Mobsters in the News

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press

A reputed former mob boss was ordered back to prison Friday for violating parole, and his lawyer complained that the FBI would pursue his client "to the grave."

Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, the reputed head of Philadelphia's La Cosa Nostra in the 1990s, must serve four additional months for failing to report a meeting with a former co-defendant at a Boca Raton, Florida, cigar bar.

"I never had dinner with Johnny Ciancaglini. I bumped into him," said Merlino, appearing fit and tan on a return trip to Philadelphia. "I didn't report it. ... It just slipped my mind."

Merlino, 52, has been living in south Florida since 2011, when he left prison after more than a decade from a Philadelphia racketeering conviction. His lawyer maintains that Merlino plans to work as a maitre d' at a new Boca Raton restaurant that will bear his name.

"His mother helped us out greatly with recipes," said Stanley Stein, the elderly businessman funding the restaurant, who said he flew Merlino up for court hearings this month in a private jet and paid for his stay at the Four Seasons hotel.

The FBI has been tailing Merlino as part of a new, unspecified criminal probe, according to testimony Friday from organized crime task force members. The night of the cigar bar meeting in June, five people in five cars were on the surveillance detail.

Two FBI task force members — who feared they stood out among regulars as they sipped pricey drinks — said they observed Merlino talking with Ciancaglini and other felons in a glass-enclosed VIP section of a spot called Havana Nights.

"It's very obvious what is going on. This is a night on the town with his mob buddies," Assistant U.S. Attorney David Troyer argued Friday.

Defense lawyer Edwin Jacobs Jr. insists the contact was random and amounted to nothing more than "a couple of minutes of chit chat."

Ciancaglini's wife testified that she often visits Merlino in Florida but said her husband steers clear to avoid legal trouble for either of them. Ciancaglini stayed at the hotel when she and Merlino attended the bar mitzvah of Merlino's nephew in Malibu, California, she said.

Troyer also argued that Merlino violated parole when he refused to answer financial questions — instead invoking his Fifth Amendment rights — during an interview with officials.

Although Merlino appears to be enjoying an enviable lifestyle, he reported having almost no income.

"He miraculously survives on a paltry amount of money," Troyer said.

Debra Merlino testified that she has a successful business and has long supported him. She and the couple's younger daughter had just moved to Florida when officials filed the parole violation notice last month, days before Merlino's supervision was to end.

"We were pretty much planning on moving ahead with our daily lives," Debra Wells Merlino testified.

That may be more feasible early next year.

U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick did not extend Merlino's supervised release. However, the FBI might still be watching.

"I think they would follow (Merlino) to the grave," Jacobs said.

By Selim Algar

Vincent Asaro, left , was arrested in January in connection with the 1978 Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport.Photo: Gregory P. Mango

The mobbed up son of alleged Lufthansa heist mastermind Vincent Asaro pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court Friday to digging up a body that had been buried years earlier by his father.

Bonanno captain Jerome Asaro, 56, will likely face up to 8 years in prison for his role in a variety of mob mayhem including arson and the grisly exhumation of mafia victim Paul Katz during the early 1980s.

The scion’s decrepit father, Vincent Asaro, 80, is still slated for trial on a slew of serious crimes – including the spectacular JFK heist depicted in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” – that could land him in jail for the rest of his life if convicted.

Prosecutors charge that the elder Asaro pulled off the $6 million robbery of the Lufthansa terminal along with Luchese mobster Jimmy “The Gent” Burke who was played by Robert DeNiro in the film.

Vincent Asaro allegedly had Katz killed in 1969 as a favor to Burke because the Luchese hood suspected him of tipping off authorities about the location of a stash house.

Asaro’s lawyer, Lawrence Fisher, asked the court to allow Asaro to mingle with his ailing father behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

By Frank Donnelly | fdonnelly@siadvance.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A longtime mob informant, found guilty for his role in an arson on Staten Island committed by gangsters he informed on, has had his conviction vacated, according to a published report.

A federal appeals court ruled the trial judge should have allowed into evidence a secret tape recording in which his FBI handler said Volkan (The Turk) Mergen had done nothing wrong with regard to the January 27, 2006 fire, said a report in the New York Post.

Mergen told the agent he had participated in the arson, against the FBI's instructions, because he feared for his life if he backed out, according to the report and the decision handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Mergen, a former Gambino crime family associate, had been serving 12 years in a federal prison.

Prosecutors had praised Mergen for helping take down numerous Gambino and Bonanno crime family members. Between 2001 and 2006, he made more than 275 secret recordings, court documents say.

"Mergen's service was fruitful: He sometimes submitted so many recordings to the FBI that the agency could not keep pace," said court papers.

However, the FBI broke ties with Mergen after the arson.

Mergen had told FBI agents about the plan in advance and was instructed not to involve himself, said prosecutors.

But he contended he couldn't back out without exposing himself as a snitch, said court papers.

The Fire Department extinguished the blaze and the home owner suffered a heart attack, court documents state. Those papers don't specify where on Staten Island the fire occurred.

The trial judge dismissed as hearsay a tape recording in which an FBI agent said he didn't believe Mergen had done anything wrong on the night of the arson, said the report.

The judge had erred in refusing to allow the tape into evidence, the appeals court determined.

"Prior inconsistent statements offered for impeachment, are, by definition, not hearsay," the appeals court said.

In a 2010 trial, Mergen was convicted of driving to New Jersey to get the gasoline used in the arson and was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2012 on that charge and several other convictions.

