June 11, 2020 – Hankton Boys Gang turncoat Jerod (Fly Fedi) Fedison is in trouble with the law again in New Orleans. He’s currently cooling his heels in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center and Telly Hankton is probably ecstatic at the news, considering Fedison’s testimony helped put him behind bars for the rest of his life.

The 38-year old Fedison, who four years ago was a star witness at the federal drug and murder trial of Crescent City kingpin “Wild Telly” Hankton, was arrested for attempted murder last week. Back in early May, he allegedly opened fire on a car with three passengers in it in Jefferson Parish. One of the men inside the vehicle was wounded.

The Hankton Boys Gang ran the New Orleans dope game in the 1990s and 2000s. The organization had affiliations with the Cash Money Records rap label, Cash Money founders, the Williams brothers, and the label’s cornerstone act Lil’ Wayne.

In 2009, “Fly Fedi” Fedison and seminal Cash Money artist Christopher (B.G.) Dorsey were charged with weapons offenses when the pair were pulled over in a stolen car leaving his girlfriend’s house and police found three unregistered guns. Fedison was given 20 years in the case but got out early by cutting a deal to testify against Wild Telly Hankton and his main enforcer Walter (Moonie) Porter at their highly-publicized 2016 trial.

Fly Fedi was in Porter’s crew and met Hankton through Porter in the late 2000s upon Porter campaigning to join the Hankton Boys Gang and quickly shooting up the ranks to become the gang’s No. 1 triggerman. B.G. name-checked Moonie Porter in his raps before being sent to prison for 14 years in the gun case he took with Fedison.

The post Star Witness In N.O. Drug Boss Wild Telly Hankton’s Trial Back In The Can, Arrested In Shooting appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 11, 2020 – Questions still linger a decade later in the mystery surrounding who bumped off Philadelphia bookie and drug dealer Rocco Maniscalco. And who ordered it. This week is the 10-year anniversary of Maniscalco’s murder.

The investigation remains open and active, per sources in federal law enforcement, one of a half-dozen cold-case gangland slayings potentially tied to Bruno-Scarfo crime family affairs being probed by the FBI dating back to the late 1990s. All of the hits took place during Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi’s tenure as acting boss of the Philly mafia.

The 38-year old Maniscalco was gunned down in the early hours of June 10, 2010 as he returned home to his rowhouse in South Philly from watching Game 6 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Chicago Blackhawks at the Wolf Street Cafe a block away. Eye-witnesses told police the shooter was a thin white middle-aged man.

Maniscalco was the great nephew of legendary Philly mob rogue Harry (The Hunchback) Riccobene and was reportedly beefing with Bruno-Scarfo crime family leaders at the time of his killing, just like his uncle had done years before in the Scarfo era. He was also in a dispute with a group of non-mafia affiliated drug dealers over an unpaid $60,000 gambling tab.

Pint-sized Harry Riccobene, who fought the maniacal and equally vertically-challenged boss Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo for power in the Philly mob in the 1980s, died behind bars in 2000 at 90 years old of a sepsis infection. By the time Harry the Hunchback passed, Scarfo was in prison for life and the chic, shoot-from-the-hip Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino mob had emerged, winning his own war for power in the Family. The moxie-drenched Merlino crew is still on top today.

Merlino has long deferred to old-school mob politico Uncle Joe Ligmabi, for day-to-day management of the borgata, according to court records. Ligambi, quiet and understated, stabilized the family while the flash-bulb friendly Merlino served a 12-year prison sentence.

Maniscalco allegedly ran drug and gambling businesses from New Era Collision, an auto body shop on 25^th and Wharton. Starting in around January 2010, he began getting “leaned on” by Ligambi and Ligambi’s nephew, George (Georgie Boy) Borgesi, for a piece of his rackets in the form of a street tax, according to Mansicalco’s widow and sister and more than one FBI informant.

According an internal FBI memo circulated in 2013, hoodlums representing Ligambi and Borgesi, respectively, paid Maniscalco separate visits at New Era Collision in the spring of 2010 and demanded a cut of his narcotics and bookmaking dealings. Ligambi had been the crime family’s acting boss at that point for more than a decade with Merlino and Borgesi, a boyhood chum and confidant of Skinny Joey’s, both out of town serving prison terms for racketeering.

Uncle Joe Ligambi called shots for the 58-year old Merlino on the streets for 20 years (1999-2019). He retired last summer at his 80th birthday party, per sources. Borgesi, 56, is alleged to have replaced Ligambi as Merlino’s acting boss, having previously served in a consigliere and capo capacity.

Skinny Joey has lived in South Florida since getting out of prison on his racketeering case in 2011. Borgesi got out of the can in 2014 after him and his uncle beat an extortion bust at two trials and returned to South Philly.

In the early 2000s, Maniscalco was on good terms with the local mafia, per FBI records; his New Era Collision headquarters was a hangout for lower-level knockaround guys from the neighborhood and even used for an employment spot when some of Merlino’s men were paroled from prison. One of the parolees who got work at New Era Collision was particularly close to Borgesi. Merlino’s pal Carl Bradley was good friends with Maniscalco and often seen in his office at the auto body shop. Things began changing in late 2009 though and by the winter of 2010, Maniscalco, was wearing a bulletproof vest whenever he left his house.

Ligambi was convicted of a gangland murder in 1989, but had the guilty verdict thrown out on appeal. Borgesi and Merlino are suspects in a collection of mob hits from the 1990s. They both beat murder raps at their 2001 racketeering trial. One witness at Borgesi and Ligambi’s 2013 trial, recounted how Borgesi bragged to him of committing 11 mob murders in a car ride by signaling the No. 11 with his hands.

The post Rocco Maniscalco Slaying Remains An Open Case, Philly Mob Associate Clipped 10 Years Ago This Week appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 13, 2020 – The Roman Empire in the Mexican Mafia has come to an abrupt end.

Mexican Mafia boss Danny (Popeye) Roman was stabbed to death in the yard at California’s Corcoran State Prison this week sending shock waves through “La Eme,” the entire west coast prison system and the streets of Southern Cal. Roman, 64, had lorded over the southwest side of Los Angeles County from his prison cell for the past three and a half decades. He headed a Mexican Mafia crew known as the “Harpy’s Dead End 13” gang.

Raul Alvarado, 47, and Edward Cisneros, 31, were identified as Roman’s alleged killers by the prison Thursday. Both Alvarado and Cisneros are serving life sentences and members of the Harpy’s Dead End 13 crew. Roman was doing life for a murder conviction from the early 1980s.

The feds picked off a good chunk of Popeye Roman’s leadership structure on the street when the Operation Roman Empire case dropped in 2012, ensnaring 18 of Roman’s minions, including his daughter Vianna and “outside” shot-caller Manuel (Droopy) Valencias. Due to Popeye himself already being in the middle of a life sentence, the government didn’t charge him in the indictment bearing his name.

Harpy’s wear Houston Astros colors and gear to represent their set. The gang is well known for supplying the students and on-campus drug dealers at the prestigious University of Southern California with narcotics.

La Eme traces its roots to the prison system. Founded inside the California Department of Corrections in 1957, the Mexican Mafia eventually spread to the street and today is one of the most powerful and ruthless criminal organizations in the United States. Mexican Mafia co-founder Rodolfo (Cheyenne) Cadena pioneered the concept of “controlling the inside in order to control the outside,” prior to his 1972 assassination in prison.

The post Mexican Mafia Don Popeye Roman Assassinated, Harpy’s Crew In SW L.A. Grieves For Fallen Leader appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The Bufalino crime family in Northeastern Pennsylvania was once a power in U.S. mafia circles but by the 1980s was on its last legs in terms of strength and influence. Russell Bufalino, the borgata’s longtime boss, was closely aligned with the Genovese crime family out of New York. When Bufalino died of natural causes in February 1994 at the ripe old age of 90, his organization’s glory days of controlling all vice in Scranton, Pittson and Wilks-Barre were in the distant past. Actor Joe Pesci was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Bufalino in the 2019 Netflix film, The Irishman.

