Have we overlooked the Ursinos?

[CabriniGreen]

Repubblica.it
Digital newspaper

This article might piss some people off, but I want to discuss it, to figure out what's true, and what's off in it....


BOSS WAR, THE 'NDRANGHETA WINS
Boss war, the 'ndrangheta wins
From New York to Australia, police investigations from around the world tell us that the Calabrian clans defeated the Cosa Nostra in the struggle for control of the world drug trafficking routes. This is how the new masters of crime have put old godparents out of play

by GIULIANO FOSCHINI, MARCO MENSURATI and FABIO TONACCI
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Stampa
08 August 2016

Laval, a suburb north of Montreal, Canada. The first of March. Lorenzo Giordano stops the blue SUV Kia on the snowy asphalt of the Carrefour Multisport car park, near Highway 440.

He turns off the engine, the crucifix tied to the rear view mirror is swinging. It is 8.45 am, the morning is freezing. A killer comes out to the side of the car and shoots him in the head and throat, shattering the window glass. Lorenzo "Skunk" Giordano, 52, died shortly afterwards in the hospital. Carlton, Italian district of Melbourne, Australia. March 15.

A tanned gentleman with well-combed hair comes out of the Gelobar, his ice cream shop. He is walking, midnight has just passed. He is alone, and the road is dark. They cool him from behind by shooting him from a running car, without even stopping.

Three hours later a garbage collector gets out of the truck and approaches the dumpster. Next to it is the corpse of Joseph "Pino" Acquaro, 50 years old, a famous lawyer. Laval again, 27 May.

At the bus stop on boulevard St. Elzéar, a man in his thirties, dressed completely in black, is seated. Black shoes, black pants, black jacket, black glasses. It's 8.30 am. The white BMW of Rocco Sollecito, as expected, passes on the boulevard. The traffic light is red, it stops.

The black man stands up, and points the gun at the car window. Rocco "Sauce" Sollecito, 62, slips on the seat smeared with his blood, shot to death. Black shoes, black pants, black jacket, black glasses. It's 8.30 am. The white BMW of Rocco Sollecito, as expected, passes on the boulevard.

Italians who speak English and shoot. Other Italians who speak English and die. Canada, Australia, United States. Reggio Calabria. The blood earthquake has a silent epicenter, New York. And new emerging clans that have taken too much power, such as the Ursinos, 'ndranghetisti of Gioiosa Ionica. The shock wave spread across the planet. The lives drowned in the lead of "Skunk", "Pino" and "Sauce" are aftershocks. They call it the "mafia world war".

THE SIXTH FAMILY
New York, therefore. Nothing is like before. The five large families of Cosa Nostra, Gambino, Bonanno, Lucchese, Genovese and Colombo are no longer what they were.


This is documented by the latest investigations by the Federal bureau of investigation (FBI), conducted together with investigators from the Italian Police Central Operational Service (Sco). Last Thursday the FBI captured another 46, between Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut: chiefs, half-heads and paranza of Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno. The 23-year-old John Gotti jr, grandson of the last great boss of the American Cosa Nostra, also ended up inside.

Besieged by the investigations and weakened by a difficult generational change, the Sicilians are giving way, apparently almost completely bloodless, to the Calabrian mafia. In the Big Apple the Commisso and Aquino-Coluccio clans have settled for years, but those who are claiming the role of "sixth family" for themselves are the Ursinos of Gioiosa Ionica. And that's a problem, for everyone.

In fact, a sixth family is already there. Although not admitted to the criminal gotha ​​in New York, the Rizzutos of Montreal, Canada, historically have a close relationship with the Bonanno.

If there is a serious deal to be set up - lots of cocaine, illegal weapons, money laundering - they are the referents. A relationship that has not been so solid for some time.


Between 2012 and 2013 an FBI confidential source revealed that Francesco Ursino, the boss of the homonymous historical gang allied with the Cataldo di Locri, asked the Gambinos to be able to work on the square in New York "just like a sixth family".

Asked by way of saying. On this tour, the Sicilians of Cosa Nostra find themselves faced with an offer that cannot be refused, because when he knocked on the Gambino door, Francesco Ursino actually had already taken everything: drug trafficking routes, contacts with Mexican and Colombian cartels, control of ports and freighters. The boss spoke on behalf not of one family, but of what investigators in theNew Bridge investigation (which will lead to the capture of the chieftain) define "a consortium" of Locride clans.