The appeals court ordered that Mergen be retried on the arson-related conviction.

However, the panel dismissed other convictions for drug distribution, attempted robbery and firearm possession, offenses which had occurred years before the arson, because the statute of limitations had expired.

Before his arrest, Mergen was credited with helping to crack the 2005 murder of Bonanno associate Robert McKelvey at the old Kreischer Mansion in Charleston, said the report.

McKelvey was stabbed and drowned in a pond on the grounds before his body was chopped into pieces and discarded. Joseph Young, 29, was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to life on 24 racketeering counts, including the murder.

By Justin Zaremba | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

MORRISTOWN — Bail was reduced for several of the alleged Genovese crime family associates accused of running illegal financial schemes and sports gambling operations, but a Superior Court judge maintained $400,000 bail for alleged "capo" Charles "Chuckie" Tuzzo Thursday.

The 80-year-old Tuzzo, however, posted $40,000 with a bail bondsman and was expected to be released later in the evening.

Tuesday, acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced the arrest of 11 alleged Genovese crime family members and associates, saying their schemes were evidence the Mafia had "evolved and learned to exploit sophisticated financial systems to hide and launder the proceeds of traditional street crimes.”

Tuzzo, of Bayside, N.Y. — a Genovese "capo"— and Vito Alberti, 55, of New Providence — a "made" soldier — allegedly report directly to the crime family's hierarchy in New York, Hoffman said.

Tuzzo and Alberti allegedly received tribute from Genovese family members and associates for illegal financial operations in New Jersey such as check-cashing operations and multimillion-dollar sports gambling operation.

According to Hoffman, Domenick Puccillo, 56, of Florham Park oversaw the operations of Tri-State Check Cashing Inc., located on Avenue A in Newark’s Ironbound District, and other licensed check cashing locations. Puccillo is charged with first-degree racketeering, first-degree money laundering, conspiracy, criminal usury, possession of usurious loan records and operating an unlicensed check-cashing facility.

Puccillo allegedly extended lines of both cash and credit to customers, and charged annual interest rates ranging between one to three “points”, or between 52 and 156 percent. Individuals who used the business were typically indigent with poor credit, and were required to pay interest weekly, or face threats of violence from Puccillo and an associate, Robert "Bobby Spags" Spagnola, Hoffman said.

Spagnola, 67, of Morganville is charged with first-degree racketeering, first-degree money laundering, conspiracy, criminal usury and possession of usurious loan records.

Meanwhile, Vincent P. Coppola, 37, of Union allegedly headed a multi-million dollar illegal sports gambling business. Coppola, who is charged with first-degree racketeering, first-degree money laundering, conspiracy and promoting gambling, is the son of jailed Genovese capo Michael Coppola.

Bail was set at $400,000 with no 10-percent option for each of the individuals arrested earlier this week, but Judge James DeMarzo in Morristown reduced bail to $300,000 Thursday for following: Spagnola; Abel J. Rodrigues, 52, Bridgewater; Manuel Rodriguez, 49, Chatham; and John W. Trainor, 42, Brick.

Alberti's bail was held at $400,000.

"It could have been higher," the judge told the court. "It could have been much higher. Multiples of what it was set at."

But, DeMarzo later said, it was his inclination to reduce it.

"Bail is not there to punish," he said. "It's there to make sure someone shows up at court."

Rodrigues, the owner of Portucale Restaurant & Bar, allegedly participated in the check-cashing operation by using his business to launder money and evade taxes. He and his associate, Rodriguez, are accused of cashing more than $400 million in checks and collecting over $9 million in fees over a four-year period during the course of the scheme.

Trainor and Jerry Albanese, 47, of Scotch Plains served under Vincent Coppola as part the illegal gambling operations, Hoffman said.

Trainor allegedly became tied up with the ring after becoming indebted to the crime family — which later took over his car business, GTS Auto Carriers, and siphoned money from it.

Trainor, who wasn't represented by counsel but had an application for a public defender, told the court he was "completely broke" and likely couldn't pay bail even if it was reduced significantly.

"I went bankrupt," he said. "I'm completely broke. I have five small kids at home."

Trainor said his wife's a registered nurse and works full time, so he stays home with the children. His 17-year-old daughter, Trainor said, was still recovering from a liver transplant she received in April.

Tuzzo, Alberti, Spagnola, Rodriguez and Trainor each made appearances in court via a closed circuit feed from Morris County Correctional Facility. Rodrigues and Pucillo posted bail earlier in the week.

Coppola, who wasn’t arrested on Tuesday, was picked up by police Wednesday, according to the Attorney General’s Office. His bail wasn't reviewed Thursday.

Despite several successful bail reductions by other alleged associates, Tuzzo's attorney, Gerald McMahon, didn't seek bail modification.

McMahon said it was because the terms had already been set with the Attorney General's Office and "having my guy and his picture at the top of (the AG's) chart is not conducive to getting bail reduction." But, he said, he may later seek modification and recoupment of the bail paid in excess.

"I look forward to trashing this case when we get to court," McMahon told NJ Advance outside of DeMarzo's courtroom.

McMahon, who is licensed to practice law in New York — where Tuzzo lives — but not New Jersey, was vouched for by his son, a licensed New Jersey attorney, in the court proceedings Thursday.

Regarding the case, he said, "Don't you get immunity after 80 for a glorified gambling arrest?"