The Last Days Of The Bufalino Mob Timeline (1980-1990)

December 1980 – Pennsylvania Godfather Russell Bufalino indicted for the attempted murder of Jack Napoli, who was in the Witness Protection Program after testifying against Bufalino at a 1977 extortion trial and sending him to prison for three years.

December 1980 – Bufalino crime family enforcer Frank (The Irishman) Sheeran is indicted for labor racketeering and bribery. Sheeran is Bufalino’s bodyguard and right-hand man and is president of the Delaware Teamsters.

*In the months before he died in 2004, Sheeran admitted to killing Detroit Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, the basis for the 2019 movie The Irishman, starring Joe Pesci as Bufalino, Robert DeNiro as Sheeran and Al Pacino as Hoffa.

June 13, 1981 – Buffalino crime family soldier Angelo Son dies of natural causes.

November 1981 – Bufalino crime family consigliere Eddie (The Conductor) Sciandra is busted for for tax fraud.

November 1981 – Russell Buffalino is found guilty of trying to kill Jack Napoli and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

December 1981 – Frank Sheeran is found guilty of labor racketeering and bribery and sentenced to 18 years in federal prison.

October 1982 – Bufalino crime family underboss Dave Ostico is indicted on conspiracy charges and for obstruction of justice.

December 27, 1982 – Bufalino crime family hit man Gioacchino (Dandy Jack) Parisi died of natural causes. Parisi was a member of the Murder, Inc. wing of the New York mafia in the 1930s and 40s.

February 11, 1983 – Bufalino crime family capo Phil Medico dies of natural causes.

March 1983 – Bufalino crime family associate Ellis Klepfer is indicted for aiding and abetting racketeering.

July 29, 1983 – Bufalino crime family soldier Louis (Las Vegas Lou) Marconi dies of natural causes. Marconi oversaw Las Vegas casino travel junkets from his base of operations in Binghamton, New York and dabbled in the garment center rackets.

December 1983 – Dave Osticco is sentenced to 8 years in prison in his conspiracy and obstruction case.

March 17, 1984 – Bufalino crime family soldier Aldo Magnelli dies of natural causes.

July 5, 1984 – Bufalino crime family elder statesman Steve La Torre dies of natural causes. La Torre and his brothers had brought the Italian mafia to Northeastern Pennsylvania from Montedoro, Sicily at the turn of the 20th Century.

September 1984 – Ellis Klepfer pleads guilty and is sentenced to 2 years in prison.

December 1984 – Bufalino crime family solider Charles (Charlie Lips) Fratello is arrested in Florida and charged with murder.

August 1985 – Charlie Fratello is found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

March 4, 1987 – Bufalino crime family soldier Casper (Cappy) Guimento dies of natural causes. Guimento was Russell Bufalino’s driver.

April 29, 1987 – Bufalino crime family soldier Angelo Sciandra dies of natural causes.

May 1987 – Bufalino crime family capo Anthony (Guv) Guarnieri is indicted by the feds for drugs, weapons and counterfeiting. Guarnieri ran the Bufalino’s Binghamton, New York rackets.

August 11, 1988 – Dave Osticco is released from prison.

May 5, 1989 – Russell Buffalino is released from prison.

October 1989 – “Guv” Guarnieri and Bufalino button man Anthony Mosco indicted for labor racketeering.

April 20, 1990 – Bufalino crime family capo Dominic (Nick Rags) Alaimo dies of natural causes. Alaimo ran the Bufalino’s garment industry rackets.

June 15, 1990 – David Ostico dies of natural causes.

August 12, 1990 – “Guv” Guarnieri dies of natural causes at 80, two weeks after being smacked with a 30-year prison sentence for the labor racketeering pinch he took the year before.

The post The Final Countdown: Last Days Of The Bufalino Crime Family Timeline (1980-1990) appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 14, 2020 – Montreal mobster Vincenzo (Vinnie Black) Armeni was paroled from prison this week after serving 14 years for a drug bust he took while out on parole for another narcotics conspiracy case from the 1990s. Some of those closest to his heart on the street are no longer around to welcome him home.

Armeni, 63, returns to a Canadian mafia landscape torn apart by war, a blood feud between the sitting Rizzuto crime family and a group of loosely banded-together dissidents raging for more than a decade now. Several victims of the war were Vinnie Black’s mentors and partners in the mob. One of the them was his own brother-in-law.

The Parole Board of Canada granted Armeni his release late last month. He was convicted of trafficking 160 kilos of cocaine in 1998. Then, in 2006, he was nailed in another coke case only months after his release on his first coke case. The board denied Vinnie Black his bid for freedom at a 2016 hearing.

Prior to his incarceration, Armeni was linked to Montreal mob leaders Agostino Cuntrera, Moreno (The Turkey) Gallo and Giuseppe (Smiling Joe) Di Maulo. Cuntrera was the Rizzuto crime family’s acting boss in the 2000s, Di Maulo and Gallo were considered capos.

When the war broke out, Cuntrera sided with boss Vito Rizzuto (d. 2013 cancer) and Di Maulo and Moreno sided against Rizzuto. Cuntrera was killed in 2010. Di Maulo was gunned down in 2012 and Gallo in 2013 in Mexico. Armeni’s brother-in-law, button man Tony Callocchio, backed Moreno and Di Maulo’s play and was shot to death as he ate lunch in a trendy suburban bistro in December 2014.

The post Mafia Drug Dealer Leaves Prison In Montreal, Let Go Into Chaotic Terrain appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 15, 2020 – The Philadelphia mob held the first of more than a half-dozen making rituals to replenish the crime family’s stagnating rank and file 40 years ago this week. Three months after longtime don Angelo Bruno was assassinated, new boss Phil (The Chicken Man) Testa initiated 8 soldiers at a ceremony held at the home of South Philly capo John Cappello. According to FBI records, it was the first making ceremony in at least six years and only the second in over a decade.

Fearing exposure to law enforcement, Bruno had, for all intents and purposes, closed the books on entrance into the Family in the final half of his two-decade reign, which came to a shockingly brutal end when he was shotgunned to death smoking a cigarette outside his South Philly row house on March 21, 1980. The men who had perpetrated the unsanctioned hit, were summoned to New York and murdered by the Commission. That left, Testa, Bruno’s underboss, as the next Godfather and he decided he wanted to rebuild the organization with an injection of much-needed fresh blood.

On June 8, 1980, Testa inducted his son, Salvie, his consigliere Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo’s nephew and surrogate son, Philip (Crazy Phil) Leonetti, his underboss Pete Casella brother’s Tony Casella, Scarfo’s best friend Salvatore (Chucky) Merlino, Anthony (The Blonde Babe) Pungitore, Salvatore (Wayne) Grande, Frank (Frankie Windows) Narducci, Jr. and Bobby Lumio. Both Grande and Narducci’s dads were made members of the crime family. Cappello was the Casella’s brother-in-law and ran the J&A Food Market.

“Chicken Man” Testa was killed less than a year later, famously blown up by a nail bomb on his front porch in an assassination memorialized by the Bruce Springsteen song “Atlantic City,” referencing the ongoing battle for the AC casino rackets and building contracts. The Casellas were kicked out of town when they were discovered to have been part of the plot to overthrow Testa.

Little Nicky Scarfo took over the crime family in 1981, naming Chuckie Merlino his underboss and promoting Salvie Testa and Phil Leonetti to capo spots. Leonetti eventually replaced Merlino as his uncle’s No. 2 man in 1986 after Scarfo demoted Merlino for his drinking problem. Little Nicky’s time at the helm was unhinged and target-rich, resulting in an era of blood-ridden instability and growing dissent in the ranks. Things wouldn’t calm down until years after Scarfo was swept off the street by the feds.

