THE BLACK HAND FORUM

A Queens hangout for wanna-be mobsters, where one-time top fugitive Paul Ragusa and his street gang allegedly plotted robberies and revenge, was padlocked yesterday by authorities for gambling violations. Caffe Giannini at 66-12 Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood reputedly has ties to the Bonanno crime family, but New York cops said it's the cappuccino joint's back-room Joker Poker machines that could keep it slammed shut for up to a year. "It's a little casino," said police Sgt. Robert Grey, after cops wielding sledgehammers raided the cafe last night. As workers tended the cafe's ornate brass espresso machine and customers nibbled on mozzarella sandwiches, cops marched into the shop's three back rooms and busted open two Joker Poker machines, spilling out $627 in illegal gambling proceeds. It was the cops' fourth strike at Caffe Giannini. Raids on July 31, Jan. 20 and March 28 yielded similar results, police said. On Friday, the city is expected to ask Queens Supreme Court Judge Arthur Lonschein to shut the place down for a year for alleged blatant violations of New York's nuisance abatement law. But the real reason the cops want the place closed might have more to do with Caffe Giannini's notorious past as a mob clubhouse. While police aren't clear who actually owns the business, sources said it has historically been run by Baldassare (Baldo) Amato, a reputed Bonanno soldier and former bodyguard of slain mob boss Carmine Galante. The owners of the building in which the cafe is housed, Francesca and Salvatore Bartolotta, were convicted in the Pizza Connection heroin-trafficking case in the 1980s. In a 32-count federal racketeering indictment in 1996, authorities branded Ragusa and his gang the Giannini Crew, after the coffee shop they frequented. A two-year investigation by the Joint Bank Robbery Task Force, composed of FBI agents and city police detectives, linked the 14-member crew to a series of anything-goes armed robberies, violent assaults and arson conspiracies dating from 1992. Ragusa is in jail awaiting trial.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.nydailynews.com/amp/archives/news/cops-slam-door-cafe-hangout-shut-gambling-article-1.787541

[quote=newera_212 post_id=83827 time=1532481856 user_id=5522]
[quote=Rocco post_id=83752 time=1532444668 user_id=108]
Tabbita and Bartolotta must own pizzerias in Florida
[/quote]

Joey Gambina (Ace Aiello's cousin, who flipped) definitely does. Full on Italian restarurant though, not a pizza parlor
[/quote]
a bunch of guys associated with that crew live in s. fl. I believe they cooperated too. baldo is doin life so no one gives a shit. guys only care about guys on the street not guys doin life.

http://spbc.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2016/03/09/a-pizza-place-with-a-drive-through-yes-it-is-happening-in-boynton/

Here’s a photo from a recent event in Florida: https://photos.blacktie-southflorida.com/event/ms-gala-luncheon/dsc_0054-96/

[quote=Rocco post_id=83752 time=1532444668 user_id=108]
Tabbita and Bartolotta must own pizzerias in Florida
[/quote]

Joey Gambina (Ace Aiello's cousin, who flipped) definitely does. Full on Italian restarurant though, not a pizza parlor

Aiello is from Middle Village, right next door to Ridgewood/Maspeth. Philip Navarra would make sense as another possible member, given his age and location. I don't think he's been identified as such.

For what it's worth there is still a heavy Italian presence in the area. Much moreso than Bensonhurst or the Bronx.

Tabbita and Bartolotta must own pizzerias in Florida

They were in Ridgewood had a cafe over there I believe that they were at all the time I remember reading about them ace Aiello was definetely around them he grew up over there as did alot of those guys I think

The Damiano Zummo indictment from Nov. 2017 last year charged Giannini Crew member Paul Ragusa with buying a small arsenal of weapons, including three machineguns. In mid-2017, Ragusa was in a halfway house near the end of a 19 year stretch for racketeering charges that included an armed bank robbery.
Ragusa was snared by Vincenzo Morena, another Gianni crew member who was deported from America to Italy, then snuck into Canada and became a Hamilton/Montreal-based Bonanno associate/soldier. Morena was the guy who flipped and recorded his own induction ceremony.

I don't believe they were their own independent gang. Pretty sure they were a crew under Bonanno Soldier Baldo Amato.


Pogo

[quote=slimshady_007 post_id=83590 time=1532297113 user_id=5611]
From what i read, the Giannini crew was a Queens- based street gang active mainly in the 90’s. I believe vito guzzo was in the crew, and i read somewhere that Bonanno soldier anthony ace aillo had been with the gang. Anyone know who all the members of the gang were? And if any members of the gang r on the street today?
[/quote]

Slim I believe Joseph Galante and Anthony Sciacca were part of this crew. From what I've read these guys were brutal killers. I think they had dealings with both the Colombo's, Bonanno's and Gambinos. Pogo probably knows a lot more about these guys.

From what i read, the Giannini crew was a Queens- based street gang active mainly in the 90’s. I believe vito guzzo was in the crew, and i read somewhere that Bonanno soldier anthony ace aillo had been with the gang. Anyone know who all the members of the gang were? And if any members of the gang r on the street today?