Italian Mafia Drug Raid: 24 Arrested in U.S. and Italy

A major Trans-Atlantic Italian Mafia drug smuggling operation was raided early Tuesday morning. The raid targeted both New York members and Italy members. Right after mid-night on Monday or (Tues morning) undercover agents raided locations in Brooklyn, while undercover agents across the ocean raided locations in Italy.

In all, 24 men were arrested, some were even said to be the head of the powerful U.S. Mafia Family, the Gambinos.

The Calabria based 'Ndrangheta Mafia which is much like the Sicilian Mafia, the Cosa Nostra, has been bridging an alliance in America with U.S. mafias to traffic drugs and guns into the U.S.using such avenues like South America.

The undercover operation used wire taps, computer e-mails, and undercover agents to infiltrate the mafia group that were using fruit companies as a cover to smuggle drugs into Italy and back out to America.



In the process of the undercover operation coded "Operation New Bridge" they were tracking plans that the 'Ndrangheta mafia had to smuggle in 500kg of cocaine from Guyana to Italy to be cut distributed to different customers including ones in the U.S.


The value of the 500kg or 1000 pounds would of had an estimated street value, after being cut, of about $1 billion.

U.S. attorney Marshall Miller said, "The raid struck at the heart of the Italian Mafia Crime Syndicate."

John Gotti Jr. in the News in this day-and-age?

Gotti Jr. Stabbed

Gotti was leaving a CVS in his home town of Syosset, New York, when he was stabbed in the abdominal area. Supposedly he was breaking up a fight between two individuals that he did not know when the stabbing occurred. Gotti was taken to the hospital were he was treated and let go, and is now expected to make a full recovery.

Obviously, any Gotti story is going to make the news, but this one has a little more behind it, say authorities. When Gotti was question about the stabbing, in true mob fashion he refused to talk. Lead detective of the case says that anyone that was stabbed would give up any information they could to bring their attacker to justice.

The Nassau Police Department has joined the investigation, but have no comment on what they are investigating at the time. One can only speculate that they are probably trying to find out if there was an attempted hit on his life for leaving the mob, or maybe he is still in the mob and this was a case of mob violence.

John Gotti Jr. was tried four different times on racketeering charges, all of which ended with a hung jury. His silence could be nothing more than not wanting to bring back any passed life problems, or not wanting to give any other reasons for the FBI to open his cases back up again.

Pizza Connection - Gaetano Badalamenti - Head of the Sicilian Mob

The Pizza Connection 

Badalamenti “Don Tanino” or "Boss of all Bossess" was born in 1923 and died of heart failure in 2004.


Drug dealing was his main downfall - heading a operation that brought in more than 1.65 billion dollar of drug money from the Middle East (heroin)  and South America (cocaine). From 1975 to 1984 the successful drug operation was able to fly under the radar by using pizzerias as fronts and laundering their money into Swiss Bank accounts.

Even though drug dealing is frowned upon in the Mafia, a couple of things gave the Pizza Connection a pass. One was the Badalamenti was the Don of the Sicily mob and he was technically not part of the American mafia, but part of the Palermo, Sicily, mafia, and almost everyone in the Pizza connection was Sicilian immigrants. And the other thing is, like in true mob fashion - when there is enough money involved, some how it makes it easier to look the other way, and the American families did profit from hush money to let them deal on their turf. One other thing, the Mafia was born in Sicily and the Americans really had no choice but to look away, and a kind jester of money made everything work.  

In fact, Badalameni was on a Capo on the Commission, through breaking rules and doing activity that the Commission was not interested in being a part of, he was kicked off. This in turn, got the Don and his crew dubbed the "Don of Losers", but this did not deter him or his ambitions. In fact, he would be the only Don that disobeyed the Commission and suffered no consequence.

Although Badalamenti ran and own many rackets and companies, brought in more money than all the other families and had more powerful connection in Sicily, the same reason why the Mafia frowned upon drugs is the same reasons why he would eventually be brought down.

Manhattan U.S. Courthouse. October 24, 1985. The government calls it the biggest drug and mafia case ever to come to trial in the United States. The press calls it the Pizza Connection. More 22 mobsters mostly Sicilians where brought up on one of America's biggest RICO cases ever.

The long and unbelievably complex trail in New York turned into a circus. During the trial, two defendants were killed and one shot. At the end, all the others, but one, went to prison, including Badalamenti who was given 45 years.

After running many rackets, including a billion dollar drug ring and being responsible for as many as 100 murders, Badalamenti, would died an old weak man in prison in 2004.

