Gangland news 18th may 2017

[Hailbritain]

By Jerry Capeci

Accused Labor Racketeer: My Goons Are Ex-Military Men, And I Use Coke Only On Weekends

Gang Land Exclusive!Roland BedwellRoland Bedwell is a business agent for a small union that claims to represent landscapers and asphalt workers. But, as court records in his pending labor racketeering case indicate, Bedwell is cut from the Johnny Friendly mold — the corrupt waterfront union boss indelibly portrayed by Lee J. Cobb in the classic film On The Waterfront.

In Bedwell's own words, he's "an asshole" whose union organizing is done through a goon squad of ex-U.S. armed forces vets who have "about 95 years of military service" behind them. The strong-arm gang, Bedwell openly brags, specializes in forcing employers to sign contracts with his local independent union, one that is controlled by Gambino soldier Anthony Franco.

Don't take Gang Land's word for that. We'll give you a good sampling of what Bedwell, who pulls down a cool $190K a year from Local 175 of the United Plant and Production Workers, told a contractor in a tape recorded talk that was detailed in a Brooklyn Federal Court filing last week — a week that was a decidedly bad one for the 57-year-old union official.

First there was Bedwell's personal bad-boy behavior. Those problems got a dramatic airing in open court on Friday when an angry federal judge revoked Bedwell's bail for testing positive for cocaine four times in recent months, including a test that he flunked just two days earlier. That self-destructive episode occurred shortly after Bedwell learned that the judge had scheduled a hearing to determine whether he should be remanded while awaiting trial.

Judge Nicholas GaraufisThroughout the session, Judge Nicholas Garaufis voiced displeasure with Bedwell's lawyer for his efforts to mitigate the union leader's drug "problem" as one that was confined to weekends when Bedwell, "in his words," said attorney Vito Palmieri, "blows off steam."

"Cocaine is okay on weekends?" the judge asked. "It's one thing if you're out there, you're not under indictment, you're not under Court supervision. But when you're under indictment," said Garaufis, "you have an obligation to the Court to get the treatment and to stop using the drugs not just on weekdays but also on weekends."

The judge's displeasure grew exponentially when Palmieri asked for home detention, noting that his client "has an ex-wife with a son, who is not even his own biological son, whom he takes care of. He sees him every weekend as well."

"And he's taking drugs?" The Judge asked, incredulously. "He takes drugs on the weekend. That's when he sees — "

"No," Palmieri interrupted, "During the day he sees the child and at night — "

"You know what," interrupted Garaufis, "I'm not interested in having his schedule on the weekend when he's taking the drugs and then he's seeing the kid. Most people are really trying to fix their problem. Unfortunately, the defendant has not demonstrated that. He needs to get his head straightened out. So he's going to have to go in and he can think about it."

The judge shot down Palmieri's request to revisit the issue in two weeks, stating that Bedwell will be released when he's acquitted at his trial in August, or after he serves his sentence following a conviction.

Anthony Franco"This is not a two-week problem," said Garaufis. "This is a long-haul problem, and I'm not here to deal with this problem. I'm here to deal with the indictment and the superseding indictments."

The judge was unmoved by the attorney's argument that Bedwell, who was presumed to be innocent, would not be "getting any help in the jail" for his admitted drug problem.

"Maybe he should have thought of that before he spent his weekends taking cocaine and visiting with his children," said Garaufis. "I'm not sympathetic. He was warned. He had several occasions and then he tests positive after I set a hearing for a violation based on his use of cocaine. No, he's staying in until the issue of his indictment is resolved."

His trial is slated to begin August 21. Reached by Gang Land, Palmieri said he needed time to gather his thoughts before commenting, and would call us back. He never did, ignoring several calls and email requests.

Drug problems, and his current digs at the Metropolitan Detention Center aside, the other bad news was even worse for the defendant.

Earlier last week, prosecutors filed an amended indictment charging Bedwell with threatening two additional construction company owners with "economic and physical harm if they did not sign with his union," including one victim, identified only as John Doe #2, who tape-recorded Bedwell's threats in June of 2013.

