Black Market News

57 wanted in mafia sweep across Italy

2008-02-16T19:27:00.000-08:00

ROME (AP) — Local politicians, bankers and businessmen were among 57 people wanted Wednesday in connection with a mafia sweep across Italy targeting drug trafficking and extortion rackets, police and news reports said.

A local mayor and a tourism official from the southern region of Calabria were among those detained in early morning raids, the ANSA and Apcom news agencies reported.

The raids were focused on the southern region of Calabria — home of the 'ndrangheta organized crime syndicate — and Umbria, in central Italy, the carabinieri paramilitary police said.

The investigation, code-named Naos, uncovered an association between the 'ndrangheta and the Naples-based Camorra mob, with members working outside their traditional territories and alongside local criminal groups, a police statement said.

The ring focused on drug trafficking and extortion rackets, with money reinvested in construction projects, particularly hydroelectric utilities and tourism buildings in Calabria, reports said.

Mafia boss dies in jail aged 83

2008-02-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

A former Mafia godfather, known by the nickname "the Pope", died in prison where he was serving multiple life sentences.

Michele Greco, 83, who had been ill for several weeks, was a contemporary of top gangsters Toto "The Beast" Riina and his successor as 'boss of bosses', Bernardo Provenzano.

Arrested in 1986 after several years on the run, Greco had been a member of the 'cupola', the Mafia's board of directors. He earned his nickname by being a conciliatory voice between rival Mafia factions.

The Italian state claims to have made great steps in recent years in cleaning up the Mafia, the crime organisation based in the island of Sicily.

Italian and US police arrested 77 suspected members last week after a three-year probe into drug trafficking and money laundering. The latest boss of bosses, Salvatore Lo Piccolo, was arrested in November after nearly a quarter century on the run.

On Wednesday Italian police arrested 60 people suspected of involvement with the 'Ndrangheta and Camorra crime gangs - the equivalent of the Mafia based on the southern Italian mainland.

The police said they were breaking up a drugs and money laundering "joint venture" between the two gangs.

4 arrested in killings of federal agents

2007-08-19T00:53:00.000-07:00

MONTERREY, Mexico — Four suspects were arrested Friday in the kidnapping and killing of two federal agents investigating drug trafficking in Northern Mexico, authorities said.

The arrests came just hours after the bodies of Rene Lorenzo Lopez and Roberto Krhisna Raul Martinez, both agents of the Federal Agency of Investigation, Mexico's equivalent of the FBI, were found in a river in the city of Santa Catarina, in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, the federal Public Safety Department said in a news release.

The agents were naked, their limbs and heads bound with what appeared to be duct tape, state and federal police said.

Their names and cause of death weren't immediately released.

If linked to organized crime, the slayings bring to 29 the number of law enforcers believed killed by drug gangs this year in the Monterrey area, according to a media tally.

A mafia family feud spills over

2007-08-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

The killing of six Italians in the German city of Duisburg has thrust into the spotlight the shadowy world of the 'Ndrangheta, whose tentacles have spread far beyond their rural origins in Calabria, in southern Italy.

The six men, one of whom was reported to be only 16 years old, were sprayed with machine gun bullets moments after they left a pizzeria in the western German city.

Based on the strong blood ties between interlinked families, membership of the 'Ndrangheta - which means "Honoured Society" - is believed to number in the tens of thousands.

"It is disturbing - firstly because of the sheer number of dead," the acting director of Italy's National Anti-Mafia bureau, Carmelo Petralia, told the BBC news website.

Bulgaria Linked to Most Powerful Italian Mafia 'Ndrangheta

2007-08-17T14:05:00.001-07:00

The Italian 'Ndrangheta crime circle works in cooperation with Bulgarian organized crime groups, a report of the Italian anti-mafia directorate states, as cited by Giornale di Calabria newspaper.

The report warns of the 'Ndrangheta's constantly growing power and its links with Bulgarian crime bosses, who are backed by the even more powerful Russian mafia.

The report comes just two days after six Italians were shot dead near a train station in Duisburg, western Germany. All of them are believed to be members of the 'Ndrangheta crime group based in Calbabria. Police believe the motive for the killings is the result of a feud stemming from the Italian town of San Luca.

Ever more often Italian mafia bosses go to court together with Bulgarians and this is just one of the many examples that prove the links between Bulgaria and the Calabrian mafia, the report says.

Six Italians killed in mafia vendetta in Germany

2007-08-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

DUISBURG, Germany (AFP) - Six Italian men were shot dead here on Wednesday as a powerful mafia clan exported a bloody vendetta to Germany.

