Clinton lockup. He was held in Clinton for five years following a refusal to testify before a government agency probing underworld influence in the garbage hauling industry.

Related MobNews post:

• NJ man arrested for 1977 mob hit 03-13-07

NJ man arrested for 1977 mob hit

Michael Coppola (left), reputed member of the Genovese Crime Family, was arrested March 9 in New York City and charged with a 30-year-old murder, according to stories by Celanie Polanick of the Home News Tribune and Michelle Sahn of the Asbury Park Press.

Known as "Little Mike," Coppola is to be arraigned in Somerset County NJ Superior Court this afternoon for the April 10, 1977, murder of John "Johnny Cokes" Lardiere (right). Authorities hunted for Coppola for more than a decade. He disappeared after investigators called him Aug. 13, 1996, to submit to DNA testing in connection with the case. His last known address was Morris Avenue in Spring Lake NJ.

Lardiere is believed to have been a Mafia lieutenant serving boss Gerardo Catena in New Jersey's arm of the Genovese Family. After refusing to testify before a state investigations panel looking into racketeer influence in the garbage hauling industry, Lardiere was held at a prison in Clinton NJ. During an Easter holiday furlough on April 10, 1977, he was met by a gunman outside the Red Bull Inn on Route 22. Lardiere was found dead with five bullet wounds, two in his head.

Authorities pieced together the events of that day through interviews with mob informants. Coppola, allegedly carrying a .22-caliber pistol called Lardiere's name. When the victim turned, the weapon jammed. Lardiere reportedly laughed and said, "What're you gonna do now, tough guy?" Authorities say Coppola pulled a .38-caliber handgun from an ankle holster and put the five holes in Lardiere.

Tommy Ricciardi, a former Lucchese Crime Family member who turned government informant, reportedly witnessed the crime.

Lardiere is believed to have offended Ralph "Blackie" Napoli, a bigshot in the Philadelphia Mob, during his stay in Clinton.

While Lardiere was in custody, his wife Carolyn died of arsenic poisoning. She reportedly consumed enough arsenic (dissolved in a bottle of soda) to kill 700 people. Her death was ruled a homicide. It remains unsolved.

Judge rules D'Elia must remain in custody

Reputed Scranton PA crime boss William D'Elia (right) will remain in federal custody for at least a while longer, according to a story in the March 8 issue of the Times Leader.

D'Elia, 60, of Hughestown PA, requested release. He has been held since his arrest in October 2006. He was initially arrested for a violation of bail terms (after a release following a May 2006 indictment on money laundering charges), but a federal grand jury returned a second indictment for money laundering and witness intimidation.

Prosecutors say that, while D'Elia was on bail awaiting trial for money laundering, he plotted to have two witnesses against him killed. D'Elia reportedly communicated the plot to a secret government informant.

Authorities believe that D'Elia succeeded Russell Bufalino as boss of a crime family in Northeastern Pennsylvania. D'Elia reportedly has served as a mediator for Mafia disputes within the nearby Philadelphia Mob.

Related MobNews posts:

• Prosecutors: D'Elia tried to have witness killed 10-18-06
• Investigators followed money to Scranton's D'Elia 09-22-06
• PA bigshot indicted for money-laundering 06-02-06

UK's Adams gets seven years

Reputed London crime boss Terry Adams (left) was sentenced March 9 to seven years in prison, according to a story by Robert Stansfield of the UK Daily Record.

Adams, 52, believed by authorities to be responsible for as many as 25 killings, was instead convicted of money laundering. He pleaded guilty to a single count last month. He will be eligible for parole after serving half of his sentence.

Adams and his brothers Tommy and Patsy reputedly ran a criminal empire that had links to Colombian cocaine distributors and the Russian Mafiya and engaged itself in loansharking, protection rackets and money laundering.

As part of a plea deal, authorities dropped charges against Adams' wife Ruth.

The costs involved in the Adams case are staggering. An estimated 10 million British pounds ($19 million US) was reportedly spent on an investigation that lasted for years. That investigation was triggered when Adams was found to be inaccurately reporting income to Inland Revenue. Prosecution of the charges against Adams is believed to have cost 4 million pounds. Authorities believe Adams' empire is worth about $380 million (US).

