Gangland news 16th November 2017

[Hailbritain]

This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Enzo Morena Makes It Big, With The Mob, And 'The Law'

Gang Land Exclusive!Vincent MorenaOn June 4, 2001, a cluster of friends and relatives gathered in a second-floor apartment in Bayside, Queens to wish then 28-year-old Vincent (Enzo) Morena well as he headed off to prison. Included among those crowded around Morena were fellow members of the the Giannini Crew, a kind of mob farm team based in Queens, at least those members who weren't themselves already behind bars. The crowd joked and told war stories at Morena's "going away party" as he prepared to serve a 51-month stretch for racketeering. Enzo was a popular figure: His buddies viewed him as a "tough guy who was always on deck, waiting to be called into the batter's box."

Since he had already served a year before he was granted bail, Enzo was hopeful that he'd be out by 2004 — or maybe sooner. "This is no big deal," he boasted to his pals.

Actually it was a very big deal. Morena, who is now 45, and uses Vincenzo as his given name, didn't make it back to New York for about 15 years. When he did, he was a big deal to his wiseguy pals, who inducted him into the Bonanno crime family. And he was an even bigger deal to law enforcement officials in the U.S. and Canada who had secretly turned him into an informant.

Enzo Morena, Gang Land has exclusively learned, is the turncoat wiseguy whose crowning achievement was boasted of by the FBI and federal prosecutors last week: He videotaped his own induction ceremony into one of New York's notorious Five Families while working as a cooperating witness for The Law.

Paul RagusaSources say Morena, an Italian national, is the unidentified cooperating witness who was cited last week in three Brooklyn Federal Court indictments laying out familiar mob crimes involving drugs, guns, loansharking and money laundering. As part of that mission, he also helped mob investigators videotape the 2015 Bonanno crime family induction in Canada where he took his own blood oath to the Mafia.

One indictment charges Bonnano capo Damiano Zummo, who allegedly conducted Morena's initiation ceremony, and an associate with selling a kilogram of coke for $38,000 in a Manhattan gelato store two months ago. Another charges Gambino soldier Paul Semplice with loansharking. A third indictment accuses Morena's old Giannini Crew buddy Paul Ragusa with buying a small arsenal of weapons, including three machineguns.

But the sensational aspect of the joint U.S. Canada operation, what acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde declared was "an extraordinary achievement for law enforcement," was the November 15, 2015 induction ceremony of Morena that was both audio and videotaped.

The ceremony was nothing like the ritualistic ceremonies conducted by mob bosses that involved bloody pin-pricked fingers and burning pictures of saints being juggled by inductees to keep their hands from being singed, according to a government transcript. It was not remotely as dramatic as those described on the witness stand by top New York turncoats like Alfonso (Little Al) D'Arco or Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano.

Bridget RohdeFittingly, for a secret organization that has seen its warriors jailed, its boss defect, and its fortunes plummet in recent years, Morena's ceremony was a bland, simplistic affair. It was conducted not by a boss or acting boss, but by a previously unknown 44-year-old acting Bonanno capo named Zummo from Roslyn Heights. But it does contain introductions all around, the familiar "friend of ours" phrase, and a warning that loyalty to the crime family is paramount.

"The reason why we're here is from this day forward, you're gonna be an official member of the Bonanno family," Zummo tells Morena, who is identified as CW-1 in the transcript. "It's already . . . from this guy, this guy, this guy, everybody approved it, so from this day forward, you're a member of the Bonanno family. Congratulations."

"Thank you," replied Morena.

"And now I want to introduce you to John," Zummo continued. "John, friend of ours with the Bonanno. John, Enzo, friend of ours with the Bonanno," said Zummo, who also introduced Morena to "our skipper," and their acting captain, adding, "You're gonna be in our regime. You only answer to the Bonanno family."

Alfonso D'ArcoMuch of the information about the two year investigation, and details of current day mob doings that the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police have gleaned are still under wraps. But a filing in the case against Semplice, 54, who like Zummo, has no prior record and is virtually unknown, indicates that the Gambino crime family recognized Morena as a bonafide "friend of ours."

In the memo prosecutors Drew Rolle and Tanya Hajjar filed seeking to detain Semplice as a danger to the community and as flight risk, they cite several excerpts from a November 18, 2016 conversation between Semplice and Morena to back up the government's contention that Semplice is a longtime Gambino soldier, who viewed Morena as a made man.

In addition, they wrote: "Consistent with his status within the Gambino crime family, the defendant personally introduced the CW to multiple other 'made' members and associates of the Gambino crime family from across the country and around the world."

During the November 18 talk, Rolle and Hajjar continued, "the defendant introduced (Morena) to the 'boss' and 'underboss' of an international organized crime family from Italy who the defendant knew to be 'Gambino guys.' These formal organized crime introductions can only be made by inducted members, and further reflect the defendant's commitment to organized crime."