Italy's Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said the victims, who ranged from 16 to 38 years old and included two brothers, were caught up in a feud between mafia families in the Calabria region of southern Italy.

A police patrol alerted by a passerby discovered four of the victims in a Volkswagen Golf hire car and two in an Opel delivery van, which were parked near the central rail station of the industrial western city of Duisburg early Wednesday.

Heinz Sprenger, the officer leading the German police investigation, said all six victims had "multiple gunshot wounds".

"These men were shot at indiscriminately," he told a press conference.

Sprenger said some of the victims showed signs of life when they were found by police, but although one survived longer than the others, doctors were unable to resuscitate him.

Police said the men had been celebrating the 18th birthday of one of the victims in a pizza restaurant near the scene of the shooting where some of the men worked.

Assassination exposes Japan's underworld

2007-08-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

(07-29) 04:00 PDT Nagasaki , Japan -- For all the trouble he had caused, Nagasaki gangster Tetsuya Shiroo had atoned by cutting off half a little finger and the tips of two others.

And things were not looking up.

The code of the yakuza, or organized crime syndicate, calls for troublesome members to perform the joint-by-joint amputations when they upset the bosses. Shiroo was an old-style gangster, a man who believed in the rituals.

But yakuza life was hard and getting harder for Shiroo. Everyone knew he had money troubles. His bosses expected him to kick about $3,000 a month their way in homage, and it was tough coming up with the cash in a city where business had been so bad for so long. Even worse, the once- lucrative option of skimming money from public-works projects was dying now that the Japanese government had turned off the geyser of public money.

Anti-Mafia police uncover arms-to-Iraq plot

2007-08-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

US loss of control over the flood of weapons into Iraq was highlighted again yesterday when it emerged that Italian anti-Mafia investigators had uncovered an alleged shipment of 105,000 rifles of which the American high command was unaware.

The Italian team, in an investigation codenamed Operation Parabellum, stopped the £20m sale and have made four arrests.

The consignment appears to have been ordered by the Iraqi interior ministry. The US high command in Baghdad admitted that it had no knowledge of any such order, even though the ministry is supposed to inform the Americans before making any arms purchases.

Italian police arrest 14 people with U.S. mafia links

2007-08-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

Italian police have arrested 14 people in Palermo in an anti-mafia operation, local media reported Friday.

The operation uncovered close ties between local Cosa Nostra families and the Mafia in the United States.

The 14 included businessmen, extortionists and municipal employees, most of them face charges of criminal conspiracy, extortion and public contract rigging, the report said.

Mafia man serves up warning

2007-08-05T23:16:00.000-07:00

With organised crime syndicates believed to be behind the betting scams that have repeatedly tarnished the reputation of tennis, the ATP have employed the services of a convicted member of the American mafia to warn their leading players of the inherent dangers of allowing themselves to be lured into a web of corruption.

In the light of investigations into unusual betting patterns surrounding last week’s defeat of world No 3 Nikolay Davydenko by the 87th-ranked Argentinian Martin Vassallo Arguello in the Orange Prokom Open in Sopot, Poland, the ruling body of men’s professional tennis has intensified its desire to banish the potential for players to be coerced into throwing matches.

Reputed Mafia boss arrested in Italy

2007-08-03T00:09:00.000-07:00

A reputed Mafia man considered one of Italy's most dangerous criminals was arrested by police.

The fugitive, Franco Franzese, 43, was arrested in the Sicilian city of Palermo, police said. He is believed to be an aide to Salvatore Lo Piccolo, considered with Matteo Messina Denaro to be the new head of the Mafia.

"This is an important demonstration of the efficiency of the police and the state's ability to oppose the evil plant of criminality with force," Justice Minister Clemente Mastella said in a statement.

Three people were arrested with Franzese and could face charges of aiding and abetting, police said.

Franzese was on an Interior Ministry list of Italy's most dangerous criminals and has been condemned to life in prison.

Ansa news agency said Franzese was being sought for Mafia association.

Recent homicides in Sicily point to Mafia turf war

2007-08-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

ROME — The hit was classic mob. There were shots to the face and to the abdomen. The killers used a Lupara, a sawn-off shotgun that is the traditional weapon of choice for Mafia executions. The target was Giuseppe Lo Baido, 36. He was gunned down on July 13, near his house outside Palermo, Sicily.

The Italian police are not treating the Lo Baido case as just another mess to be scraped off the street in the heartland of the Cosa Nostra, the name for the Mafia's Sicilian branch. His was one of four recent killings. All of the victims were thought to be members of the Corleone family.

