Cosa Nostra News

In January 2014, Bajram Lajqi was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court to six years in prison; he'd plead guilty on June 27, 2013, to drug trafficking and firearm use. Bajram Lajqi under arrest in 2013. Lajqi was a "member" of an Albanian organized crime group that operated in the United States, Canada, and Europe. On June 4, 2011, Lajqi attempted to murder another member of the gang. “...  Lajqi, in particular,  exemplifies the violence tied to large-scale narcotics trafficking, as his drug-fueled quest for revenge led him to gun down a rival outside a Bronx restaurant,” the U.S. Attorney said in a  press release .  Now the U.S. Attorney is doing an injustice to Lajqi right there, by making him sound, at the very least, like a competent hitman. The truth is, he's not. We love how the gothamist wrote this one up: "What with all the massive busts and small-time stabbings, the mob just ain't what it used to be. Nowadays nobody takes any ...

Crime families opportunistically form and break alliances. Shortly before the third shooting war began, Colombo leaders including Carmine Sessa met at the Persico family estate in Saugerties, New York, to plot the murder of Vittorio "Little Vic" Orena. Chin Gigante When the other crime families learned of the pending war, leaders of the Luchese, Genovese and Gambino families tried to resolve the problem before the shooting began by meeting with Colombo leaders. (Notice one family is missing?) Alfonso "Little Al" D'Arco, former acting boss of the Luchese family, discussed this series of meetings meant to stop the third Colombo war at Orena's trial. The talks only postponed the shooting, which formally broke out in late 1991. D'Arco said the four-family meetings had been held in apartments and hotel rooms around New York City.

Joseph Mignacca fired a Glock at a man with an AK47 in an attempt to murder Raynald Desjardins, now in prison awaiting trial. The man who saved the life of Vito Rizzuto's mortal enemy was sentenced to seven years in prison for exchanging gunfire with at least one man firing an AK47 (presumably a Mafia shooter sent to kill Raynald Desjardins, then a major figure in the Montreal underworld). Quebec Court Judge Gilles Garneau added two years to the prosecution's recommended sentence. Jonathan Mignacca, 30, a St-Léonard resident, was found guilty in January for discharging a firearm while with Desjardins, who reportedly split with the Rizzuto organization after serving a lengthy prison sentence. Allegedly Desjardins (whose nicknames include "Old" and "China," both rather baffling) buffered Rizzuto from becoming ensnared in the drug trafficking case.

Suspects were never in short supply regarding the Michael Meldish murder . The former Purple Gang boss was offed in November 2013 in what's described as a classic gangland hit tableau. Michael Meldish, former Purple Gang leader, may have died for pissing off a high-ranking Luchese Mafioso. His body, expensively attired, ensconced in a camel-colored leather jacket, was slumped over in the driver's seat, his head back, his mouth agape. “Michael was a stone-cold killer,” Joseph Coffey, former commanding officer of the NYPD’s organized crime homicide task force, told the New York Daily News.

In November 2013, one of the last mob hits in the New York area took place. And now law enforcement reportedly has arrested those responsible, including a soldier in the Bonanno crime family. The murder scene of Michael Meldish. Gangster Michael Meldish was slain the old-school way, with a bullet to the back of his head. The killing had all the signs of a gangland hit, complete with the victim slumped over in the driver's seat of his rusty Lincoln LS in Throgs Neck on Ellsworth Ave.

Bonventre declined a promotion, according to Asaro, caught secretly on tape. In a Daily News Exclusive : Bonanno acting capo Jack Bonventre, arrested last January in what was then considered a major bust related to the storied 1970s Lufthansa heist , turned down an offer to move up in the crime family, according to his lawyer. But the feds aren't impressed, saying the mere offer of the promotion evidenced Bonventre's power and stature within the crime family. Evidence that the promotion was offered apparently was caught on a wiretap. Bonanno capo Vincent Asaro, who was recorded extensively  insulting street boss Thomas DiFiore , among other things, told an associate on March 8, 2013: “[Bonventre] turned it down, he didn’t want it... Jack didn’t want no part of this no more.”

