Cosa Nostra News

Alleged Colombo crime family soldier Angelo Spata (pictured) was among the 100-plus mobsters arrested in the big 2011 bust known as  Mafia Takedown Day .  Angelo Spata does a Carlo Gambino grin for media. (I used Spata's photograph in a story once, without knowing much about him. This led to an interesting conversation with Michael DiLeonardo. If you're interested in the backstory, you can read it  here in the original version  of this story published in early summer 2016. ) Angelo Spata was an up and coming member of the Colombo crime family because, some might say, he married well. Through marriage, he became a somebody, specifically, a Persico... Blatant nepotism may be frowned upon in the workplace, but it's alive and well in Cosa Nostra, and arguably has never been more important to the remaining Mafia presence in the USA (for better or worse). When Angelo started out as a mob associate, he was with the Gambino crime family, along ...

Cosa Nostra News Exclusive First, the following  string of comments is from a previous story ; this is simply to set  this  story's backdrop. Comments are highlighted in yellow to signify their pending significance. ( The comments are no longer following, technically. To make the story easier to read I placed them on another page, but we'll get to that. ) Angelo Spata does a Carlo Gambino grin for media. The comments, edited for clarity and space, offer several revelations: 1.) Former Gambino crime family captain  Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo wasn't involved in that blog story or the related discussion until "several" commenters blasted him. (The quotes around several are because the various names used were actually one person; this person seemed to have a strong proclivity to defend Angelo "Little Angelo" Spata.) However, since the commenter said nothing substantial to indicate he possessed special knowledge, he may have bee...

The huge bust netted 127 mobsters. On occasion, while researching one story, another story raises its head and says "howdy".... One such story greeted me today courtesy of the New York Post website; it puts an interesting spin on 2011's infamous " Mafia Takedown Day ," when 127 gangsters were hauled off to jail. The story's juiciest stuff is based off anonymous sources. But it also features "on the record" sources, including Joe Pistone (aka Donnie Brasco) and  Joaquín "Jack Falcone" García , the renowned former FBI agent who worked as many as five separate undercover cases simultaneously.  During Operation Jack Falcone, Garcia  infiltrated Greg DePalma's Gambino crew . Garcia authored a book about it:  Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family . He told me he chose the name based on the Italian magistrate killed by the Sicilian Mafia .

Andy Russo during an earlier arrest. He was among those arrested in January 2011. The FBI said it has arrested the "entire" current Colombo crime family administration, as the last of 38 guilty pleas was entered into at Brooklyn federal court by family associate Angelo Spata. The Colombo hierarchy case launched in January 2011, so-called Mafia Takedown Day, with a series of FBI raids that set a record as the single largest one-day operation against the Italian-American Mafia. "Those who have pleaded guilty include the members of the entire administration of the Colombo organized crime family..., as well as numerous leaders, members and associates of the Colombo family," the US Attorney's Office said in a statement. All of them face 20 years in prison, the maximum based on sentencing guidelines. They also will surrender $5.6 million of their illicit proceeds.