-from sfgate.com-

By Keith B. Richburg

U.S, Italian officials jubilant after series of major roundups

U.S. and Italian law-enforcement officials rounded up dozens of organized-crime figures Thursday, including the entire top leadership of New York’s notorious Gambino family, in what was described by authorities here as the biggest takedown of the Mafia in recent memory.

Sixty-two people were indicted in New York on charges ranging from murder and extortion to the theft of union pension funds, and as of Thursday morning, 54 of them were in custody. Those indicted include the Gambino family’s acting street “capo,” John “Jackie the Nose” D’Amico, and the under-boss and the consigliere.

D’Amico was not yet in custody. Several officials said he was believed to be on vacation.

Members of the Genovese and Bonanno crime families were also arrested, but most of those indicted and nabbed were from the Gambino family once led by John Gotti, who was known as “The Dapper Don” and “The Teflon Don.” The indictment names three Gambino family “captains,” three acting “captains,” and 16 family “soldiers” with numerous counts of racketeering and extortion, most of which carry prison sentences of up to 25 years.

“These charges strike at the very core of the Gambino family,” U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said at a news conference .

The sweep is the result of a multiyear investigation that involved, among other things, an informant who infiltrated the Gambino family and provided authorities with hundreds of hours of tape-recorded conversations.

Authorities in Italy also announced a series of arrests of major Mafia figures in coordinated raids. The transatlantic operation was called “Old Bridge.” Italian magistrates signed more than two dozen arrests warrants, according to news agencies, and several top crime figures, mostly in Sicily, were in custody, the news agencies said.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi called the raids “a brilliant operation against organized crime,” according to the Reuters news agency.

The indictment unveiled at the federal court in Brooklyn details a web of organized crime stretching back three decades, including seven murders from as far back as the 1970s.

The indictment also documents the links between the Mafia and the construction industry in New York, describing several of the largest New York construction firms as allegedly controlled or influenced by the Gambino family and paying a “mob tax” to operate with protection. Through the construction companies, the Gambino family was able to steal union dues and pension benefits, the indictment alleges.

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the sweep managed to smash one of the Gambino family’s most profitable enterprises, illegal gambling.

While officials hailed this takedown as a major victory against the mob, they also cautioned that organized crime is still a major force in New York.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said, “Organized crime still exists in the city and state of New York. … It’s as unrelenting as weeds that continue to sprout in the cracks of society.”

The New York Times contributed to this report.

-from news.monstersandcritics.com-

Rome - Five purebred racehorses feature amongst the goods seized in a major bust against the Mafia in Italy this week in which 33 alleged mobsters were rounded up, an Italian news agency reported Thursday.

Police in Rome and in Sicily took the horses away from stables in Rome and in the Sicilian towns of Catania and Syracuse, Adnkronos said.

The horses are allegedly owned by members of the Catania-based Santapaola mafia family, the report said.

Francesco Santapaola, 46, one of the alleged leaders of the clan, was arrested on Wednesday a day after 32 other suspected members of the crime family were picked up in police raids in Sicily and on the Italian mainland.

Those arrested are accused of drug trafficking and extortion.

Last month the burnt body of Francesco’s brother Angelo was found in a field near Catania in what authorities believe was a settling of scores within the Santapaola family.

The mafia and other organised crime groups in Italy have often been involved in horseracing and related betting activities; fixing regular races as well as organising clandestine events on beaches and even on public roads.

-from indystar.com-

A Guatemalan man was sentenced last week by U.S. District Judge David Hamilton to more than 32 years in prison for his involvement as the leader of the 18th Street Gang in Indianapolis

Isaias Roderico Barrios-Lopez, 32, received the sentence for his involvement in what the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis referred to as “guns, gangs and drugs,” according to a statement from Mary E. Bippus, spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Susan W. Brooks for the Southern District of Indiana

Indianapolis police in 2005 said the 18th Street Gang and the Sur-13 gang considered each other bitter rivals. Barrios-Lopez was convicted of cocaine conspiracy and a firearms violation.

-from timesleader.com-

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker

EDWARDSVILLE – Fourteen confirmed members of the “Bloods” street gang were among 34 defendants who were charged Monday in a drug bust stemming from a nearly yearlong investigation at the Eagle Ridge subsidized housing complex on Bertram Court.

