Cosa Nostra News

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara: The Mob Is “Still There” | Vanity Fair : At Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit, contributing editor Bryan Burrough asked U.S. attorney Preet Bharara a question he said he has always wanted to ask a U.S. attorney: what’s going on with the mafia? “ The mob is still there,” Bharara said. “ The Five Families are still there , they’re still extorting business, they’re still using baseball bats.” Interestingly, he acknowledges this while fully aware of the fact that the Feds have cut their manpower and resources to combating OC in New York. As we reported in  Why New York's Five Families Have Regained Power , the New York Mafia in fact "has quietly staged a comeback and is now more powerful than it has been in years," said Richard Frankel, special agent in charge of the Criminal Division for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York office. 

Supervisory Special Agent Seamus McElearney. It was publicly proclaimed by no less than Attorney General Eric Holder that the FBI decided to sharply reduce resources allocated to battling the New York Mafia. This was revealed about three years ago -- concurrently with the infamous event known as "Mafia Takedown Day," when some 120 mobsters were arrested in their bathrobes at dawn--high noon for busting down the doors of nice, well-kept suburban homes. The FBI historically has had one squad assigned to each New York crime family, back during those decades when they systematically dismantled organized crime in the city, the so-called golden years of the mob . In contrast, as of this past June, the FBI had on the streets only two New York City-based squad s to keep an eye on the 700 or so members -- and estimated 7,000 associates -- of the Five Families, according to Gangland.com's Jerry Capeci. To say it another way, the FBI mob effort has been cut in hal...

The U.S. attorney general ordered prosecutors to seek the death penalty against mobster Joel ( Joe Waverly ) Cacace for ordering the murder of an NYPD cop, officials said in a New York Daily News  article . Cacace, 69, a former acting boss for the Colombo crime family, is charged with putting a contract on Officer Ralph Dols after the cop married the mobster's ex-wife. Joe Waverly survived two attempts  on his life. Dols was off duty when he was gunned down outside his home in Brockton in 1997.