Cosa Nostra News

Four members and two associates of the Genovese crime family, including a Boca Raton, Florida-based capo, were recently named in one of the vaguest indictments we've ever laid eyes upon. Reputed Genovese capo Ralph Balsamo was among the indicted.  The Superseding Indictment charges reputed capos Nicholas Calisi (who is in Boca Raton) and Ralph Balsamo, soldiers Michael Messina and John Campanella, and associates Michael Poli and Thomas Poli with racketeering conspiracy involving illegal gambling and extortion. The crimes were allegedly committed between 2011 and 2022. Everyone faces up to 20 years in prison. Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Letitia James, New York State Attorney General, and Eric Gonzalez, Brooklyn District Attorney, announced the unsealing of the Superseding Indictment containing the charges. See the indictment here (PDF). MESSINA was arrested and presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang on April 12, 2022...

David (Chicky) Cecchetelli, 54—reputedly a retired bookmaker associated with the Genovese family’s Springfield crew—was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris to time served (approximately 62 days in prison) and one year of supervised release to be served in home confinement with electronic monitoring. David (Chicky) Cecchetelli The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts  announced  the sentencing yesterday. In December 2021, Cecchetelli pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition. During a search of Cecchetelli’s residence on Dec. 5, 2019, law enforcement found a gun and ammunition in Cecchetelli’s bedroom. The ammunition was concealed under his mattress. Cecchetelli is a known associate of the Genovese LCN in Springfield and was previously convicted of bookmaking with the underboss of the Springfield LCN in 2005. Due to his prior conviction, Cecchetelli is prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition. Unit...

UPDATED : The U.S. Marshals Service apprehended Dominic Taddeo, 64, after he failed to return from a previously authorized medical appointment on March 28; the Florida Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force nabbed him around 11:00 a.m. on April 4 in Hialeah. Dominic Taddeo  As per a media release , Taddeo was transferred in February from a medium-security prison in Sumter County, Florida, to the halfway house and was scheduled to be there until his release in February 2023. From 1990 to 1992 Taddeo was convicted of federal racketeering charges and pleaded guilty to multiple other cases involving weapons offenses, drugs, and enterprise corruption among other offenses which included the killing of three men on behalf of the La Cosa Nostra, a Rochester-area crime family. Taddeo’s arrest is the result of a combined effort by the USMS Middle District of Florida, the Southern District of Florida, and the Florida Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force, checking multiple locations of inter...

Tom LaVecchia recently discussed mob podcasting, including the abrupt end of The MBA and the Button Man, the now-defunct podcast series he did with former Luchese wiseguy John Pennisi. Other topics of discussion: what it was like getting hit by Gang Land News and the seven ex-wiseguys he’s interviewed (a record, he said). Tom hosts Armchair MBA presently.  While we’ve known Tom for years, this was the first time we formally interviewed him. Tom is admirably patient and refreshingly honest—very unlike the glut of tedious, name-dropping bullshitters out there who spin nonstop blissfully unaware of their transparent shallowness. LaVeccia has been focused on mob stuff for years, and has posted the very first video interview with former Gambino associate John Alite. He tells us he’s interviewed seven ex-wiseguys and multiple associates, so far. We’ve compared notes and can say we have similar backgrounds—suburban schmucks (he from New Jersey, us Long Island) who probably partie...