Tanya HajjarUnstated by prosecutors, but a loud and clear message from their words is that the Gambino family clearly recognized Morena as a "friend of ours" who could be trusted. It apparently didn't matter that the Bonanno family induction was presided over by an "acting capo" or that it took place in Canada.

Sources say Morena's trip from Bayside, Queens to Hamilton, Ontario, was a circuitous one that began with his Brooklyn Federal Court indictment along with Bonanno soldier Baldassare (Baldo) Amato and 20 other Giannini Crew members who were vying for big time roles with the Bonanno, Colombo and Gambino families.

After doing time for armed-robbery conspiracies of a bank and a bar, he was deported to Italy where he lived with his wife and son until 2011 when sources say he decided it would be easier for him to sneak back into Canada than the U.S., and he did so after his wife and son entered legally as visitors.

To make his detection as a convicted U.S. felon a trifle harder to spot, he became Vincenzo Morena, instead of the Americanized version he used growing up in Brooklyn. Sources say he flipped and began cooperating with the RCMP after he was arrested in August of 2014 in a suburb of Montreal as part of a coke smuggling ring.

Baldassare AmatoThis summer, Morena returned to New York to snare Ragusa, who was in a halfway house near the end of a 19 year stretch for racketeering charges that included an armed bank robbery, on weapons charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his days.

On July 18, Ragusa, 46, was recorded asking Morena whether he could make "good money" for a murder-for-hire plot that he was looking to give his old friend. After Enzo responded that he could get "a couple hundred thousand" from his benefactor, Ragusa said: "I hope he comes tomorrow."

To stress that Ragusa was a danger to the community who deserved to remain behind bars awaiting trial, prosecutors Rolle and Hajjar noted that Ragusa "further stated that he would stick an 'ice pick' through someone's head."

Lawyers for Zummo and Semplice deny that their clients are either dangers to the community or pose a risk of flight. Zummo is scheduled for a bail hearing today. Semplice gets one Monday.

Mob Defector Frank Gioia Jr. Makes It BIG, In The Grand Canyon State

Frank Gioia Jr.The last time we saw Luchese turncoat Frank Gioia Jr. was in 1999, when he testified against a cop-killer who had skated for 22 years. Gioia was so good at his task that two years later he had a part-time FBI gig lecturing rookie agents about bust-out wiseguys like himself. At the same time, Gioia was becoming an Arizona-based real estate tycoon, en route to becoming a millionaire — and at least on paper, a big-time builder and restaurateur.

This month, a blockbuster newspaper expose has revealed that Gioia, under his Witness Security Program name, Frank Capri, has run up a whopping tab of $65 million in civil judgments. In a stunning spree of deals gone sour, the ex-gangster is liable for amounts ranging from $2200 to $10.5 million to developers, landlords and contractors in California, Florida, New York and 15 other states where he has done business, according to the story by Arizona Republic reporter Robert Anglen.

Gioia's most profitable scheme, wrote Anglen, was arranging financing to build and open restaurants using the name of popular country singer Toby Keith, and then closing them, "sometimes only months after opening," leaving investors and creditors holding an empty bag.

Frank Capri-Gioia JrAlong with his attorney, and his girlfriend-spokeswoman, Capri declined to talk to Anglen about his life as Gioia Jr., whose cooperation Gang Land had credited with convictions of 70 gangsters and drug dealers. But Anglen wrote that he confirmed the ID through court records and three New Yorkers, including Gang Land, all of whom eyeballed a photo of Capri and agreed it was none other than star mob witness Frank Gioia Jr.

Anglen wrote that Capri used a number of companies he formed "to negotiate deals to build Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill restaurants throughout the United States, take tens of millions of dollars from mall owners and developers, and then walk away." The singer licensed the use of his name but had nothing to do with Capri's ventures, Anglen wrote.

In 48 lawsuits that the Arizona Republic located, Capri-Gioia Jr., is "accused of orchestrating the failure of Toby Keith restaurants as part of a scheme to steal money meant for construction," wrote Anglen. The lawsuits accuse Capri or his companies," he wrote, "of taking millions in up-front fees in exchange for signing longterm leases that weren't honored."

Michael SpinelliA dozen of the civil lawsuits are still pending, Anglen wrote. But in 36 cases filed in 31 separate cities, developers, landlords and contractors have won judgments against Capri, his firm, Boomtown Entertainment LLC, and other companies, after alleging fraud, breach of contract, rent default, stiffed contractors and unpaid taxes.

The largest sum, a $10.5 million judgment, is for a breach of contract suit won last year by the Destiny USA Mall in Syracuse, where Boomtown opened a Toby Keith restaurant in 2013 and then shuttered it in 2015.

