Gambinos Name Cali Boss as Cefalu Steps Aside

Cali, new Gambino boss.
I am well aware that this story has been refuted in several follow-up reports; I let it stand as is purposefully, not because I forgot, don't know or am too lazy to update it. I believe Cali is boss, in other words.

 
From DNAInfo New York:

NEW YORK CITY — The Gambino crime family is set to name Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali as its new godfather.

Cali — a native New Yorker who traces his roots firmly to Sicily — is to be secretly anointed as the next head of the nation’s largest La Cosa Nostra organization, sources told DNAinfo New York.


The sources say Cali’s ascent from underboss is imminent and will put him in complete control of the Mafia family that has 750 members and associates and was once ruled by the likes of John “The Dapper Don” Gotti and the group's infamous namesake, Carlo Gambino.

A top New York City law enforcement source said the Gambino capos continue to look up to Cali, 48, because of his old-school approach to running a massive crime family, his adherence to traditional Mafia values, personal family ties that stretch across the Atlantic to Italy and his insistence that members maintain a low profile.

The latter continues a break with the flashy, headline-grabbing era marked by Gotti, whose visage once graced the cover of Time magazine. Gotti died of throat cancer in prison in 2002.

Cefalu is stepping aside.
Sources say the current boss, Domenico "Greaseball" Cefalu, 76, is a native Sicilian with a long history of heroin smuggling and several stints in prison. He is stepping aside to allow his younger protege to take the reins of the family's lucrative gambling, loansharking and construction rackets.

"The family believes Cali is more dynamic and that Cefalu has become too laid back . . . and that's not what a money making organization wants," another law enforcement source said.

Cali got his start in the mob by running a fruit store on 18th Avenue in Brooklyn called Arcobaleno, which means "rainbow" in Italian. The feds say it doubled as a front for criminal activities.

His parents immigrated to Brooklyn from Palermo, Italy. He eventually married into mob royalty when he wed the daughter of one of the Inzerillos, who are known as one of the Mafia powerhouses in Italy.

He is also a nephew of John and Joseph Gambino, who are influential hoods connected to the famous “Pizza Connection” drug trafficking case of the 1980s.

Cali made his bones under the Gottis while operating in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey.

According to the FBI, he officially became the Gambino "ambassador to the Sicilian Mafia" and a rising star when Gotti and Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano roamed the city, ruling rackets and murdering dozens of people.

In 2008, Cali and scores of other hoods were arrested in a massive drug and racketeering investigation dubbed "Operation Old Bridge" that centered on extortion of a Staten Island trucking executive who became an FBI wire-wearing informant.

The case also involved planned NASCAR races on the island. Cali pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and spent a year in jail.

“The Gambinos like Cali because of his low-key profile and old-school values,” a law enforcement source said. “The family wants to keep things that way."

Over the past several decades, and thanks to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, the feds have severely reduced the influence of the Gambinos and the other four crime families over the past decade, breaking their grip on the billion-dollar labor union and construction industries.

But the mob has remained strong in traditional money-making operations involving gambling, loansharking and prostitution, law enforcement authorities say.



RELATED POST

Cosa Nostra News: Gambino Underboss Cali has Strong Ties to Sicily


Comments

  1. 750 members? Yeah maybe in the 60's. Arcobaleno was a music shop. Who has the power to take down a boss? There is no commission to do that, so cefalu gave up the big chair? Dont make sense.

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    1. 250-300 made guys and thousands of associates in the Gambino family

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    2. Even that number is high. FBI estimates Gambino membership at no more then 200 members. Only the Genovesi have more members.

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    3. 750 made & associates. Any of you in the Gambino family? Well nobody knows for certain but one of them. Cali taking over makes complete sense - and I hear they have associates up the ass.

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    4. yes they do have tons of associates who would love to get made but there is a cap on the number of made guys and Cali makes perfect sense

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    5. actually the membership of the Gambino family is 800

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  2. Cefalu is 76 - Cali 47... Plus these guys are really really tight (both full Sicilians with strong ties to Sicily)...

