The Corporation

[Dwalin2014]

By the way, were those Cubans who threatened Roy DeMeo (after Chris Rosenberg killed some of their associates) connected to the Corporation or was it another group? Strangely, T.J. English's book doesn't even mention that episode, although I thought it was quite known.

[Wiseguy]

By the way, were those Cubans who threatened Roy DeMeo (after Chris Rosenberg killed some of their associates) connected to the Corporation or was it another group? Strangely, T.J. English's book doesn't even mention that episode, although I thought it was quite known.

I think it was another group. More of the Marielito drug trafficking type.

[JIGGS]

By the way, were those Cubans who threatened Roy DeMeo (after Chris Rosenberg killed some of their associates) connected to the Corporation or was it another group? Strangely, T.J. English's book doesn't even mention that episode, although I thought it was quite known.

Yes, a whole other network. The Cubans that were gunning for Chris were part of a drug crew.

I mean you don't see the Tanglewood boys being name dropped in a book by Roemer. Again, as much as "True Crime" wants to make the Cubans, the Blacks, the Spanish, the Irish and Yentas into a mirror-image OC borgata with the same structure, they're not organized, or even come close to being organized in the same way. There's no tradition save to 'get yours.' True calitalists. Like lawyers. Those guys are more like Rothstein. You know what I'm saying? On HBO? Or the villain in the Usual Suspects. It's one guy with a handful representing an inner circle that changes over time. That was Coonan, that was Battle, that was Spanish Raymond and Benny One-Eye, the Moulinyan whose name I can't recall that broke legs and collected for the uptown crew. That was Frankie Caserta but the DEA came up with "Purple Gang" after a newspaper writer used it in an article to dress him up as leading a modern day Murder Inc. squad. The .22 cal killings that were happening at random in the 70s. They blamed it all on "Purple Gang." Even some of the Son of Sam hits. That prick Coffey name dropped them once in one of them shootings Berkowitz got convicted of. I couldn't believe it. Govt. was dirty but the keystoners were worse. Remo and them guys. They sensationalized everything to get into the movie biz. Ever since Godfather came out. The media is only happy to oblige. Will spin them all into the villains from Detective Comics. The Westies. The Corporation. The Company. The "Black Mafia". The "Purple Gang."

Think about it. You really think these guys who are hard core sociopathicals are shooting up, sniffing coke, chopping people up, pushing each other's assholes in, and worse, are going to be like "Hey! I know! Let's call each other the Westies." It's TV Land cable news bullshit. Couch potato branding. FBI does it too. The "novel" approach. Mixing truth with added creative license.

I'm not trying to bust balls. But if English wrote that the Corporate Cubans had a two block rule arrangement with LCN, that a whole lot of bunk. If that were true they wouldn't have been firebombing bolita locations in Manhattan. And it definitely wasn't any LCN controlled locales. I don't care what a wiretap conveyed. LCN is not going to roll over because a Cuban accent on the other end of the line is trash talking. LCN knows violence brings the heat and will impact their bottom line. LCN's main concern is LCN. They know the Westies, Born to Killers, Black Maffy's are here today, gone tomorrow. the "G" is going to bust them anyway. A family goes uninterrupted no matter who gets pinched or whacked. that's not an exaggeration. Where are these people now? I'll tell you where they are. They're nowhere. That's where they are. In a cemetery below ground or above ground. Hiding. Meanwhile, Mikey Nose can walk into an iHop like nothing, and be the Boss.

JIGGS

[outfit guy]

I'll catch up on the posts. Why not just read the book? Battle was at the Palma Boys Social Club up through the 80s. Fat Tony to asking - not ordering - "Mike" as he called Battle to work it out. No doubt English has to do investigative research and rely on second hand sources. But there is the crime commission report with Battle on the front cover of the Daily News: "King of the Numbers": did they get the LE testimony wrong. Or, was he paying a substantial amount of his profits to an ethnic group that departed upper Manhattan - and Manhattan in general - decades prior?

[JIGGS]

I'll catch up on the posts. Why not just read the book?

Thanks guy. To be specific with you, I get the impression the author looked into Battle and did like everyone else does with their subjects. Blew him and his crew out of proportion. I peeked at a tinsy weensy snippet of the novel on the Google book thing and got turned off by the first sentence I saw and judged the whole thing on that alone. A sentence that read: ' The story of cuban organized crime in America has its roots in the the Bay of pigs invasion. " or the Words to that effect.

