Gangland:5/14/15

[Dellacroce]

May 14, 2015 This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Bronx Grand Jury Closing In On Suspected Killers Of Purple Gang Leader

Detectives and FBI agents quietly arrested one — and possibly two — more suspects this week in the 2013 execution slaying of the leader of the Purple Gang, the notorious and deadly crew that controlled drug dealing in the Bronx and Harlem during the 1970s while associated with multiple mob families, Gang Land has learned.

Authorities now have several of the alleged killers of Michael Meldish, who was 62 years old when he was slain, on ice while prosecutors push to obtain an indictment against them for the murder. Law enforcement sources identified the definite new suspect in the slaying as mob associate Christopher Londonio.

Londonio, 41, and his reputed mob superior, Bonanno soldier Pasquale (Patty Boy) Maiorino were arrested on federal gun charges Monday and ordered held without bail. The arrests follow a joint investigation by the NYPD, the FBI, and the offices of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney and the Bronx District Attorney. The federal charges stem from a state gun possession rap, filed against the defendants in November. The two men had been free on bail.

Sources say Bronx prosecutors will soon ask a grand jury to indict Londonio and a hoodlum named Terrence Caldwell for the gangland style rubout. Meldish's body was discovered on November 15, 2013 in a classic mob hit victim pose: He was seated behind the wheel of his car parked in front of his home at the corner of Ellsworth Avenue and Baisley Avenue in the Throgs Neck section of The Bronx. He had suffered a single fatal bullet wound to the head.

The federal gun charges arrest of Londonio and Maiorino, 55, comes a week after cops busted Caldwell for the reputed mob hit. Caldwell, 57, is accused of being the trigger man in the hit, according to an arrest complaint by NYPD detective Darrell Julien. Caldwell, who has a drug conviction on his rap sheet, was remanded without bail following his arrest, said Bronx DA spokesman James Brunner.

Sources say the evidence linking Londonio and Caldwell to Meldish's murder was developed by detectives in the NYPD's Organized Crime Investigation Division, the same unit that obtained evidence that enabled federal prosecutors in Brooklyn to put Bonanno capo John Palazzolo back behind bars in March for meeting with other family soldiers, including Patty Boy Maiorino.

Officials of the four agencies involved in the case declined to comment about the ongoing investigation into the Meldish rubout. But sources say the current plan calls for assistant district attorney Christine Scaccia to seek a murder indictment from a Bronx grand jury as soon as possible.

"There's no real rush to indict right away," said one source familiar with the case, who confirmed that at least two key suspects, Londonio and Caldwell, were behind bars.

But another knowledgeable source, who noted that Maiorino has a bail hearing scheduled for next week, said Scaccia, a veteran assistant district attorney for Bronx DA Robert Johnson, is not one to waste time, and that an indictment can come any day, perhaps as early as today.

Last week, authorities decided to hit Londonio and Maiorino with federal weapons charges, under which prosecutors usually have an easier time detaining defendants without bail, especially in cases like theirs, when defendants have prior convictions that prohibit them from possessing a weapon.

Sciacca is familiar with both defendants. She is the prosecutor in the state gun case against Maiorino and Londonio. In 2011, she convicted Meldish's younger brother Joseph Meldish, 59, of a 2007 murder for which he is now serving a 25-to-life sentence. Like his big brother, Joseph Meldish was a former Purple Gang member suspected in dozens of killings.

The Purple Gang took its name from a notorious Detroit crew of hijackers and bootleggers active during Prohibition. The New York crew was a multi-ethnic, loosely connected gang of more than 100 drug dealers from East Harlem and The Bronx, according to a 1976 Drug Enforcement Administration report. Many high-ranked wiseguys, including Bonanno boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso and Genovese capos Daniel (The Lion) Leo and Angelo Prisco were members, according to the DEA.

Cops arrested Maiorino and Londonio on weapons charges on November 8 when they spotted them sitting in a 2013 Acura sedan that was parked at the corner of Watt Avenue and Bayshore Avenue near the Bronx-Pelham landfill, "an area known for criminal activity, including drug transactions and prostitution," according to an arrest complaint by veteran FBI agent Theodore Otto.

As a police officer spoke to the driver, he spotted a bullet on the floorboard behind the driver's seat, and noticed that Maiorino, who was in the passenger seat "was noticeably pale," Otto wrote. After ordering the driver and Londonio out of the car, the cop noticed a firearm on the back seat. He "immediately placed Londonio in handcuffs, radioed for assistance," and arrested Patty Boy as well, wrote Otto.

In searching the vehicle cops discovered a mini-arsenal including a stolen .40 caliber Glock pistol with a laser aiming device, a nine millimeter handgun, more than 115 rounds of ammunition, a metal pipe, an open switchblade, a metal pipe and a hammer from the car, according to Otto and state court arrest complaints.

