Gangland 5/12/2022

[Dr031718]

Son Doesn't Want Jurors To Hear His Father's Day 'Thank You' To The FBI At His Trial For Killing His Father

Anthony ZottolaGang Land Exclusive!In an incredibly bad choice of words that he doesn't want jurors to hear, Anthony Zottola thanked the FBI for waiting until the day after Father's Day in June of 2019 to arrest him for hiring a hit team to whack his dad, Gang Land has learned.

"I had a feeling you were coming; when I don't know but, I can thank you that it was after Father's Day and it was after all my kids’ birthdays," Zottola told agent Michael Zoufal, according to an affidavit Zottola filed with the court.

Zottola admits no wrongdoing in the statement, or in anything else he told the FBI. But Zottola has asked the judge to keep the jury from hearing about what he said at his trial for the October 2018 murder of his father, Sylvester (Sally Daz) Zottola. The elder Zottola was gunned down in a McDonald's drive thru in the Bronx by Bloods gangstas, allegedly hired for the hit by his own son.

Sylvester ZottolaIt's understandable that Zottola is trying to keep his unfortunate remark out of the trial. It's a visceral, hard-to-forget remark that jurors would surely recall when weighing the fate of a man accused of killing his father, as well as the attempted murder of his brother Salvatore.

Zottola, 44, made the remark about an hour after he was arrested, at 7:03 PM in FBI headquarters. He claims he made the comment long after Zoufal had refused to let Zottola contact his attorney, and before the G-man gave Zottola a Miranda warning advising him that anything he said could be used against him.

At the time, Zottola wrote, "I was worried about my kids," particularly his 11-year-old son, who was with him when he was arrested, and who was picked up and comforted by his mom after the agents let Zottola use his cell phone to call his wife.

Salvatore Zottola Rubout AttemptDefense attorneys Henry Mazurek and Ilana Harmati, point out that Zottola uttered those words after agent Zoufal walked into the interrogation room as their client was talking about his family. In a court filing, the lawyers wrote that the agent offered his own regrets, telling Zottola that “it's not how I wanted to do this either, yeah I'm sorry.'"

The exchange between them was captured by a video recording of his client that began a few minutes before Zoufal entered the room, the lawyers wrote.

At 7:19 PM, six minutes after Zottola again asked to speak to his attorney, "Zoufal finally read Mr. Zottola his Miranda warnings" and he "was permitted to speak to his attorney for the first time" five minutes later when "the video recording was shut," the attorneys wrote.

Raymond DearieThe conversation should be suppressed, the lawyers wrote, because Zottolla did not get his Miranda warning for almost 90 minutes after his arrest, and because the arresting officers, Zoufal and NYPD detectives Jesse Ortiz and Shawn Ricker, "knew Mr. Zottola was represented by counsel" and that they "were prohibited" from questioning him.

The defense lawyers also say the exchange came after agents told Zottola as he was driven by agents to the FBI office that he was only being asked questions concerning his arrest. But the agents asked him about "his family and business — both of which have clear bearing (on the case since) the alleged victims are his father and brother who worked with him in the family real estate business," the lawyer wrote.

Zoufal and the detectives did so "in the hope of getting him to make substantive statements relevant to the case," the lawyers argued, noting that the FBI video begins with "Zottola responding to questions about his family" and "in the next minute of the video, agent Zoufal initiates further conversation about the circumstances of Mr. Zottola's arrest."

Bushawn SheltonThe Father's Day thank you is not the only awkward evidence the defense seeks to quash.

The lawyers also asked Brooklyn Federal Judge Raymond Dearie to suppress scores of texts between Zotolla and alleged Bloods gang leader, Bushawn (Shelz) Shelton that prosecutors say appear to be coded discussions between a movie producer and a film director, but were actually about murder plots against Sally Daz and his son Salvatore that Zotolla and Shelton had planned.

The FBI recovered the texts from Shelton's phone after he was arrested in connection with the murder plots a few weeks after Sally Daz was killed. Zotolla argues they should be suppressed from his trial, which he wants to be severed from Shelton's, because they were seized in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights to privacy.

