Carmine "Papa Smurf" Franco dead at 85

[Wiseguy]

Reputed Mob Boss, Trash-Hauling Giant Carmine 'Papa Smurf' Franco Of Ramsey Dies
Jerry DeMarco
12/08/2020


Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco, a reputed Genovese Crime Family boss who became a leader and innovator in the trash hauling industry in New Jersey, Rockland and Westchester, died Monday following complications from COVID-19, trusted sources confirmed.

Franco, 85, who’d recently lived in the Bears Cove townhouse development in Ramsey, made his name in the waste industry over a five-decade career.

He designed and built the country’s first materials recovery facility and New Jersey’s first transfer station, among other projects, and led the charge that produced a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the Rockland town of Clarkstown that changed government’s involvement in the industry.

Franco, who became infamous as a high-level mob associate, was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $2.5 million in fines in 2014 for running a multiple-family scheme to control the waste-hauling industry in the New York metropolitan area.

Up to that point, Franco enjoyed a decades-long reign over the industry.

It began soon after he and his brother, Salvatore, established a trash-hauling business in Hillsdale with a single truck and helper in 1963. They later began sorting waste for profitable recycling at the Ramapo Landfill in the 1970s.

Together, the brothers collected cardboard and more valuables from the waste of Macy’s, Toys R Us and other companies. Before long, SalCar was building materials recovering facilities along the East Coast.

The brothers eventually were banned from the industry, along with Carmine Franco’s sons, after they admitted defrauding New Jersey and the Bergen County Utilities Authority.

Federal authorities said “Papa Smurf” nonetheless continued to control waste management companies fronted by straw owners despite two convictions and resulting sentences of six and nine months.

His soldiers steal garbage containers and hundreds of tons of cardboard from rivals and then resell them, they charged.

An indictment returned by a grand jury in the U.S. Southern District of New York in Manhattan said Franco used his position as “godfather” to direct local “control and operation of waste hauling businesses.”

He admitted during his plea that he joined forces with rival mob families to thwart government efforts to clean up their industry while seizing control of legitimate businesses by strong-arming their owners.

He also admitted purposely overbilling customers of the C&A Carbone waste transfer station that he controlled on Western Highway in West Nyack.

Franco, who got his nickname from fellow wiseguys, was released on June 11, 2015 after serving his year-long sentence, Federal Bureau of Prison records show.

Franco died Monday at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan.

He is survived by Mary, his wife of 61 years, their children Albert, Lucille, Angelo, and Joseph, 11 grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

Arrangements hadn’t yet been announced.

https://dailyvoice.com/new-jersey/mahwa ... es/799357/

[Wiseguy]

Before people get confused about some of the titles loosely thrown around in this article, remember he was identified as a Genovese associate in the 2013 case.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post WG. I wonder how this affects the WS’s influence over the industry. Is he replaceable?

[Wiseguy]

Thanks for the post WG. I wonder how this affects the WS’s influence over the industry. Is he replaceable?

In one sense I don’t know if guys like Franco or Ponte can be ever be replaced in terms of their status and clout built up over decades. That said, if the family wants to make it clear his businesses belong to them, I imagine they know how to do that.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post WG. I wonder how this affects the WS’s influence over the industry. Is he replaceable?

In one sense I don’t know if guys like Franco or Ponte can be ever be replaced in terms of their status and clout built up over decades. That said, if the family wants to make it clear his businesses belong to them, I imagine they know how to do that.

I’m sure they ‘can’ replace him, I was talking more about Franco’s influence over the industry. I wonder to what scale this loosens the WS’s grip on carting.

Is Ponte still alive?

[SonnyBlackstein]

Franco appeared to me, as someone who generated and was the racket, not just a pawn/figurehead who operated the ‘scheme’. He WAS the scheme. And his loss, I wonder, is a loss of the scheme itself. The WS didn’t operate a racket, they had an entrepreneur who developed his own schemes and rackets and kicked up. I’d suggest this markedly reduces WS influence.

[Tonyd621]

Maybe some can get garbage man on here

[Wiseguy]

Is Ponte still alive?

He died a few years ago.

[Teddy Persico]

Franco appeared to me, as someone who generated and was the racket, not just a pawn/figurehead who operated the ‘scheme’. He WAS the scheme. And his loss, I wonder, is a loss of the scheme itself. The WS didn’t operate a racket, they had an entrepreneur who developed his own schemes and rackets and kicked up. I’d suggest this markedly reduces WS influence.

By the time he hit his 80s, these guys should have gone over a succession plan, no?

[Pmac2]

i think the family induct him. the guys brought them millions and went to jail for them. i can only imagine how many jobs he got for knickleheads in that family as favors. if they inducted a guy for being the school bus union president this guy must have got it. they have to reward it. i wouldnt doubt who ever his capo was just pulled him aside burned a tissue and said your now a friend. i know he was indicted as a associte but looks at chins son the one caught with the 4million in cash and lists of proposed members. some reason in his indictment they listed a few guys as lcn members but for some reason the kept saying hes a associate. its some smokescreen shit but i would bet papa smuf probaly got inducted into the westside in the last 10yrs.

[Tonyd621]

Is Ponte still alive?

He died a few years ago.

Anthony Pucciarello was involved as well and he also passed years ago-2015 i think

[Wiseguy]

i think the family induct him. the guys brought them millions and went to jail for them. i can only imagine how many jobs he got for knickleheads in that family as favors. if they inducted a guy for being the school bus union president this guy must have got it. they have to reward it. i wouldnt doubt who ever his capo was just pulled him aside burned a tissue and said your now a friend. i know he was indicted as a associte but looks at chins son the one caught with the 4million in cash and lists of proposed members. some reason in his indictment they listed a few guys as lcn members but for some reason the kept saying hes a associate. its some smokescreen shit but i would bet papa smuf probaly got inducted into the westside in the last 10yrs.

If Franco was made, the indictment would have said so. And they identified Vincent Esposito as a "high ranking member" in his case.

[Rocco]

" reputed Genovese Crime Family boss " This is false . Carmine was never made. He was always assigned to a Genovese Soldier. In the 80s that guy was Tony Scaffidi. I have seen nothing else that states Carmine is made. Carmine was "owned" by the Genovese family.

[Adam]

I've always been interested in the Stanfa tapes with Salvatore Profaci trying to settle the dispute Franco had with Salvatore Avena. But the point where Profaci was pretty casually saying he was close to killing Franco. Now they bullshit all the time, but it didn't read like a joke. Wonder how that would have played out.

[Tonyd621]

i think the family induct him. the guys brought them millions and went to jail for them. i can only imagine how many jobs he got for knickleheads in that family as favors. if they inducted a guy for being the school bus union president this guy must have got it. they have to reward it. i wouldnt doubt who ever his capo was just pulled him aside burned a tissue and said your now a friend. i know he was indicted as a associte but looks at chins son the one caught with the 4million in cash and lists of proposed members. some reason in his indictment they listed a few guys as lcn members but for some reason the kept saying hes a associate. its some smokescreen shit but i would bet papa smuf probaly got inducted into the westside in the last 10yrs.

I agree. Hes been loyal, and brings in money. Those are two things that are most important.