Cosa Nostra News

UPDATED US District Judge Peter G. Sheridan denied the recent compassionate release filing for reputed former Genovese consiglieri Louis (Bobby) Manna, calling his criminal efforts "extremely serious and heinous." Louis (Bobby) Manna; picture source . Manna, 91, who once upon a time held court at Casella's Restaurant , the base of operations from which he supposedly helped run the Genovese crime family's Garden State operations, has been imprisoned since 1987. He was convicted and sentenced to 80 years in prison.  His crimes included plotting to murder John Gotti and John's older bother Gene and ordering the 1977 murder of Frank Bok Chung Chin, an electronics expert who agreed to testify for the government, and the 1987 execution of Irwin (The Fat Man) Schiff, a 350-pound mobbed-up businessman/con artist who was hit while dining at Upper East Side restaurant Bravo Sergio. Manna's attorney Jeremy Iandolo noted in court filings that Manna has Parkinson's dis...

Researching the history of the Genovese crime family in North Jersey, w e  came across a longtime Hoboken-based associate who snitched for more than 15 years, then agreed to wear a wire for a couple more. His tips sparked Federal, State, and local investigations and he identified some 50 wiseguys and associates for investigators. He was  called Petey Cap. And another name joins our List of Mafia Defectors . Peter (Petey Cap) Caporino  Over 40 years, longtime Genovese associate Peter (Petey Cap) Caporino and his gambling operation were slowly and inexorably threaded into the fiber of the North Jersey underworld. He hooked up with the Genovese crime family as an associate and reported to some very powerful Garden State wiseguys. And while the man (or woman) at the top sometimes changed, Petey Cap’s numbers and gambling operation, which  he ran out of his social club in Hoboken, was a constant. For almost half his time as an associate, Caporino lead a double life as a g...

Federal authorities busted five people in New Jersey and Florida for being part of a national conspiracy to scam Federal healthcare programs out of $93 million. ( Some would say this case could potentially make a Brooklyn Federal Judge look somewhat foolish, as is explained below .) Thomas Farese, aka Tom Mix, alleged Colombo consiglieri. The US Attorney's office also announced that two people connected to the scheme (which involved orthotic braces) in New Jersey already pleaded guilty. The charges the five men are currently facing—health care fraud and conspiracy to commit health care fraud—are punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, among other things. Neither the US Attorney nor the Justice Department included reference to the Colombo crime family, even though two of the five men are known to have longtime ties to the New York crime family . Thomas Farese (aka Tom Mix), 78—the alleged former consiglieri and street boss for the Colombo...

Carmine (Papa Smurf) Franco, a longtime Genovese family associate who admitted to being a mobbed-up trash-hauling kingpin (and forfeited $2.5 million), died last Monday at age 85 from complications from COVID-19. Carmine (Papa Smurf) Franco, longtime Genovese associate. Franco, who died at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, is survived by his wife of 61 years Mary, their four children, 11 grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. A Bergen County garbage magnate who for decades was involved in the trash hauling industry in North Jersey and beyond—both before and after he had been barred by the State of New Jersey from participating in the industry—Franco had been linked to the Genovese crime family since the 1980s, as per the New Jersey State Commission and the defunct Pennsylvania Crime Commission, which filed documents detailing Franco's ties and involvement in organized crime. In November 2013, Franco copped to a plea deal before U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel that ...

A superseding indictment unsealed today (November 23) charges 15 alleged members and associates of the South Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey-based  La Cosa Nostra (LCN) family with multiple crimes (but no murders). Clockwise from l: Johnny Chang, Stevie Mazzone, Phil Narducci.  The charges—announced by William M. McSwain, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania—include mob mainstays such as illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, and drug trafficking. The superseding indictment identifies  Stevie Mazzone  as the Philadelphia crime family's underboss and Dom Grande as a capo, and notes that in October 2015, while holding these positions, Mazzone and Grande, among others, participated in a Mafia induction ceremony in a South Philadelphia residence during which "several" associates became made members of the Philadelphia crime family. The defendants charged in the seven-count superseding indictment are: Steven Mazzone, aka “Stevie,” ag...

A Philadelphia Mafia member who is based in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was sentenced on Thursday to 12.5 years in prison for selling around half a pound of crystal methamphetamine. He also had staged a fake robbery of a New Jersey pawnshop to perpetrate an insurance fraud, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced. Salvatore (Sam) Piccolo, 68, of Atlantic City, a member of the Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra organized crime family, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler earlier this year to distributing methamphetamine and one count of wire fraud. Judge Kugler imposed the sentence in Camden federal court. According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court: Piccolo distributed quantities of crystal methamphetamine to FBI undercover agents on three separate occasions between June 2017 and September 2017. On one occasion, he sold the undercover agent approximately four ounces of crystal methamphetamine in a restaurant parking lot in Sicklervill...

On Friday, six men were sentenced to terms ranging from 10 years to probation for their roles in criminal schemes linked to the Genovese family in New Jersey that generated millions of dollars through illegal loansharking, unlicensed check cashing, gambling, and money laundering.  Clockwise from top left: Vito Alberti, Manuel Rodriguez, Robert Spagnola, Jerry Albanese, Domenick Pucillo, Vincent Coppola   The following six defendants were sentenced today by Superior Court Judge Donald G. Collester Jr. in Morris County: Domenick Pucillo, 61, of Florham Park was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to first-degree conspiracy to commit money laundering. Robert Spagnola, 72, of Morganville was sentenced to five years in prison. He pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal usury. Vito Alberti, 60, of Morristown was sentenced to five years in prison. He pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal usury. Manuel Rodriguez, 54, of Chatham was sentenced to...

EXPANDED to include details of what was, as recently as 2014, a vast, sprawling criminal empire operated under the auspices of the Genovese crime family, the Ivy League of the American Mafia.... Yesterday, before Superior Court Judge Donald G. Collester Jr. in Morris County, four Genovese associates and a soldier who operated in New Jersey — and were nabbed with six others in 2014 —pleaded guilty to loansharking, unlicensed check cashing, gambling, and money laundering. Chuck Tuzzo  Reputed soldier Vito Alberti and capo Charles (Chuckie) Tuzzo — who reported to the Genovese hierarchy in New York — oversaw and controlled the crew. Charges against Tuzzo -- a well-established ranking member of the Genovese crime family -- are pending. Tuzzo was promoted when Vincent (Chin) Gigante assumed power in the 1980s after the  retirement of Philip "Benny Squint" Lombardo. T he indictment  originally alleged that the crew made around $10 million in a four-year period...