The Gangster Report

November 17, 2020 – The signature and most audacious murder in the ongoing Canadian Mafia War occurred ten years ago this month when Montreal mob royal Nicolo (Uncle Nick) Rizzuto was killed by a single sniper’s bullets inside his palatial estate in Cartierville on November 10, 2010. He was 86 and stuck in the crossfire of an all-out assault launched on his family’s illustrious mob realm by both enemies and allies of his son.

The epic mob hit is forever a time-marker in terms of impact. And not just in Canada, but around the globe. Uncle Nick’s whacking in Montreal is akin to the highly-sensationalized New York mob murders of Albert Anastasia (1957), Crazy Joe Gallo (1972), Carmine Galante (1979) and Big Paul Castellano (1985)

The Rizzuto crime family remains besieged by internal conflict to this day. Rizzuto was played by veteran mob-movie actor Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas) in the 2017 FX series Bad Blood. Although not an official Godfather, Rizzuto was the patriarch of the mob in Canada for 30 years, a symbol of gangland aristocracy worldwide.

Rizzuto’s son, Vito, Quebec’s “boss of bosses,” had been shipped to a U.S. prison to serve out a murder sentence, and his grandson, Nicky, had recently fallen victim to the violence that erupted in the wake of the incarceration. The criminal empire Nicolo Rizzuto built himself three decades earlier and then bequeathed to his progeny, was crumbling from within at the time of his 2010 slaying.

Rome was burning. Any semblance of peace or balance in the Canadian underworld has failed to materialize since. If anything, the war has raged even further out of control, bleeding over into a second province; the shockwaves from the unrest in Montreal are being felt today in Ontario and mafia enclaves in Toronto and Hamilton.

Rizzuto rose to power in the late 1970s, orchestrating a coup from exile in Venezuela that concluded with the January 1978 assassination of Montreal mob street boss Paolo Violi and the October 1980 sniper-rifle murder of his brother Rocco, carried out in eerily similar fashion to the way he himself would be slain almost exactly 40 years later.

Some investigators speculate the manner in which Rizzuto was murdered was a message from Violi’s sons, who took refuge in Hamilton after their father was assassinated and have since risen to be high-ranking members of the Buffalo mafia in the United States. Informants have told the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that the Buffalo mafia, sometimes referred to as the Magaddino crime family, has backed the insurgence launched by rivals of the Rizzuto clan.

Toronto mob hit man Sam (The Gun) Calautti is one of the prime suspects in the Rizzuto homicide. Members of Calautti’s crew were spotted in Montreal on the day of the murder. Calautti and his bodyguard Jimmy Tusek were killed in a shooting outside a Vaughan, Ontario bachelor party on July 12, 2013.

Vito Rizzuto had returned to Montreal the previous fall and vowed vengeance on anyone associated with the attack on his gangland kingdom. The younger Rizzuto died of lung cancer that December.

Yet, the bloodshed continues. A bittersweet legacy for sure for the once seemingly untouchable Rizzuto mob dynasty.

The post The Day The Music Died In The Montreal Mafia: Rizzuto Slaying In ’10 Marked End Of One Era, Start Of Another appeared first on The Gangster Report.

November 19, 2020 – The FBI’s organized crime unit in Philadelphia is re-examining the 2012 Gino DiPietro murder and issued a wanted poster and a $10,000 reward for information on the partially-unsolved gangland killing Tuesday morning. On the poster was a never-before-seen image of a stocky man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt snapped by a nearby security camera in the moments after the hit that authorities believe is the shooter.

Fox 29 TV and Mob Talk Sit Down’s Dave Schratwieser broke the news on his social media accounts. The City of Philadelphia is offering a $20,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest, bringing the total bounty when added to the feds’ 10K thank-you package to $30,000.

DiPietro, a 50 year old convicted drug dealer and suspected informant, was gunned down exiting his car in South Philly outside his residence on Iseminger Street in the late afternoon of December 12, 2012. Forty-eight year old Philly mob soldier Anthony Nicodemo is currently in state prison serving time (30 years) for being the getaway driver in the murder. Police found the murder weapon in Nicodemo’s Honda Pilot SUV less than a half-hour after DiPietro’s slaying. An eyewitness at the scene of the DiPietro hit noted the plate number and passed it on to responding officers.

Nicodemo came up through Philadelphia’s Bruno-Scarfo crime family in the 1990s as a driver and bodyguard for mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino. Prosecutors in Nicodemo’s case named reputed mob capo Domenic (Baby Dom) Grande as the triggerman in DiPietro’s murder, but Grande has never faced any charges.

Grande, 41, is allegedly being groomed to one day take over the crime family, per sources and was a frequent gangland running buddy of Nicodemo’s. The always-dapper and quippy Skinny Joey Merlino, 58, resides in Florida and uses buffers in Philly to oversee his crime family multiple sources claim.

DiPietro cooperated against members of his own family in a 2004 coke bust. In the months preceding his murder, DiPietro had allegedly gotten into a verbal spat with Nicodemo at a card room Nicodemo controlled in Center City.

The post Back On The Prowl For Answers: Philly Feds Poking Around In DiPietro Hit Again, Show Photo Of Shooter appeared first on The Gangster Report.

November 19, 2020 – Alleged Philadelphia mafia associates Daniel (Cozy) Castelli, Daniel (Danny Blue Eyes) Malatesta, Sr., Danny Bucceroni and Kenny Arabia were quietly indicted by the feds for cocaine trafficking last week. The case dates back to 2016 and intertwines with a mob sting in New Jersey that nabbed two Philly soldiers for coke dealing. If convicted, they are all looking at possible 20-year prison stretches.

Award-winning Fox Philly 29 TV investigative reporter Dave Schratwieser broke the news on his Instagram account. Castelli is the father-in-law of South Philly bookie Raymond (Ray Wags) Wagner, a reputed adviser to top mob brass in the city. Malatesta, Sr.’s son, Danny, Jr., is a convicted felon and member of alleged Bruno-Scarfo acting boss George (Georgie Boy) Borgesi’s crew.