Capri and his related entities "opened 20 Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill restaurants from 2009 to 2015 and closed 19 of them in about 18 months starting in 2014," wrote Anglen, adding that "Capri's company also announced deals to build 20 more restaurants, in cities from California to Florida, that it left unfinished or never started."

Gioia decided to cooperate in 1995, a year or so after he was indicted on drug dealing charges in Massachusetts. He was released from prison in 1999, shortly after he helped convict Anthony Francesehi for the 1977 murder of police officer Ronald Stapleton, an off duty cop who was shot and killed with his own gun.

Louis DaidoneScores of mobsters and drug dealers implicated by Gioia copped plea deals. But he helped the feds win two important trials of Luchese mobsters: Acting boss Louis (Louie Bagels) Daidone was convicted of murder, and soldier Michael (Baldy Mike) Spinelli, and his brother Robert were found guilty of the attempted murder of a Brooklyn mother whose brother had flipped.

By 2001, when Gioia was tapped by his FBI handlers as an instructor, he was firmly entrenched in the Phoenix area as Capri, according to propertyshark.com, a real estate industry database. He had already bought two homes there, and since then, he's been involved in 38 more real estate transactions in what was, like his FBI gig, only a sidelight business, the Arizona Republic found.

Sources say Capri is still riding high, living in a 5000-square foot rental home with five bedrooms and six bathrooms in the exclusive Silverleaf section of Scottsdale. His location there could not be confirmed by Gang Land.

His girlfriend-spokeswoman, Tawny L. Costa, did not respond to email or voice mail messages. And Capri didn't respond to a call to a defense lawyer in several of his lawsuits, Shawn Richter, who, in a somewhat bizarre talk with Gang Land, refused "to confirm or deny" that he represents Capri. Given the number of aggrieved investors looking for his alleged client, that is perfectly understandable.

Sons Want A Pass For Herbie Sperling, But Feds Say No Way

Nicholas SperlingAt 78, legendary 1960s drug dealer Herbert (Herbie) Sperling, who partnered with mobsters as well as the notorious Harlem heroin merchant Leroy (Nicky) Barnes, is in failing health. He nearly died a few weeks ago, and is not expected to last a year. But the ornery gangster, who cursed out his sentencing judge 44 years ago, refuses to seek any favor from his jailors.

New Yorkers who recall how Sperling's heroin flooded the city's neighborhoods, and helped turn thousands into addicts, might agree with the mercenary narcotics merchant that he deserves no extra kindness, even at this late stage of his life.

But not so his three sons, including Nick, who was found guilty in 1983 of being part of a drug dealing conspiracy with his imprisoned father at a trial that featured the inaugural testimony of Barnes as a prosecution witness. In a bid to get their dad a last reprieve, Sperling's offspring have retained a Manhattan lawyer to sue the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP.)

In a longshot court filing, attorney Kenneth Linn has asked Boston Federal Court Judge Patti Saris to order the warden at the prison hospital in Ayer, Massachusetts to release the ailing, cognitively impaired Sperling. Doing so, writes Linn, would allow the aging prisoner to "live out his remaining days in the comfort of his own home, surrounded by people who love him" and "who will pay for his care."

Leroy BarnesThe BOP confirms a lengthy list of complaints: Doctors at the Federal Medical Center (FMC), according to government filings, say that among other ailments, Sperling suffers from "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, (COPS) chronic kidney disease, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, an abdominal aortic aneurysm (with a stent placed in 2009), gout and pulmonary nodules."

In recent weeks, Sperling has been to local hospitals three times due to complications from his many illnesses. On his most recent excursion, University of Massachusetts Medical Center (UMMC) doctors "diagnosed him with, and treated him for, COPD, pneumonia and myocardial infarction complicated by heart failure, retroperitoneal and upper gastrointestinal bleeding, respiratory failure and acute kidney injury."

Linn argues that the federal prison hospital isn't adequately equipped to care for Sperling, charging specifically that the FMC stopped him from having corrective surgery at UMMC last month, and that the long-suffering convict deserves a "well deserved act of mercy" following a "severely flawed" conviction that was upheld by controversial appeals court rulings.

In court papers, Linn also states that previously raised arguments about Sperling's controversial 1973 conviction and life sentence — a noted Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge voted to reverse it in 1982 — also justifies his client's release after 44 years behind bars.

Linn cited an unusual 2-1 decision in 1982 that upheld a life sentence on a kingpin heroin trafficking count even though three other substantive drug counts, upon which the jury based its kingpin conviction, were reversed. The majority held that other evidence supported the life count but Judge Amalya Kearse disagreed in a 14-page dissent.