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  3. Ed my sources tell me Cefalu is closer to 66 years old. His age is just another error in this article.

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  4. What you need to do, Ed is take this crap down. It's untrue, backed by none, and you hastily threw it up hoping it'd be true. You look like a fool, take it down.

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  5. Here is some info on the author of this post, which some of you think is so incorrect (or it's one guy trying to break my balls - if this is you, B.C., I'm not impressed.)

    Murray Weiss is an award-winning investigative journalist, author, columnist and editor, and is considered an expert on government, law enforcement, criminal justice, organized crime and terrorism.
    From exposing the secrets of murderers, mob bosses and terrorists to coining the expression "Rough Sex," Murray has held a number of prominent writing, bureau chief and editor positions at two of the country's largest newspapers, the New York Post and the New York Daily News. Under former Post editor Pete Hamill, Weiss served for nearly a year as metropolitan editor during one of the paper's most difficult, and colorful, periods when it felt like the Titanic after striking an iceberg.
    He has written scores of exclusive front page articles – among them the national disclosures that a rogue NBA referee was on a Mafia payroll and the link between the Ft. Hood Massacre Army psychiatrist and an outspoken Al Qaeda leader. Others involved stories recognizable by single names or phrases: Louima; Diallo; Gotti; Madoff; Preppy Murder, Mob Cops, 9/11, Kennedy Rape, Sean Bell, Central Park Jogger and Crown Heights Riot.
    His award-winning investigations include exposes on corruption in city government, drug abuse within the New York Police Department; breakdowns in the Fire Department that cost the lives of two firemen and systemic abuses in the New York military. Several articles resulted in governmental and legislative changes, the dismissals of top officials and the criminal convictions of wrongdoers.
    For more than two decades, Murray also served as Criminal Justice Editor at the New York Post, overseeing a bureau of reporters working from inside NYPD Headquarters.
    Before joining the Post in 1986 as a reporter and Associate Editor, he was an award winning journalist at the New York Daily News, where he served as the newspaper's Police Headquarters Bureau Chief and later as Chief Investigative Reporter assigned to New York's City Hall during a period known as "The Great Municipal Corruption Scandals.
    One of his books, "The Man Who Warned America," (Harper Collins, 2003) reached a New York Times best-seller list and he's been a guest on the "Today Show," "Larry King Live," and "Imus," among others.
    And Murray continues his award-winning reporting as a columnist with DNAinfo.com New York, scoring top honors from The New York Press Club and the distinguished Society of Silurians.
    Fun Fact: Murray spent six weeks on tour with "The Who" traveling North America in their private plane with an all-access pass.

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  6. I appreciate all comments! But lately some have struck me as odd... telling me to take a post down, some nonsense about my Q&A with Selwyn Raab -- numerous others... I don't think they are real comments, I think someone may be playing games with me, a competitor or the rat bastard I alluded to above. I do have enemies, all of whom I have written about, so a little harmless sabotage, I wouldn't put it passed them. "True Believers" - this doesn't apply to you -- I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! Make up names for yourselves so I can get to know you. I see "anonymous" five times under a post, it could be one dude for all I know pretending to be many...

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    1. Thanks man! Appreciate it! I'm pro mob too sometimes... some of em are alright even the cops respect them, grudgingly I'm sure!!!

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  7. It's easy for some to hide behind a screenname. What a tough-guy! "Take it Down", "Shut Up!", "Keep Quiet", "Remember Your Place"... To the bozo that hid behind the "Anonymous" comment: June 27, 2013 at 7:15 PM, why don't YOU take yourself down! Ok "Princess" with the big stones that he posts with his name? If you don't like what you read, stay off the site.

    And I'm not hiding behind an "Anonymous" posting. THIS is what I do when people tell me to "keep quiet". COSA NOSTRA and HOW DETERRENCE WORKS www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ycYZu6RBM Now for the haters that will follow my comments with other insignificUnt comments, I like the "hate" comments, it feeds my ego~~~ haha ~~~Belinda Rossetti

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