The younger Testa was slain in a South Philly candy store in 1984, having fallen out of favor with Scarfo because of his rising popularity. Leonetti flipped in 1989, following him, Scarfo and Merlino being convicted in a giant racketeering and murder case. Wayne Grande, known for being one of Scarfo’s most trusted hit men and nicknamed after iconic tough-guy actor John Wayne for his cowboy behavior, also wound up entering the Witness Protection Program.

Scarfo died in prison of heart failure in 2017. Chuckie Merlino passed from cancer in 2012. Merlino’s son, Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, is the boss of the Philadelphia mafia today. Grande’s son, Domenic (Baby Dom) Grande is alleged to be one of Merlino’s capos.

The post Floodgates Opened For Philly Mafia Inductions With June 1980 Ceremony Presided Over By Chicken Man appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The Rizzuto crime family in Canada came under siege from within in the late 2000s with boss Vito Rizzuto being sent away to prison. Hundreds of bodies have piled up since and even though Rizzuto died of cancer in 2013, there seems no end in sight for a mob war that has already claimed hundreds of lives.

The Montreal Mafia War Murder Timeline (2005-2020):

August 11, 2005 – Montreal mobster Johnny Bertolo, a racketeer, builder and construction union rep aligned with Rizzuto crime family power, Raynald Desjardins, is killed as he left his gym after a falling out with Vito Rizzuto. The Bertolo murder is believed to have started the bad blood between Desjardins and Rizzuto.

August 30, 2006 – Rizzuto crime family enforcer Domenico Macri is killed in a drive-by shooting as he sat at a traffic light in downtown Montreal.

September 7, 2007 – Montreal mob figure Frank Velenosi, a main lieutenant of Rizzuto crime family underboss, Francesco (Compare Frank) Arcadi, is found stabbed to death in the trunk of his car.

January 15, 2008 – Rizzuto crime family enforcer Constantin (Big Gus) Alevizos is killed.

December 4, 2008 – Rizzuto crime family soldier Mario (Skinny) Marabella is killed as gunmen open fire on him as he exits his vehicle and goes to fill up his tank at a Montreal gas station.

January 16, 2009 – Montreal mobster Sam Fasulo, a top henchman for Compare Frank Arcadi, is murdered.

August 21, 2009 – Montreal mobster Freddy Del Peschio, a Rizzuto confidant, is slain.

December 28, 2009 – Montreal mobster Nicolo (Ritzy Nick) Rizzuto, Jr., Vito’s son and protégé, is shot dead in broad daylight.

March 19, 2010 – Greek mobster Pete Christopulous, a bodyguard for Haitian gangster Ducarme Joseph, is killed in an attempt to assassinate Ducarme inside Ducarme’s women’s clothing boutique located in a Montreal shopping plaza (Joseph, the leader of the 67s Gang, was the suspected shooter in the Ritzy Nick Rizzuto hit).

May 19, 2010 – Rizzuto crime family consigliere Paolo Renda, Vito Rizzuto’s brother-in-law, vanishes and is presumed dead.

June 29, 2010 – Rizzuto crime family acting boss Agostino Cuntrera and his bodyguard Liborio Sciascia are killed in a hail of bullets outside Cuntrera’s office.

September 29, 2010 – Rizzuto clan enforcer Ennio Bruni is killed, gunned down in a crowded Montreal strip mall.

November 10, 2010 – Montreal mafia patriarch, Nicolo (Uncle Nick) Rizzuto, a mafia dignitary on multiple continents, is shot dead in his kitchen by a sniper’s rifle.

January 31, 2011 – Montreal mobster Antonio Salvo, one of Compare Frank Arcadi lieutenants, is killed outside his home.

October 24, 2011 – Rizzuto ally-turned-rival Larry Lopresti, the son of a slain Rizzuto lieutenant, is killed on his home balcony in suburban Montreal while smoking a cigarette.

November 24, 2011 – New York mob don Salvatore (Sal the Ironworker) Montagna is assassinated near a woodsy riverbed as he runs from an ambush in suburban Montreal after his and Desjardins’ palace coup goes awry (Desjardins eventually pleads guilty in the murder plot).

March 1, 2012 – Montreal mobster Giuseppe (Joe Closure) Colapelle, a Rizzuto lieutenant-turned-Desjardins loyalist is slain.

May 4, 2012 – Montreal mobster Joe Renda, a stealthy Rizzuto ally-turned-Montagna-backer, disappears and is presumed dead.

July 16, 2012 – Money-laundering expert Walter Gutierrez, tasked with washing illegal windfall for the Rizzuto crime family, is killed in a barrage of bullets as he walks towards his house in a West End Montreal neighborhood.

August 14, 2012 – Haitian street gang leaders Chenier Dupuy & Lamartine Paul are gunned down within hours of each other, Dupuy is killed as he sat in his truck outside a restaurant, Paul was murdered as he left his apartment. They were suspected of providing muscle for the anti-Rizzuto wing of the Montreal mafia.

November 5, 2012 – Montreal mob capo, Giuseppe (Smiling Joe) Di Maulo, a one-time top Rizzuto crime family power who joined forces with Montagna and Desjardins (Smiling Joe’s brother in-law), is killed outside his home by Rizzuto gunmen.

November 17, 2012 – Montreal mob associate, Mohamed Awad, a top Desjardins associate, is slain.

December 8, 2012 – Rizzuto crime family lieutenant Emilio Cordeleone is killed.

January 22, 2013 – Montreal mob associate Gaetano Gosselin, a Desjardins ally and local builder, is murdered outside his home.

January 31, 2013 – Montreal mobster Vinnie Scuderi, a Desjardins loyalist, is murdered outside his home.

May 8, 2013 – Deported Toronto mob crew boss Juan (Joe Bravo) Fernandez, the Rizzuto crime family’s captain in Ontario, is found dead in Sicily, after being marked for death by Vito Rizzuto himself for staying neutral in the war.

July 8, 2013 – Montreal mob figure and Rizzuto rival, Giuseppe (Ponytail) De Vito, is poisoned to death in his cell in a Quebec prison.

July 12, 2013 – Toronto mob enforcer Sam (The Young Gun) Calautti and his driver Jimmy Tusek, are murdered outside a bachelor party in the Woodbridge neighborhood while a suspect in the slayings of a number of Rizzuto crime family members.

November 10, 2013 – Montreal mobster Moreno (The Turkey) Gallo, a Rizzuto ally-turned-rival is killed in Acapulco on the three-year anniversary of the murder of Uncle Nick Rizzuto inside his estate.

December 18, 2013 – Montreal mob associate Roger Valiquette, closely aligned with Moreno Gallo and Smiling Joe Di Maulo loyalist, is murdered.

April 24, 2014 – Highly-feared Toronto mobster Carmine (The Animal) Verducci is shot dead on the sidewalk outside of his restaurant.

August 1, 2014 – Montreal crime lord Ducarme Joseph, the powerful Haitian street gang leader, is killed.

December 1, 2014 –– Montreal mobster Tony Callocchio is gunned down as he ate lunch at a posh suburban bistro. Callucchio was connected to the Di Maulo brothers and Moreno Gallo.

March 1, 2016 – Montreal mob figure Lorenzo (Skunk) Giordano, the acting underboss of the Rizzuto crime family, is shot to death outside his health club.

May 27, 2016 – Montreal mob figure, Rocco (Sauce) Sollecito, the acting boss of the Rizzuto crime family, is shot to death as he sat at a stop sign in his luxury SUV within less than 100 yards from a suburban Montreal police station.

June 2, 2016 — Semi-retired Montreal mobster Angelo D’Onofrio is shot to death while sitting outside a suburban Montreal coffee shop (Café Sinatra) drinking an espresso.

