Cosa Nostra News

In the 1960s, it was all fun and games. In the 1970s, the HA became gangsters. People started getting murdered or disappearing; bombs started going off everywhere, especially in Cleveland... First, by way of explaining my nearly nine-month absence: I'd been biding my time, keeping my powder dry, enjoying my unannounced semiretirement from this blog, when one evening, I suddenly found myself scribbling on the backs of cocktail napkins. Next thing I knew, goddammit, I seemed to be getting back into the swing without even realizing it.  Butch Crouch smiles for the camera. Operating this blog the right way is like having a poorly paying full-time job on top of the full-time job that pays the bills—and buys the vino. An admittedly lazy man, I find having two full-time jobs rough because you basically work all the time. And that ain't no kind of fun after a while. Looking back, the most remarkable thing is probably that my stint here lasted as long as it did.   But then,  ...

The current relationship between the American Mafia and the Pagan's is not the only thing about the 1%ers that has evolved since the 1980s, when the outlaw motorcycle club balked at paying the street tax imposed by then Philadelphia boss Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo. The Pagan's balked at the street tax imposed by Little Nicky. As of September 2020, the Pagan's, one of the "big four" largest outlaw motorcycle clubs in the US, are undergoing a violent "resurgence," according to a recently published report by the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation (SCI) .  The MC, which uses drones and encrypted communications to avoid detection, has seen an unprecedented surge in membership, nearly doubling in size over the past few years. The Pagan's also are significantly more violent , with experts noting that there have been more violent incidents committed by the Pagan's during a recent 18-month period than during the prior 10 years combined. (Be...

Providence, Rhode Island was once Raymond Loreda Salvatore Patriarca's fiefdom, and now it's where violent confrontations between outlaw motorcycle clubs are on the up. Santo Trafficante Jr., once among the most powerful Mafia bosses in the United States. controlled organized criminal operations in Florida, where the Outlaws, or the American Outlaw Association, is the dominant outlaw motorcycle club. Last year in Newark, New Jersey, a Hells Angels associate was brutally beaten with baseball bats in what law enforcement believed was part of a broader attempt by the Pagans Motorcycle Club to expand its territory into northern New Jersey. Outlaw MC violence was spotlighted this summer in Las Vegas, when an undercover agent who infiltrated a Las Vegas chapter of the Vagos Motorcycle Club for two years offered a glimpse into the underworld of outlaw bikers as he testified during a federal racketeering trial. “If the leadership decides to declare war,” Agostino Bra...

One of the two alleged leaders of the Montreal Cosa Nostra entity was released from jail on Monday, February 19, after charges against them were dropped. Vito Rizzuto's son, Leonardo Leonardo Rizzuto, 48, and Stefano Sollecito were acquitted of gangsterism and conspiracy to traffic cocaine when Quebec Superior Court Justice Eric Downs ruled that they'd been illegally wiretapped in a conference room at their lawyer’s office. So basically, the main evidence against the pair, a single conversation recorded in that conference room, was tossed, and prosecutors said they had no other evidence to prove the charges of gangsterism and conspiracy to traffic cocaine. Leonardo, son of Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto (who died in 2013), had been detained since the arrests, while Sollecito--whose father, Rizzuto-loyalist Rocco Sollecito, was murdered in 2016--was granted bail in 2016 to undergo cancer treatment. Leonardo still faces charges of possession of a firearm and drugs, a...

Alexandra Mongeau, "Mom" Boucher's daughter, faces charges in Montreal mob case. Project Mastiff, a lengthy drug trafficking investigation that ensnared Montreal Mafia boss Leonardo Rizzuto and around 40 others, who were arrested last November, is slated to inch forward in the courtroom today, with the scheduled debut of a key anonymous witness. The witness sparked the investigation into alleged drug trafficking ties between the Montreal Cosa Nostra clan, the Hells Angels MC and various street gangs, the Montreal Gazette reported . Rizzuto was identified by law enforcement as one of two bosses of the Montreal Mafia family previously run by his father, Vito, who died in December 2013. Leonardo was  arrested on Nov. 19 as part of Projects Magot and Mastiff, a joint investigation into drug trafficking in the city. 

