May 7, 2020 — The federal government appears to be threatening to charge Black Mafia Family founder Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory with a cold-case murder from 2003. In a response brief filed last Friday, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Matthew Schneider requested U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson reject the legendary drug boss’ plea for a compassionate release amid the COVID-19 crisis and cited, among other reasons, a “pending murder charge” from Atlanta.

The cold case being referenced is the November 11, 2003 double homicide of Anthony (Wolf) Jones and Lamont (Riz) Girdy. Jones and Girdy were gunned down in the parking lot of Atlanta’s Chaos nightclub after an altercation inside the establishment with Flenory and his BMF entourage. Flenory was indicted in the case 17 years ago, however, the charges were dropped before trial on the grounds of self-defense. There’s no statute of limitations for murder and the police in Atlanta haven’t closed the file yet, per sources in federal law enforcement.

Big Meech and his younger brother Terry (Southwest T) Flenory started BMF from their hometown of Detroit in 1990 and grew it to goliath proportions, taking over several major regional cocaine markets around the country and cementing a place for themselves as luminaries in the underworld and hip-hop culture simultaneously. The Flenorys were nailed in the mammoth 2005 Operation Motor City Mafia bust and pleaded guilty to running a continuing criminal enterprise. They both received 30-year sentences.

BMF’s storied reign has been recounted and referenced on countless rap albums in the years since the Flenorys went away. Rapper and actor 50 Cent is currently gearing up to produce a television show on the rise and fall of Big Meech and Southwest T that will air on the Starz Network.

Terry Flenory, 50, was released from prison this week via a compassionate release. He’ll serve the remainder of his sentence on home confinement. Lawyers for the considerably more notorious 51-year old Big Meech filed the same request with Judge Lawson last week and Lawson is taking it under advisement until May 12. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is objecting to Big Meech’s potential road to freedom and let Lawson know it is willing to use the Jones and Girdy murders from back in 2003 in Atlanta as a trump card.

The story of Big Meech and his connection to and love affair with the city of Atlanta is well-covered ground. From practically the day the swaggering, corn-rowed kingpin hit Peachtree Street, making the move from Detroit to the ATL in the mid-1990s to avoid heat from the feds and warfare from rivals, he was making his presence felt in his new city. Making waves. And boss moves to boot.

Big Meech arrived in town in 1996. On Halloween night 1997, Dennis (The Duke) Kingsley-Walker, the first Detroiter to plant a flag in the Hotlanta dope game over a decade earlier, was shot to death as he drove off from the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel. Kingsley-Walker was leaving his own welcome home party. Hour earlier, he had been released from prison. Rumors were rampant that Kingsley-Walker had traded information to the DEA in his case in exchange for a sentence reduction.

Flenory was a suspect in the hit, but never faced charges. Regardless, the message on the street was clear: The Duke and the DKW crew was yesterday’s news, Big Meech and the BMF boys from the D were the new sheriffs in town.   

Because of his and BMF’s growing reputation nationwide and Big Meech’s networking skills with rappers and celebrities, by the dawning of the New Millennium, Atlanta was the epicenter of the hip-hop world. Industry events and parties were held almost nightly in the city’s trendy Buckhead neighborhood and Big Meech, always flanked by an entourage of dozens of jewelry-draped women and BMF disciples, was often seen in attendance mugging for the cameras.  

On the evening of November 10, 2003, Flenory was partying in the VIP. section of Club Chaos, attending the club’s popular weekly hip-hop night hosted by So So Def Entertainment president Jermaine Dupree. At around 1:30 in the morning, Flenory got into a fight with Anthony (Wolf) Jones, a bodyguard for east coast rap-music mogul Sean (Puff Daddy) Combs. Jones was tossed out of the club by security after he tussled with Big Meech who came to the aid of an ex-girlfriend of Jones’ he was allegedly assaulting.

Hours later, as Flenory and his bodyguard Ameen (Bull) Hight left the club and made their way to Flenory’s Cadillac SUV in the parking lot, they were met by Wolf Jones and his friend Riz Girdy. Another verbal sparring session ensued. Gun shots erupted. When the dust settled, Flenory and Hight were wounded. Wolf Jones and Riz Girdy were dead.

Flenory and Hight were both charged with the murders. Fulton County prosecutors dropped the case against them shortly thereafter for lack of evidence of intent. Bull Height, 43, went down in the Operation Motor City Mafia bust and did five years in the case. He was set free in July 2010.

Flenory and Jones knew each other through Combs and had partied together in the past. The Bad Boy Records boss was known to use BMF lieutenants for his personal security detail and may have received early funding for his fledgling label from BMF coffers, according to DEA records.

Jones, 36 at the time of his death, was no stranger to news headlines. He was with Combs and Combs’ then girlfriend, actress-singer Jennifer Lopez when they were arrested fleeing a 1999 club shooting in New York with an unregistered gun. He might have single-handily kicked-off the East Coast-West Coast Rap War by killing Death Row Records CEO Marion (Suge) Knight’s bodyguard and close friend Jake (The Violator) Robles in a fracas at the Platinum City Club in Atlanta back in 1995 at a party which also happened to be hosted by Jermaine Dupree — Jones was the top suspect in the case, but avoided indictment.

The post Killing At Club Chaos: Big Meech, BMF & The Murder Of “Wolf” Jones appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 7, 2020 — Rapper and actor 50 Cent is doing a victory lap this week with his friend, Black Mafia Family boss Terry (Southwest T) Flenory, walking out of prison on a compassionate release order. He immediately began trolling hip-hop moguls Sean (Puff Daddy) Combs and Irv Gotti, who he claims owe Flenory and his brother, iconic drug chief Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory, money from past loans, on social media. Some could perceive the taunts as threats according to legal experts.

An upcoming 50 Cent-executive produced television series chronicling the Flenorys’ reign atop the dope game in the late 1990s and early 2000s is already green-lit by the Starz Network, where 50 made his name in the entertainment world as executive producer and co-star of the smash-hit show Power. Big Meech’s son, “Lil’ Meech” is signed to 50 Cent’s G-Unit Records rap label and being considered for a starring role in the BMF show playing his father.

Terry Flenory, 50, left a federal correctional facility in Kentucky Tuesday morning six years early due to the pandemic and will finish out his sentence on home confinement in Detroit. The Flenory brothers led the Black Mafia Family, the biggest cocaine empire in American history, from 1990 until they were busted in 2005. Big Meech, 51, is locked up in Oregon right now and fighting for release on compassionate release like his little bro got, but is getting push-back from the U.S. Attorneys Office.

When news broke of Southwest T’s release, 50 Cent went to his Instagram account to first go after Irv Gotti.

“Yo Irv, you best be coming up with that bread you borrowed from Big T in Encino, you sucka ass nigga. You didnt go see him or put nothing on his books. Yeah, he home now, so you can stretch out to him or get stretched out. Take your time getting to the bank. No hurry, just have what you owe him by Monday.”

Then, 50 Cent took aim at Puffy.

“T home, Puff, he said he want his fucking money. I’m not tripping. And I know you ain’t tripping, so just holla at him.”

Gotti is the founder and CEO of Murder, Inc. Records. 50 Cent has been in a long feud with rapper Ja Rule, Gotti’s flagship artist at Murder, Inc. during the label’s peak of fame in the early 2000s.

Puffy Combs, the founder of the Bad Boy label, which provided the soundtrack for the late 1990s hip hop era, is connected to BMF in a number of ways. His cousin is BMF soldier Darryl (Poppa) Taylor and his former head of security, Paul (P.J.) Buford was arrested with the Flenorys in the Operation Motor City Mafia bust.

One of the ways the U.S. Attorneys Office in Michigan is trying to keep Big Meech behind bars, is leveraging the 2003 murder of Comb’s bodyguard Anthony (Wolf) Jones, telling the judge that Flenory has a homicide charge pending . Big Meech was initially charged with killing Jones — in a shooting that took place outside an Atlanta nightclub after Flenory and Jones had gotten into a spat inside. The case was dropped though when it was decided Flenory had acted in self-defense.