Vincent BascianoThe attorneys also asked Dearie to suppress "hundreds of thousands of pages of new documents" they received in April, three months after Dearie, who had chided prosecutors for not giving the defense the "discovery material" it should have received many months earlier, ordered them to complete the discovery process "by mid-January," adding, "It has got to be done."

The material included 750 pages of NYPD photos and documents and "forensic copies" of data the FBI extracted from of 17 iCloud accounts, and 34 cell phones and other electronic devices and 127 jailhouse recordings involving imprisoned for life Bonanno wiseguy Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano, who was Sally Daz's mob supervisor for many years.

"The only fair thing for the Court to do," Mazurek and Harmati wrote, "is to preclude the government from admitting this newly produced discovery in its case-in-chief" in order to protect Zottola's "rights to due process and fundamental fairness."

The lawyers also asked Dearie to order prosecutors to expand on a "high-level" but "woefully inadequate" summary of potential Brady Material the government gave the defense in 2020. They need "full and complete reports" about "the pieces of information" that were obtained from "disparate sources," including the names of the witnesses and their "actual statements," they wrote.

That "materially relevant" data "is likely to lead to exculpatory information," the lawyers wrote, because it will add to the Brady Material the defense already has obtained "regarding motives by organized crime to assault and kill Sylvester Zottola."

Henry MazurekLike Zottola, Shelton is seeking a separate trial based on "mutually antagonistic" defenses. The specifics are sealed, but most likely the defendants are pointing the finger at each other. Shelton, 37, has asked Dearie to suppress all the information that prosecutors gleaned from the FBI's searches of two Instagram accounts and his cell phones on the grounds that they are "overbroad" and violate the Fourth Amendment rights to privacy.

"Based on one statement from a confidential source that there was a message to him on one Instagram account at an unknown time," wrote attorneys Susan Marcus and Elisa Lee, "the government sought warrants for the entirety of two Instagram accounts, including a private one that they had no probable cause to believe contained any evidence of a crime."

"If it were justified at all," they wrote, the warrant should been for "a particular message on his Instagram account," for a limited time, "not the entirety of both the business and personal accounts for over one year."

Herman BlancoThe attorneys wrote that the search of all Shelton's phones was based solely on "the statement of an unreliable, unverified, uncorroborated, confidential informant" and argued that all the info that was obtained from his phones should also be suppressed as fruits of an illegal search.

Prosecutors have until May 27 to respond to the defense motions. Zottola, Shelton, and four codefendants, are still scheduled for trial, which is slated to begin in August. But sources say the other four are all seeking negotiated plea deals.

Three defendants, Jason (The Hat) Cummings, 34, Branden (Mur B) Peterson, 37, and Herman (Taliban) Blanco, 37, have all copped plea deals to murder for hire charges involving the killing of Sally Daz on October 4, 2018 and the attempted murder of Salvatore Zottola on July 11, 2018.

Cummings and Peterson face up to 20 years at sentencing. Blanco, a key aide and longtime pal of Shelton, pleaded guilty to two counts and faces up to 20 years on each count. His plea agreement prohibits his lawyers from seeking a prison term of less than 20 years.

Feds Slow To Make Their Case, But They Find A Way To Keep Michael Michael Behind Bars

Mileta MiljanicFederal prosecutors in Brooklyn tried their best to keep longtime Gambino associate Mileta (Michael Michael) Miljanic on ice for their slow-moving counterparts in Manhattan. But an independent-thinking judge didn't buy into it and refused to hammer him with an over the top prison term that would keep him locked up for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office.

Despite that, even though Miljanic received a sentence last week that would have enabled him to be released from prison, and even though federal prosecutors in Manhattan weren't able to close the labor racketeering investigation they've been working on for two years, Michael Michael is still behind bars.