June 30, 2016 – Low-level Montreal mob figures Joe & Vinnie Falduto disappear and are presumed murdered.

October 15, 2016 — Montreal mobster Vince Spagnolo, one of Vito Rizzuto’s most trusted lieutenants, advisors and messengers, is shot to death outside his home.

March 14, 2017 – Mila Barberi, the beautiful 28-year old girlfriend of Toronto mobster Saverio Serrano, is killed sitting in Serrano’s car in an attack Serrano survived.

March 18, 2017 – Montreal mobster Nicola (Big Nicky) Di Marco, a top lieutenant of Ponytail De Vito’s, is killed.

May 2, 2017 — Hamilton, Ontario mobster Angelo (Big Ange) Musitano is shot to death in his driveway bringing the war to Western Ontario.

August 17, 2017 — Montreal mobster Antonio De Blasio, one of Sauce Sollecito’s closest friends, is gunned down outside his son’s football practice.

November 2, 2017 — Montreal mobster Jacques Desjardins, the brother of Raynald Desjardins, disappears and is presumed dead.

February 3, 2018 – Toronto mob figure, Daniel (Dark Danny) Ranieri, the Rizzuto rime family’s Ontario crew boss, is found dead in Mexico, two years after fleeing an indictment out of Canada.

June 28, 2018 — Montreal mob associate Steve (Stevie the Jew) Ovadia is shot to death in the parking lot of a strip mall parking lot.

June 29, 2018 — Toronto mobster Cosimo (Little C) Commisso, the nephew of Ontario mob boss Cosimo (The Quail) Commisso, and his girlfriend, are killed.

September 13, 2018 – Hamilton mob associate Al Ivarone is gunned down outside his residence in the city’s Scenic Woods neighborhood in payback for his connections to those responsible for the Angelo Musitano hit and his involvement in a feud over gambling territory in Niagara Falls.

January 24, 2019 — Montreal mob associate and construction magnate Tony (The Builder) Magi is gunned down on a construction site. The 50-year old Magi did business with the Rizzutos and was suspected of possibly being the setup man in the Ritzy Nick Rizzuto hit. He had averted a number of attempts on his life before finally being felled.

January 30, 2019 — Hamilton mob prince CeCe Luppino is shot to death in his parents driveway. The 43-year old’s dad Rocco is a heavyweight in the Hamilton mafia scene as was his grandfather Giacomo.

February 14, 2019 — Mob connected drug dealer Ray Khano is shot dead on a suburban Montreal street corner. Khano, 43, was linked to Rizzuto crime family leader Compare Frank Arcadi.

March 25. 2019— Montreal mob enforcer Mike Di Battista is shot to death behind the wheel of his car in the Dominican Republic. Di Battista was tied to mafia chief Liborio (Poncho) Cuntrera.

March 29, 2019 — Montreal mob associate Mario Simeone is slain. Simeone was linked to Tony Magi.

May 4, 2019 – Montreal mobster Salvatore Scoppa, a Rizzuto ally turned enemy, is gunned down inside the crowded lobby of a suburban hotel.

August 16, 2019 — Toronto mob figure Paulo Caputo is killed in a hail of bullets in front of his restaurant on Roncesvalles Avenue.

October 21, 2019 – Montreal mobster Andrew Scoppa, a Rizzuto ally turned enemy and Salvatore Scoppa’s brother, is gunned down in a strip mall parking lot in the city’s West End,

November 7, 2019 — Toronto mob enforcer Antonio (Scatchy) Fiorda is killed in a hail of bullets in the parking lot of a shopping mall. He was connected to the Commisso crime family.

March 5, 2020 — Hamilton bookie and real estate agent George Barresi is killed.

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June 17, 2020 — Infamous Narcos boss Carlos Lehder was released from a U.S. federal prison this week and deported to Germany. The 70-year old Lehder was iconic Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar’s chief smuggler for his Medillen Cartel, the main supplier of cocaine into North America from the late 1970s into the early 1990s, and did more than three decades behind bars. Some historians point to him as the root of the term “Cocaine Cowboy,” a label bestowed upon particularly reckless, lavish-living drug dons of the era.

Lehder, who was half German and half Colombian, was arrested in 1987 and convicted on drug conspiracy charges at trial a year later. He received a sentence reduction for aiding the U.S. government in their effort to bring down Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. After spending most of his childhood in Colombia, he moved to New York as a teenager.

Lehder’s Norman’s Cay island-getaway headquarters in the Bahamas served as the Medillen Cartel’s distribution hub, a midway point from where the drugs were manufactured and packaged in Colombia and subsequently brought onto American soil through South Florida in a fleet of aircraft flown by U.S trained pilots. When a neighbor of Lehder’s began complaining to island officials about the constant noise emanating from Lehder’s property at all hours of the day, he wound up dead.

While operating from his lawless tropical paradise, Lehder dressed in fatigues and had his own paramilitary group as his security force, earning him the nickname “Rambo,” in reference to movie star Sly Stallone’s one-man army in the eponymous series of films. Lehder was an avid collector of Adolph Hitler and Nazi Party memorabilia and developed a severe cocaine habit, making him difficult for Escobar to manage and, according to underworld lore, leading Escobar to turn him into authorities by divulging the location of his safe house.

Pablo Escobar died in a hail of bullets in 1993 in a shootout with the DEA and Colombian police on the rooftop of a private residence in Medillen. In the 2001 Johnny Depp film Blow, the character of “Diego” (played by actor Jordi Molla) was based on Lehder. Juan Riedinger portrayed Lehder in the hit Netlfix show Narcos (2015-2018).

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In this flashpoint in history, it’s imperative we address genuine prison reform. Not lip service. Action. And now.

One of the only good things to come out of the current pandemic crisis has been a thinning of incarceration numbers nationwide in order to stem the spread of COVID-19. Cramped, overcrowded federal and state prisons, county jails and metropolitan detention centers are petri dishes for the virus.

Many state justice systems and the Bureau of Prisons have recognized the dangers inherent in the environment of their respective facilities and taken action – thousands of inmates have been released to home confinement or all together in the months since the pandemic landed in the U.S. back in March. In 2019, the White House signed in the First Step Act to help non-violent drug offenders get resentenced. It’s a good start. But we need to do more.

The “Cut 50” movement, an initiative to cut the U.S. prison population by 50 percent in the next 10 years, is something legislators in Washington and state government’s need to get behind. The data and research done on recidivism supports the effort to trim the prison ranks. Studies show people “age out” of crime and non-violent offenders are five times less likely to return to prison than those convicted of violent offenses.

Even certain violent offenders, if they’ve served enough time and do the work necessary to remold their behavior, should be getting consideration for compassionate releases, pardons and commutations. Frankly, not every murderer deserves to spent the rest of their lives behind bars. Especially so, if they have something to contribute and an authentic desire to change their ways.

There is a huge gap between first and second-degree murder. Should a man found guilty of manslaughter in the his early 20s be forced to lose his entire life for one horrible decision made in the heat of the moment?

Take for example, Gangster Report correspondent Ricardo Ferrell. He’s 62 and going on year No. 40 of his sentence for second-degree murder for an altercation that occurred in downtown Detroit in 1981 when he was 23. His work with other inmates in prison is more than commendable. His successful transformation from convicted felon to published writer should be a tale of inspiration for the masses. Does Ricardo still need to be locked up after four decades when he could be on the outside, making amends with the community by making a positive impact?

I think the answer is pretty easy. The inmate population needs to shrink. And starting to let the Ricardos of the world out is an important next step.

The post Gangster Report OP-ED: It’s Time For A Change Of Approach To Imprisonment In This Country appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 18, 2020 — Chicago gang member Steven (Little Stevie) McGee was arrested this week on four counts of attempted murder after the Gangster Disciples solider opened fire on a squad car full of police. Police were in pursuit of an on-foot McGee in the 5000 block of South King Drive when he pulled out a handgun and fired at their unmarked vehicle.