Undercover officers and confidential informants made multiple purchases of cocaine from an apartment that was inhabited by two confidential informants, according to state Attorney General Tom Corbett. Information from the informants also led to purchases of narcotics from other locations, including C Majors bar in Edwardsville.

C Majors was the site of a nonfatal, drug-related shooting in February. One of the defendants charged Monday, Anwar “G” Taylor, was already in custody on charges related to that crime, Corbett said.

As of late Monday afternoon, 29 of the 34 suspects had been apprehended.

Authorities said Anwar Taylor was one of the leaders of the drug operation, along with Elijah “Eyez” Taylor, Ricardo “Rico” Polanco and Jared “Jade” Durrette. All are confirmed members of the “Bloods,” authorities said.

A statewide grand jury investigating the operation determined the men and 30 co-defendants sold more than 65 grams of cocaine valued at around $8,500 to informants and undercover officers working with the Luzerne County Drug Task Force. Officers from Kingston, Pittston, Hanover Township, Swoyersville and the Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotic Investigation took part in the drug buys.

Speaking at a press conference Monday morning, Corbett said the arrests are further evidence of the proliferation within the region of gang members, who come here to sell drugs because they believe the area is an easy mark.

“They think law enforcement is not equipped to handle them. These people are pretty surprised today,” Corbett said.

Edwardsville Police Chief Michael Slusark said the investigation began in July, after he received multiple complaints from residents regarding increased crime in the borough.

Slusark said he sought help from the Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, which coordinated the investigation along with the drug task force.

“They never knew we were coming. I believe we made a statement today: If you come to Edwardsville to deal drugs you are going to be arrested,” Slusark said.

Under an arrangement with the apartment complex, which is privately owned, police stationed two confidential informants in an apartment for approximately five months. More than 24 grams of cocaine were purchased on 12 occasions inside the apartment, authorities said.

Frank Noonan, regional director of the Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, said the informants also provided information that enabled officers to make additional purchases of narcotics. He said roughly half of Monday’s arrests were directly attributed to information they provided.

“That was the key to getting into all the people, to have someone in the community that could point things out to us,” he said.

Approximately 15 grams of cocaine were purchased on nine occasions from C Majors.

The bar, located on Main Street, is still open. Brian Langan of the state police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement said the agency is investigating whether the bar’s owners could be cited for aiding or abetting drug activity – an offense that calls for a fine of $1,000-$5,000 and could result in the suspension or revocation of the liquor license.

Authorities have filed charges against 34 people accused of participating in a cocaine distribution network. As of Monday, 29 of the defendants had been apprehended and arraigned.

The following is list of the defendants.

• Shawn “Shawn-Jon” Johnson 35, of Wilkes-Barre, is charged with conspiracy to deliver cocaine. All other defendants are charged with possession, possession with intent to deliver and delivery of cocaine. Defendants whose names are in bold are confirmed members of the Bloods gang.

• Ricardo “Rico” Polanco, 26, of Main Street, Edwardsville.

• Sinard “Nardi” Ballard, 20, of Jackson Street, Edwardsville.

• Jared “Jade” Durrette, 22, of Main Street, Kingston:

• Rashon Spear, 24, of Price Street, Kingston:

• Elijah “Eyez” Taylor, 23, of Hanover Village apartments, Hanover Township.

• Malachi “Stizzy” Bennett, 19, no known address.

• Alphonso “Fonzi” Wyche, 49, of Roosevelt Street, Edwardsville.

• Matthew “Cheese” Alston, 24, of Roosevelt Street, Edwardsville.

• Herbert L. “Herb” Seabrooks, 39, of Church Street, Edwardsville.

• Anwar “G” Taylor, 25, of South Sherman Street, Wilkes-Barre.

• Paul “Slick Shirt” Gaskin, 25, of Main Street, Edwardsville.

• Donald “Rome” Warren, 25, of Mark Drive, Hanover Township.

• Jason “Young Boy” Holmes, 21, of Jackson Street, Edwardsville.

• Jeff “J-Lip” Kelley, 41, of Wyoming Avenue, Kingston:

• Ernest “Big Earn” Taylor, 45, of Zerby Avenue, Kingston.

