Cosa Nostra News

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 ...

Tino Fiumara was the major topic of discussion at sealed courtroom proceeding. Anthony "Tony Lodi" Cardinalle,  indicted  in early 2013, was once upon a time one of 30-plus defendants nailed following a multi-year FBI probe into the mob's control of the private sanitation industry in New York and New Jersey. Cardinalle, a longtime Genovese associate, cooperated with the FBI and Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office. He plead guilty to two counts, racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit extortion, and copped to his role in a plot to shakedown a cooperating witness who owned a waste hauling company.

The recent flood of articles associating an unknown real-life mobster with a well-known fictional one is due to the enterprising work of journalist Jerry Capeci and his GangLand News website. Good ol' Tone, parking the SUV in front of the Bing, HQ for the mob boss and his key associates. Anthony Cardinalle was indicted about a year ago , one of 32 defendants nailed following a multi-year FBI probe into the mob's control of the private sanitation industry in New York and New Jersey. Cardinalle, a longtime Genovese associate known as "Tony Lodi," began cooperating with the FBI and Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office a week before Christmas, although GangLand News is also reporting that, according to sources, Cardinalle has been talking to the Feds months longer than that. In December, presumably after he committed to the other side, he plead guilty to the two counts charged against him, racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit extortion; he als...

Genovese associate Carmine 'Papa Smurf' Franco at yesterday's predawn arrests. And people keep insisting that the American Cosa Nostra is dead... Fort Lee, NJ Patch : A reputed Ramsey mobster known as "Papa Smurf" was charged Wednesday in a widespread federal sweep targeting a mob-run conspiracy to control the trash-hauling industry in New York and New Jersey. [ FBI press release on the bust] Borough resident Carmine Franco, a 77-year-old Genovese Crime Family associate who had two prior convictions in connection with organized crime in the trash removal industry, was allegedly the ring leader of a scheme to control crooked waste management companies, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. Franco and a brother formerly owned the Sal Car transfer station in Hillsdale, which they later sold to Waste Management. Also arrested Wednesday was Teaneck resident Jonathan Greene, 47, who faces a charge of interstate transportation of stolen property in t...