The 22-year old McGee was wanted in connection to an aggravated assault with a weapon from June 10. There are conflicting reports as to whether the one officer injured in the attack was shot in the leg or just suffered a knee contusion.

Following the shooting , McGee fled inside a nearby building and had a three-hour standoff with the Chicago Police Department SWAT team until he was finally brought into custody peacefully. To get into the building, he shot out the glass front door and lobby enclosure. McGee is currently on parole for a 2015 armed robbery conviction. Cook County Circuit Judge Arthur Willis denied McGee bond Wednesday.

The legendary Larry Hoover formed the Gangster Disciples in 1969 on the South Side of Chicago when he merged his Supreme Gangsters crew with David Barksdale’s Black Disciples gang. Hoover, 69, has run the organization, today with membership in the tens of thousands and a presence in multiple states across the Midwest and down South, from behind bars for the last 47 years, since his arrest for a 1973 gangland murder. Barksdale died of a kidney disorder the year after Hoover got locked up.

The post A Brazen Act Of Violence: Cop Shooting In Chicago Brings Gangster Disciple Back Into Custody appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 20, 2020 — The Motown biker world was shook last week when well-liked Highwaymen Motorcycle Club member Ron (Greedy) Davies was killed in a grisly triple homicide. Davies, 49, and two associates were found dead in Davies’ burned down house on Detroit’s eastside on the morning of June 11. Two of the victims had been shot to death.

According to sources, Davies “patched in” with The Highwaymen in 1999. Those sources say Highwaymen shot callers in the Motor City are huddling to figure out the club’s next move in relation to a response. Detroit Police detectives have taken at least two men in for questioning regarding the murders and arson that occurred at Davies’ residence off 7 Mile Road.

The Highwaymen are the state of Michigan’s largest biker gang, founded in Detroit in 1954 by Elburn (Big Max) Burns. The club maintains chapters in Indiana, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, New York and New Jersey. There are eight chapters in Michigan – Downtown Detroit, Eastside Detroit, Westside Detroit, Northwest Detroit, Downriver, Ann Arbor, Lansing and Monroe.

Over the years, the Highwaymen have forged alliances with Detroit’s Italian mafia and Hispanic street gangs operating near the club’s Westside “mothership” chapter. The feds dismantled the club’s national leadership, located out of Southeastern Michigan, with a giant 2007 racketeering indictment. In the 2010s, the Highwaymen underwent a rebuild, per sources, with the club striving for a more business-like approach to affairs and displaying a more polished PR game.

The post Murder Of Detroit Biker Has Highwaymen MC On Edge, Looking For Answers appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 20, 2020 — Uncle Sam tried to pull a fast one on Lucchese crime family power Matty Madonna last year, but the New York Times put a wrench in his plans. United States Attorney Scott Hartman included former Harlem heroin boss Nicky (Mr. Untouchable) Barnes on his list of potential witnesses for Madonna’s 2019 murder and racketeering trial. The only problem was, Barnes was dead.

Jerry Capeci wrote of the ethically-questionable prosecutorial tactic in his Gangland News column this week. Capeci is the unofficial dean of American crime writing.

It appears the misdirection in the Lucchese prosecution was being used by Hartman as a means of leveraging some type of plea from Madonna, who was found guilty last fall of ordering the gangland slaying of mob associate Michael Meldish, a close friend and enforcer of his for decades. Meldish and Madonna worked together with Nicky Barnes in the dope game.

In the 1970s, Madonna supplied Barnes the heroin he used to take over the New York drug trade and establish himself as the biggest African-American crime lord of his generation. Barnes founded “The Council,” a ruling body of Black heroin barons inspired by “The Commission,” in the Italian mafia. While in prison in the 1950s and 60s, Barnes was mentored by Madonna and Joseph (Crazy Joe) Gallo of the then-Profaci crime family (today known as the Colombos).

Gallo was killed in 1972 in New York’s Little Italy, gunned down inside a restaurant as he ate a late-night meal for his birthday celebration. The murder was depicted in last year’s smash Netflix film The Irishman with comedian Sebastian Maniscalco playing Gallo in his first serious acting role.

Barnes entered the Witness Protection Program in 1981 after he felt he was betrayed by The Council in the wake of his own federal narcotics conspiracy conviction and imprisonment. Oscar-nominee Will Smith is slated to star in an upcoming film about Barnes’ life.  

Madonna, 85, was acting boss of the Lucchese clan from 2009 through 2017. Attorneys for Madonna were worried at the prospect of Barnes taking the stand and filed a motion to try to block it from happening. It was a moot point. The New York Times blew the lid off Hartman and the U.S. Attorneys Office’s ploy when in June 2019 the paper broke the news Barnes had died of cancer seven years earlier under an assumed name at age 78.

Madonna’s victim, Michael Meldish, was a feared mafia strong arm and hit man for the Lucchese crime family. Meldish was one of the leaders of the New York Purple Gang of the 1970s, which served as a mafia farm club for the Luccheses and the Genovese crime family. The FBI connected him to at least a dozen contract mob hits.

Meldish would often act as a collector for Madonna and the pair frequently socialized together. But their relationship soured when Madonna loaned Meldish $100,000 and Meldish refused to pay him back. At a sitdown to try and resolve the issue, Meldish cursed at Madonna, allegedly telling him to “fuck off.” On November 14, 2013, Meldish, 62, was shot to death in the passenger’s side of a Lincoln sedan in his Throggs Neck neighborhood in the Bronx.

The post Dead Man Walking: Prosecutor Played Trick On Lucchese Boss In Lead Up To ’19 Murder Trial appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 21, 2020 – According to sources, a drug beef led to Omar Coney and Demetrius Sanders trying to kill Tony Yasso last week as he arrived home at his residence in West Bloomfield, Michigan, an affluent suburb of Detroit.

The botched hit turned into a shootout and Yasso killed Sanders on his front lawn instead. Coney, a convicted felon sporting a long rap sheet, was arrested in the minutes after the shooting due to a 911 tip identifying his black-colored Dodge Charger fleeing from the scene. Yasso and Coney were both wounded in the incident. A piece of paper with Yasso’s name and address on it was found in Coney’s vehicle.

The attempted murder and home invasion were a result of a marijuana deal gone bad between Yasso and members of a Detroit drug crew, per sources. Coney, 47, is being held on a 1.5 million-dollar bond. Sanders was 37. Brandishing weapons, they had accosted the 31-year old Yasso as he walked from his garage to his front door in the early morning hours of June 17. Yasso was armed and starting blasting. He was treated for his gun shot wound at a local hospital and released.

Yasso, who is an Iraqi Christian, owns two Happy’s Pizza franchises in Detroit. Happy’s Pizza was founded by Happy Asker in the 1990s and today has dozens of outlets all throughout the Midwest. Asker’s cousin, Sal, was a member of the Iraqi mob in Detroit in the 1980s and acted a driver for the syndicate’s then-street boss Harry (The Blonde) Kalasho.

Shortly after the flashy, swaggering Kalasho was slain in a gangland hit in 1989, Sal Asker entered the Witness Protection Program and went on to become the star witness at a big forthcoming trial targeting Kalasho’s relatives. The Iraqi mob controlled drug and gambling activity in Northwest Detroit and the surrounding suburbs at that time. In April 1997, Asker was lured back to Detroit and killed in the hours following giving a taped recantation of his testimony at an attorney’s office.

The DEA has investigated the Happy’s Pizza franchise for drug links. Happy Asker himself was nailed for tax fraud and sent to prison for three years (2015-2018). One federal document from 2016 contended that the majority of Happy’s Pizza’s 54 franchisees had criminal backgrounds and were either convicted or suspect narcotics dealers.