Tuzzo, Alberti, Pucillo, Spagnola, Rodriguez, Coppola, Rodrigues and Trainor are all facing charges including first-degree racketeering and money laundering, each of which could land them in jail for up to 20 years.

Alberti, Trainor, Rodrigues and Rodriguez are also facing tax-related charges for their illegal activity related to the check-cashing businesses and other endeavors.

Flor Miranda of Newark and Jennifer Mann of Bayonne who were charged in connection with the alleged illegal financial operations didn't have their bail reviewed Thursday. Albanese's bail also wasn't reviewed Thursday.

Miranda and Mann are each accused of helping to keep records and file false reports related to the schemes.

The Attorney General's Office was represented by Deputy Attorney Generals Jacqueline Weyand and Ray Mateo.

The matter is next scheduled to go before Superior Court Judge Robert Gilson on Nov. 19.

A Portuguese man has been detained in the American state of New Jersey on charges of being part of an elaborate money-laundering scheme for the Italian mafia.

Abel Rodrigues, originally from the Minho region in northern Portugal, has been charged with first-degree racketeering, first-degree money laundering, conspiracy, operating an unlicensed cheque-cashing facility and filing fraudulent tax returns.

According to the US Attorney General, it is believed 52-year old Rodrigues, using his Portucale restaurant in the Ironbound district as a front, assisted in laundering over 400 million dollars of the mob’s money over the past four years.

Rodrigues’ Brazilian wife Flor Miranda, office manager of the Tri-State Check Cashing Company, was also detained in the operation.

He now faces between 10 and 20 years in jail if found guilty of extortion and money laundering and that sentence could increase if it accumulates with other sentences.

According to the accusation, which was made public on Tuesday afternoon, “Many customers cashed cheques at Portucale Restaurant”, owned by Rodrigues, “to launder money, hide income or obtain cash for ‘under-the-table’ payrolls because Abel Rodrigues allegedly did not ask for any identification and would not file proper ‘currency transaction reports,’ or CTRs, for any cheques or combination of cheques exceeding $10,000, as required by federal law.”

Tri-State Check Cashing provided the cash disbursed at Portucale Restaurant.

For his services Rodrigues reportedly charged three percent commission, which over four years generated a profit of nine million dollars, or around seven million euros.

He kept one percent of the commission and gave the rest to Domenick Pucillo, who ran Tri-State Check Cashing.

In total, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced, seven alleged members and associates of the New York-based Genovese organised crime family were arrested on Tuesday as part of ‘Operation Fistful’, and one more is sought on an arrest warrant on first-degree racketeering charges for allegedly reaping millions of dollars in criminal profits in New Jersey through loan-sharking, unlicensed cheque cashing, gambling and money laundering, including laundering of proceeds from narcotics trafficking.

Three other alleged associates were charged by summons, bringing the total number charged to 11.

Pucillo and the other associates charged, including Rodrigues, are believed to be part of a New Jersey crew operating under the supervision and control of two alleged ‘made’ members of the Genovese crime family; Charles ‘Chuckie’ Tuzzo, 80, of Bayside, New York, a Genovese ‘Capo’, and Vito Alberti, 55, of New Providence, New Jersey, a Genovese ‘soldier’ – who answer to the Genovese hierarchy in New York.

Tuzzo, Alberti and Pucillo were among the seven men who were arrested on Tuesday morning.

“We charge that this crew of the Genovese crime family was up to many of the Mafia’s old tricks in New Jersey, including loan-sharking and illegal gambling, to the tune of millions of dollars,” said Acting Attorney General Hoffman.

“History teaches us that as long as demand exists for illegal loans, illicit gambling, drugs, and other black-market goods and services, organised crime is going to turn a profit by preying on society. Our message to the Mafia is that as long as they do, we’re going to be here to send them to prison”, he said.

Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice said: “This case illustrates that the Mafia has evolved and learned to exploit sophisticated financial systems to hide and launder the proceeds of traditional street crimes such as loan-sharking and illegal gambling.

“Through it all, as always, the Mafia makes its money largely through the ever-present threat of violence. This case demonstrates that, as much as the Mafia may change its criminal tactics, we will work tirelessly to remain one step ahead and root out their corrosive influence”, she added.

New Jersey Commissioner Michael Murphy, of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, reflected: “This case presents yet another instance of the Waterfront Commission’s concerted efforts with its law enforcement partners to disrupt the influence of organised crime in the metropolitan area.

“The Genovese Crime Family has historically exerted its influence on the Port of New Jersey. Disruption of its profits from gambling, loan-sharking and money laundering weaken that family’s grip.”

On its website, the Portucale is described as “a family-owned and run restaurant serving authentic regional Portuguese food” and says: “We hope that you will have an incredible dining experience. Come join our family for dinner!”

John Joseph Gotti Jr. was an Italian-American organized crime figure best known in the 1980s as the powerful, media-courting boss of the Gambino Mafia family. He was the fifth of 13 children born on Oct. 27, 1940 to John Sr. and Philomena.

Five of the Gotti brothers, including John, Jr., eventually became “made” members of the Gambino crime syndicate. The Gottis grew up in poverty, with a father unable to find steady work and prone to gamble away whatever he was able to earn. The future “Teflon Don’s” life of trouble and mayhem began early, as he developed a childhood reputation as a bully, truant and petty criminal. After marrying in 1958 and starting a family, he briefly tried his hand at a series of low-paying legitimate jobs before stints in jail spurred him on to a life of crime.

