by gohnjotti » Mon Jul 15, 2019 5:51 am
Regarding the possibility of a power struggle;
We've seen both the Bonannos and the Luccheses go through power struggles in the last couple of years that almost led to bloodshed, so we shouldn't discount the fact that there may be very ambitious people in the Colombo family that are still willing to fight for the top slot. Even today, there's a lot of money that flows into Persico family's hands, according to Angelo Spata's 2011 court papers.
Over the years, the Persicos have definitely made it their top priority to keep the family as loyal and short-leashed as possible. The majority of the recent inductees for the family were Persico loyalists during the Third Colombo War, despite that faction being only a quarter of the size of the Orena camp. This is clearly intentional. Administration changes have also tended to favor the Persico faction; Andrew Russo, Tommy Gioeli, and Ralph DeLeo as street bosses, as well as Theodore Persico Jr., Reynold Maragni, Thomas Farese, Anthony Russo, Dino Calabro, Michael Catapano, and Anthony Stropoli all being given capo/acting capo titles.
Nevertheless, the Orena faction's presence is still unavoidable, given that they were three times the size of the Persico camp during the war. Of the five known capos in the Colombo family today, two of them supported Orena. Joey Amato is the most dangerous of those two. He was a devout Orena supporter during the war and was instrumental in organizing murders against the Persico side. He was arrested in 1993 as a disgraced enemy of the borgata, but somehow came out after serving sixteen years and jumped back to the top. He was released in 2009. By around 2012/13, he was a capo and had a top associate of his - John Cerbone - attending sitdowns on his behalf (according to Cerbone's own taped conversations cited in his 2015 case). Then, Amato was able to get Cerbone inducted, even though Cerbone was another Orena faction supporter involved in murder conspiracies against the Persicos, and later became a member of the Cutolo crew later in the '90s. During this time frame, Amato was the so-called "boss of Staten Island," according to Gang Land News. It's up to interpretation what Capeci meant by that. He might have been citing court papers, or he might have just been pumping up Amato's status as capo. Still very intriguing, given that Amato accomplished all of this in three short years.
The only problem is, Joey's most likely on borrowed time. When the overworked and undermanned Bonanno/Colombo/Genovese FBI squad finally refocus their limited manpower on the Colombos, they probably don't have to try very hard to nab Amato on a racketeering/extortion pinch. One of the tapes released in John Cerbone's 2015 trial was one in which he bragged about being recently inducted into the family and attending various sitdowns on Joey Amato's behalf. The only reason that recording was cited was to prove Cerbone's own induction, so one can only imagine what other tapes the informant in that case (who hasn't been publicly revealed, but was apparently the grandson of a Genovese wiseguy) collected from Cerbone regarding Amato's criminal activities and status. More recently, Colombo associate Anthony Preza has flipped and told the feds all about how he paid protection money to Joey Amato, specifically to prevent him getting attacked by Bonanno capo Joe Sabella That's extortion, and Sabella has already pleaded guilty to his role in the Preza shakedown. In fact, when Preza stopped paying Amato's protection fee, Joey gave Sabella the green light to do whatever he pleased to Preza. That's a criminal case that writes itself, especially with Preza willing to take the stand. Let's be honest, extortion cases have been made out of much less than that. Gambino acting capo Anthony Licata was charged with extortion last year even after he told the so-called victim "that no one was going to hurt him and that he did not have to pay the money if he did not want to," according to Gang Land News. Better yet, the so-called victim was only being "extorted" after he stole $50,000 from the widow of a former business partner. Go figure.
Ralphie Lombardo is the second known family capo that was an Orena supporter. He's 86, so he's probably not much to worry about and he's proven himself to be far too low-key to seek the limelight. He even uses an acting capo as an intermediary for his own crew. Gang Land News, in one article from 2012 IIRC, reported that Lombardo was neutral during the Colombo war. Court testimony from Dino Calabro disproves that; apparently, Lombardo was targeted for assassination during the war. Then, Lombardo was targeted for assassination again by Allie Persico in the late '90s/early '00s, due to fears he was an informer. He might be 86, but it would probably be fair to say he's got a lot of animosity towards Allie, Tommy Gioeli, Joel Cacace, and the rest of the top Colombo honchos who planned to whack him.
