Cosa Nostra News

A man gunned down Sunday morning in what Rhode Island law enforcement authorities say was a gangland hit was a known associate of former New England Mafia boss Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio who had robbed an alleged associate of the Gambino crime family, as per a Target 12 report . Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio. Napoloen Andrade, 37, of Central Falls,  was shot in the shadow of the Pawtucket halfway house  where he was sent prior to his release.  Andrade — who has a lengthy criminal record that includes violent crime and drug trafficking— was finishing a sentence for his role in a 2010 Connecticut home invasion of a Gambino crime family associate, 78. In 2014, Andrade was convicted for the robbery. "He has a lot of enemies," retired R.I. State Police Col. Steven O'Donnell, a veteran mob investigator, told Target 12. "There are a lot of people, based on things that have happened over his lifetime — it could push law enforcement in...

UPDATED New England Mafia capo Edward Lato, 71, was transferred Wednesday from Fort Dix federal prison in New Jersey to a halfway house. Eddie Lato According to the BOP inmate locator he's in a facility in Philadelphia. According to Target 12, which broke the story, Lato was sent to Pawtucket in Providence. Lato was eligible for release to home confinement or a halfway house on Jan. 25, according to the Target 12 story, which based that on information acquired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons via a Freedom of Information Act request. Lato's attorney, Mark Smith, remarked that he had "no knowledge" of Lato's situation. We've emailed Tim White, the reporter whose byline is on the Target 12 story, for clarification, and we'll update this story accordingly. Tim White replied: "Philadelphia is where the BOP's Residential Reentry Center is. As I reported in my story, he is at a halfway house in Pawtucket (halfway ho...

UPDATED, REVISED Anthony L. DiNunzio, 58, of East Boston, Massachusetts, "the alleged leader of the New England organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra,"  was sentenced to six years in prison in 2012 on racketeering and extortion charges. Reputed acting boss Anthony DiNunzio, left, with Anthony Gambale in 2002. DiNunzio  was released a few weeks ago, on February 22, 2018, as pe r the BOP inmate locator website. In a colorful indictment, federal prosecutors alleged that DiNunzio had become the acting boss of New England’s Cosa Nostra crime family in late 2009 and oversaw the organization’s extortion of Rhode Island strip clubs and other such businesses, demanding payments of $2,000 to $6,000 per month. DiNunzio was arrested in 2012 at the Gemini Social Club in Boston's North End. He was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for racketeering. He's the brother of Carmen “The Big Cheese” DiNunzio, who served a state sentence for briber y and was r...

Reputed New England boss "Spucky" Spagnolo is 72. Two New England Mafiosi in their 70s, including the alleged acting Patriarca crime family boss, are going to prison after copping to a years-long extortion scheme in federal court.  On December 16, Antonio “Spucky” Spagnolo, 73, and Pryce “Stretch” Quintina, 75, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to affect commerce by extortion. Prosecutors alleged that Spagnolo, of Revere is the acting boss of the New England Mafia. Co-defendant, Quintina, also of Revere, reported to Spagnolo, prosecutors said. Both men pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston to charges of conspiracy to affect commerce by extortion for threatening the owner of the Revere Moose Lodge and another businessman, the Boston Globe  reported , If Judge Patti B. Saris approves a plea agreement between prosecutors and the two mobsters, Spagnolo will be sentenced to two years in prison and Quintana to 18 months. A senten...

Steven O'Donnell slipped inside the most  powerful and dangerous family ever to rule over New England. Tom Winter has written for  NBC News  a story on“Steve Foley” -- the name used by an undercover state police officer named Steven O’Donnell who was able "to get inside one of the Mafia’s most feared families." During the mid-1990s he got inside the Patriarca Mafia family that ran New England, which Raymond Patriarca Sr. formed in the 1950s. O'Donnell's testimony led to “hundreds” of convictions.

"Baby Shacks" The former New England Mafia boss was sentenced Friday to 5½ years in prison for his role in the shakedown of Providence strip clubs, becoming the first ex-Mob leader to be locked up in a case that has ensnared nine people described by prosecutors as having ties to organized crime. The sentence for the 84-year-old Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio means he may live out his final days in prison. He turns 85 next month. Manocchio's role in the extortion plot went back to about 1992 and netted $800,000 to $1.5 million in ill-gotten gains through protection payments paid by strip clubs, including the Satin Doll and Cadillac Lounge, according to prosecutors. Manocchio maintained at his sentencing that he never personally threatened anybody.

New England boss  Luigi "Baby Shanks" Manocchio is "active." The federal government, for the first time, publicly named who they believe is running the New England Mafia, and that the current official leadership team is in Massachusetts. The revelation arrived in court documents when former New England mob boss Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio pleaded not guilty to extortion and conspiracy charges. Federal prosecutors in Rhode Island filed paperwork attesting to his high-level position to help keep Manocchio locked up while he awaits trial.