Businessman didn't know partner was mafioso

USTI NAD LABEM (PDM staff with CTK) 19 August - Rene Slepcik, who owned the Rene&Umberto company with Sicilian mafia boss Luigi Putrone in Usti, had allegedly no idea about the Italian's criminal post, the local issue of the daily Deniky Bohemia (DB) reported yesterday.

Czech police recently detained Putrone, 44, who was sentenced to life in prison in Italy, in Usti. He is the head of an Italian mafia clan of took part in a series of murders, allegedly killing nine people himself.

Slepcik knew Putrone under the name Umberto Bonfiglio. He met the Italian in his night club in Dubi, north Bohemia, five years ago.

"I am no goody-goody, but if I had known what he was I would not have established a company with him after all," Slepcik told the paper.

He noted he regarded the Italian as a good man. "He wanted to live here as a normal man," he said, adding that Putrone frequented local pubs and liked to sit in Italian restaurants.

Slepcik said he used to meet his business partner in a fitness centre. "He [Putrone] did not want to go out with me very often, maybe over my name," Slepcik said, hinting at the fact that his family is well-known in Usti.

Mafia associate admits to collecting money in state

NEW HAVEN (AP) - A 73-year-old associate of the Gambino crime family admitted Thursday that he collected debts for Connecticut's top Mob boss, but he took issue with his nickname and asked for more time to spend with his elderly mother.

Nicola Melia, who pleaded guilty to racketeering, was a relatively minor player charged in a sweeping indictment last year that accused 18 reputed Mob members and associates of racketeering, extortion and illegal gambling. But Melia's nicknames gave him more notoriety. Speaking in a hoarse voice and sporting a neat brown suit with matching shoes, Melia said he was simply known as Nick.

Judge Janet Bond Arterton noted that the indictment referred to him as "The Greaseball" and "The Old Man." "That's incorrect," Melia said. "I've never heard that before. I've been arrested before." His attorney, H. James Pickerstein, explained that Melia might be referred to by those names when he is not present.

Melia, a Stamford resident who emigrated from Italy 50 years ago with virtually no formal schooling, admitted he tried to collect a $2,500 loan but said he wound up paying the loan when his friend didn't pay up. Pickerstein said a conversation intercepted by investigators suggested steps would be taken to enforce payment of the loan. "I'm going to do what I gotta do," Melia said, according to his attorney.

16 indicted in Mafia gambling roundup

New Jersey's highest-ranking Genovese crime family member and 15 associates have been accused of racketeering and running a multimillion-dollar sports-gambling, loan-sharking and extortion ring, federal authorities say.

An indictment unsealed Wednesday says crews of Genovese associates ran numbers games and football-ticket gambling operations out of delicatessens, social clubs and bars in Hoboken and Jersey City, netting nearly $3 million for the nation's most powerful crime family.

In addition, federal authorities said the alleged mobsters - many from Bergen and Hudson counties - preyed on Greek restaurateurs and business owners, targeting them for loan-sharking and charging them for protection.

"Today's arrests are another nail in the coffin of organized crime in New Jersey," said Leslie G. Wiser Jr., special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark division.

Authorities say Lawrence Dentico - known as "Little Guy" or "Little Larry" - was among a group of crime-family members who formed the Genovese administration after boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante's racketeering conviction in 1997.

Reputed Mafia Figure Dies

Reputed Kansas City mafia figure Charles Moretina has died, 22 years after being convicted in a casino skimming investigation. That conviction marked the beginning of a decline of organized crime's influence in the Kansas City area.

Moretina and 10 other men were indicted in the skimming scheme,
which was the basis of Martin Scorcese's 1995 film "Casino.''

International drug mafia more active on Tajik-Russian thoroughfares

MOSCOW, August 19 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Interior Ministry is concerned over the international drug mafia's growing activity on Russia and Tajik thoroughfares, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said Friday.