The post Wild West Breaks Out In West Bloomfield: Shootout In The Suburbs Tied To Detroit Dope Game appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 22, 2020 – The news of NBA superstar Isiah Thomas’ alleged mob ties came to light 30 years ago this week when the CBS television affiliate in Detroit broke a story about the Detroit Pistons Hall of Fame point guard being called to testify in front of a federal grand jury investigating a mafia gambling racket in Southeast Michigan. The story ran June 15, 1990, on the day the Pistons returned home to Detroit from the west coast where they had beaten the Portland Trailblazers to repeat as NBA champions and Thomas had been named MVP of the NBA Finals.

Sport Illustrated booted the Pistons off the cover of the following week’s issue in favor of PGA U.S. Open winner Hale Irwin and the story inside was titled “Thorns In The Roses,” a reference to the allegations of Thomas’ gambling and the small-scale rioting that erupted on the streets of Detroit in celebration of the Pistons championship the night they won the crown. Thomas and CBS television (WJBK Channel 2) sports reporter Virg Jacques got into a physical altercation outside the Pistons’ practice facility when Jacques attempted to ask the legendary hoopster about his connections to the federal gambling probe. Jacques accused Thomas of trying to choke him.

Prior to the 1990 grand jury appearance, Isiah’s image had been squeaky clean, his pretty boy good looks, glowing smile and natural charm making him the perfect pitch man and role model. Behind the scenes, per more than one retired NBA vet, Thomas was known as a baby-faced assassin, feared for his cunning, back-stabbing and locker room politicking.

Per FBI and court records, Thomas was introduced to members of the Detroit mob by his best friend and neighbor Emmet Denha, an Iraqi Christian grocery store mogul and big-money gambler. Denha helped the family’s Giacalone crew launder money through his Shopper’s Market grocery chain. Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone and his younger brother Vito (Billy Jack) Giacalone were the street bosses of the Tocco-Zerilli crime family for over a half-century and prime suspects in the famous 1975 unsolved murder and disappearance of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa.

When the FBI scanned Denha’s financial records, agents noticed Thomas was cashing hundreds of thousands of dollars of checks through a number of Shopper’s Markets around Metro Detroit. Informants told the FBI, Denha got Thomas to host mob-backed “Las Vegas nights” at his posh Bloomfield Hills, Michigan mansion on multiple occasions throughout the late 1980s, where heavy-rollers from around Detroit would gather to play high-stakes dice and blackjack.

Detroit mafia figure Jack (Jackie the Kid) Giacalone, Billy Jack’s son, and gambling chief Allen (The General) Hilf, were in charge of the games, which acted as a floating casino, moving from spot to spot depending on the week. World champion boxer Tommy Hearns also hosted the casino nights at his mansion in Southfield, Michigan.

Thomas told prosecutors the checks he cashed through Denha were for his wife’s allowance and he cashed them at Denha’s stores to avoid the fanfare of going into a bank. The U.S. Attorneys Office stated clearly it was not investigating Thomas at the time the story broke in the summer of 1990. Hilf, the biggest bookie in the state of Michigan for decades, sat courtside at virtually every Pistons home game.

Billy Jack, Jackie the Kid, Allen Hilf, Emmet Denha and several others were indicted in a federal gambling and racketeering conspiracy in March 1991. They were all convicted in the case and did prison time.

According to federal documents, the FBI fielded tips that Thomas shaved points in three games in the beginning of the 1988-1989 season on behalf of Hilf and Giacalone. The FBI never uncovered enough evidence to support the accusation, per the documents. One FBI report from the spring of 1989 recounts a meeting between a pair of FBI agents and Detroit Pistons starting small forward, Mark Aguirre, Thomas’ childhood friend and closest teammate, where Aguirre requested assistance in steering Thomas away from gambling and hanging with Denha and the mob.

The 59-year old Thomas retired in 1994, as beloved of a pro athlete as the city of Detroit had ever seen. His reputation for toughness, leadership and clutch play were on par with anybody in the pantheon of NBA greats and the mob taint never stuck to him. A 12-time NBA All-Star, he was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.

The storied Giacalone Brothers both passed peacefully in 2001 and 2012, respectively. Hilf died of kidney failure in 2014. Jackie Giacalone, who just turned 70 years old this month, is reputed to be the boss of the Detroit mob today. Denha, 70, recently put his Bloomfield Township mansion up on the market for $3.2 million bucks.

Thomas’ name has been back in the headlines lately with all the buzz surrounding the ESPN Michael Jordan 30-for-30 documentary The Last Dance, chronicling Jordan’s career and final season with the Chicago Bulls in 1998. Considered the best basketball player in history , Jordan achieved his status as GOAT by finally slaying Isiah and the Pistons in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals to take the Bulls to their first of six NBA crowns and end the Piston’s “Bad Boys” era.

The Pistons-Bulls rivalry was so intense, Thomas led a walk-off during the closing moments of the ’91 series, refusing to shake hands with Jordan and wish him luck in the NBA Finals. Most reports say Jordan retaliated by blocking Isiah from joining the Dream Team in the 1992 U.S Olympics, but Jordan denied doing so in the interviews he did for The Last Dance.

Jordan’s own gambling habits almost got him in trouble back in the 1990s. Instead of attending a White House honoring of his Bulls ’91 title with his teammates, Jordan hit the golf course with noted North Carolina drug lord and driving range hustler James (Slim) Bouler and in Hilton Head, South Carolina and racked up $57,000 in debt. Jordan was called to testify at Bouler’s 1992 drug and racketeering trial in the days preceding the 1992-1993 NBA season tipping off.

The post Isiah’s Good Guy Image Began To Crack Before Jordan Beef, News Of GJ Appearance Broke 30 Years Ago appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 22, 2020 — The Gangster Report has retracted it’s June 21, 2020 story, “Wild West Breaks Out In West Bloomfield, Shootout In Suburbs Tied To Detroit Dope Game.” In the story, Detroit area businessman Tony Yasso, who was shot last week in front of his home in West Bloomfield, Michigan, is linked to a drug feud. There is no evidence supporting Yasso’s involvement in illegal narcotics dealings, as the article inferred, and the article has been removed from the site. Yasso, 31, has no criminal record.

The post Gangster Report Retraction: “Wild West Breaks Out In West Bloomfield …” Article Pulled From Site appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 22, 2020 — The long arm of the law showed a little mercy for the long arm of the Chicago mob. U.S. District Court Judge Henry Leinenweber granted Chicago Outfit soldier Mario (The Arm) Rainone motion for compassionate release Monday, letting the 65-year old wiseguy out of his gun case almost a decade early due to health concerns (prostate cancer, liver damage and a heart condition)/

Rainone has been locked up since 2009 and wasn’t scheduled for release until 2028. He 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. His old-time Outfit running buddy, Albert (Albie the Falcon) Vena, is alleged to be running the Chicago mob these days as the Outfit’s overall street boss. Vena and Rainone were Patrick and Alex’s top collection team. They were arrested together as a burglary tandem as well.

But in 1989, fearing for his life after a falling out with Patrick, Rainone 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. It’s not clear how or if Rainone was let back into the Chicago mob after he played ball with the feds, even if just for a short period of time.

In March 2009, Rainone 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. The North Side crew was disbanded in the late 1990s and rolled into the Grand Avenue-Westside regime.

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.

Today, Albie Vena headquarters off Grand Avenue at Richard’s Bar. The status of Vena and Rainone’s current relationship is unknown.

The post Federal Judge Springs Chicago Wiseguy Mario Rainone From The Can On Compassionate Release appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 23, 2020 — According to U.S. federal court documents, American-born Mexican drug cartel don, Edgar (La Barbie) Valdez, gave information to the FBI and DEA that led to his boss’ death in a shootout with authorities. Mexican magazine Aristegui Noticias ran a story last week about Valdez’s dealings with the U.S. government prior to his 2010 arrest.