Some of Italy's Mafia prosecutors think the killings could be the start of a new internecine war. "The homicides of recent weeks may be a sign of a potential war between the families," said Maurizio De Lucia, the Palermo state prosecutor.

Italian Organized Crime Called `Dangerous, Pervasive'

2007-08-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Organized-crime groups in Italy are a ``dangerous and pervasive'' priority of the security services, as Mafia-type groups from eastern Europe infiltrate the country's economy, the Italian spy agency said.

``Organized crime still represents a major threat,'' said a report published today in Rome by Cesis, the country's central spy agency. ``The web of corruption, intimidation, public mismanagement, violence and `omerta' -- which in all likelihood is behind the recent `garbage emergency' in Naples -- is but a part of a more threatening criminal globalization.'' Omerta is a code of silence.

Local officials in Naples and its suburbs are struggling to cope with months of uncollected garbage on the streets. Yesterday, the Sicilian Mafia burned to the ground a hardware and paint store that refused to pay extortion in the city of Palermo, and there have been a spate of murders in Sicily tied to an internal power struggle after Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano was captured last year.

Provenzano: The Phantom Of Corleone

2007-07-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

Unhappy with the way things have been going here in the United States? Tired of scandal and corruption, and people saying the republic has gone the way of ancient Rome? Well things could be much worse. All you have to do is look at present day Rome, and Italy, where the mafia with its friends in business and government still forms one of the country's biggest enterprises. Prime Minister Romano Prodi has called the mafia "the constant reality."

For well over a century, the mafia has endured by forming relationships with people in power, playing a role in who gets elected, and developing a web of protection that reaches into the highest levels of the Italian government. And as correspondent Steve Kroft reports, there is no better example than the "Phantom of Corleone."

Mafia Snitch Gets Snitched Out Of Gambling Racket

2007-07-31T15:43:00.000-07:00

(AP) JERSEY CITY, N.J. Like Michael Corleone in "The Godfather," he tried to get out, but they just kept pulling back him.

Mob snitch Peter Caporino faces prison time for continuing to run a gambling racket while informing for the government.

The 70-year-old Caporino, nicknamed "Petey Cap," will serve a seven-year prison term, most of it in isolation.

While running a Hoboken members-only social club, Caporino helped inform on numerous members of the Genovese crime family, though authorities say he was never a ranking member.

His information led to the convictions of 16 Genovese members and associates.

'Vinny Gorgeous' Convicted In 2001 Mob Killing

2007-07-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK -- A former beauty salon owner known in Mafia circles as Vinny Gorgeous was convicted on Tuesday in a 2001 hit on one of his gangland rivals.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had accused Vincent Basciano of using a 12-guage shotgun to rub out mobster Frank Santoro because he believed Santoro wanted to kidnap one of his sons.

Basciano's attorney said prosecutors built the case on untruthful testimony from mob turncoats, but a jury deliberated for one day before finding him guilty of murder, racketeering and other charges.

Goldfinger held for Mafia empire

2007-07-15T14:40:00.000-07:00

CRIME baron John “Goldfinger” Palmer was being held by anti-Mafia cops last night probing his £400million empire.

The timeshare king was arrested in Tenerife.

Palmer, 57, was seized by armed officers as he stepped off a private jet from the UK.

Spanish police accuse him of masterminding a criminal empire on Tenerife involving fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering, gun running and falsifying passports and credit cards.

60 arrested in anti-mafia swoop

2007-07-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

ROME – Police in southern Italy arrested 60 people on Tuesday in a swoop on the local mafia known as the 'Ndrangheta, suspecting them of crimes ranging from smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants to national insurance fraud.

The 'Ndrangheta, based in Calabria south of Naples, has outgrown its more famous Sicilian counterpart, the Cosa Nostra, thanks to clan loyalties ensured by blood relationships and arranged marriages.

A police spokesman said the 'Ndrangheta clan targeted by the police operation were also believed to have backed candidates for regional and provincial councils, showing how deeply they influenced local politics and business.

"According to the estimate we have come up with, six million euros would have shortly been taken from the national insurance funds," the spokesman said.

Anti-mafia prosecutors were also investigating those held for crimes including extortion, loan-sharking, illegal transport and possession of weapons and explosives.

Five charged after pub drugs raid

2007-07-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

Five men have been charged with supplying cocaine following a drugs raid at an east London pub.

Police searched two bars at Bar Bed in Leman Street - ending a 20-month inquiry codenamed Operation Telon.

The men, aged 37 to 54, from east London, are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court.

Four women, aged 31 to 60, arrested in the raid have been bailed to return to a police station in September while inquiries continue.