He died with only this to say about the drug dealing ring. "Drugs are bad for business. The money was never worth the risk. Only greedy pigs touched drugs. "Not men of honor.'' -Spoken like a true criminal-

The Sopranos Christmas

The First Mafia Rat: Joe "Joe Cago" Valachi

Born September 22, 1903 – Died April 3, 1971, Mr. Valachi was the first foot solider in the Mafia to admit to the existent of the Cosa Nostra which is Italian for "This Thing of Ours". Up unit this point, there was no proof of the Cosa Nostra and even  J. Edgar Hoover, head of the F.B.I., had publicly denied the very existence of Cosa Nostra. By the time Valachi finished, feds could not only substantiate the reality of the Mafia but could identify key players in the hierarchy of the organized crime syndicate.

Valachi was the perfect fit for an FBI informant. Even though a strong soldier he was often refereed to as having more bronze then brains. In-fact about the only thing that Valachi succeed at was being an informant to the FBI.

Coming up in the criminal world, Valachi was with a small time gang called the Minutemen gang. They performed robberies that lasted less then a minute, hence the name Minutemen. Valachi was eventually arrested and sent to prison for a 18 months. After nine months he was release and started up his own gang after finding out his old gang had replaced him. In the early 1930's, Valachi would connect with a mobster named Dominick "The Gap" Petrilli and this would be his first taste of the Mafia. When he started out he ran with the Lucchese Family, but after a nasty war with other Mafia families that left his boss Joseph Masseria dead, Valachi would find himself working as a foot soldier in the Genovese Family under the famous boss Charles "Lucky" Luciano.



In 1963, while serving time for heroin trafficking, Valachi deciding to talk. There was much speculation of why he decided to take the road of a rat. Valachi claims it was because he felt that the Mafia not only ran his life but ultimately ruined it. Authorities believed it was because he was trying to avoid a death sentence that was looming over his head for a murder he committed, but many other people believed it was because the Genovese family had a bounty out on his head.

But in the end, Valachi would be the first person to admit to the existent of the Mafia and his testimony broke free an investigation into the Mafia that has yet to be stop to this day.

Valachi would die of heart failure in prison, but not before he managed to committee another murder and managed to try to commit suicide.

Joseph Colombo -- The Colombo Family Boss

Joseph Colombo was born on June 16, 1923, and was the boss of the Colombo crime family, one of the Cosa Nostra in New York. A very influential boss to say the least. The only boss that fought against the FBI. He formed the Civil Rights League for Italians and was able to get tens of thousands of people involved, even including actors and politicians.
"Five Families" of the

Colombo became the boss of the family from somewhat of some odd circumstances.  Joseph Magliocco, the boss of the Profaci Family wanted to take out the boss of bosses, Carlo Gambino. Gimbino ran the biggest crime family in New York city and had enough power to go to war with three different families at the same time, taking him out would be like a kiss of death.

For this job Magliocca turned to the mid level gangster Joe Colombo. Joe Colombo actually grew up under the wing of Gambino and was mentored by him. This is mostly why Magliocca chose Colombo, he figured Colombo would be able to get close to him without raising any suspicion. There was one problem with this plan, Colombo was not going for it. Instead of seating himself up for death, Colombo double crossed Magliocco and gave Gambino the heads up.

This double cross would put Magliocco out of business, luckily avoiding a death sentence. Gambino and the commission would send Magiocco with his bags packing and decided to put Colombo in charge of the Profaci family as a reward for his loyalty to Gambino, thus renaming the Profaci Family to the Colombo Crime family.

Through the years Colombo would show he face in public way more then any other crime boss, yes even more then John Gotti. This was mainly due to his creation of the Civil Right League that he was the head of. He often gave speeches and held events that would poke back at the FBI for labeling all Italian Americans part of the mafia. He also was able to play a big part in the world famous movie the The God Father. Halting production in New York until certain script demands were meet, which included the deletion of the works like "The Mafia" and the "Cosa Nostra".

Through the years, the Colombo's had a big problem on his hands by the name of Crazy Joe Gallo. He was a mid level gangster who had his own crew. With a violent past Gallo wanted control of the Profaci family and went to war with them ultimately losing. He ended up going to jail and spent 9 years in prison, most of that time was spent in prison when Colombo was boss. The problem for Colombo was Gallo never lost his lust for power of the family, even if the name had changed from Profaci to Colombo.

Through the years a lot of high ranking mafia members were undoubtedly getting fed up with Colombo's political agenda. In 1970 with the FBI fed up with this fight against law enforcement arrested him and another high ranking member of his family. After being arrested a search of his car turned up a breif case that held info of all the Colombo Families rackets and info on other high ranking Mafia members including Carlo Gambino. This was not good for Colombo.