The case is tied to the drug busts of Bruno-Scarfo crime family button-men Joseph (Joey Electric) Servidio and Sammy Piccolo two years ago. Servidio and Piccolo both pleaded guilty, getting sentenced to 15 and 12 years in the can, respectively.

The post The Other Shoe Drops For The Other Guys: Philly Mob Affiliates Go Down For Coke Dealing appeared first on The Gangster Report.

November 20, 2020 – The nickname really fits, don’t you think? Philadelphia mob associate Anthony (Tony Mortgage) Ambrosino was sentenced to a year and a half in federal prison last week for, yep, you guessed it, a mortgage scam. His mortgage swindle netted him $300,000, all but $10,000 of which he’s being forced to return in restitution payments.

The 41-year old Staten Island, New York resident pleaded guilty back in the summer. He’ll report to begin serving his sentence in January. Gangland News’ Jerry Capeci, resident NYC mob chronicler and the dean of American true-crime journalism, reported on Ambrosino’s sentencing in his weekly column.

Ambrosino is a former Gambino crime family associate who has gravitated to the Bruno-Scarfo crime family in South Philly over the past few years. FBI surveillance units have observed him meeting with reputed Philly mob acting boss George (Georgie Boy) Borgesi on a number of occasions since 2017.

In the 2000s, Tony Mortgage acted as a driver and bodyguard for Gambino soldier, Salvatore (Sal the Pizza Man) Romano, a Wall Street wiz known for mastering the pump-and-dump scam. Romano flipped on his superiors in the Gambinos after he was indicted in a $100,000,000 pump-and-dump case. The Borgesi camp has strong connections to the Gambinos in New York and Florida, per sources.

The post East Coast Mafia’s “Mortgage Man” Gets Slapped with Prison Time, Moved Loyalties From NYC To Pennsylvania appeared first on The Gangster Report.

November 21, 2020 – The dominos keep falling. And so do Philly wiseguys.

Alleged Philadelphia mob soldier Salvatore (Sonny) Mazzone was indicted along with four others in a federal bookmaking case Thursday morning, capping a frenzied week in Uncle Sam’s battle against the mafia in the City of Brotherly Love. Nine Goodfellas from Philly found themselves in handcuffs in the third week of November as a part of two separate federal assaults launched on the Bruno-Scarfo crime family. Mob Talk Sitdown’s Dave Schratwieser, the award-winning television investigative reporter from Fox29, broke all the news.

Sonny Mazzone, is the younger brother of reputed Philly mob underboss Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone. He’s been taken into custody in the past for assault (incident at a Super Bowl party) and domestic battery (incident at a Jersey Shore nightclub). One local mob figure who was caught meeting with Sonny Mazzone three years ago at a bocce ball game in Columbus Square Park had his parole violated for having contact with a known member of organized crime.

Last Friday, Philly mob associates Kenny Arabia, Daniel (Cozy) Castelli and Daniel (Danny Blue Eyes) Malatesta, Sr. were nailed by the feds in a drug case. Earlier this week, the FBI released a picture of a man the government believes shot drug dealer Gino DiPietro to death in broad daylight on a South Philly street in December 2012. The feds in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police Department posted a $30,000 reward bounty for tips leading to an arrest.

The DiPietro hit is most recent gangland murder to take place within the ranks of the Bruno-Scarfo crime family, a once Cowboy-style organization that has calmed its way in the Wild West department in recent years. According to sources in law enforcement, the FBI is of the opinion that people closely aligned with the Mazzones killed DiPietro.

Handsome Stevie is 56. Sonny is 54 and has never been implicated in any mob-related violence. They have another brother who is not affiliated with the mob.

Philly mob soldier Anthony Nicodemo, 48, is doing a 30-piece for being the getaway driver in the slaying. Authorities suspect Handsome Stevie’s nephew, reputed captain Domenic (Teflon Dom) Grande, was the triggerman and the person the image released Tuesday shows racing away from the scene in a black-hooded sweatshirt and black sweat pants.

Per sources, Handsome Stevie Mazzone and his best friend, Philly mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, who lives most of the year in Florida, are grooming the 41-year old Grande to be the future head of the Bruno-Scarfo borgata in the years to come. Nicodemo came up through the ranks of the Bruno-Scarfo clan as Merlino’s driver and bodyguard in the 1990s and was a favored enforcer and collector for Merlino and Handsome Stevie during their rise to power. Merlino and Mazzone beat multiple murder charges at a 2001 federal racketeering trial.

The post Oh, Brother, Not Another: Little Brother Of Philly Mafia Underboss Popped In Gambling Ring Case appeared first on The Gangster Report.

November 23, 2020 – Montreal underworld figure Shane (Wheels) Maloney was granted a full parole this week after serving eight years for drug and firearms offenses. The 43-year old wheelchair-bound Irish wiseguy says he will be moving to British Columbia.

Wheels Maloney was a leader of Montreal’s Irish mob, known locally as The West End Gang, in the late 2000s who attempted to consolidate drug scales in Quebec in the aftermath of the Great Quebec Biker War with the so-called Wolfpack Alliance. Maloney was given day-parole in December 2019.

When he was 20 years old, Maloney was paralyzed from the waist down in a motorcycle accident. According to Royal Canadian Mounted Police records, Maloney invested money he recovered in an insurance settlement into building his large-scale cocaine distribution network.

The West End Gang has operated in Montreal since the 1950s and today, is alleged to be led by the Matticks brothers. Maloney was part of the “New Millennium Generation” in the gang per prosecutors in his case, a group eager to forge relationships with outside criminal factions, like the bikers and the Italian mafia.

The post Rolling His Way To Freedom: West End Gang Drug Chief Granted Full Parole, Will Not Return To Montreal appeared first on The Gangster Report.

