Gangland June 13th 2024

[Dr031718]

Naked City: Wired-Up Snitch Took Off All His Clothes; Yet Still Managed To Tape Record His Wiseguy Tormentor

It was a scene worthy of an episode of The Sopranos: Two mob-tied figures standing in a Queens salvage yard loudly accusing each other of being rats. The dispute took place on a July day last year when one of the men, Bonanno soldier John (Bazoo) Ragano, angrily berated the other for failing to make good on a $150,000 loanshark debt that he owed Roagano.

The delinquent debtor, Vincent Martino, responded that he wasn't about to pay Bazoo what he owed, the reason being that he believed Ragano was cooperating with the government. Ragano angrily denied the allegation. He then flipped it back on Martino, accusing him of being a wired-up snitch. Martino strongly denied this as well.

"Okay, well then take off your fucking shit right now my man," Ragano shouted, according to portions of the tape recorded conversation that was detailed in a court filing by the feds this week. "Take off your fucking pants right now, lemme see, I want to see," he said.

Gang Land doesn't know where the listening device was or how it continued to record Bazoo's words, since Martino complied with Ragano's order and stripped nude. The feds never like to disclose what they call operational tactics. But snippets of the recording show Bazoo kept right on making threats that may now lead to more jail time for the mobster who began a 57-month sentence for an earlier loansharking rap a few days after the incident last summer.

Bazoo continued berating Martino after he took off all his clothes. As he yelled, two men appeared behind Ragano, one of them holding a tire iron and the other a crowbar. In a filing with Brooklyn Federal Judge Hector Gonzalez, assistant U.S. attorney Devon Lash described all of the above, and below, to what she termed a "consensually recorded" talk by Martino, who is identified as "John Doe."

Ragano: You owe me my fucking money, let's see how you're gonna do when I get out.
Martino: Okay.
Ragano: You want to duck me right now? Fine, that's what I want to know.
Martino: I'm not ducking you, I'm here, I'm here.
Ragano: So if I fucking slap the shit out of you, you're gonna tell on me?
Martino: No.
Ragano: I try to make this like a friendly thing.
Martino: [UI]
Ragano: I said you give me my fucking money and we'll call it even.

Lash detailed four tape recorded conversations that Ragano had with Martino, a codefendant in the blockbuster racketeering case filed in September of 2021 that snared the hierarchy of the Colombo family in a 20-year-long extortion of a union leader. That indictment accused Rgano and Martino of being part of a drug dealing conspiracy with other defendants.

It also accused Ragano and co-defendant Colombo wiseguys Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo and Michael Uvino of using extortionate means to collect a loanshark debt from Martino.

Lash filed snippets of the taped talks, which began in January of last year when Ragano wished Martino a "Happy New Year" in a recorded telephone message. The talks ended six months later on July 5 after Martino took off his clothing. She requested that the new case against Ragano be set down for trial if he decides to contest the charges.

At the July 5 encounter, Lash alleges that Ragano "made explicitly clear that (Martino) owed Ragano his 'fucking money,' and if (Martino) did not pay, Ragano would harm (him) when Ragano was released from prison."

"The encounter ended," the prosecutor told Gonzalez "with Ragano promising that he would see (Martino) when (he) got out of prison, reminding (Martino) that Ragano knew where (he) lived."

Ragano: You fucking scumbag.
Martino: Okay.
Ragano: I'll see you when I get out tough guy.
Martino: Okay.
Ragano: I'll see you when I get out.
Martino: All right.
Ragano: Don't forget I know where you're at now.

Lash conceded, as Ragano's lawyers had contended in seeking to dismiss the loansharking charges and related allegations, that Bazoo's angry words were triggered when Martino refused to pay and asserted that Ragano was cooperating with the government.

Lash argued that during the outburst Bazoo admitted that he was still engaged in loansharking activity against Martino, a charge that he had pleaded guilty to in November of 2022, and that he can be heard threatening his victim on the tape recording he made.

In February, Bazoo was charged with loansharking and obstruction of justice for continuing to demand payment from Martino and for threatening him not to disclose Ragano's actions to the feds from November of 2022 until July 5. 2023, eight months after he pleaded guilty to the original loansharking charge.

In seeking to dismiss the new case, Ragano's lawyers noted that their client also had another nickname –"Maniac" – and argued that the feds knew he was "somewhat volatile." The encounter with Martino, they argue, was conjured up as a "deliberate, preconceived strategy to provoke" Ragano by getting Martino to "falsely accuse" Bazoo of tape-recording him.

