Cosa Nostra News

Ralph Santaniello punched C raig J. Morel    in the face during their initial meeting and told him he was dealing with the boss of the "Springfield Crew" which had "New York" behind it.... Two members of the Genovese crime family's Springfield crew, including its boss, face sentencing on Tuesday in federal court in Worcester. Ralph Santaniello, alleged boss of Springfield crew in August 2016. Giovanni (Johnny Cal) Calabrese and crew boss Ralph Santaniello were convicted following a wide-ranging probe into Mafia activity in western Massachusetts. They were among five area residents convicted for loansharking and the 2013 shakedown of tow company operator Craig J. Morel for $20,000. In testimony, Morel detailed how three generations of wiseguys with the Genovese crime family had sought since 2000 to extort his towing business, which was awarded with a lucrative municipal contract. Also turns out Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino wasn't the ...

Ralph Santaniello, 50, and Giovanni Calabrese, 54, both pleaded guilty yesterday in Worcester federal court. They faced extortion and other charges, including threatening to behead someone, await sentencing. Santaniello and Calabrese are among about four dozen Mafia members and associates accused in a federal indictment last August of participating in a racketeering conspiracy that involved five crime families and was based primarily in the Northeast. Now the Hartford Courant reports that, on Monday, Genovese crime family capo Eugene “Rooster” Onofrio, 75, and Joseph “Skinny Joe” Merlino, 55, were both charged in a revised indictment. The New York-based Genovese crime family expanded its influence in Connecticut and western Massachusetts over the years, growing in strength as federal law enforcement (with a little inside help) steadily reduced the presence of the region's once dominate Patriarca crime family. Five reputed members of the Genovese crime family...

Five reputed members of the Genovese crime family's " Springfield Crew " were arrested in August as part of the " East Coast LCN Enterprise"  case that alleges wide-ranging Mafia-related activity in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Florida ( and New Jersey, supposedly ). Four of the five Springfield Crew members have been released on bail; the one Genovese associate still being held is Ralph Santaniello, 49. Believed to be running the Springfield Crew for the Genovese crime family, he was transported in October to New York City for a hearing that is not slated to occur anytime soon. He is the only mobster arrested in August who wasn't granted bail. Others being held were already imprisoned when the indictment came down. Why is Ralph Santaniello still being held in Brooklyn? Santaniello is running Springfield reportedly with the backing of his father, Amedeo Santaniello, a longtime Springfield mobster and a former confidante of Genovese boss ...