The biggest threat to the Persico administration, in my eyes, is probably Ben Castellazzo, the family's official underboss. I know it's 2019, but I can't imagine that Castellazzo sleeps well knowing what happened to the Colombo Family's last Orena-supporting underboss. It's not as if he has nothing to worry about; he was stalked and targeted for death by Tommy Gioeli's crew during the war. Castellazzo's no spring chicken (he's just hit 80), but he's been incredibly active in recent years with a fast-growing crew, and I can't imagine he's endeared himself to the Persicos. For starters, Castellazzo seized the acting boss position after Tommy Gioeli's June 2008 imprisonment. Gang Land News reported in late 2008 that Gioeli didn't have a clear successor, because nobody wanted the job, but recently-unearthed court papers (from yours truly) have disproved that. Then, Gang Land News reported that, from prison, Allie Persico handpicked a relatively-unknown Massachusetts soldier, Ralph DeLeo, to serve as street boss in order to prevent the elements of the family loyal to Vic Orena taking control of the family, according to law enforcement sources. Piecing those two facts together, it seems DeLeo got the job specifically to thwart Castellazzo.
Benji was then demoted to acting underboss, but continued to throw his weight around. He inducted two of his top associates in one 2009 ceremony, Manny Favuzza and Sally Castagno, and began taking over rackets that formerly belonged to Tommy Gioeli, including the annual shakedown of bookmakers and card game operators. This wasn't done peacefully. Castellazzo and Joel Cacace's sons apparently showed up at a card game ran by John Azzarelli demanding money, according to wiretap transcripts introduced in Tommy Gioeli's 2012 trial, and Castellazzo was charged in 2011 with squeezing Gioeli associate Roger Califano for a $10,000 annual Christmas tribute, which was double Califano's amount he paid to Gioeli.
That being said, do I think there will be a power struggle in the Colombo family? No, not really. A Massachusetts-based soldier with essentially zero ties to New York was promoted to street boss purely because an imprisoned Allie Persico said so, and he wasn't met with any resistance. Following Andy Russo's 2011 imprisonment and detention without bail, a long-retired soldier in Los Angeles and a Florida-based soldier were called in to run the family and, again, there doesn't seem to have been any resistance. Finally, and most importantly, money has continued to flow into the Persico family's hands, even when they were almost all behind bars. There are are lot of examples of that in recent court papers, mostly pointing to Angelo Spata, who dispensed money from Joker-Poker operations to the imprisoned Persicos, sent $5000 of Califano's shakedown to the imprisoned Persicos, and demanded that acting capo Anthony Russo collect money owed by associate Richie Cappa as part of the Persico family's Christmas tribute, which indicates that associates far-and-wide are obliged to kick up Christmastime tributes to the imprisoned leadership.
Regarding the possibility of a power struggle;
We've seen both the Bonannos and the Luccheses go through power struggles in the last couple of years that almost led to bloodshed, so we shouldn't discount the fact that there may be very ambitious people in the Colombo family that are still willing to fight for the top slot. Even today, there's a lot of money that flows into Persico family's hands, according to Angelo Spata's 2011 court papers.
Over the years, the Persicos have definitely made it their top priority to keep the family as loyal and short-leashed as possible. The majority of the recent inductees for the family were Persico loyalists during the Third Colombo War, despite that faction being only a quarter of the size of the Orena camp. This is clearly intentional. Administration changes have also tended to favor the Persico faction; Andrew Russo, Tommy Gioeli, and Ralph DeLeo as street bosses, as well as Theodore Persico Jr., Reynold Maragni, Thomas Farese, Anthony Russo, Dino Calabro, Michael Catapano, and Anthony Stropoli all being given capo/acting capo titles.
Nevertheless, the Orena faction's presence is still unavoidable, given that they were three times the size of the Persico camp during the war. Of the five known capos in the Colombo family today, two of them supported Orena. Joey Amato is the most dangerous of those two. He was a devout Orena supporter during the war and was instrumental in organizing murders against the Persico side. He was arrested in 1993 as a disgraced enemy of the borgata, but somehow came out after serving sixteen years and jumped back to the top. He was released in 2009. By around 2012/13, he was a capo and had a top associate of his - John Cerbone - attending sitdowns on his behalf (according to Cerbone's own taped conversations cited in his 2015 case). Then, Amato was able to get Cerbone inducted, even though Cerbone was another Orena faction supporter involved in murder conspiracies against the Persicos, and later became a member of the Cutolo crew later in the '90s. During this time frame, Amato was the so-called "boss of Staten Island," according to Gang Land News. It's up to interpretation what Capeci meant by that. He might have been citing court papers, or he might have just been pumping up Amato's status as capo. Still very intriguing, given that Amato accomplished all of this in three short years.
