Kenji Gallo on Mafia's New Communication Tactics...
Kenji Gallo, blogger, asskicker, author of "Breakshot," one of the best books about the Mafia available. |
From this week's Breakshot Blog by friend Kenji Gallo (a onetime associate of the Colombo family who became a turncoat charged with running a radio show for the feds. Kenji also wrote a great book about life in the mob -- particularly in the crazy madhouse known as the Colombo family. We wrote a little about Kenji and his book back in this post.) some interesting info on how the mob communicates...
"The Colombo’s were aware that the FBI and others were always watching or listening to them so they adopted some new tactics. A thumb across the cheek was how they referred to a made guy and a thumb across the back was their way of indicating a Capo. All the families used methods close to this, in Los Angeles they would point to the chest for a soldier, the shoulder for a Capo and the sky for Pete Milano the Boss.
The stories and the methods are the same all over the US in the Mafia families. Chicago is the same, just not as “Cowboy” as the rest of the families. All the the families now have a good chance of continuing on because the FBI is busy with terrorists.
Tabitha Stevens. Yes, we did include this image fortuitously
and we did have to crop the bottom half...
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The information they got from men like Joey Caves, Joey Massino, Sammy Gravano, Andrew DiDonato, Mikey Scars, Philip Leonetti, Al D’Arco and so many more is priceless and provides a glimpse into a secret criminal world that few on the outside can understand.
Hollywood will keep churning out their mindless gangster flicks with stars who carry a new pistol with designer gloves on their hands. Most of these will fall short of the life but all you have to do is look at the trials of the real deal. SEE FULL STORY
According to the "about me" section on his Breakshot blog, Kenny "Kenji" Gallo, 45, is a half-Japanese/half-Italian-American gangster turned informant and former director and producer of pornographic films. Kenji is one of the most unlikely and controversial gangsters... When the police cracked down on his drug-trafficking empire, Gallo abandoned the cocaine trade for life in the American Mafia as a jet-setting playboy gangster, marrying porn star Tabitha Stevens, and making millions in prostitution, credit fraud, "pump-and-dump" stock fraud, gambling, extortion, and the porn business. As the protégé of Mafia legends like John "Sonny" Franzese, Jerry Zimmerman, and Vincent "Jimmy" Caci, Gallo quickly earned the reputation as one the smartest and most capable young mobsters in America.
Kenji's book was very interesting. He said that when you are an informant thats on the street for the fbi, you are always recording. He also said that the mobsters will never defeat the fbi's surveilance because of the advanced nano tech the feds use. That part isn't true because advanced counter surveilance equipment is also available to the public. All a wiseguy has to do is carry a portable audio recorder jammer on his walk and talks. In his book what put him in the most danger was the fbi's no violence rule. I understand why that put him in a disadvantage but for the concerned public, who in there right mind would support a crazed criminal who is prone to violence? Ed or any one else, please correct me if you think I'm wrong.
ReplyDeleteHe looks like a moolie
ReplyDeleteIf I look like a Moolie it must be my Italian half since the other is Japanese. The audio jammers and the white noise do not work. The white noise does not work because we wore two recorders and if there is background music or tv they filter it out. The jammers never worked and wiseguys never use that stuff. The internet was magic to them.
ReplyDeleteKenji, can you tell us why the jammers did not work? Maybe the jammers you encountered were not advanced enough to detect the two recorders you were using at the time. In today's age of government spying and privacy concerns, the technology will be up to par. For example, Apple has recently installed sophisticated encryption by default on the new iphone 6.
ReplyDeleteFirst the Apple 6 encryption is a marketing ploy. Every call can be heard by the Government. So who is it for? A kid or hacker. Lets say the FBI wants to listen in on a convo, the handset is the bug. they can hear both sides from a handset. Plus the service providers work with the FBI. I last wore a wire in Brooklyn in 2005 but I have worn them since then. They do not broadcast so you cannot pick them up. We carry around so many electronics it would give off false positives all day. Kind of like a radar detector which beeps all the time. All you can do is meet in person and hope the guy is not wired. So many talks happen over dinner, just walking you cannot be on guard all day.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the respone kenji, and also thanks for changing from the adrenaline raging maniac you once were to a productive citizen. Your book was excellent by the way.
ReplyDeleteAll that stuff is in my past. I write for TV and train actors and fighters to fight. Thank you for reading my book. I will soon start writing a book with a former Gambino.
ReplyDeleteI will buy your book without a doubt. So basically what you are saying is, if every wiseguy took the preventative methods like what genovese capo John Ardito did, always discussing business on walk talks at many different locations, someone will always be able to record them and the wiseguys are helpless to do anything about it. Would that be a fair tactical conclusion?
ReplyDeleteThe FBI is always one step ahead, always had been. If the LCN stay low they will keep going another 100 years.
ReplyDeleteThere is a scene in DeStefano's book about Vinny Gorgeous having someone, I think Dom, sit in the parking lot of a diner with some kind of device, I forget now what it was, that could detect if someone in the diner (meeting with Vinny) was an informant. It could detect if someone in the diner was transmitting, I think, and supposedly the guy was, to the FBI. I have to double check the book... but I think Vinny was much more intelligent than average Mafioso. Dom Cicale made $10 million in construction with Vinny in about five years. Brokesters who were made for 30-40 years and didn't have a dime were really jealous. Mobsters are people too!!
ReplyDeleteKenji, how do you take such pride in being such a rat? How can you be so blaise about it? Are you not ashamed?
ReplyDelete