Anti-mafia priest sent pig's head in Godfather-style warning

An Italian priest who campaigns against the mafia was sent a severed pig's head, in a scene straight out of The Godfather.

The pig's mouth was stuffed with a wad of cloth in what was interpreted as a clear warning to the clergyman by the 'Ndrangheta mafia.

The bloody head was left outside Father Ennio Stamile's home in the town of Cetraro in Calabria, the 'Ndrangheta's stronghold.

The macabre gesture had chilling echoes of a famous scene in The Godfather in which a Hollywood producer who refuses to do business with Don Vito Corleone, played by Marlon Brando in the 1972 film of the same name, wakes up to find the severed head of his favourite racehorse at the end of his bed.

It was the second threat received by the priest in five days – last week his car was vandalised.

Fr Stamile has been prominent in speaking out against organised crime in Cetraro, which gained notoriety for its high rate of mob-related murders.

Full Story (Telegraph)

Former New York mobster who turned on mafia gets less prison

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former New York mobster who turned against the mafia and helped convict Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, then acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday despite being involved in multiple murders.

Prosecutors said Dominick Cicale, 44, was convicted of racketeering and involvement in two murders and assaults in aid of racketeering. He avoided a maximum life sentence by agreeing to turn against his former crime-world associates, according to a motion filed in court on Monday by the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York.

He was sentenced to 10 years prison and was given credit for about seven years already served.

Prosecutors said that Cicale, who grew up in the Bronx in New York City, ascended the ranks of the Bonanno family from 1999 until his arrest in January 2005, during which time he took part in two "brutal" murders and other violence on the crime family's behalf.


Full Story (Chicago Tribune)

Four Bonanno Mobsters Busted in NYC: Feds

DEA and FBI agents arrested four members of the Bonanno organized crime family early Friday for alleged crimes that include racketeering, gambling and drug sales.  The father of a "Mob Wives" reality show star was also charged in the federal case.

Vincent Badalamenti, identified as a member of the Bonanno crime family administration, Nicholas Santora, a Bonanno family capo, Vito Balsamo, an acting captain, and Anthony Calabrese, a soldier, were arrested today and are are charged with racketeering, extortion, illegal gambling, and conspiracy to distribute marijuana, a law enforcement official said.

Anthony Graziano -- a Bonanno family captain whose daughter Renee Graziano stars on the reality show  "Mob Wives" -- was also charged.  Graziano was already in custody on a prior conviction.

Also arrested was James Laforte, an associate of the Gambino crime family, the official said.

Full Story

More than 1,000 Kyrgyz prisoners sew mouths shut, authorities blame organized crime

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — More than 1,000 prisoners in Kyrgyzstan have sewn their lips together, a grotesque act inmates describe as a protest of their dismal conditions, but which authorities blame on organized criminal gangs who resent attempts to break the power they wield in prisons.

Kyrgyzstan, a poor ex-Soviet nation of 5.3 million, holds around 7,600 inmates in its detention centers. The buildings are notoriously crowded and disease-ridden, and they have not escaped the reach of powerful criminal syndicates who also threaten the stability of the country, which hosts a key U.S. air base.

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EXCLUSIVE: Gang bust gives rare glimpse of Mexican Mafia's grip on North County

A federal indictment of 119 San Diego County gang members, including a Mexican Mafia boss arrested in a pre-dawn raid of his San Marcos home, portrays a sprawling, well-organized criminal network that ran drug dealing on the streets of North County and even extended inside the Vista jail.

Rudy Espudo, 39, controlled Latino gangs in North County and demanded "taxes" from drug dealers and gang members as tribute to "La Eme" ---- Spanish for "The M" and a nickname for the Mexican Mafia, according to the indictment.

Authorities also said that gang members smuggled drugs into the county-run Vista Detention Center and sold them for the Mexican Mafia, punished opponents and relayed orders with ease to and from the outside.