Since Ragano was a reputed mobster, "this was a serious accusation made in an area open to the public and with other employees also present, and not to be taken lightly," the lawyers wrote, noting that Martino had burst into the salvage yard unannounced and surprised Ragano.

Attorneys Joel Stein and Ken Womble argued that Bazoo's "two eventual references to money" during the July 5 talk were "merely incidental and an afterthought," and "were not because of any outstanding debt." Rather, they were an "angry retort to (Martino's) provocative false accusation" that Ragano was a cooperating witness, they wrote.

The lawyers wrote that the July 5 incident was the only time that Ragano mentioned "money, a debt, a loan, or collection of a loan or debt." That never came up in two other taped conversations that Bazoo had with Martino and an unidentified "co-conspirator," a Ragano pal who had 22 additional taped talks with Martino, the attorneys wrote.

In her filing, Lash wrote that there were three other taped conversations between Ragano and Martino. One was recorded on April 15, 2023, right after Martino gave $1,000 to the unidentified Ragano pal. Martino was warned not to mention his own name when the co-conspirator called Bazoo on his monitored "fed phone" since they were codefendants and barred from all contact without their lawyers.

During the call, which "was on speaker phone so Ragano and (Martino) could speak," Lash wrote, "Ragano and (Martino) exchanged pleasantries, and Ragano ended the conversation stating, 'All right thank you, thank you, be good, I appreciate it.'"

Lash stated that on April 29, 2023, two days after Martino gave another $1000 to Bazoo's pal, he "met Ragano, and the men" Facetimed Martino's phone rather than call it in a failed effort to avoid detection by the feds since Martino recorded the call. During it, Lash wrote, "Ragano encouraged (Martino) to make money at work 'and you can take care of me.'"

Bazoo wasn't surprised to see Martino on July 5, Lash wrote. He made arrangements to go to the salvage yard during a tape recorded face-to-face meeting he had with Ragano's pal five days earlier, after Martino had received numerous messages and phone calls seeking additional cash payments for Ragano. All told, Martino gave him three $1000 payments from November 2022 until Last July.

Following the messages, Lash wrote, Martino told Ragano's pal that that he "needed to discuss 'an issue' with the loan with Ragano in person." He was then informed during a tape-recorded conversation on June 30 that "Ragano agreed to meet with (him) at Ragano's workplace," the prosecutor wrote.

"You can meet him [Ragano] right now, or whenever you want, go to his job, he told me to tell you that," the co-conspirator told Martino, and gave him the address, explaining that "Ragano worked Monday through Saturday, and (Martino) could go there, 'any Monday to Saturday.'"

When Martino asked if Ragano needed to know he was coming beforehand, Lash wrote, the co-conspirator replied, "No, just whenever, he told me to let you know, that's the address, go there, 'You don't gotta let me know.'"

Lash noted that the "indictment clearly states the charges against Ragano and provides enough detail to reasonably apprise the defendant of the nature of the charges," especially with all the tape-recorded evidence he had been provided, and argued that there was no basis to dismiss it.

"Ragano's request for how the government will prove extortionate means and harassment, go beyond the scope of the information to which he is entitled," Lash wrote, arguing that Gonzalez should not order the government to turn that information over to his lawyers.

The attorneys, and Bazoo, who's been in this situation quite a few times before, should be able to figure out that the government will likely call Martino, or an FBI agent to the stand, and play a few tape recorded conversations, including the one on July 5, 2023, when Martino took off all his clothes after Ragano correctly accused him of being a cooperating witness.

The More Things Change The More They Remain The Same

The Palma Boys Social Club where octogenarian gangster Lawrence (Larry) Wecker often hung out some 40 years ago with legendary Genovese gangster Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno and scores of other goodfellas is long gone, and the refurbished 1000 square foot storefront in East Harlem is looking for a new tenant.

"There are two heat-AC units for heating and cooling and there is a bathroom in the back," said Daniel Sharga, a broker for Meridian Capital. "The space has cubicles but the landlord, who has been in the industry for decades and cares about his tenants a lot will remove them" for a new tenant, he said.

"The last tenant used it as a tax office for a few years until he stopped paying rent and was asked to leave, but back in the day, a very long time ago, it used to be a really famous place," Sharga told Gang Land. Anyone interested in renting the storefront at 416 East 115th street — the landlord is asking for $3500 a month rent — should call him at 516-787-4464.