Was Palazzolo set to take control of the Bonanno family's Queens action? Arrested yesterday was mobster John Palazzolo, 77, a reputed street boss of the Bonanno crime family's Bronx faction -- or at least he was; it appears he's been knocked down in rank. Apparently the Feds found him committing a serious crime: having coffee with other wiseguys.... Well, we take liberties here. He was found "suspiciously meeting" other mobsters in the parking lot of a diner. When wiseguys meet in the parking lot of a diner wouldn't they naturally act suspiciously? What exactly defines "suspiciously"? We had a little chuckle over this one. It sounds to us like whatever is left of the FBI working OC in New York is crying out for attention...

Jerry Capeci's GanglandNews  today reports that "25 inmates — including five mobsters and two Albanian hoods whose names Gang Land has obtained," engaged in a "bloody jailhouse brawl"during leisure time in the rec room of the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, on Saturday, March 14. Danbury, the article noted, is a low-security facility that houses 750 sentenced inmates. Alex Rudaj,of Albanian Mafia. Following the violent confrontation, everyone involved was "thrown into "the hole" after receiving stitches or treated for cuts, bloody noses and other non-life-threatening injuries." Prison officials and the FBI are investigating but declined to confirm or deny the fight, the website reported. Sources say the suspected mob pugilists included Colombo soldier Vito Guzzo, 50, Gambino mobsters Michael (Mikey Y) Yannotti, 51, Michael Roccaforte, 38, and Neil Lombardo, 59, and Bonanno wiseguy Robert Lino, 48. Their primary vict...

Vinny Asaro was among the top characters of interest in 2014.... His Tommy D rant makes us really want to hear the tapes.... I deleted a bunch of horseshit with which I initially started this post. Based on a quick Google Analytics filter, we found five days when there was a clear spike in our daily traffic. piked progressively, save for the last two samples, which were nearly equal. 

Click on the cover to purchase We'd like to give a shout out to the  Reading Ghost blogger  for crafting a review of  Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire  that highlights a key aspect of our approach to writing The Cicale Files series . Mob books such as  Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires  tend to provide detailed overviews of organized crime, focusing on a particular crime family, city, or period of time. Often an abundance of names, biographies, storylines, dates and other details swamp the reader.  And we have wondered how much most readers really take away from these books once they finish the last page... As bloggers writing about the subject, we of course love these books and we eagerly consume even the footnotes and details regarding source material. But in this case we refer to  the mainstream reader , not only the Mafia junkie.

TheCrimeBeat.com : On Dec. 11, 1978, a crew led by mob associate Jimmy Burke pulled off a daring stunning heist at JFK Airport that netted $5 million in cash and $1 million in precious stones. The case, which was immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s movie “Goodfellas,” has puzzled authorities for 36 years. Only one robber was ever convicted for the crime and the whereabouts of the loot has remained a secret…until now.

"Mikey Nose" (Commenced 11am, Saturday, Jan. 10)... We can thank Michael "Mikey Nose" Mancuso for our starting point.... I don't think any other blog or news organization on the planet has ever gotten such direct insight from the man widely considered to be the official boss of the Bonanno family . The Nose is from the Bronx, where Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, either former acting boss or current official boss, hailed from.

Vito Rizzuto drove around the streets of Montreal  in an armored car  and brazenly sent his assassins across the world to kill those who defied him. The Godfather of Montreal, Vito Rizzuto, died one year ago of complications from lung cancer. In this group count traitors and Calabrian mobsters from Toronto. Vito's bloody street war to annihilate any and all rivals and defectors didn't end with his death in December 2013. So said a law enforcement source quoted in the Toronto Sun , which further noted that Rizzuto's death last December at age 67 failed to "stem the vendetta." The Rizzuto crime family still has some “Calabrian Mob opportunists and Sicilian traitors” that it needs to deal with, the source said. Although Rizzuto was challenged, he retained his power. “The ground was never lost,” the source said. On Dec. 1, after months of relative peace within Montreal’s Mafia circles, one of its Calabrian members was fatally shot in a restaur...

