Gangland 3/23/2023

[Dr031718]

Geezer Gangsters Get A Sweet Opioid Deal: They Didn't Sell Them; They Gave Them Away

Two aged and ailing Genovese mobsters arrested for the possession and sale of opioid pills, a charge carrying prison terms up to 25 years, have each gotten plea deals of 75 hours of community service, Gang Land has learned.

The reason: They didn't sell hundreds of their prescribed Oxycodone pain pills that they didn't use; they gave them away to someone else who needed them.

The septuagenarian wiseguys, a pair of down-on-their-luck ex-bank robbers who stole millions of dollars during their heyday, Elio (Chinatown) Albanese and Carmine (Baby Carmine) Russo, pleaded guilty to a felony drug conspiracy count last week. They each received a conditional discharge as part of a plea deal so sweet you'd think the Manhattan District Attorney's Office was having a post-Valentine's Day sale.

It is a hard-to-believe story that is pretty close to being absolutely true.

Before ambling slowly out of Manhattan Supreme Court last Friday, Albanese, 74, his arm in a sling, and using the cane he needs to get around following knee surgery, and Russo, 77, a cancer survivor, each assured judge Gregory Carro that he wouldn't see them again in the next three years. That's when the conspiracy charge will be officially dismissed as long as the geriatric gangsters avoid all legal trouble.

In an unusual deal their lawyers worked out with assistant district attorneys Anne Ternes and Mao Yu Lin, 17 charges of possessing hundreds of Oxycodone pills in 2020 with an intent to sell them, were dropped. This enabled the duo to plead guilty to a conspiracy count alleging an intent to sell the pills — but allowed them to tell the judge they merely intended to "transfer" them.

That may sound confusing, because it is. But Gang Land hopes it'll all be crystal clear by the end of this account.

On January 9, 2020, Albanese obtained the first of what became multiple scripts for Oxycodone, according to their 18-count indictment. The next day Albanese passed the pills to cohort Louis Ventafredda on Mulberry Street. On September 20, Albanese and Ventafredda, a Russo cousin, did it again.

By then, the indictment states, Chinatown and Baby Carmine had obtained and filled 17 prescriptions for Oxycodone. If they were hoping to keep it secret, they were out of luck: NYPD detectives and DEA agents watched and tape-recorded Albanese do this nine times; Russo was captured doing it eight times.

Soon after they were arrested in November, sources say the prosecutors turned over discovery to the defense stating that the longtime partners in crime had gotten $10 a pill, sometimes more, for Oxycodone pills they had sold to their much younger codefendants, Ventafredda, 40, and Ivan Iorizzo, 39, for their ultimate re-sale to opioid users in Staten Island.

Not so, insists attorney Vincent Licata, who represented both men at their arraignment and Russo in court on Friday and who spelled out the important legal distinctions.

"There was a big bone of contention between us and the DA's office about what they were actually doing with the pills," Licata told Gang Land.

"They were taking them for pain," the lawyer said. "They were giving away the pills they didn't use," Licata said, noting that Albanese and Russo were not drug users but were well aware of the dangers of addiction and used their pills only when necessary.

"They acquired the pills from a medical doctor for verifiable medical injuries and then transferred (some of) them to another person who allegedly sold them," Licata continued. "That was the word used in the allocution, 'transfer,' not sale," he said.

"From January to September of 2020," each defendant stated in his allocution to Judge Carro, "I possessed Oxycodone pills that I obtained each month from a doctor in midtown Manhattan. I then agreed with others to transfer the pills to them so they could then further distribute the pills in exchange for money from users."

"There's a big difference" between the other indictments involving alleged bogus prescriptions that DA Alvin Bragg filed against the geezer gangsters' codefendants as well as a Gramercy Park doctor on the same day he filed and announced the charges against Chinatown and Baby Carmine in a news release, the lawyer said.

Russo, Albanese and lawyer Vicnet Licata "They were legitimate prescriptions," Licata continued. "Unless you're taking them, you can't get a renewal. When you go back to the doctor, and you want a second, or third, fourth, or fifth prescription, the doctor does a blood test or a urine test to make sure they're in your system. If they're not in your system," he said, "you won't get another prescription."

"They weren't fraudulent prescriptions," Licata insisted. "They're both septuagenarians with a lot of ailments and are in constant pain. The fact that they were given a conditional discharge shows that the ADAs knew they were dealing with apples and oranges," the lawyer said.