Valdez’s boss, drug baron Arturo (Botas Blancos) Beltran-Leyva and three of his bodyguards, were killed on December 16, 2009 in a 90-minute gun battle with hundreds of Mexican police, a DEA swat team and members of the U.S. military outside a luxury apartment complex in Cuernavaca, Mexico Beltran-Leyva was using as hideaway. Valdez gave up the location of the safe house to a DEA agent per the court records. In the aftermath of Beltran-Leyva’s death, Valdez went to war for his organization against his three brothers, resulting in mass carnage before he was finally taken off the street less than a year later.

Most of Valdez’s cooperation had to do with corruption within the Mexican government under former Mexican President Felipe Calderon. He’s expected to be a star witness at the upcoming drug trial of Genero Garcia Luna, Mexico’s top security officer in Calderon’s administration, who was arrested by the DEA last year. The article in Aristegui Noticias details tips Valdez gave the DEA and FBI between 2008 and 2010.

The 46-year old Valdez was sentenced to 50 years in prison out of federal court in Atlanta in 2018 for narcotics trafficking. He started his career in the Mexican drug world landscape, as a bodyguard for notorious Narcos boss, Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman of the Sinaloa cartel. Nicknamed after the American blonde-doll toy franchise, La Barbie was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, where he was a high school football star and then a local marijuana kingpin.

Valdez fled the law in the U.S. in the late 1990s and hooked up with Guzman, first as an enforcer and personal driver and then as head of the Sinaloa’s Gulf region. The DEA estimates he oversaw the transportation and distribution of 2,000 kilos of cocaine a month into the U.S. through Texas.

When the four Beltran-Leyva brothers (Arturo, Carlos, Hector and Alfredo) decided to break off from Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel and start their own narcotics conglomerate, Valdez joined them and given his own crew to run known as “Los Negros.” While living in Mexico, he met and married the daughter of fellow drug lord Carlos (El Charro) Montemayor.

After Arturo Beltran-Leyva was killed, Valdez squared off against his brother, Hector (El Ingeniero) Beltran-Leyva, for control of the organization in a bloody power struggle that resulted in hundreds of slayings. Valdez became famous for videotaping murders, decapitations and torture sessions and circulating them on-line as an intimidation tactic.

There are currently two Hollywood films in development about Valdez’s life. In 2011, Legendary Pictures optioned a Rolling Stone Magazine article about Valdez and have attached Charlie Hunnam of Sons of Anarchy fame to the project as El Barbie. Actor Arnie Hammer purchased Valdez’s life rights in 2016 and intends on starring in and producing a biopic as well.

The post “La Barbie” Helped DEA Hunt Down Cartel Boss, Beltran-Leyva In ’09, War Ensued Court Records Claim appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 24, 2020 – With the full force of the federal government aimed at finding and arresting him, then-New England mob boss Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme sneaked back into Boston to attend his son’s funeral 25 years ago this week, per exclusive Gangster Report sources. Hot-tempered Boston wiseguy Francis (Frankie Boy) Salemme, Jr. died of AIDS-related cancer and was laid to rest on June 24, 1995. He was 38 and under indictment for extortion when he passed.

His dad, on the run from the FBI since that winter, watched the funeral from a car in the distance, according to sources, doing a “drive by” to pay his respects while exposing himself to capture at a cemetery burial crawling with cops. Cadillac Frank had fled Boston for Florida after the 1994 holidays to avoid being taken into custody in a largescale racketeering case filed against him and his Winter Hill Gang allies, James (Whitey) Bulger and Stevie (The Rifleman) Flemmi.

The elder Salemme was very close to his son and per one source, thought saying goodbye to Frankie Boy, even if from a distant, was worth the risk of getting caught. Salemme’s time on the run didn’t last much longer and he was finally nabbed in Palm Beach, Florida on August 12, 1995, his reign as mafia don having come to an unceremonious end.

Cadillac Frank, who was half Irish, had leveraged his close ties to Boston’s Irish mob, known as the Winter Hill Gang, in his rise to power in the Patriarca crime family at the beginning of the decade. When he was in state prison (for a car bombing attack on a mob lawyer) in the 1970s and most of the 1980s, the Winter Hill crew protected Frankie Boy on the street.

Today, the 86-year old Salemme is serving a life sentence at a prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri for a first-degree murder conviction he incurred two years ago. In the summer of 2018, Salemme was found guilty of ordering the gangland slaying of nightclub owner Stevie DiSarro during his rocky Beantown mob regime of the early 1990s.   

DiSarro, 43, was strangled to death by Frankie Boy Salemme in the Salemme family home in the upscale suburb of Sharon, Massachusetts on the morning of May 10, 1993. Cadillac Frank summoned DiSarro, a partner of his and his son’s in a South Boston go-go bar, to see him and watched as Frankie Boy choked him out in the kitchen. Stevie Flemmi accidentally walked in on the hit as it was occurring.

The Salemmes suspected DiSarro was stealing from the iconic rock club-turned-strip-joint they were running and cooperating with the FBI and IRS. The three of them had muscled their way into ownership of The Channel, a legendary music venue from the 1980s in the heart of Winter Hill Gang territory, but by 1993 they had rebranded it as a topless bar called Soiree.

One of the reasons for the pivot was Frankie Boy’s constant erratic behavior at the club, getting into physical altercations with musicians, patrons and the club’s previous owner. Frankie Boy and DiSarro had been good friends and together they convinced Frankie Boy’s dad it was a smart business move to mount a takeover of The Channel. During one dinner meeting about the club’s purchase, Salemme, Jr. broke a plate over one potential investor’s head in a fit of rage.

At the time that he killed DiSarro, Frankie Boy was out on bond awaiting trial for shaking down an FBI-created Hollywood film production company, promising to palm-grease the Teamsters on future movie shoots in New England to eliminate non-union labor concerns. Salemme, Jr. had been sent out to California to seek out rackets for the Patriarcas in Cadillac Frank’s west coast expansion effort, his desire to plant flags in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Based on a tip from a cooperator out of the Patriarca’s Rhode Island wing, the feds exhumed DiSarro’s remains from behind a converted textile mill in Providence in 2016. Salemme had entered the Witness Protection Program in 1999 upon learning of Bulger and Flemmi’s longtime work as confidential informants for the FBI.

By the time DiSarro’s body was dug up, Cadillac Frank was living under an assumed identity in Atlanta. Years earlier he had pleaded guilty to perjury charges connected to lying about his knowledge of DiSarro’s murder in his initial cooperation agreement.

Bulger was on the run for 16 years, finally apprehended living in California in 2011 and convicted of a dozen murders at trial two years later. He was beaten to death in a 2018 prison attack. Oscar-nominated actor Johnny Depp portrayed Whitey Bulger in the 2015 film Black Mass. Flemmi, 86, was the star witness at Salemme’s trial.

The DiSarro murder is just one of at least a half-dozen mob hits Salemme is believed to have lied and misled the feds about. A federal grand jury has been impaneled in Providence for the last three years hearing testimony in the 1992 Kevin Hanrahan murder case, per sources. Informants have told the FBI that Salemme ordered Hanrahan killed when word began to spread of Hanrahan, an enforcer for the crime family, planning a revolt and intending on executing Salemme and his entire mob cabinet.

The post Cadillac Frank Secretly Attended Son’s ’95 Funeral While In Hiding, Final Days Of Salemme N.E. Mob Regime Somber In Tone appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 25, 2020 — A little luck of the Irish wouldn’t hurt right about now for a Windy City mafia power hoping for a break and a possible re-sentencing on the horizon. Former Chicago mob boss James (Jimmy the Man) Marcello, half Irish on his mother’s side, has filed an appeal of his federal racketeering and murder conviction in the landmark Operation Family Secrets case on the grounds that his sentence was overly punitive, citing a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year. In the high court’s 2019 “Davis ruling,” sentences increased for criminal activity committed with a gun have been determined to be unconstitutionally vague.