The indictment, which contains prosecutors' reasons for arresting and charging 51 North County gang members, describes the money-driven politics and inner workings of several local Latino gangs.

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/exclusive-gang-bust-gives-rare-glimpse-of-mexican-mafia-s/article_cedea095-3c04-58ef-9479-83271b971789.html#ixzz1ktxppAG9

Fired Weatherman's 'Hangover' Helps Expose Rising Russian Mafia

It's a story that has been dubbed the real-life "Hangover," but it has helped expose the underground criminal workings of a newly powerful mafia taking hold in South Florida.

What began as a leisure trip to Miami Beach, Fla., for Philadelphia weatherman John Bolaris ended with him allegedly being drugged and swindled out of more than $43,700, losing his job at a local TV station and having to make multiple court appearances.

Revealed: How Robert Kennedy feared Mafia would blind his children in acid attack

Robert F Kennedy feared his children would be blinded by the mafia in an acid attack as revenge attack for investigating them, his widow has revealed.

Speaking out for the first time in 30 years, Ethel Kennedy said that her late husband was anxious they would be targeted as retaliation for his probe into mafia racketeering.

He saw a report about an American journalist who had been blinded in an acid attack by the mob and feared they would do the same to him.

The disclosure will add to conspiracy theories that the mafia may have been responsible for Kennedy’s death.

He was shot dead by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968 but speculation has raged that his crusade against the mob whilst serving as U.S. Attorney General may have be the root of his demise.

Mrs Kennedy opened up to promote ‘Ethel’, a new film about her life directed by her daughter Rory, the youngest of her eleven children.

Mafia Reportedly Trading in Counterfeit Olive Oil and Cheese

Olive oil might not be the only pantry staple falsely claiming its Italian origins; a new Italian parliamentary report finds that revenue from agriculture and food businesses make up 5.6 percent of Italy's organized crime business.

Criminal groups, the report says, are underpaying producers, trading in Italian counterfeit food products, and overcharging consumers.

Specifically, the president of Italy's largest farmers' group claims that the mafia is passing off olive oil and cheese as "made in Italy," when the product actually comes from cheaper, imported raw materials. It's almost as scandalous as the crazy truffle market.

Organized crime controls Italy’s food industry

MILAN – Organized crime in Italy controls agricultural and food businesses worth 12.5-billion euros (US$16-billion) a year, or 5.6% of all criminal operations in the country, according to a parliamentary investigation presented on Thursday.

Organized crime has spread its involvement through the entire food chain from acquisition of farmland to production, from transport to supermarkets, Italy’s biggest farmers group, Coldiretti, said in a statement.

“Italians find an additional invitee at their table: criminal organizations that eat up what Italians should have eaten,” Coldiretti quoted Italy’s chief anti-mafia prosecutor Pietro Grasso as saying on the sidelines of the presentation.

Mafia-like criminal groups often dictate producer and consumer prices in their own favour by undercutting prices paid to farmers for their products and inflating prices paid by consumers in food stores, Coldiretti said. Its findings were used in the investigation by a parliamentary commission.

Italy’s total agricultural and food processing industry is estimated at 300-billion euros per year, not including farmland sales, transport or retail parts of the food trade.

The Italian agriculture and food industry also suffer from the manufacture and sale each year of an estimated 60-billion euros worth of poor quality foreign food that masquerades as top-quality Italian brands ranging from cheese to ham to wine, Coldiretti said.

Guatemala's president calls on troops to 'neutralize' organized crime

Guatemala's new president has called on the military to help "neutralize" organized crime in the Central American nation.

A day after he took office, President Otto Perez Molina appeared to be making good on his campaign promises to fight rising crime and violence with an "iron fist."

"Today, publicly, I want to lay out for the army an important goal of collaborating, coordinating and cooperating with other security institutions, and that is to put an end to the external threats and contribute to neutralizing illegal armed groups by means of military power," he said Sunday.