Negotiations were tense for a while, Licata said. But in the end, the prosecutors agreed that a conditional discharge was appropriate for Albanese and Russo and came up with the allocution language that would justify a community service disposition for a felony charge with a maximum penalty of four years. "That was the best arrangement we could make," the lawyer said.

"They didn't do this for nothing," Gang Land volunteered, reminding Licata of the $10 a pill discovery evidence the multi-agency probe that included the moribund Waterfront Commission had picked up on the wiseguys who had sold everything from swag to fireworks back in the day.

"Nobody does anything for nothing," was the lawyer's quick retort. "I don't know what they were getting or what they were doing, but like you said, nobody does anything for nothing."

The last words on that issue come from a very reliable Gang Land source. He says Chinatown and Baby Carmine each pocketed "maybe three to four thousand" for their troubles. The opportunity arose for the always ready "to make a few dollars" duo, the source said, during a conversation that Russo had with his cousin, Ventafredda.

"When he told Louie he was throwing out the pills he wasn't using," the source said, "Louie told him, 'Don't throw them out, give 'em to me.'"

As part of the deal, however, the old school wiseguys will have to go back to school: The dismissal of the charges is contingent, a spokeswoman for the DA's office said, on them completing "introductory programming" by Manhattan Justice Opportunities, a court approved program designed to replace incarceration for persons convicted of low-level offenses and felonies, as well as 25 three-hour sessions of community service supervised by MJO.

The spokeswoman, Kay Nguyen, declined to discuss any details about the negotiations that led to the guilty plea or the discovery that was turned over to the defense.

Judge Carro scheduled a status conference for Ventafredda and Iorizzo — who are believed to be in good personal health — for April 12.

Forget About Bail; Skinny Teddy Needs An Acquittal To Get Out Of Jail

Colombo crime family capo Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico is going to have to run the table at trial if he wants to get out of jail anytime soon.

The mobster who is a very likely choice as the next boss of his crime family, has been behind bars since he was hit with a racketeering indictment 18 months ago.

This leaves Skinny Teddy with just one option if he wants to spend any time at his Dyker Heights home in the foreseeable future with his mother and his long-time paramour: He has to win an acquittal of all charges at trial later this year.

By then, Persico will have been incarcerated for more than two years, a month longer than the maximum he faces for violating his supervised release. But there's no way that he's getting out of the Metropolitan Detention Center while charges are still pending against him, according to the ruling by his trial judge last week.

Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Hector Gonzalez says that Persico's "history of committing crimes while on parole and supervised release" establishes him as a member of a "limited group of offenders" for whom "there is no condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the safety of the community if (he) is released" on bail.

In addition, Gonzalez stated the 25 months that Persico will have been locked up waiting for his trial to begin in October "does not violate his due process rights" because there is "clear and convincing" evidence he "presents a danger to the community" if he is not behind bars. There also is "strong evidence" that prosecutors are not responsible "for the delay in his trial," the judge wrote.

The ruling is the latest in a series of legal setbacks for the reputed heir apparent to the crime family that was ruled by Skinny Teddy's late uncle, Carmine (Junior) Persico for more than three decades while he was behind bars serving a 100-year prison term for his conviction in the historic Commission case.

Persico, 59, is charged with extortion in the 20-year-long $2600 a month shakedown of a Queens-based construction workers union. He’s also charged with money laundering and other crimes in the indictment of 15 defendants, including the Colombo family's successor boss to Carmine Persico, Andrew (Mush) Russo, who died last year, about six months after he was indicted.

In a ruling a few days before the judge rejected Persico's appeal of his detention, Gonzalez refused to grant him a hearing on allegations that an FBI agent knowingly submitted false information that Skinny Teddy was the family boss to obtain wiretaps. Gonzalez also denied his pre-trial motions to suppress the electronic surveillance evidence and to dismiss the racketeering count of the indictment.

Gonzalez rejected Persico's argument "that the various affidavits" to obtain the warrants had "misrepresented" his alleged role in the crime family and they did not accurately interpret discussions "about the alleged criminal activity." The judge stated that the warrants "contained more than sufficient information to support a finding of probable cause" to issue them.