According to the arrest complaint, both Maiorino, who was convicted of manslaughter in 1981, and Londonio, who was under a court order by a state court judge not to possess a weapon, both qualify for enhanced penalties for possessing a weapon under federal laws.

In a statement after Londonio was detained without bail, attorneys Vik Pawar and Robert Blossner said they "are trying to come up with a suitable bail package so our client, who never missed a court appearance in his state case, can gain his release and return to work."

Maiorino's attorney, Edward Hammock, said he would seek bail for his client at a scheduled hearing next week. "We don't call him St. Pasquale," said Hammock, "but since he was paroled on that homicide in 1999, he's been staying out of trouble, for the most part, working hard, and doing his best to support his family."

Caldwell's attorney did not respond to a Gang Land request for comment.

DA's Office Ups The Ante For Re-trial Of Developer Of Sports Betting Software

When Gambino capo Joseph (Joe the Blond) Giordano died quietly of cancer in the fall of 2013 while serving a year for extortion, Manhattan prosecutors decided to use his death to their advantage at the re-trial of Robert Stuart, the developer of a sports betting software program whose first trial for promoting gambling had ended in a hung jury. They filed a new, expanded indictment against Stuart that includes bookmaking activity by Giordano and other mobsters.

That decision by organized crime prosecutors at the Manhattan District Attorney's office is currently under fire from defense attorneys for Stuart and two family members who now stand accused of running a multimillion-dollar online sports bookmaking operation in league with the Gambino crime family.

Prosecutors say Giordano and another Gambino mobster, Joseph Isgro, were intimately involved with the operations of the company, Action Sportsbook International (ASI) from 2006 through 2013. Attorneys for Stuart, his wife Susanne, and her brother, Patrick Read, maintain that Giordano and Isgro were added to the case only to add the specter of mob violence as a means to prejudice their clients and deprive them of a fair trial.

Defense attorney Ryan Blanch and his co-counsel cite many reasons why the new indictment smacks of "vindictiveness." In addition to the mob's longstanding reputation for violence, it also includes new money laundering charges that increase the possible maximum prison time for the Stuart family members from four years to 15 years behind bars.

The "vindictiveness," the lawyers argue, stems from the failure of prosecutors to win a conviction against their clients in their 2013 trial for promoting gambling. The defendants are asking Judge Bonnie Wittner to toss the new indictment.

For their part, prosecutors insist they are simply making belated use of information gleaned from wiretaps that showed Giordano's role in the gambling operation. In court papers, Manhattan assistant district attorneys Eric Seidel and Carey Ng say that the new charges became more viable after Giordano's death.

While the mobster was alive, say the prosecutors, his inclusion in the case could have subjected a witness to possible retaliation from Giordano because prosecutors would have been forced to turn over information about him to the defendants.

Giordano's death, the prosecutors wrote, "removed a barrier" that had been in place since 2009 when prosecutors first learned of the mob's alleged use of Stuart's software for an online gambling operation that the family ran out of a wire room in Costa Rica.

At that point, Seidel wrote in a separate affirmation, prosecutors obtained a search warrant for the home of Robert and Susanne Stuart in Pine, Arizona, with the help of local police. In 2011, they obtained evidence and other leads that prosecutors used to obtain a promoting gambling indictment against them the following year.

Once Giordano died, the Manhattan DA's office was no longer constrained from identifying him as a co-conspirator of the Stuarts, and that enabled them to name Isgro, as well as bookmaker Leonard (Columbus) Rapisardi (who has pleaded guilty) as codefendants, the prosecutors wrote.

Stuart's decision to take the stand in his own defense also gave prosecutors the evidence they needed to charge him and the others with money laundering, Seidel and Ng wrote.

From his testimony, prosecutors learned that the Stuarts' only income in the previous 10 years was millions of dollars in licensing fees from ASI, and that they had earned more than "two million dollars from ASI" in the 30 months from the day of the search warrant in 2011 to the day he testified on October 15, 2013.

That testimony, prosecutors wrote, enabled a newly empaneled grand jury to charge the Stuart defendants with money laundering since they had no other source of income except for ASI. It also established that the conspiracy continued until the day he testified in 2013, and that enabled prosecutors to add a misdemeanor conspiracy count to the indictment, since it was filed well within the two year statute of limitations requirement for minor counts, the prosecutors wrote.

While the misdemeanor count carries a maximum penalty of only a year, it lays out the role of mobsters and their associates in the bookmaking scheme by including several years of tape recorded conversations that allegedly link the gangsters to the Stuarts.

As for the increased penalties the Stuarts now face, prosecutors say there is nothing in state law that precludes them from upping the ante in a superseding indictment. Besides, they add, even if found guilty of money laundering, they could still get probation, the same minimum term they would face if convicted of promoting gambling.

