Cosa Nostra News

The huge bust netted 127 mobsters. On occasion, while researching one story, another story raises its head and says "howdy".... One such story greeted me today courtesy of the New York Post website; it puts an interesting spin on 2011's infamous " Mafia Takedown Day ," when 127 gangsters were hauled off to jail. The story's juiciest stuff is based off anonymous sources. But it also features "on the record" sources, including Joe Pistone (aka Donnie Brasco) and  Joaquín "Jack Falcone" García , the renowned former FBI agent who worked as many as five separate undercover cases simultaneously.  During Operation Jack Falcone, Garcia  infiltrated Greg DePalma's Gambino crew . Garcia authored a book about it:  Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family . He told me he chose the name based on the Italian magistrate killed by the Sicilian Mafia .

The week before Christmas 2014, three North New Jersey-based Genovese crime family mobsters pleaded guilty to waterfront racketeering in a case going on for years -- since January 2011's Mafia Takedown Day . The guy who owned the “Godfather’s Garden.” But the Genovese family's control of the New Jersey waterfront goes back decades and includes many storied mobsters of the past who killed and were killed for control of the lucrative waterfront rackets of the Garden State. The Genovese family even ran its own hit squad, which focused on murdering FBI informants, among others. The bloodless indictment by comparison likely will end with three men serving three-year prison sentences. The key count in the indictment is conspiracy to extort members of the International Longshoremen’s Association for Christmastime tribute payments, according to New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman and Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch . Genovese s...

A recent  WSJ.com  report noted that, despite stronger federal laws and the long parade of mob turncoats waiting to testify in court, New York's five Cosa Nostra families have managed to hold on, regroup and rebuild. They have survived, law enforcement officials and mob experts said, because of their "persistence and ability to adapt," the article noted. In fact, the New York Mafia "has quietly staged a comeback and is now more powerful than it has been in years," Richard Frankel, special agent in charge of the Criminal Division for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York office, told the WSJ. The Mafia's obituary seem to be written about every few years. The king of all examples: In an uncharacteristic blunder, noted mob author Nicholas Pileggi wrote an article for New York magazine titled "The Decline and Fall of the Mafia" -- in 1970! The fact is, the American Cosa Nostra was organized specifically to perpetuate its...

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...

"Beach" DePiro Talking Points Memo has constructed an informative and visually pleasing slideshow of mugshots from January's "Biggest Mob Bust Ever," which we noted at the time both for its epic corralling of suspected criminals, but more playfully for its collection of some of the greatest nicknames ever given to overweight Italian-American men , as duly noted in the Village Voice . Vincent Aulisi, also known as "The Vet," squeaked by at number 20 on our Top 20 list . He's looking sad, but like he could handle a barking dog.

Articles are popping up everywhere, all over the media, following the big mob bust the other day. Following are some links you may want to check out: