Cosa Nostra News

Former Colombo soldier Sebastian Saracino, who testified against his own brother,  Dino (Little Dino) Saracino,  and  Colombo boss Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli , was sentenced to time served on Monday, February 26. Sebastian Saracino (from  Daily News ) That's according to a New York Daily New Exclusive report by Andrew Keshner. Little Dino and Gioeli were acquitted of every murder they were charged with, despite testimony from four turncoats, including Sebastian, Dino (Big Dino) Calabro, who admitted his role in eight gangland hits and was sentenced last November to roughly two more years in prison, and Thomas McLaughlin, who was involved in three gangland hits and in March 2016 a lso was sentenced essentially to time served. The split verdict in the Gioeli-Saracino trial stunned courtroom observers  and is why Little Dino was hit with decades more prison time than Gioeli. The charges included the murders of off-duty NYPD officer Ra...

A mobbed-up lone gunman shot up the front of a mob-linked Brooklyn restaurant early Sunday in what law enforcement sources said was a “message” to the owners. Bullet holes on front door weren't on the menu. Carroll Gardens’ Marco Polo Ristorante was targeted before 8 a.m., when an employee noticed the eatery's front windows and doors were pocked with bullet holes. The trattoria, which opened in 1983, is considered a Court Street institution, one with deep mob ties. Co-owner Marco Chricio told The New York Post that the restaurant "was caught in the crossfire between battling gangs from neighboring Gowanus and Red Hook housing projects." Not so fast... The cops disputed that assessment, noting that the restaurant itself was targeted. There's surveillance footage from a neighboring business that seems to bolster that claim. Ten shell casings were discovered across the street in front of the Body Elite gym, which captured via its surve...

John (Porky) Zancocchio, an alleged Bonanno crime family consigliere/bookie who once took action from baseball great Pete Rose is back in prison for violating his $1 million bail conditions. John (Porky) Zancocchio as seen on FBI surveillance photo. Zancocchio, 60,  committed the crime of frequenting places on Staten Island (in walking distance from his house) that broke the terms of the agreement, and Manhattan Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein tossed him behind bars, as the Daily News reported . Zancocchio was among the 10 reputed mobsters arrested in January, including the Bonanno crime family's acting boss, Joseph Cammarano Jr., 58 . The bust also included mobsters from other crime families, one from the Luchese and another from the Genovese crime families. All face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, loansharking, wire and mail fraud, and narcotics distribution. He also has prior convictions for tax evasion. Zancocchio was out on bail u...

One of the two alleged leaders of the Montreal Cosa Nostra entity was released from jail on Monday, February 19, after charges against them were dropped. Vito Rizzuto's son, Leonardo Leonardo Rizzuto, 48, and Stefano Sollecito were acquitted of gangsterism and conspiracy to traffic cocaine when Quebec Superior Court Justice Eric Downs ruled that they'd been illegally wiretapped in a conference room at their lawyer’s office. So basically, the main evidence against the pair, a single conversation recorded in that conference room, was tossed, and prosecutors said they had no other evidence to prove the charges of gangsterism and conspiracy to traffic cocaine. Leonardo, son of Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto (who died in 2013), had been detained since the arrests, while Sollecito--whose father, Rizzuto-loyalist Rocco Sollecito, was murdered in 2016--was granted bail in 2016 to undergo cancer treatment. Leonardo still faces charges of possession of a firearm and drugs, a...

Alleged Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino won what mob experts describe as the biggest victory yet in his dark, checkered career in crime when the judge declared a mistrial in his federal racketeering case in Manhattan. Merlino and wife Deborah —a Korean-American. Jurors sent U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan no less than five notes detailing how hopelessly deadlocked they were after deliberating for around four days. In the end, they couldn't decide whether the Feds had proved whether Merlino was guilty of running both an illegal gambling ring and an $11.3 million health care racket (from which “boss” Merlino allegedly got a $100,000 cut). On Tuesday the judge made the call: mistrial. Almost as interesting to us was that big-time Philadelphia wiseguys attended the three-week trial. Supposedly, George (Georgie Boy) Borgesi and former acting boss Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi were there to support Skinny Joey. Will the Feds retry him...

The biggest bombshell in   Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino's federal racketeering trial in Manhattan arguably had nothing to do with any of the crimes listed in the indictment . We love gossip, especially gossip about extramarital affairs. Skinny Joey with wife Deborah Consider that the main charge facing Merlino is his alleged involvement "in a scheme targeting providers of health insurance by causing, and causing others to cause, corrupt doctors to issue unnecessary and excessive prescriptions for expensive compound cream that were then billed to the Victim Insurers." Who really cares about poor victimized insurance companies?  USA Today recently profiled some of the most-reviled companies in the United States, and wouldn't you know: "Few industries are as widely detested as the insurance industry." (FYI, "American consumers appear to especially dislike health insurance giant Cigna.") Genovese turncoat John (JR) Rubeo...

UPDATED Jurors for Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino's federal racketeering trial in Manhattan  have yet to reach a verdict. Merlino will either walk out of court a free man or go straight to a cell. Last Thursday, they communicated to Federal Judge Richard Sullivan that they were deadlocked. Sullivan wasn't ready to spike the case by declaring a mistrial. Rather, he told them to continue and mentioned he might deliver an “Allen charge," an instruction to prevent a hung jury by encouraging jurors in the minority to reconsider. The previous day, jurors deliberated for almost six hours and requested to listen again to eight tapes. They also asked for the definition of conspiracy. Several requirements must be met to meet the definition of a criminal conspiracy. It's not enough to prove that two or more people together planned to commit a crime. Read more about criminal conspiracy. One source believes Merlino has a good shot at beating the case. Former...

A 47-year-old man was caught with a gun at his Staten Island Kemball Avenue home and arrested last Saturday at 8:13 p.m. Colombo guys went at a newspaper union to help an underboss's son. Police arrived at the location, having been summoned by a 911 call about a violent domestic dispute, an NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information source told a reporter. Rocco Miraglia Junior's verbal dispute with his 49-year-old wife had escalated into a physical confrontation during which he allegedly punched her. Then, in a preemptive move, he broke a landline telephone to prevent her from calling the police. It didn't work. Enter the cops, who put the cuffs on Miraglia and brought him in, where he was charged with felony criminal possession of a weapon and various misdemeanors, including assault, criminal mischief, criminal possession of a controlled substance, and acting in a manner injurious to a child. The NYPD touted the incident on social media as a "great...

UPDATED It could've been a scene on reality television...  Mob Wives creator  Jennifer Graziano and  Carla Facciolo, star   of the VH1 cultural touchstone Mob Wives, which was cancelled, pay  a terminally ill  Angela (Big Ang) Raiola  a hospital visit. Bi g Ang debuted in season two and early on was a fan favorite... Where are our favorite ladies from the last season finale? At some point during the hospital visit, Big Ang told the two women, from her hospital bed, what's highlighted as a seemingly selfless and rousing admonition.  "T he show must go on," she said .... Big Ang was suffering from cancer and died after filming of the sixth and final season of Mob Wives in 2016. That's the scenario described in a recent Staten Island Advance report. However, Big Ang's sister, Janine Detore, blasted the Mob Wives reboot in an interview of her own , as well as a YouTube video, below. Detore, owner of the Country Mouse , a children's clo...