THE BLACK HAND FORUM

NickleCity wrote: ↑Mon Jan 13, 2025 6:31 pm Frank Tripi DTO
Alleged by HSI Agent Curtis Ryan to be connected to IOC in Buffalo during Bongiovanni trial 1



Here is a link to the chart I've been putting together on Little Sis: https://littlesis.org/oligrapher/10333-frank-tripi-dto

Frank Tripi DTO
-Frank was the primary target of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force’s (OCDETF) Operation Past Due
-The DTO is alleged to have an international component in Canada
-The investigation involved multiple states including California and Nevada
-Local Law Enforcement included offices from the ATF, DEA, IRS, state and local agencies including the Niagara Falls Police Department
-The Tripi DTO is alleged to have trafficked cocaine, marijuana, and heroin while laundering money via bulk cash movement by air, wire transfer, business fronts, casinos, and property investments (real estate).
-Alleged to be connected to Italian Organized Crime in Buffalo by SA Curtis Ryan.

Origin of Operation Past Due
Niagara Falls Police, NFPD, narcotics detectives contacted the Buffalo DEA task force regarding drug activity involving a collection agency, Direct Mediators, located at 1615 Pine Avenue, Niagara Falls, New York. NFPD narcotics detectives interviewed an employee that quit after one week of employment at the collection agency that remained anonymous. He/she observed illegal activity such as cocaine, heroin, prescription drugs, and marijuana being sold out of the collection agency. He/she stated that Frank Tripi, the owner of the agency, stayed in the back office which was off limits to the employees.

Scope of Frank Tripi DTO
The geographic scope of this organization has currently been identified as being Santa Cruz, California and the Western New York area, specifically Niagara Falls, New York, and Buffalo, New York.

The total number of participants in this organization has yet to be fully identified. However, it is believed that the organization consists of at least eleven identified members, and likely many more who have yet to be identified.

It is believed that this organization is currently engaged in the distribution of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and various prescription drugs. It is currently believed, based on confidential source information, that this organization is distributing in excess of at least 2 kilograms of cocaine and multiple ounce quantities of heroin, multiple pounds of marijuana, and unknown quantities of prescription drugs per month in the Western New York area.

Tripi is obtaining his heroin from Ohio and driving it back to the Western New York area in vehicles with hidden compartments. Tripi himself is also involved with the coordination of trafficking of cocaine, marijuana, and prescription drugs. It is unknown at the present time how the cocaine and prescription drugs are delivered to Tripi.


Goals of Operation Past Due
The overall goals of this investigation are to identify the totality of this drug-trafficking organization, including but not limited to the commanding and control elements, smuggling routes and methods, distribution networks, methods utilized to avoid apprehension by law enforcement, and money laundering methods.

The Mark and Sam Zito Family
In 2021 Sam Zito and 2 others were convicted of smuggling over 600 pounds marijuana from Canada. See: https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crim ... 5f0df.html

Sam and Mark Zito are brothers. See: https://www.mjcoluccifuneralchapel.com/obituary/477340

Their father Mark, a laborer at Local 91, was involved with shady stuff in The Falls. He was alleged to be involved in a fee splitting scheme while on the School Board. See: https://buffalonews.com/news/zito-is-ar ... 2c047.html And he was alleged to be involved in a travel scandal while on the board: https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/lo ... dd170.html

Additionally Mark Zito Sr. started the Niagara Power Coalition, but was accused of using his position with that organization for his personal gain. See: https://www.niagara-gazette.com/lawyers ... ed1a2.html For payments to son Mark and Fiancé see also: https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/lo ... c9e81.html

Snip...

antimafia wrote: ↑Sun May 11, 2025 3:58 pm

antimafia wrote: ↑Sat May 03, 2025 6:27 am A legitimate paywall-free version of Peter Edwards’s article on the murder of Hells Angel Craig McIlquham is available at the link below.

