Ed Scarpo's Blog, page 22

Revisiting History of New York's Albanian Mafia

Bajram Lajqi under arrest in 2013.
In January 2014, Bajram Lajqi was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court to six years in prison; he'd plead guilty on June 27, 2013, to drug trafficking and firearm use.

Lajqi was a "member" of an Albanian organized crime group that operated in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

On June 4, 2011, Lajqi attempted to murder another member of the gang. “... Lajqi in particular exemplifies the violence tied to large-scale narcotics trafficking, as his drug-fueled quest for revenge led him to gun down a rival outside a Bronx restaurant,” the U.S. Attorney said in a press release.



Now the U.S. Attorney is doing an injustice to Lajqi right there, by making him sound, at the very least, like a competent hit man. The truth is, he's not.

We love how the gothamist wrote this one up: 

"What with all the massive busts and small-time stabbings, the mob just ain't what it used to be. Nowadays nobody takes any pride in their work, as evidenced by a recent Albanian mob hit gone awry in the Bronx. According to the Alex Rudaj, former Albanian boss.

"Lajqi was able to neutralize a bouncer by pulling a gun, but by that time the man was fleeing on foot, so he had to settle for some not-so-quiet gunshots as a last ditch effort. He must be a halfway-decent shot, because the victim was "hit in his left and right thighs…but was somehow able to run away." In case Lajqi wanted to play Monday-morning quarterback, the entire incident was on the restaurant's surveillance camera. Maybe Lajqi would be better off joining the nitrous mafia."

This Albanian mafia, as described in the U.S. Attorney's press release, was composed of several related ethnic Albanian family clans, with "hundreds of associated members, workers, and customers spanning three continents." It was operating for about a decade and organized the importation and distribution of hydroponic marijuana from Canada and Mexico; MDMA from the Netherlands and Canada; cocaine from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru; and large quantities of diverted prescription pills. They were certainly very savvy in terms of their ability to diversify.

Forty-nine members and associates of the group were convicted in the case. Federal agents seized more than 1,200 pounds of marijuana, about $2 million in bills, 22 handguns, an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

What is interesting is that the U.S. Attorney said the group had been operating for about a decade.

Let's go back 10 years to 2004, specifically Oct. 26, 2004. On that day, the New York tabloids were in a frenzy, churning out headlines regarding the arrest of Albanian mob boss Alex Rudaj and 21 others by the FBI and Manhattan's then-U.S. Attorney.

Some may recall the "Rudaj Organization," the name given to the Albanian mafia in the New York City metro area. It was named for Alex, boss of the group, which was also known as the Albanian Mafia or The Sixth Family (the third would-be Sixth Family I have heard of, the other two being New York's notorious Purple Gang (whose former boss was whacked a couple of years ago) and the Montreal Mafia formerly run by Vito Rizzuto).

Called "The Corporation" by its members, the group started operating in 1993 in Westchester, then spread into the Bronx and Queens. So is it truly correct to say that Lajqi and whatever you want to call that Albanian mafia, the one with "hundreds" of members, was different from the Rudaj Organization? That the first one, which launched in 1993, came to an end in 2004, and then, that same year, another Albanian mafia, also highly active in the Bronx, started out? I am wondering what was the name of the Albanian kingpin who was arrested in 1993....

But wait... there's more...

Former Gambino acting boss Arnold Squitieri. 
Interestingly enough, on Oct. 26, 2004, when the announcement was made about the arrest of Rudaj and 21 members of his group, the then-U.S. Attorney described the indictment as the first federal racketeering case in the United States against an alleged organized crime enterprise run by Albanians.

The then-U.S. Attorney had failed to mention the 1981 indictment of an Albanian-dominated drug smuggling operation by federal authorities--also in Brooklyn. Most of the defendants were native Albanians or first-generation Albanian-Americans.



The old Rudaj organization had become something of a thorn in the New York Mafia's collective shoe....

Rudaj.... Many a New York wiseguy must reach for an aspirin upon mere mention of the name.

Back in August 2001 (little did we know that our world would change forever one month later) two Greek associates of the Luchese crime family were operating a gambling den inside a Greek social club called Soccer Fever in Astoria, Queens, when Rudaj and at least six other men entered the club, each heavily armed.

The Albanians beat at least one person, then chased everyone outside onto the street, threatening to destroy the whole building.
Rudaj had issued a similar threat, a few days earlier, at what was supposed to be a sitdown with the Gambino family.
Vinny Basciano

Acting Gambino boss Arnold Squitieri had sought the meeting. The veteran heroin smuggler was weary and wary of the uppity Albanian mobsters and wanted to reach an agreement.

Twenty Gambinos, all heavily armed, accompanied Squitieri. Rudaj brought six guys (the same six he'd later bring to Soccer Fever?).

According to FBI agent Joaquin Garcia, who had infiltrated the Gambino crime family during this period, Squitieri had told Rudaj that it was game over, but that the wily Albanian gangster could keep whatever he'd managed to take up until the sitdown.

"You took what you took and that's it or there's gonna be a problem."

One thing leads to another, and nearly 30 guys were swiftly holding pistols on each other.

The Albanians, probably owing to their being outnumbered, not to mention mad-dog crazy, threatened to blow up the gas station with everyone in it.... And the sit down, on that note, was concluded. (Who had the bright idea of meeting at a gas station, anyways?)

The Albanians had trouble with other crime families. When Rudaj butted heads with a crew of car thieves tied to Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, who later served as acting (or official) boss of the Bonanno crime family sent two men armed with machine guns to tell Rudaj that the crew was under the Bonanno's flag.