George Christie, former president and founder of Ventura chapter. From Gangsters Out , an exclusive interview with a former Hells Angels president who was accused of cooperating with law enforcement, charges he denies....George Christie, a founder and president of the Hells Angels' Ventura Chapter (in California) wrote a book in response to those allegations. It will be released next month... I recently found out that George Christie, long time President of the Hells Angels Ventura Chapter , was out in bad so I reached out to him and asked if he would do an interview. I can tell you one thing - this guy is the real deal. There have been other fly by night flashes in the pan that I refused to endorse. This guy I do endorse. Completely. He is what they meant when they made up the term old school. These new kids on the block have no idea what old school is simply because they've never been to school. We look forward to hearing more from him. 

Leonardo Rizzuto was denied ball again, though a judge allowed it for a dying Stefano Sollecito . Alleged Montreal Mafia leader Stefano Sollecito was granted bail, the Montreal Gazette reported . Leonardo Rizzuto wasn't -- but then the son of deceased Montreal Cosa Nostra boss Vito Rizzuto isn't suffering what seems to be, in Stefano's case, terminal cancer. The reported reason for Sollecito's bail: the judge agreed "he cannot adequately be treated for the cancer he is suffering from inside a provincial detention centre."

"Nino Brown" -- the victim -- survived several attempts since 2013. UPDATED : Montreal police are currently investigating what seems likely to be the latest attack on the Montreal Mafia crime family formerly run by Vito Rizzuto. The victim has been the target of several previous unsuccessful hits and one report seems to indicate the shootings may be over debts. This past Monday the wounded man, allegedly an MC member associated with the Rizzutos, was shot inside his Riviere des Prairies home. His name is Nino De Bartolomeis, 44, (he is also known as Nino Brown). Officially, his identity remains unconfirmed. The report seems to indicate he may have had something to do with the launching last year of Projects Magot and Mastiff , which led to the arrests of several members of a drug-trafficking triumvirurate that involved the Montreal Mafia, Hells Angels MC and street gangs. Among those arrested and held without bail are Leonardo Rizzuto, Vito Rizzuto’s son and a pr...

Law enforcement investigates presumed gangland hit. A shooting this week in Terrebonne, a Montreal suburb in western Quebec, Canada, has "all the markings of an organized crime hit" and is not far from the location of the Lorenzo Giordano shooting in southwestern Quebec, north of Montreal, three weeks ago. The victim, Yannick LaRose, is "believed to have links to the Hells Angels," The Journal de Montreal and La Presse reported . (This likely means it was a move by 'Ndrangheta factions against what is left of the Rizzuto organization in Montreal.) Unlike typical gangland shootings, however, this one had a twist. The target survived the initial barrage and sought to escape the shooters inside a pool equipment storefront. The two masked gunmen, however, found him and shot him up some more.

The Cossack and Scimitar MCs are affiliated with the Hells Angels, adding new dimension to the story. COMMENTS  NOW WORKING! HOORAY! Four of the nine people who died as rival biker gangs began brawling outside a Waco, Texas-based Twin Peaks restaurant were killed with the same caliber used by Waco police rifles. This is according to a Waco Trib report based on evidence obtained by the AP "that provides the most insight yet into whether authorities were responsible for any of the deaths and injuries." Two of the four dead had wounds from only that kind of rifle; the other two were shot by other kinds of guns as well. The ballistics reports show that the rest killed were shot by a variety of other guns. It was not clear whether any bikers had similar guns to the police. Twelve long guns, which could include rifles, were seized by law enforcement on that day.

Vito Rizzuto's son Leonardo and Stefano Sollecito were identified as the two heads of the Montreal Cosa Nostra. The murder plot of Vito Rizzuto's chief enemy, Raynald Desjardins, set in motion today's series of predawn raids in Quebec, with police sweeping up 48, including members of the Montreal Mafia and the Hells Angels. Arrested were Rizzuto's son, an attorney reportedly not involved in organized crime (Leonardo Rizzuto, 46, took over after his father's death, police today claimed), and the daughter of Maurice "Mom" Boucher, a legendary former president of the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter. Boucher himself was arrested  in his jail cell where he's serving multiple life sentences for killing two prison guards.

UPDATED; ADDITIONAL INFO I have not previously covered the 1%er motorcycle clubs (though I have been considering launching a new blog dedicated to that volatile world). However in the recent Waco, Texas, case, I have some inside information   from a knowledgeable source  that seems to jibe with recently published reports.