Cosa Nostra News

The FBI didn't exactly hit a home run when it opened a social club in Florida as part of Operation Coldwater, which ran from 1979 to 1981 and was an attempt to infiltrate Santo Trafficante's reach into Florida's Gulf Coast. The Portofino "social club" that opened in Brooklyn in the 1990s. While the book Donnie Brasco portrays it as a success that resulted in the 1986 indictment of Trafficant, the FBI's long-simmering effort ultimately came up short: the longtime Godfather of the Sunshine State was acquitted after Frank Ragano, the Mafioso's crafty lawyer, found a gap in the FBI's case. The Feds had better luck when they pulled a similar sting in New York in the 1990s. Code-named Second Gear, the elaborate four-year operation by the FBI's New York Hijacking Squad included a bona fide social club (secretly owned and operated -- and wired for audio -- by the FBI) and focused on disrupting the Gambino family's Northeast hijacking operat...

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE The next installment of our Michael DiLeonardo-Salvatore Romano saga .... The storefronts at 98-04 101st Avenue in Ozone Park, the former home base of the Gambino crime family. The  Corozzos were a faction of the Gambino crime family from Brooklyn's Canarsie. After John Gotti went down courtesy of Sammy the Bull, Peter Gotti was named boss. (Arnold "Zeke" Squitieri would be named acting boss in time). Jo Jo Corozzo was named consiglieri, and with that move it seemed that, for the first time in Mafia history, the power in the Gambino crime family was going to move to Canarsie. Jo Jo was in position to rise to the top. And if he needed a little firepower to help him up, he certainly had it in brother Nicky, who himself had certain aspirations. Corozzo was released from a halfway house last January after spending more than seven years in prison. Corozzo had been indicted back in 2008 as part of Operation Old Bridge...

New York’s mob families are truly living undercover these days, in a manner that almost seems to hearken back to the pre-Apalachin years . An interesting report was quietly published following Vincent Asaro's startling acquittal t hat took a look at how the mob is trying to "invisibly" earn today. “They don’t want the notoriety they once had ," Inspector John Desenopolis, Commanding Officer of the NYPD’s Organized Crime Investigation Division, known as OCID, told the PIX report .  “These are secret societies that have learned,” Desenopolis added. “We were able to put people away for long periods of time. They realized, and learned how to adapt.”

Interesting story about a little-known figure who was around Little Nicky Corozzo. Kenji Gallo's latest  Breakshot Blog column: The Gambino Family is always a fun topic. This week is a story about Vincent “Marbles” Dragonetti, Little Nicky Corozzo’s son in law.

"Carnesi was the one spreading the story that Junior was cooperating... Tell Carnesi to ask the FBI to tell him why he flew to Florida to see Danny Marino." -- John Alite in an exclusive interview John Alite When John Alite testified against John Gotti Junior, he was mauled by the media. Newspapers ran front-page stories and headlines calling him a rat and sought to portray him as everything from a junkie to a liar. But now that the news is out that John Junior gave the Feds a "proffer" -- the once-mighty newspapers are suddenly silent, Alite noted. "Newsday ran nothing to this point that I am aware of," he told us this morning. John Alite, today.  "It’s incredible; it’s a Long Island newspaper. If you check when my case was going on, Newsday wrote I was the most unbelievable of the witnesses based on what one of the jurors said. That is not even close to being true if you look at the jury pool on his charges." ...

Andrew DiDonato 's downfall was already under way before he even realized it. But he knew without a doubt that his boss and cohorts were sizing him for a body bag. Experience taught Andrew how to find the traps. This was a skill quickly cultivated by Mafia associates who planned on living a long life, especially associates who took to the life with DiDonato's vigor. Former Gambino associate Andrew DiDonato. Ultimately, Andrew never killed anyone. To this day he is thankful that he never crossed that line. Andrew's book (written with true-crime writer Dennis N. Griffin , Surviving the Mob: A Street Soldier's Life in the Gambino Crime Family ) is dense with details of his many years on the street as a Gambino associate in the crew run by capo Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo. DiDonato made enemies out of major leaders in two crime families (in the end, three, including his own) during his years on the street. He once shot another man point blank in the head...

Andrew DiDonato Andrew DiDonato 's downfall was well under way when he suddenly realized his boss and cohorts were sizing him up for a body bag. Andrew was a shrewd character and his experience had taught him where the traps where. This was a skill acquired quickly by Mafia associates who plan on living a long life -- or at least associates who took to the life with DiDonato's vigor. He was a cowboy: an earner and a shooter. It is only by the grace of God he hasn't killed anyone. Andrew is very much aware of this and thanks God to this day that he never crossed that line. Andrew's book (written with noted true-crime writer Dennis N. Griffin ),  Surviving the Mob: A Street Soldier's Life in the Gambino Crime Family , is dense with details of Andrew's years on the street as a Gambino associate who was a member of  the crew overseen by capo Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo .

Andrew DiDonato 's downfall was already under way before he even realized it. Andrew Didonato, former Gambino associate The onetime former Gambino associate knew his boss and cohorts were sizing him for a body bag. Andrew's book (written with true-crime writer Dennis N. Griffin , Surviving the Mob: A Street Soldier's Life in the Gambino Crime Family ) is dense with details of his many years on the street as a Gambino associate in the crew run by capo Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo. DiDonato made enemies out of major leaders in two crime families (in the end, three, including his own) during his years on the street. He once shot another man point blank in the head. The man stumbled onto the ground, surviving the first shot. He would not have survived the next shot, which DiDonato crouched down to administer. He pressed the gun's muzzle to the wounded man's head and was set to squeeze the trigger -- when he noticed a witness staring ...