Vinny Gorgeous Basciano certainly understood people like Rudaj, who in 2006 was sentenced to 27 years in prison. Squitieri was convicted in an unrelated racketeering case and sent to prison; he got out in December 2012.

Vinny Basciano is in prison; we can now call him "Vinny Bye-Bye."

ISIS, Fear Rome As Well...

The book mentioned in this story, which is the source of the allegations mentioned below, probably is a hoax. I'd like to know: Who published it? It seems too consumer-friendly, and in my mind appears more like the fraudulent efforts of a savvy marketer, assisted by attention-seeking newspapers. Perhaps ISIS itself is perpetuating a hoax. These suicidal murderers have an affinity for propaganda. So let us move under the pretext that this "manual of hate" truly exists....and accept this at face value....


New ISIS propganda details a "brutal plan to march through western Europe and take control of Italy" claim new reports.

The hate manual, titled The Black Flags from Rome, ranks several of Italy's Mafias as ISIS militants' most feared adversaries -- yet the group seems unaware of Rome's own homegrown Mafia.

The Black Flags of Rome is a 100-page book that reportedly "details how the death cult are bent on bringing humanity to the brink of destruction – so they can impose their tyrannical way of life on everyone."

The Daily Star Online reported that it had gotten a hold of a copy, which the Star claims reveals the group's "terrifying apocalyptic vision for our future."
The book also apparently came about as ISIS threatened more terror attacks in Europe in film footage that was edited to include the late British actor Oliver Reed.

To be clear, we're not talking about the American Mafia here (though they may benefit in minor ways from this kind of propoganda).

Also note this isn't coming from Giovanni Gambino, though some newspapers couldn't resist calling him for a quote. This in fact isn't coming from any Mafia group. Rather, it's allegedly ISIS's own apparent perception of Italy's Mafias.

The Black Flags from Rome book stated: "There is no doubt that if Muslims want to take over Italy, the Islamic State European fighters will have to ally with other militias to fight the Mafia before the conquest of Rome.

ISIS apparently doesn't fear Europe's national armies, including its tanks and troops, but instead is "too scared" to launch attacks in Sicily, Calabria, Puglia and Campania. (The naming of these specific locales is attributed to a "security official". It's not clear if he's basing this on what's written in the Black Flag manual.)

It so happens that the region's the Jihadists expressed concern about entering happen also to be the birthplaces of Italy's major Mafias: The Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Apulia's Sacra Corona Unita, the Calabrian Ndrangheta and the Camorra, based in Campana, near Naples.

Supposed excerpt from the book:

"In Italy, the Mafia already has a strong presence. 

"They will most likely be the most powerful militia within Italy and take advantage of a weak Italian government. 

"Right now they have access to the underworld, they trade drugs and weapons in Europe." 

The Islamic State European fighters will have to ally with other militias to fight the Mafia before the conquest of Rome....

The book also disclosed details of a plan to march on the Vatican "and raise the ISIS flag from the home of the Pope," according to the Daily Star.

It seems Rome is the ultimate prize, yet this group of terrorists seems oblivious to Rome's own Mafia, which Italian law enforcement uncovered in December, 2014, describing it as the "fifth major Mafia group."

From The Independent (December, 2014):

Recently, evidence has emerged of a major new Mafia-type organisation in the Rome seaside suburb of Ostia. 

In the city itself, Rome’s chief prosecutor this month ordered 37 arrests in a bid to decapitate what he called the Mafia Capitale... 

Significantly, after years in which factions of the established Mafia groups have fought Roman turf wars, Mafia Capitale appears to have cooperated with ‘Ndrangheta, and the group’s leader, an ex-member of a far-right terror group was in the past linked to the city’s own Magliana gang of hoodlums – made famous by the TV drama Romanzo Criminale.

... Mafia groups are becoming more international in outlook. ‘Ndrangheta, however, has taken this approach to new levels with its domination of Europe’s cocaine trade. This year, a report written by 20 anti-Mafia experts, including senior prosecutors, said that lax EC regulations against money laundering meant that Mafia groups were benefiting from globalisation while “in contrast, EU states are suffering the consequences.”

ISIS is known to have taken over the operations of some organized crime groups in other countries.

Reports have noted that ISIS-linked jihadis are helping to flood Britain with marijuana after seizing control of a  $4 billion drug ring in Albania.

Lee D'Avanzo Angered Carmine Agnello: Source

Carmine Agnello allegedly held his own against three.
COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE
When wiseguys are in prison, does rank matter?

Opinions vary. On the inside all made guys are equal, some say, while others have said rank is less of an issue. Still, supposedly there are official Cosa Nostra bosses serving life sentences: Vic Amuso, Peter Gotti and Carmine Persico. So rank must matter, but it seems to depend on the place, the time and possibly the dynamic of those inside the unit.

I recently heard about something that happened involving Lee D'Avanzo when he was a resident of MDC Brooklyn. The source was there at the time, but on a different floor.

What happened made Carmine Agnello so furious with Lee, supposedly a sit down or two took place over the matter. (Agnello was made; Lee wasn't (or isn't.))

In terms of corroboration, I found a news story from October of 2000 regarding Agnello being placed in "the hole" -- meaning, in isolation -- for brawling with some inmates "who attacked him because they didn't like his attitude," as Murray Weiss wrote in the New York Post.

The story accurately reports the events, but the speculation as to why Agnello fought -- quite capably, too, as you'll notice -- is entirely wrong. He fought over phone privileges, not attitude, the source told me.

The Post story notes:

“He got beat up pretty good,” one source said. “But in fairness, he gave as good as he got considering he was outnumbered like 3 to 1.” 