When was the Bay of pigs op? '61? The implication or the sense I get he's conveying to me is that there were no cubans or any spanish anything running numbers, girls, smuggling dope, shy on the street, washing money, paying off cops, the elected, etc. in the previous decades gone by. Listen I'm as square a citizen as the next guy but take it from me. JIGGS. The cuban or spanish oc in N.Y. doesnt begin with Battle or the bay of pigs. Those guys were johnny come latelys. Just like the Irish don't begin with Coonan and company. Or Black Mafia don't begin with Bumpy. That's what the movies say. Hollywood don't know. They was in Florida already in the 1880s. Doing bolita, girls. In NYC long before the corporate cubans came along you had a whole mess of them from brooklyn. They was around when Johnny Torrio was a NY'orker. That far back. Union Avenue, Columbia Street, Sackett. Near the Navy Yard. That was ALL Italian and Spanish once upon a time. They were doing numbers, bootlegging, burglaries, extortion. Everything the black handers were doing. Get this! They named a public school in Brooklyn after one of them. sometime in '64 or '65 around there. After some of them started protesting about not having one of their own memorialized and equal opportunity jazz. So they named it after a gangster. Ha!

Battle was at the Palma Boys Social Club up through the 80s. Fat Tony to asking - not ordering - "Mike" as he called Battle to work it out. No doubt English has to do investigative research and rely on second hand sources. But there is the crime commission report with Battle on the front cover of the Daily News: "King of the Numbers": did they get the LE testimony wrong. Or, was he paying a substantial amount of his profits to an ethnic group that departed upper Manhattan - and Manhattan in general - decades prior?

I'm going to go with neither. I'm telling ya brother it's all a bunch of crap. It might be an interesting read but my instincts are telling me it ain't history. It's propaganda is what it is. It doesn't àdd up. If he was paying anything to the mob there wouldn't have been any turf war. And if by "ethnic group" that departed Manhattan decades earlier from the 80s is in referring to Italian Americans I disagree with that idea as well. You got to be in it to win it. Don't believe all the hype.

Take a look at this buddy: https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/08/nyre ... sites.html

This was real. It started around '83 or so. Maybe a year earlier. I'm no OC xpert like some of you guys. But this is a street thing. 410 W. 57th Street. The space that was targeted was a liquor store. The owner was a salt and pepper haired guy from Argentina. Name was Lucero's. That wasn't the name of the liquor store but that's what everyone called it. Named after the guy. The liquor store had 3 functions. You could play the daily, cash your check (without a fee involved), or lastly buy some booze. Which *was* sold on occasion. The building was a flop house tenement building. Whores, junkies, the rest. That building is long gone and so is Luceri. But that location belonged to "Spanish Bob." He was the nephew. Roberto Marquez Jr. That fucking article doesn't mention that because the journalist who wrote the piece was starry-eyed over Ben Ward name dropping Battle and he being prominently mentioned in Reagan's crime commission report on organized crime in the Americas. At THAT time. They didn't go deeper to learn who the "rival operations" were. It wasn't any "Westies" [ha!] or LCN connected games.

Take a look at the names mentioned. You got two big cubans in Pons who was crazy and doing all the shooting uptown. And you got Morgan who was a Black but was born in Cuba. Aviles was a PR. Calvin was a Black, who I thought was a Bronx guy but was obviously wrong. The Nets were Cuban too. From miami. How do I know this? I could be bullshitting you know. I'll tell you a little of how I know. The Morgan brothers, Cirillo and Arturo, used to work for the Marquez. It was a coup d'tah. Or a failed attempt. Plus, what I see in the ny times article is a bunch of indies ranging from cuban, black, PRs going after spots run by PRs, dominicans and black.

That above scenario sounds a whole lot more like tier 3 in F unit at Rikers than the all powerful "cuban mob." And the fucking guy isn't even anywhere near the carnage. They got him [Battle] in florida. If Pons was his guy [which may not even be true as that could have been Pons on his own going wild in Battle's name to what I assume he thought would get people to lay down faster], the rest are sub-contracted. What kind of 'ethnic' mafia is this? I'll tell ya what it is. Its the real. That's what them books don't point out. Its New York. Crime is color blind. Every persuasion is in the mix on the street. Where everything goes down. Richie the Boot may have only invited Italians to his home. But the guys of his guys who are doing all the work are rubbing elbows with whoever. What I'm pissing on if you haven't caught my drift yet is the idea of a exclusively all cuban mob. Exclusively all black mob. An all PR mob. Not in N.Y.C. An irish mob might fly in boston but never in NY. Not since Wagner was Mayor. (Westies, a good read, is a myth. That's why they had a pollack running things and lyasoning with Sa mmy Bull to fix a Gotti trial. There was no Irish left in the Kitchen with any balls). It doesn't exist. It couldn't. Not in NY. There's a reason why there's a Mexican Mafia out west and not one in Florida. And why Battle moved his base to Miami from Jersey. Why none had no real hardcore presence [i.m.o.] on the east coast. Its why MS-13 is strong in Suffolk Long Island but can't get arrested in Bensonhurst.