• Janie Seay, 22, of Wilson Street, Larksville.

• Joseph “Smokin Joe” Strish, 47, of Orchard Street, Larksville.

• Venice “Dee” Saxton, 25, of West Market Street, Kingston

• Robert “EE” Brennan, 39, of Roosevelt Street, Edwardsville.

• Larry “Jazz” Woodson, 44, Roosevelt Street, Edwardsville.

• Qadriyyah J. “Qua” Hutcherson, 29, of Park Avenue, Wilkes-Barre.

• Muhammed “Worm” Bilal Raquib, 24, of Madison Street, Wilkes-Barre.

• Eddie “Fast Eddie” Rock Martinez, 39, of Bertram Court, Edwardsville.

• Dominic “Gaylord” or “Domino” Faulks, 43, of Roosevelt Street, Edwardsville.

• Joseph “Cook” Coolbaugh, 39, of West Market Street, Kingston.

• Robert “B-Rob” Thompson, 48, of Bertram Court, Edwardsville.

• Michelle “Lexy” Vandermark, 24, of Center Street, Pittston.

• Courtney “Fish” Fisher, 26, of Center Street, Pittston.

• Rasheed “Sheed” Johnson, 24, of Beverly Drive, Edwardsville.

• Three defendants known only by their street names.

• A 16-year-old juvenile whom police did not identify.

-from cnn.com-

NEW YORK (AP) — Thomas and Rosemarie Uva were not exactly criminal geniuses.

The couple liked to rob Mafia-run social clubs in Little Italy and elsewhere around the city, which, as just about everyone knows, is a really good way to get killed.

They even had the audacity to force mobsters to drop their pants as they swiped their cash and jewelry and cleaned out their card games.

The holdups proved predictably hazardous: The Uvas got whacked on Christmas Eve 1992.

Fifteen years later, the story of the bandits who made the stupid mistake of stealing from the mob is playing out at the trial of the man accused of murdering them, a reputed Gambino crime family captain named Dominick “Skinny Dom” Pizzonia.

“There’s virtually no greater insult than robbing the Gambino family where they socialized and hung out,” federal prosecutor Joey Lipton said last month in opening statements in Brooklyn.

Prosecutors claim that John A. “Junior” Gotti, while acting boss of the Gambino family once led by his father, sanctioned the killings — a charge he has denied.

Pizzonia’s attorney, Joseph R. Corozzo Jr., told the jurors they would hear testimony that members of the Bonanno crime family were the real culprits.

Mafia ‘turncoats’

Corozzo noted that the government was relying on an unsavory cast of Mafia turncoats to make their case, including former Gambino capo Michael “Mikey Scars” DiLeonardo, who got his nickname as a child after a dog bit him in the face.

The case reflects a new willingness among several old-school gangsters — some admitted killers like DiLeonardo — to break the mob’s vow of omerta, or silence, and help prosecute graying reputed gangsters like Pizzonia, 65, for crimes dating back decades.

In 2005, Bonanno boss Joseph “Big Joey” Massino stunned the underworld by becoming the first boss of one of New York’s five Mafia families to flip.

Exactly why the Uvas gambled with their lives by robbing mobsters remains a mystery. But their former boss at a New York collection agency, Michael Schussel, offered some possible clues for resorting to making collections of a criminal kind.

Schussel testified that Thomas was a Mafia aficionado who asked for days off to attend the trial of the elder John Gotti, the Gambino don who died behind bars in 2002. The couple lived in Gotti’s neighborhood in Ozone Park, Queens.

“He was obsessed with the mob,” the witness said.

Authorities say the Uvas began their robbery spree in 1991, apparently believing that social clubs — home to high-stakes card games — would provide an easy mark.

Rosemarie, 31, took the wheel of the getaway car and Thomas, 28, armed with an Uzi submachine gun, stripped patrons of their money and jewelry and made the men drop their pants. The couple became known on the street as Bonnie and Clyde.

Fainting spell

The moonlighting was stressful: The day after one of the holdups made headlines, Rosemarie showed up for work looking pale and fainted to the floor, her ex-employer said.

By the time the Uvas had hit his Cafe Liberty in Queens a second time, Pizzonia had tired of their act, DiLeonardo testified.

