BY JOHN MARZULLI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Frank Cali has reportedly been elevated to acting boss of the Gambino crime family.
The leadership of the Gambino crime family has reportedly been passed from a Sicilian old fella to a Sicilian younger fella.
Frank Cali, 49, of Staten Island, who has served on the family’s ruling panel for several years, has been elevated to acting boss, replacing 68-year-old Domenico Cefalu, the website Ganglandnews.com reported Thursday.
Cali, who was born in Sicily, has deep mob ties. He is related by marriage to members of organized crime in Sicily; his wife is the niece of Gambino capo John Gambino, and his brother Joseph and brother-in-law Peter Inzerillo are reputed Gambino soldiers.
Federal prosecutors have marveled at Cali’s meteoric rise to power in the crime family’s post-Gotti era.
He became a powerful capo before the age of 40, less than a decade after he became an inducted member, according to court papers. Cali has just one criminal conviction: a federal extortion charge for which he was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
A wiseguy in Italy was secretly taped several years ago gushing about Cali’s stature in New York City, “He is everything over there.”