November 24, 2020 – The house of cards that is the Philadelphia mafia had its shaky foundation hit with a sledgehammer Monday morning with the indictment of 15 leaders, members and associates of the Bruno-Scarfo crime family on federal drug, gambling and extortion charges. Alleged Philly mob underboss Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone and rising-star capo Domenic (Baby Dom) Grande were the top two gangland figures named in the case.

Mazzone, 56, did almost a decade behind bars on a 2001 racketeering conviction and has been part of the Philly mob’s administration since the 1990s. Handsome Stevie’s younger brother, Salvatore (Sonny) Mazzone, was the first busted last Thursday on bookmaking charges. Sonny Mazzone, 55. is said to be a mafia soldier. Monday’s indictment was superseding to that case.

The newly-married 41-year old Grande is Mazzone’s nephew by way of marriage and reportedly being mentored to one day take over the organization as don. His father Salvatore (John Wayne) Grande was a hit man and drug dealer in the Philly mob who entered the Witness Protection Program when Dom was just entering adolescence.

Others to go down in Monday’s case include, Joseph (Joey Electric) Servidio, Lou (Louie Sheep) Barretta, Victor (Big Vic) DeLuca, Daniel (Cozy) Castelli, Daniel (Danny Blue Eyes) Malatesta, Sr., Anthony (Tony Meatballs) Gifoli, Kenny Arabia, Carl Chianese, John Romeo, Danny Bucceroni, Joe Malone and John Payne.

Malone is Handsome Stevie’s former father-in-law. He is alleged to have ordered a baseball bat beating to a debtor, per the indictment. Louie Sheep Barretta is one of Mazzone’s longtime aides.

Servidio, a mob button man, Malatesta, Sr., Castelli, Chianese, Romeo and Bucceroni were caught up in drug investigations dating back to the mid-2010s. The 60-year old Joey Electric Servidio pleaded guilty in the summer and got 15 years.

The post Philly Mob Buckles, Staggered By Racketeering Case That Snags Stevie Mazzone, Dom Grande appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Federal prosecutors are seeking to keep Mazzone and Grande locked up until trial, requesting any bails requests by the case’s No. 1 and No. 2 defendants be rejected. They face 20-year sentences if convicted and are scheduled to be arraigned Friday. Both Mazzone and Grande are confidants of Philly mafia boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, who relocated to South Florida in 2011 and runs the crime family from afar, according to the feds.

Mazzone, 56 and always dapper and tan in appearance, did almost a decade behind bars on a 2001 racketeering conviction and has been part of the Philly mob’s administration since the 1990s. He’s best friends with Merlino, also convicted in the 2001 case.

Handsome Stevie’s younger brother, Salvatore (Sonny) Mazzone, was busted last Thursday morning on bookmaking charges. Sonny Mazzone, 55, is said to be a mafia soldier and also close to the swaggering Skinny Joey. Monday’s indictment was superseding to that case and others dating back to early last year. Neither Mazzone brothers were charged with narcotics trafficking.

The icy-cool, newly-married 41-year old Grande is Mazzone’s nephew by way of marriage and reportedly being mentored by Mazzone and Merlino to one day take over their regime as don. His father, Salvatore (John Wayne) Grande, was a hit man and drug dealer in the Philly mob currently living in the Witness Protection Program.

Malone is Handsome Stevie’s former father-in-law. He is alleged to have ordered a baseball bat beating of a debtor, per the indictment.

“Louie Sheep” Barretta, 56, is one of Mazzone’s longtime aides. Barretta was nabbed with Handsome Stevie in the 2001 indictment and did prison time. “Big Vic” DeLuca’s dad, Victor DeLuca, Sr. was a turncoat mobster in the 1980s.

Malatesta, Sr., Castelli, Chianese and Bucceroni were nailed in a cocaine conspiracy earlier this month. Malastesta’s son is a Mazzone and Merlino associate and Castelli’s daughter is married to a prominent South Philly bookmaker and adviser to Merlino.

The 60-year old “Joey Electric” Servidio pleaded guilty to drug charges in the summer and got 15 years. He is a mob soldier in the Bruno-Scarfo crime family’s North Jersey wing.

The superseding indictment filed Monday references an October 15, 2015 “making ceremony” or mafia induction ritual taking place in a South Philly private residence and presided over, at least partially, by Stevie Mazzone. According to the indictment, some of the new initiates were placed in Dom Grande’s crew and immediately instructed to push into Atlantic City in a series of rackets on behalf of the Pennsylvania crime syndicate. Grande was allegedly tasked with “reclaiming” territory in Atlantic City.

Skinny Joey Merlino, 58, is on parole down in Boca Raton stemming from a minor gambling conviction. Merlino assumed power in the Philly mob in the mid 1990s after winning a bloody turf war and surviving several assassination attempts. During those tumultuous times, Mazzone became Skinny Joey’s right-hand man and primary emissary to the street and other crime chiefs.

The post Philly Mob Buckles, Bruno-Scarfo Clan Staggered By Racketeering Case That Snags Stevie Mazzone, Dom Grande appeared first on The Gangster Report.

November 25, 2020 – Slain Philadelphia mafia figure Dominick (Mickey Diamond) DeVito was found hog-tied and shot to death in the trunk of Kenny Arabia’s Caddy almost 40 years ago. Arabia was DeVito’s nephew and driver. DeVito had been driving Arabia’s silver-colored Cadillac Seville the night he went missing in 1982.

Displaying a keen gangland instinct, instead declaring any desire for vengeance, Arabia made nice with his uncle’s killers. It was the right call. And one his uncle himself probably would have concurred with.

DeVito was a pragmatist and the prototypical mob politician and con man. Well-liked and always perfectly-coiffed, the jack-of-all-trades wiseguy Mickey Diamond was a mover and shaker in the South Philly underworld of the 1970s and early 1980s.