The post All Bets Are Off: 50 Cent Goes After BMF Debtors On The Gram As Southwest T Leaves Prison appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 8, 2020 — United States District Court Judge David Lawson denied high-profile drug kingpin Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory’s request for a compassionate release due to the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday, one day after his little brother and co-defendant Terry (Southwest T) Flenory walked free. Lawson told attorneys for Big Meech that the order of operation in seeking relief was flawed: Flenory still has a medical-release request pending with the Bureau of Prisons and Lawson ruled he won’t consider a compassionate release until that matter is resolved.

The Flenory brothers founded and led the Black Mafia Family from 1990 until their arrest in 2005, building the biggest, widest reaching and most culturally-significant drug empire the American dope game had ever seen. Seeding their organization in their hometown of Detroit, they went on to establish franchises in 23 different states from coast-to-coast and bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in proceeds.

In 2007, both Big Meech and Southwest T pleaded guilty to heading a federal narcotics trafficking conspiracy and were each sentenced to 30-year prison terms. Since his incarceration 15 years ago, Big Meech has been anointed a hip-hop deity and has morphed into a ubiquitous piece of pop culture in the era of “trap rap,” a genre of music he personally inspired.

The lower key, 51-year old Terry Flenory was released from a federal correctional facility in Kentucky Tuesday morning. He had his 30-year sentence reduced by six years in 2018 and was scheduled to be sprung in 2026. As of right now, Big Meech’s out-date is listed as October 2031.

The U.S. Attorney Office filed a 26-page brief with Judge Lawson last week arguing against the court granting Big Meech a compassionate release. The brief included a reference to a “pending murder charge” out of Atlanta.

On November 11, 2003, Flenory was involved in a 2003 parking lot shooting outside Atlanta’s Chaos nightclub in which hip-hop mogul Puffy Combs’ bodyguard Anthony (Wolf) Jones ended up dead. Big Meech was wounded in the shooting as well. Prosecutors in George indicted Flenory for murder, but dropped the charges when it was ruled Flenory was acting in self defense. There’s no statute of limitations on murder and Flenory could in theory be indicted again.

Rapper and actor 50 Cent is producing an upcoming BMF television series for the Starz Network. “Lil Meech” Flenory, Big Meech’s son, is signed as a rapper to 50 Cent’s G-Unit label and is in the running for the starring role in the television show as his pops.

The post Historic Drug Lord Big Meech Has Bid For Prison Release Rejected By Federal Judge In Detroit appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 10, 2020 – Chicago mob figure Joe (Joey Pooch) Pascucci died at 87 this week following a long career as an Outfit gambling boss. The Pooch belonged to the Outfit’s Cicero crew.

For decades, Pascucci ran gambling rackets in the Windy City’s Northwest suburbs. His last bust came in the summer of 2004 for operating a multi-million-dollar sports book from his homebase in Wheeling, Illinois. He did two years in federal prison and was released in October 2006.

FBI records indicate Pascucci was known on the streets for taking big bets.

“I only want the big guys, no little fish,” Joey Pooch was heard telling an associate on an FBI wire from the early 2000s.

Some people called him “Joe Grapes” for the fact that he made his own homemade wine. His first major gambling arrest came in 1964. Pascucci did time behind bars in the 1970s and 1980s for gambling offenses. In February 1987, he was nailed for overseeing a cluster of backdoor casinos that were clearing $1,000,000 per month in profits.

Joey Pooch came up in the Outfit under Joe Ferriola, a Cicero captain who later became boss of the Chicago mob. Ferriola died in 1989 having heart surgery. Pascucci bumped heads with Ferriola’s replacement as capo of the Circero crew, Ernest (Rocky) Infelise, per federal documents, sending him to seek shelter from Northside crew leaders after Ferriola refused to intercede on his behalf.

The post Chicago Mafia Bids Farewell To “Joey Pooch,” Cicero Crew Bookie Cashes In His Chips appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 11, 2020 – The Springfield (MA) mob is welcoming two of its own back to town: convicted bookmaker David (Fat Chicky) Cecchetelli was released from federal lock-up late last month and wiseguy Ralphie Santaniello is walking out of a Pennsylvania federal prison this week after four years behind bars on extortion and gambling convictions.

Cecchetelli has been removed from the day-to-day hustle and bustle of the underworld in Western Massachusetts for the last several years, according to sources. Santaniello not so much.

The 52-year old Santaniello was on his way to being “made” into the Genovese crime family before he was taken down in two racketeering cases in 2016, per court records. In one of the cases, he slapped around and threatened to murder a Western Massachusetts businessman when Craig Morel, the owner of a tow truck company, rebuffed attempts to get him to pay a quarter million bucks in back street tax. Morel instead ran to the FBI and wired up, eventually paying Santaniello and the Springfield mob crew $40,000 of government funds to keep them at bay.

Cecchetelli, 52, was indicted back in December on a gun charge and pleaded not guilty. He turned himself in and did close to three months as he awaits trial, but was released to home confinement due to the Coronavirus. It’s believed he did the near 90 days, despite being awarded bond by the judge last year, aiming for a plea deal where he will be sentenced to time served.

Fat Chicky ran a major sports book for Springfield mob bosses in the 2000s. He pleaded guilty to bookmaking charges in 2006. Lately, he’s been trying to craft a social-media and reality-television career for himself. His nephew and roommate Michael (King Merlin) Cecchetelli, is the ranking member of the Latin Kings gang on the east coast, and is facing racketeering charges. Part of his case stems from meetings of Latin Kings leaders hosted at the Springfield mob’s decades-long nerve center, the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society Social Club, recorded by the feds.

The situation that Santaniello returns to in the Springfield mob is different than the one he left four years ago when he was on the cusp of induction into the Western Massachusetts wing of New York’s Genovese crime family. According to sources on both sides of the law, Santaniello is on thin ice with Genovese brass because of his father’s indiscretion: Springfield mob elder statesman Amadeo Santaniello, the crew’s longtime “numbers man,” was shelved for taking a 2017 photo with turncoat Felix Tranghese, a mob soldier who testified against Genovese administrators.

The post The Homecoming Brigade: Springfield Mob Figures Returning To Changing Landscape appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 12, 2020 — The social-media assault launched by 50 Cent on alleged Black Mafia Family debtors continued this week, with the rapper and actor throwing more shade at Irv Gotti. Legal experts speculate the public threats could potentially cause legal problems for him and the former leaders of the fabled cocaine dynasty.

“Boy, you best be coming up with that money you borrowed, it’s Monday, fool. Irv Gotti, pay your debt,” 50 Cent posted on his Instagram account.

He didn’t stop there.

“How you borrow a million dollars from niggas, see them get 30 years and don’t put nothing on the books. That 30 sounded like forever, didn’t it? Well, Southwest T home now bitch.”

Black Mafia Family boss Terry (Southwest T) Flenory, 50, was released early from federal prison last week on a compassionate release tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. His big brother, Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory, a drug baron of few equals in American history, is fighting in the courts for one of his own.

BMF was toppled in 2005’s Operation Motor City Mafia and both Flenorys received 30-year prison sentences. The BMF brand and Big Meech’s name specifically, remains prevalent, if only in legacy form, in pop culture circles today. Famous rappers and rap music titans were always in the Flenorys orbit dating back to the 1990s

50 Cent is executive producing an upcoming scripted television series on BMF’s rise and fall for the Starz Network and has signed Big Meech’s son, rapper, Lil’ Meech, to his G-Unit label. Gotti ran Murder, Inc. Records, a one-time powerhouse in the music business and home to 50 Cent’s biggest rival, Ja Rule, the label’s headliner and a superstar of the pre-50 Cent rap landscape. Murder, Inc. artists and music dominated the charts in the early 2000s and with those residuals and a presence in the television world himself, Gotti’s estimated net worth is $15,000,000.

Gotti responded late Monday night on his own Instagram account with a lengthy, unequivocal rebuttal.