Until recently, though, Wecker, 84, was conducting business not at the old Palma Boys Social Club but at an office he rented a block away at 501 East 116th Street. There, he was still doing what came naturally, that is running scams on government agencies, contractors, workers and insurance companies — just as he has over the past five decades or so.

That line of work ended, however, with his arrest last year. He is now on long-term leave, having been sentenced to a two-to-six year bid. He began his term last week at the prison ward at Bellevue Hospital, Gang Land has learned.

Supreme Court Justice Althea Drysdale rejected claims that Wecker was too old and ill to be jailed. She ordered the aging labor racketeer, who had tottered into court last week using a cane and carrying a paper bag his lawyers said contained 19 medications he takes for his ailments, to begin the prison term he agreed to take for stealing millions of dollars in city and state funds from 2015 through 2021.

In January, Wecker pleaded guilty to enterprise corruption charges for winning numerous building contracts in New York City and New Rochelle by falsely claiming work was being done by women and minority owned companies when his company, JM3 Construction, which pleaded guilty to fraud charges in the seven year-long scam, was actually doing the work.

Wecker has served previous state and federal prison terms for labor racketeering scams and other swindles with members and associates of the Genovese and Luchese crime families over past decades. This time, he also pleaded guilty to weapons possession charges in a plea deal that calls for him to serve three years of probation when he concludes his term.

He will be turned over to state correction officials and transferred to a state prison facility "when his paperwork is completed," according to a state correction department spokesman.

Joseph Guinta, a JM3 executive who also operated a subcontracting company that JM3 used during the scheme, copped a plea deal to insurance fraud and is currently serving a six month stretch at Riker's Island in a plea deal that requires him to pay $150,000 in restitution to the New York State Insurance Fund. Guinta, 58, is slated to be released July 11.

Michael Speier, a JM3 project manager who oversaw the company's day-to-day operations, pleaded guilty to falsifying business records in a plea deal calling for six months in prison. Speier, 48, will have to pay restitution of $10,000 to compensate two former employees for wages they lost when they suffered workplace injuries. He is slated to be sentenced on July 9.

The enterprise corruption indictment charges Wecker, Speier and Guinta with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from their clients by creating fraudulently inflated contracts. In one scheme, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the trio inflated one drywall contract by $400,000 and shared $50,000 of that with a contractor who had awarded them the contract for the building project.

Hopefully, Wecker will survive his current term despite his advanced age. If so, maybe that vacant storefront where he and his old pals used to hang out at the old Palma Boys Social Club will still be available.

Introducing The Gambino Family Class of 2024, Charged with Enterprise Corruption

The Gambinos have inducted three new members into their borgata, Gang Land has learned. One's a gangster who served 20 years for the murder of an informer. Another's the grandson of a mobster who once owned the building that housed John Gotti's Little Italy headquarters. And one is a young businessman with ties to the powerful Sicilian faction that runs the crime family.

In another kind of initiation, the trio — John Matera, 53, John (The Hammer) Laforte, 56, and Anthony Cinque, 39 — have all been charged with enterprise corruption along with five other accused associates of the Gambino and Colombo families, as well as nine other defendants. All are accused of being part of a Staten Island-based gambling and loansharking operation from 2021 to last year.

It's not the first bust for Matera. He was convicted of the 1998 murder of Frank Hydell and released from federal prison in June of 2022. Two months later, Matera was tape recorded meeting with members of the gambling ring which allegedly handled $22 million in wagers from September of 2022 until March of last year, and maintained a $500,000 loanshark book, according to the 84 count indictment in the case.

Laforte is the grandson of Joseph (Joe The Cat) Laforte, who owned the apartment house at 247 Mulberry Street where Gotti held court at the Ravenite Social Club until his arrest in 1990. John Laforte allegedly supervised the gambling operation, according to a news release distributed by Attorney General Letitia James, whose office announced the indictment and arrests last week.

Cinque is the owner of a New Jersey used car dealership known as Auto Lounge of Edison, in Edison NJ. The dealership allegedly functioned as a bank where gambling winnings were deposited before they were distributed, according to the indictment. Cinque is said by law enforcement sources to have close ties to Gambino consigliere Lorenzo Mannino, who also serves as the family's "street boss."