I Dont agree with this part, no chance for a war..

To refuse would have meant for the Gambinos to engage in a war without meaning, and with an uncertain outcome. Better to agree and accept the fact. On the world cocaine market, 'ndrangheta rules, commands.

THE SOUTH AMERICAN BROKERS AND SIGNS.

For years, the Calabrians have been working in the shadows in New York, in the basements of their pizzerias and in the backrooms of their " Italian restaurant ".

They fly to Bogota and San José on the weekend, pretending to be tourists. "If you want to know what's going on in New York, look in Central America; if you want to know what's going on among the Gulf Cartels, look who's in charge in New York," he explains.Anna Sergi, criminologist of the University of Essex , scholar of the screenings of the ndrangheta abroad.

And in Central-South America it happens that the Calabrians rule. They mark the territory. They hook intermediaries. They shoot as little as possible. More finance, less mess.

The deep throat that explained to the Goddess and the FBI what was moving in the criminal belly of the Big Apple is called Cristopher Castellano.

He owns a nightclub in Queens, Kristal's, which he uses to hide what he really is: a Los Zetas broker, the dangerous Mexican paramilitary cartel of army deserters who uses him to trade drugs in the States and in Europe . With drug traffickers, Christopher made a mountain of money.

The party does not last long, however. They arrested him in 2008, and he sings to get out of jail. Two Calabrians are sold to the police: Giulio Schirripa and this "Greg".

He tells of these two Italians who, using pizzerias as cover and 'ndrangheta money as a guarantee, are moving tons of cocaine hidden in fruit jars transported by container ships.

"They have a pipeline across the oceans," says Castellano. If they turn large batches of white powder that from the Co-global starica reach the US, Canada, the Old Continent and Australia, it is their stuff. They distribute, sort, organize ship trips, open fictitious import-export companies, bribe customs officials.

In New York they go to dinner with the Genovese. In San José they meet with the men of Arnoldo de Jesus Guzman Rojas, the chief of the Alajuela cartel.

I have never heard of this cartel..


In Reggio Calabria they report to the Alvaro clan. They are "facilitators", unsuspected because they are uncensored: they create the conditions to bring white powder from the laboratories in the jungle of Costa Rica to the nose of consumers. Schirripa, arrested together with Castellano, is the archetype of the Calabrian emigrant to conquer New York. Gregorio "Greg" Gigliotti, the epigon.

Cristopher Castellano became dead meat the moment he opened his mouth with federal agents. Fourth of July 2010, Independence Day is celebrated in the United States.

In Howard Beach, Queens, the fireworks show started shortly before midnight. Castellano, however, has no eyes on the sky, is poking his pockets to find the car keys. One blow to the back of the neck. Nobody notices anything. Castellano will no longer blow to the ear of the FBI.

THE MAN WHO EAT THE HEART

In the meantime, however, investigators have brought their mobile phones under control and filled Gigliotti's restaurants in Queens with bedbugs, including the famous 'Cucino in my way' mentioned in specialized trend magazines.

"There is not an ounce of cocaine in Europe that has not passed through Gregorio's hands", the accomplices of the Italian often repeat, terrified by Gigliotti's outbursts. When he gets angry, with his Calabrian dialect mixed with American slang he can say terrible things:

"Once I ate a piece of kidney and a piece of heart", yelled with his wife, irritated by another Calabrian who is trying to fit into the his business. The center of his business is Costa Rica, where he has direct contacts with drug traffickers thanks to a dense network of brokers and trustees.

" Then they arrested him on May 8th. His son, Angelo, also ends up inside. But a few weeks later, he gets free thanks to a five million dollar bail. Paid in cash. Then they arrested him on May 8th. His son, Angelo, also ends up inside. But a few weeks later, he gets free thanks to a five million dollar bail. Paid in cash.

THE CANADIAN MATTANCE.


The Alvaro representatives in New York were out of the game and the Ursinos took it. Including contacts with South Americans. The quakes of the earthquake reverberate in Canada, where hierarchies crumble. And with them the pax mafia. By the 1980s, Italian criminals who had emigrated there had split their business between Toronto and Montreal.

To the Sicilians of the Rizzuto clan, drugs, gambling, gambling, and usury to the Calabrians who arrived from Siderno. The map was drawn by the Italian investigators in 2010 who worked on the maxi 'Crime' investigation (which for the first time identified the top of the 'Andrangheta) and is still valid. Three years ago Vito Rizzuto, the boss, died of cancer.

