Cosa Nostra News

The story of the two decorated NYPD detectives who moonlighted as hitters for the Luchese crime family may soon play out on television screens near you.  Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso Emmy Award-winning Boardwalk Empire creator/Sopranos executive producer Terence Winter has “committed” to writing and developing the series that will tell the story of the Mafia Cops , aka Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito, a recent New York Post report blared. Caracappa and Eppolito were former NYPD detectives who worked for the Mafia in New York City, primarily for the underboss of the Luchese crime family, in the 1980s and early 1990s . The two retired detectives were finally indicted in 2005 and then convicted in 2006 of eight counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, plus labor racketeering, extortion, narcotics, gambling, and obstruction of justice. In 2009, Caracappa was sentenced to life plus 80 years and Eppolito to life plus 100 years. (Caracappa died on April 8, 2017 at age 75 of can...

Federico ( Fritzy ) Giovanneli, who was charged with the 1986 murder of an NYPD detective, died Friday. He was 84. The cause of death was an illness, according to the New York Post. Federico (Fitzy) Giovanneli died Friday. Giovanelli faced charges for shooting Detective Anthony Venditti, 34, four times, including twice in the head, in Ridgewood, Queens. Venditti and his partner had been trailing the longtime Genovese crime family mobster when the shooting occurred. Giovanelli went on to face four trials, all of which ended in hung juries, except for one federal trial, which convicted him, but for racketeering only. The verdict was overturned on appeal. Venditti's partner, Detective Kathleen Burke, was wounded in the shooting. Cold Blooded Murder At 8 p.m. on the night of Jan. 21, the two detectives trailed Giovanelli to a destination in the vicinity of Myrtle and St. Nicholas Avenues. The two were part of an organized crime taskforce and were stakin...

"I'm not afraid of anyone. Only God."    --Israeli crime boss Ze'ev Rosenstein yesterday. Amid heavy security, the bosses of two of the most powerful crime families in Israel met in Tel Aviv District Court yesterday in what was slated to be witness testimony. Rosenstein Incarcerated Israeli crime boss Ze'ev Rosenstein, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence for ecstasy distribution, was there to testify against Yitzhak Abergil, who allegedly attempted to murder Rosenstein "multiple times." Abergil is on trial for murder and global drug smuggling. Rosenstein took the stand Sunday morning and, in what's been termed a stunning twist, he abruptly refused to answer the prosecutor.

Former Gambino crime family boss John Gotti's grandson copped to a plea deal in a drug-dealing case. He will serve eight years in prison. He faced a pretty strong case. He was recorded on a wiretap stating that he sold more than 4,200 pills a month for a $100,000 return. John Gotti's grandson arrested last August. Undercover cops allegedly made 11 buys from Gotti, purchasing $46,000 worth of Oxycodone. He faced up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. At Queens Supreme Court today, Gotti, 23, pleaded guilty to three charges stemming from the Operation Beach Party investigation that focused on him and a Queens-based drug operation he reportedly headed up. Once he serves the sentence, he has five years of supervised release; he also will forfeit $259,996, under terms of the agreement. The sentencing was slated for March 2.

UPDATED JAN. 26 A person of interest in the double murders on Staten Island is being grilled by police, according to an NYPD spokesman, who declined to provide further details. The suspect, questioned at the 69th Precinct stationhouse, has not yet been charged, according to published reports. Community advocate Tony Herbert is offering a $2,500 reward. Photograph of where the double homicide was committed. The double murders committed this past Tuesday evening on Staten Island at Universal Merchant Funding's storefront initially was reported to have been the work of a "disgruntled ex-employee,"  according to the New York Post , which noted that the suspect was taken into custody on another charge, violating his supervised release from federal prison. Sources revealed that the shooter walked into the storefront on Buel Ave. near Zoe St., after closing hours and entered a rear office at that location where he killed both the owner and an employee who is  kno...

John Gotti grandson UPDATED In an exclusive interview with the New York Daily News on Saturday, John Gotti (grandson of the notorious former  Gambino crime family boss ) detailed some of the dynamics that he believes led to his arrest two days prior to his discussion with two journalists. His own decision to allegedly mastermind the selling of Oxycodone and other diverted prescription drugs didn't figure once in the interview. And, disturbingly, for reasons of his own, he referenced the brutal rape and murder of a young woman last Tuesday in Howard Beach, one of two Queens neighborhoods in which Gotti and six others allegedly sold illegal prescription drugs. The murder remains unsolved . Calling Karina Vetrano "drop-dead gorgeous" as well as a "sweetheart" whom he personally knew, Gotti also made a bizarre reference to her father, who found her body , calling him a "man's man."

Michael Rizzi, a former NYPD officer who allegedly ran a massive prostitution operation that generated millions, was arrested yesterday morning at his home by Homeland Security agents. He was freed on bond and the NYPD promptly returned him to custody on a gun charge. Allegedly a stolen pistol was found in his residence. Rizzi is married to the daughter of Gambino crime family soldier Richard Juliano, whose older brother, Joseph "Sonny" Juliano, is a Brooklyn-based capo in the same family. Michael Rizzi....  Rizzi was a cop from 1992 to 2000, when his career ended due to a back injury. He collected a disability pension. The criminal complaint (PDF download) was filed in the Eastern District with U.S. District Court Judge Peggy Kuo on Friday. The Federal criminal case against Rizzi stems from allegations that he had taken over and continued to run an online escorting business previously run by Marc Schulman, a Staten Island resident arrested in 2014 who ple...

