On a post a few years back on GBB, LaBalestra was pegged as having taken over an older Outfit run narcotics operation dating back to the 1970s, supposedly run by Frank Rappa and Tony Carcione (more on him later). Rappa was of course arrested in 1971 in New York City – along with Giuseppe Giacomazzo and Lorenzo D’Aloisio – and charged with being on the planned receiving end of a car loaded with narcotics that had been seized in Paris bound for NYC. The story on the old ANP forums was that Rappa partnered with Rocky Infelice and Americo DePietto, who were in turn supplying connects in some of the black streetgangs (Vice Lords, Black P stones). Rappa was of course also a longtime close associate of Marco D’Amico, which I think is significant in light of the broader pattern that begins to emerge.
Narcotics distribution operations linking the Outfit to Italian OC seem to have continued in the 1980s. Another claim that was floated on the old ANP comments section was that in the 1980s, Marco D’Amico had a drug crew connected to Rockford-area Sicilian “Pizza Connection” operative (and nephew of Gaetano Badalamenti) Pietro Alfano. This was not the only potential Outfit narcotics operation in this period, as the 1980s saw several drug-related cases. According to a Chicago Crime Commission report (“Traditional Organized Crime in Chicago”):
While I’m still murky on the details here, I think it’s important to note that this surveillance and bust doesn’t seem to have been related to the Alfano/Pizza Connection network, as that had already been busted in 1984. This goes to indicate that there was likely a separate, independent Outfit connection to Italian narcotics distributors, perhaps linked to the older Rappa operation. According to a Daily Herald article published during the Rosemont casino saga with Vito Salamone:In 1988, the Chicago Police Department Intelligence Section obtained its first nonconsensual telephonic overhear commonly known as a 'wiretap'. This major investigation, code named 'Operation Colossus', resulted in the arrest of twenty-one organized crime figures and associates for calculated criminal drug conspiracy. This case was very significant in its use of electronic interceptions, including thirty consensual overhears as well as uncovering links between traditional mob elements in Chicago and newly arrived immigrants from Sicily and mainland Italy.
A possibility is that whereas Rappa had previously been partnered with Infelice, later on Rappa and his Italian associates in the area became affiliates of the Elmwood park crew. Whether this was simply due to the presence of 1st generation Italian immigrants around Elmwood Park and Addison, or because Rappa was close to D’Amico and D’Amico gravitated towards EP, it’s hard to say. A current working hypothesis is that D’Amico may have been bankrolling drug operations with his considerable gambling profits.[…] Salamone is "close" to Frank Rappa and Marco D'Amico, [an FBI] report charged. D'Amico is a bookmaker, the report said, and Rappa, it said, was affiliated with the mob both here and in Sicily and dealt cocaine. He left the Chicago area in 1967 but returned in 1984. At the same time he returned, the report noted, there was a marked increase in Sicilian cocaine dealers in Elmwood Park, Addison and Itasca. In 1971, Rappa was arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York with 80 kilograms of heroin [.]
In the late ‘80s, there were also busts of significant Outfit-related narcotics distribution operations associated with the Chicago Heights (centered on Dante Autullo – a couple of the suspects in this ring also went missing at the time), Cicero/Melrose Park (the ring run by Victor Plescia and bankrolled by Frank Bonavolante) and Grand Ave (run by Henry Centracchio, and possibly also linked to D’Amico) crews. To my knowledge, however, these operations were supplied by Colombians out of Florida and I haven’t seen anything indicating the involvement of Italian nationals.
Given that Frank Rappa appears to have had close connections to Italian OC and FBI reports cite “Sicilian cocaine dealers” increasing in the 1980s around Addison/Itasca, it’s unsurprising that in the 1990s we see a group of Italian nationals operating in the area. This of course is where LaBalestra enters the picture, with the 1994 “Operation Espresso” bust of several Italian gambling operations based out of cafes and social clubs in Addison and Bloomingdale. Identified among the arrested were Pietro LaBalestra, Ottavio Volpe, and Giuseppe Vicari, all Italian nationals in their 30s. Apparently Vicari pissed someone off, as in November 1994 his battered corpse was found with a bullet to the back of his head in his business “La Casa del Caffe” (recently relocated to Harlem Ave in Elmwood Park from its prior location in Addison). Based on the surname, I think it is very likely that Vicari was Sicilian. Although internet rumors refer to LaBalestra as “Sicilian”, I think that’s very unlikely, as the surname LaBalestra/La Balestra in Italy is overwhelmingly concentrated in the Puglia region. Although identified by “Operation Espresso” as operating out of the “Sicilian Club” in Addison, I also believe that Volpe is most likely Pugliese. From the same CCC report previously quoted:
In 2001 31-year-old Italian organized crime figure Aldo Cardelicchio was arrested in Chicago and extradited back to Italy to face narcotics distribution, extortion, and murder charges. Cardelicchio had been “lamming it” the past several years living with his wife and children in Elmwood Park while managing the Harlem Ave “Café Cappucino”, long rumored to be an Outfit hangout (unsurprisingly, Café Cappucino also had a second location in the Grand Ave Patch). Cardelicchio was a native of Taranto, Puglia and identified as an associate of Pugliese OC in a report of Italian OC figures active abroad (published I believe in Germany). [Notably, Cardelicchio was busted in Chicago by US Marshall John Ambrose, famously later convicted in Family Secrets of providing support to the Outfit, and represented in Federal court before his extradition by Chicago lawyer Joe Lopez.] From a March 2001 Chicago Tribune article on Cardelicchio:[Vicari] was involved in gambling with a Bari, Italy faction of the mob and had been in the United States since 1989. He was out on bond in DuPage County for previous gambling violations.