While not a household name in Philly mob affairs, Arabia, a convicted-felon and drug peddler, has existed on the fringes of the Bruno-Scarfo crime family for some time. Unlike his uncle, who was flashy and known to be loud, Arabia favors stealth and quiet. In other words, he’s comfortable not getting any headlines.

Well, he could be on the verge of getting top billing soon. Considering the stakes, it can be assumed he’d rather remain lower down the marquee.

The 67-year old Arabia was arrested for racketeering and narcotics trafficking offenses this week along with reputed Philly mob underboss Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone and alleged Philly mob captain Domenic (Baby Dom) Grande. Holding an administrative post in the Bruno-Scarfo crime family since the 1990s, Mazzone, 56, isn’t accused of drug dealing in the current case.

The up-and-coming Grande, 41, used Arabia to seize a series of rackets in Atlantic City, per the indictment which alleges the crime family launched a campaign in 2015 to reestablish a firmer presence in the Boardwalk gambling town it once lorded over unchallenged. The man who made that dominance possible was Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo, the Philly mafia’s blood-lusting, power-hungry don of the 1980s who headquartered in A.C. for the majority of his well-chronicled career.

It was long-simmering tension between Little Nicky Scarfo and Arabia’s uncle, “Mickey Diamond” DeVito, that ultimately resulted in DeVito’s untimely demise. Upon Scarfo becoming boss in 1981, the diminutive Cowboy gangster-icon set off on a purge of his enemies, both real and perceived.

DeVito disappeared on February 22, 1982 on his way to a meeting at a New Jersey pizza parlor with the Marconi brothers (Mark and Funzi), a pair of button men in the Bruno-Scarfo crime family. Scarfo gave the contract to the Marconis because they had a business relationship with DeVito and wanted to test their loyalty to his newly-minted regime.

In fact, it was a beef involving the Marconi brothers and a key Scarfo ally back in the 1960s, that soured Little Nicky on Mickey Diamond for good.

According to FBI informant debriefings, Scarfo’s best friend, Salvatore (Chuckie) Merlino, was having an affair with one of the Marconis’ nieces and had allegedly disrespected her resulting in the Marconis seeking permission to murder Merlino to protect their family honor. Scarfo had hoped DeVito could convince the Marconis to back down, but instead DeVito encouraged the contract because he was promised some of Merlino’s rackets by the Marconis if Merlino was killed.

Eventually, Philly Godfather Angelo Bruno ruled against killing Chuckie Merlino, believing Scarfo explanation of the situation being misconstrued by the Marconis. Little Nicky took DeVito’s position in the matter as a personal slight and held a grudge.

Bruno was assassinated in March 1980. Scarfo became boss a year later and named Chuckie Merlino his underboss. Getting rid of DeVito was near the top of Little Nicky’s to-do list when he took the throne.

The Marconis and another Scarfo lieutenant, Pasquale (Pat the Cat) Spirito, shot Mickey Diamond to death and stuffed his body into the trunk of his nephew’s older-model Cadillac that he had driven to what he thought was a touch-base rendezvous about drug-dealing activity in New Jersey, but was in fact his slaughter. Authorities came upon the car and DeVito’s corpse, his hands and feet bound behind him and wrapped in green-colored garbage bags, on the outskirts of the historic South Philly Italian Market on February 25, 1982.

Kenny Arabia identified his uncle’s body. Even after DeVito’s slaying, Arabia continued making a living in the underworld and was linked to the Marconi brothers, who died of natural causes in 2006 and 2012, respectively. Per FBI records, Arabia was partnered with Marc Marconi’s son Gino in a drug operation in the early 1990s before Arabia was busted and Gino was gunned down on orders of Philly mob bosses for refusing to pay a street tax.

Spirito was killed on Scarfo’s orders in the months that followed the Mickey Diamond hit. Scarfo ordered more than 30 gangland homicides, some never carried out, in his less-than-a-decade reign as head of the mafia in Philly

Little Nicky Scarfo and Chuckie Merlino were incarcerated in the spring of 1987 and never saw the light of day in the free world again. Scarfo succumbed to heart failure in 2017 and Merlino died of cancer in prison in 2012.

Merlino’s son, Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino is the boss of the Philly mafia today. Arabia’s alleged partner in the narcotics business is Daniel (Cozy) Castelli, a father-in-law to one of Merlino’s closest friends.

Per Monday’s indictment, Arabia and Castelli met with a mob capo in November 2015 and assigned a group of newly-initiated soldiers to put to work in Atlantic City. Arabia and Castelli were spearheading a Philly mob resurgence in the area as the boots on the ground, allegedly cutting into independent drug dealing, loan sharking and gambling rackets and setting up shop in their own, prosecutors claim.

The post Diamonds In The Sky: Mob Sleeper Kenny Arabia Stayed Loyal To Uncle’s Killers In Philly Mafia During Rise appeared first on The Gangster Report.

November 28, 2020 – A detention memo filed by U.S. Attorneys on Friday details the taping of a mob making ceremony in Philadelphia and includes transcripts of defendants Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone and Domenic (Baby Dom) Grande talking crime. News of the bombshell memo was first reported by Mob Talk Sitdown’s Dave Schratwieser (FOX29) on his social media after Mazzone and Grande pleaded not guilty and were both denied bail in a sweeping racketeering case that dropped Monday and included more than a dozen members and associates of the Bruno-Scarfo crime family.

Mazzone, 56, is the family’s underboss. He took a racketeering conviction and did nearly a decade in federal prison in the 2000s. Grande, 41, is Mazzone’s nephew and reputed to be a captain in the borgata. Salvatore (Sonny) Mazzone, Handsome Stevie’s younger brother and an alleged soldier in the family, was part of the bust as well, but he was granted bond.

Per the attention memo, the feds recorded Sonny Mazzone’s induction into the mafia, a ceremony Handsome Stevie and Grande attended. Handsome Stevie was introduced to the new initiates as the crime family’s underboss and gave a speech ordering an expansion of the organization back into Atlantic City.

“Got to get ahold back on Atlantic City, buddy,” Mazzone said. “That’s what I want. We have to get that back.”