The only problem is, Joey's most likely on borrowed time. When the overworked and undermanned Bonanno/Colombo/Genovese FBI squad finally refocus their limited manpower on the Colombos, they probably don't have to try very hard to nab Amato on a racketeering/extortion pinch. One of the tapes released in John Cerbone's 2015 trial was one in which he bragged about being recently inducted into the family and attending various sitdowns on Joey Amato's behalf. The only reason that recording was cited was to prove Cerbone's own induction, so one can only imagine what other tapes the informant in that case (who hasn't been publicly revealed, but was apparently the grandson of a Genovese wiseguy) collected from Cerbone regarding Amato's criminal activities and status. More recently, Colombo associate Anthony Preza has flipped and told the feds all about how he paid protection money to Joey Amato, specifically to prevent him getting attacked by Bonanno capo Joe Sabella [b]That's extortion[/b], and Sabella has already pleaded guilty to his role in the Preza shakedown. In fact, when Preza [i]stopped[/i] paying Amato's protection fee, Joey gave Sabella the green light to do whatever he pleased to Preza. That's a criminal case that writes itself, especially with Preza willing to take the stand. Let's be honest, extortion cases have been made out of much less than that. Gambino acting capo Anthony Licata was charged with extortion last year even after he told the so-called victim "that no one was going to hurt him and that he did not have to pay the money if he did not want to," according to Gang Land News. Better yet, the so-called victim was only being "extorted" after he stole $50,000 from the widow of a former business partner. Go figure.
Ralphie Lombardo is the second known family capo that was an Orena supporter. He's 86, so he's probably not much to worry about and he's proven himself to be far too low-key to seek the limelight. He even uses an acting capo as an intermediary for his own crew. Gang Land News, in one article from 2012 IIRC, reported that Lombardo was neutral during the Colombo war. Court testimony from Dino Calabro disproves that; apparently, Lombardo was targeted for assassination during the war. Then, Lombardo was targeted for assassination again by Allie Persico in the late '90s/early '00s, due to fears he was an informer. He might be 86, but it would probably be fair to say he's got a lot of animosity towards Allie, Tommy Gioeli, Joel Cacace, and the rest of the top Colombo honchos who planned to whack him.
The biggest threat to the Persico administration, in my eyes, is probably Ben Castellazzo, the family's official underboss. I know it's 2019, but I can't imagine that Castellazzo sleeps well knowing what happened to the Colombo Family's last Orena-supporting underboss. It's not as if he has nothing to worry about; he was stalked and targeted for death by Tommy Gioeli's crew during the war. Castellazzo's no spring chicken (he's just hit 80), but he's been incredibly active in recent years with a fast-growing crew, and I can't imagine he's endeared himself to the Persicos. For starters, Castellazzo seized the acting boss position after Tommy Gioeli's June 2008 imprisonment. Gang Land News reported in late 2008 that Gioeli didn't have a clear successor, because nobody wanted the job, but recently-unearthed court papers (from yours truly) have disproved that. Then, Gang Land News reported that, from prison, Allie Persico handpicked a relatively-unknown Massachusetts soldier, Ralph DeLeo, to serve as street boss in order to prevent the elements of the family loyal to Vic Orena taking control of the family, according to law enforcement sources. Piecing those two facts together, it seems DeLeo got the job specifically to thwart Castellazzo.
Benji was then demoted to acting underboss, but continued to throw his weight around. He inducted two of his top associates in one 2009 ceremony, Manny Favuzza and Sally Castagno, and began taking over rackets that formerly belonged to Tommy Gioeli, including the annual shakedown of bookmakers and card game operators. This wasn't done peacefully. Castellazzo and Joel Cacace's sons apparently showed up at a card game ran by John Azzarelli demanding money, according to wiretap transcripts introduced in Tommy Gioeli's 2012 trial, and Castellazzo was charged in 2011 with squeezing Gioeli associate Roger Califano for a $10,000 annual Christmas tribute, which was double Califano's amount he paid to Gioeli.
[u]That being said[/u], do I think there will be a power struggle in the Colombo family? No, not really. A Massachusetts-based soldier with essentially zero ties to New York was promoted to street boss purely because an imprisoned Allie Persico said so, and he wasn't met with any resistance. Following Andy Russo's 2011 imprisonment and detention without bail, a long-retired soldier in Los Angeles and a Florida-based soldier were called in to run the family and, again, there doesn't seem to have been any resistance. Finally, and most importantly, money has continued to flow into the Persico family's hands, even when they were almost all behind bars. There are are lot of examples of that in recent court papers, mostly pointing to Angelo Spata, who dispensed money from Joker-Poker operations to the imprisoned Persicos, sent $5000 of Califano's shakedown to the imprisoned Persicos, and demanded that acting capo Anthony Russo collect money owed by associate Richie Cappa as part of the Persico family's Christmas tribute, which indicates that associates far-and-wide are obliged to kick up Christmastime tributes to the imprisoned leadership.