Operation Iron Tower

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Re: Operation Iron Tower

by motorfab » Sat Mar 30, 2024 10:33 am

I found this chart of Operation Iron Tower for those who may be interested

Image

Note: Joseph Cuffaro is not the mafioso of the Caruana-Cuntrera clan, but an individual from Palermo. He later became pentito and testified against Giovanni "Big John" Galatolo

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by PolackTony » Sat Dec 17, 2022 1:38 pm

cavita wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 11:19 am I have a bunch of FBI files that outline the narcotics business that I know is related to Ocello and members and associates relating to Iron Tower but the file is so redacted I can’t get a handle on anything. Apparently, one of those involved with Ocello was a Giuseppe Artale who was himself arrested in early 1990 on drug charges. A little background on Artale is he was born in Roccamena, Sicily and immigrated to Rockford in 1963 with his family. From what I understand, his father Gaspare was a mafia member in Sicily but I don’t know if that meant his membership transferred to Rockford in 1963 when they came over.
In November 1975 Giuseppe Artale opened Rita’s Restaurant in Rockford with his friend, Joseph Marsala. Interestingly, Artale married Marsala’s widow after she shot and killed Marsala in 1979 because she said Marsala threatened her.
Good info. Tangential to the topic here, but it seems to me that the Marsalas in Rockford went back to Caltabellota and had ties to LaSalle County as well. If so, could be relevant given that Ocello is Burgitano.

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by cavita » Sat Dec 17, 2022 11:19 am

I have a bunch of FBI files that outline the narcotics business that I know is related to Ocello and members and associates relating to Iron Tower but the file is so redacted I can’t get a handle on anything. Apparently, one of those involved with Ocello was a Giuseppe Artale who was himself arrested in early 1990 on drug charges. A little background on Artale is he was born in Roccamena, Sicily and immigrated to Rockford in 1963 with his family. From what I understand, his father Gaspare was a mafia member in Sicily but I don’t know if that meant his membership transferred to Rockford in 1963 when they came over.
In November 1975 Giuseppe Artale opened Rita’s Restaurant in Rockford with his friend, Joseph Marsala. Interestingly, Artale married Marsala’s widow after she shot and killed Marsala in 1979 because she said Marsala threatened her.

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by felice » Sat Dec 17, 2022 8:20 am

I don't think he was arrested during that operation

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by CabriniGreen » Sat Dec 17, 2022 8:02 am

felice wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 4:17 am Naimo was a member of Tommaso Natale family and was later transfered to San Lorenzo
Do you have a John Galatola from Miami?

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by CabriniGreen » Sat Dec 17, 2022 5:37 am

johnny_scootch wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 5:23 am With the "Bivio 2" operation, another hard blow to the San Lorenzo district 2021

By Giovanni Burgio

Giulio Caporrimo, arrested together with 7 other people on Wednesday, July 21, reaffirmed his power over the San Lorenzo - Tommaso Natale district thanks to the capillaries, almost obsessive, extortion carried out on the economic activities falling within his territory of competence.

There was no entrepreneur, trader, contract or business movement, who escaped the ‘putting in place’, the ‘subsidy to the prisoners’, the ‘Christmas gift’. Vincenzo Taormina, Antonino Vitamia, Vincenzo Billeci, imposed them punctually on those who worked in this part of Palermo.

Cosa Nostra: carpet extortion

If there was a new excavation work in Sferracavallo (another village in the so-called “Mandamento San Lorenzo-Tommaso Natale), it was necessary to immediately ascertain ‘to whom it belonged”; if renovations were being done in a school, it was necessary to pay the due; when a construction company resisted, a van was burned; if the owner of the

And some of these extortion and ‘concession of permission’ have had paradoxical if not even comic implications. There is the construction builder who protests with the boss for the failure to award the 780,000 euro contract; another owner of works who turns to other family heads to intercede on the “permission”; the small bar that pays the wrong man of the cosca; the owner of numerous garages who went to Caporrimo to get a discount, finds himself paying more because some of these activities

Eleven were the extortion ascertained by the investigations. Two entrepreneurs who rebelled and denounced.