NYPD reorganized under a "unified investigations model." First it was the FBI -- and now it seems it's the NYPD that is reducing its focus on organized crime As recently reported , the NYPD unit responsible for investigating the Mafia, the Organized Crime Control Bureau, has been officially gone since March 1.  It disappeared as part of the department’s reorganization, officials told the New York Post. In its place, the NYPD has implemented "a unified investigations model,” the NYPD's Chief of Department, James O’Neill, said in remarks during a briefing at NYPD headquarters at One Police Plaza in lower Manhattan.

The Bonanno crime family apparently has so many informants that if "four guys get together there is a good chance one or two has flipped and is giving intel to law enforcement." Still, "the Bonannos have come back a few times after they were written off as finished." Nicky Mouth's crew members when arrested couple years back In the story (which disagrees with mine about who is the official boss) he notes that the family's new street boss, Joseph Cammarano, is trying to consolidate power under the watchful eyes of FBI agents (who do work on Sundays; apparently, the Bonannos thought otherwise, according to Breakshot Blog .) Some highlights: Plagued by internal fights, they were kicked off the Mafia Commission in New York. Then Joey Massino consolidated power and set the family on the right track. They were proud of the fact that no made family member had flipped. They closed their social clubs and made all kinds of rules to avoid detect...

Blood, from Friday early morning shooting, all over car's interior console.... REVISED The NYPD was probing the Bulls Head shooting of a 30-year-old man that occurred early last Friday morning. A confidential source said this was mob-related, although there's no confirmation. The victim is not cooperating with law enforcement. And considering what else has happened on Staten Island the past few days -- the fatal stabbings and supposed suicides -- the would-be mob-hit victim appears to be the lucky one. The man (his name hasn't been disclosed) had been shot in the shoulder but reportedly is in stable condition. He privately made his way to Staten Island University Hospital around 1 a.m. Friday, said an NYPD spokesman.

Detective LeVien was part of a 1972 sting centered on a junkyard in Canarsie, Brooklyn.  New York’s five families would meet here. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times New York Detective Who Infiltrated the Mafia, Dies at 68 - The New York Times : Douglas A. LeVien Jr., a former undercover police detective who in 1972 infiltrated the meeting ground used by New York’s five Mafia families, a landmark operation that produced scores of convictions, died on July 30 while vacationing in Saratoga, N.Y. He was 68. The cause was a heart attack, his son Vincent Douglas LeVien said. Except for several months in the late 1970s when, under apparent threat of death from a high-ranking mobster, he was placed in the federal witness protection program, Detective LeVien lived in Brooklyn all his life.

From TMZ/Instagram Rodolfo “Rudy” Lopez is wanted for the box cutter attack that left London Rene, 37, with gashes on his face, stomach and arm after a dispute outside Club Output, sources said. " Mob Wives " star Natalie Guercio 's boyfriend, Rene was knifed in a Brooklyn nightclub, toward the end of December. TMZ broke the story, noting that Rene has been slashed on the right side of his face after the attack in Club Output  [in Williamsburg, Brooklyn ]. Rene was hospitalized following the attack, and according to TMZ, he told police officers he considered himself lucky to be alive.

Surveillance photo of Joe Waverly Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, a high-level Colombo mobster who still carries lead in his chest from previous gunfights, has been acquitted of ordering the killing of an NYPD officer who married the Mafioso's ex-wife. A jury took only four hours to reach their verdict clearing Cacace of murder in aid of racketeering in the killing of Police Officer Ralph Dols, who was shot to death in 1997 outside his home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. The verdict was reached yesterday, Nov. 26. Last year, Colombo gangster Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli was acquitted of carrying out Cacace's alleged order, along with Dino Saracino. Cacace, 72, didn't walk out of the courtroom a free man following his acquittal as he is in the process of serving a 20-year sentence for racketeering after admitting to carrying out a hit on a federal prosecutor. He is not due to be released from prison until 2020 when he will be close to 80. ...

Gotti killed four more, according to son Junior's film of his life. (Unless it's from one of the fake scripts sent to the media.) EDITOR'S NOTE: Fiore Films has admitted sending out phony copies of the script for its upcoming Gotti biopic, apparently to fool the media. Mr. Fiore, trust me when I say: The media won't forget this dirty trick, especially when you expect them to hang laurels from the film in their reviews. This was a dumb, arrogrant move on your part, my friend. Anyway, readers, this post may be based on a fake script for all I know, but it was reported on by several sources, including the one and only Jerry Capeci. John Junior Gotti blames his Mafia father for four additional murders -- heretofore unknown by any sources -- in the upcoming film about the Teflon Don, according to published reports, including in the U.K.'s Mail Online . "Gotti, who never took the stand in any of the four racketeering trials where he escaped a federal conv...