Sources say three inmates inside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park attacked Carmine Agnello, a reputed captain in his father-in-law’s Gambino crime family, last week.
Sources say the inmates did not like Agnello’s attitude. 

“[Agnello] was signaling to everyone to leave him alone because of who he was,” one source said, referring to his connection to the Dapper Don. 

“He was flexing his muscle, and they did not take kindly to him, his attitude, and wanted to take him down a peg,” the source continued. 

The brawl involving the burly Agnello occurred in a large common area shared by 200 inmates in the MDC, where the inmates sleep in bunk beds next to one another, the sources say. 

Guards had to rush through a crowd to get to the combatants and halt the fight, sources say.
After the dust-up, Agnello and the other unidentified combatants were placed in the facility’s Special Housing Unit and restricted to their individual cells for 23 hours a day. 

“He’s in the hole,” a source close to Agnello confirmed. 

Agnello – estranged husband of Gotti’s glamorous author daughter Victoria – was in Brooklyn Federal Court last Friday, but displayed no visible signs he had been in a fight.

Agnello, the multimillionaire owner of a scrap-metal company, I was told, was unfairly stigmatized by a comment John Gotti made. Now it's a great comment, hilarious, but it probably says more about the state of mind of the man who said it versus the man mentioned in it.

Agnello was facing a 35-count indictment for extortion, arson and tax fraud. His wife had filed for divorce.

My source tells me Agnello wasn't fighting three Puerto Ricans over his attitude. He did it to get Lee D'Avanzo phone privileges.

The Puerto Ricans ran the telephones in the unit. For some reason (I assume having to do with remuneration or the fact he was a Gotti in-law, though Victoria was filing for divorce at the time, something I doubt guys in the MDC would know about). Bottom line: Carmine was able to use the phone.

Lee and Guerra were S--t out of luck. No phonecalls for them, not while the blacks and Puerto Ricans ran them.

If you watch those NatGeo documentaries about prison, you'll notice many fights -- including stabbings and murders -- are caused, ostensibly, over use of a telephone.

Lee apparently wanted to use the phone, so Carmine went to bat for him. He may have offered money, he may have tried to convince them with his prodigious negotiation skills. (I say again, Agnello was a smart businessman who ran a multi-million-dollar operation. That came straight from Michael DiLeonardo. (Why Carmine chose to enter the Mafia, to steal and fight cops over parking tickets, who knows. Only Carmine.)

Carmine wasn't having any luck. And things eventually got heated.

At some point, he was jumped by three guys. Agnello, on his own, fought it out. Why did he fight it out on his own? Where was the guy he was trying to help in the first place?

Let's just say he was nowhere to be found. (BF Guerra was off the hook because he's got crippled hands and can't fight.)
Agnello, a made guy, wasn't happy with Lee after that. There supposedly were even some sit downs later on over the matter.

George Anastasia's Oldfellas AARP Story Online

From AARP's online page
Called When Mobsters Refuse to Retire, George Anastasia's story, which I read in the AARP magazine (don't ask how I got a copy), is online, I noticed.

Amusingly enough, the publication placed it in the Work Life Balance section. Here's a teaser to whet your appetite if you haven't already read it....


They shared a long lunch of filet mignon, yellowfin tuna, and chicken with broccoli rabe, washing it down with four bottles of expensive Tuscan red. Ten wiseguys sat at an Italian restaurant in New Jersey, laughing and joking and talking. It could have been a scene from TV's The Sopranos. The men, from New York, Philadelphia and Newark, dressed the part — open-collared shirts, pinkie rings and Rolexes. Outside on that May afternoon in 2010, the FBI had set up surveillance cameras. Inside, at the table, a federal informant wore a body wire.


The conversation roamed, which would be expected during a five-hour meal among old friends. Sometimes so many guys were talking at once, it was hard to understand the point of the get-together.

But when nostalgia overtook the table, the words and meanings were clear.

"If we don't know them a lifetime or somebody good recommends them, there ain't nothing he can do," said Joseph "Scoops" Licata, discussing membership criteria for what was once perhaps the most exclusive men's club in America. "That's it. Don't bring no garbage around. Forget about it."

"Only way to survive," said John Gambino, then the 69-year-old boss of the venerable New York crime family that bears his surname. "You only need the quality, not quantity."

"That's the only way to keep it nice and straight," replied Licata, 68, a capo from Newark who served in the Philadelphia mob. "You know? You mix with garbage, it hits you in the face."

"Guys made it about money," piped up a voice. "It's not about money. It's about brotherhood."

"It's about friends," said another.

The FBI, on the other hand, said it was about business. It called the luncheon a meeting of "the board of directors" of two organized-crime families and used it as the basis for racketeering charges against several of the participants. But defense attorneys offered another explanation.

"It was just a bunch of geriatric gangsters waxing nostalgically about things that happened long ago," said Christopher Warren, Licata's lawyer.

The graying of the American Mafia has coincided with law-enforcement advances that have hobbled a once-mighty underworld colossus. The federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) has been around for 45 years, less time than many of the mobsters it's used against. A bookmaker who might have faced two or three years in prison for gambling back in the old days now might face 10 to 20 if charged with the same crime, thanks to RICO.

The Witness Security Program offers a safe haven for gangsters who turn informant and take the witness stand. But picking up and starting over again isn't always an appealing idea for lifetime mafiosi, who tend to be set in their ways.

What's a wiseguy to do?

Go to AARP site to read the rest ....

Fugitive Mob "Rancher" to Return to Idaho

A mobster named Jay Shaw? Or a rancher named Enrico Ponzo?
REVISED: EDITED, NEW MATERIAL ADDED
Boston mobster Enrico Ponzo, 47, after participating in a failed hit that was part of the New England Mafia war, fled Massachusetts in 1994, with law enforcement in hot pursuit.