Giuseppe Vassallo, owner of several agencies, would have paid Cosa Nostra 1,000 euros a week. In this case, however, the investigators say, it would not be a real extortion, but a collaboration between the owner of the betting points and the mafia organization.

Vassal, in fact, would have deliberately and continuously sought the bosses, both to obtain authorization to open other agencies, and to have greater commercial advantages from these illicit relations.

The internal war at Cosa Nostra

In the last ten years, the San Lorenzo – Tommaso Natale district has undergone as many as ten anti-mafia operations, and the last two, in January 2021 and this one in July, have the same name ‘Bivio’ for a specific reason. The affiliates and heads of household, in fact, are faced with a choice, at a crossroads: to follow the directives of the last Provincial Commission reconstituted in Baida on May 29, 2018, or to deny ‘the legitimacy’ of this new Dome?

Giulio Caporrimo has no doubts, and has quite clear ideas about it. He explained them to himself and out loud in his frequent soliloqui captured by the bedbugs installed in his machine: “This is no longer Cosa Nostra. The Commission cannot make two or three mandates. And then they all repent, and they get scared. When you propose them to do something serious, they run away, they are afraid. They have shrunk like the stiddari. Cosa Nostra is now like Stidda. This is a Thing as it comes to us, as it appears to them. Cosa Nostra is like a field of gypsies.”

In fact, Caporrimo, out of prison, does not recognize the regent designated by the Commission, Francesco Palumeri, and, between 2019 and 2020, he leaves Florence for a few months. Returning to his territory, however, he is immediately recognized as the head by his men, even if the Court of Review does not impute him this managerial role on the district.

In short, in one of the most violent districts of Palermo the battle is fought between the old Cosa Nostra and the new leaders of the mafia families.
This is the aftermath of the LoPiccolos arrest I'm guessing?

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by CabriniGreen » Sat Dec 17, 2022 5:35 am

johnny_scootch wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 5:23 am With the "Bivio 2" operation, another hard blow to the San Lorenzo district 2021

By Giovanni Burgio

Giulio Caporrimo, arrested together with 7 other people on Wednesday, July 21, reaffirmed his power over the San Lorenzo - Tommaso Natale district thanks to the capillaries, almost obsessive, extortion carried out on the economic activities falling within his territory of competence.

There was no entrepreneur, trader, contract or business movement, who escaped the ‘putting in place’, the ‘subsidy to the prisoners’, the ‘Christmas gift’. Vincenzo Taormina, Antonino Vitamia, Vincenzo Billeci, imposed them punctually on those who worked in this part of Palermo.

Cosa Nostra: carpet extortion

If there was a new excavation work in Sferracavallo (another village in the so-called “Mandamento San Lorenzo-Tommaso Natale), it was necessary to immediately ascertain ‘to whom it belonged”; if renovations were being done in a school, it was necessary to pay the due; when a construction company resisted, a van was burned; if the owner of the

And some of these extortion and ‘concession of permission’ have had paradoxical if not even comic implications. There is the construction builder who protests with the boss for the failure to award the 780,000 euro contract; another owner of works who turns to other family heads to intercede on the “permission”; the small bar that pays the wrong man of the cosca; the owner of numerous garages who went to Caporrimo to get a discount, finds himself paying more because some of these activities

Eleven were the extortion ascertained by the investigations. Two entrepreneurs who rebelled and denounced.

Giuseppe Vassallo, owner of several agencies, would have paid Cosa Nostra 1,000 euros a week. In this case, however, the investigators say, it would not be a real extortion, but a collaboration between the owner of the betting points and the mafia organization.

Vassal, in fact, would have deliberately and continuously sought the bosses, both to obtain authorization to open other agencies, and to have greater commercial advantages from these illicit relations.

The internal war at Cosa Nostra

In the last ten years, the San Lorenzo – Tommaso Natale district has undergone as many as ten anti-mafia operations, and the last two, in January 2021 and this one in July, have the same name ‘Bivio’ for a specific reason. The affiliates and heads of household, in fact, are faced with a choice, at a crossroads: to follow the directives of the last Provincial Commission reconstituted in Baida on May 29, 2018, or to deny ‘the legitimacy’ of this new Dome?