This included, the judge wrote, "Persico's supervisory role" in the crime family, the "alleged violations of the terms of his supervised release," confidential source information about his "criminal activity and his role in the Colombo crime family," and his "communications" with other mobsters involved in the extortion of the labor union and its president.

Gonzalez wrote that "by the time the search of his person and place of business was authorized on September 13, 2021," Persico "had been indicted by a grand jury" and that also "supports a finding of probable cause," noting that "a number of district courts in this circuit have considered the allegations in indictments when evaluating magistrates’ findings of probable cause."

Persiso wasn't the only defendant of the eight who are still awaiting trial to lose every pretrial motion that the judge has decided.

Gonzalez gave a thumbs down to motions to suppress evidence and to obtain additional discovery by consigliere Ralph (Big Ralph) DeMatteo, soldier Michael Uvino and mob associate Albert Alimena. Uvino's renewed motion for bail was also denied by Magistrate Judge James Cho.

The only remaining pre-trial motion is by Alimena and two other mob associates charged with so-called financial crimes relating to the extortion of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union and its president by the Colombo crime family. Not surprisingly, the trio would prefer not to be judged by the same jury considering evidence against Persico, DeMatteo, Uvino and the other mobsters charged with racketeering.

Alimena and defendants Joseph Bellantoni and Erin Thompkins are all charged with aiding the mobsters in their efforts to steal $10,000 a month from Local 621's health and welfare benefit funds.

Mikey Nose, The Feds, Chief Probation Officer, Set For Third Try To Settle His VOSR

It's taken eight weeks — not the 10 days the judge wanted — but Robert Capers, the Chief U.S. Department of Probation official in Brooklyn, is apparently ready to tell the Court why the government agreed to let Bonanno family boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso plead guilty to a lesser violation of supervised release (VOSR) than the one with which he was first charged.

Back on February 16, Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis angrily ordered Capers to appear before him within 10 days after the judge scolded the prosecutor and the probation officer about the proposed guilty plea to the VOSR that the government had agreed to accept from Mancuso, and he refused to go along with it.

"Are you playing me?" Garaufis asked assistant U.S. attorney Michael Gibaldi and probation officer Ryan Lehr when they told him that Mancuso would admit meeting with ex-cons instead of with persons who were "involved with organized crime" as he was originally charged. "I don't like it, and I'm not going to accept it," the judge said.

It was the second time the judge had refused to accept a guilty plea that Gibaldi and Mancuso attorney Stacey Richman had worked out for the often-adjourned VOSR that was filed against Mikey Nose in March of last year, a day before his supervised release restrictions were due to end. His sentencing guidelines call for a return to prison from five to 11 months.

"Put some meat on this bone here for me," Garaufis told Gibaldi and Richman in November, stating he would "allow" Mancuso to plead guilty if he stated "what he did" but he would not accept the proposed guilty plea, declaring it was merely a "conceptual statement of guilt." He needed to hear the gangster clearly admit to what he had done wrong, the judge said.

The February session was much more contentious than one in November. In the more recent one, neither Mancuso nor Richman uttered a word. After telling Gibaldi that his courtroom deputy would "find a date for Mr. Capers to be here," the judge interrupted an attempt by the prosecutor to reply, said, "We're adjourned," and left the bench.

Garaufis was visibly exercised that an amended VOSR charged Mikey Nose only with seeing two persons he knew were ex-cons, namely Colombo mobsters Michael Uvino and Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo. Mancuso had been charged with participating in the "criminal affairs" of the Bonanno family by meeting them as well as Bonanno wiseguys Jerome Asaro and John (Bazoo) Ragano while on supervised release.

There have been no court filings since that proceeding, and all the parties were mum about their plans for the next session, which is scheduled for April 14. Capers did not respond to a telephone or email request for comment, and the prosecutor and defense lawyer each declined to comment.

Since Garaufis has stated he wants Capers to explain his agency's reasons for its actions in first charging Mancuso and then amending it, it's not likely that Mancuso and the government will be able to fashion a proposed guilty plea that will also satisfy Judge Garaufis during that session.

And based on a close reading of the prior sessions, there doesn't seem to be any way that Mancuso would plead guilty to the original VOSR he was charged with, since it states that he met with the four wiseguys while participating in the "criminal affairs" of the Bonanno family.