In the 1960s and 1970s he steadily rose through the ranks of the Italian Mafia while living and operating in Queens. He became boss of the Gambino family after orchestrating the notorious hit on boss Paul Castellano outside of Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan in 1985 and was known throughout the 1980s for his flamboyant public persona and invincibility before the law. He was arrested on numerous criminal charges in 1990 and sentenced to life in prison. He died of cancer in 2002. He is buried in St. John’s Cemetery in Queens. Of his five children, John Angelo Gotti is perhaps best known for following his father’s footsteps into the mob life.

The future “Dapper Don” began his life of crime in the street gangs of New York around the age of 12. He began to establish mob contacts who would mentor and work with him as he embarked on a career on the wrong side of the law. After spending the early 1960s in and out of jail, he hooked up with Gambino capo Carmine Fatico and took to truck hijackings at Idlewild Airport and other places to support his growing family. After returning to jail for his thefts, the rising mob star moved into the Queens neighborhood of Howard Beach and rejoined his old crew working out of the Bergen Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park.

Gotti “made his bones” in the Mafia for his role in killing a gangster suspected of murdering a nephew of boss Carlo Gambino. Defended by famed attorney Roy Cohn, he was released from prison after serving only two years and soon became a “made” member of the Gambino family. John Gotti quickly earned a street reputation as a powerful enforcer and a good earner, eager to get into rackets such as construction, drug-dealing and stock fraud. However, he soon chafed under the leadership of family boss Paul Castellano, who did not want his crews dealing in narcotics. It was time for the mobster to make a move; “Big Paulie” would never make it to his sitdown at the steakhouse that chilly December evening.

After taking over leadership of the Gambino family, Gotti cultivated a hometown hero reputation in the working class streets of Howard Beach. He was often seen in public in expensive, bespoke suits with an entourage of mob associates. Skillful at corrupting juries, throughout the 1980s criminal charges could not stick to the “Teflon Don” as he expanded the criminal tentacles of the Italian Mafia. The family earned an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars during his reign.

But Gotti’s invincibility could not last forever. In December 1990 he was arrested with underboss Sammy “the Bull” Gravano and others at the Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy and was handed a slew of charges, including murder, loansharking, illegal gambling, bribery and tax evasion. With the government able to flip Gravano against his former boss, the Gotti empire soon came crumbing down. In 1992, John Gotti was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life in prison, where he died 10 years later.

Notable quote: “I never lie because I don’t fear anyone. You only lie when you’re afraid.”

For further information, call the Greater Astoria Historical Society at 718-278-0700 or visit our website at www.astorialic.org.

OCTOBER 23, 2014 BY DAVID SHELDON

A New Jersey Mafia bust supports the idea that sports betting in the Garden State needs to be legalized in order to keep criminal elements out, according to the state’s Acting Attorney General, John J. Hoffman.

Speaking at a press conference in Newark this week, Hoffman said that the recent break up of a sports betting and loan-sharking operation run by the notorious Genovese crime family highlights the need for sports betting to be dragged “out of the shadows.”

“We have talked before at length about one of the primary efforts in our sports betting journey that we have been on is to try to bring it out of the black market shadows,” said Hoffman. “The Mafia, the organized crime, controlled shadows. And this is exactly where it’s happening.”

His words echo those of former New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne, the man who signed casino gambling into law in the state, who saw the implementation of rigorous gambling regulation as part of the fight against the New Jersey Mob, famously warning the Mafia to keep its “filthy hands off Atlantic City.”

Multimillion Dollar Mafia Operation

Incumbent Governor Chris Christie last week approved a law that will permit sports betting in New Jersey at casinos and racetracks. Currently only four US states, Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon, are able to offer sports betting legally under federal law. The Protection and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) makes it a criminal offense elsewhere in the US; however, Christie’s law seeks to repeal the prohibition, effectively decriminalizing sports betting within the state, which lawmakers see as a way a of revitalizing New Jersey’s lagging economy.

New York Harbor Waterfront Commissioner Michael Murphy told the assembled press that the Mafia operation had been bringing in as much as $1.7 million a year from sports betting alone. The ring, it is believed, had been orchestrated by Vincent Coppola, the 37-year-old son of jailed Genovese capo Michael “Mikey Cigars” Coppola. Murphy said that Coppola used a wire room in Costa Rica to process gambling transactions, while his henchmen in New Jersey vetted new clients and enforced collections of gambling debts. While 11 people were arrested for involvement in the ring, Coppola remains at large.

Prohibition Not Working

“When the mafia, when organized crime, takes over and makes money on illegal gambling, where does it go?” asked Murphy. “It doesn’t go to property tax relief, it doesn’t go to senior citizens, and Medicare or prescription programs. It goes to money laundering, it goes to the importation of heroin, and there are kids dying today in New Jersey as a result,” Murphy said.

Murphy also drew a parallel between the outlawing of sports betting and that of alcohol during the Prohibition era, which inadvertently allowed the Mafia to thrive through bootlegging operations. “People drink and people gamble,” he said. “Some of the families that are still engaged in organized crime today, several generations ago enjoyed enormous profits during a time when drinking was illegal.”

However, it seems that not everyone in New Jersey is persuaded by the arguments against the prohibition of sports betting. A poll this week conducted by Rutgers-Eagleton showed that while legalization is broadly supported by some 44 percent of New Jerseyans, another 31 percent said they thought it would make no difference, while 17 percent were staunchly against it.

The ex-Colombo hit man came forward to solve the 1997 gangland killing of NYPD cop Ralph Dols.