Following years on the run, Ponzo finally settled in a small Idaho town under an alias. And for the next 10 years, the Boston wiseguy successfully played the part of a rancher named Jay Shaw.

In 2011, he was recaptured -- and two years later, following a trial in which he faced attempted murder and other alleged charges, Ponzo was convicted and sentenced to 28 years in prison. Nevertheless, next month, on Feb. 2, he'll return to his former adopted home state of Idaho to a courtroom to face 16 felonious counts involving unlawful possession of a firearm, aggravated identity theft, and possession of documents for intended fraudulent use.




Ponzo, not a made man (meaning not an inducted member of Cosa Nostra) was described as a renegade member of a violent faction of the New England family that was intent on ousting bosses of the formerly powerful Patriarca family's Boston group in the early 1990s.

In his November 2013 trial, Ponzo was convicted of several federal crimes, including the 1989 attempted assassination of Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, a top-level member of the New England Mafia amid a factional war that erupted when the Patriarca family finally fractured along a natural fault line that for decades had separated the Boston faction from the one in Providence, Rhode Island. "Cadillac Frank" was supposed to be killed as part of a one, two punch to knock out the bosses of Providence's rival leadership.

As noted, during the war for dominance, many thought the real power in the family was William "The Wild Man" Grasso, who served as Raymond Patriarca, Jr's underboss. Grasso's extensive criminal career made him one of the most feared mobsters in New England. A cunning, ruthless gangster, Grasso ran Connecticut-based crime operations for the Patriarcas from his New Haven headquarters since the mid-1970s.

“He wore bib overalls and straw hats,” said a longtime rancher who'd been one of Ponzo's Idaho neighbors.

“People did wear bib overalls here — in the 1930s.”


Planned One, Two Knockout
In June of 1989, Grasso's body was found in the Connecticut River. He'd been shot in the head. Hours prior to the body's discovery, "Cadillac Frank" Salemme was shot in a Boston suburb by three gunmen, one of whom was Ponzo. Hit in the stomach and the knee, Salemme survived. The feud between Salemme and the man ultimately behind his shooting, J.R. Russo, continued until New York's Gambino crime family brokered a peace agreement that named a Salemme loyalist boss.  

Nicholas Bianco, acting underboss after Grasso's death, was named acting boss. In 1991, he was among the defendants tried for the Grasso murder.

During the 2013 case Ponzo argued to Judge Nathaniel Gorton that his sentence should be limited to 15 years as he was a changed man, having turned his life around while on the lam and living in Idaho.

Apparently not very moved by the fugitive's story, the judge lobbed a 28-year sentence at him, which may explain why Ponzo, who will act as his own attorney at the upcoming trial in U.S. District Court, decided to revamp his defense strategy. The convicted mobster "plans to argue he suffers from a mental defect when he goes on trial," one report noted. There seems to be a legal basis for the argument.

While Ponzo's filing doesn't detail his alleged mental problem, it notes that U.S. District Judge Gorton had ordered the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to treat him for a “mental defect.”


Mob Fugitive Wore Bibbed Overalls
On Feb. 11, 2011, Jay Shaw was in the process of purchasing hay from Bob Briggs, "the man to see about hay. "

Shaw, once he'd glimpsed Brigg's beat-up white Ford, had leaped out of his Dodge Ram to flag the hay man down. Briggs had been plodding down the road on which Shaw had lived at the time.

Briggs pulled to the side of the road and Shaw parked behind him. Briggs gnawed on a toothpick when Shaw approached and asked about buying some hay. He had 12 head of cattle to feed, he'd said.

They'd work something out, Briggs had said.

Suddenly, a big black Chevy with tinted windows sped to a halt beside them. Trailing behind it were unmarked and marked police cars. It was all over. (See Boston Magazine story for interesting information about Ponzo in Idaho.) The Feds and local police finally nabbed Ponzo. Federal agents cornered him as he was purchasing hay and arrested him, which left the townspeople wondering: Who the hell is Jay Shaw?
He was someone who didn't fit in initially -- but he quickly earned a place in the community.

“He wore bib overalls and straw hats,” said a longtime rancher who'd been one of Ponzo's Idaho neighbors. “People did wear bib overalls here — in the 1930s.”

But "Jay Shaw" was one of the first to help anyone in need. He'd help to move furniture or even fix a computer. So great was the community's trust in him, in fact, he was trusted to manage an irrigation system that gave the community its very water supply. He also was responsible for the money paid to him to run the system.
Eventually, he met a woman and the couple had two children, which they raised on their 12-acre farm along with the cattle and cows and vegetables. Jay Shaw was a model citizen who probably never would've been caught.

Except he made one mistake....
Ponzo in 1994. This picture was displayed on wanted signs
as well as Ponzo's driver's license.
Ponzi's Confederates Got to Trial in 1994
After his departure from Boston in 1994, many believed Enrico had been murdered as part of Cosa Nostra internal business.Still Ponzo was charged, along with 14 others, in a 40-count federal indictment that included racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, and plotting to murder and attempting to murder individuals loyal to a rival faction of the Patriarca Family, then headed by Salemme.
According to the indictment, Ponzo and his co-defendants “acted to usurp control of the Patriarca Family,” “violated the rules of La Cosa Nostra by plotting and attempting to murder Salemme” and others, and “intended to replace Salemme as Boss of the Family, and thereby, be able to 'make' new members of the Family from among their group," The United States Attorney's Office of the District of Massachusetts noted in a press release.
Ponzo also was charged with being part of a group who shot Salemme in 1989 at a Pancake House in Saugus in an unsuccessful assassination attempt.