Newspapers are about as reliable as a fart keeping you warm on a cold winter night. But they got real names there that anyone could look up. That's what was happening on the ground. If Fat Tony was caught on a wiretap "asking" Battle to do his best to work it out, you can believe none of Fat Tony's interests were at stake. No way does Salerno meet with the guy if the Corporation is fire bombing LCN.And if that suicide mission was true, Gigante would have dispatched Mike Coppola to Miami and had Battle whacked. He wasn't living on a compound with armed guards. He wasn't the Chapo. Nicky Barnes was the Black Godfather and 5 seconds later he got busted and sentenced to 500 years and wound up flipping. Because he 'wasn't' "The Godfather." Just because this guy was called the El Padrino don't mean nothing. It's just a handle. Not saying he wasn't shit. But saying Battle was active in N.Y. for me is like saying the Rizzutos were active in the Bronx. I could believe some sort of element or influence connected to them might have materialized. But a strong physical presence? On the ground. If they were they kept it to themselves. EVERYONE knew which location was Spanish Ray's. The cops knew. Squares knew. Just like everyone knew you don't walk into Patsy's on 1st avenue. It wasn't open to the public. There wasn't a sign that stated " Members Only. " You just knew. The neighborhood was "aware."

Maybe I should get the book and give it a shot? But for what its worth nobody was whispering Jose Miguel battle's name in Manhattan or Bronx during the 60s or 70s. at least I didn't hear anyone name drop him. Cubans in N.Y. were in the San Juan hill area going into upper manhattan when I was a kid and by the time Beatlemania set in it was drugs their rep was revolved around. Most spanish on the street were known as drug connected. [H]. If he (Battle) was significant in the 60s or 70s, I'd be the first one to lobby for the book. But honestly his name doesn't come up locally until the bolita war of the early 80s. And that was the media who introduced him [battle]. These other guys were already here. The one's blowing up the spots and kidnapping, tying up, beating the managers/controllers. The first one I became aware was a place near 145th and Broadway called the Gallery. Dominican guy owned the joint. A loft in a walk up right on the avenue. "Allegedly" that was Pons behind the bullets into the ceiling and yelling for the owner (Who "allegedly" was right there in the room but didn't say nothing and nobody in there said a peep either) and lighting it up afterwards. I'm sure those other guys were with him. Funny how that didn't make the times. It wasn't until an old Black lady was killed that it started making the rounds on the AP what these guys were doing. But it ended as soon as it started. Everybody went to jail. The same folks who were at the receiving end of those firebombs were back at it, business as usual. That's why I'm a whole lot of skeptical about the Cuban Mafia being entrenched in an area whose presence I neither felt, nor heard of, when I was around. But I'm also willing to concede there could have been goings on that were obviously above my pay grade [ha!]. It just doesn't sound right to me what T.J. is saying.

Is Pons mentioned in English's book? Spanish Raymond? Junior St. Cyr? Tony Gorilla [a PR]? Those were some of the guys who ran Harlem for and in partnership [in the case of the Marquez] with the "redwings" [aka "Italian mob" elements]. At least that's what I heard.

JIGGS

[outfit guy]

Yes, Pons is notably mentioned throughout a portion of the book. But prior to Pons, Battle's key enforcers were Jose Acuna, Battle's brothers and a prodigal son he murdered. Pons came later. Tony Gorilla is not noted but Fish Cafaro is noted several times. No, not Junior St. Cyr. The Colonial is in the book from beginning to end and most "heavy" Latin bolita operators are noted. Spanish Raymond is mentioned but police are quoted as stating he's a fraction of Battle's action.

[outfit guy]

56 Arrested in Raid Against Gambling Ring
By RICHARD PEREZ-PENA

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From an elegant Bronx apartment with a view of the Palisades and a cache of money and jewels, to a Queens butcher shop with 14 hidden slot machines, the police raided 32 locations in three boroughs yesterday and arrested 56 people who they said were connected to perhaps the largest numbers ring in the city.