Pizzonia “was very angry, as everybody else was, that these guys had the nerve to go around robbing clubs, like committing suicide,” DiLeonardo said. A plan was hatched to track down the couple by getting their license plate number, he said.

On the morning of December 24, they were sitting in their Mercury Topaz at an intersection in Queens when they were each shot three times in the back of the head. The car rolled through the intersection and collided with another vehicle before it stopped; police officers found a stash of jewelry with the bloody corpses.

The killers vanished as mob bosses argued behind the scenes over who should get credit, DiLeonardo said. During a sitdown with his Bonanno counterpart Massino, the younger Gotti set the record straight.

The Bonnie-and-Clyde hit, Gotti said, was “our trophy.”

-from blog.oregonlive.com-

By The oreganian, Bryan Denson

A federal judge today sent a 27-year-old gang member to prison for his role in a deadly 2005 shooting incident outside a Portland dance club in which at least 50 bullets — from five different weapons — sprayed downtown streets.

U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown sentenced Corey Hudson to eight years’ imprisonment for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Hudson was one of three men accused in the Aug. 8, 2005, shooting outside The Vue nightclub, a shooting that left fellow gang member Adrian Bible dead.

The government took the case seriously because the three men accused in the crime had gang associations and serious criminal histories, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Edmonds, a former veteran of the Multnomah County district attorney’s office.

“We felt this was a very important case due to the voluminous number of shots fired in a public place, a high density area of the city,” he said. There were, he added, “hundreds of people down there attending this nightclub and in the vicinity of this nightclub.”

DNA evidence linked Hudson to one of the firearms found in possession of Deandros Brown, who was previously sentenced to 87 months in prison.

Bryan Denson; bryandenson@news.oregonian.com

-from telegraph.co.uk-

By Natalie Paris and Agencies

Drugs raids targeting major international crack cocaine dealers and involving more than 400 police officers took place across Britain this morning.

Houses and flats were raided up and down the country in a bid to smash a network ferrying crack cocaine between London and Middlesbrough.

Police said the Class A drug is brought into Britain from Jamaica and then smuggled by train from London to Teesside to be distributed across the north east of England.

Cleveland Police Chief Constable Sean Price said: “Today’s action strikes at the very heart of a lucrative drugs network.

“The aim is to take out not just street level dealers, but the masterminds behind this evil trade.”

The raids began at 3am in the Ilford and Hackney areas, followed by 6am swoops conducted by strike teams on Teesside.

Further raids took place in the West Midlands, North Yorkshire, County Durham and Northumbria.

In the first raid on Teesside - at a flat in Essex Street, Middlesbrough - a woman in her late 20s was arrested after a quantity of crack cocaine was discovered in the property.

Cleveland Police said officers are conducting one of the most wide-ranging investigations of its kind in the country.

The raids were based on intelligence gathered from mobile phones seized during similar swoops aimed at taking out street-level dealers in September last year.

Det Insp Dave Lamplough, of Cleveland Police’s Organised Crime Unit, said the gang targeted operated by importing drugs into the UK from Jamaica through a string of mainly female couriers and shipments.

-from blog.nj.com-

By The Star Ledger

Newark police announced this morning that they have broken up a major drug ring based in the Ironbound section of the city.

Fifteen arrests have been made and six people are still large, Police Director Garry McCarthy said about last night’s bust. Over 5,000 blocks of heroin, or the equivalent street value of about $100,000 were seized and the majority of individuals involved in the ring were affiliated with a gang called the Grape Street Crips, said Gregory Paw, director of the state Division of Criminal Justice.

Officials detailed an extensive heroin ring, based in the Pennington Court public housing development off South Street, that reached multiple parts of Essex County and as far as Pennsylvania. The ring was headed by 41-year-old Simmied Tutt of Newark, officials said.

In addition to the arrests, officials from the state’s Drug Enforcement Agency and Newark police unveiled a new approach to policing Newark city streets.

“This is also a little switch in philosophy,” McCarthy said. “Up until now, we measured our success in arrests and seizures of narcotics. Now we’ll measure success by the elimination of the drug market and organization itself, and improving the quality of life.”

Contributed by Nawal Qarooni