“Everyone. Please stop Entertaining Clowns. I do not have any time or energy to Entertain clowns. Me, Irv Gotti does not owe anyone a Penny. Happy to hear T is home. Hoping my nigga Meech comes home as well. Stop with the NONSENSE……Like i hate that I have to post this…… If y’all don’t know by now that homie is a clown and on my dick and will say or do anything for attention. I do not owe T or any man a penny. That’s not who I am. Me and T are cool. Let T say I owe him a penny or he gave me money. That will never happen….. Now please. Stop entertaining homie the clown. And his lies and Bullshit. I’m focused. Back to doing what I’m doing. And living my life. As MAN!! I have a lot of shit to do. No energy or time for clown shit….I never took 1 penny from him. I have always been super cool with my BMF niggas. That goes for T. And it definitely goes for MEECH. With whom I had a closer relationship with. Nothing but Love and Respect. So until you hear T say something. Stop with the clown shit. Happy your Home T. Hope Meech comes Home too.”

The Flenory brothers founded BMF in Detroit in 1990, rocketing themselves to the forefront of the nation’s dope game by the end of the decade. Using Motown, Atlanta and L.A. as their hubs, the Flenorys branded BMF like a designer fashion product and expanded all over the country, establishing territory in 23 different states and planting itself in the center of the burgeoning new hip-hop era built on the glorification of drug dealing and material wealth bubbling to the surface on both coasts.

Big Meech and Southwest T were close to several hot-selling rappers and hip-hop moguls of the late-1990s and early 2000s, including Irv Gotti and Bad Boy Records president Sean (Puffy) Combs out of New York. FBI documents show informants claiming Combs received his start-up funding for Bad Boy in 1993 from the Flenory brothers.

Gotti, 49, was indicted for money laundering on behalf of legendary New York drug kingpin Kenny (Supreme) McGriff, but acquitted of the charges at a 2005 trial. McGriff headed the Supreme Team crack empire in Queens, the borough Gotti and 50 Cent were both born and raised in.

Per DEA records and NYPD informant files, 50 Cent once worked for McGriff and McGriff ordered him killed. McGriff was convicted of ordering two murders in 2001 and is doing life in prison. 50 Cent survived the hit and leveraged the “being shot 9 times” narrative to his advantage in cultivating credibility early in his meteoric rise to rap superstardom in 2003.

When news broke of Terry Flenory getting cut loose last week, 50 Cent jumped on Instagram and fired off shots at Gotti and Puffy Combs, requesting all payment of past debts.

“Yo Irv, you best be coming up with that bread you borrowed from Big T in Encino, you sucka ass nigga. You didn’t go see him or put nothing on his books. Yeah, he home now, so you can stretch out to him or get stretched out. Take your time getting to the bank. No hurry, just have what you owe him by Monday.”

The message to Puffy Combs seems to confirm, or at least lend substantial weight, to the rumors that the Flenory’s funded Bad Boy’s early years.

“T home, he want his fucking money…..”

Less than 24 hours later, 50 Cent gave Puffy a pass for calling Southwest T and clearing the air. Southwest T has opened his own Instagram account and confirmed the call.

The post Rapper’s Delight: Irv Gotti Gets More Call-Outs From 50 Cent Over Alleged BMF Debt appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Al (Scarface) Capone was the biggest mob boss of his time. He was America’s first celebrity gangster, when he ruled Chicago during Prohibition in the Roaring 20s. He also had quite the body count on his resume.

In honor of the new movie Capone, starring Tom Hardy and chronicling his final year of life, his mind ravished by syphilis yet still being hounded by the FBI as he withered away on his Palm Island estate in Miami, here is a breakdown of all the hits the federal government laid at his feet.

The Al Capone Murder Timeline (1920-1929)

May 11, 1920 – Chicago mob boss James (Big Jim) Colosimo is gunned down outside his office in a coup launched by Capone’s mentor and Colosimo’s underboss Johnny (The Fox) Torrio. The Torrio-Capone Gang becomes known as the South Side Gang.

May 7, 1923 – Hijacker Joe Howard is killed for knocking off a truckload of South Side Gang booze.

September 7, 1923 — North Side Gang soldier Jerry O’Connor is killed for interfering with South Side Gang beer shipments.

November 10, 1924 – North Side Gang boss Dean O’Banion is shot to death inside his headquarters, Schofield’s Flowers, inciting the Windy City bootlegging wars.

April 27, 1926 – North Side Gang soldiers, Tommy (Red) Duffy & Jimmy Doherty and state’s attorney Billy McSwiggin, are slain as they exit the Pony Inn in Cicero after a night of drinking.

August 20, 1926 — Chicago gangster Joe (The Cavalier) Nerone is slain for trying to muscle in on Capone’s Chicago Heights bootlegging territory.

October 11, 1926 – North Side Gang boss Earl (Hymie) Weiss and his bodyguard Patrick (Paddy) Murray are gunned down returning to Schofield’s Flowers from visiting an associate’s murder trial.

January 7, 1927 – South Side Gang soldiers Johnny Costenaro and Santo Celebron are killed for preparing to testify against Capone in a conspiracy trial.

March 14, 1927 — Chicago gangster Alphonse Fiore is killed for attempting to assassinate Capone on vacation in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

May 25, 1927 – New York hit man Antonio Torchio is murdered after being brought to Chicago by North Side Gang leaders to carry out a contract on Capone.

July 27, 1927 – Rival bootlegger Frank Hitchcock is killed for getting into a beef with a Capone ally.

August 11, 1927 – St. Louis hitmen Anthony Russo and Vincent Spicuzza are murdered after being brought to Chicago by North Side Gang allies to carry out a contract on Capone. Russo and Spicuzzi had been members of St. Louis’ Green Ones Gang but had splintered off and formed their own murder for hire troop. Future Cleveland mafia Don James (Jack White) Licavoli, a native of St. Louis who had moved to Detroit, was with the pair when they were clipped but survived the hit.

September 24, 1927 – Cleveland hit man Sam Valente is murdered after being brought to Chicago by North Side Gang leaders to carry out a contract on Capone. He is hatcheted to death and left in a field in Stickney, Illinois.

January 18, 1928 – Hijackers Harry Fuller, Joey Cagiando and Joey Fasso are gunned down for knocking off a truckload of South Side Gang booze.

March 21, 1928 – Chicago gangster Joseph (Diamond Joe) Esposito is killed following a falling out with Capone.

April 23, 1928 – South Side Gang soldier Ben Newmark is killed by Capone bodyguards after Newmark attempts to breakoff and start his own bootlegging organization.

July 1, 1928 – New York gangster Francesco (Frankie Yale) Uale, a one-time Capone employer, friend and hired gun, is machine gunned to death in Brooklyn inside his custom-made Lincoln with armor plating. Yale gave Capone his first job in the rackets and had bumped off Big Jim Colosimo and Dean O’Banion on contract from the South Side Gang. The pair fell out after Yale was caught hijacking whiskey shipments headed for Chicago that he himself sold Capone himself.

February 14, 1929 – The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: North Side Gang soldiers, the Gussenberg brothers (Frank & Pete), John May, Al Weinshank, Adam Heyer, James Clark and Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer are machine gunned to death inside a North Side Gang garage hangout in what effectively ended the South Side Gang-North Side Gang War. The slaughter’s intended victim, North Side Gang boss George (Bugs) Moran avoided the bloodshed but stood down in the feud after the massacre, ceding his territory to Capone.

May 8, 1929 – South Side Gang soldiers, John Scalise, Albert Anselmi and Joe (Hop Toad) Guinta are bludgeoned to death with baseball bats for plotting to overthrow Capone and dumped in a ditch in Hammond, Indiana, right across the Illinois border. Scalise and Anselmi were Capone’s top hitmen and known on the streets of the Windy City as the “Murder Twins.”

June 24, 1929 – Chicago gangland figure Frankie Marlow is killed for refusing to pay a $250,000 debt to the South Side Gang.

February 1, 1930 – Chicago racketeer Julius Rosenheim is slain for informing on Capone.

August 1, 1930 – Mob accountant Jack Zuta, who worked for Capone before jumping to the North Side Gang, is murdered inside a Delafield, Wisconsin roadhouse on the run from the law and Capone.

October 23, 1930 – Chicago mobster Joe Aiello, a longtime Capone rival, is killed getting into a taxi outside a safehouse by a gunman in a neighboring apartment building. Aiello had plotted several unsuccessful assassinations of Capone and Capone’s closest lieutenants.

October 18, 1931 — Chicago mob figure Matthew (Fat Matt) Kolb is shot to death inside his Morton Grove, Illinois roadhouse. Kolb ran bootlegging turf on Chicago’s Northwest side.