Giulio Caporrimo has no doubts, and has quite clear ideas about it. He explained them to himself and out loud in his frequent soliloqui captured by the bedbugs installed in his machine: “This is no longer Cosa Nostra. The Commission cannot make two or three mandates. And then they all repent, and they get scared. When you propose them to do something serious, they run away, they are afraid. They have shrunk like the stiddari. Cosa Nostra is now like Stidda. This is a Thing as it comes to us, as it appears to them. Cosa Nostra is like a field of gypsies.”

In fact, Caporrimo, out of prison, does not recognize the regent designated by the Commission, Francesco Palumeri, and, between 2019 and 2020, he leaves Florence for a few months. Returning to his territory, however, he is immediately recognized as the head by his men, even if the Court of Review does not impute him this managerial role on the district.

In short, in one of the most violent districts of Palermo the battle is fought between the old Cosa Nostra and the new leaders of the mafia families.
Whoa..... this is some other shit. Recent too. You got me Intrigued my man.....

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by johnny_scootch » Sat Dec 17, 2022 5:23 am

With the "Bivio 2" operation, another hard blow to the San Lorenzo district 2021

By Giovanni Burgio

Giulio Caporrimo, arrested together with 7 other people on Wednesday, July 21, reaffirmed his power over the San Lorenzo - Tommaso Natale district thanks to the capillaries, almost obsessive, extortion carried out on the economic activities falling within his territory of competence.

There was no entrepreneur, trader, contract or business movement, who escaped the ‘putting in place’, the ‘subsidy to the prisoners’, the ‘Christmas gift’. Vincenzo Taormina, Antonino Vitamia, Vincenzo Billeci, imposed them punctually on those who worked in this part of Palermo.

Cosa Nostra: carpet extortion

If there was a new excavation work in Sferracavallo (another village in the so-called “Mandamento San Lorenzo-Tommaso Natale), it was necessary to immediately ascertain ‘to whom it belonged”; if renovations were being done in a school, it was necessary to pay the due; when a construction company resisted, a van was burned; if the owner of the

And some of these extortion and ‘concession of permission’ have had paradoxical if not even comic implications. There is the construction builder who protests with the boss for the failure to award the 780,000 euro contract; another owner of works who turns to other family heads to intercede on the “permission”; the small bar that pays the wrong man of the cosca; the owner of numerous garages who went to Caporrimo to get a discount, finds himself paying more because some of these activities

Eleven were the extortion ascertained by the investigations. Two entrepreneurs who rebelled and denounced.

Giuseppe Vassallo, owner of several agencies, would have paid Cosa Nostra 1,000 euros a week. In this case, however, the investigators say, it would not be a real extortion, but a collaboration between the owner of the betting points and the mafia organization.

Vassal, in fact, would have deliberately and continuously sought the bosses, both to obtain authorization to open other agencies, and to have greater commercial advantages from these illicit relations.

The internal war at Cosa Nostra

In the last ten years, the San Lorenzo – Tommaso Natale district has undergone as many as ten anti-mafia operations, and the last two, in January 2021 and this one in July, have the same name ‘Bivio’ for a specific reason. The affiliates and heads of household, in fact, are faced with a choice, at a crossroads: to follow the directives of the last Provincial Commission reconstituted in Baida on May 29, 2018, or to deny ‘the legitimacy’ of this new Dome?

Giulio Caporrimo has no doubts, and has quite clear ideas about it. He explained them to himself and out loud in his frequent soliloqui captured by the bedbugs installed in his machine: “This is no longer Cosa Nostra. The Commission cannot make two or three mandates. And then they all repent, and they get scared. When you propose them to do something serious, they run away, they are afraid. They have shrunk like the stiddari. Cosa Nostra is now like Stidda. This is a Thing as it comes to us, as it appears to them. Cosa Nostra is like a field of gypsies.”

In fact, Caporrimo, out of prison, does not recognize the regent designated by the Commission, Francesco Palumeri, and, between 2019 and 2020, he leaves Florence for a few months. Returning to his territory, however, he is immediately recognized as the head by his men, even if the Court of Review does not impute him this managerial role on the district.

In short, in one of the most violent districts of Palermo the battle is fought between the old Cosa Nostra and the new leaders of the mafia families.