Some of you may have already heard or read this story. I assume many of you have not... From the MailOnline, which published this in April 2011 : It is a Mafia murder mystery that has remained unsolved for years. But investigators finally believe they might have got to the bottom of what happened to family mobster Nicholas Cirillo, who vanished seven years ago and has not been seen since - his death may have been ordered by his own father. Genovese gangster Nicholas disappeared on Mothers' Day 2004, two weeks after an altercation in the Bronx with fellow mob man Vincent Jr. Basciano and Dominick Cicale, part of the infamous Bonanno family.

By Ida Libby Dengrove Boots, left, and his lawyer Klein. REVISED SLIGHTLY: We'd hate to hazard a guess as to how many Mafiosi are named in Selwyn Raab's excellent Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires . But we do know one who is not mentioned. Raab not only failed to name this Bonanno family gangster; the former New York Times investigative reporter also inadvertently credited onetime Bonanno consiglieri Anthony Spero for something that resulted from the innovation of this unnamed mobster.

TG Graziano had five acting capos around him. One of the first things Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano did as acting boss of the Bonanno family was bust down the five acting capos that Anthony "TG" Graziano had around him, according to our colleague and former Bonanno capo Dominick Cicale. "What is this? The Bonanno family or the Graziano family?"  Basciano complained to Dom, referring to the Staten Island-based capo who reportedly has since been shelved by the family because of " Mob Wives ," the reality show that was the brainchild of TG's daughter Jennifer; Renee, one of the show's stars, is another of his daughters.

"Kayo was an animal on a leash for [Bonanno capo Joe]  Zicarelli and others.  All they had to do was unsnap the leash and he'd kill for the fun of it."  -- Federal agent "Kayo" Konigsberg struggles with detectives. An 89-year-old mob hitman  who was probably responsible for the murder of Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo, a high ranking Genovese crime family capo, died in late November, about two years after finishing a 50-year prison sentence. Harold "Kayo" Konigsberg died five days after his 89th birthday and was buried in Florida, where he'd been living in a nursing home and terrorizing his fellow residents.

The Mafia in America evolved into one organization linked to the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, though from its inception it was composed of former members of all Italy's Mafias, including the Calabrian Ndrangheta and Neapolitan Camorra. Likely due to immigration trends, Canada is composed of two distinct Mafia organizations, the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the Calabrian Ndrangheta. Stefano Magaddino appointed Giacomo Luppino to be his representative, among others.  The American Mafia did business with both groups, apparently not noticing the difference or using any rivalries to manipulate the territory.

Now available for purchase on Amazon Kindle!  Cosa Nostra News: The Cicale Files, Volume 1: Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire . "As a capo in the Bonanno crime family, Dominick Cicale was privy to the inner workings of organized crime. Cicale was a rising star in the Bonanno family until Joseph Massino, the family's boss, was arrested on a murder rap and turned on his own people. Massino's betrayal took down Cicale and his mentor Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, and many others. Faced with the disloyalty of Massino (the only Mafia Godfather to break the code of "omerta,") Cicale began cooperating with federal authorities. Here, Cicale not only reveals an insider’s view of the Mafia’s secret society, but provides readers with shocking details of the reign and fall of Joseph Massino." As noted it is priced at $4.99 (it is not a full-length book, as it is around 20,000 words), and we packed it with as much value as possible. Researchi...

Frank Coppa was sentenced today. He earned quite a distinction in the Mafia: Coppa was the first member of the Bonanno family ever, since its formation in the 1930s, to break his oath; the other four families had all had defectors prior (the Bonannos alone for a period of time bragged that they had not produced a single defector -- until Coppa). Fat and Fatter: Massino, left, Coppa But as if to compensate for that, the former Bonanno capo's decision to flip set off a chain reaction that culminated in mass defections that took down the so-called Last Don, Joseph Massino . Coppa was  sentenced to time served . At age 73, he spent only two years in prison, then was out on bail about 10 years ago.