November 8, 1939 – Chicago race track mogul Edward (Easy Eddie) O’Hare, who cooperated against Capone years earlier as a way of getting his son admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy, is gunned down behind the wheel of his car leaving one of his tracks on the week of Capone’s release from prison on tax evasion charges.

The post Scarface’s School Of Murder: The Al Capone Hit List (1920-1939) appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 13, 2020 — Philadelphia mafia elder statesman Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi was indicted for disposing the dead body of a Gambino soldier in 1985, but had the case dropped before trial. The 80-year old Ligambi, who reportedly retired from his acting boss post last August and may be serving in some consigliere-type capacity these days, was convicted of racketeering and murder four years later. In the coming years, “Uncle Joe” would develop a reputation for sliding out of legal trouble, making his way out of the conviction and accompanying life sentence and back onto the streets.

Matty and Salvatore Sollena, members of the Gambino crime family’s Cherry Hill, New Jersey crew, disappeared on November 6, 1983. Like most of the Cherry Hill crew, the Sollena brothers were native Sicilians and known narcotics traffickers. The crew, set up by the Family’s namesake, “Don Carlo” Gambino, for his cousins in the early 1970s, reported to mob brass in New York even though it headquartered right outside of Philly. The Sollenas were facing federal prison time, deportation and were suspected of stealing from Atlantic City casinos controlled by the Philly mob contingent when they popped up dead.

Salvatore Sollena, 39, was found in the trunk of his car on November 10 in the parking lot of the Four Seasons Hotel in Collingswood, New Jersey. Less than two weeks later, on November, 19, Matty Sollena, 37, was found in the trunk of his wife’s car on a street corner in Marlton, New Jersey. Both Sollenas were shot in the back of the head, their arms and legs trussed and garbage bags were placed over their heads and feet.

The Cherry Hill Gambino crew had strong ties to Philadelphia’s Bruno-Scarfo crime family dating back to its inception. Since the crew of “zips” operated on Philly mob ground, the Philly bosses got a piece of their action. Sometimes, they helped each other out with muscle work.

According to his indictment, Joe Ligambi, then just a Philly mafia associate, was summoned to Atlantic City one night in 1983 and given possession of Salvatore Sollena’s body to get rid of. A well-liked bartender and prolific bookmaker with a clientele that spanned Philadelphia and parts of North Jersey, Ligambi belonged to a mob crew ran by Lawrence (Yogi) Merlino and his brother, Salvatore (Chuckie) Merlino, the Philly mafia’s underboss.

Yogi Merlino and his sometime-driver Frank Kelly met Ligambi at Angeloni’s Restaurant on the evening of November 6, 1983 and seated at a secluded booth near the kitchen, passed Ligambi the keys to a car sitting in the parking lot, per the indictment. Kelly was an informant for the FBI and the New Jersey State Police and instructed to get close to Philly mob boss Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo and his inner circle, which included the Merlino brothers, who were longtime close friends of his from childhood.

Per Kelly’s grand jury testimony, Yogi Merlino told Ligambi to drive the car with Sollena’s body located in the trunk to the Four Seasons Hotel and leave it there to be found. Salvatore Sollena was reported missing by his wife hours earlier. According to federal documents, Ligambi was slated to get his “button” – initiated into the mob – by way of his alleged participation in the Sollena hit, however, his induction was put on hold on Scarfo’s orders due to Chuckie Merlino’s demotion from his underboss role and the fact that he had not pulled the trigger.

“Joe didn’t get straightened out for a few extra years because Nicky worried about where his loyalty was after Chuckie got his stripes pulled….the Sollena thing was supposed to have him made a lot sooner,” a former Philly mob figure said.

Merlino was removed from being Scarfo’s underboss in 1985 when his excessive drinking became an issue. Ligambi, known for being understated and absent of bad habits, got brought into the Philly mob fold by Chuckie Merlino, impressed by his excellent handicapping skills as a bookie and his ability to “earn.”

The Sollenas operated out of a string of pizza parlors in New Jersey and Pennsylvania linked to the famous Pizza Connection heroin-smuggling network. Their cousin, Sicilian mafia boss, Gaetano (Don Tano) Badalamenti, headed the network, which smuggled heroin out of Europe in jars of pizza sauce destined for dozens of pizzerias spread throughout the U.S. and Canada.

In the fall of 1983, Matty Sollena was out on bond awaiting sentencing in a counterfeiting case. He had taken a heroin pinch in 1971. Salvatore Sollena was awaiting trial in two cases, a drug indictment stemming from his selling heroin to an undercover DEA agent in California and a bank fraud arrest where he was laundering narcotics proceeds using bogus cashier checks being cashed overseas. The U.S. government had begun planning deportation proceedings for both Sollena brothers around the time of their murders.

Informants told the FBI and the DEA, that Scarfo and the Cherry Hill Gambino crew suspected the Sollenas were skimming from Atlantic City casinos belonging to the Philly mafia and that the Cherry Hill crew was upset that the Sollenas lost the crew millions of dollars when a drug shipment intended for their pizzerias was seized in Milan in May 1982. Because of these infractions, per the informants, the Sollenas were marked for death.

One of the informants filling the feds in on what was going on was Frank Kelly, who managed Yogi Merlino’s Atlantic City headquarters, T.K.’s Pub. Kelly, an ex-cop, had met Little Nicky Scarfo and the Merlino brothers in the late 1960s when he was working with Philadelphia mob associate Alvin Feldman in a pornography distribution racket out of Baltimore. He had lost contact with the Philly wiseguys once Feldman was killed in the early 1970s, but by the end of the decade, he was being encouraged by his handlers in the FBI to reestablish contact.

The feds had flipped Kelly in 1971. To facilitate the reintroduction to the Scarfo camp, the FBI arranged for Kelly to be hired as the assistant director of travel and tours at the Resorts International hotel and casino in AC and then in the same position at the Playboy Hotel and Casino. Scarfo had been stationed in Atlantic City since the 1960s and when he was promoted to boss of the Philly mob in March 1981, he remained there and assigned Chuckie Merlino to watch over Philadelphia on a day-to-day basis, while Yogi stayed close to him in AC.

Beginning around 1979, Kelly reinserted himself into Scarfo’s orbit, currying favor with the diminutive future don by getting him VIP perks at his casinos and giving him large tribute envelopes of cash he said came from bookmaking but in reality came from the FBI. When Ligambi was allegedly tasked with dumping Salvatore Sollena’s body in November 1983, Kelly was told by Yogi Merlino to follow him in a crash car and once Ligambi left the car containing Sollena’s hog-tied corpse in the hotel parking lot, to drive him away from the scene.

Kelly entered the Witness Protection Program in the spring of 1985. On July 26 of that year, Ligambi and Yogi Merlino were indicted for aiding and abetting in the Sollena murder.

The case never made it in front of a jury though, as the U.S. Attorneys Office dropped the charges in January 1987 when they found inconsistencies in Kelly’s testimony in front of a grand jury. While Kelly claimed the meeting at Angeloni’s occurred on the night Sollena disappeared ,November 6, 1983, the coroners report stated the date of Sollena’s death as November 8.

It didn’t matter though. Ligambi and Yogi Merlino were on their way to be indicted on more charges in the weeks and months to come along with the murderous, power-starved Little Nicky Scarfo and his entire mob leadership hierarchy. The entire regime was convicted of racketeering and murder at a 1989 trial. Yogi Merlino wound up cooperating and entering the Witness Protection Program. He told the FBI that the Cherry Hill Gambino crew apologized to him and Scarfo for the problems encountered related to the Salvatore Sollena hit.

Ligambi was found guilty of the 1985 gangland slaying of Scaro rival, Frank (Frankie Flowers) D’Alfonso, committed three days prior to his indictment in the Sollena case and finally paving the way for his “making” into the mafia. The murder conviction was eventually tossed due to judicial and prosecutorial misconduct and Ligambi gained his freedom in 1997 after being acquitted at a second trial.

Upon his release, Ligambi cozied up to Chuckie Merlino’s son, Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, who had taken over the Philly mob by force in the 1990s, and has reportedly helped him run the crime family for the last 23 years. Ligambi stabilized the borgata as acting boss when Skinny Joey was incarcerated for racketeering for the all of the 2000s, politicking the regime back into the good graces of New York’s Five Families after Merlino followed suit from the Scarfo era and turned the Philly mob into a battleground the previous decade as he climbed his way to the top.