Related MobNews posts:

• Former Adams henchman tells of UK crime family 02-13-07
• North London gang boss jailed 02-08-07

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Canada's Musitano rearrested

Angelo Musitano, 29, was arrested in Ontario, Canada, March 7 for alleged parole violations, according to a story by Adrian Humphreys of Canada's National Post.

Musitano was released from prison Oct. 5 after serving six years for ordering a mob hit against a rival Mafioso. His parole included strict conditions. He was not to associate with anyone involved in criminal activity or even to contact his brother Pasquale "Pat" Musitano without prior approval. Pasquale reputedly took control of the Musitano Crime Family after the 1995 death of their father, Dominic.

Angelo and Pasquale both pleaded guilty in 2000 to ordering the killing of Carmen Barillaro of Niagara Falls. The hit is believed to have been part of an underworld reorganization after the 1997 murder of Ontario boss "Johnny Pops" Papalia. The brothers were sentenced to 10 years and then released on parole last year.

Barillaro reportedly believed the Musitanos were responsible for Papalia's death, according to a 2006 report by Barbara Brown of the Hamilton Ontario Spectator. Police surveillance on June 2, 1997, picked up a conversation between Barillaro and Pasquale Musitano, in which Musitano denied any involvement in the killing. Barillaro connected the brothers to Ken Murdock, triggerman in the Papalia attack. Fearing Barillaro's wrath, the brothers decided to strike first and sent Murdock after Barillaro. Murdock pleaded guilty Nov. 24, 1998, to killing both Papalia and Barillaro. He was given a life prison sentence.

Authorities did not say what Angelo specifically did to violate his parole conditions, but they ruled out unauthorized contact with his brother as a cause for his arrest. The Canadian corrections service has 30 days to investigate the case and either release Musitano or turn him over to the parole board.

According to a story by Paul Morse of the Hamilton Ontario Spectator, the national parole board upheld the restriction against Angelo's association with his brother on appeal. The board found that, even while in Collins Bay Institution, the brothers combined to perform illegal activities: "...you and your brother actively recruited other inmates to participate, on your behalf, in... illegal gambling, bookmaking, intimidation and illegal drugs."

Related MobNews post:

• Canada's Musitanos up for parole today 10-04-07

UN official guilty of money laundering conspiracy

A jury in New York has found a Russian diplomat guilty of conspiring to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribe money, according to a press release from the United States Attorney of the Southern District of New York.

Vladimir Kuznetsov, 49, (shown above at the time of his arrest) faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 25. He has been held under house arrest, his movements checked by a bracelet monitor, since the Russian government secured his release from a detention cell.

Kuznetsov served as chairman of the United Nations' Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions until his arrest in September 2005. He was the highest ranking Russian diplomat at the UN. At the time of his arrest, Russian news agency Pravda insisted that American authorities were using a corruption probe as a means of slandering the UN after its opposition to the invasion of Iraq and of extracting the United States from the international body.

He was conviced of conspiring with Russian UN procurement officer Alexader Yakovlev from 2000 through mid-2005 to hide payments provided by foreign companies seeking to do business with the UN. Yakovlev is believed to have taken over $1 million in bribes during that period. Kuznetsov learned of the scheme and accepted a share of the proceeds rather than report Yakovlev to authorities. Kuznetsov established an off-shore company called Nikal Ltd. in order to hide the money at the Antigua Overseas Bank Limited.

According to the Washington Post, Kuznetsov is the fourth UN-based official implicated in an ongoing investigation into corruption.

Yakovlev pleaded guilty in 2005.

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Charged with banker's murder, four face life in prison

An Italian prosecutor is asking for life prison terms for the four men charged with the June 17, 1982, London murder of a prominent banker, according to a story by Stephen Brown of Reuters UK.

Roberto Calvi (left), once head of the now defunct Banco Ambrosiano, was found dead, hanging from a rope under the Blackfriars Bridge. While his death was initially ruled a suicide, additional forensic evidence surfaced indicating that the suicide was staged and Calvi had been murdered by strangulation.

Accused of the crime are Pippo Calo, an alleged Sicilian Mafioso once known as the Mafia's treasurer; alleged Rome crime boss Ernesto Diotallevi; Sardinian financier Flavio Carboni; and Calvi's bodyguard Silvano Vittor. All the defendants have denied involvement.

