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 ...

Anthony “The Genius” Megale, who rose to be the underboss of the Gambino crime family, died at Stamford Hospital Tuesday night. Megale was dubbed “The Genius” on a federal wiretap by an upset and angry John Gotti, who apparently thought Megale was anything but a genius. Cause of death was not known as of yesterday, said an employee at the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Farmington. However, it was confirmed by two sources that Megale died of a heart attack at 9:30 p.m. on his 62nd birthday. He had only been released from a Pennsylvania federal prison in December having been indicted on 38 extortion charges in 2004.

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.

Michael Blutrich grew up in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from Georgetown in 1974, he opened his own firm on Park Avenue, Blutrich, Falcone & Miller. The current Governor of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo, was a partner in the firm (1985-1988). Michael Blutrich was featured on 60 Minutes The news show will revisit the Scores case. In the 1990s, using stolen money, Blutrich started investing in restaurants and nightclubs including the strip club Scores . At some point, he started working in cahoots with Steve Sergio, described by 60 Minutes as a Gambino associate. (See script of the episode, An Unlikely Informant  here.)

Greg DePalma was desperate to regain his standing as a capo when he was released from prison in February 2003 after serving a 70-month sentence for racketeering. He was supposedly all washed up. He'd been caught talking on tape, which led to his conviction as well as that of John A. "Junior" Gotti in the Scores strip-club extortion case. (They copped plea deals, actually, at the last minute.) Testimony in a 1999 case related to the Scores case told a violent tale of murders by Albanian gangsters, as well as the Gambino crime family shaking down the premium strip club. Reputed Albanian mobsters (and brothers) Simon and Victor Dedaj were arrested for the 1996 shooting murders of a bouncer and waiter inside the Upper East Side strip club. The New York Post described it as a case "with enough mobsters, loansharks and topless dancers to fill a Martin Scorcese flick." In opening statements, Assistant District Attorney Dan McGillycuddy told jurors how ...

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE   After reading  Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo's testimony , we wanted to know more about him. Mikie Scars, recently taken. Michael DiLeonardo knows Cosa Nostra, and we spent a week asking him questions. We thank Michael for generously spending his time answering them. Michael DiLeonardo's story certainly warrants a full-length book. When we asked Michael if he was working on getting his life story onto the page, he told us only that he's received many requests. "Mikie Scars" beat the Feds when he was tried in Georgia for extorting some $70 million from Georgia's Gold Club and $100,000 from the Manhattan-based high-end Scores strip club.

In what we consider to be our most important contribution to the history of the American Cosa Nostra, we interviewed Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo about life in the Five Families -- specifically, the Gambino crime family when it was helmed by one of the most famous mob bosses of the 20th century, John Gotti . Mikie Scars provided some interesting details about pre-Cosa Nostra history in America, too. You will learn things you never knew or imagined about the Gambino crime family during the Gotti reign . ( Such as Michael actually spells his name "Mikie".... )

Where was this federal judge  when the FBI installed a bug inside the home of Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano? The article doesn't even reference Castellano. A federal judge issued a stern rebuke Friday to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's method for breaking up an illegal online betting ring.  According to published reports a Las Vegas court frowned on the FBI's ruse of disconnecting Internet access to $25,000-per-night villas at Caesar's Palace Hotel and Casino.  FBI agents posed as the cable guy and secretly searched the premises.

We had to delete the pic because of Adsense violations... Initially, we included in our Cosa Nostra News logo the iconic 1979 photograph of Carmine Galante taken by the enterprising news photographer positioned atop a roof that overlooked the outside patio of Joe and Mary's Italian American Restaurant in Bushwick, Brooklyn. (The restaurant went out of business following the murder on a dreadfully hot New York summer day.) The well-known image. But one image we happened across today gave us lengthy pause. We immediately knew we'd never seen the black-and-white photo before. Yet a familiarity was indeed there, likely due to the barber chair beside which the lifeless, blood-spattered gangster had collapsed after his infamous lunge at the mirror. A fatally shot mob boss, his dying brain's synapses misfiring, had mistakenly perceived his assassins to be standing in front of him. He'd been deceived by a reflection. We knew we were looking at a photograph we'...

Interesting story about a little-known figure who was around Little Nicky Corozzo. Kenji Gallo's latest  Breakshot Blog column: The Gambino Family is always a fun topic. This week is a story about Vincent “Marbles” Dragonetti, Little Nicky Corozzo’s son in law.

The following is based on Gambino crime family boss  Carlo Gambino 's FBI files. The Apalachin Meeting marked a major turning point in FBI history. America’s premiere law enforcement agency could no longer bury its head in the sand about organized crime. With the raid in upstate New York, it was clear that a national crime syndicate operated inside the United States. Carlo Gambino, around the time of his coup into power. J. Edgar Hoover realized that the Mafia not only existed but posed a national security threat of inconceivable proportions. This was due largely to its ability to corrupt America’s duly elected officials. Immediately, the FBI sought to gain intelligence on who exactly made up this criminal entity. Luckily, they had state and city crime files to examine. Additionally, the FBN, the now-defunct Federal Bureau of Narcotics, had been investigating the Mafia for decades. The Feds coopted the FBN’s files as well. A top target was Carlo Gambino, bo...

In 1995, a member of the Gambino crime family plotted the violent murder of John Alite and anybody in the car with him, according to a former Gambino associate directly involved in the conspiracy who was going to be one of the shooters. Alite was marked for death. Stephen Newell, about whom we've previously written, told us the  hit was to be staged  at a towing company/auto-body shop in Queens at the intersection of Crossbay Boulevard and Redding Street.  Alite would pull up in his car to meet someone -- and two men would open fire from a passing van. One of the gunmen, arrested on an unrelated charge, revealed the plot, prompting the FBI to visit Alite with a warning.   This is only one such plot; there were others.  W e caught up with Stephen Newell a few weeks ago. He'd seen our story  and had some corrections and amendments. Newell is an interesting person. He is mentioned in both Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Juni...

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...

We got the link -- for real. Here it is -- ready? CLICK HERE   for  The Mafia with Trevor McDonald Episode 1 Sir Trevor McDonald seeks to show viewers the "reality" and not the "mythology" of the Mob on the program. Episode One kicks off with John Alite and Michael Franzese, as well as Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo, who speaks here publicly for the first time since providing his damaging testimony. He lives in constant fear of Mafia reprisal. Sir Trevor hosts two-part series on the mob. In one scene, DiLeonardo drives Sir Trevor down the one block of Little Italy that remains, Mulberry Street, to offer a passing glimpse at the place where he was formally inducted into the Gambino crime family on December 24, 1988.

Lots of news stories in the summer of 2001 fell down the  memory hole  after the brutal 9/11 attacks. A certain Gambino crime family associate who in his heyday was as powerful as an inducted member was likely quite pleased that one developing story from that summer was essentially shut down. This ex-mob wife, formerly married to Joe Watts should've had a television show. Largely know for being one of John Gotti's lieutenants, Joseph "Joe the German" Watts began his rise in the mob during Carlo Gambino's reign. Watts made a name for himself with the Gambinos under Paul "Big Paul" Castellano. But he earned his fortune under the Dapper Don and was afforded the respect more typical of a capo. Because Watts showed fealty to Gotti and his group of conspirators, collectively known as The Fist, which orchestrated the assassination of Castellano on the swanky upper East Side amid rush hour in December 1985 (Watts was a backup shooter), ...