Long­time Hells Angel gunned down out­side Bur­l­ing­ton res­taur­ant

https://pressreader.com/article/281599541374732

Peter Edwards has written another article about this topic:

‘Brazen’ killing at Mandarin restaurant near Toronto shines light on Hells Angels’ changing business model
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/brazen ... a0955.html

Toronto Star's paywall-free version:

https://pressreader.com/article/281625311194961

antimafia wrote: ↑Sat May 03, 2025 6:27 am A legitimate paywall-free version of Peter Edwards’s article on the murder of Hells Angel Craig McIlquham is available at the link below.

Long­time Hells Angel gunned down out­side Bur­l­ing­ton res­taur­ant

https://pressreader.com/article/281599541374732

antimafia wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 9:30 am

Clark wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 8:34 am That was one of the better news conferences that I have seen. They must be pretty confident with the information that they have. I think a lot will come out of this.

I'm cross-posting here.

My notes:

- Jabril Hassan Abdalla was arrested at home yesterday at around 3:00 pm. He lives in Hamilton and is from Hamilton.

- Michael Cudmore and Daniel Mario Tomassetti are at large. There are Canada-wide warrants for their arrest, and law enforcement here will try to get the warrants endorsed internationally -- Interpol was mentioned.

- The three individuals were involved in different ways in the murder of Angelo Musitano and attempted murder of Saverio "Sam" Serrano (one of Diego Serrano's three sons; you'll recall that the latter attempt, which was botched, resulted in the murder of Saverio's girlfriend, Mila Barberi). One of the three is believed to be the shooter in both murders. All three were likely doing the bidding of higher-ups in an Italian organized-crime group, i.e., the three were not the masterminds. The three engaged in sophisticated surveillance not only of the intended targets but of the intended targets' families. Cudmore, who is believed to be missing (as opposed to at large), is a friend of criminal Daniele "Danny" Ranieri.

- Ranieri was considered to be a person of interest in both murder plots. Were he still alive, he would still be a person of interest. You see, Ranieri, one of the people on which Project Forza was focused in December 2014, was found murdered in a ditch in Cancún, Mexico this past March. He had been bound and gagged. You'll recall that he was an associate of Spanish-born Juan Ramon Fernandez, aka Joe Bravo, who as a well-known associate of Vito Rizzuto, died in a shocking manner in Casteldaccia, just outside of Palermo, when he and friend Fernando Pimentel of Mississauga, Ontario were found burned and shot. You' may also reecall that while in Sicily, Fernandez was heard saying in audio surveillance something along the lines of, They better not touch Danny. After Fernandez was murdered, there was speculation that Ranieri would take over the former's "crew" in the Greater Toronto Area, which was considered to have ties to Rizzuto and the Montreal Mafia.

- Peter Edwards did report this past July that Ranieri was not found dead in Mexico last December -- see https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/0 ... -says.html and Edwards's blog post at https://peteredwardsauthor.com/2018/07/ ... cial-says/. I can tell you that Edwards worked on that story for a number of months but I can't tell you what a source told him earlier this year about Ranieri, information that Edwards did not include in his July 9 article.

- At some point, Cudmore's family has (had?) been told about Ranieri's murder, and the family, as well as law enforcement, now fears that Cudmore has also been killed in Mexico.

- The recently murdered Al Iavarone knew two of the accused in the Musitano murder. Iavarone also knew a person of interest in the plot to murder Musitano. Iavarone knew Musitano.
Law enforcement does not yet know whether there is a common motive for the murder of Musitano and the attempted murder of Serrano.

- Apart from the investigations being multi-jurisdictional here in Canada, there was also co-operation with the FBI, DEA, and Department of Homeland Security (which I think had to do with Ranieri's and Cudmore's presence in Mexico). The Mexican authorities have also been assisting.

antimafia wrote: ↑Sat May 03, 2025 6:22 am

AntComello wrote: ↑Sat May 03, 2025 3:33 am Wonder who’s behind this one since there’s been a “truce” called between mafia and HA

Rob Barletta is another significant HA from the Project Hobart investigation who, so far, has had one attempt on his life when he was living in Toronto, and later on, after moving to Quebec, whose residences were respectively set on fire and shot at. He’s still in Quebec, where he’s believed to have become a member of the Hells in that province who is assisting the influential HA Martin Robert with increasing the Hells’ share of revenue from illegal gambling in Quebec (and probably elsewhere).