That's because assistant U.S. attorney Jason Swergold, the Manhattan prosecutor who disclosed in a court filing two years ago that Miljanic was involved in a construction industry racket with Gambino capo Louis Filippelli, has learned through his prior court battles to prepare for the worst.

LaShann Dearcy HallHe drafted a 12 page fraud complaint against Michael Michael the day before he was slated to be sentenced and was ready to use it to arrest him on Thursday if Brooklyn Federal Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall rejected a government request to sentence Miljanic to 21 months, and opted instead to mete out a prison term no greater than the high end of his sentencing guidelines — 16 months.

Sources say Swergold believed that if the judge gave Michael Michael 21 months, he and his colleagues would have enough time to make their case without having to worry that Miljanic, who has property in Serbia and dual citizenship, would leave the country.

A 16-month prison term would mean that Michael Michael, who has been behind bars since February of last year, would have been deemed to have completed his sentence and been released from the Metropolitan Detention Center based on Bureau of Prisons protocol that gives all inmates a "good time" reduction of 15% of all prison terms longer than one year.

Louis FiippelliBefore imposing sentence, DeArcy Hall duly noted that she had read all the government's filings in the case, which included the information that Miljanic was under investigation in Manhattan "for racketeering conspiracy involving bribery, wire fraud and honest services fraud related to the construction industry involving the Gambino crime family."

She had also read that before he was arrested Miljanic had been seen meeting with Filippelli and was suspected of "obtaining large construction contracts through illicit means and using construction companies, such as multiple ones owned by the defendant, to launder money obtained through various illegal activities."

But the judge agreed with the argument by Miljanic's lawyers that a prison term of 16 months was sufficient punishment for his crime of possessing a handgun in the night table of his bedroom that was found when his Queens apartment was searched as part of a bid-rigging and labor racketeering investigation by the Manhattan U.S Attorney's office.

Jason SwergoldWhen that happened, Swergold used the complaint to arrest Miljanic, which remained under wraps until yesterday, despite several calls about the arrest from Gang Land. We argued that since it was public information in Brooklyn that Michael Michael had been arrested by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office last week, it should be public all around the town.

At his arraignment, Miljanic was ordered detained as a flight risk by White Plains Magistrate Judge Andrew Krause, who scheduled a preliminary hearing on the fraud charges for June 8 if the feds still haven't obtained their expected indictment against Filippelli, Miljanic and other suspects in their probe.

Miljanic, the reputed leader of a Serbian organized crime family called Grupo Amerika, was publicly identified as a suspect by Swergold in a labor racketeering case against James Cahill, a former plumbers union official who is still awaiting trial in that case.

In December of 2018, Swergold wrote that Cahill had been heard stating that Filippelli and Miljanic had become fast friends after he got Filippelli "to intervene" with Michael Michael and got him "to address a death threat" by Miljanic's gang against a Cahill nephew.

"So what does Louis do?" Cahill is quoted as telling a wired-up confidential informer. "He goes partners with Michael Michael in the construction business, and they're happy as pigs in shit."

Gang Land can't speak for Filippelli, but Miljanic can't be too happy these days.

He Lost His Funeral Director's License, But The Undertaker Is Now A Capo

Ralph BalsamoHis ties to Genovese boss Liborio (Barney) Bellomo cost him an eight-year stretch behind bars and the loss of his funeral director's license. But they have enabled Ralph (The Undertaker) Balsamo to rise in stature in his other chosen field of endeavor, Gang Land has learned.

Balsamo was described as an associate when he was indicted on racketeering charges along with then acting boss Bellomo and 35 others in 2006. Ten years later, in 2016, The Undertaker was a soldier when he was nabbed on similar charges along with capo Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello and 44 others.

Balsamo, who did a much shorter prison stay in the Parrello case and was released in 2018, has continued to rise in the ranks and is now a capo, according to a recent racketeering indictment lodged against him in Manhattan Federal Court.

In his current case, Balsamo, 51, is charged along with five other Genovese gangsters with being part of a lucrative crime family gambling and loansharking ring that used "intimidation, violence, and threats of physical and economic harm" to line their pockets and the crime family's coffers since 2011.