It is unclear who conducted the “making” ritual, part of a rash of induction ceremonies to take place in the past five years, according to sources. The traditional gun and knife display and burning of the saint card is confirmed to have occurred. The FBI believes the mafia in Philly is in the midst of ballooning its ranks and stretching its reach; a crew in New England has been operational for more than five years, reinvigorating a presence in the region from the late 1990s, per sources.

Back in the 1980s, Atlantic City was the Philly mob’s playground and golden goose. The Bruno-Scarfo crime family under maniacal don Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo dominated the A.C. rackets, controlling street activity, construction and labor union affairs.

Today, the New York mob families have more of a foothold in the area. Little Nicky Scarfo died of a heart attack in prison three years ago.

Mazzone explained his attitude towards mob life in another excerpt.

“I don’t want nobody glomming on to our fucking shit (our rackets), you know what I mean, you hear what I’m saying. We’re still street guys. Let’s face it, we’re fucking gangsters. I’m not going to let some sucker take that (a piece of the Bruno-Scarfo rackets).”

In the recorded ceremony, Grande was introduced to new members as a captain and was later caught on tape referring to himself as a “skipper.”

An unnamed wired-for-sound informant recorded Grande discussing the Atlantic City expansion effort. Grande told the informant he wanted to “plant the flag” for the Bruno-Scarfo crime family in the Jersey resort town.

“We’ve got our hooks in (now), they either pay or get the fuck out,” said Grande of local bookies and loansharks the Philly mob was extorting.

Drug dealing was in the mix, too. Grande was intercepted bragging of his ability to sell counterfeit oxycodone pills.

“I can move thousands of them. You know, these kids sell them for 20 bucks apiece,”

If found guilty on all the counts, Mazzone and Grande are looking at maximum 20-to-40 year prison sentences. Grande only has a minor sports booking charge on his record.

Mazzone’s best friend, swashbuckling 58-year old Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, is the crime family’s reputed boss and lives in Florida. Merlino, with help from Mazzone and other childhood friends, fought and won a war for the Philly mob kingdom in the 1990s. Mazzone has filled the role of either Merlino’s underboss, acting boss or street boss since the fall of 1996, per sources.

Grande’s dad, Salvatore (John Wayne) Grande was an enforcer and hit man during the Philly mob’s violence-heavy Little Nicky Scarfo era. The elder Grande got nailed pushing drugs in prison and entered the Witness Protection Program.

The post FBI Has Philly Mafia Making Ritual On Tape, Handsome Stevie Mazzone Saying ‘We’re F’ing Gangsters,’ Per Detention Memo appeared first on The Gangster Report.

November 30, 2020 – The Buckeye State has lost a boss.

Gary (Rambo) Hohn, a former leader of The Outlaws Motorcycle Club in Ohio, died of natural causes this fall. The 71-year old Hohn ran the Dayton chapter of the Outlaws MC in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He passed away surrounded by friends and family in October.

In 2002, Hohn was busted with the club’s international president James (Big Frank) Wheeler in a wide-reaching drug and racketeering case that spanned several different states. Hohn did a decade in the can as a result of the case and was released in May 2014.

Dayton is part of the club’s so-called “Green Region.” In his case, Hohn saw his girlfriend testify against him. Before becoming boss of the whole club and moving to Florida, Big Frank Wheeler headed The Outlaws’ Green Region from his home base in Indianapolis.

The post Last Blood Of A Boss: Rambo Hohn, Outlaws MC Chief In Ohio, Passes Peacefully At 71 appeared first on The Gangster Report.

December 7, 2020 – Retired Chicago mob chief Peter (Greedy Petey) DiFronzo died of complications resulting from the Coronavirus late last week at 87.

For decades, DiFronzo operated day-to-day affairs for the Elmwood Park crew and was his brother, Chicago Outfit boss, John (Johnny No Nose) DiFronzo’s top lieutenant. He did nine years in federal prison for hijacking and robbery busts from the 1960s. Sources claim he variously held captain, underboss and acting boss titles in his gangland career.

The 89-year old Johnny No Nose DiFronzo, known for his cunning and business savvy, died of natural causes in 2018. The elder DiFronzo took over the mafia in Chicago in the early 1990s and ran through a series of buffers and front bosses until a battle with dementia sent him to the sidelines late in his life.

Greedy Petey could be found most days at his D&P Construction headquarters in Melrose Park. He is the just the most recent in a long line of aging wiseguys from coast-to-coast that succumbed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other mob figures have used the worldwide health crisis as a way to get out of prison early on compassionate releases or home confinement orders. The DiFronzos’ acting boss in the 2000s, Michael (Fat Mike) Sarno, doing 20 years for extortion, just had his bid for release rejected.

The post Chicago Outfit Bids Adieu To Greedy Petey DiFronzo, Elmwood Park Mob Power Killed By COVID-19 appeared first on The Gangster Report.

December 8, 2020 – The Blue Wave mandate instituted by The Pagan’s Motorcycle Club boss Keith (Conan the Barbarian) Richter has hit Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Pagan’s have opened up shop on two new chapters in Lee and Scranton, PA, part of the east coast expansion effort dubbed the “Blue Wave Initiative,” when he enacted it three years ago upon taking power.

Richter headquarters out of the Long Island, New York Pagan’s clubhouse. His expansion plan targets parts of Northern New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania — regions perceived as either Hells Angels or Outlaws turf.

On Richter’s orders, members of The Pagan’s located in the Northeastern part of the United States wear an “East Coast” rocker rather than one that identifies any particular city or state as is customary in most other clubs. There have now been nine new Pagan’s chapters opened on the east coast under Richter’s Blue Wave initiative.

The post The Blue Men Group: Pagan’s MC Begins Pushing Into NE Pennsylvania In Next Step Of Expansion Campaign appeared first on The Gangster Report.

