Cosa Nostra News

Summations began on the morning of March 11, and the jury was handed transcripts of the audio recordings played during trial..... John Zancocchio leaving court last month. From 2012 until last year, Joseph Cammarano Jr. and John Zancocchio were powerful Mafiosi who profited from a mob-controlled dump on Staten Island while overseeing a group of underlings who strong-armed and terrified people into paying up. So Federal prosecutors have been alleging in Manhattan Federal Court the past few weeks. They also allege that Cammarano is the  boss and Zancocchio the consiglieri. Cammarano, 59, who lives in Long Island, is charged with racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit extortion. Zancocchio, 61, of Staten Island, is charged with racketeering conspiracy, attempted assault and conspiracy to commit extortion. If convicted, Cammarano faces 40 years in prison and Zancocchio, 45. If you ask their attorneys, however, you'd understand that the two men w...

POSTSCRIPT ADDED AT END One cold, snowy night in February 1977, Arthur Milgram, the owner of New York State's biggest lottery ticket vending company, drove to a luxury apartment building in Little Neck, Queens, where he'd been staying the past month. Arthur Milgram was gunned down in 1977. He wasn't living in the swanky Monte Excelsior apartments. Rather, Milgram, who was separated from his wife, had subleased one of its apartments. He was hiding out there in fear for his life. Built in 1964, the 240-unit Monte Excelsior still stands. Among its amenities is an onsite parking lot -- and it was across that snow-covered unlighted parking lot that, on that February night, Milgram drove his rented 1977 Buick Electra 225 and parked in one of the spots. At around 11:45 pm Milgram exited the car and headed towards the building's rear door. As he stepped onto the stretch of concrete between the parking lot and the building, a gunman opened fire. Becau...

WARNING: THERE BE SPOLIERS HERE, APLENTY Reiner explains what a bolito is. Ridley Scott’s “ The Counselor ” evokes a certain chill in the viewer, despite the fact it takes place on the searing Mexican border. The film is a brilliant portrayal of men living lives of varying degrees of corruptness, from the entry-level outsider, the titular Counselor (Michael Fassbender), to the experienced professionals (such as Javier Bardem 's character, the nightclub-owning Reiner, who lives in denial; and the jaded, looking-for-an-exit Westray, played by  Brad Pitt ), all the way up the chain to the drug kingpins, personified by the character named in the credits as jefe, played by the great  Rubén Blades . Cartels have been working with the Sicilian Mafia for some time; the recent bust in New York and Calabria reveals the Gambino and Bonanno families are in league with the Cartels, seemingly the middlemen between the big Mexican narcotrafficantes and the Ndrangheta.