Ponzo's co-defendants went through a 45-day trial in 1998, after which the jury took 13 days to realize it'd never reach a verdict on all charges.

A second trial followed, resulting in two co-defendants being found not guilty while the others either pleaded guilty or were convicted by the second trial's jury.

One died before he was able to testify against the others, according to the Hammel article.
Most of those convicted have completed their sentences, including Leo M. “Chipper” Boffoli of Holden, who got 4 years for his cooperation; and Eugene A. “Gino” Rida Jr. of Worcester, who was sentenced to 10 years by Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton.

But others, including one of the men found not guilty but convicted of a subsequent murder, remain in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys James D. Herbert and Michael L. Tabak prosecuted the case, along with United States Attorney Carmen M Ortiz’s Organized Crime Strike Force Unit, according to the release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts.

Idaho home where federal agents grabbed fugitive Ponzo
"Girlfriend" Tipped Off Feds
Authorities learned about this Jay Shaw guy and his true identity in January 2011, a month after his common-law wife, Cara Pace, moved to Utah with their two children.

Ponzo had filed a domestic relations case against Pace in a Homedale court in December 2010. It was pending when Pace departed.

A one-page FBI report included in a court filing seems to indicate Pace was the tipster, who was never publicly identified, according to reports. Her name is blackened out but the document references that the tipster and "Ponzo have two children together.” The report said the witness was “very concerned” due to threats Ponzo had made to have her “family killed if he was ever arrested on his (Boston) criminal arrest warrant.”
Pace has been subpoenaed to appear as a witness at Ponzo’s trial.

Upon his arrest, law enforcement officials seized 22 rifles, eight handguns and 34,000 rounds of ammunition from his home on Hogg Road, just south of Snake River. Law enforcement also found a forged driver’s licenses and state-issued identification cards with the names of around 10 people Ponzo impersonated during his fugitive years.

Police also seized $100,000 in cash and $65,000 worth of gold coins from Ponzo’s Hogg Road home. Most of those items were recovered after officers served a second search warrant on the home in March 2011 to seize Ponzo’s computers. A floor safe in a walk-in closet in the master bedroom had been looted by then and police found that the new owner had made off with the goods.

After he fled Boston, Ponzo had lived quietly in a spectrum of states, including Arizona, Florida, Washington and Oregon, before arriving in Idaho with a fresh identity. Ironically, his driver’s license photo was the same picture that the FBI used on the mobster's wanted poster.

Prosecutors in Boise and Boston agreed to give the ranch to Pace. Also a trust fund was established for her and Ponzo's son and daughter.

If convicted in Idaho, Ponzo faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the weapons charges. For possession of the documents, each charge carries up to five years. Also, each count of aggravated identify theft carries a mandatory two-year sentence that cannot be served concurrently.

As to his initial claim that he was a changed man, a Boston judge had told him:

“After all the posturing, rhetoric, excuses, blaming others, the time has come for you to pay for your crimes.

“You can run, but ultimately you cannot hide from your sordid past in organized crime.”

Enrico Ponzo may well have hid forever from the feds. He made the mistake of getting involved in with a woman and having two children. I haven't examined this man's personal history as Jay Shaw, but he certainly does seem to have been a changed man based on the small evidence I have conveyed here.

But it seems to me that it was his love for his two children that truly outed him.

Ponzo's is an interesting story, a prototypical "fish out of water" story in which at the end, 'twas beauty killed the beast. Or at least, to keep her kids, she'd tipped the Feds off to the whereabouts of a wanted former mobster.

Mobster Once Hot for Mob Wife Seeks Reduction

Joseph Sclafani was initially sentenced to 15 years for drug trafficking.
UPDATED
Gambino soldier Joseph Sclafani caught a break a year ago, when he successfully got his prison sentence reduced.

Now, according to a motion filed Monday, Jan. 18, in Brooklyn federal court, he's trying to get more time whacked off his sentence, perhaps as much as three years. 
In January of 2015, Sclafani's original 2013 sentence of 15 years for drug trafficking was reduced by about a year. This was a result of changes made to sentencing guidelines. Now, however, his lawyer is arguing that Sclafani still was improperly sentenced last year and deserves more time off his sentence.
He and his lawyer sought approval for an order that will reduce his prison sentence.

UPDATE:  Federal Judge John Gleeson issued an order directing the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York "to show cause on or before 3/28/2016, why the petition should not be granted."

The Johnson v. United States case is the peg on which Sclafani's motion hangs. His lawyer will argue that he was convicted for Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd Degree but that he shouldn't have been sentenced for this as a "crime of violence."

Timothy C. Parlatore, Sclafani's lawyer, filed a petition dated January 18, 2016 (Case 1:11-cr-00345-JG) in which he alleges that his client was improperly determined to be a career criminal and, as a result, was incorrectly sentenced.

"At Mr. Sclafani’s original sentencing hearing, held before this Court on August 16, 2013, the defense argued that Mr. Sclafani should not be sentenced as a career offender ... because his 1990 conviction for Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd Degree ... should not qualify as a crime of violence..."

The basic argument is that Sclafani should be re-sentenced to 121 to 151 months. He was re-sentenced on January 8, 2015, to 168 months.
If the motion is granted, Sclafani could be released one to three years earlier than his current release date, which is Oct. 20, 2023, according to the BOP website. He's currently at McKean FCI.
Today, Judge Gleeson will make the determination.

Sclafani was involved in one of the American Mafia's biggest headaches ever. Its name was Costabile "Gus" Farace, a demented mobster who murdered a DEA agent -- and eventually was himself killed by other mobsters in 1989. 
It was his role in the Farace case that caused Sclafani all the extra time he's trying to get knocked off his drug-trafficking sentence now.