Calvi had connections to the Vatican administration and was sometimes called "God's banker." The Vatican Bank was found to own a piece of Banco Ambrosiano when that institution failed just before Calvi's death. At the time, it was Italy's largest bank failure. Banco Ambrosiano is believed to have helped launder money for the Mafia. Calvi is theorized to have skimmed some of the money for himself.

Facing a four-year sentence in connection with the bank collapse, Calvi traveled to London in 1982.

Calvi was also linked with the secret Masonic lodge known as P2, which might in turn have had links to a right-wing terrorist organization. Among other activities, P2 is believed to have been involved in the bombing of a Bologna railway station in 1980. The P2 organization's leader, Licio Gelli, reportedly worked with Mafia leaders on a plan for Sicilian secession from Italy in the 1990s. That movement is blamed for the killings of anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

Decision on Limone suit expected by late March

U.S District Judge Nancy Gertner told Boston-area media that she expects to have a decision by late March or early April in a $100 million lawsuit against the federal government, according to a story by Shelley Murphy of the Boston Globe. The suit was filed by Peter J. Limone, Joseph Salvati and the families of the late Henry Tameleo and the late Louis Greco.

Those four men were convicted of murder in a 1968 state case that was based largely on the perjured testimony of mob enforcer Joseph "the Animal" Barboza, who cooperated with the FBI. The FBI reportedly had knowledge that Barboza's testimony was false but did not share the information with state prosecutors. Barboza now appears to have had more to do with the crime charged to the four men - the March 12, 1965, murder of Edward "Teddy" Deegan - than they did. Surveillance tapes created by the FBI caught Barboza and another gangster/informant Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi asking New England Mob Boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca for permission to kill Deegan.

Greco and Tameleo died in prison. Limone served 33 years in prison, and Salvati served 30 before winning parole. In 2001, the federal government release evidence showing that the men were not guilty of the Deegan murder.

Limone, Salvati (bottom right) and the families of Greco and Tameleo are seeking compensation for the years of imprisonment. Attorneys for the federal government have argued that there was no federal involvement in the prosecution of the four men, as it was entirely a state matter.

At the conclusion of the trial, Salvati, now 74, told the press, "We waited 42 years, and we're still waiting."

Mystery surrounds Guatemala killings

Investigators are still puzzling over the Feb. 25 murders of four imprisoned former police officers in Guatemala, according to a story by James C. McKinley Jr. of the New York Times.

The victims were Luis Arturo Herrera, head of the Guatemalan National Police organized crime unit and three of his men. The men were shot to death while in custody at a high security prison in Cuilapa, 40 miles east of Guatemala City. Investigators are trying to determine how gunmen might have passed through seven or eight locked doors to gain access to the prisoners. Twenty-two prison guards have been questioned, according to a story by Juan Carlos Llorca of the AP.

The four officers had been arrested Feb. 22 and charged with the Feb. 19 killings of three diplomats, who were representatives of El Salvador at the Central American Parliament based in Guatemala City. Herrera and his men confessed to the killings, saying they mistook the diplomats for drug dealers.

When the four police officers were initially detained in Guatemala City, the government received word that their lives were in danger. The four were moved to a cell in Cuilapa for their protection.

Some believe the officers were killed by other inmates in the prison, which is largely populated by gang members. (Prisoners rioted at about the same time the murders occurred.) But others say a group of gunmen in military uniforms entered the prison and committed the murders without any interference from prison personnel.

Guatemalan President Oscar Berger (right) said he believed the four men were killed by members of an organized criminal entity in order to keep them quiet. Rodrigo Avila, head of police in El Salvador agreed and noted, "It is clear that the people who committed these killings have some level of influence inside the police, prison or governmental structure."

March issue of MobNews Digest

The March 2007 issue of MobNews Digest is available for download (709kb PDF). Click on the image in this post or on the link to the right-hand sidebar of the MobNews blog page. You can also visit the MobNews Digest homepage to browse all available issues.


The latest quarterly issue contains:

• UK housewife held as mob 'godmother';
• Santora, 18 others, charged in Bonanno clan indictments;
• Brasco returns;
• Biography explores Mob's New Orleans birth;
• 96-year-old mobster pleads guilty;
• Feds bust bus union bosses;
• 'Horse' makes deal in garbage racket case;
• Colombo brothers beat racketeering charges;
• FBI immigration sting nabs 11;
• Tampa Gambinos convicted;
• NE Mob informant Mercurio dies at 70;
• Reputed underboss of NE family faces extortion charges;
• Canada breaks up Rizzuto clan.