"Specifically," the judge told Mancuso when he read the VOSR aloud in November, you "associated with persons engaged in criminal activity," and "participated in the criminal affairs of the Bonanno crime family as 'boss' by associating with" the four named wiseguys.

While it's not a crime to be a member of a crime family, or even a boss of a Mafia family, it would seem to be a crime for Mikey Nose to admit he "participated in the criminal affairs of the Bonanno crime family as 'boss,'" as the VOSR stated. Gang Land believes there's no way he would do that, since it would link him and four fellow wiseguys to criminal activity.

And since Judge Garaufis seems reluctant to accept any plea that deviates from that charge, Mancuso and the prosecutors, who seem very eager to settle this issue with a negotiated plea, may be forced to to resolve the pending VOSR in what amounts to a mini-bench trial before a very perturbed federal judge

[Ivan]

Still think it's weird for an Italian guy to be named "Ivan" instead of "Giovanni" or just "John." Thanks for posting.

[AntComello]

So I guess the whole Mancuso/Cammarano “war” was bullshit if Capeci hasn’t written about it by now. Especially with all the Mancuso violation shit going on you would think it would
Be brought up if there was any truth to it.

[Little_Al1991]

Thanks for posting

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting.

[TommyGambino]

So I guess the whole Mancuso/Cammarano “war” was bullshit if Capeci hasn’t written about it by now. Especially with all the Mancuso violation shit going on you would think it would
Be brought up if there was any truth to it.

Hit teams are roaming the streets as we speak

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for posting.

Several posters on here were chastised for criticizing the burstein article, and this whilst stating if they were wrong they would come out and opening admit wrong and apologize.

That there is absolute silence and a distinct lack of humility from the other side is disappointing, but I guess we're only in week 9 of absolute zero corroboration from Capeci.

Maybe week 12.

[AntComello]

So I guess the whole Mancuso/Cammarano “war” was bullshit if Capeci hasn’t written about it by now. Especially with all the Mancuso violation shit going on you would think it would
Be brought up if there was any truth to it.

Hit teams are roaming the streets as we speak

yea and it was Mancuso who put out the hit on Leo Rizzuto

[AntComello]

Thanks for posting.

Several posters on here were chastised for criticizing the burstein article, and this whilst stating if they were wrong they would come out and opening admit wrong and apologize.

That there is absolute silence and a distinct lack of humility from the other side is disappointing, but I guess we're only in week 9 of absolute zero corroboration from Capeci.

Maybe week 12.

I admit that if Capeci hasn’t written about it by now that it’s 99% bullshit. Was kind of just hoping for some excitement in New York, I never was defending Scott though lol

[johnny_scootch]

I wasn't on either side of this debate and correct me if I'm wrong you are saying if Capeci didn't write about it, it didn't happen?

[Wiseguy]

I wasn't on either side of this debate and correct me if I'm wrong you are saying if Capeci didn't write about it, it didn't happen?

I think he's saying, something like that would have likely been picked up by Capeci (and other news outlets) if there is anything to it.

[johnny_scootch]

I wasn't on either side of this debate and correct me if I'm wrong you are saying if Capeci didn't write about it, it didn't happen?

I think he's saying, something like that would have likely been picked up by Capeci (and other news outlets) if there is anything to it.

I'm not defending what Scott wrote but let's be honest Capeci not writing about something doesn't prove or disprove anything.

[Southshore88]

Thanks for posting

[mafiastudent]

I don't think it's even about Capeci writing about it or not. The government is being taken to task by the judge for letting Mancuso plead to a lesser charge than what was in the original report. If he was meeting with all these additional people, and plotting to kill people no less, why would the government torture themselves when they could easily get him thrown back in jail - especially if they're supposedly already aware of it.

That's what I can't get past. There is no logic to the government letting Mancuso plead to a lesser charge if all that was taking place.

[AntComello]

I don't think it's even about Capeci writing about it or not. The government is being taken to task by the judge for letting Mancuso plead to a lesser charge than what was in the original report. If he was meeting with all these additional people, and plotting to kill people no less, why would the government torture themselves when they could easily get him thrown back in jail - especially if they're supposedly already aware of it.

That's what I can't get past. There is no logic to the government letting Mancuso plead to a lesser charge if all that was taking place.

Exactly, you would just think that by now Capeci would have picked up on it considering it would be one of the more exciting stories he’s written about in the last 10 years.