I found this kinda interesting, I think they are off because we know the Scoppas were behind it, but an interesting cooincidence nonetheless


In the following months, coinciding with the rise of the Ursinos in the North American quadrant, four of the six members of the Rizzuto "Council" are killed. The other two are saved only because they are in jail. The last to fall was Rocco "Sauce" Sollecito. A few weeks ago in Montreal Marco Pizzi, 46, importer of cocaine for the clan according to the police, was about to end up in a coffin, escaped by a whisker to his assassins who had swabbed him with a stolen car. They were masked and armed. "The Calabrians attacked the old powers," an investigator reasons. "It's' ndrangheta against the mafia". World war, therefore.




THE AUSTRALIAN FAIDA.


The trail of blood stretches to Australia, where the Calabrian coup on the routes of cocaine has destabilized balances that have stood since the late seventies. The Barbaro family seems to have lost pace, and contacts with the new importers would have passed into the hands of Tony and Frank Madafferi.

In Melbourne the Calabrians fight against the Calabrians. Frank Madafferi and Pasquale "Pat" Barbaro were investigated in 2008 in the trial for the largest methamphetamine load ever intercepted in the history of the fight against drug trafficking: 4.4 tons of ecstasy, for a value of 500 million Australian dollars (340 million euro) in tablets stowed in a ship carrying cans of peeled tomatoes. But that trial is not the only thing that Tony Madafferi and Pat Barbaro, later sentenced to life imprisonment, have in common.

To join them, as often happens, also the choice of lawyer: the Italian-American professional Joseph Acquaro. The man found dead by the garbage man in front of the ice cream shop last March.

The investigations have stopped at the stake even if a couple of elements have attracted attention on Madafferi: in particular some interceptions in which he declares himself owner of Melbourne ("He is mine, not Pasquale's") and says he is ready to kill his rival ( "I eat his throat").
But above all the story of a repentant who explained to the police how in the underworld in Melbourne everyone knew about the size that Tony had recently put on the lawyer's head, apparently guilty of having started talking a bit too much with journalists and investigators: 200 thousand Australian dollars.

A STOP IN FIUMICINO

Who collected them is unknown. What you do
he knows that a few days before that murder, at Fiumicino airport, the Locri carabinieri had arrested Antonio Vottari, 31, accused of managing drug trafficking between South America and Europe on behalf of the San Luca gangs. He was returning from Melbourne, where he had been in hiding for years, with a student visa. The fate of the mafia's world war is decided in Calabria. Everything starts from there. And everything, sooner or later, returns there.
© Reproduction reserved
08 August 2016

[CabriniGreen]

From another Italian article... this proves a couple things...

1. Ndrangheta does in fact initiate non Calabrians. They authorized the ndrine (or locale) in Beneveto.

2. This Beneveto group, was controlled by the Locale of Marina di Gioiosa Jonica, and by extension the Ursino clan. They actually tied them into the organization formally with all ceremony, and ritual.

This group through Valente was to control the New York cell, on behalf of the Ursinos, so they definitely were trying to build a lasting organization there.

I hadn't realized that the Schirripa clan was tied to the Ursinos as well, although they under the Alvaro clan....




The Benevento group. Following the slowdown of activities aimed at the import of cocaine through the Guyana channel, the investigations made it possible to identify further projections of international drug trafficking.In fact, the exponents of the New York family, in particular Lupoi and Raffaele Valente, made an acquaintance of theirs come to Italy in April 2013, Francesco Antonio Tamburello , called "Nick", who, at that time, had been expelled from the United States of America. The investigators then ascertained that Lupoi and Valente would "entrust" Tamburello to a criminal organization stationed in the Benevento area aimed not only at committing drug offenses. In this context, a link emerged between the criminal group of Gioiosa Jonica and that of Benevento which was strengthened to the point that the individual members were subjected to a deeper bond, marked by affiliations and rituals typical of those of the Mafia type.

I thought all this was kinda interesting... a little dramatic with the " Mafia World War" theme, but still some good info...

[CabriniGreen]

Another thing... the indictment said the Gambinos provided the South American contacts, which I always thought odd, since the Calabrese made their way by managing their OWN South American contacts. ( And I k how some disagree, but so did the Rizzuto- Caruana- Cuntreras)

But this says the Gambi is provided the same thing g agreed upon originally at the 57 Summit. Access to the territory, and money laundering opportunities, likely with Pizzarias and other restaurants, and maybe real estate, maybe some construction investments down the line...

