Cosa Nostra News

The net has widened in the murder probe of Luchese associate Sylvester (Sally Daz) Zottola, with Larry McShane of the New York Daily News reporting that three more co-conspirators were arrested toda y. Salvatore Zotolla's shooting this past summer was caught on videotape. The trio was nabbed for the murder of Sally Daz, 71, at a Bronx McDonald's drive-thru, as well as the summertime shooting of Sally Daz's son outside the family's home in the Bronx.  The attempted hit on the son, according to a cooperating witness, was an effort to lure the father into the shooter's cross-hairs, McShane reported. Identified in a superseding federal indictment, McShane reported, were Arthur (Scary) Codner, Himen (Ace) Ross, and Kalik McFarlane. “The defendants, together with others, with malice aforethought, did unlawfully kill Sylvester Zottola willfully, deliberately, maliciously and with premeditation,” the indictment read, according to McShane. Assistan...

Jailbird/alleged Bloods gang-banger Herman (Taliban) Blanco has been arrested for participating in last month's gangland shooting of Sylvester (Sally Daz) Zottola at a Bronx McDonald's drive-through, as well as the attempted murder three month's earlier of Sally Daz's son, Salvatore Zottola, Larry McShane of the Daily News reported  yesterday. October murder of Sally Daz Blanco, 33, of the Bronx, was arraigned Friday afternoon in Brooklyn Federal Court, McShane wrote. He's the second alleged member of the Bloods street gang to be arrested in the two Zottola shootings. Bushawn (Shelz) Shelton, 34, was arrested last month for his alleged role. FBI agent Michael Zoufal stated Blanco and Shelton offered to pay a cooperating witness to kill Sylvester Zottola and his son, Salvatore, though the failed attempt to kill Salvatore was "ordered in an effort to "lure out" the father, according to a federal criminal complaint. Sally D...

UPDATED WITH PHOTOS Reputed Bloods member Bushawn “Shelz” Shelton was indicted by a grand jury for murder for hire conspiracy and other charges in the October 4 murder of Bonanno crime family associate Sylvester Zottola, 71. Zottola was gunned down in his car, picture below, while waiting at a McDonald's drive through window in the Bronx. An unidentified cooperating witness testified that Shelton had paid him to kill Zottola and Zottola’s son, Salvatore Zottola, 41. The younger Zottola was shot outside his Locust Point home in July, but survived. Law enforcement sources have alleged that the hit was ordered by Albanian mobsters seeking to control Zottola's “Joker Poker” video game racket. One federal prosecutor estimated in court that the video game machines bring in as much as $7,000 a week.  Shelton, 34, a reputed high-ranking member of the Bloods allegedly paid another man to try to kill Sylvester and Salvatore Zottola. He also furnished the cont...

UPDATED SATURDAY MORNING  A reputed associate of the Bonanno crime family — whose son was shot multiple times in an attempted hit this past July  — was shot and killed today (October 4) at around 4:45 p.m. at a McDonald’s drive thru in the Bronx. Crime scene from today's gang land shooting Sylvester Zottola, 71, a Bonanno crime family associate, was shot in the head, chest, and shoulder while waiting in his SUV for a cup of coffee at the drive-through window. In what one law enforcement official described as a "Mafia-style assassination," Zottola was shot once in the head and four times in the torso. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A “massive” police investigation has commenced. The McDonald’s parking lot has crime scene tape across it, and dozens of law enforcement investigators and other personnel were seen there. The still-at-large suspect reportedly walked up on the victim while he was ordering food. The suspect fired multiple shots into the driv...

UPDATED The Salvatore (Sally Daz) Zottola shooting may actually be the second attempted gangland hit caught on tape; the first, in March 1993, was the attempted murder of Joey Chang , then-34, early one morning in the coffee shop he owned, the Warfield Breakfast & Luncheon Express, in Philadelphia. Shooter leaped out of car, ran up to Sally Daz and fired at point blank range. The FBI had mounted a surveillance camera on the telephone pole across from the diner. Chang was shot during the Merlino-Stanfa war. Joey Chang was seriously wounded but he too survived, though partially paralyzed and with nerve damage that caused him to retire from Cosa Nostra. NYPD officials have labeled the July 11 attempted murder of Salvatore (Sally Daz) Zottola as a botched gangland hit. He was shot around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx. In a surveillance clip, below, a red Nissan can be seen driving past Zottola's vehicle and pulling to a h...