Real-life ‘Donnie Brasco’ tells of Mafia infiltration

EL PASO — The FBI agent who infiltrated the mob as “Donnie Brasco” would rather deal with the Italian Mafia than Mexican drug cartels.
Retired Special Agent Joe Pistone, who spoke about his six years undercover in the Mafia, was the guest speaker Tuesday evening at an FBI civic group meeting in El Paso.
“I would take [...]

‘Stabbing’ pains for mob crew

It’s the mob approach to vandalism.
Five members of the Bonanno crime family pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court yesterday to a caper that left two teenagers hospitalized with stab wounds after windows were busted in a mob-connected Queens restaurant in 2004.
In keeping with the Mafia family’s bumbling reputation, the mobsters beat and knifed the wrong [...]

Bonanno mobster Joseph (Sammy) Sammartino cops plea on loansharking charge

A high-ranking Bonanno mobster pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court Monday to loansharking.
Reputed capo Joseph (Sammy) Sammartino admitted that he conspired with other wiseguys to collect a high-interest loan from a victim identified only as “Sal from Staten Island.”
Sammartino, 55, of New Jersey, faces up to two years in prison when he is sentenced in [...]

Jurors selected in 1st Milano trial

BUNNELL — A trial begins today for an ex-mob hit man who gained infamy in a fracas over a calzone at the now defunct Goombas Pizzeria in Palm Coast.
On Monday, attorneys questioned potential jurors with some being dismissed because they had read about the case in the newspaper. One potential juror, though, could not serve [...]

Real life “Boiler Room” investment scheme uncovered in NYC

Ten men were arrested Wednesday in a $12 million scheme that cheated investors using a Manhattan boiler-room operation with mob links, authorities report. Some of the men involved included former Securities and Exchange Commission employees.
FBI agents raided the scheme’s office building on West 36th Street in New York. The suspects used the building to entice [...]

Reorganized crime

Our Mafia and Hells Angels have grown in a nice, co-operative Canadian way. Now, big-time crime is run so much like a business that the boundary between legit and crooked is beginning to blur
John Xanthoudakis’s introduction to the intimate connection between conventional business and criminal business came in the form of brass knuckles. Late on [...]

Judge Asks U.S. to Consider Forgoing Death Penalty in Imprisoned Mobster’s Trial

A federal judge overseeing the trial of a notorious mobster already serving life in prison is asking the Justice Department to reconsider seeking the death penalty on the new charges.
In a letter sent Thursday to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., the judge, Nicholas G. Garaufis of United States District Court in Brooklyn, wrote that [...]

Bonnano family club raid: Elderly Man Dies in Handcuffs

A 75-year-old man went into cardiac arrest and died after he was handcuffed during a raid Tuesday afternoon at the Italian social club he managed in Bensonhurst. Besides running the Banner Civic Social Club on 72nd Street, Sam Nastasa had bit parts in The Sopranos and other crime movies like Rounders; neighbors say the club [...]

Vinny Green Back In Brooklyn; But Is Vegas Still In The Cards?

After a decades-long, relatively enjoyable, and very profitable stretch in Las Vegas, longtime Bonanno soldier Vincent (Vinny Green) Faraci has returned to his old haunts in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn to be close to his old man in his time of need.
Faraci is back in town because his dad, John Faraci, the tough, but [...]

War of the Godfathers

In 1986, the Chicago Mafia violently repulsed a bid by the Joe Bonnano crime family to wrest control of the Las Vegas underworld. It was a pyrrhic victory; afterward most of the top Chicago mob figures were convicted of various crimes. The author, a former FBI agent who investigated the Las Vegas brawl ( Roemer: [...]

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