Judge Wittner is slated to rule on the pretrial motions by next month, when she will schedule a trial date, assuming she upholds the validity of the indictment.

Feds Indict Calabrian Connection In Corona Cocaine Caper

It's been a roller coaster couple of months for Franco (The Ambassador) Fazio. In March, the feds said he was a possible rubout victim of Gregorio and Eleonora Gigliotti, mob-tied proprietors of a family-owned Italian restaurant and pizzeria in Corona, Queens where international cocaine trafficking was allegedly served a la carte. A son, Angelo Gigliotti, was also alleged to be part of the plot to do away with The Ambassador.

But all was later forgiven, and Fazio survived, only to be arrested last week by Italian police at his home in Reggio Calabria where he was charged as an integral member of the drug smuggling operation the Gigliottis ran out of their Cucina a Modo Mia restaurant.

The arrest of Fazio, 54, came two months after the three Gigliottis, his cousins, were nabbed in March. Arrested along with the Ambassador were 12 other accused members and associates of the 'Ndrangheta, a Calabrian-based organized crime group. The busts resulted from a joint investigation by several Italian law enforcement agencies, along with Homeland Security and the FBI. The Ambassador will be extradited to face charges here, but first he will have to stand trial with his Italian codefendants on related drug trafficking charges in Italy.

When his cousins were first charged with using the Cucina a Modo Mia as a base of operations to smuggle 55 kilograms of cocaine into the U.S. from Costa Rica, prosecutors stated in court papers that the three Gigliottis — Gregorio, 58, Eleonora, 54, and Angelo, 34 — were looking to kill Fazio.

Now, Fazio stands accused of being the point man in the scheme, having traveled to Costa Rica to meet with the ring's drug dealers before they shipped a 15 kilo load to the Gigliottis last December.

The cocaine, which was seized by the feds, was hidden in two shipments of cassava, a starchy root vegetable. Like a 40 kilogram load that was seized in October, the shipment was consigned to the Bronx warehouse of an import/export company owned by the Gigliottis. All three are detained without bail as they await trial.

Back when the Gigliottis and Fazio were feuding, Eleonora Gigliotti was heard in a taped transcontinental phone call allegedly telling Gregorio not to hurt Fazio "in front of his kids" in Reggio Calabria. Instead, she said, he should bring him to Queens "and bang him up over here." The cause for the planned beating, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, was $15,000 that Fazio had stolen.

"You have someone grab him here at night. He'll learn," Eleonora was heard telling Gregorio last fall, assistant U.S. attorneys Nicole Argentieri, James Miskiewicz and Margaret Gandy stated in court filings.

In another taped phone call about Fazio, prosecutors wrote that Mrs. Gigliotti was heard directing Gregorio to "tell him" that a cohort whose identity was not picked up by the recording device "will break his head" and that the Ambassador would spend "six months in the hospital."

Prosecutors say the Gigliottis were so angry with Fazio that the male members of the drug conspiracy discussed using the "gruesome plan" that was depicted "in the movie Casino" when "the character played by Joe Pesci" was "driven out to a cornfield and forced to watch his brother beaten to death (with baseball bats and) is then beaten to death himself."

"You remember the movie Casino? You remember what happened to the two brothers?" Gregorio asks his son at the start of a conversation last September, according to a transcript excerpt that is contained in the government's court papers.

"Yes," Angelo replied. "This is what I have to do to him. Both," said Gregorio, adding, "I have a plan ready, a plan to set him up."

But after "Gregorio recouped them money that was due him," prosecutors wrote, the potentially deadly family feud ended, and Fazio spent the Christmas holidays at the Gigliotti home in Whitestone before returning home to Reggio Calabrio, where he was arrested last week. *

[Pogo The Clown]

Thanks for postng this weeks column Dellacroce.


Pogo

[toto]

I wonder if this Christopher Londonio is related to Michael Londonio who was killed in a shoot out with police about 10 years ago.

[HairyKnuckles]

Correct me if I´m wrong (I don´t follow recent mob stuff that closely), but I think the murder of Meldish in Nov 2013 may be connected to the shooting of Enzo Stagno in June same year.

Thanks for posting this week´s Capeci Dell.

[East Bronx]

Correct me if I´m wrong (I don´t follow recent mob stuff that closely), but I think the murder of Meldish in Nov 2013 may be connected to the shooting of Enzo Stagno in June same year.

Thanks for posting this week´s Capeci Dell.

It's possible because the Stagno thing was clearly a spur of the moment temper thing. And Meldish had the temper of a rabid dog. But it really could have been over anything. The Meldishes killed more people than ten made guys combined. What comes around goes around.

[B.]

Is Patty Maiorano's father Salvatore still alive? I believe he was one of the Bronx guys who reported to Carmine Galante back when he was a capo in the 50's.