Laforte and Cinque allegedly worked together to oversee the gambling operation and fund it when it needed cash to pay winning gamblers. Authorities say the duo also authorized loans that the ring's alleged loansharks, Laforte's older brother Edward, 58, and former NYPD cop Frederick Falcone Sr., 66, gave to losing gamblers and other customers.

The three Gambino soldiers were all ordered released on $750,000 secured bonds by Supreme Court Justice Lisa Grey following their arraignments in Staten Island last week. Grey scheduled an August 13 status conference for the trio, and their 14 codefendants, who were all released on bail or their own recognizance.

By then, prosecutor Joseph Marciano will have furnished defense lawyers, and the defendants, many whose homes and offices were searched during the investigation a year ago, whatever tape-recorded evidence and other so-called "discovery information" the prosecution possesses linking the defendants to the charges in the indictment.

Seth Ginsberg, the attorney for Matera, who also faces a likely violation of supervised release charge for his arrest within three years of his release from federal prison, told Gang Land that he and his client "look forward to getting discovery establishing that John is not guilty as charged."

Joseph DiBenedetto, attorney for John Laforte, declined to comment. Cinque's lawyer, Joseph Sorrentino stated that his "client is a family man with a stellar reputation of being an honorable and honest businessman. He maintains his innocence to the enterprise corruption charge."

Mathew Mari, attorney for Edward Laforte, took issue with the assertion by AG James in her news release that the arrests help "keep New Yorkers safe" when contacted by Gang Land.

"This is a gambling case without even a hint of violence," he said. "No one was smacked around, no one was threatened, no one was even hollered at," he continued. "If you talk to any of the so-called victims in this case, they'll tell you that they love my client. He's a gentleman."

[Dr031718]

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting

[Southshore88]

Thanks for posting

[AntComello]

Does Ragano still think this is 1985? Everyone knows the feds don’t strap wires to people’s chest anymore lol it’s 2024 stripping someone down is pointless when checking for a wire now a days.

[Adam]

Does Ragano still think this is 1985? Everyone knows the feds don’t strap wires to people’s chest anymore lol it’s 2024 stripping someone down is pointless when checking for a wire now a days.

I was thinking the same thing. With technology today, you're not going to find any kind of recording device. If they have one, they have one. You're not going to find it.

[AntComello]

Does Ragano still think this is 1985? Everyone knows the feds don’t strap wires to people’s chest anymore lol it’s 2024 stripping someone down is pointless when checking for a wire now a days.

I was thinking the same thing. With technology today, you're not going to find any kind of recording device. If they have one, they have one. You're not going to find it.

Exactly lol you would think these guys would know this by now.

[Shellackhead]

Cinque looks like a baby

Thanks for posting

[Tonyd621]

How do you build a $500,000 loanshark book? Honestly, how do you get to the point? how many customers? size of loans etc? This is not the 60s,now more then ever people know what they are dealing with when they borrow money from someone like that. How in 2024 can there still be that many suckers, and how much of that book you think was profit?

[aray22]

How do you build a $500,000 loanshark book? Honestly, how do you get to the point?

Seems pretty easy when your sportsbook is getting $22 million in action over the course of 18 months.

[DonPeppino386]

Thanks for posting!

[TSNYC]

Cinque looks like a baby

Thanks for posting

That’s an old pic for sure. He’s packed on some pounds. His wife runs a beauty salon and is very pretty. Has a mansion in Staten Island. Guess this “auto biz” is doing well

[Massive-Sail]

Cinque looks like a baby

Thanks for posting

That’s an old pic for sure. He’s packed on some pounds. His wife runs a beauty salon and is very pretty. Has a mansion in Staten Island. Guess this “auto biz” is doing well

she has 100k followers on IG and there are many pics of Anthony on her profile.

[gohnjotti]

How do you build a $500,000 loanshark book? Honestly, how do you get to the point?

Seems pretty easy when your sportsbook is getting $22 million in action over the course of 18 months.

If legal casinos ever allow people to bet on the credit, like the Mafia does, that's when the loansharking will start to dry up.

[dave]

Cinque looks like a baby

Thanks for posting

That’s an old pic for sure. He’s packed on some pounds. His wife runs a beauty salon and is very pretty. Has a mansion in Staten Island. Guess this “auto biz” is doing well

she has 100k followers on IG and there are many pics of Anthony on her profile.

What's her IG account?