The target of the raids was a three-decade-old gambling ring controlled by Jose Miguel Battle Sr., a former Cuban police officer who fled the United States in 1992 but continues to run his operation from South America, investigators said.

The gambling operation employed hundreds of people and generated about $2 million a month in New York City alone, said Sgt. Frank Perez of the Manhattan North Public Morals Major Case Team, whose one-and-a-half-year investigation resulted in yesterday's arrests.

In 1985, a presidential commission on organized crime reported that Mr. Battle's syndicate, known as "the Corporation," netted $45 million a year in New York and New Jersey and often killed competitors and burned down their businesses. In 1986, a man described as Mr. Battle's enforcer was convicted of murder in the deaths of two people in an arson fire.

Law-enforcement officials compared Mr. Battle to Raymond Marquez, or "Spanish Raymond," who they claim ran his own gambling empire in Harlem and who was arrested last April. Mr. Battle's operations in New York City were about as large and as lucrative as Mr. Marquez's, investigators said, but they extended to Union City, N.J., southern Florida and Texas, as well.

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"He surpasses Spanish Raymond by a mile," Sergeant Perez said.

Investigators said Mr. Battle ran a tight organization, with well-defined roles and separate sites for placing bets, collecting cash and keeping records. Sergeant Perez said the ring was headquartered in an apartment on the 11th floor of a luxury building at 750 Kappock in Riverdale, where $280,000 in cash and jewelry estimated to be worth about the same amount were found. He said two apartments in Washington Heights were used to receive faxes from betting sites and to keep records.

The police have been unable to "flip" any of Mr. Battle's soldiers, or persuade them to cooperate, even when they were arrested. "They're deathly afraid of Jose Battle," Sergeant Perez said.

Instead, the police pieced the case together through surveillance and tracing of phone calls, and by having undercover officers place bets in 25 legitimate businesses -- bodegas, a meat market and candy, liquor and video stores -- in Queens and a few more in Washington Heights that doubled as betting parlors. The police seized 49 slot machines in those stores, Sergeant Perez said.

The owners of the businesses, who Sergeant Perez said got a percentage of the profits, were among those arrested yesterday. Several members of Mr. Battle's organization were also arrested, officials said.

The police are looking for Pedro Perez, who Sergeant Perez said was Mr. Battle's chief lieutenant in New York. The apartment in Riverdale was Mr. Perez's, he said. A doorman at the elegant co-op building, who would not give his name, said Mr. Perez had lived there for five years with his wife and children.

According to the presidential commission, Mr. Battle, formerly of Union City and Miami, was a vice officer in Havana in the 1950s, and took part in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. He fled to South America, Sergeant Perez said, when he realized that the police were closing in on his operation. He said Mr. Battle lives in Argentina or Peru.

[Wiseguy]

Another question is the state of Battle's organization now. I'm not aware of anything about the Corporation since the 2004 indictment. Heck, we've seen more LCN-related numbers busts between then and now, though those have tapered off in recent years. I've only seen a few busts involving the Dominican lottery.

[JeremyTheJew]

watching The Seven Five about corrupt East N.Y. cops.

found it interesting they brought up La Compania, Dominican heroin dealer boss named Chello.

very good doc

[outfit guy]

The Corporation was literally a name it christened itself; specifically Angel Mujica who spearheaded the initial Cuban-driven bolita in NYC. He and Battle shared a jail cell together in Cuba upon being captured by Castro forces after the Bay of Pigs. Battle's personality and violence-prone approach to Bolita turned many against him but not much they could do but agree to the consortium approach.
So, the "The Corporation" again is not a media contrivance. It was - and is, scaled down - the real deal. The entire Union City Police Force was literally corrupted and dismantled in the 90s due to Corporation bribes; repeat prior Musto and the 70s: this is Battle.
Migue, Jose Miguel Battle Jr. was released from federal prison a few months prior. I believe the brothers are still alive. Gustavo in charge of the gambling machines in Miami - they have their own manufacturing; in N. Jersey, Jose Grana Sr. and Jr. distributed to all Latin bars.
From the indictment, you'll note Pedro Perez, he took over for Nene Marquez in NYC. I forgot to note in an earlier post that Nene Marquez is Battle's brother-in-law and Chief of Staff in NYC. He coordinated the SS squad Battle organized upon his release from prison - murder conviction overturned. The SS hunted those freelance thieves that robbed Corporation banks and murdered them; they also began taking back bolita spots. Jr. and Abraham Ridz, overseers while Battle in prison, did not take the violent approach; they allowed freelancers as long as it was not encroaching.
Julio Acuna was a top enforcer (not Jose as stated prior). Upon Battle's return and aggressive approach, La Campania was created. Humberto Davila was maybe the next - or largest - lottery operator. Again, not violent, but he encroached and competed with the Corporation requiring a sit-down with the Lucchese and Genovese families. La Campania included Spanish Ray, Davila and others.
Yes, they are still active, but less centralized. Pedro Perez cooperated; so did DeVilliers.
They owned a casino in S. America; corrupted the P.R. national lottery; dominated Bolita in S. Florida; huge bookmaking operations; cockfights; gambling machine manufacturing in Florida and N. Jersey.