He would eventually pay the price for his loyalty to his Civil Rights League. In June 1971, at the second Italian unity rally, which had a showing of about 50 thousand less people than the first rally due to the other crime families disapproval, Colombo was shot twice. The shooter was shot dead right after the initial shooting and Colombo was rushed to the hospital where he laid in a comma for 8 years before dying in 1978.

No one was ever prosecuted for the crime and speculation pointed at either Crazy Joe Gallo or soldiers of Carlo Gambio. It didn't really matter, in the last years of boss of the Colombo family, Colombo gain a lot of enemies and most believe that his shooting was a joint effort by many different people who would benefit from him being dead.

Colombo was quite the character. He was the head of the Civil Rights League of Italian Americans aimed at taking away the stereo type that all Italian Americans were criminals and some how connected to organized crime. On the other hand Colombo was the boss of the second largest crime family in New York, skimming money from donation giving to the Civil Rights League to support his criminal origination. What a great guy.

"Crazy" Joe Gallo: Mafia Hitman

Joseph Gallo, not a famous name, not even a boss in mafia's history, but he was an important mafia enforcer from the Profaci crime family, based in New York. Like most crazy mafioso, he killed when he wanted rather when he needed or was ordered, and was thought to be a hitman doing contract killings on the orders of boss Joe Profaci. Ironically, his nickname "Crazy" had nothing to do with his murderous reputation. Many gangsters labelled him for his habit of reciting lines of dialogue from gangster movies and impersonating fictitious mob characters. Although never convicted of the crime from authorities it was a well known rumor that he was the killer of the famous mob boss Albert Anastasia.

Gallo was not happy with the leadership of the Profaci family, current ran by Boss Joseph Profaci so he tried to take over. The attempt was unsuccessful and many  members of Gallo's gang, friends and relatives were systematically wiped out by Profaci’s soldiers. To further weekend Gallo's chances of moving up in the mafia ladder, in 1961 he was convicted of extortion and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. While in prison he continued his murderous ways by politely inviting prisoners into his cell and then giving them food laced with strychnine. Many inmates became extremely ill though none died. Far from being rehabilitated he was paroled after serving 8 years of his sentence.

After his release, Gallo became determined to kick Joe Colombo off is thrown as boss of the Colombo crime family. In 1971 an African-American gangster shot Colombo three times in the head on Gallo’s orders, Colombo would survive for seven more years but would never gain consciousness. However, Gallo would soon get his own violent death from the mafia for precautions against him for murdering with no OK from anyone . In 1972, when he was eating at a seafood restaurant with his family and bodyguard, a lone gunman burst through the rear entrance and shot Gallo five times in the chest. He staggered into the street and collapsed dead. The responsible party for the slaying was Carlo Gimbino for killing his friend Joe Colombo, but this has never been proving because there was speculation that Gimbino himself had a hand in the killing of Colombo.

The Gambino's Family Muscle: Roy Demeo

Although not a boss or an under boss, Roy DeMeo is an important part of the Gambino Family.  During the 1970s, he was Paul Castellano's most trusted hit man; an ex-butcher who had the murder and disposal of "problems" down to an exact science. 

He was so good at his job even Castellano feared him, only meeting with him in person only if it was a must.  While he was a contract killer, he was also a legit nut job, and possibly a serial killer, as his and his crews 200+ victim body count stood to prove no remorse. 

Not only did he kill mobsters, he also killed those who were in the way.  He took real pleasure in killing, and dismembering bodies.  Another thing which made DeMeo a likely candidate for the "Serial Killers Hall of Fame" was his MO.  He would seldom deviate from his "assembly-line" methods, which he had converted from those of the butcher shop.  DeMeo would first shoot his victims in the head or stab them in the heart,  bleed them in the shower, then he would cut up the bodies into smaller "manageable" chunks, shove them into boxes to be disposed of at random locations.   

Roy DeMeo and his crew would carry out these gruesome killings in a clubhouse nicknamed "The Horror Hotel", sometimes eating their dinner while the bodies were being drained of blood in the shower.  But this type of activity that got more and more violent, and erratic, murdering for just about any reason they saw fit and it would eventually bring heat from his superiors, mainly Big Paul Castellano. 

Paul realized that DeMeo was drawing too much attention on from authorities so he put out a contract on him asking Nino Gaggi, DeMeo's closest friend and "collaborator", to take care of things.  Shortly thereafter, Roy DeMeo's body was found stuffed in the trunk of his car. Not since Albert Anastasia had the Gambino Family had such a vicious individual within its ranks, for DeMeo was not only a hit man, he was the authority on contract killing.