The gangster got caught running drugs -- and lost this babe... formerly of Mob Wives, Ramona Rizzo....

Sclafani, somehow stupid enough to be driving Farace when he was one of the most wanted men in the U.S., was seated beside him in a parked car when the guns started blazing. Sclafani, shot out of his shoes, was severly wounded and taken to the hospital, where he was arrested.
The hits didn't end there, however. Since Sclafani's father was not only a Gambino big shot but a member of John Gotti's inner circle, Gotti demanded the Bonanno family kill all the members of the hit team. He settled for one body.

There was at least one other slaying linked to Farace.
In August of 2011, Sclafani and two others were arrested and charged with leading a drug trafficking ring that distributed some 110 pounds of cocaine on Staten Island and in Brooklyn, federal prosecutors said.
"The arrests read like a Gambino crime family who’s-who list," SILive.com reported. 
"Joseph Sclafani, 46, who in 1989 harbored a fugitive mobster who killed a DEA agent in the borough's Charleston section; Neil Lombardo, 55, who shot and wounded an informant’s brother; and Afrim Kupa, 38, a professional heist man with ties to Albanian organized crime and the Gambinos," all were picked up by law enforcement one evening.

Sclafani was planning to marry former Mob Wives star Ramona Rizzo when his arrest interrupted things. Not to be deterred, the two attempted to still get married, though the Feds thwarted this effort by denying the mobster's motion for a furlough to visit his terminally ill father. Prosecutors objected saying that the furlough was an attempt for Sclafani to steal some time to marry Rizzo.

Gambino Mobster Once Hot for Mob Wife Seeks Sentence Reduction

Joseph Sclafani was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison for drug trafficking.
Joseph Sclafani, a Gambino soldier, caught a break a year ago and got his prison sentence reduced.

Now, according to a motion filed Monday, Jan. 18, in Brooklyn federal court, he's trying to get a little more time whacked off his sentence, perhaps as much as three years. He may know as early as today.
In January of 2015, Sclafani's original 2013 sentence of 15 years for drug trafficking charges was reduced by about a year. This was a result of changes made to sentencing guidelines. Now, however, his lawyer is arguing that Sclafani still was improperly sentenced last year and deserves more time off his sentence.
He and his lawyer will go before a judge today to seek approval for an order that will reduce his prison sentence.

The Johnson v. United States case is the peg on which Sclafani's motion hangs. His lawyer will argue that he was convicted for Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd Degree but that he shouldn't have been sentenced for this as a "crime of violence."

Timothy C. Parlatore, Sclafani's lawyer, filed a petition dated January 18, 2016 (Case 1:11-cr-00345-JG) in which he alleges that his client was improperly determined to be a career criminal and, as a result, was incorrectly sentenced.

"At Mr. Sclafani’s original sentencing hearing, held before this Court on August 16, 2013, the defense argued that Mr. Sclafani should not be sentenced as a career offender ... because his 1990 conviction for Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd Degree ... should not qualify as a crime of violence..."

The basic argument is that Sclafani should not have been sentences as a career offender and that he should be sentenced to 121 to 151 months. He was re-sentenced on January 8, 2015 to 168 months.
If the motion is granted, Sclafani could be released one to three years earlier than his current release date, which is Oct. 20, 2023, according to the BOP website. He's currently at McKean FCI.
Today, Judge Gleeson will make the determination.Sclafani was involved in one of the American Mafia's biggest headaches ever. Its name was Costabile "Gus" Farace, a demented mobster who murdered a DEA agent -- and eventually was himself killed by other mobsters in 1989. 
It was his role in the Farace case that caused Sclafani all the extra time he's trying to get knocked off his drug-trafficking sentence now.

The gangster got caught running drugs -- and lost this babe... formerly of Mob Wives, Ramona Rizzo....


Sclafani, somehow stupid enough to be driving Farace when he was one of the most wanted men in the U.S., was seated beside him in a parked car when the guns started blazing. Sclafani, shot out of his shoes, was severly wounded and went to the hospital. .
The hit didn't end there, however. Since Sclafani's father was not only a Gambino big shot but a member of John Gotti's inner circle, Gotti demaned the Bonanno family kill all the members of the hit team. He had to settle for one body. There was at least one other slaying linked to Farace, as well.
In 2013, Sclafani was arrested and charged with leading a drug trafficking ring that distributed some 110 pounds of cocaine on Staten Island and in Brooklyn, federal prosecutors said.
In August of 2011, Sclafani and two others were arrested.

"The arrests read like a Gambino crime family who’s-who list," SILive.com then reported. 
"Joseph Sclafani, 46, who in 1989 harbored a fugitive mobster who killed a DEA agent in the borough's Charleston section; Neil Lombardo, 55, who shot and wounded an informant’s brother; and Afrim Kupa, 38, a professional heist man with ties to Albanian organized crime and the Gambinos," all were picked up by law enforcement one evening.

Sclafani was planning to marry former Mob Wives star Ramona Rizzo when his arrest interrupted things. Not to be deterred, the two attempted to still get married, though the Feds thwarted this effort by denying his motion for a furlough to visit his terminally ill father. Prosecutors objected saying that the furlough was an attempt for Sclafani to steal some time to marry Rizzo.

Boston Wiseguy to Return to Idaho, in Court

Ponzo's recent mugshot.
Boston mobster Enrico Ponzo, 47, after participating in a failed hit that was part of the New England Mafia war, fled Massachusetts in 1994, with law enforcement in hot pursuit.

Following years on the run, Ponzo finally settled in a small Idaho town under an alias. And for the next 10 years, the Boston wiseguy successfully played the part of a rancher named Jay Shaw.