Merlino, 57, got out of prison in his racketeering case in the winter of 2012 and relocated from South Philly to South Florida. Ligambi, per sources, assumed the role of consigliere.

Returning to the helm in 2015 following a brief respite — beating a racketeering case of his own and bridging the gap between Merlino and the Scarfo era figures being let out of prison –, Ligambi retired from his acting boss duties last summer at his 80th birthday party. Per sources in the federal government, “The Uncle,” and Merlino are the targets of an ongoing cold-case murder probe, looking into at least five mob-related slayings (1999-2012) informants tie them to ordering.

“Uncle Joe and Joey are opposites in a lot of ways, Joey’s brash and a partier, Joe’s quiet and a homebody, but when it comes to lady luck, they both have the gift,” commented one Philly mob insider. “They know how to slip through the rain drops. Shit, they usually avoid the thunder storm all together. And when they do get stuck in the storm, they have the best rain coat and leave the feds scrambling. I mean, look at their history, what they’ve done or are said to have done, they should be in prison for life. That’s a skill to avoid that type of constant heat and still be standing all these years later.”

Chuckie Merlino and Nicky Scarfo died behind bars in 2012 and 2017, respectively. Yogi Merlino passed away in Witness Protection in 2001. As of today, nobody has ever been charged with the Sollena brothers murders.

The post Uncle Joe Has Nine Lives: Philly Mob Leader Dodged Bullet In ’83 Murder Case, Set Tone For Career appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 15, 2020 — Philadelphia mob lawyer Joe Santaguida passed away this week at 81 from Alzheimer’s disease. Santaguida was an esteemed member of the Philly and North Jersey legal community and represented Bruno-Scarfo crime family leaders Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi and Joseph (Joe Mousie) Massimino, among others. Local mob expert and Fox29 television investigative reporter Dave Schratwieser broke the news of Santaguida’s death on his social media accounts Wednesday night.

Santaguida was Merlino’s attorney through his rise to power in the 1990s. Merlino, 58, has headed the Philly mafia since he won a shooting war for control of the crime family 25 years ago. During the war, Santaguida paid Merlino childhood friend and mob soldier Gaetano (Tommy Horsehead) Scafidi a visit behind bars to tell him all was forgiven after Scafidi jumped ship to the rival camp in the dispute over a fear that Merlino was going to kill him. Scafidi entered the Witness Protection Program shortly thereafter.

Joe Ligambi, 80, has been Merlino’s acting boss and consigliere throughout his reign. Mousie Massimino, 70, was Ligambi’s underboss when he was acting boss in the 2000s while Merlino served a prison sentence for racketeering. Ligambi and Massimino were indicted together on federal racketeering charges in 2011. Ligambi beat the case. Massimino, using Santaguida as his trial counsel, was found guilty at his 2013 trial and tried unsuccessfully to appeal on the grounds of Santaguida’s failing mental health.

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May 15, 2020 – Retired New York drug lord Myles Coker died of the Coronavirus this week at 69. The gentlemanly former heroin baron was co-founder of the Blue Thunder narcotics organization, affiliated with the Italian mob’s Bonanno crime family in the 1980s and early 1990s. Coker stood trial in 1994 in federal court alongside future Bonanno don Vincent (Vinnie Gorgeous) Basciano.

Coker was convicted. Vinnie Gorgeous walked.

Blue Thunder was the brand-name of the heroin sold by Coker and his partner, Eric (E.J.) Millan. The Blue Thunder crew was a multi-ethnic blend of Puerto Rican, African-Americans and Italians and shipped their heroin across several parts of New York and out of state to cities such as Boston, Baltimore and Detroit.

Coker, who owned a limousine company with a celebrity client list, had worked as a bookie for a Bonanno-connected sports-betting business in the Bronx before transitioning into the drug game in the mid-1980s with financing from his mafia contacts. The feds’ “Operation Thunderdome” assault resulted in a series of busts, starting with Coker’s arrest in August 1991 all the way until the ninth superseding indictment dropped in October of the following year, and left hand-prints of police misconduct.

When the DEA raided Coker’s home, they found meticulously kept logs of Blue Thunder crew affairs. At first, he pleaded guilty in the case, then after the police misconduct was revealed at a mistrial of his co-defendants in March 1993, he was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea. Coker eventually went to trial and was convicted.

Originally slapped with a life term, Coker got resentenced and was released in 2014 after 23 years in prison. In recent years, Coker had worked for a pest-control company and stayed out of trouble. Eric Millan was released from his life sentence last month. Prior to starting the Blue Thunder crew with Coker, the 58-year old Millan was enrolled in a pharmacology program at St. John’s University.

The dapper and suave Basciano, 61, ran the Bonanno crime family from 2004 until 2011. Today, Bronx-native Basciano resides in the Big Sandy federal correctional facility in Kentucky, found guilty of two gangland murders and alleged to have put out a hit on his prosecutor.    

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May 16, 2020 — New York music mogul Irv Gotti needs more time to repay a debt owed to Black Mafia Family boss Terry (Southwest T) Flenory, according to a post rapper and actor 50 Cent made on his Instagram Thursday.

Earlier this week, Gotti denied owing Flenory any money after a series of social media posts by 50 Cent in the wake of Flenory leaving prison alleged Gotti had borrowed cash from Flenory in California in the years before Flenory got locked up. Gotti is estimated to be worth $15,000,000.

“Irv Gotti’s punk ass checked in, so he needs to workout a payment plan. Talking about we’re in a pandemic. Fuck that, where’s the money?,” 50 Cent posted.

Terry Flenory, 50, was released from federal prison six years early last week due to Coronavirus concerns in the BOP. 50 Cent is producing a scripted television series on Flenory and his older brother “Big Meech,” detailing their founding of the historic Black Mafia Family and their rise to the top of the American dope game.

Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory, a fabled drug don in the pantheon of the country’s criminal elite, is trying to use the pandemic to vault himself to freedom as well. He’s scheduled to see the judge in his case next week. The Flenorys were toppled in the DEA’s 2005 Operation Motor City Mafia case. They both pleaded guilty and received 30-year prison terms. In 2018, Southwest T was granted a sentence reduction and had six years shaved off his bid.

Gotti ran Murder, Inc. records, a best-selling rap label in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and has gone on to a career in television, starring in a reality show on VH1 and producing the Tales docu-series on BET. He and 50 Cent have been engaged in a longtime beef, linked to bad blood between Gotti’s signature artist, rival rapper Ja Rule and Murder, Gotti associate, Queens drug lord Kenny (Supreme) McGriff, who 50 Cent once worked for.

When Flenory walked free last Tuesday, 50 Cent unleashed an Instagram tirade towards people in the rap world he feel owed Flenory and BMF money, including Gotti and Sean (Puffy) Combs.

“Yo Irv, you best be coming up with that bread you borrowed from Big T in Encino, you sucka ass nigga. You didn’t go see him or put nothing on his books. Yeah, he home now, so you can stretch out to him or get stretched out. Take your time getting to the bank. No hurry, just have what you owe him by Monday.”

50 Cent continued his keyboard attack on Gotti at the start of this week.

“Boy, you best be coming up with that money you borrowed, it’s Monday, fool. Irv Gotti, pay your debt. How you borrow a million dollars from niggas, see them get 30 years and don’t put nothing on the books. That 30 sounded like forever, didn’t it? Well, Southwest T home now bitch.”

Gotti responded late Monday night on his own Instagram account with a lengthy, unequivocal rebuttal.

“Everyone. Please stop Entertaining Clowns. I do not have any time or energy to Entertain clowns. Me, Irv Gotti does not owe anyone a Penny. Happy to hear T is home. Hoping my nigga Meech comes home as well. Stop with the NONSENSE……Like i hate that I have to post this…… If y’all don’t know by now that homie is a clown and on my dick and will say or do anything for attention. I do not owe T or any man a penny. That’s not who I am. Me and T are cool. Let T say I owe him a penny or he gave me money. That will never happen….. Now please. Stop entertaining homie the clown. And his lies and Bullshit. I’m focused. Back to doing what I’m doing. And living my life. As MAN!! I have a lot of shit to do. No energy or time for clown shit….I never took 1 penny from him. I have always been super cool with my BMF niggas. That goes for T. And it definitely goes for MEECH. With whom I had a closer relationship with. Nothing but Love and Respect. So until you hear T say something. Stop with the clown shit. Happy your Home T. Hope Meech comes Home too.”