BY JOHN MARZULLI

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Sunday, October 26, 2014, 4:00 AM

Federal prosecutors are going to bat for the ex-Colombo hit man who came forward to solve the 1997 gangland rubout of NYPD cop Ralph Dols.

Joseph (Joey Caves) Competiello, a mob soldier who pleaded guilty to five murders as part of his government agreement, is facing life in prison when he is sentenced next month by Judge Brian Cogan.

But the feds are urging leniency for the turncoat who helped break the crime family and bring Dols' killers to justice.

"Competiello's cooperation initiated a chain of events which resulted in the cooperation of other Colombo family members and associates which led to the arrests and ultimately the convictions of nearly every inducted member of the crime family," Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes stated in court papers.

"Joe's cooperation was the beginning of the end of the Colombo family," another law enforcement source added.

Before Competiello was flipped by FBI special agent John Fallon, the Dols' murder had been exhaustively investigated by the NYPD and the feds, but was a cold case

Then Competiello revealed the participants in the killing, including then capos Thomas Gioeli and Dino Calabro - Calabro cooperated soon after and implicated former acting boss Joel Cacace who wanted the cop whacked because he had married Cacace's ex-wife.

"Prior to Competiello's cooperation not a single lead implicated Competiello or the Gioeli crew in the murder," Geddes noted.

In a sad footnote to the case, Cacace, Gioeli and accused shooter Dino Saracino were acquitted of the young cop's slaying. Competiello and Calabro testified that they did not know Dols was a cop when they were tasked with gunning him down outside his Brooklyn apartment building.

Sources said Dols' family understood that it was necessary for the feds to make deals with the mob rats who participated in the murder in order to bring their accomplices to justice.

Competiello has served more than six years in prison since he was arrested and it is doubtful that the judge will give him time served, sources said.

BEHIND THE STORY: Although his notorious father once remained a fugitive for 11 years, reputed Genovese crime family member Vincent Coppola was on the lam all of one day before New Jersey State Police nabbed him with two brothers from Lyndhurst at a Garden State Parkway rest stop this week.

Whether the bust was pure coincidence or something more remains an open question.

Coppola’s father, Genovese capo Michael “Mikey Cigars” Coppola (above, left), spent more than a decade on the run before the FBI captured him in Manhattan in 2007.

Although he beat a rap for allegedly shooting another mobster in a motel parking lot in 1977, the elder Coppola was convicted of other mob-related activities and is serving a 16-year federal prison sentence in Atlanta.

The warrant for his son’s arrest was barely 24 hours old when he was captured.

According to state authorities, troopers conducting a quality-of-life detail spotted Vincent Coppola (above, right) and the Pio brothers — Ralph, 46, and 40-year-old Joseph — snorting heroin Wednesday in a parked Cadillac DTS at the Colonia South Service Area in Woodbridge.

The troopers seized 27 wax folds of heroin and drug paraphernalia, they said.

They then turned Coppola over to the state Division of Criminal Justice, gave Joseph Pio to Bloomfield police (for an active warrant) and released Ralph Pio on a summons.

Just a day earlier, state authorities obtained an arrest warrant for Coppola, of Union, as part of a roundup of members and associates of the legendary Genovese family on charges of running a racketeering enterprise.

The network was based in the family’s longtime stomping grounds, the Down Neck/Ironbound section of Newark and the nearby port of Newark, but extended to Ocean County, as well, authorities said.

Heading the operation, acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman said, was 80-year-old Genovese family capo Charles Tuzzo of Bayside, Queens, and reputed family soldier Vito Alberti, 55, of New Providence.

Loansharking alone brought the group $1.3 million in interest, Hoffman said.

The crew also operated a multi-million dollar offshore sports gambling operation, controlled a trucking firm that shipped new cars from Port Newark and used an unlicensed check-cashing business to rake in more than $9 million in fees while enabling customers to launder money and duck taxes, he said.

Coppola ran the sports betting arm of the network using an offshore wire room in Costa Rica to process more than $1.7 million in bets in a single year through a website and toll-free phone number, authorities said.

He essentially followed in footsteps of his father, they said, who with others controlled waterfront rackets and family operations in Newark, where the elder Coppola was born.

Michael Coppola was the prime suspect in the April 1977 murder of John (Johnny Coca Cola) Lardiere, who’d been released from prison for a day to spend Easter with his family.

After his killer’s .22-caliber gun jammed, Lardiere reportedly asked: “What’re you gonna do now, tough guy?”

Authorities said Coppola then drew a .38 from under his pant leg and killed him in the Bridgewater motel parking lot.

The killing remained unsolved until 1996, when a mobster arrested on murder and extortion charges fingered Coppola — who federal agents said was part of a notorious Genovese hit team known as “The Fist” and for a time was acting caporegime while Tino Fiumara was imprisoned in the 1980s and 90s.

After being served with a summons to provide a DNA sample, Coppola fled his Spring Lake home. He used various assumed names while traveling between residences in New York and San Francisco before a team of FBI agents grabbed him walking on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where he was living with his wife, in March 2007.

Coppola was eventually cleared of the murder charge but was convicted on RICO charges for extortion and other crimes. A federal judge later sentenced him to 16 years. There is no parole in the federal system, which means the elder Coppola wouldn’t see freedom again for at least another decade, when he’s 78.

Attention now shifts to his son and his co-defendants.

“History teaches us that as long as demand exists for illegal loans, illicit gambling, drugs, and other black-market goods and services, organized crime is going to turn a profit by preying on society,” Hoffman said.