DeMeo was the muscle for Paul Castellano, his crew knew how to get get rid of people, they knew how to get the job done, get the job done right and make people disappear. But like with most mobster hit men, Demeo turned out to be more then what Paul could control and needed him gone to protect his family and himself. 

Thomas DeSimone (Two-Gun Tommy - Tommy-D) LUCCHESE FAMILY

Probably one of the most unphotographed mobsters

Portrayed by Joe Pesci, in the well known gangster flick "The Godfellas",  Tommy DeSimone ( Two-Gun Tommy or Tommy-D) was part of the Lucchese crime family and worked under a capo Paul Vario in the Lucchese family. Just like in the movie he was close friends with Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke, and between the three of them they joined together to lead criminal activities in New York for most of their life. 

From the words of Henry Hill, who the movie "The Goodfellas" was documented after, the FBI, ex-wife of Henry Hill and many other crime family associates all had the same thing to say about DeSimone, "Tommy was a nut job sociopath." Although he was always dressed in the most expensive clothes and drove flashy cars his family and himself lived in what most mobsters portrayed as a slum. Like a lot of low level mobsters he had more muscle than brains.





Tommy grew up as a gangster, his whole family was involved in the underworld one way or another. His sister was Dolores and his two brothers were Gambino crime family associate Robert DeSimone and Gambino associate Anthony DeSimone, murdered by mobster Thomas Agro in 1979. He was the brother-in-law of mobster Joseph "The Barber" Spione, who was slain for refusing to help kill DeSimone in the late 1970s. His sister Phyllis was Jimmy Burke's mistress since she was sixteen years old. He is the ex-father-in-law of Gambino crime family associate Salvatore DeVita.

His father owned and lost a printing shop due to a compulsive gambling addiction. Both DeSimone's grandfather, Rosario DeSimone, and uncle, Frank DeSimone, were bosses of the Los Angeles crime family. DeSimone's paternal grandfather Rosario DeSimone was the boss of the Los Angeles crime family after Vito Di Giorgio was killed in Chicago in 1922. DeSimone's paternal uncle, Frank DeSimone, was a criminal attorney-turned-mobster; "Uncle Frank" (as he was known) replaced Jack Dragna in 1956 after the latter's death, becoming the second DeSimone family member to become Los Angeles crime family boss.

DeSimone was alleged to have taken part in the December 1978 Lufthansa heist from JFK International Airport, the largest robbery in U.S. history at the time. The loot is reputed to have amounted to almost $6,000,000, of which only a fraction was recovered. DeSimone was spotted because he had very well-polished shoes, too well polished for an airport employee. He was the one who suggested recruiting his ex-cell mate Angelo Sepe for the heist.


DeSimone then murdered Parnell "Stacks" Edwards. DeSimone was a good friend of Stacks and was disappointed to hear that he had failed to get rid of the truck used in the Lufthansa Heist in New Jersey, where the evidence would be destroyed. When DeSimone was told by a ranking mafioso that he could become a made man because of this hit, he agreed. Once he found out where Stacks was hiding, he visited Stacks and shot him six times in the chest and head with a silenced pistol.


The sad truth is about Tommy is that if he was not such a nut job, with as many family ties in he had in the underworld,  he probably could have eventually took the rank of a capo after he was made. But in the end the famous John Gotti order someone from his crew to set up Tommy and had him whacked. As crazy as Tommy was he stepped over the line when he helped kill a made man in the Gambino family that was part of John Gotti's crew. With the approval of capo Paul Vario, Tommy was set-up to think he was going to earn the honor of being a made men in the mafia, but instead was shot once in the back of the head and in the face for the murder of a made man with no permission, the murder of another man part of Gotti's crew and being for identifiable in the Lufthansa heist. 


Although Burke and Henry, were both also involved in the Killing of William "Billy Batts" Bentvena, the made member that was killed from Gotti's crew that got Tommy killed, there life's were spared because they were making a lot of money for the mob.

Tommy's body has has yet to be recovered, there is two different theories to what happened to him, both of which have yet to be confirmed. One thing is for sure, everyone seems to have the same opinion of him. He was a bad egg. A sociopath with no conscience.  He was a foul mouth, unpredictable, dangerous individual with the shortest of tempers. If anything, the mob did themselves a favor by getting rid of the hot head and if they would have got to Henry before the FBI did then Jimmy Burke and Paul Vario probably would have died on the outside and not in prison.

 

James Gandolfini: Tony Soprano

                                                  

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