[HairyKnuckles]

Is Patty Maiorano's father Salvatore still alive? I believe he was one of the Bronx guys who reported to Carmine Galante back when he was a capo in the 50's.

On his Bonanno chart, Bill Feather (Limey) has him deceased in 1995. But I don´t know how accurate that info is.

[B.]

Is Patty Maiorano's father Salvatore still alive? I believe he was one of the Bronx guys who reported to Carmine Galante back when he was a capo in the 50's.

On his Bonanno chart, Bill Feather (Limey) has him deceased in 1995. But I don´t know how accurate that info is.

There was one who died in 1999 in Westchester who I thought might be him, but not sure. The only one I found who died in 1995 lived in Belleville, NJ, and I doubt it's him.

There were some Maioranos from Trapani, wonder if that's where these ones are from given the Bonanno connection.

[East Bronx]

Is Patty Maiorano's father Salvatore still alive? I believe he was one of the Bronx guys who reported to Carmine Galante back when he was a capo in the 50's.

He's been dead for years.

[LcnBios]

.

[B.]

Is Patty Maiorano's father Salvatore still alive? I believe he was one of the Bronx guys who reported to Carmine Galante back when he was a capo in the 50's.

Still alive as of the early-mid 2000s. He turned up at some Bonanno related wakes. He didn't get made until after the 1950s though. Like quite a few of the other Bronx guys his family was from Campania.

Thanks for setting it straight.

Any idea if this is the same Pasquale Maiorino?

http://www.leagle.com/decision/19901077 ... .%20SCULLY

"Pasquale Maiorino, appearing pro se, petitions for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (1982). In 1980, after a jury trial in the New York State Supreme Court, New York County, Maiorino was convicted of murder in the second degree (New York Penal Law § 125.25[1]) for having intentionally caused the death of Clay Delauney, and attempted murder in the second degree (New York Penal Law §§ 110.00, 125.25[1]) for the stabbing of Kevin McCullough. His co-defendant, Nicholas Letterese, was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree and assault in the first degree.

At trial, Maiorino and Letterese claimed that they mistakenly entered a bar frequented by gay men, Uncle Charlie's South, where they met the victims, Clay Delauney and Kevin McCullough. They then accompanied the victims to Delauney's apartment in order to purchase some marijuana. Maiorino and Letterese testified that, after setting a scene for seduction that included candlelight and several attempts to ply Maiorino and Letterese with alcohol and narcotics, Delauney and McCullough attempted to forcibly sodomize them and that Maiorino and Letterese were justified in using deadly physical force in order to repel the attack. The prosecution argued that Maiorino and Letterese approached
[746 F.Supp. 333]
Delauney and McCullough intent on robbing them. In support of the prosecution's theory, McCullough testified that, after entering Delauney's apartment, Letterese attacked Delauney and McCullough with a candlestick holder and Maiorino stabbed them repeatedly with a letter opener and a clasp knife. Delauney died the next day from his wounds and McCullough was permanently disabled."

[LcnBios]

.

[Rocco]

I wonder if this Christopher Londonio is related to Michael Londonio who was killed in a shoot out with police about 10 years ago.

Its possible. Michael was a Genovese associate of the undertaker. But they are both from the Bronx area so very possible. Maybe East Bronx knows them.

[East Bronx]

Still alive as of the early-mid 2000s. He turned up at some Bonanno related wakes. He didn't get made until after the 1950s though. Like quite a few of the other Bronx guys his family was from Campania.

Good info on the old days, JD. But with due respect, Sal's dead longer than that. Early 2000's at the very latest. I'm thinking at least fifteen years. But hey, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

I wonder if this Christopher Londonio is related to Michael Londonio who was killed in a shoot out with police about 10 years ago.

Its possible. Michael was a Genovese associate of the undertaker. But they are both from the Bronx area so very possible. Maybe East Bronx knows them.

They were brothers. Throggs Neck kids. They lived right over here on Revere Avenue, off Philip. Around the corner from the McDonald's. That's where they killed Michael. Michael was at Balsamo's all the time. He was still doing pallbearer carries while moving major weight. Seriously. That's just the Westside's style. Too bad the kid was half crazy.

[newera_212]

since the meldish murder had been mentioned with more and more details in every GL this year , i just wanted to bump this one from back before we knew what (supposedly) happened. this is the article that mentions Pat Maiorino as Londonio's superior, inferring he himself was a Bonnano associate at the very least. i always found it weird Capeci said this and him and/or LE didnt know Londonio was made in the Luccheses at the time

anyone know when Londonio was made? approx?

back on the real deal back in the days, posters would say "Crea has an army of kids in the Bronx" - I wonder if Londonio fell into this umbrella. His brother was the supplier for the remnants of what they called "the tanglewood boys" - which Crea Junior was a part of.

it seems like theres a lot more joint work and association between families in the Bronx and northern suburbs compared to anywhere else in NY