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Roger Touhy, Gangster: Madison's Wonder Bar Steakhouse has mob history, g...: The 85-year-old Wonderbar Steakhouse in Madison was a mob hangout for many years. It was built by Roger "The Terrible" ...

Submitted by Carl Horowitz

Northern New Jersey's International Longshoremen's Association Local 1235 has remained a profit center for the Genovese crime family despite the reform process set in motion by various prosecutions and an ILA takeover. That reality was brought home on October 15 when Robert Ruiz, an ex-local delegate to the parent union, was sentenced in Newark federal court to 20 months in prison, plus two years of supervised release, for his role in a racket to extort payments from members during Christmas season. He had pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy. Ruiz is among more than a dozen defendants in the case. They include the three previous local presidents, Albert Cernadas, Vincent Aulisi and Thomas Leonardis, the latter two of whom also pleaded guilty in May. Cernadas and two other non-Local 1235 defendants, Stephen Depiro and Nunzio LaGrasso, face pending charges.

The Newark-based ILA Local 1235 represents dockworkers at the ports of Newark and neighboring Elizabeth. For years its leaders worked for the Genovese mob, making sure to exact "contributions" from members. The international union, itself a target of a civil RICO suit nearly a decade ago until its dismissal by a federal judge in November 2007, had taken over the local in August 2008 and placed it under trusteeship. Yet the legacy of crime has been a gift that keeps on giving. On January 20, 2011, its profile received an unexpected boost when Vincent Aulisi, president of the union during 2006-07, was arrested on conspiracy and extortion charges. The action was part of a much larger multi-state bust of Mafia members and associates that netted almost 120 arrests that morning. The defendants had been named in an 82-page, 16-count indictment for murder, racketeering, extortion and other offenses that in some cases went back decades.

ILA Local 1235 and the Genovese family long have been difficult to tell apart, as federal prosecutions revealed during the last decade. Albert Cernadas, who served as local president during 1981-2006, pleaded guilty in September 2005 to benefit fraud. Two months later, in November 2005, he settled a civil racketeering suit against him whose defendants had included ILA International President John Bowers. An alleged co-conspirator in the criminal case, a Genovese capo, Lawrence Ricci, "disappeared" during his trial. He would turn up dead weeks later in the trunk of a parked car at a New Jersey diner. A Genovese mobster, Michael Coppola, after being on the lam for a little over a decade after his prosecution in 1996 for a 1977 murder, was captured in August 2008. He was indicted for Local 1235-related racketeering as well as the murder. At his 2009 trial, he was found not guilty of murder, but was convicted of extortion and flight charges, and received a 16-year sentence.

Now a group of ILA officials have received their own dose of justice. On October 15, Robert Ruiz, a delegate of Local 1235 to the international union during 2007-10, received a 20-month prison sentence for extortion in this "Christmas tribute" case involving unspecified sums extracted from union members. Ruiz, 55, a resident of Watchung, N.J., had pleaded guilty in May. The acts of extortion, said prosecutors, happened at the same time as members received their end-of-the-year container royalty fund checks. It would have been a tough case to fight. Two other former Local 1235 officers, Vincent Aulisi and Thomas Leonardis, respectively, the local presidents during the periods 2006-07 and 2008-11, also had admitted their role in the racket back in May. Member "contributions" weren't requests. Aulisi and Leonardis admitted they had used force or threats of force to collect the money. Aulisi, now 82, received an 18-month prison sentence; Leonardis, 57, still awaits sentencing.

A few other individuals have pleaded guilty in this case. They include former ILA supervisors Salvatore LaGrasso, Michael Nicolosi and Julio Porrao. In addition, three additional defendants still face charges. One of them, the aforementioned Albert Cernadas, now 79, was president of ILA Local 1235 during 1981-2006, and has been cited as a Genovese associate. Another defendant, Stephen Depiro, 59, a resident of Kenilworth, N.J., is a Genovese crime family soldier. And Nunzio LaGrasso, vice president of the Newark-based ILA Local 1478, is also a Genovese associate. When arrested in January 2011, he was charged not only with extracting payoffs, but also with loan-sharking. New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman and Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch led the investigation, which involved the FBI and the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Inspector General. Christmas will never be the same for ILA rank and file members - something for which they no doubt are thankful.

By Laura Figueroa

Democratic congressional candidate Kathleen Rice has taken aim at Republican opponent Bruce Blakeman's business relationship with his ex-father-in-law Myron Shevell, citing Shevell’s involvement in a 1988 federal racketeering lawsuit.

Rice's campaign this week called on Blakeman to “disclose his relationship” with Shevell, owner of New England Motor Freight, a New Jersey-based trucking company.

Shevell’s daughter, Nancy, was previously married to Blakeman.

Shevell has donated $5,200 to Blakeman’s campaign against Rice in the 4th Congressional District, according to campaign finance records. Blakeman is listed as a registered agent for New England Motor Freight on the New York Division of Corporations website.

Blakeman’s campaign denies any impropriety and said Rice’s call for Blakeman to discuss his relationship with Myron Shevell was “desperate.”

In a statement, Rice’s campaign said Shevell “was accused in a 1988 federal RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] case of paying members of the Genovese crime family to help deunionize the company’s workforce.”

Rice campaign spokesman Coleman Lamb said the case raised questions about Blakeman and Shevell’s business relationship.