The extortion conspiracy against John Doe #2 began in January of 2013 and lasted until last week, according to an expanded indictment that was filed last week. Bedwell is also charged with extortion of two other contractors, one in November of 2013, and another in December of 2011.

Salvatore FrancoIn court papers, prosecutors Andrey Spektor and Nadia Shihata wrote that Bedwell, who doubles as Local 175's treasurer, had previously "disrupted a number of John Doe #2's jobs" and that he "made clear" during his taped talk "what he wanted: for John Doe #2 to sign a labor contract with Local 175" and the methods he would use "to achieve this goal."

"I run the union; I handle the streets," Bedwell told the wired-up contractor, before stressing the mob power behind him. "Anthony Franco takes care of all the problems. And anything that gets done on the street or with the contract, he leaves up to me," said Bedwell.

Franco, 55, is a former official of Local 1018 of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA.) His familial mob ties — his father Salvatore is a Gambino capo and their late uncle, Joseph Arcuri was a capo during John Gotti's heyday — cost him his Local 1018 post in 2002. A year later, he allegedly helped form Local 175, which has about 600 members.

"Now understand the type of crew I have now," said Bedwell. "Fifteen of them are ex-military. All served in the armed forces. He's an ex-SEAL. He's an ex-reconnaissance man. He's ex-army. He's ex-Navy. There are about 15 of 'em. They don't like the idea, that, one, that they're home and this company's working nonunion, and these men – who don't even belong to this country – are taking their jobs."

"I don't care if they don't vote for me," said Bedwell. "I don't care if they don't want a union. I don't care. I need to have a contract and I need to have it done. And I don't care about all the rules and regulations. Like I said, the animals that I got on the streets now, don't care either. They're sick, don't forget. And I'm not lying to you."

Joseph Arcuri"Now if your men don't want to join? They really don't care. So, the ball's gonna be in your court. Either you're gonna sign the contract, and your men will live with it. Or these boys are gonna do it again. I told you that in the beginning. And I don't want to do it but that's what's going to happen. Because these guys are not going to go away. Ever. Cause they're not scared."

The prosecutors wrote that Bedwell bragged about tactics he used to coerce two others to sign with his union. In one case, "he took the keys out of an asphalt-delivery truck" on the Long Island Expressway and caused a huge traffic jam. Another time, Bedwell told how he stopped a truck from delivering trees and had cost the contractor "a tremendous amount of money," because, the prosecutors wrote, "the defendant boasted, 'his trees died on the truck.'"

As bad as Bedwell was — "I don't know how I don't have any felonies against me," he said — he was a voice of reason and restraint, compared to Franco, he told John Doe#2. Franco wanted to set fire to the contractor's equipment, but Bedwell had dozens of men surround the truck in the Bronx, because, he said, "the cops in the Bronx really don't give a fuck."

The ploy "caused an accident," but it got the job done, prosecutors wrote, stating that Bedwell told John Doe #2 that the contractor said: "I give up. Send me a man, we'll sign the contract."

Patsy, The Kid, 35 Others Agree To Plea Deals In Huge Five Family Mob Case

Anthony CamisaWith his worried mom and his wide-eyed younger brother looking on, Anthony (The Kid) Camisa, the youngest defendant in the controversial five-family racketeering indictment of 46 wiseguys and mob associates, copped a plea deal last week to greatly reduced charges that were triggered by an internal probe of alleged FBI misconduct in the case.

Camisa, 25, agreed to a plea bargain with sentencing guidelines calling for a prison stretch of 64 to 70 months. That's one of the longest recommended sentences agreed to by any of the 37 mob associates and wiseguys who gobbled up plea deals rather than go to trial on racketeering conspiracy charges. But whatever he gets is a lot better than the life sentence he would have faced if he were convicted of racketeering conspiracy at trial.

Judge Richard SullivanThe Kid, who operated a gambling and sports betting business from 2011 to 2014, had been charged with kidnapping and terrorizing a deadbeat gambler at gunpoint during a two hour car ride through the Astoria and Long Island City sections of Queens on January 30, 2014.