[outfit guy]

Photos Here
https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/le ... 3834f78d8d

The Cuban Godfather: How neighbourhood lottery became murderous organised crime syndicate
MURDEROUS mobster El Padrino turned a local lottery into an organised crime network fuelled by power, greed and drugs — and was willing to do anything to achieve its aims.

Emma Reynolds@emmareyn news.com.auMARCH 31, 20183:16AM

IT was a simple, underground lottery popular with off-duty priests, cops and old ladies, but it turned into the biggest organised crime racket New York had seen since the Italian mafia.

At the centre of this murderous network was Cuban mobster Jose Miguel Battle, a man obsessed with crafting his own image as a powerful mafia boss, modelled on Don Corleone from The Godfather.

The numbers game, known as bolita, was transported to the United States following the disastrous Bay of Pigs, when CIA-backed Cubans who set out to defeat leader Fidel Castro in 1961 spectacularly failed and were forced into humiliating exile.

New Yorkers could bet anything from a nickel to $10,000 on a three-digit number for the day.

“It was sort of a poor man’s form of gambling,” author and organised crime expert TJ English told news.com.au, at a family restaurant in the community’s heartland in New Jersey. “Even though it was illegal, it was seen as a harmless vice. It wasn’t narcotics, it wasn’t some dangerous, life-altering thing and back in Cuba, it had existed for generations ... it was never meant to be violent.”

Battle, a former war hero, started “The Corporation” as a small neighbourhood racket — carefully paying off police, politicians and rival gangs who wanted money. But power and corruption gradually turned him into El Padrino, a vicious drug lord who callously murdered all who crossed him.

Cuban exile Jose Miguel Battle ran The Corporation — one of the most lucrative organised crime rackets in American history.
Cuban exile Jose Miguel Battle ran The Corporation — one of the most lucrative organised crime rackets in American history.Source:Supplied


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“It became so profitable and lucrative, and there was so much money being generated on a daily or weekly basis, that greed set in and various criminal factions started vying for territory and control over certain aspects of it, so it became violent,” says English.

“I can’t emphasise enough how terrifying The Corporation was when it was out there on the street in its day,” said English. “Nobody talked, if you were believed to have talked, you got murdered.”

Decades later, the children of these gangsters were finally ready to talk to the author, whose previous book Havana Nocturn e explored how the mob lost Cuba. And movie producers, as well as the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro, are preparing to put this remarkable story on the big screen.


“[Battle’s] downfall really was his own tendencies towards violence and revenge, and he used violence as a first resort not as a last resort,” said English. “Part of that was that his business philosophy was very brutal, you’ve got to rule with an iron hand and let people know who’s in charge ... Some of the most outrageous murders in the book are him exacting revenge against people within his organisation who betrayed him.

By the early-1990s, Battle had achieved considerable notoriety in the media, partly as a result of the Presidential Commission hearings on organized crime and gambling held in New York City.
By the early-1990s, Battle had achieved considerable notoriety in the media, partly as a result of the Presidential Commission hearings on organized crime and gambling held in New York City.Source:Supplied


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“I think part of the psychology of Battle and a lot of people of that generation was a need for, a lust for revenge.

“If you accept the concept of murder as an operating principle of your business, it leads to all kinds of brutality and viciousness.”

The anti-Castro movement assisted in dirty political operations on behalf of the CIA after the Bay of Pigs invasion, and the Cuban mafia became surrounded by a kind of “mystique”, with many in the community believing they could act with impunity. A car bomb, a Cuban airliner blown out of the sky and even the Kennedy assassination all added to the legend.

