Cosa Nostra News

On December 16, Drita D'Avanzo, one of the former stars of VH1's Mob Wives reality show, published a 2-minute-53-second video on YouTube to discuss what was on her mind. On December 19 at around 6 p.m., in a moment that could have been tailor produced for an episode of Mob Wives, the NYPD conducted a surprise raid of the couple's home in Pleasant Plains, a neighborhood located on Staten Island, to execute a search warrant. During that search, NYPD narcotics detectives seized guns and drugs and accouterments, specifically: two loaded guns in the bedroom and the kitchen, 120 hydrocodone/ acetaminophen pills and 22 Xanax pills in the bedroom, a sum of US currency, multiple cellular phones, two scales, and ziplock bags "used for the purpose of unlawfully packaging a narcotic drug," according to the complaint. Police also recovered “a large quantity of marijuana” in both the basement and a kitchen cabinet, locations accessible to the couple’s youngest chil...

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE Back in the early 1990s, one of longtime Bonanno wiseguy Vinny Asaro's daughters was assaulted. Gene Borrello Donna Cavalcante cracked her over the head with a rock glass in Butterfingers on Crossbay Boulevard after they got into an argument. Donna, at the time, was dating a member of Charles Carneglia's crew. Charlie is the heavy hitter with the Gambino family now serving life. Vinny Asaro sent his son Jerry to kill Donna, and he almost did, shooting her four times after catching her across the street from Butterfingers at the Shell Bank. Donna had fled into the ladies room and was shot through the door in the leg and in the ass. She went to the hospital -- but refused to identify who put the bullets in her. Then two weeks later, while she was at a payphone -- Vinny Asaro suddenly tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to look at him and he told here, "See how easy it's gonna be?" Carneglia then stepped in and squashe...

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE* Residents of Howard Beach should take a chill pill -- and understand that they have nothing to fear because the wiseguys responsible for terrorizing that Queens neighborhood for years are both in jail. Gene Borrello Their names: alleged Bonanno capo Vinny Asaro, 84, who now spends his days at Springfield MCFP and isn't due out until May 21, 2022, and alleged acting Bonanno capo Ronnie Giallanzo, 49, who calls Butner Medium FCI home these days and is due out on May 21, 2029. This, in effect, is what former Bonanno associate Gene Borrello wants to tell residents of Howard Beach, he recently told  Cosa Nostra News . "I took orders from Ronnie G and Vinny Asaro," Gene said, "I was a shooter for the Bonanno family." On Thursday Gang Land News called G ene Borrello an "animal" who "forced himself into the homes of law-abiding citizens, tied them up, placed a gun to their head and stole their life savings an...

Former Mob Wives star Drita D’Avanzo and her husband, Lee, were arrested by the NYPD following a raid of their home Thursday night that allegedly resulted in police finding a slew of weapons and drugs. While a child was in the house, reportedly.... Drita under arrest. D’Avanzo, 43, and her husband, 50, a reputed mobster once tied to the Bonanno family, were taken into custody after a search warrant was executed at their home, according to a spokesman for the NYPD. Officers recovered two loaded firearms, assorted pills, including painkillers and anti-anxiety medications, a large quality of marijuana and a scale, according to a police spokesman. The raid happened after the NYPD received community tips and concerns about activities at that location, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. Both face charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of marijuana, criminal possession of a firearm a...

Pete Gotti is at death’s door, lawyers for the man who is or was official boss of the Gambino family continue to say. Peter, John Gotti. “We are truly afraid he is dying now, he feels he is,” James Craven wrote in court papers. “As his lawyer, I am afraid this will all become moot soon if nothing is done.” Pete  also "is increasingly difficult to understand on the phone. His voice is weak, labored, and very faint.” Gotti is locked up at Butner Federal Medical Center in North Carolina. His lawyers initially filed for compassionate release in June (the filing is reproduced in its entirety at the bottom of this story), and when they did, they posed several arguments for his release: He suffers from more than a dozen medical ailments, including cardiovascular disease and a likely cancerous growth in at least one lung; he's rehabilitated and sorry; and his continued incarceration is financially irresponsible. The release also explains that “Peter Gotti has a lovi...

Andrew Campos, 50, an alleged captain in the Gambino family, and Vincent Fiore, 57, an alleged Gambino soldier, met with multiple other high-level crime family members to discuss the then-unclear circumstances surrounding underboss Frank Cali’s death , the U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of New York, wrote in a detention memo that was unsealed on Thursday afternoon. Richard Martino (l) and Andrew Campos (r). Both men were arrested last week with other members and associates of the Gambino family. As per the detention memo, four days after Gambino boss Francesco (Franky Boy) Cali was shot to death outside his Hilltop Terrace home, Gambino family members held a “clandestine meeting” on Staten Island to launch their own probe into the murder. Andrew Campos, 50, a reputed captain in the Gambino family, and Vincent Fiore, 57, an alleged Gambino soldier, met with multiple other high-level crime family members to discuss the then-unclear circumstances surrounding Cali’s death, th...

UPDATED : The Interboro Parkway opened in June 1935 -- and was renamed the Jackie Robinson Expressway in 1997. Junk(yard) boss: Luchese capo Paul Vario. It cut through cemeteries and residential real estate, requiring the relocation of burial sites and the razing of homes. The parkway's tricky route is why it reportedly took much longer to build than other New York City parkways. It also has many curves -- because the planners and builders had sought to minimize the number of burial plots that had to be relocated. Like many places in New York, that parkway has secrets.... The Interboro was the favorite parkway of savvier New Yorkers who, once upon a time, knew it was the city's least-trafficked major artery, and that even at rush hour, traffic rarely clogged it. (Cab drivers generally didn't know it existed.) The parkway runs through Brooklyn and one of the entrances is near Fulton Street (the Fulton Street in Brooklyn, of course, not the one in Manhattan), w...