"Of special concern is the deteriorating criminal situation on transport linking Tajikistan and Russia," Nurgaliyev said at a joint Interior Ministry session.

According to ministry data, in 2004 and the first six months of 2005, more than 100kg of illicit drugs were confiscated in trains, cars and aircraft in Russia. Drug couriers were detained for heroin transportation.

Tajik Interior Minister Khumdin Sharipov said a high yield of raw opium had been gathered in Afghanistan in 2004, which could be "used to produce some 400 metric tons of heroin."

Nurgaliyev said 145,000 people suspected of committing grave crimes and "some 2,000 criminals are being searched for by Tajik law enforcement agencies."

Drug Suspect's Pet Squirrel Attacks Officer

A police officer in Massachusetts was treated at a hospital after a drug suspect's squirrel attacked him during an attempted arrest, according to a Local 6 News report.

Officer Dwayne Flowers said he and his partner were attempting to arrest a woman wanted on drug charges in Leominister, Mass., when her loose pet squirrel attacked.

"The claws are very sharp, I guess he mistook me for a tree," officer Flowers said. "The squirrel was moving at such speed, I didn't see it and neither did my partner standing shoulder-length away from me."Flowers drove to a hospital after the attack while other officers captured Spanky the squirrel and arrested its owner.After the arrest, Flowers' partner laughed at the attack."He had a good chuckle," Flowers said. "I tried raising him on the radio but they couldn't answer their radio call because they were too busy laughing"Flowers injuries from the attack were considered minor.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Mafia don accused of faking his illness

LUCKNOW: Dreaded mafia don and notorious international kidnapper Babloo Srivastava is currently under psychiatric treatment at a hospital here but a police officer says this is only a ruse to ease the rigours of imprisonment.

“Barely a few months ago he had come to attend the wedding of his sister in Lucknow and looked absolutely fit and fine. I wonder if the illness is real or made-up,” said the officer of the special task force that has been keeping a close watch on Srivastava.

According to the records of the King George’s Medical University psychiatry department, Srivastava is suffering from agoraphobia, a condition doctors say is triggered by loneliness.

The police officer refused to buy this.

“We are aware that he has a stream of visitors. He has been caught several times using mobile phones inside the jail. So, where is the question of loneliness?” the officer asked.

According to him, the hospital doctors had either been bribed or intimidated to certify the illness.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Czechs arrest Italian Mafia boss

Luigi Putrone was arrested by Czech police as he ran errands

A fugitive Italian Mafia boss who has been on the run for six years has been arrested in the Czech Republic.

Police in Prague said Luigi Putrone had probably been living in the Czech Republic for several years since going on the run in the late 1990s.

An Italian court has already sentenced him in absentia to life imprisonment for murders and Mafia-related crimes.

Mr Putrone, 44, from Agrigento in Sicily, was listed among Italy's top 30 most wanted Mafia bosses.

Italian police had alerted their Czech colleagues that Mr Putrone may be in the country.

Homeland Security arrests almost 600 gang members

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal authorities arrested 582 alleged gang members over a two-week period, officials said Monday, targeting an estimated 80 violent groups they say have spawned street crimes across the country.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the gangs "a threat to our homeland security and ... a very urgent law enforcement priority."

Investigators picked up most of the offenders between July 16 and July 28 on immigration violations for being in the United States illegally. Seventy-six face criminal charges, ranging from illegal possession of a firearm to holding fraudulent documents.

Mafia-style tactics surface in court hearing

Two brothers stand accused in the Cape High Court for operating a highly-sophisticated hijacking scheme which fleeced a tobacco company of millions of rands in cigarettes.

And the man who allegedly bought the cigarettes Selwyn and Virgil de Vries are accused of stealing from hijacked British American Tobacco (BAT) Company trucks - allegedly with the help of eight accomplices - also faces a heavy sentence if convicted of being involved in the plot.