Prior to the Cardelicchio arrest, Giorgio Pelossi, identified by the Italian government as a mafia money launder and narcotics trafficker based out of Switzerland and Milan, was arrested in Chicago in 2000 and extradited to face charges in Italy. According to reports, Pelossi was involved in a transnational cocaine trafficking and money laundering operation, with the First National Bank of Cicero involved in the laundering aspect. Pelossi had apparently also participated in the Airbus scandal in the 1990s where former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulvaney was charged with taking bribes from European businessmen. To be clear, I don’t know that Pelossi had any specific Outfit ties, but thought he was worth including here as a potential link. Further, while he has been repeatedly identified as working for the “mafia”, I’m not sure what specific organization he is/was affiliated with in Italy. It does seem that he was detained in 1994 by the Catanzaro police during an anti-money laundering operation, so a good guess would be the ‘Ndrangheta.Law-enforcement sources said Chicago and the western Cook County suburbs are playing host to an increasing number of organized-crime figures from Italy who are on the lam from authorities there. Known by local mobsters as "Zips," the Italian expatriates have been linked to drug trafficking and violence and are feared even by homegrown organized-crime figures, the sources said.
Back to Ottavio Volpe. After “Operation Espresso” he apparently relocated to the Tampa area, and opened a bakery called “La Cosa Nostra” (great way to lay low…). Volpe is currently serving a life sentence in Terre Haute after being convicted in 2005 for a somewhat bizarre series of events that don’t seem to have really been reported in the Chicago-area press. In 1997, Volpe decided to rob 78-year old Jean Schwartzkopf, an elderly customer at his bakery. Volpe called his connections in Chicago – Camillo Gigliotti and restauranteur and fence Faris Rafidi -- who sent Anthony Carcione (mentioned previously) to assist. During the commission of the robbery, Carcione apparently brutally attacked and murdered Schwartzopf in her home. Carcione then returned to Chicago to fence her jewelry with Gigiliotti and Rafidi. Volpe was identified in the Tampa press as an “illegal Italian immigrant” (not sure why he wasn’t deported after “Operation Espresso”). From what can be gleaned from reports in the press, it seems likely that Gigliotti and Carcione were linked to the Elmwood park crew. From 2005 Tampa Bay Times article:
As I stated above, the claim was previously floated on the internet that Tony Carcione had been running drugs with Frank Rappa, however he was only in his 30s at the time of his sentencing. Therefore his father Thomas Carcione may be the person of interest if there were any links to the Rappa operation.[F]ederal prosecutor Jeffrey Del Fuoco said Carcione's father, Thomas Carcione, had communicated a new threat to government witness Paul Kendall. Kendall is expected to testify today that when a Latin King gang member tossed a bottle at a car in Chicago carrying Kendall and the younger Carcione, Thomas Carcione said, "I wonder if they'd do that if they knew there was a murderer in the car.” […] Del Fuoco said Kendall was told that testifying would result in his "being killed by someone from the alleged Elmwood Park Mafia."
The Tampa-area press also noted that Camillo Gigliotti (then 52) was sentenced to five years for his role in fencing the jewelry and stated that his nickname was “Southside Frankie”. Despite his apparent moniker, records indicate that Gigliotti at least formerly had an address on North Narragansett Avenue, near Elmwood Park. I don’t know much about Gigiliotti, but I believe he may himself be an Italian national (his close family members have Italian given names, Francesco, Giuseppe, etc). Further, the Tampa-area press noted that Gigliotti had a prior narcotics trafficking conviction. I’m not sure where exactly Gigliotti is from, but it’s worth noting that the surname Gigliotti is very strongly concentrated in Calabria. Given this and his apparent background in drugs, one wonders if Camillo Gigliotti has any relation to the Gigliotti ‘Ndrangheta drug operation from a while back in Corona, Queens.
Given that a number of the apparent Italian nationals in Chicago in recent years appear to have been of Pugliese origin, a highly speculative hypothesis is that at least during the 1990s/early 2000s the Elmwood Park crew may have had some substantive link to affiliates of the Sacra Corona Unita. An FBI statement quoted in the Italian press provides some grounds to support this hypothesis:
What immediately comes to mind when mulling this over is that a number of members or associates of Elmwood Park have been of full or partial Pugliese ancestry. Most notably, longtime Elmwood Park boss Johnny Di Fronzo was born in Bari, as were most of the Cassano brothers. Marco D’Amico’s mother was also from Puglia. While these individuals were all either 2nd generation Pugliesi or arrived in the US as children, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that familial links to Puglia have remained active. In recent decades, Outfit figures have been known to vacation in and travel to Italy (e.g. Solly D hanging out in his ancestral city of Naples). In light of Di Fronzo’s at least titular rule over Elmwood Park, it ‘s worth noting that in 2010 32-year-old Alessandro De Fronzo [sic] was arrested in Barcelona by Spanish National police working with Interpol and the Carabinieri. De Fronzo was identified at the time as one of Italy’s top 100 Mafia fugitives and a high-ranking member of the Palermiti clan of the Sacra Corona Unita. The Palermiti clan is of course active in Bari (including specifically in Triggiano and Capurso, where the Chicago Di Fronzos are from). Additionally, Cassanos have been identified as members of the Diomede and Cipriano-Conte-Cassano clans in Bari as well as Volpes and "Balestras" in a number of SAC clans in other areas of Puglia. At the very least, it’s food for thought and discussion.Very few Sacra Corona Unita members have been identified in the US, although some individuals in Illinois, Florida, and New York have links to the organization.
As always, all mistakes are my own and I welcome any corrections.