In 2011, he was recaptured -- and two years later, following a trial in which he faced attempted murder and other alleged charges, Ponzo was convicted and sentenced to 28 years in prison. Nevertheless, next month, on Feb. 2, he'll return to his former adopted home state of Idaho to a courtroom to face 16 felonious counts involving unlawful possession of a firearm, aggravated identity theft, and possession of documents for intended fraudulent use.


Specifically, in his November 2013 trial, Ponzo was convicted of several federal crimes, including the 1989 attempted assassination of Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, a top-level member of the New England Mafia amid a factional war that had erupted when the Patriarca family finally fractured along a natural fault line that for decades had separated the Boston faction from the one in Providence, Rhode Island. "Cadillac" was supposed to be part of a one-two punch to knock out the rival leadership.

As noted, during the war for dominance, many thought the real power in the family was William "The Wild Man" Grasso (who had an extensive career and was considered to be among the most feared mobster in New England). A cunning, ruthless mobster, in June of 1989, Grasso, who ran Connecticut-based crime operations from his New Haven headquarters since the mid-1970s, was found in the Connecticut River. Death by gunshot wound to the head.

Hours prior to the body's discovery, "Cadillac Frank" Salemme was shot in a Boston suburb by three gunmen, one of whom was Ponzo. Hit in the stomach and the knee, Salemme survived. The feud between Salemme and the man who was ultimately behind his shooting, J.R. Russo, continued until New York's Gambino crime family brokered a peace agreement that named Salemme loyalist Bianco boss.

During the 2013 case Ponzo argued to Judge Nathaniel Gorton that his sentence should be limited to 15 years as he was a changed man, having turned his life around while on the lam and living in Idaho.

Apparently not very moved by the fugitive's story, the judge lobbed a 28-year sentence at him, which may explain why Ponzo, who will act as his own attorney at the upcoming trial in U.S. District Court, decided to revamp his defense strategy. The convicted mobster "plans to argue he suffers from a mental defect when he goes on trial," one report noted. There seems to be a legal basis for the argument.

While Ponzo's filing doesn't detail his alleged mental problem, it notes that U.S. District Judge Gorton had ordered the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to treat him for a “mental defect.”


Mob Fugitive Nabbed in 2011
On Feb. 11, 2011, police finally nabbed Ponzo. Federal agents cornered him as he was purchasing hay and arrested him, which left the townspeople wondering: Who the hell is Jay Shaw?

Upon his arrest, law enforcement officials seized 22 rifles, eight handguns and 34,000 rounds of ammunition from his home on Hogg Road, just south of Snake River. Law enforcement also found a forged driver’s licenses and state-issued identification cards with the names of around 10 people Ponzo impersonated during the 16 years he lived as a fugitive.
Pongo in 1994. This picture was displayed on most wanted signs
As well as Ponzo's driver's license.
Police also seized $100,000 in cash and $65,000 worth of gold coins from Ponzo’s Hogg Road home. Most of those items were recovered after officers served a second search warrant on the home in March 2011 to seize Ponzo’s computers. A floor safe in a walk-in closet in the master bedroom had been looted by then.

The mobster fled Boston and lived quietly in a spectrum of states, including Arizona, Florida, Washington and Oregon. before arriving in Idaho with a fresh identity. Ironically, his driver’s license photo was the same one the FBI used on his wanted poster.

Ponzo Attempted to Whack "Cadillac"Before fleeing, Ponzo was an associate of the New England Mafia when it had fractured along a natural fault line that separated bosses in Providence from those in Boston.

After his fleet of foot depature from Boston in 1994, many believed over the years, that Enrico had been murdered as part of Cosa Nostra's internal business, score-settling, etc.. In fact, he'd been leading the life of a rancher in Idaho while the FBI and U.S. Marshals continued seeking him out. Apparently they didn't think to analyze Department of Motor Vehicles' records, as noted, Ponzo used the same picure on his driver's license that the Feds used on his Wanted sign.

Even though missing, Ponzo was indicted with 14 others in April 1997 While the others were arraigned, Ponzo remained a fugitive from state. Still Ponzo was charged, along with 14 others, in a 40-count federal indictment that included racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, and plotting to murder and attempting to murder individuals loyal to a rival faction of the Patriarca Family, then headed by Salemme.
According to the indictment, Ponzo and his co-defendants “acted to usurp control of the Patriarca Family,” “violated the rules of La Cosa Nostra by plotting and attempting to murder Salemme” and others, and “intended to replace Salemme as Boss of the Family, and thereby, be able to 'make' new members of the Family from among their group," The United States Attorney's Office of the District of Massachusetts noted in a press release.

Ponzo specifically was charged with being part of a group of four men who shot Salemme in 1989 at a Pancake House in Saugus in an unsuccessful assassination attempt.

Ponzo's co-defendants went through a 45-day trial in 1998, after which the jury took 13 days to realize they'd never reach a verdict on most of the charges.

A second trial followed, resulting in two co-defendants being found not guilty while the others either pleaded guilty or were convicted by the second trial's jury.

One died before he was able to testify against the others, according to the Hammel article.
Most of those convicted have completed their sentences, including Leo M. “Chipper” Boffoli of Holden, who got 4 years for his cooperation; and Eugene A. “Gino” Rida Jr. of Worcester, who was sentenced to 10 years by Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton.

But others, including one of the men found not guilty but convicted of a subsequent murder, remain in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys James D. Herbert and Michael L. Tabak prosecuted the case, along with United States Attorney Carmen M Ortiz’s Organized Crime Strike Force Unit, according to the release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts.