The 76-year old Marcello was the Outfit’s street boss in the early 2000s. In 2007, he was found guilty of driving Las Vegas crew boss Tony (The Ant) Spilotro and his little brother Mickey, to a Bensenville residence on June 14, 1986 where they were beaten and strangled to death in the basement for Tony’s flagrant and subversive behavior in the desert. Spilotro’s in-your-face rampage on the Vegas Strip was depicted in the 1995 film Casino, as was the infamously gruesome double homicide that ended his life.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel sentenced Marcello, a career criminal out of the Chicago mob’s Cicero regime, to life in prison. He’s doing his time in the Florence, Colorado Supermax facility for the nation’s most powerful and dangerous felons.

Marcello came up through the Outfit as a driver for Chicago mob boss Sam (Wings) Carlisi. Marcello’s dad was slain Cicero crew collector Sam (Sammy Eyes) Marcello, murdered in 1973 by small-time,Outfit-connected crook Sam (Sammy Paper) Rantis, who himself would pop up dead weeks later. Rantis didn’t have Marcello’s tribute one day close to Christmas and killed Marcello and his bodyguard when they came to collect.

FBI informants claim a young Jimmy Marcello, then known as “Little Jimmy” or “Jimmy Lights,” made his bones on the Sammy Paper hit. Marcello was inducted into the Chicago mob in a 1983 ceremony, per court records.

He was busted with Carlisi in the 1990s in a federal racketeering case and did a decade in the can before emerging from a Milan, Michigan prison cell in 2003 and ascending directly to the throne, being named acting boss of the Outfit. His reign on top of the Chicago underworld was short lived though and he was swept up as a lead defendant in the groundbreaking Family Secrets indictment that dropped in the spring of 2005. Carlisi had died of a heart attack in prison back in 1997.

Jimmy the Man’s not-so-little brother Michael (Big Mickey) Marcello was nailed in the Family Secrets case and did prison time as well. Big Mickey Marcello, 69, was arrested for social security fraud late last year and is currently out on bond awaiting trial.

The post Imprisoned Chicago Mob Chief Looks To Lady Luck, Jimmy Marcello Throws Hail Mary In Re-Sentencing Bid appeared first on The Gangster Report.

June 26, 2020 – Tensions began to rise between New England mob figures Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme and Raymond (Ray Rubber Lips) Patriarca, Jr. after Salemme survived an assassination attempt in the late 1980s and Patriarca, Jr. failed to follow through on a promise to pick up the tab for his hospital stay, per FBI records. At the time, Patriarca, Jr. was in the process of being forced out as boss of the Patriarca crime family, named after his dad, who died of a heart attack in 1984.

Patriarca, Jr. went to prison shortly thereafter and Cadillac Frank Salemme eventually became boss himself. Upon Salemme taking the reins of the crime family, Patriarca, Jr. put a murder contract on his head from behind bars, giving the contract to feared Providence mob enforcer Kevin Hanrahan.

One informant told the feds that Patriarca, Jr. forked over $100,000 for the job. Salemme got wind of the plot and had Hanrahan whacked, per multiple informants, so the money ultimately went to waste.

Hanrahan was gunned down in Providence’s Federal Hill neighborhood on September 18, 1992 leaving a dinner at The Arch steakhouse with a group of Salemme loyalists. A federal grand jury has been convened for the past three years in Rhode Island hearing testimony on the Hanrahan case, per sources.

Salemme, 86, is already serving life in prison for the May 1993 gangland slaying of nightclub owner Stevie DiSarro, who was partnered with Salemme in a South Boston go-go bar and alleged to be stealing and cooperating with the government. DiSarro’s body was dug up in 2016 behind a converted Providence textile mill and Salemme, in hiding in the Witness Protection Program, was arrested that summer and convicted at a 2018 trial.

According to testimony at the trial, Cadillac Frank called DiSarro to a meeting at his home in Sharon, Massachusetts and watched as his wiseguy son, Francis (Frankie Boy) Salemme, Jr. strangled him to death. Frankie Boy Salemme, Jr. died of AIDS-related cancer 25 years ago this week and never faced any charges in the DiSarro hit. Salemme, Jr. was under indictment for extorting an FBI-created film company out of Santa Monica, California though at the time of his death.

When Salemme entered the Witness Protection Program in 1999, he had lied about his knowledge of DiSarro’s homicide. The FBI thinks he lied about what he knew regarding Hanrahan’s murder too.

Cutting his teeth as a hit man in the Boston Irish Mob Wars of the 1960s, Salemme served 15 years in prison for a car bomb attack and returned to New England in late 1987 ready to make a run at the region’s Italian mob throne. He was made into the Patriarca crime family by Ray Rubber Lips in a March 1988 ceremony near Patriarca, Jr’s office in Providence, per federal records, and by the following summer was promoted to capo, becoming known as the mild-mannered Patriarca Jr.’s main muscle in Massachusetts. He had his sights set bigger though, looking to leverage discontent in the ranks revolving around Patriarca Jr.’s lack of charisma and leadership skill towards his own campaign to ascend to don.

Early returns on that plan were not good, as Salemme’s increased power gave way to worries from the Boston faction of the Family that the brash Cadillac Frank, prone to popping his collar and talking a big game, was on the verge of assuming control of all the Beantown rackets and cutting out the remnants of the old Angiulo crew in the North End and East Boston. Jerry Angiulo and his brothers ran the mafia Beantown for 25 years until they were incarcerated in the early 1980s. Instead of stabilizing the unrest in Massachusetts, Salemme’s emergence turned everything upside down and escalated brewing animosities.

On June 16, 1989, Cadillac Frank was supposed to meet members of the Family’s Boston wing for breakfast at a Saugus, Massachusetts International House of Pancakes, but was shot six times in the parking lot instead in an ambush. Salemme was hospitalized for a month and then took refuge in California. Patriarca, Jr. told Salemme he would take care of the medical bills, but never did, according to federal documents.

Cadillac Frank returned to New England in the spring of 1990 and was given control over the Patriarca’s Boston affairs by new boss Nicky Bianco, who headquartered in Providence and was friendly with all of the Five Families in New York, per court records. The famously well-connected Bianco’s ties to the Gambino Family helped quell the insurgence from the Boston crews months before. When Bianco was locked up in 1991, Salemme became boss, meeting with members of New York’s Five Families that fall to be confirmed in the post.

Angry that Patriarca, Jr. reneged on his promise to pay his hospital bill, one of the first things Salemme did when he was crowned don was to take possession of a garage full of classic and antique cars belonging to Patriarca and sell them without giving Patriarca, Jr. a cent. He also allegedly began killing anyone having anything to do with his shooting at the IHOP.

Patriarca, Jr., according to informants, reached out to Kevin Hanrahan, a longtime hit man and collector for Patriarca’s Providence branch, to kill Salemme and Salemme’s Rhode Island-based underboss Luigi (Baby Shacks) Manocchio. Hanrahan, a suspect in area several gangland hits from the 1970s and 1980s, considered using a suitcase bomb or an explosive device attached to a model airplane to murder Baby Shacks and Cadillac Frank, however never got the chance because he was murdered himself. Informants told the FBI, Hanrahan had angered Salemme and Manocchio by trying to shake down already-protected bookies from Rhode Island and the South Coast of Massachusetts.

Salemme’s mob reign came to a screeching halt in 1995 when he was busted for racketeering. Stately Baby Shacks Manocchio replaced Salemme as boss of the Patriarca clan and Cadillac Frank flipped in 1999, entering the Witness Protection Program. Manocchio, 93, has been retired for the last decade. The 75-year old Patriarca, Jr. was released from prison in 1998 and reinvented himself as a real estate broker.

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