The Rice campaign cites an October 2007 U.S. Department of Justice handbook instructing federal prosecutors on how to handle civil RICO cases that refers to the case.

In an appendix, the manual notes that on Oct. 13, 1988, federal prosecutors filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Newark against the late Vincent Gigante, leader of the Genovese crime family, that also names Shevell and his trucking company as defendants.

In describing the case, the manual says Shevell, “various organized crime figures, and Local 560 officials conducted and conspired to conduct the affairs of New England Motor Freight, Inc ... through a pattern of racketeering activity involving fraud and illegal labor payoffs.”

The manual states the alleged pattern of racketeering activity included “efforts by defendant Shevell and organized crime figures ... to retain organized crime’s control over Local 560.”

The manual says the civil case against Shevell concluded with his agreement on Sept. 29, 1989, to a “consent decree” in which he “agreed that he would not personally engage in labor negotiations with the representatives of any labor organization; and [New England Motor Freight] agreed that it would take no action to undermine its collective bargaining arrangement with Local 560.”

“Kathleen Rice is desperate and has officially stooped to a new low in gutter politics by attacking Bruce's ex-father-in-law,” said Blakeman campaign spokesman Matt Coleman in a statement. “The Rice campaign’s internal polls surely reflect what our polls are showing — that Bruce Blakeman is surging in the closing days of this campaign and has the momentum to bring him to victory on Nov. 4.”

Coleman called the Rice campaign’s questions “desperate” and said Shevell “was twice appointed to the NJ Transit Board of Governors by Democrats in the Garden State and withstood vigorous vetting by the public and media.”

Messages left at Shevell’s office in Elizabeth, N.J., on Tuesday and Thursday were not returned.

Blakeman and Shevell’s relationship was raised in a July 2, 1998, article in the Daily News, when Blakeman was running for state comptroller. Blakeman said then: “It was a lawsuit that was settled without any findings ... or any fine ... I am not going to preclude the possibility of any family members contributing ... I would not be concerned.”

Coleman said this week that “in the spirit of disclosure, Blakeman again repeats his numerous calls for Ms. Rice to release her Moreland Commission emails and communications, which she has refused to do so for months.”

Rice, the Nassau County district attorney, was a co-chair of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Moreland Commission on public corruption, which Cuomo abruptly disbanded. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is investigating the panel’s closure.

In an effort to get Rice to detail her actions on the panel, Blakeman has repeatedly called on his opponent to release all of her commission-related communications. News reports have said Cuomo administration officials interfered in commission investigations.

Rice’s campaign has said she cannot release any documents because it would “deeply compromise an ongoing federal investigation that she is assisting.”

Feds: Gennaro Bruno was gunman in Howard Beach Bosshart murder

by Peter C. Mastrosimone,

An associate of the Gambino crime family was arrested Tuesday in Las Vegas and will be brought back to New York to face racketeering charges that include the 2002 murder of a partner in crime, Martin Bosshart, in Howard Beach.

Gennaro “Jerry” Bruno, 41, was the triggerman who executed Bosshart off 155th Avenue near Lahn Street on the night of Jan. 2, 2002, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which announced the arrest.

Bruno was allegedly working with other mobsters including Bosshart — who had an extensive criminal record and had been released from prison just a few weeks before he was killed — to import large quantities of marijuana from Canada into the New York area. Bosshart, 30 at the time, wanted to cut one of their co-conspirators out of the business, according to the government, and was murdered to prevent that from happening.

One co-conspirator, Todd LaBarca, pleaded guilty in April 2012 to racketeering charges that included the murder of Bosshart. Some published reports say Bosshart was a suspect in other murders when he was killed.

Bruno, whose name is also spelled as Gerry in some references, allegedly has a long criminal history and was a member of the Ozone Park Boys, a Gambino crew also known as the Liberty Posse and the Young Guns. The group allegedly was responsible for a wide range of crimes dating back to the mid-1980s, including car theft and chop-shop operations, drug trafficking, extortion, robbery and gambling.

“As alleged, Gennaro Bruno started his criminal career at a young age as a member of a street gang where he earned his criminal credentials,” the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, Loretta Lynch, said in a prepared statement in announcing his indictment and arrest. “He then graduated to become an associate in the Gambino crime family, where he proved himself to be both an earner for the family and capable of murder. The arrests and charges announced today are a testament to the tireless pursuit of justice by law enforcement.

“We will not rest until violent criminals who use their mafia ties to obstruct justice and evade the law are brought to justice.”

The announcement added that Lynch “extended her grateful appreciation to the FBI for its extraordinary work in bringing this defendant to account for the charged crimes.”

According to the government, Bruno was imprisoned from 1997 to 2000, and when he was released was promoted to the rank of associate in the Gambino mob. He, LaBarca, Bosshart and others were moving major amounts of marijuana when Bosshart decided to cut one of the other gangsters out of the operation. Bruno, LaBarca and others not named in Tuesday’s announcement then agreed to kill him. They lured Bosshart to the spot where he was slain, which the government described as “an isolated location,” and Bruno allegedly shot him point-blank in the back of the head.

After that, the prosecutors say, Bruno evaded justice for years, conspiring with other Gambino associates to obstruct a grand jury proceeding on the Bosshart murder “while continuing to participate in the core money-making activities of the Gambino crime family, including drug trafficking and extortion.”

“Bruno was as ruthless as he was calculating,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos said in the announcement, “and after a long run of evading justice, Bruno’s gig is up.”