December 8, 2020 – Operation Red October wasn’t to be. The DiFronzo brothers dodged a bullet and remained at the forefront of organized crime in Chicago instead.

ABC Channel 7 TV News in Chicago and Chicago mob expert Jack Binder broke the news of the fruitless joint CPD and FBI investigation into the DiFronzo brothers that began in 1995 and never resulted in any arrests Monday night. Award-winning investigative journalist Chuck Goudie helmed ABC 7’s coverage containing never-before-seen surveillance photos and FBI pyramid charts of the era.

Peter (Greedy Petey) DiFronzo died of complications from the Coronavirus last Friday at 87. His older brother, the sly John (Johnny No Nose) DiFronzo, died of Alzheimer’s Disease two years ago after heading the Chicago mafia for the better half of three decades.

Greedy Petey DiFronzo was his big bro’s right-hand man and for years ran the Outfit’s Elmwood Park regime from his headquarters at D&P Construction in Melrose Park owned by his wife. He did 8 and a half years in federal prison for a 1965 truck hijacking conviction. Per sources, the DiFronzo brothers were often known to employ the “good-cop, bad-cop” routine on unsuspecting extortion targets, with No Nose being the politicly agile “good cop” and the beefier, more physically intimidating Greedy Petey being the “bad cop.”

In 1995, No Nose DiFronzo was fresh off a reversal of his federal racketeering conviction stemming from the shaking down of an Indian reservation in California which almost derailed his rein as Godfather of the Chicago mob. His main Elmwood Park emissary and eventual consigliere Marco (The Mover) D’Amico had just been busted and was off the streets dealing with his own federal racketeering pinch, so DiFronzo and his baby bro themselves were asserting more authority and employing a more hands-on approach in the management of the Elmwood Park crew at the time the feds opened the Operation Red October investigation.

Jack Binder, the preeminent author and researcher on Chicago Outfit affairs both current and historic, showed Goudie and the viewers photos of the two DiFronzo brothers on a “walk-and-talk” meeting in 1996 in Elmwood Park snapped by FBI agents and a chart from the doomed Operation Red October of the Outfit’s administration during the mid-1990s showing No Nose DiFronzo as the organization’s No. 1 shot caller and Greedy Petey as his No. 1 “messenger.”

The no-frills chart identified Joey (The Clown) Lombardo as No Nose DiFronzo’s consigliere and Joe (The Builder) Andriacchi as his underboss. Lombardo died last year in prison at 89 serving a life sentence for his role in the landmark 2005 Operation Family Secrets bust. Andriacchi, 88, is alleged to still play a role in Outfit leadership today. D’Amico, who took the consigliere post upon Lombardo getting shipped behind bars, died back in the spring.

Along with Joe the Builder, the DiFronzo brothers avoided entanglement in the Family Secrets case. No Nose DiFronzo was implicated as taking part in multiple gangland murder conspiracies in court filings and testimony, however, never had to answer for them in a court of law. Greedy Petey DiFronzo was listed in court documents as one of the people the federal government believed were a physical threat to Family Secrets’ star witness, Southside crew hitman Nick (Nicky Slim) Calabrese.

Family Secrets concluded in a slew of convictions and cleared a dozen cold-case murders with guilty verdicts in a flashbulb frenzy of a 2007 trial. Rumors of the DiFronzo brothers getting roped into a so-called “Family Secrets 2” indictment never materialized.

Goudie and his cameraman caught No Nose DiFronzo coming out of a lunch meeting with his brother and other Outfit lieutenants at the Loon Cafe in 2008. When Goudie inquired if the mob don worried about being arrested in Family Secrets 2, a coy and toothpick chomping DiFronzo responded that he didn’t and drove off in his SUV.

The post The Hunt For Red October: DiFronzo Brothers Slipped Out Of Feds’ Grasp In Failed Chicago Mob Sting appeared first on The Gangster Report.

December 9, 2020 – Like many songwriters and recording artists of his era, John Lennon bumped heads with music mogul Morris (Mo) Levy, a New York mob associate and confidant of legendary Genovese crime family boss Vincent (The Chin) Gigante. Levy and the former king Beatle went toe-to-toe in the courtroom multiple times over licensing infractions.

Levy’s trademark strongarm tactics didn’t work this time. Lennon was too big of a star to be muscled and he survived his tussle with the mafia in the Big Apple. Tragically, he wouldn’t survive a run-in with a deranged fan in the years that followed though.

Lennon was slain 40 years ago this week in Manhattan, gunned down outside his residence at The Dakota by Mark David Chapman on the night of December 8, 1980. His feud with Levy, famous for fleecing musical talent out of publishing rights in the early days of rock-and-roll and birth of contemporary pop and jazz, yielded him a judgment of near $150,000, the equivalent to almost a million bucks in today’s economy.

Levy died of cancer in 1990, two weeks before he was scheduled to report to federal prison to begin serving a ten-year sentence for extorting more than $1,000,000 from a Philadelphia record-distribution wholesaler. Genovese mob captain Dominick (Baldy Dom) Canterino was Levy’s co-defendant in the case.

Canterino was one of the go-betweens for Levy and the feigning crazy “Chin” Gigante. The FBI speculated that Levy’s Roulette Records was a laundry for Giganate and the Genovese organization’s dirty money.

The courtroom saga between Levy and Lennon spawns from The Beatles 1969 song Come Together from the groundbreaking group’s Abbey Road album. Levy filed a law suit against Lennon for appropriating a line from Chuck Berry song he held the copyright to (You Can’t Catch Me) in the lyrics for Come Together. The case was settled in exchange for Lennon agreeing to record three Levy-owned songs from his publishing catalog for his 1975 Rock ‘n’ Roll LP, a passion project of Lennon where he covered his favorite rock, blues and soul hits of his youth.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll sessions were overseen by eccentric mega producer Phil Spector and a total mess, failing to bring Levy the financial return he expected. So he decided to rob Lennon of his work.