Judge Amalya Kearse"With all due respect," Kearse wrote, Sperling had a "valid constitutional claim" that "when addressed on its merits" was "accurate . . . because the jury had been instructed that it must find him guilty" of the three dismissed counts "in order to convict him on" the kingpin count.

To back up her finding, Kearse noted that trial Judge Milton Pollack had told jurors: "Before you can find the defendant Herbert Sperling guilty of the crime charged in the (kingpin) count you must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that [h]e committed the offenses charged in counts 8, 9 and 10 of this indictment."

Assistant U.S. attorney Thomas Kanwit responded that the BOP denied the only Linn claim that Judge Saris could "arguably" address: that FMC doctors had stopped Sperling from having corrective surgery at UMMC; their doctors had decided it was too risky. If Sperling's conviction "was flawed," Kanwit wrote, a New York court would have to free Sperling, not one in Massachusetts. And inmates sentenced to life have no right to a "compassionate release."

"It is unfortunate indeed that Petitioner is ineligible for compassionate release," wrote Kanwit. "However, the remedy for this situation lies with Congress and not the Court."

[Hailbritain]

Morena

[B.]

Strange. So a former NY associate moved to the Montreal area, where he was inducted by his NYC-based acting captain. We'll have to see if there are any connections to the main Montreal group.

[gohnjotti]

Strange. So a former NY associate moved to the Montreal area, where he was inducted by his NYC-based acting captain. We'll have to see if there are any connections to the main Montreal group.

If Morena was running a coke operation in Montreal as a proposed Bonanno associate, I'd wager that he crossed paths with the Montreal mob on more than one occasion. Just my opinion.

[TommyGambino]

Interesting..

During the November 18 talk, Rolle and Hajjar continued, "the defendant introduced (Morena) to the 'boss' and 'underboss' of an international organized crime family from Italy who the defendant knew to be 'Gambino guys.'

[sdeitche]

From the way this reads, it appears Morena specifically went back to NY with the intention of ensnaring Ragusa. Was he put up to this by the FBI? Curious piece of this case.

[antimafia]

Strange. So a former NY associate moved to the Montreal area, where he was inducted by his NYC-based acting captain. We'll have to see if there are any connections to the main Montreal group.

If Morena was running a coke operation in Montreal as a proposed Bonanno associate, I'd wager that he crossed paths with the Montreal mob on more than one occasion. Just my opinion.

When I first read the part of Capeci's column about Morena, I read too fast and concluded that Morena's ceremony took place in Hamilton, probably because of the sentence that begins "Sources say Morena's trip from Bayside, Queens to Hamilton, Ontario, was a circuitous one...."

After re-reading, I realized that there is no actual mention of where in Canada the ceremony took place. I wonder whether Morena had people in Hamilton who helped him hide and helped him find "work."

[SonnyBlackstein]

Great stuff.

Thanks for the post HB.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Interesting..

During the November 18 talk, Rolle and Hajjar continued, "the defendant introduced (Morena) to the 'boss' and 'underboss' of an international organized crime family from Italy who the defendant knew to be 'Gambino guys.'

I picked up on that as well.

So it appears the G's have a fixed structure now and (probably?) disposed of the panel.
It also means Peter Gotti has been 'officially' replaced as boss.

[Pogo The Clown]

I don't think they are refering to the Gambino administration. Probably a Gambino Crew with "Boss" and "UnderBoss" labels being loosely used (sort of like the Lucchese NJ Crew back in the day). Why would a just initiated Bonanno be introduced to the administration of another family in a different city?


Pogo

[Cheech]

I don't think they are refering to the Gambino administration. Probably a Gambino Crew with "Boss" and "UnderBoss" labels being loosely used (sort of like the Lucchese NJ Crew back in the day). Why would a just initiated Bonanno be introduced to the administration of another family in a different city?


Pogo

agreed

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

Interesting..

During the November 18 talk, Rolle and Hajjar continued, "the defendant introduced (Morena) to the 'boss' and 'underboss' of an international organized crime family from Italy who the defendant knew to be 'Gambino guys.'

I picked up on that as well.

So it appears the G's have a fixed structure now and (probably?) disposed of the panel.
It also means Peter Gotti has been 'officially' replaced as boss.

The way I read the quote, it seems like it is a faction of the Sicilian Gambino's he was introduced to:
'international OC family'.

[Frank]

When this trial comes up there might be some good information about the Gambino's and the Bonanno

[SonnyBlackstein]

"the defendant introduced (Morena) to the 'boss' and 'underboss' of an international organized crime family from Italy who the defendant knew to be 'Gambino guys.'

Upon re-reading the sentence becomes confusing. 'an international organised crime family from italy'.

Are they referring to an Italian OC family? Yet the sentence continues on to refer to them as 'Gambino guys'.

Talk about ambiguous.

[Frank]

Yes I noticed that too doesn't sound right.