Modern organized crime in Tampa Bay

[barbwiregrind]

I hear bits and pieces of Italian mob owned clubs here in pinellas and Hillsborough county. I also heard that they made some social club style hangouts out of local pool halls in st petersburg, solid evidence is what i lack. A few things ive read and discussed with semi connected (gang members, not lcn) guys has led me to believe this.

For one I hear some guy recently (2012) was going through the clubs in Ybor city and St Petersburg and demanding protection money , he was claiming connection to A New York fam and has apparently a decent sized crew, though i cant find proof on paper.

I was reading Made Men, a great book about the NY faction of the Decavalcante family and a Joseph 'Tin Ear' Sclafani claimed that going to florida was like winning the wiseguy lottery, i believe he went as far to mention that a club was owned by them in an area about a 2 hour drive from Tampa. He seemed to indicate that every family had a few crews running throughout Florida.

I don't really want to hear much about Santo Trafficante, his organization seems to have dissipated, and the guys left as made men in his organization live fairly open and legitimate lives, such as the on paper boss Vinny Loscalzo. Hell the file the FBI has published on the Trafficante family has Loscalzo their boss hanging out in bars that haven't existed in 10 to 15 years.


Does anyone know whats really going on here? A very large amount of money seems to be going through here via strip clubs, prostitution, gambling, drugs, and everything else. Seems like someone would put in their hand.

[Rocco]

There really isnt anything left of the Trafficante family these days. After the indictments in south Florida and Mamone flipped...its pretty much never bounced back. That was almost 15yrs ago...if the Trafficante family was a viable active family there would have been arrests. There was a Gambino crew operating under John Alite in Tampa where they took over the valet businesses down in Tampa...but the crew imploded when the indictments came down and Alite flipped and is living in the open in Queens. And I believe Alite had some Trafficante associates under him so it was assumed that the Gambinos took over what was left of the Tampa family. It seems to have died out like in many cities. Vinny Loscalzo may very well be still active in illegal activies but I don't think he runs a viable LCN family anymore. Kinda like what Billy D'elia was doing in PA.

[Dellacroce]

According to some of the recent stuff Scott D has written about tampa, Loscalzo isnt active anymore and works at a country club/golf course.

[NYNighthawk]

The motorcycle gangs/clubs are extorting the strip clubs for protection money. Those gangs are big down there and perhaps more importantly, very deadly to deal with.

[JCB1977]

Always love hearing about Tampa! Great stuff guys. I know LoScalzo has had dinner with Ron Carabbia on a few occasions, Carabbia was released back in 2002 after doing 25 years for the Danny Greene bombing. Nothing illegal going on, basically a few old knock around guys bullshitting over Italian food. I know Carabbia had some businesses down there around Sarasota that were those video machine gaming internet Parlors before Florida banned them.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20 ... /131219997


http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20 ... /130539928

[barbwiregrind]

Always love hearing about Tampa! Great stuff guys. I know LoScalzo has had dinner with Ron Carabbia on a few occasions, Carabbia was released back in 2000 after doing 25 years for the Danny Greene bombing. Nothing illegal going on, basically a few old knock around guys bullshitting over Italian food. I know Carabbia had some businesses down there around Sarasota that were those video machine gaming internet Parlors before Florida banned them.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20 ... /131219997


http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20 ... /130539928

Hell yeah i remember those gaming spots. They seemed to be run by shady characters though i believe the ones i frequented were at least manned by hiatian immigrants, but who knows who really got the money at the end of the week. I would see people in those places from sun down to sun up.

[JCB1977]

Ron Carabbia's son is also named Ron, he had them all in his name. The son built an empire with some start up cash from his Dad, bought property along I-4 back in the1980's and through Sky King Fireworks, he owns a 50% stake in every location. The Family is from Youngstown, Ron Sr. ran the a section of Youngstown for the Cleveland Family. He and LoScalzo have become friendly, but nothing is going on. Carabbia is approaching 86 years old, he still ran his gambling for 25 years while locked up through some of his most trusted loyalists, and invested most of his money into land/commercial real estate and a Retail Fireworks fortune.

[rayray]

There's a Sky King in my neck of the woods.

[JCB1977]

There's a Sky King in my neck of the woods.

Ron Carabbia Jr owns them. He lives in Sarasota, owns 50% Of all 18 locations in FL, PA, and IN.

[JCB1977]

Here's some articles on Ron Carabbia Sr., now a Sarasota snow bird:


http://www.vindy.com/news/2002/jul/10/p ... bia/?print


http://m.19actionnews.com/19actionnews/ ... d:GLAP0rb9

[JCB1977]

Great piece on LoScalzo: my question...Was he a high ranking mobster or just connected?


http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/25/Hills ... gdom.shtml