Getting his hands on the masters for the Rock ‘n Roll recordings, Levy used a series of demo songs sung and played on by Lennon and released in on Roulette Records as an exclusive mail-order only album called Roots. In the end, Lennon and Levy sued each other for ownership rights of the Rock ‘n’ Roll session tapes. The judge in the case ordered Levy to pay $145,300 to Lennon for infringement and unlawful enrichment and Lennon to pay Levy just $7,000.

At the time of his courtroom battle with the mob, Lennon was fighting efforts by the U.S. Government to deport him back home to Great Britain because of an old drug charge. Lennon was viewed as a subversive by the FBI and when he decided to move to New York full time, he found himself, much like Levy and his friends, hounded by the feds.

The post John Lennon & The Mafia: Beatle Rock God Squared Off With Mobbed Up Music Mogul In Court appeared first on The Gangster Report.

December 10, 2020 – The feds struck a blow to The Pagan’s Motorcycle Club this week, indicting 30 Pagan’s from the Pittsburgh area on Wednesday in three interrelated cases for largescale narcotics trafficking and firearms offenses.

The No. 1 defendant in the bust is the Steel Town USA chapter’s aptly named Sergeant-At-Arms William (Pittsburgh Billy) Rana. Teams of DEA and ATF agents raided the chapter’s McKees Rocks clubhouse Wednesday morning, confiscating drugs, guns, $30,000 in cash and a box of stolen Rolex watches.

Rana, 40, is charged with taking part in a meth conspiracy. Rana’s right-hand man and reputed enforcer, Eric (Knuckles) Armes, is the No. 2 defendant in the bust.

Under the stewardship of muscle-bound national president Keith (Conan the Barbarian) Richter, The Pagan’s are in the midst of an ambitious and widely-reported expansion campaign aimed at taking over biker gang affairs for the entire east coast region of the country. Richter runs the club from his home base in Long Island, New York. He’s opened nine new chapters scattered throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut since taking power in the club in the late 2010s.

The post On The Rocks: Pagan’s MC In Pittsburgh Takes Hit From Feds, McKees Rocks Clubhouse Raided appeared first on The Gangster Report.

December 10, 2020 – Reputed Philadelphia mob street boss Michael (Mikey Lance) Lancellotti conducted a 2015 making ceremony held by the Bruno-Scarfo crime family recorded by turncoat soldier Anthony Persiano, according to the Dean of American mob writing, Jerry Capeci and his Gangland News column this week.

Capeci also reported longtime North Jersey mafia figure Joseph (Joe Scoops) Licata was the Philly crime family’s consigliere at the time of the making ceremony. Both identifications made in Capeci’s weekly column help mob watchers fill in the gaps for a Philly mafia organization under siege. Neither Lancellotti nor Licata were nailed in a November federal racketeering indictment and round-up of Philly mobsters, including Bruno-Scarfo underboss Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone and rising-star captain Domenic (Baby Dom) Grande.

Lancellotti, 58, has no federal convictions to speak of, but has been identified in open court as being the triggerman in a gangland slaying. He was arrested in a federal bookmaking case in 2008, however the charges against him were eventually dropped.

The making ceremony he oversaw took place on October 15, 2015 and ushered five new initiates into the crime family, one of them being Handsome Stevie’s younger brother, Salvatore (Sonny) Mazzone, according to federal court records. Handsome Stevie made a speech at the ceremony, which was allegedly staged at a South Philly residence, ordering a retaking of Atlantic City by the Philly mob.

Following the ceremony, at least 10 mob figures present for the induction retreated to former Bruno-Scarfo bookie turned restauranteur Angelo (Fat Angie) Lutz’s Kitchen Consigliere establishment in Collingwood, New Jersey for a celebratory dinner, per Capeci’s sources. Lutz and Mazzone were put in prison for the same 2000 racketeering case. Lutz is not considered a part of organized crime anymore by authorities.

Persiano was revealed as a confidential informant two years ago when cases were made against soldiers Sammy Piccolo and Joseph (Joey Electric) Servidio for narcotics trafficking. Piccolo and Mazzone are both Grande’s uncles. Servidio reports to “Joe Scoops” Licata, the Bruno-Scarfo clan’s unofficial historian and archivist. The 79-year old Licata got his nickname for always having the latest scoop on street gossip making its way through the syndicate.

Piccolo and Persiano reported to Dom Grande, who became capo of Mikey Lancellotti’s crew when Mikey Lance got upped to street boss. Philly mafia don Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, who like Lancellotti avoided ensnarement in the November bust and currently resides in Florida, brought Mikey Lance and Dom Grande along to a New York mob Christmas party he was invited to in December 2014.

The party was hosted by a Genovese crime family capo at his Bronx eatery and recorded and surveilled by the feds. Merlino was recorded introducing Lancellotti to Genovese button men as the “guy that’s running Philadelphia now.” Grande, 41, is allegedly being groomed to one day take Merlino’s place atop the Philly mob.

The post Five Guys, Buttons & Bolognese: Mikey Lance Made 5 Guys In Philly In 2015, Joe Scoops Was Consigliere, Per Report appeared first on The Gangster Report.

December 12, 2020 – Heralded Detroit drug baron Milton (Butch) Jones, the self-proclaimed “Henry Ford of Heroin,” is seeking a compassionate release from a 30-year federal prison term for racketeering, narcotics-distribution and accessory to murder due to his contracting the Coronavirus behind bars.

Jones’ lawyer, renowned criminal defense attorney Harold Gurewitz, filed the motion in front of U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith’s court Thursday. The motion claims Jones is on dialysis three days a week for a failing liver and is confined to a wheelchair. Without any further intervention, his out-date is in 2027. The prison hospital Jones is at in Springfield, Missouri is dealing with over 300 cases of COVID-19 right now.

