Informant Sentenced to 99 Months for Al Bruno Murder

By Ed Scarpo
Anthony Arillotta, lauded by feds as 1 of best Mafia informants ever, sentenced to 99 months in Al Bruno murder case | masslive.com: "Anthony J. Arillotta on Wednesday bought himself out of a life sentence in prison for two murders, three attempted murders, six-figure extortions and other crimes with 10 days on a witness stand, eight years in prison and an $2 million fine. He was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan for crimes including the 2003 deaths of Western Masschusetts mob boss Adolfo Bruno and his associate Gary Westerman. With time served, he will serve up to another four years in prison."

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Bonanno Mobster Shot Multiple Times in the Bronx in Attempted Gangland Hit

By Ed Scarpo
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UPDATED, EXPANDED
Someone tried to whack a longtime Bronx-based Bonanno crime family associate early this morning.


Salvatore (Sally Daz) Zottola walked out of his Bronx home and into a hail of bullets at 6:40 a.m. this morning.

The shooter had pulled up in a dark-colored Nissan sedan and opened fire as Sally Daz walked to his car, shooting him multiple times – including once to the head and three times in his torso.




The gunman then leaped back into a waiting vehicle and sped away.

So far there have been no arrests.

Zottola remains heavily sedated at Jacobi Medical Center, but conveyed to law enforcement that he has no plans to help with the investigation.

It’s believed that Zottola knew his attacker however.

After Sally Daz yesterday, the most recent gangland hit was the 2013 Michael Meldish murder, also in the Bronx. That execution, allegedly sanctioned by the Luchese crime family, may have been in response to Meldish's attempted effort to whack a Bonanno mobster. There's pro…
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South Brooklyn Bust: Five Mobsters Nailed for Racketeering, Loansharking, Illegal Gambling

By Ed Scarpo
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A 32-count indictment was unsealed on July 11 in Brooklyn federal court charging five mobsters from two crime families.


Two members and two associates of the Colombo crime family were charged with racketeering, including predicate acts of extortion, extortionate collection, money laundering and illegal gambling.

 The indictment also charges one member of the Gambino crime family with extortionate collection and a related conspiracy. 
 The indictment relates to the defendants’ alleged criminal activities in Brooklyn, Staten Island and elsewhere between December 2010 and June 2018.

The defendants—Jerry Ciauri, also known as “Fat Jerry,” a member of the Colombo family, Vito Difalco, also known as “Victor” and “The Mask,” a member of the Colombo family, Salvatore Disano, also known as “Sal Heaven,” an associate of the Colombo family, Anthony Licata, also known as “Anthony Suits,” a member of the Gambino family, and Joseph Maratea, an associate of the Colombo family—were arrested today an…
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Was Bronx Shooting Retaliation for Sally Daz's Dad, a Luchese Associate?

By Ed Scarpo
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UPDATED
The Salvatore (Sally Daz) Zottola shooting may actually be the second attempted gangland hit caught on tape; the first, in March 1993, was the attempted murder of Joey Chang, then-34, early one morning in the coffee shop he owned, the Warfield Breakfast & Luncheon Express, in Philadelphia.
The FBI had mounted a surveillance camera on the telephone pole across from the diner. Chang was shot during the Merlino-Stanfa war. Joey Chang was seriously wounded but he too survived, though partially paralyzed and with nerve damage that caused him to retire from Cosa Nostra.

NYPD officials have labeled the July 11 attempted murder of Salvatore (Sally Daz) Zottola as a botched gangland hit. He was shot around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx.
In a surveillance clip, below, a red Nissan can be seen driving past Zottola's vehicle and pulling to a hault. Zottola was on the driver's side of the car, not facing the video, and was either besidethe ca…
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Busted: Twin Brothers Charged in Brooklyn Murder of Luchese Mobster

By Ed Scarpo
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EXPANDED
Louis and Vincent Iacono, twin brothers, were charged this week with the murder of a Luchese mobster found floating in an inlet tied to a cinder block.

They were actually arrested months back, on Sept. 6 while driving through Indiana and leading local police on a high-speed chase. Local police discovered prescription pills and heroin in the car, as well as the potential murder weapon.

The brothers, 36, were extradited to New York this week.





Carini Jr., 35, the son of a Gambino crime family associate by the same name, was found on Sept. 2 floating in the Mill Basin Inlet off E. 58th St. and Avenue U, a few blocks from his apartment. The body showed signs of massive head trauma, with both the skull and jaw broken.

Police now say that on or around Aug. 30, Louie Iacono allegedly beat Carini’s head in with a hammer in an attempt to rob him inside an apartment on East 64th St. Brother Vincent is alleged to have helped dispose of the body.

The Iacono brothers were the investigation…
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Hoodwinked: Restaurateur on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Was a Mobster

By Ed Scarpo
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Peter "Peter Pasta" Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York restaurant Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster.

The once-promising Bonanno member who appeared after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, now calls himself a brokester. And the Bonanno crime family, with which he was once affiliated has disowned him.

So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself.

But before all that he appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he acted very much like the mobster he allegedly was trying to become around the time of filming. (See Peter's Italian Restaurant menu here.)






Back then Peter Pasta was an up-and-coming Bonanno associate who "earned" $15 grand a week bookmaking.

At the time, he also owned two boats that he'd park in a pricey nearby Babylon harbor called Great South Bay.

Gang Land News's Jerry Capeci broke the news, reporting:

Today, like the battered and bruised…
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Howard Beach Bonanno Mobster, Newspaper Publisher Sought to Threaten Sex Assault Victim

By Ed Scarpo
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Robert Pisani, an associate in acting capo Ronald Giallanzo's Bonanno crime family crew, was among a group of 10 reputed Bonanno crime family members accused of participating in various crimes over the past two decades ranging from racketeering to loan sharking and attempted murder.




Pisani's rap sheet stretched back to 1992 and included assault, insurance fraud, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment charges.

Leading the March indictment was Howard Beach’s Giallanzo, 46, who allegedly oversaw a criminal enterprise that netted $26 million in earnings since 1998, federal prosecutors said.

Following his March arrest, Pisani and his wife posted a $500,000 bond for his federal racketeering case and he was released. Then in May, just as he was departing the downtown Brooklyn federal courthouse after a hearing related to the racketeering case, Pisani was re-arrested by a plainclothes sex crimes detective.





According to the criminal complaint, Pisani allegedly groped a female…
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Frank Cali, Shrewd Sicilian, Helms Gambinos, Says Mikie Scars

By Ed Scarpo
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Frank Cali had ascended to the role of street boss of the Gambino crime family, though now it appears that, yet again, there's uncertainty.

Whether he's street boss or not, one thing seems clear: Francesco Paolo Augusto Calì would bring the New York-based crime family, one of the fabled five, back where it belongs: in the grip of a shrewd Sicilian who likely will strengthen its ranks and magnify its fortunes.






Domenico (Italian Dom) Cefalu is Sicilian, but in terms of boss material, there are more suitable candidates, according to Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo, with whom we spoke for this story.


His rise would also have an historical significance. It brings the Gambinos, once the largest and most powerful Mafia family in the country, full circle.

If Cali is street boss, "the Gambino family is where it's supposed to be," DiLeonardo told me, "back in the hands of Sicilians. If you look to the beginning, it started out Sicilian" and remained s…
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