The brothers, alleged buyer Achmat Mather and alleged accomplices Julian van Heerden, Vernon Victor, Alex Anna, Gary Williams, Llewellyn Smith, Francis Ngarinoma, Edward Moagi and Darryl Pitt, face 22 charges. They include kidnapping, theft, robbery with aggravated circumstances and attempted murder.

Moscow Court Acquits Russian Mafia Boss Ivankov

Moscow City Court has acquitted Vyacheslav Ivankov, a notorious Russian mafia boss charged with the murder of two Turkish citizens.

On Monday, the court of jury found Ivankov not guilty of the murder. Prosecutors have said they will appeal the verdict in Russia’s Supreme Court. The acting Moscow prosecutor, Vladimir Bakun, said on Tuesday the jurors were biased because seven of them either had previous convictions, or had relatives who were taken to court.

According to the investigators, Ivankov and another notorious criminal known by the nickname of Sliva (Plum) killed the Turkish citizens in a Moscow restaurant in 1992. One of them died at the scene and the other later at a hospital.

In 2000, Moscow prosecutors charged Ivankov with the murders in his absence; he was in the United States at the time. On July 15, 2004, soon after his deportation from the United States, he was charged with the murders again.

Ivankov also known as Yaponchik (Little Japanese) had already become notorious for creating the Solntsevskaya criminal organization in Russia in 1980. In 1982 he was imprisoned on robbery charges. After arriving in the United States he ran the Russian mafia throughout the country and reportedly became the highest-ranking Russian criminal in the United States.

He was arrested in New York in 1995 on charges of organizing a sham marriage and supervising the extortion of several million dollars from an investment firm. The courts indicted him after a two-year investigation and sentenced him to nine years and seven months in prison. He was going to be released early for good behavior, but his sentence was extended after a fight with another inmate thought to be a deliberate provocation.

Ivankov was extradited to Russia on July 11, 2004.

'Mafia cops' are due out of jail

The "Mafia Cops" are going home.

Two ex-NYPD detectives accused of being hitman for the mob could walk out of jail as early as tomorrow after federal prosecutors in Brooklyn decided not to appeal a decision which gave them bail.

Louis Eppolito, 56, and Stephen Caracappa, 63, are scheduled to be in Brooklyn federal court Thursday at noon to have relatives sign various documents securing their bail bonds.

Both men were ordered released from pretrial detention earlier this month by Judge Jack B. Weinstein who set bail for each at $ 5 million. The bail is being secured by property they and relatives are posting.

Federal prosecutors filed a letter with the court late Tuesday saying they wouldn't appeal Weinstein's ruling, said a spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorneys Office.

Calls to mafia don traced to phone of Bollywood heartthrob Khan

MUMBAI (AFP) - Calls to mafia don Abu Salem were traced in 2001 to the home phone of Bollywood heartthrob Salman Khan, the western Indian Maharashtra state government said.

Mob informant says Taccetta innocent of golf-club murder scheme

TOMS RIVER, N.J. - A mobster-turned-informant has filed court papers saying his cousin, a reputed Lucchese crime boss, was not involved in a scheme leading to a notorious 1984 Mafia hit.

A lawyer for Thomas Ricciardi, who is in hiding through the federal Witness Protection Program, filed an affidavit in Superior Court on Thursday claiming Martin Taccetta was not involved in the death of Vincent J. Craparotta, who was beaten to death with a golf club in 1984.

In 1993, Taccetta was acquitted of that murder but convicted of extortion along with Ricciardi. Prosecutors successfully argued the men conspired to kill Craparotta, a Jersey Shore contractor, to intimidate his nephews into sharing proceeds from their gambling business.

US authorities accuse dock workers union of being under mafia's influence

NEW YORK (AFP) - US authorities filed a racketeering lawsuit against a dock workers union accused of being under the influence of the New York mafia.

The Gambino and Genovese mafia clans have controled ports in New York, New Jersey and Miami since the 1950s, the Justice Department said in a statement.