The Flenory brothers founded BMF in their hometown of Detroit in 1990, rocketing themselves to the forefront of the U.S. drug economy by the dawning of the New Millennium. Using Motown, Atlanta and L.A. as their hubs, the Flenorys branded BMF like a designer fashion product and expanded all over the country, establishing territory in 23 different states and planting itself in the center of the burgeoning new hip-hop era built on the glorification of drug dealing culture and material wealth.

Gotti, 49, was indicted for money laundering on behalf of New York dope boy legend Supreme McGriff, but acquitted of the charges at a 2005 trial. McGriff headed the Supreme Team crack empire in Queens, the borough Gotti and 50 Cent were both born and raised in.

Per DEA records and NYPD informant files, 50 Cent once worked for McGriff and McGriff ordered him killed. McGriff was convicted of ordering two murders in 2001 and is doing life in prison. 50 Cent survived the hit and leveraged the “being shot 9 times” narrative to his advantage in cultivating credibility early in his meteoric rise to rap superstardom in 2003.

The post Still Scrapping On Socials: 50 Cent Not Buying Irv Gotti’s Excuses In Failing To Pay Back BMF Alleged Debt appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 17, 2020 – Mexican drug cartel hit man Jose Rodrigo (El Chino Antrax) Gamboa, 39, was released from a U.S. Federal Penitentiary on parole in early March and has disappeared. Authorities speculate he is either dead or has fled back to Mexico. Gamboa’s sister was found slain in Mexico over the weekend. 

Before his arrest in 2013, Gamboa ran an enforcement wing of the mammoth Sinaloa Cartel known as the “Anthrax Squad.” He had undergone plastic surgery in an effort to avoid detection when he was on the run. His parole officer reported him missing back on Wednesday. The nickname he carries on the street translates to “Chinese Anthrax.”

Apprehended in Holland, El Chino Antrax was extradited back to the U.S. to face federal narcotics trafficking charges out of San Diego. Pleading guilty in 2015 and agreeing to pay a $1,000,000 fine, he received a 7-year prison term and walked free on March 3.

The Sinaloa Cartel is the biggest drug organization in the world and based out of Mexico’s Sinaloa region. Sixty-three year old cartel tycoon Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman, the face of the cocaine trade in the 21^st Century around the globe, is doing a life prison term in the U.S. Supermax facility in Florence, Colorado. Trusted Guzman loyalist, Ismael (El Mayo) Zambada Garcia took over the cartel when El Chapo was finally taken into custody in January 2016.

El Chino Antrax Gamboa began his career in the cartel acting as a bodyguard for El Mayo’s son, Vincente. According to DEA records, Gamboa founded the “Los Antrax” crew in 2008 to act as a personal security and hit team for El Mayo Zambada. Los Antrax is credited for dozens of murders.

At his height of his Los Antrax power in the first half of the 2010s, Gamboa became a social media star, generating droves of follows and likes by showing off his decadent lifestyle while obscuring his face in the posted images. One image showed a gold-plated, diamond-encrusted AK-47 and another him partying with New York socialite and hotel heiress Paris Hilton.  

The post Off The Map, In The Wind: Sinaloa Cartel Enforcer “El Chino Antrax” Vanishes appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 17, 2020 — Feared Sinaloa Cartel assassin Jose Rodrigo (El Chino Antrax) Gamboa was killed Friday in Mexico along with his sister and brother-in-law after being reported missing by his parole officer in the United States late last week. The 39-year old Gamboa served six years in a federal correctional facility in California before being paroled March 3.

El Chino Antrax was a top enforcer for Mexican drug lords Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman and Ismael (El Mayo) Zambada, who run the massively powerful Sinaloa Cartel, the largest narcotics distribution organization in the world. El Chapo, 61, is doing life in prison in the federal Supermax in Florence, Colorado. El Chino Antrax was mentored by El Mayo.

On Friday night, El Chino Antrax, his sister Ana and brother-in-law Juan Garcia were kidnapped outside Ana Gamboa’s residence after a gun fight and executed in the Northwestern Mexico city of Culiacan. Their bodies were discovered Saturday inside Ana Gamboa’s black-colored BMW SUV, which was left abandoned on a dirt road.

Before his arrest in 2013, El China Antrax Gamboa headed a notorious Sinaloa Cartel hit team known as the “Anthrax Squad.” He had undergone plastic surgery in an effort to avoid detection when he was on the run. His parole officer reported him missing back on Wednesday. The nickname he carries on the street translates to “Chinese Anthrax.”

Apprehended in Holland in December 2013 trying to get on an airplane, El Chino Antrax was extradited back to the U.S. to face federal narcotics trafficking charges out of San Diego. Pleading guilty in 2015 and agreeing to pay a $1,000,000 fine, he received a 7-year prison term and walked free on March 3.

El Chino Antrax Gamboa began his career in the cartel acting as a bodyguard for El Mayo’s son, Vincente. According to DEA records, Gamboa founded the “Los Antrax” crew in 2008 to act as a personal security and hit team for El Mayo Zambada. Los Antrax is credited for dozens of murders.

At his height of his Los Antrax power in the first half of the 2010s, Gamboa became a social media star, generating droves of follows and likes by showing off his decadent lifestyle while obscuring his face in the posted images. One image showed a gold-plated, diamond-encrusted AK-47 and another him partying with New York socialite and hotel heiress Paris Hilton.  

The post “El Chino Antrax” Found Slain In Mexico, Cartel Hit Man Lived By Sword, Died By It appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 19, 2020 – Detroit mob soldier Antonio (Toto) Ruggirello died of COVID-19 this week at 83 years old. He was the last of the four nails-tough Ruggirello brothers who once ran a crew that controlled rackets in Washtenaw and Genesee Counties.

The Ruggirellos have appeared on government investigative reports as “persons of interest” in the iconic murder and kidnapping conspiracy that took the life of labor union chief Jimmy Hoffa four and a half decades ago. Authorities suspect the Ruggirello crew might have been involved with disposing of Hoffa’s body. The famed Hoffa case remains an open and active investigation out of the Detroit FBI office.

The Ruggirello brothers were highly-trusted lieutenants in the Detroit mafia for years, per FBI records and Michigan State Police memos. Longtime don, Giacomo (Black Jack) Tocco was elected boss in a top-secret gathering of all the Tocco-Zerilli crime family capos held at the Ruggirellos’ Timberland Game Ranch in Dexter, Michigan, just outside of the Washtenaw county seat of Ann Arbor, on the afternoon of June 10, 1979. The inauguration ceremony was photographed by the FBI.

Tocco died in of heart failure in 2014. The Ruggirellos’ father, “Big Toto” was Tocco’s father’s bodyguard during the Crosstown Mob War of the early 1930s. William (Black Bill) Tocco founded the Detroit mob in 1931 after claiming victory in the war that broke out at the tail end of Prohibition.

According to his FBI file, Black Jack Tocco used the Ruggirello brothers as muscle in his rise up the ranks of crime family. Luigi (Louie the Bulldog) Ruggirello and Antonino (Tony Cigars) Ruggirello were considered co-crew bosses, per the Tocco files, with Louie running Ann Arbor from Timberland Game Ranch and Tony maintaining a foothold in the factory town of Flint out in Genesee County.  

Toto Ruggirello was convicted alongside his older brother Tony in 1977 for the attempted murder of a Flint numbers banker refusing to pay tribute to the mob. Their attempt to blow him up in a car bomb failed. When a crew member turned state’s evidence, they tried to kill him in a state-prison protection unit, per Tocco’s FBI file.

Tony Ruggirello, 85, died last summer of natural causes. Louie Ruggirello lost a bout with cancer in 1987. Joseph (Jo Jo) Ruggirello passed away in 2013 at 81.