Sixteen people were initially held as a result of the operation on 7 July.

Five of those were cautioned for possession of drugs.

One man was cautioned for possession of an offensive weapon while another man received a caution for obstruction.

24,860 gangsters nabbed

2007-07-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

GUANGZHOU -- Police from south China's Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macao have jointly broken up 1,400 gangs, cracked 10,942 criminal cases and nabbed 24,860 suspects in a sweeping crackdown on organized crime which ended the week before the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.

The 50-day-long "Thunderbolt 07" operation, launched from early May to June 24, focused on closing down online gambling, loan sharking, cross-border prostitution and drug dealing, as well as other types of crimes, said a spokesman with the Guangdong Provincial Department of Public Security on Wednesday.

Twelve of those arrested were wanted by police in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Another is a member of Hong Kong's notorious 14K Triad. Six others are from other countries, the spokesman said.

Police confiscated 159 guns, 580 rounds of ammunition, 30 kg of heroin, 400 kg of crystal methamphetamine commonly known as "ice", 300 kg of ketamine commonly known as "K" and more than 9,000 motor vehicles, he said.

Triad-Style Attacks On Tycoon's Interests Roil Hong Kong

2007-07-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

HONG KONG -

Every now and then, Hong Kong residents are reminded of the existence of a parallel society usually seen only in the crime movies the former British colony is so adept at producing.

A series of unusual gangland-style attacks have been made over the last few days on properties of New World Group, the business empire of billionaire Cheng Yu-tung, a patriotic tycoon with connections to top leadership in Beijing whose fortune is estimated at $6.5 billion by Forbes.

Bruno upset mafia, club owners

2007-07-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

Editor's note: In the months leading up to his death in November 2003, mobster Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno's control of organized crime in Western Massachusetts was falling apart. With the pressure on him and monitoring by members of the New York-based Genovese crime family who traveled to Springfield, Bruno faced a coup by an up-and-comer in his organization. This is the first of a two-part series tracing what unfolded in Bruno's final months.

SPRINGFIELD - During the spring of 2002, Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno inflamed local mafia wiseguys and club owners by muscling them for increased "rent" to revive illicit revenues choked by a law enforcement crackdown on organized crime in Western Massachusetts, police reports show.

In the end, Bruno could well have been a victim of his own tough tactics. A gunman in the parking lot of a South End social club fatally ambushed the longtime mob boss 18 months later. The shooting occurred on the night before Bruno's 58th birthday.

Boston mafia leader, 88, to be freed from prison

2007-07-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

BOSTON— “I’ll be back before my pork chops get cold!” Boston Mafia leader Gennaro “Jerry” Angiulo boasted when FBI agents hauled him off in handcuffs from Francesco’s Restaurant in the North End in 1983.

Twenty-four years later, Francesco’s is long gone from the North End, but Angiulo, 88, may soon be back for the first time since that night after being granted parole.

The U.S. Parole Commission granted Angiulo’s parole request two weeks ago and ordered his release from a federal prison hospital in Devens, where he’s serving a 45-year prison term for racketeering, The Boston Globe reported. He’ll be freed on Sept. 18.

Bookie testifies at Chicago mafia trial

2007-07-09T15:39:00.001-07:00

CHICAGO: A convicted bookie who went to jail rather than testify against reputed mafia boss Frank Calabrese Sr. relented Monday and told jurors he paid thousands in "street tax" to the mob and once got a loan from Calabrese.

Calabrese and four other defendants are facing Chicago's biggest mob trial in years. They are charged with taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that included 18 murders, gambling, loan sharking and extortion.

Among the killings are the death and dumping of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, once the Chicago mob's man in Las Vegas, whose case was an inspiration for Joe Pesci's character in the 1995 Martin Scorsese film "Casino."

Joel Glickman, looking haggard after spending a week behind bars for contempt because of his earlier refusal to testify, said he paid as much as $400,000 in "street tax" over 25 years of working as a bookmaker.

Couple Told To Pay Up In 'Mafia' Case

2007-07-07T01:17:00.001-07:00

NEW PORT RICHEY - For a decade, Michael Leotis paid hundreds of thousands of dollars toward gambling debts while under threats from mobsters in New York.

Now, after the FBI got involved, it may be Leotis' turn to collect.

Pasco Circuit Judge W. Lowell Bray Jr. has ordered a New York couple identified in court papers as associates of the Columbo crime family to repay Leotis more than $280,000.

The order came after the defendants in a lawsuit, Orlando and Barbara Sergi, ignored court rulings and failed to defend themselves.