...and more U.S. and international organized crime news.

Trucchio gets life sentence

Ronald J. "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio, convicted Tampa-area racketeer, was sentenced March 2 to life in prison, according to a story in the Orlando Sentinel.

Trucchio was convicted in November of leading a Tampa, FL, crew of the New York-based Gambino Crime Family.

Steven Catalano, convicted along with Trucchio, was sentenced to 16 years behind bars.

Related MobNews posts:

• Tampa jury frightened by Trucchio investigators 12-08-06
• Gambino's Tampa crew convicted 11-30-2006
• Trucchio defends himself, for now 10-18-2006
• Tampa Gambino crew goes on trial 10-16-2006
• Gotti tapes link him & dad to Uva murders 06-23-2006
  

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Colombo brothers beat racketeering charges

A jury delivered a split verdict Feb. 27, finding brothers Anthony and Chris Colombo not guilty of the most serious racketeering charges against them, according to a story by Kati Cornell of the New York Post.

Chris Colombo was found guilty only of two counts of gambling, an offense he and his attorney admitted to during the trial. Anthony Colombo was acquitted of all charges against him.

The sons of slain mob boss Joseph Colombo had been accused of racketeering and extortion. Prosecutors argued that the two men used a public perception of underworld ties to advance illegal schemes.

Related MobNews posts:

• Colombo attorney scoffs at racketeering charge 02-08-07
• Colombo had 'hook' in state prosecutor 01-29-07
• Colombo judge rules against the M-word 01-23-07
• Colombo admits gambling, denies intimidation 01-19-07
• Colombo's sons head to trial this week 01-16-07
• Colombo son objects to use of crime family name 11-30-06

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'Chinky' Facchiano, 96, pleads guilty

Ninety-six-year-old Albert "Chinky" Facchiano reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors today and admitted to racketeering conspiracy in Florida and to conspiracy to tamper with a witness in New York, according to an Associated Press report.

Facchiano was charged in Florida along with other reputed members of an aging Genovese Crime Family wing. Prosecutors accused him of participating in rackets involving robberies, money-laundering and bank fraud between 2000 and 2003. He was also indicted last year in New York on charges of trying to locate and intimidate a government witness in 2005.

In declining health, he is likely to receive a sentence of house arrest. Sentencing is scheduled for May 25, according to a story by Jessica Gresko of the AP.

Six other Florida co-defendants, including Genovese capo Renaldi Ruggiero, 73, have pleaded guilty. Ruggiero admitted to his position within the crime family as part of a plea deal. He has not yet been sentenced. The guilty plea excludes Facchiano from an extensive New York case, involving more than 30 alleged members of the Genovese Family.

Facchiano's arrest record dates back to 1932. He was convicted of racketeering in 1979 and served eight years of a 25-year sentence.

Related MobNews posts:

• 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

Hells Angels on trial in Seattle

Jury selection began today for the racketeering trial of four current and former members of a Hells Angels chapter in the State of Washington, according to a story by David Bowermaster of the Seattle Times.

Defendants in the case are Richard "Smilin' Rick" Fabel, Joshua Binder, Rodney Rollness and Ricky Jenks. Fabel served as president of the Washington Nomads chapter and as leader of the Hells Angels west coast region. Binder and Rollness were reportedly members of the Nomads until 2003. Jenks reportedly is still a member.

The four are charged under the RICO anti-racketeering statute with participating in a criminal enterprise that has engaged in murder, kidnapping, witness tampering, extortion and other crimes. Rollness and Binder are specifically charged with the murder of Michael "Santa" Walsh on July 21, 2001.

The prosecution case is expected to involve more than 125 witnesses and consume about 10 weeks.


Related MobNews posts:

• Netherlands to ban Hells Angels 01-19-07
• Hells Angels trial ends with plea deal 10-13-06
• Hells Angels on trial for deadly brawl 09-29-06
• Canada, US bust drug ring 06-30-06
• Gangsters in Winnipeg, Canada 06-06-06
• Hells Angels-Bandidos conflict in Texas 05-25-06