Under questioning by Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Sullivan, Camisa said he recruited others to help him collect a $5000 debt, and was involved in the harrowing car ride in which the gambler was forced to call friends to deliver the cash. According to court records, the plan went awry when a cohort, Michael Resnick, who is now serving 15 years in state prison, decided to extort another $5000 from the gambler, and a second pal he was forced to call, called the cops.

Camisa's lawyer, Gerald McMahon, and prosecutors Andrea Kramer and Abigail Kurland, who hammered out the plea agreement, declined to comment about the plea deal. But according to court records, Camisa faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison for the gunpoint extortion. That will be added to any sentence The Kid gets for his bookmaking conviction, which has advisory, not mandatory, sentencing guidelines of 4-to-10 months.

Pasquale ParrelloBefore leaving the bench, Sullivan thanked The Kid's brother, John, and their mother, Laura, for their attendance, and set down October 2 for sentencing. Camisa's guilty plea came at the end of a long day last Friday, when six defendants pleaded guilty to various crimes. The day began about 15 minutes late, when Sullivan rushed into the back of the courtroom carrying his robes over his arm and said with a sheepish grin as he headed toward the bench: "Sorry, it's not my usual courtroom."

So far, 24 of the 37 defendants who have agreed to plea bargains, including the lead defendant, Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello, who was the focal point of the five year-long FBI probe that used mob associate John (J.R.) Rubeo to tape hundreds of recordings, have pleaded guilty in the case.

Parrello, 72, pleaded guilty to three specific extortions in satisfaction of all the charges against him. He agreed to forfeit $150,000 and faces a recommended prison term between 63-to-78 months, according to the agreement prosecutors worked out with Parrello lawyers Kevin Faga and Mark DeMarco.

Waterfront Commission Keeps Wiseguy Kin Off The Waterfront

Janet RuggieroThey may not be Johnny Friendly characters in the making, but Mark Caruso Jr. and Angelo Ruggiero just joined Joseph Gorgone, Janet Ruggiero and dozens of others on a growing list of friends and relatives of wiseguys and mob associates whom the Waterfront Commission has deemed not suited to work on the New York or New Jersey docks.

Caruso, 25, a stepson of convicted waterfront mobster Stephen (Beach) Depiro, and Angelo Ruggiero, 31, a nephew of longtime Gambino associate, Matteo (Matty Square) Ruggiero, had each sought jobs as checkers, who earn about $165,000 a year.

Each man had been submitted for a position as a checker by the International Longshoremen's Association, the scandal tarred union that represents checkers as well as longshoremen, who earn about $145,000 a year. A man or woman cannot be "a danger to the public peace and safety" in order to qualify for longshore work, which is physical, and out in the elements.

Checkers are clerical longshoremen. For the most part, they work in booths, vehicles or trailers with pen and paper and hand held computers. To pass muster, checkers must possess good character and integrity.

Mark Caruso Jr. The Commission refused to approve Caruso, who lived with his mom and DePiro for about 10 years, based on his "long association" with DePiro and for "fraud, deceit or misrepresentation" by not declaring that information in the job application he submitted in January of 2014.

Following a hearing, Administrative Law Judge Ebonette Bates also found that Caruso had lied about receiving no help in filling out his application because he subsequently admitted that his dad, Joseph, a reputed Gambino family associate, had assisted with the application.

The Commission also found that Angelo Ruggiero had associated with a total of five organized crime figures and "chose to lie in his application and lie under oath about his association with those individuals," said Commission executive director Walter Arsenault.

Angelo RuggieroAdministrative Law Judge Frank Lanzo found that in addition to Matty Square Ruggiero, Angelo associated with Genovese wiseguy John Brescio, Colombo Soldier John Staluppi, and Gambino associates Giuseppe (Joe The Baker) Generoso, and Joseph (Joe Marco Polo) Chirico. Ruggiero's explanation that he had telephone conversations with both Brescio and Staluppi because they mistakenly dialed him was "incredible and damning," Lanzo wrote.