The FBI have received tips through the years that slain Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa is buried at Timberland Game Ranch, once the premier upscale hunting lodge in the state of Michigan. Hoffa disappeared on his way to a sit down with mob figures from Detroit and New Jersey at a Bloomfield Township, Michigan restaurant called the Red Fox on July 30, 1975. It’s a 35-mile drive from the Red Fox (now the westside flagship of the Andiamo chain) to the Timberland Game Ranch.

The post Coronavirus Claims Detroit Mafia Figure, Hoffa Case Knowledge Possibly Goes With Him To The Grave appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 20, 2020 — Federal prosecutors are finally admitting that the Flores brothers, the two twins that took down world-famous Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman, may have hidden assets waiting for them when they return from prison. Pedro (Little Pete) Flores and Margarito (Junior) Flores, 38, were the Sinaloa Cartel’s top distribution lieutenants in the United States, operating the cartel’s main hub in Chicago throughout most of the 2000s until they flipped and helped build the landmark case against their boss.

Junior Flores is seeking an early release from a federal prison protection unit due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The Flores twins were sentenced to 14-year terms, but Junior, according to the BOP website, is slated for release in November. They were denied a re-sentencing in 2019. The DEA has called the Flores brothers the two most important informants in U.S. history.

In a response brief to Junior’s request for sentence relief related to the health crisis filed this week by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Illinois, the government concedes that it no longer holds the view that “all recoverable proceeds were turned over upon arrest.” The brief noted that the office officially changed its position back in March.

Despite U.S. District Judge Ruben Castilla expressing doubt that the Flores twins were turning over all their assets at their 2015 sentencing hearing, prosecutors backed the Flores’ claim that they had. The current motion for a “compassionate release” is being decided by U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman.

The Flores brothers forfeited more than $4,000,000 after they cut their deal with prosecutors in 2008. Little Pete Flores gifted his wife a $200,000 Bentley automobile in the days before he reported to prison. He was the star witness at El Chapo’s trial last year. El Chapo

Born and raised in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, the Flores got connected to the Sinaloa Cartel in the early 2000s, eventually becoming El Chapo’s go-to guys in the U.S. and given control of the cartel’s most prized North American satellite. Junior Flores visited with El Chapo in the Northern mountains of Mexico in October 2008, shortly following his decision to cooperate. Over the next year, he and his brother recorded 75 phone calls between them and El Chapo, the biggest narcotics trafficker on the globe.

The post El Chapo’s Top Two Guys In The U.S. Are Hiding Money While They Fight For Early Release, Feds Claim appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 21, 2020 – Chicago mob soldier Mario (The Arm) Rainone is seeking a compassionate release from his federal prison sentence for a gun charge due to health concerns related to the Coronavirus. Famed Windy City mob lawyer Joe (The Shark) Lopez filed the motion with U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber Tuesday on behalf of Rainone, who has been locked up since 2009. Leinenweber scheduled a hearing for May 28 to take-up the motion and listen to arguments.

Rainone, 65, used to be a collector for old North Side crime bosses Lenny Patrick and Gus (Slim) Alex, building a citywide reputation for himself as a menacing mob enforcer in the Outfit of the 1980s. But in 1989, fearing for his life after a falling out with Patrick, he betrayed his Outfit superiors and briefly agreed to enter the Witness Protection Program; before changing his mind and backing out of his cooperation deal when his mother’s front porch was firebombed.

Right now, Rainone is halfway through a 20-year prison stretch – stashed in a prison hospital in Rochester, Minnesota – and, according to his court filing this week, battling prostate cancer, liver damage and heart ailments. The Bureau of Prisons lists his current release date in September of 2028.

In 2009, Rainone, already a convicted felon, was arrested for possession of a handgun found on his bedroom nightstand when his Addison residence was searched in the hours after he was suspected of burglarizing a Lincolnshire condo. It’s not clear how or if Rainone was let back into the Chicago mob after he played ball with the feds in the ’80s.

What is known for sure is that his gangland mentors were certified legends in the Chicago underworld, both tracing their criminal roots to the old Capone mob of Prohibition times. For years, Lenny Patrick ran the Outfit’s Jewish faction out of Rogers Park. Slim Alex was a top advisor and political fixer for longtime Chicago mob boss Tony (Joe Batters) Accardo and controlled vice in the “Loop” business district downtown.

Patrick flipped on Alex and was the star witness at Alex’s heavily-covered racketeering and extortion trial in 1992, resulting in a guilty verdict for Alex and him spending the rest of his life behind bars. Tony Accardo died peacefully of natural causes in the months preceding Alex’s trial.

The post The Long Arm Of The Law: Chi. Outfit Figure Mario Rainone Looking For Compassionate Release appeared first on The Gangster Report.

May 21, 2020 — In the weeks before a federal murder and racketeering indictment dropped in the City of Brotherly Love back in 2000, prominent criminal defense attorney Joe Santaguida arrived at the Bucks County Prison with a message for Philadelphia mobster Gaetano (Tommy Horsehead) Scafidi: his childhood pals weren’t planning to kill him when he reached the free world in the coming months.

Scafidi wasn’t buying what Santaguida was selling though. Already in conversations with the feds about cooperating, Scafidi, who hails from a deeply-rooted mob lineage, joined Team America and entered the Witness Protection Program.

Santaguida, 81, died of Parkinson’s Disease last week. He was legal counsel for Philly mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino at the time of the visit to Scafidi behind bars. Tommy Horsehead has been in hiding for the last 20 years.

Merlino, 58, and Scafidi, 56, were good friends in their younger days, but their relationship began to fray in the early 1990s as Merlino’s star rose in the mob. Scafidi suspected Merlino and their group of childhood friends that made up their gangland inner-circle of plotting to bump him off amidst a raging mob war.

In 1992, Merlino declared war on Sicilian-born Philadelphia don John Stanfa, who had been installed in the position by New York mob powers he had ties to despite him not having the full support of the soldiers on the street. Scafidi fought on the frontlines of that war, however, sensed animosity growing in his direction within the Merlino camp as the battle intensified and decided to switch sides, going to work for Stanfa.

According to court records, Stanfa talked of killing Joe Santaguida as a message to Merlino. Tommy Horsehead was arrested for extortion in the same 1994 bust that brought down the Stanfa regime and propelled Skinny Joey and his backer, old-school Bruno era goon, Ralph Natale, to victory in the mob feud.

Natale was pushed out of the way by the Merlino crew when he was jailed in June 1998 for a parole violation. A little over a year later, in the fall of 1999, Natale, facing a drug case and shunning from Merlino, flipped and agreed to testify against Merlino and his pals in court.

Then, on October 26, 1999, Natale’s consigliere, Ronnie Turchi, was found dead in the trunk of his wife’s car in South Philly. October 26 is Tommy Horsehead’s birthday. He interpreted it as a threat from Merlino and company and soon sought a meeting with the FBI.

Agreeing to take the stand for a grand jury investigating the Merlino organization, Scafidi was transferred from the Schuylkill Federal Correctional Institute to the Bucks County Prison, a Pennsylvania state corrections facility in the northern Philadelphia suburbs. Scafidi’s transfer out of the fed joint caused a stir, with Philly mob associates calling back home to voice their concerns that Tommy Horsehead might be “going bad.”

Joe Santaguiuda was tapped by the Merlino crew to solve the problem.

Santaguida traveled to Bucks County Prison in Doylestown, Pennsylvania on February 24, 2000 to visit with Tommy Scafidi. Although he called the US Attorneys Office to inquire about Scafidi’s move from one facility to the other and whether he was in fact cooperating – inquiries he received no clarification on or confirmation of –, he didn’t notify Scafidi’s attorney, Chris Furlong, of his intent to meet with him, a clear breach of legal ethics.   

At his face-to-face meeting with Scafidi in an attorneys conference room at Bucks County Prison, Santaguida told Tommy Horsehead that his boyhood pals, specifically, Skinny Joey and Skinny Joey’s consigliere at that time, George (Georgie Boy) Borgesi, were not intending on murdering him and that it was safe for him to return home to Philadelphia upon his parole. Furthermore, he explained that the notoriously anxiety-ridden Borgesi was a “nervous wreck,” and at his law office every day asking for updates on Scafidi’s mindset. He made sure to mention that Borgesi was going to write him a letter and was letting everyone on the street know that in his opinion Scafidi was “100 percent solid and not cooperating.”