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by CabriniGreen » Sat Dec 17, 2022 4:31 am

felice wrote: Sat Dec 17, 2022 4:17 am Naimo was a member of Tommaso Natale family and was later transfered to San Lorenzo
I should read up on that..... Tommaso Natale was..... absorbed into San Lorenzo? Some kind of reorganization?

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by felice » Sat Dec 17, 2022 4:17 am

Naimo was a member of Tommaso Natale family and was later transfered to San Lorenzo

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by motorfab » Sat Dec 17, 2022 4:11 am

If I'm not mistaken, Rosario Naimo was part of the mandamento of Partinico, but I don't remember which Family/Cosca. But maybe it was San Lorenzo, not sure

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by CabriniGreen » Sat Dec 17, 2022 2:41 am

felice wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 8:33 am
cavita wrote: Thu Dec 15, 2022 8:45 pm
felice wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 11:35 am Iron Tower (1st december 1988)
Usa:
Emanuele Adamita
Francesco Badalamenti
Vittorio Barletta
Pietro Candela
Salvatore Candela
Francesco Cipriano
Giuseppe D’Amico
Paolo D’Amico
Salvatore D’Amico
Filippo Filiberto
Francesco Gambino
Giovanni Gambino
Giuseppe Gambino
Carmelo Guarnera
Francesco Inzerillo
Joseph Larosa
Rocco Launi
Salvatore Lobuglio
Lorenzo Mannino
Rosario Naimo
Salvatore Rina
Matteo Romano
Fabrizio Tesi
Giovanni Zarbano
John Doe a/k/a “Sasha”

co-conspirator:
Salvatore Inzerillo
Domenico Mannino


Iron Tower II (3rd january 1989, indictment of 18 people)
- 1st Trial: (importation and distribution of cocaine)
Francesco Badalamenti
Salvatore DiMaio
Filippo Filiberto
Salvatore Pilliteri
Antonio Romano
Frank Sciarrino

- 2nd Trial: (importation and distribution of heroin)
Carlo Fodero
Francesco Gambino
Salvatore Inzerillo (b.1956)
Domenico Mannino
Emanuele Salvatore Mannino
Grace Pulitano Mannino
Ignazio Anthony Mannino
Tommaso Scalici
Enzo Varisco
Simone Zito
Stefano Zito
Felice, do you know the hometowns in Sicily where all these people originated from?
Torretta, Villabate, Palermo, Prato. 90% of them are from Torretta
The Torreta guys? Born in the states? Or did they immigrate in the mid 60s-70s period?

Are ALL these Torreta guys connected to the actual Toretta family? Or are they spread out amongst multiple families?

Naimo is Tommaso- Natale family?

Where did Carini ( Guys like LoDuca) fit in here, if at all?

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by cavita » Fri Dec 16, 2022 8:40 pm

PolackTony wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 8:20 pm
cavita wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:52 pm
PolackTony wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:38 pm
Patrickgold wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 8:25 am
cavita wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:40 am
Patrickgold wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 5:23 am
cavita wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 1:01 pm
felice wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 11:35 am in the first operation there were more arrests between Italy and Usa anyway
Is there a way to edit your posts and list what city each were arrested in? As I recall some were from San Francisco, Buffalo, Miami, etc.
Were any from the Chicago area?
As far as I know just Joe Ocello from Rockford
Oh ok. What’s the story behind him? Don’t remember you talking about him before
Cavita undoubtedly has more info on Ocello, but we’ve discussed him before in one of Chicago threads. He’s from Burgio (his wife is from Palermo) and arrived in Rockford in the early 70s, subsequently opening the Sicilian Restaurant in Roscoe, IL. He was the only guy in IL indicted in Iron Tower II in ‘88 (busted for selling weight in cocaine to an undercover agent in ‘86), but as we’ve discussed elsewhere there was a bunch of other Sicilian drug activity in Chicago and Rockford/Beloit/etc in this period. I believe that Joe Ocello today runs Bravo Pizzeria in South Beloit and is evidently very well tied into the broader Sicilian business community in the Chicago/Rockford/Beloit area. Recently, he was photographed hanging out in Biagio Cucina in Harwood Heights with Tony Miceli (who may have been the guy busted for credit card fraud in 2009, not sure) and is also close to Salvatore Perricone, a Chicago immigrant from Chiusa Sclafani who runs a major landscaping company in Northbrook.
Spot on, Tony.....do you have a copy of that photo with Joe?
Yeah, he was recently at a dinner for the Società SS Crocifisso di Rifesi di Burgio of Chicago at Biagio Cucina. As I’ve posted before, the Società also has a number of Buscemis and Bacinos as members.