Idaho home where federal agents grabbed fugitive Ponzo


Initially, federal prosecutors planned to seize Ponzo's 12-acre Marsing ranch where he raised Black Angus cattle. He also grew vegetables on his land. He had lived there with his common law wife, Cara Pace, and their two children.
Pace left Ponzo a month before his capture over a domestic dispute.

Prosecutors in Boise and Boston agreed to give the ranch to Pace. Also a trust fund was established for her and Ponzo's son and daughter.


"Girlfriend" Tipped Off Feds
Authorities learned Shaw’s identity in January 2011, a month after Pace moved to Utah with the two children. Ponzo had filed a domestic relations case against Pace in a Homedale court in December 2010. It was pending when Pace departed.

A one-page FBI report included in a court filing seems to indicate Pace was the tipster, who was never publicly identified, according to reports.

Her name is blackened out but the document references that the tipster and "Ponzo have two children together.” The report said the witness was “very concerned” due to threats Ponzo had made to have her “family killed if he was ever arrested on his (Boston) criminal arrest warrant.”
Pace has been subpoenaed to appear as a witness at Ponzo’s trial.

If convicted, Ponzo faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the weapons charges and up to five years for possession of documents. Each count of aggravated identify theft carries a mandatory two-year sentence that must be served separately.

As to his initial claim that he was a changed man, a judge told him:

“After all the posturing, rhetoric, excuses, blaming others, the time has come for you to pay for your crimes. 

“You can run, but ultimately you cannot hide from your sordid past in organized crime.”

What the F---k Is Up on Staten Island?

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 was reportedly is in stable condition. He privately made his way to Staten Island University Hospital around 1 a.m. Friday, said an NYPD spokesman.





The NYPD was filmed towing away a Honda sedan from Dinsmore Street around 8 a.m. on Friday.  A video showed blood splashed all over the middle front seat console.

The SI Advance reported that police radio transmissions indicated that an evidence-related search had been conducted at Dinsmore Street and Victory Boulevard in Bulls Head. NYPD officers and vehicles were spotted in that vicinity, near Nansen Park.

The man has not been publicly identified. He is not cooperating with police at this time, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

Police at the scene of the shooting.

A description of the suspect or motive in the shooting still remained unclear, an NYPD spokesman said.

The day before the shooting a 43-year-old Staten Island iron worker was fatally stabbed after leaving an auto repair shop. Moments prior to the stabbing, he apparently had gotten into an argument that apparently got out of control.

Anthony Perretti, of Bay Terrace, was stabbed multiple times, with wounds to his back and torso. Sources told the SI Advance that a "dispute over finances" was the cause of the argument, which occurred in an industrial yard near Arthur Kill Road in Rossville.

Perretti was pronounced dead at Staten Island University Hospital.

One of the auto-repair workers stumbled onto the scene before anyone else. "When I got there I could see he was dead — his face was white, his eyes were open and his whole chest was cut open," said the mechanic. 
The Daily News reported that Perretti had served prison time for fatally stabbing a 23-year-old man in 1995 in Hunter, N.Y. He'd been released on parole in 2012.

Cops were searching for a black Mercedes-Benz that was seen fleeing the scene, police said.

The stabbing was the beginning of a bad few days for residents of New York's forgotten borough,(where two key scenes from The Godfather were shot).


Homicide, Two Suspected Suicides, Too
On Saturday, a woman fatally stabbed the 31-year-old father of two of her three children during a heated argument inside her apartment in Todt Hill Houses complex, police said.

That same morning a  man apparently set himself on fire in what investigators told the SI Advance could have been an suicide attempt. The 57-year-old man was reportedly in critical condition. There's a debate as to whether it could have been a disquised murder, to which I say: come on, people, don't you remember history?

A man in his 40s was found hanging from a tree in the woods near a church in Great Kills early this morning in Jack's Pond Bluebelt a wooded area between Cleveland Avenue and Hillside Terrace, a police source told the Advance.

On the Topic of Mob Hits...

Caption not necessary....
Michael Meldish was the last mob hit in New York.... 
Hold that thought, put it in your pocket.... 
This morning I've been thinking about Ron Ziegler. 


President Nixon's spokesman/punching bag, Ziegler (who I interviewed towards the end of his career, when he ran public relations for a drugstore retail trade group) said quite a few things while in the White House that earned him some choice nicknames.
It was during Watergate, recall, a challenging time for any White House spokesman... 
It was a weird political climate -- sort of annoyingly distracting considering the extent the world has since changed.
As noted in his obit: — "It was an Alice in Wonderland era that spawned the form of official evasion that came to be known as the ''nondenial denial.'' As the public face of Richard M. Nixon's embattled administration during Watergate, Ronald L. Ziegler, the White House press secretary who died last week at 63, helped change the language of American politics."
The Secret Service codenamed him Whaleboat, but reporters preferred: "Zig-Zag."

The 1972 break-in at Democratic national headquarters was a ''third-rate burglary," he's remembered for saying. (In hindsight, I wonder: wasn't it?)
He vigorously attacked The Washington Post's Watergate coverage as ''shabbny journalism'' and ''character assassination.'' But I digress....
What I've been idly pondering this morning is the time when Ziegler issued a new statement to the press corps, which contradicted a previous statement. He was admitting to having lied, I guess, is one way to put it.... His new statement, he said was now the ''operative statement,'' repeating the word operative six times. 
R. W. Apple Jr. (of The New York Times) asked, ''Would it be fair for us to infer, since what the president said today is now considered the operative statement, to quote you, that the other statement is no longer operative, that it is now inoperative?'' 
Enough history as I've made my point.
Read first sentence of this story.
It now may be "inoperative" ....