( Not for nothing, but that's why the Campos thing strikes me as silly, why fuck up the construction contacts?)

[Wiseguy]

No, we haven't overlooked the Ursinos. They have been discussed previously on the forum, including some of the hype displayed in this article. Be sceptical anytime you read about a "sixth family." There have been a handful of cases involving Ndrangheta activity (not just the Ursinos) in New York going back to 2008.

[CabriniGreen]

But was it known that they ASKED for permission to operate in NY? That was the first time I had heard that...

Also, what did you think about the Benevento group? It seems these Ursinos were really making a move to establish a pressence in NY...

A poster recently mentioned that Tall Pete has been dealing with a Calabrian clan, the Parrellis. There was a Vincenzo arrested in Italy, and apparently a Rocco was the transatlantic liaison.....


So this activity might not have actually stopped... time will tell, but I've had my eye on these developments for awhile now....

[CabriniGreen]

Also, this is exactly the same structure the sicilians had with the Gambinos and Bonnanos.... the Gambinos provide access to NY, and laundering opportunities, the Calabrians control all the rest, its really their operation...

[CabriniGreen]

This is also Interesting to me because I just recently became aware that the Camera di Controllo is NOT composed of only Siderno group gangsters. It is also composed of men belonging to the Marina di Gioiosa Locale, a rival locale.

This activity by the Ursinos I think partly triggered the power grab by the Siderno guys like the Figliomenis...

This had been in my view, a great misunderstanding...

[Moscone65]

Good research Cabrini

[maxiestern11]

This is also Interesting to me because I just recently became aware that the Camera di Controllo is NOT composed of only Siderno group gangsters. It is also composed of men belonging to the Marina di Gioiosa Locale, a rival locale.

This activity by the Ursinos I think partly triggered the power grab by the Siderno guys like the Figliomenis...

This had been in my view, a great misunderstanding...

Is the Camera di Controllo the equivalent to their “Commission”? Where the heads of several top cosca sit to discuss and iron out issues?

[Bklyn21]

Great article He owns Kristals ? Man , Great crazy times in that place lol. !! That club is frequented by everyone from Gambinos to Bonannos to Rappers and sports stars and figures , Bikers and everyone in between , Russians , Drug traffickers etc... Guys would always say they owned a piece of that place

[johnny_scootch]

Kristals was a madhouse. Strippers going down water slides, giant vodka shoots and every kind of debauchery known to man. Eventually the moolies discovered it and you couldn’t go without possibility of getting shot but it was great while it lasted.

[Bklyn21]

Didn't Lorenzo Maninno marry some Ndrangheta boss's daughter ? I think someone posted it on this forum recently and I read it somewhere else online . Don't know how true it is ? And if it is I wonder what significance it holds for the Gambinos and Maninno and others ? I can't wait for the next big indictment , Possibly one relating to Gambinos , The Sicilians and Ndrangheta and an international scope , IF that even happens for whatever reasons. And this is stuff , Scenarios I'm thinking up in my head

[Bklyn21]

Kristals was a madhouse. Strippers going down water slides, giant vodka shoots and every kind of debauchery known to man. Eventually the moolies discovered it and you couldn’t go without possibility of getting shot but it was great while it lasted.

Kristals was a fucken great place , What an adventure that place was once you stepped inside , Who knew the shit that was gonna happen. CRAZZZYYYYYY Lol....Good times !!

[TommyNoto]

Another thing... the indictment said the Gambinos provided the South American contacts, which I always thought odd, since the Calabrese made their way by managing their OWN South American contacts. ( And I k how some disagree, but so did the Rizzuto- Caruana- Cuntreras)

But this says the Gambi is provided the same thing g agreed upon originally at the 57 Summit. Access to the territory, and money laundering opportunities, likely with Pizzarias and other restaurants, and maybe real estate, maybe some construction investments down the line...

( Not for nothing, but that's why the Campos thing strikes me as silly, why fuck up the construction contacts?)

In NY /NJ area everyone inflates invoices and gets a cut on the back end, it’s easy low risk steady cash and will always be around

[CabriniGreen]

Good research Cabrini

Thanks, it's still ongoing. So much info to sort through, all of it interesting and interconnected too...