Nicholas CalisiThe bare bones indictment seeks undisclosed forfeitures from Balsamo, and his codefendants, but it doesn't detail the roles that Balsamo or the others played in the operation.

Balsamo and three other family wiseguys charged in the case — capo Nicholas (Nicky Slash) Calisi, of Boca Raton, and soldiers John Campanella, of the Bronx, and Michael Messina, of New Fairfield, Connecticut — were all released on bail, after agreeing to personal recognizance bonds ranging from $250,000 to $1 million.

Sources say Calisi, 63, is a former New Yorker who now runs the Genovese family's Bronx crew from the Sunshine State. He allegedly has close ties to Andrew (Sonny) Campos, the Scarsdale-based Gambino capo who pleaded guilty last year to heading a lucrative labor racketeering scheme for his crime family and recently began serving a 37-month stretch behind bars for that conviction.

Andrew CamposCalisi did a four year bit in the early 1980s for an assault conviction. Messina, 69, and Campanella, 47, have no mob-related convictions, but Campanella has a driving-under-the-influence rap, according to court records.

The other defendants are a father and son team, Thomas Poli, 64, of the Bronx, and his son, Michael (Mike Polio) Poli, 37, of Hawthorne. They were also released on bond, under home detention conditions, although it was touch and go for the elder Poli.

At his arraignment, prosecutor Celia Cohen argued that Thomas Poli was a danger to the community and sought to detain him. She stated that FBI agents had followed the senior Poli to Pennsylvania and had seen him take pictures of a home of an alleged deadbeat victim who had been threatened with violence if he didn't pay up.

But defense attorney John Meringolo argued that there were conditions of bail that would protect the community and assure the court that Thomas Poli would not abscond. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger agreed and Poli was released on a $250,000 bond, cosigned by two "financially responsible persons." His home detention is monitored but he's allowed to leave his home to "seek employment" — as long as it has nothing to do with the Genovese crime family.

Since none of the defendants are behind bars, the case is on a decidedly slow track. The next scheduled court session is July 28.

[AntComello]

What a dummy this Anthony zatolla is. Guy had it made already and he goes and wacks his dad and tries to wack his brother now he’s gonna sit for a long time lmao thanks for posting

[Amershire_Ed]

Thx for posting

[Shellackhead]

Thanks for posting

[Cheech]

Sally Daz is one of the coolest nicknames out there.

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting

He says Balsamo was indicted as an associate in 2006 he was actually a soldier. Fairly certain he was made in the same ceremony as Arilotta in 2003.

[TSNYC]

Yeah, New York Times article covering that case called him a soldier which I gather they pulled right from press release and indictment.

[TSNYC]

Thanks for posting

He says Balsamo was indicted as an associate in 2006 he was actually a soldier. Fairly certain he was made in the same ceremony as Arilotta in 2003.

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/bic/downloa ... Denial.pdf

Identified as a soldier by BIC based on federal and state indictments

[Dr031718]

The Filipelli indictment is imminent and will be interesting to see who else gets caught up in that. Also I believe there has to be a superseding indictment adding more to the Balsamo case. Seems to weak but hey the feds have been bringing pretty weak cases lately

[Hired_Goonz]

Thanks for posting. This Zottola is a real idiot.

[Johnny1and1]

Active crew in Florida is my takeaway. Sources cited though, so who knows what sources means?

[OcSleeper]

Would Calisi be running Parello's crew?

Were there any pictures posted with the article? Please post them if there were.

[Charlie]

Nicky Slash took over the Denti crew

[JohnnyS]

Would Calisi be running Parello's crew?

Were there any pictures posted with the article? Please post them if there were.

Years ago I believe a poster on here said Nicky Slash had taken over the Dente crew. This was before anybody had ever heard of Calisi and he's got his nickname right.

[Dr031718]

Would Calisi be running Parello's crew?

Were there any pictures posted with the article? Please post them if there were.