Image

Image
Yes, definitely Joe and his wife Francesca Intravaia next to him.

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by PolackTony » Fri Dec 16, 2022 8:20 pm

cavita wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:52 pm
PolackTony wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:38 pm
Patrickgold wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 8:25 am
cavita wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:40 am
Patrickgold wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 5:23 am
cavita wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 1:01 pm
felice wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 11:35 am in the first operation there were more arrests between Italy and Usa anyway
Is there a way to edit your posts and list what city each were arrested in? As I recall some were from San Francisco, Buffalo, Miami, etc.
Were any from the Chicago area?
As far as I know just Joe Ocello from Rockford
Oh ok. What’s the story behind him? Don’t remember you talking about him before
Cavita undoubtedly has more info on Ocello, but we’ve discussed him before in one of Chicago threads. He’s from Burgio (his wife is from Palermo) and arrived in Rockford in the early 70s, subsequently opening the Sicilian Restaurant in Roscoe, IL. He was the only guy in IL indicted in Iron Tower II in ‘88 (busted for selling weight in cocaine to an undercover agent in ‘86), but as we’ve discussed elsewhere there was a bunch of other Sicilian drug activity in Chicago and Rockford/Beloit/etc in this period. I believe that Joe Ocello today runs Bravo Pizzeria in South Beloit and is evidently very well tied into the broader Sicilian business community in the Chicago/Rockford/Beloit area. Recently, he was photographed hanging out in Biagio Cucina in Harwood Heights with Tony Miceli (who may have been the guy busted for credit card fraud in 2009, not sure) and is also close to Salvatore Perricone, a Chicago immigrant from Chiusa Sclafani who runs a major landscaping company in Northbrook.
Spot on, Tony.....do you have a copy of that photo with Joe?
Yeah, he was recently at a dinner for the Società SS Crocifisso di Rifesi di Burgio of Chicago at Biagio Cucina. As I’ve posted before, the Società also has a number of Buscemis and Bacinos as members.

Image

Image

Re: Operation Iron Tower

by cavita » Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:52 pm

PolackTony wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:38 pm
Patrickgold wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 8:25 am
cavita wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:40 am
Patrickgold wrote: Fri Dec 16, 2022 5:23 am
cavita wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 1:01 pm
felice wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 11:35 am in the first operation there were more arrests between Italy and Usa anyway
Is there a way to edit your posts and list what city each were arrested in? As I recall some were from San Francisco, Buffalo, Miami, etc.
Were any from the Chicago area?
As far as I know just Joe Ocello from Rockford
Oh ok. What’s the story behind him? Don’t remember you talking about him before
Cavita undoubtedly has more info on Ocello, but we’ve discussed him before in one of Chicago threads. He’s from Burgio (his wife is from Palermo) and arrived in Rockford in the early 70s, subsequently opening the Sicilian Restaurant in Roscoe, IL. He was the only guy in IL indicted in Iron Tower II in ‘88 (busted for selling weight in cocaine to an undercover agent in ‘86), but as we’ve discussed elsewhere there was a bunch of other Sicilian drug activity in Chicago and Rockford/Beloit/etc in this period. I believe that Joe Ocello today runs Bravo Pizzeria in South Beloit and is evidently very well tied into the broader Sicilian business community in the Chicago/Rockford/Beloit area. Recently, he was photographed hanging out in Biagio Cucina in Harwood Heights with Tony Miceli (who may have been the guy busted for credit card fraud in 2009, not sure) and is also close to Salvatore Perricone, a Chicago immigrant from Chiusa Sclafani who runs a major landscaping company in Northbrook.
Spot on, Tony.....do you have a copy of that photo with Joe?

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