Cosa Nostra News

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Sicilian and American wiseguys were busted Wednesday as part of coordinated takedown efforts by Italian police and the FBI, which served 19 arrest warrants in Palermo and in the United States, specifically in Staten Island and Philadelphia.



The operation, dubbed "New Connection," was an attempt to disrupt efforts by a Sicilian Mafia faction (specifically, Inzerillo family members in Sicily and their New York allies in the Gambino crime family) to take over the leadership of organized crime in Italy. The Inzerillo and Gambino crime families, which have historical ties, were in the process of rebuilding their powerbase in Sicily.
Members of slain Gambino crime boss Frank Cali's family were arrested in the takedown Wednesday, as per officials in Anthony DeStefano's Newsday story. Also arrested were Thomas Gambino, 47, of Staten Island; Salvatore Gambino, the mayor of a village outside Palermo; and Tommaso and Francesco Inzerillo, relatives of Salvatore Inzerillo,…

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In a head-spinning revelation, Gang Land News reports today that Bonanno boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso, 63, who recently finished a 15-year prison term for murder conspiracy, was so  furious with certain members of his crime family that he has made dramatic changes in personnel. 




Mancuso, a killer who came up in the Bonanno family's powerful Bronx crew, was so angered by his acting boss's "musical consiglieris" legal strategy that he broke down (demoted) and kicked the acting boss -- Joseph (Joe C) Cammarano -- plus three of his confidants--out of the mob.

 All four were seasoned ranking members of the Bonanno crime family.

As per Gang Land sources on both sides of the law, when a federal jury acquitted then-acting Bonanno boss Cammarano of racketeering charges last March, "Joe C figured he was golden. The clean win in court, courtesy of a jury of his peers, made him the only mob boss other than John Gotti to beat a racketeering rap."

B…

As noted, Paul Ragusa, 48, an associate of the Bonanno and Gambino families, was recently sentenced to six years--because in 2017, he met with a CW whom he knew through their prior affiliation with the Giannini Crew, which this story profiles at length....

Sicilian-born Bonanno capo Baldassare (Baldo) Amato reminds us of the Mafia version of the cat with nine lives, if such a thing could be contemplated.

And while he didn't have anywhere near nine resurrections, we presume over the years he’s extricated himself from some very tricky situations. While it's never been empirically ascertained, to our knowledge, we're betting that Mafia politics of the 1970s-1980s, particularly when involving the Bonanno family, had a much higher than average mortality rate.

A seemingly Zelig-type figure, Amato either possessed the luck or guile (or both) to survive and thrive when others couldn't (and were eventually found, say, fermenting in a 55-gallon glue drum).

Amato was one of two …

Joseph Galante was a member of the notorious Giannini Crew, a group of dozens of young wannabes based in a café in Queens, when he helped get rid of the corpse of Thomas Sanjane, whose throat was slashed in 1991 as part of a cocaine rip-off scheme.




Galante would later flip, hoping that his efforts to help the Feds would help mitigate his prison time.

But then he resumed committing crimes -- and prosecutors discarded their cooperation agreement with him.

Then at his 2016 trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shreve Ariail told Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis: "The defendant committed one of the most heinous crimes you can conceive of committing."

Galante, faced 30 years to life, and got away with a 10-year sentence. Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis was well aware of "the extraordinary length of time he served as an informant and making secret recordings of mobsters from the Bonanno, Colombo and Gambino crime families."






The crew showed up on the Fed's radar following th…

Springfield-area businessman Victor Bruno is selling two downtown restaurants.


One of them he opened in honor of his father, Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno, who had been boss of the Genovese family’s Springfield crew— until he was slain in 2003 by his successor as part of a takeover plot.

Victor Bruno — who reportedly says he wants to spend more time with his family, including his two young boys, who are 5 and 8— conformed this week that he will sell Adolfo’s Ristorante and Art-e’-Pizza, both of which are located on Worthington St. in Springfield, Mass.

Adolfo’s, which opened in 2010, is for sale at $775,000, though the listing is only for the business—the equipment, furnishings, inventory, and liquor license—and not the property. The other eatery opened last year.

“My customers have been great to me, I’m going to miss them,” Bruno told one newspaper. “I want to spend more time with my family.”

Bruno was shot to death in Springfield on Nov. 23, 2003.

It was about one year after the restaurant…