Georgie Boy was wrong. Tommy Horsehead knew the ways of the mob way too well, usually it’s your friends that kill you, not your enemies. Instead of allaying his concerns about his personal safety, the jailhouse meeting with Santaguida confirmed Scafidi’s suspicions and cemented his decision to cooperate. He went in front of the grand jury three days later.

Scafidi and Borgesi were particularly close growing up and, according to NY Times Best-Selling author George Anastasia’s book The Last Gangster, had an emotional conversation about what went wrong and why Scafidi left the Merlino camp at a train station in early 1994 in the months after he jumped ship to the Stanfa side of the war and in the weeks before he was indicted and taken into custody. The 56-year old Borgesi is reputed to be Skinny Joey Merlino’s current acting boss.

On March 30, 2000, almost five weeks to the day after the meeting Santaguida had with Scafidi behind bars in Bucks County, the hammer dropped on Merlino and his whole administration as the feds indicted them on a bevy of racketeering and murder charges tied to the shooting war against Stanfa. Even with the testimony of Tommy Horsehead and Merlino’s mentor, Ralph Natale, at their four-month trial the following spring, Merlino and Borgesi avoided being convicted on any of the murder counts and were only bit from the racketeering part of the case.

Before the trial began in 2001, Merlino dumped Santaguida as his attorney and retained Eddie Jacobs to represent him in front of the jury. Skinny Joey, the longest-tenured mafia don in America, did 12 years in prison on the racketeering beef and was released in 2011, relocating to South Florida and deciding to operate his crime family from afar through front bosses. Borgesi came out of prison in 2014, reclaimed a capo’s post two years later and then last summer got appointed Merlino’s acting boss, per sources on both sides of the law.

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May 22, 2020 – Former Pagans Motorcycle Club chief Floyd (Diamond Jesse) Moore died this spring at 75 in Charleston, West Virginia. Moore was the club’s national vice president for much of the 2000s. DEA records note Diamond Jesse’s anti-drug stance in the club, a rarity in outlaw biker circles.

Moore pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, including extortion, gambling and attempted murder, stemming from a 2009 indictment where he was named as the No. 2 defendant in a sweeping 44-count federal RICO case that ensnared 55 Pagans members and associates from across the country. The No. 1 defendant in the case was Pagans’ then national president David (Black Bart) Barbeito out of Myersville, Maryland.

Because of Moore’s felony record, he couldn’t carry a firearm, so he kept his bodyguards on hand at all times, and drove around in a bullet-proof Cadillac SUV. One of his bodyguards was his son Elmer (Tramp) Moore. The other was Charleston chapter president Richard (Lucky) Weaver.

Diamond Jesse Moore received a 5-year prison sentence in the ’09 case and was released in August of 2014. Barbeito, 60, did less than a three-piece and was out by late 2011.

The power in the Pagans MC today lies with New York’s Keith (Conan the Barbarian) Richter, who headquarters out of the Long Island chapter and has been national president since 2016. Moore’s funeral was in April.

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May 23, 2020 — Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board granted Toronto mafia boss Jimmy DeMaria his request for release to home confinement this week as it decides whether he will be deported back to Italy. DeMaria, 66, was released from an Ontario prison last month after doing 6 years for a parole violation, only to be detained by Canadian Border Service Agents that same day for deportation. On Wednesday, his wife put up a $400,000 performance bond to ensure DeMaria won’t skip town.

Although born in Italy, DeMaria has spent most of his life living in Toronto and has never been nationalized. Authorities in Ontario claim he runs the city’s N’drangheta mafia family and he remains on lifetime parole for the April 1981 gangland murder of Vince Figliomeni.

DeMaria shot Figliomeni in the back and then bludgeoned him to death with the butt of a 22-caliber revolver for failing to pay back a $2,000 street loan. The murder took place in the alley behind the grocery store Figliomeni worked at and DeMaria did a decade in the can for the hit. He walked free in 1992. His parole violation came by attending two of his nephews’ weddings in the summer of 2013 where he was in the presence of known organized crime figures.

The Federal Court of Canada has ordered DeMaria deported in the past, first in 1984 and then again in 2018, only for the sly crime lord to slip out of getting booted from the country on both occasions because of successful appeals. The country’s Immigration and Refugee Board will decide on DeMaria’s deportation fate for a third time in the coming months.

DeMaria headquartered out of Angel’s Bakery on Toronto’s Westside and a financial company he owned called Invicta. He financed his son’s Cash House franchise of payday loan and currency exchange centers that maintained 20 locations throughout Ontario.

After DeMaria’s most-recent pinch in November 2013, Royal Mounted Canadian Police traced $250,000,000 running through bank accounts tied to him in some fashion dating back seven years. Months before he was arrested, RMCP detectives warned DeMaria of a murder contract placed on his head by Montreal mafia boss Vito Rizzuto.

The Rizzuto mob empire has been under siege for more than a decade, a war that started in Quebec in the 2000s, but by the 2010s had reached Ontario’s Toronto and Hamilton mafia factions.The Canadian mob war still rages today. Rizzuto himself died of cancer in December 2013 at the age of 63.

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May 24, 2020 – The men Toronto mob boss Jimmy DeMaria must stay away from on home confinement awaiting deportation proceedings were all indicted in “Operation Canadian ‘Ndranghetta Connection 2” out of Italy last year. DeMaria, 66, had been in prison for six years on a parole violation until his release last month and detainment by the Canadian Border Service Agency.

The Immigration and Refugee Board ordered DeMaria released to home confinement Wednesday. A decision on whether he’ll be deported back to his native Italy is expected this summer. Per the Immigration and Refugee Board’s release order this week, DeMaria is barred from contact with eight alleged mafia figures, including his baby brother, 56-year old Joe.

Jimmy DeMaria leads the ‘Ndranghetta crime family in Ontario. He was jailed in 2014 for violating his lifetime parole from a 1980s murder conviction. Royal Canadian Mounted Police surveillance units observed DeMaria attending two weddings of family members in 2013 in which fellow mob leaders attended – a violation of his parole restrictions – and informed his parole officer.

DeMaria served his prison time in a Kingston, Ontario facility. “Operation Canadian ‘Ndranghetta Connection 2” was filed in Italy in August of 2019 and named his brother Joe DeMaria, his cousin, Mike Carabetta and Toronto organized crime figures Angelo (Don Angelino) Figliomeni, Cosimo (Mino) Figliomeni, Rocco (Remo) Commisso and Luigi (The Undertaker) Vescio and Calabrian mobsters Frank (The Chosen) Commisso, Vincenzo Mula and Giuseppe (Pino) Gregaraci, among others, in the racketeering conspiracy. Jimmy DeMaria is prohibited from any form of contact with all the aforementioned men, except Gregaraci, who is deceased.

The Figliomeni brothers are alleged to lead a faction of the Toronto mafia. Remo and Frank Commisso are major players in the Commisso wing of the Ontario underworld headed by Cosimo (The Quail) Commisso. Frank Commisso has residences in both Ontario and Siderno. Luigi Vescio owns a chain of funeral parlors in the Toronto area and is considered an advisor to Jimmy DeMaria.

In late-March 2019, Vincenzo Mula and Pino Gregaraci flew from Italy to Toronto on a mission to find details regarding why Mula’s little brother Carmelo (Mino) Mula, was killed in Siderno a year previous, according to court files. The Figliomeni brothers met with them on Jimmy DeMaria’s behalf and then Vescio, who had chauffeured Mula and Gregaraci from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport to their sitdown with the Figliomenis, then drove himself to visit DeMaria in order to relay what was said at the sitdown. Vincenzo Mula’s cell phone was bugged by Italian law enforcement and the bulk of his conversations on the trip were recorded.

Gregaraci committed suicide in his jail cell back in January. The Figliomeni brothers operate out of the Toronto suburb of Vaughan and had outstanding warrants for their arrests in Italy before the Operation Canadian ‘Ndranghetta Connection 2 landed last summer.

The post Toronto Mafia Chief Jimmy DeMaria Has No-Contact Order For Operation Canadian ‘Ndranghetta 2 Crew appeared first on The Gangster Report.