We don’t know yet whether Craig McIlquham is the latest casualty of a particular conflict in a particular territory. Burlington, where he was killed (as was Pat Musitano), is in Halton Region, but McIlquham’s ties to the Niagara region are important. We do know that he and Barletta continued to partner with ’ndranghetisti in the Greater Toronto Area after, IMHO, Vito Rizzuto lost overall authority over the Platinum Sportsbook, which is exclusively illegal Internet gambling. Rizzuto, the Figliomenis, and the HAs were all partners when Platinum was born.

AntComello wrote: ↑Sat May 03, 2025 3:33 am Wonder who’s behind this one since there’s been a “truce” called between mafia and HA

antimafia wrote: ↑Tue Oct 31, 2023 11:28 pm

antimafia wrote: ↑Sat May 27, 2023 6:32 pm

antimafia wrote: ↑Fri Apr 07, 2023 9:29 am

CabriniGreen wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 5:08 am

antimafia wrote: ↑Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:15 pm

SonnyBlackstein wrote: ↑Fri Jul 22, 2022 11:34 am

antimafia wrote: ↑Wed Jul 20, 2022 11:53 pm First, Project Sindacato, and now Project Hobart. This mafia-and-81s collaboration has been going on for at least 18 years.

Massive gambling case against GTA Hells Angels falls apart over trial delay
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/0 ... delay.html

Funny coincidence. MASSIVE Hells angels gathering/rally in Toronto as we speak.
Gotta love a good coincidnece.

Illegal gambling crackdown fizzles out as charges withdrawn
https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/ill ... -withdrawn

This has become yet another interesting angle in the ongoing developments in the Canadian underworld.

So it looks like the Hells and maybe the Figliomenis (?) control the successor to the Platinum/ Ontario sportsbooks. If the Hells control the Quebec/ Montreal book as well... Well.

Whom else could the Toronto crime family be? Ursinos? Commissos? Bonvonta?

Below are links to my Evernote items for the main and secondary articles written yesterday by the London Free Press (London, Ontario) reporters Randy Richmond and Dale Carruthers, along with the Free Press newsroom. NB: 1. I did not capture any photos, but sometimes you'll see photo captions in the Evernote items. 2. The secondary article "Operation Hobart: The Barletta properties" is the only one in which Platinum Sports Book is mentioned, but "Sportsbook" is mentioned in the main article -- I'll ask the reporters in a public tweet whether the names are interchangeable. 3. There is no mention of Project Sindacato, which targeted the 'ndrangheta in the GTA in a related investigation, nor of any 'ndrangheta figures who were arrested, charged, and then only later saw their charges dropped.

Main article: How a huge probe into illegal sports betting became a $40M asset fight
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... r43kFjVNGw

Linked article (secondary): Operation Hobart: Charges and court results
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... 5iJRrF8gDQ

Linked article (secondary): Operation Hobart: The Barletta properties
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... PUvuMSbKfQ

Linked article (secondary): Operation Hobart: How police say it worked
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... N5K0V5NInQ

This Mississauga man was one of dozens charged in 2019, the more notable names including full-patch Hells Angels Rob Barletta and Gino Reda.

$200K in cash found under Ontario man's bed seized by authorities
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/200k-in-cash ... -1.6414548

Millions in Hells Angels cash poured into southern Ontario real estate, court documents show
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/millions-in- ... -1.6624647

Alleged London biker ensnared in dueling lawsuits over luxury Grey County development
https://owensoundsuntimes.com/news/loca ... evelopment

antimafia wrote: ↑Thu May 01, 2025 9:46 am
The name of the murder victim has neither been announced by the Halton Regional Police Service nor published by the media.

I became aware of the victim’s name yesterday. It will generate lots of discussion and speculation.

antimafia wrote: ↑Sat Apr 19, 2025 8:20 am ^^^^
Here you go:

https://pressreader.com/article/281659670889035