By David Porter

Members and associates of one of New York's legendary crime families used check cashing businesses and a Newark restaurant to run a racketeering enterprise that reaped millions of dollars through loansharking and money laundering, New Jersey officials said Tuesday as they announced charges against 11 people.

One of those arrested was reputed Genovese family capo Charles Tuzzo of Bayside who was charged with racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy, loansharking and promoting gambling. Also arrested was reputed Genovese soldier Vito Alberti, 55, of New Providence, New Jersey, whom authorities charged with the same crimes as Tuzzo as well as one tax-related count.

The 80-year-old Tuzzo, Alberti and five others were being held on $400,000 bail each and were scheduled for an initial court appearance later Tuesday in Morris County. Three people were charged by summonses and one, Vincent Coppola of Union, was being sought.

It wasn't immediately clear whether any of the defendants had lawyers.

Coppola is the son of jailed Genovese capo Michael Coppola, acting state Attorney General John Hoffman said Tuesday. Michael Coppola was captured in 2007 after spending more than a decade on the run after being charged in the fatal shooting of a fellow mobster in a New Jersey motel parking lot in the late 1970s.

The money laundering and loansharking ran through check cashing businesses owned by Domenick Pucillo of Florham Park, Hoffman said. Pucillo had about $3 million in illegal loans on the street over a two-year period, and he and others reaped about $1.3 million in interest by charging annual rates of up to 156 percent, Hoffman said.

Hoffman and Michael Murphy, commissioner of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, estimated that $400 million in checks were illegally cashed through the Portucale Restaurant in Newark's Ironbound section over a four-year period in another operation they say was financed by Pucillo. They said patrons would cash checks for more than $10,000 at the restaurant for a fee of up to 3 percent to launder money or hide income.

The owner of the restaurant, Abel Rodrigues, 52, of Bridgewater, was charged with racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy, operating an unlicensed check cashing facility and filing a bogus tax return.

Racketeering and money laundering carry prison sentences of 10 to 20 years, and sentences for first-degree money laundering — a charge faced by all 11 defendants — run consecutive to sentences for other charges, according to the attorney general's office.

In all, about $12 million in illegal profit was collected through the various enterprises, in addition to a sports gambling operation that used an offshore website in Costa Rica, Hoffman said. A percentage of the profit was kicked up to the Genovese family in New York, he said.

"They were up to a lot of the old Mafia tricks in New Jersey, including loansharking and illegal gambling, to the tune of millions of dollars," Hoffman said. "History teaches us that as long as demand exists for illicit loans, illicit gambling, drugs and other black-market goods and services, organized crime is going to turn a profit by preying on society."

Frank Sivero's suit alleges that 'Simpsons' character Louie's "appearance and mannerisms are strongly evocative" of the actor

By Ryan Reed

Frank Sivero, best known for playing mobsters in The Godfather Part II and Goodfellas, is suing Fox Television Studios for $250 million, alleging that "Louie," one of the "wise guy" mafia characters on The Simpsons, infringes on his likeness. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor claims that unspecified Simpsons writers modeled Louie on Sivero's Goodfellas character, Frankie Carbone.

Sivero alleges that, in 1989, he lived next door to the writers in a Sherman Oaks, California apartment complex. "They knew he was developing the character he was to play in the movie Goodfellas," reads the lawsuit. "In fact, they were aware the entire character of 'Frankie Carbone' was created and developed by Sivero, who based this character on his own personality. . . Louie's appearance and mannerisms are strongly evocative of character actor Frank Sivero."

Louie – along with his mafia boss, "Fat Tony"– made his debut appearance during the Season Three episode "Bart the Murderer," which originally aired on October 10th, 1991 and was written by John Swartzwelder. The character has popped up in 15 additional episodes, including Season 25's "What to Expect When Bart's Expecting," which aired in April. The suit adds that Dan Castellaneta, who voices Louie (and, more famously, Homer Simpson) "modeled his voice after Italian-American actor Joe Pesci, who also had a role in Goodfellas."

Elsewhere, Sivero claims that he was courted over the years by James L. Brooks' production company Gracie Films, who told him he "would be part of the future" connected to the show's success. He allegedly even had a conversation with Brooks around 1996 about making a film; since such a movie was never created, the suit claims the company "never intended to make a film with Sivero, and that they were simply studying him further for the character Louie."

Sivero alleges that the character's similarity violates California's publicity rights law – and that, by misappropriating his idea, the defendants have "diluted the value of the character created by Plaintiff, and contributed to the 'type-casting' of Plaintiff." The Hollywood Reporter specifies that the actor is seeking $50 million in damages related to loss of the likeness, an additional $100 million for "improper interference," $50 million for taking his "confidential" idea and another $50 million in exemplary damages over the idea, in addition to injunctive relief and attorney fees.

Outside of this legal distraction, 2014 has been a banner year for The Simpsons. Season 26 has seen the show kill off a character (Krusty the Clown's father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky) and join Peter Griffin and company for a Family Guy crossover episode. Last month, after shattering FXX's ratings record with their 552-episode marathon, the show celebrated 25 years of animated excellence with a star-studded extravaganza at the Hollywood Bowl.

The New England Mafia: Mafia induction recording made history 25 years ag...: By Shelley Murphy Mobsters from throughout New England gathered at a modest home in Medford on Oct. 29, 1989, to baptize four new ...

By Frank Donnelly |

Volkan Mergen contended, in a secret tape, that he could not back out of his role in an arson on Staten Island for fear of exposing himself as a mob snitch, said court papers.