Jones, 65, was the face of the Detroit drug game in the early 1980s and the leader of the infamous Young Boys, Incorporated (YBI) crew on the Motor City’s Westside. YBI revolutionized the dope trade with its cutting-edge structure, sales protocol and marketing techniques, employing pre-pubescent pushers who slang flashy packaged and named heroin packets from elementary-school playgrounds and transported their drugs in the trunks of taxi cabs.

The three decades of prison time Jones is currently doing is not YBI related though. After doing seven years for his YBI case, Jones came home to Detroit in 1992 and became the boss of The Dawg Pound gang, a drug and dog-fighting organization on the Westside. Jones was brought down for good in 2001 when the feds nailed The Dawg Pound for narcotics activity and more than one gangland homicide.

YBI was founded in around 1978 by Jones, Dwayne (Wonderful Wayne) Davis, Raymond (Baby Ray) Peoples and Mark (Block) Marshall. Jones and Marshall were the muscle, Peoples and Davis were the masterminds. It was money Marshall received from a life insurance payout from his parents murder (a crime he was a suspect in) that served as the seed money for the syndicate.

The YBI crew grew to be the Roman Empire of Motown’s drug world for much of the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. The good times were grand, yet short lived.

Peoples shot Marshall in a dispute over a woman and ran him out of town in 1980. Davis was slain in 1982 and Peoples was killed in 1985, both murder contracts allegedly issued by Jones as a result of power struggles.

The post “Henry Ford Of Heroin,” Fmr. Detroit Drug Boss, Butch Jones Hoping For Judicial Compassion In COVID-19 Battle appeared first on The Gangster Report.

December 13, 2020 – He conquered the coke game in his twenties. Now, he intends on taking over the legal weed game in his fifties.

Fresh out of prison on home confinement, Black Mafia Family co-founder Terry (Southwest T) Flenory released his own-branded marijuana flower called “Black Magic” in his home state of Michigan last week.

Marijuana is recreationally legal in Michigan. The name of the strain was inspired by the Denzel Washington character in the 2006 film American Gangster who sold Blue Magic heroin packets in Harlem of the 1970s.

Black Magic can be purchased exclusively at retail dispensaries in the cities of Detroit (House of Dank), River Rouge (Green Care), Ypsilanti (Green Vitality), Traverse City (House of Dank), Lansing (Jars), Bay City (Dipso), Battle Creek (Fire Creek), Adrian (Amazing Budz) and Owosso (Jars). Flenory partnered with HYMAN Cannabis to create the Black Magic strain of cannabis for the retail market.

Back in May, the 50-year old Flenory walked out of a 30-year federal prison term more than a decade early because of a reprieve provided by the COVID-19 pandemic and his own underlying health conditions. Southwest T pleaded guilty in 2005’s Operation Motor City Mafia case, the biggest domestic-based narcotics operation in American history.

In 1990, Southwest T and his older brother, Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory began building what would become the sprawling and groundbreaking BMF empire from meager beginnings in Southwest Detroit in the shadows of The Ambassador Bridge. By the dawning of the New Millennium, BMF had control of the wholesale cocaine markets in 23 different states and had cemented a place for itself in the heavily hip-hop influenced pop-culture zeitgeist of the 2000s.

At the time of their arrest in the fall of 2005, Big Meech was headquartered out of Atlanta and Southwest T was based out of Los Angeles. Southwest T’s camp watched over Detroit, still the nerve center of BMF affairs even with Flenorys themselves residing out of state.

The Flenory brothers get frequent shout-outs in the rap lyrics of music superstars Drake, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and Rick Ross. Southwest T received a Rolls-Royce as a welcome home present from rapper 50 Cent, the man behind the upcoming scripted television series on the rise and fall of BMF slated for the Starz cable network in 2022.

Big Meech, 52, remains incarcerated on the Motor City Mafia conviction in an Oregon federal correctional facility after failing to convince the judge in his case that he deserved a compassionate release to serve out the rest of his sentence on home confinement like his brother. He’s not scheduled for release until 2032.

The post Back In Black: BMF Boss Southwest T Eyes Takeover Of Rec-Legal Marijuana Market In Michigan appeared first on The Gangster Report.

December 15, 2020 – Alleged Philadelphia mob captain Domenic (Baby Dom) Grande will be home for Christmas after all.

The 41-year old Grande was finally granted bail Monday in his drug and racketeering case that dropped last month in the days before Thanksgiving. He’s been behind bars for three weeks.

Fox Philly 29 and Mob Talk Sitdown’s Dave Schratwieser broke the news of Baby Dom Grande’s impending release from custody. Grande’s ascent up the underworld food chain has been swift, going from soldier to skipper to reported heir apparent in a matter of five short years in the early-to-mid 2010s. Many speculate Grande is being groomed to one day head the Philly mob.

Originally, Grande was denied his bond request alongside that of Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone, the Bruno-Scarfo crime family’s reputed underboss and the No. 1 defendant in the case. They’ve both pleaded not guilty to a slew of charges that bring maximum sentences ranging from 20 to 40 years. Unlike Mazzone, Grande has only a minor criminal record.

On Monday, Grande’s lawyer, Brian McMonagle, worked some of his trademark courtroom magic and got Baby Dom released to home confinement on a $2,000,000 bond that he must post $200,000 of. Grande, viewed as a rising star in east coast mafia circles even beyond Philly, is newly married and has a baby of his own on the way.

Mazzone, 57, remains locked up awaiting trial. In the 2000s, Mazzone did prison time for racketeering.

Grande is Mazzone’s nephew via marriage. Grande’s father, Salvatore (John Wayne) Grande, was an enforcer and hit man for the Bruno-Scarfo crime family of the 1980s. “Wayne” Grande flipped after a drug bust in the can.

Baby Dom himself is considered a suspect in the December 2012 gangland slaying of mob associate Gino DiPietro, however has never faced any charges in the homicide. Mazzone beat a series of murder counts at his 2001 federal racketeering trial.

The post Philly Mafia’s, “Prince of Thieves,” On His Way Home For The Holidays, Grande Gets Bail In Fed Case appeared first on The Gangster Report.