Last year, the Waterfront Commission rejected applications for longshore jobs by Janet Ruggiero, (no relation to Angelo) a daughter of the late Bonanno mobster Benjamin (Lefty Guns) Ruggiero, and by Joseph Gorgone, the son of the late Colombo soldier Joseph (Joe Black) Gorgone.

Neither Ruggiero, whose father was played by Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco, nor Gorgone, who has a pending assault charge stemming from a fight he had with an undertaker last year, challenged the rejections for their associations with their deceased mobster fathers.

Caruso and Angelo Ruggiero, however, contested their denials as arbitrary and capricious decisions with no basis in law. But the Commission, which must convince the hearing judge of the applicant's mob ties by the lowest standard of proof, a preponderance of evidence — more likely than not — prevailed. Last year, the Commission rejected more than 30 persons for waterfront jobs and ousted more than two dozen dock workers for ties to organized crime.

[Hailbritain]

Current gambino soldier Anthony franco

[Hailbritain]

Current gambino captain Salvatore franco

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks for the post HB, decent Column.
Though Jerry's a little slow on the 'Cali getting knocked down' news it seems

I thought the waterfront commission was being disbanded, from memory?
Personally I think its bullshit that you can be barred basis you're related to a suspected/convicted criminal. Guilt by association. How is that legal?

Interesting mention of John Staluppi. Wonder if he's active. Always assumed due his wealth he'd have 'retired'.

[TommyGambino]

Interesting that Sal Franco is still a captain, he's ancient

[bronx]

The captains in that crew die of old age ,free, joe's arcuri's father, then joe, now sal, sal's mom i think lived to 100.very quiet low key until this pinch for anthony's union.sal is in good mental shape he may make a hundred. the arcuri's and franco have a history back to sicily then tampa and ny.cosa nostra families from the beginnings..

[HairyKnuckles]

Current gambino soldier Anthony franco

Does it say specifically he's made?

Thanks for posting this weeks.

[bronx]

Hello Hairy, anthony is made

[willychichi]

Current gambino captain Salvatore franco

Thanks for posting this weeks Gangland HB, good read.

[willychichi]

Thanks for the post HB, decent Column.
Though Jerry's a little slow on the 'Cali getting knocked down' news it seems

I thought the waterfront commission was being disbanded, from memory?
Personally I think its bullshit that you can be barred basis you're related to a suspected/convicted criminal. Guilt by association. How is that legal?

Interesting mention of John Staluppi. Wonder if he's active. Always assumed due his wealth he'd have 'retired'.

I agree Sonny its interesting that StaluppIi is some how involved

[willychichi]

[quote=Hailbritain

Administrative Law Judge Frank Lanzo found that in addition to Matty Square Ruggiero, Angelo associated with Genovese wiseguy John Brescio, Colombo Soldier John Staluppi, and Gambino associates Giuseppe (Joe The Baker) Generoso, and Joseph (Joe Marco Polo) Chirico. Ruggiero's explanation that he had telephone conversations with both Brescio and Staluppi because they mistakenly dialed him was "incredible and damning," Lanzo wrote.

Last year, the Waterfront Commission rejected applications for longshore jobs by Janet Ruggiero, (no relation to Angelo) a daughter of the late Bonanno mobster Benjamin (Lefty Guns) Ruggiero, and by Joseph Gorgone, the son of the late Colombo soldier Joseph (Joe Black) Gorgone.p
[/quote]

Is John Brescio a made member of the Genovese Family?

[Hailbritain]

Current gambino soldier Anthony franco

Does it say specifically he's made?

Thanks for posting this weeks.

Yeah HK , capeci states he is madev

[Fughedaboutit]

Interesting that Sal Franco is still a captain, he's ancient

Looks good in the photo.

Must be an old one.

[Ivan]

Franco wanted to set fire to the contractor's equipment, but Bedwell had dozens of men surround the truck in the Bronx, because, he said, "the cops in the Bronx really don't give a fuck."

This is the Mob Quote of the Year for 2017 so far.

[HairyKnuckles]

Hello Hairy, anthony is made

Thanks for the answer.