The suit was filed against the International Longshoremen's Association, AFL-CIO, some top ILA officials, including longtime president John Bowers, and several organized crime members, the department said.

"For decades the waterfront has been the setting for corruption and violence stemming from organized crime's influence over labor unions operating there, including the ILA and its affiliated Locals, as well as port-related businesses," it said in a statement.

"Since the late 1950's, two organized crime families -- the Gambino family and the Genovese family -- have shared control of various ports, with the Gambino family primarily exercising its influence at commercial shipping terminals in Brooklyn and Staten Island, and the Genovese family primarily controlling those in Manhattan, New Jersey and the Port of Miami," it added.

The civil complaint asks that a court-appointed trustee be named to oversee the ILA and its benefits fund. It also wants an order barring union officials and organized crime members from the union, its benefits fund and the waterfront.

Judge orders "Mafia cops" freed on bail, says case is weak

Two former police detectives accused of leading double lives as Mafia hitmen were ordered freed on bail Thursday after a federal judge said the government's case against them was weak.

U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein said the statute of limitations may have run out years ago on nearly all the charges against Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa. Both are accused of participating in eight murders on behalf of organized crime in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Federal prosecutors charged the former detectives with engaging in the killings as part of a racketeering conspiracy, which has a five-year statute of limitations. The last killing occurred in 1991.

The judge said the charges seem to me to be relatively stale

Gangs back to prey on motorbike taxi drivers

It's business as usual for gangsters who extort money from motorcycle taxi drivers in several areas in the city.

After a short break at the beginning of the high-profile war against mafia, the gangsters have returned _ this time with new tactics.

Instead of demanding protection money from drivers, they are taking advantage of the motorcycle taxi registration process, which allows taxi drivers to wear an orange vest with the district name and a registration number.

The gangsters apply for the registration and illegally rent the vests to drivers who are charged between 2,000-20,000 baht as an upfront payment and 300-1,500 baht a month. Many vests with the same number are not unusual.

Unloading Business At Fulton Fish Market May Draw Mafia's Attention

A former Giuliani official reportedly says a city plan to open up bidding on unloading licenses at the new Fulton Fish Market could be a boon for the mafia.

According to a report in Monday’s edition of the New York Post, the city is allowing operators of the market to bid on licenses to unload fish for the first time since 1995. That move is drawing criticism from former Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington, who was in charge of the market's cleanup under former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Washington tells the paper he disagrees with taking open bids. He says most of the mafia's control of the market was conducted in the unloading process.

A single Long Island company has been in charge of unloading fish for the past 10 years. However, the Post says officials who back the new policy insist all potential bidders have been checked out, and that the mafia will not return to prominence.

The Fulton Fish Market moves from Lower Manhattan to Hunts Point in the Bronx later this month.

Mafia 'godmother' turns collaborator to give her children a future

Giuseppina Vitale was a hard woman of the Mafia, one of the new breed of "bosses in skirts" to which the Sicilian mob has grudgingly grown accustomed.

So many bosses are in jail that often the only person available to keep the funds flowing and the mobsters in line is little sister.

Giusy (pronounced "Juicy") Vitale played her part with conviction. The Mafia was her family's life. Her brothers, Leonardo and Vito, were rising stars of the Palermo underworld, spoken of in hushed tones as the likely heirs to capo di capi Bernardo "The Tractor" Provenzano, who has been on the run for more than 40 years.

But Vitale, 33, is now a collaborator with justice and has been telling a Rome court what it is like to grow up in such a family.

Elderly Drug Dealer Pleads for Leniency

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - An elderly used car salesman accused of being a member of the Gambino crime family was sentenced Wednesday to 13 years in prison for selling cocaine to a police informant.Victor Riccitelli, 71, was convicted of the drug charges in March. He pleaded with a federal judge not to throw him in prison for the rest of his life, saying he has "only got a few more years left."