“There was a belief all along that the criminal element of the Cuban community was being protected by the CIA, that they were untouchable, that they couldn’t be prosecuted,” says English. “And there may be some truth to it, because The Corporation stayed in power for a long time, 30, 40 years, from the mid 60s all the way to the early part of the 20th century.”

The mobster was obsessed with The Godfather, starring Marlon Brando as Don Corleone (pictured), and in later years would spend his time watching it in his underwear, a mountain of cocaine in front of him.
The mobster was obsessed with The Godfather, starring Marlon Brando as Don Corleone (pictured), and in later years would spend his time watching it in his underwear, a mountain of cocaine in front of him.Source:Supplied


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Ruthless and vengeful Battle violently killed members of his own organisation and ex-girlfriends, but he loved stray dogs.
Ruthless and vengeful Battle violently killed members of his own organisation and ex-girlfriends, but he loved stray dogs.Source:Supplied

Soon, New Jersey was filled with rented apartments, with counting rooms, money and paperwork stashed in basements after they were shipped over from Harlem, where much of the betting took place. There were warehouses for the storage of guns and cars to be used in hits, then dumped along with the bodies. The Corporation made little effort to hide the corpses.

One man, Palulu Enriquez, proved almost impossible to kill.

There were almost a dozen attempts on his life over the course of a decade. “They tried many times, shot him in his apartment building, shot him on the street,” says English. “He went to prison a couple of times, they hired somebody to stab him in prison — he kept surviving these attacks.”

Finally, Battle took matters into his own hands. He held a traditional ceremony, cutting the throat of a chicken. He found out where Palulu was staying in the Bronx, went there one night with back-up and loaded him with bullets. Lying in the street bleeding to death, Palulu looked up and saw Battle laughing at him as he passed out.

And yet, again, he survived.

Battle couldn’t believe it. He had watched Palulu die. So he hired a hitman to dress as a male nurse, go into the hospital at 2am and shoot him between the eyes in his hospital bed. This time, it was terminal.

‘Prodigal son’ Ernesto Torres, right, was one of Battle’s stray dogs. But after he began kidnapping the crime ring’s ‘bankers’, his mentor had him killed.
‘Prodigal son’ Ernesto Torres, right, was one of Battle’s stray dogs. But after he began kidnapping the crime ring’s ‘bankers’, his mentor had him killed.Source:Supplied

The book about the Cuban ‘numbers racket’ by TJ English has been optioned for a movie by stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro.
The book about the Cuban ‘numbers racket’ by TJ English has been optioned for a movie by stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro.Source:Supplied

One of the men who tried to kill Palulu — in a daylight machine-gun shootout in Central Park that caused the invincible man to lose a leg — was Ernesto Torres, Battle’s “prodigal son”, recruited as a hitman while the mob boss was hiding from the law in Madrid, Spain.

Eventually, Battle’s hijo prodigo wanted to be promoted and become a “banker” running a bolita. It wasn’t a job the coarse young killer was cut out for, and he turned rogue, kidnapping other bankers and shooting Battle’s relatives in wilfully destructive acts.

He too, had to die. “This guy was his surrogate son, he betrayed him so now Battle’s got to kill him,” says English.

“A criminal enterprise, it’s also just a neighbourhood, it can be very heartbreaking because you’re dealing with human beings who find themselves in these compromising situations that are life and death.”

But it was when Battle moved to Miami and entered the cocaine cowboy era of the 80s that things fell apart. A war with the mafia began, innocent people in bodegas were caught in the crossfire and Battle decided to flee to Peru, where he opened Lima’s first casino.

He began laundering money from Florida. “Battle always thought of a casino boss as the ultimate gangster,” says English. “But it turned sour really quickly and he started to lose money, and Battle became crazy violent. He started doing a lot of cocaine, and by now he was a guy in his 60s, it was strange time to pick up a cocaine habit.

“So he starts doing a lot of cocaine and he’s threatening everybody ... his financial managers at the casino, the floor managers, he became out and out thuggish down there. He lost his soul.

Cubans in New York were bound by a hatred for the country’s communist leader Fidel Castro, pictured — but were soon corrupted by greed and power.
Cubans in New York were bound by a hatred for the country’s communist leader Fidel Castro, pictured — but were soon corrupted by greed and power.Source:News Corp Australia

The crime syndicate was interwoven into the Cuban community in the US after families were forced to flee their home country following the disastrous the Bay of Pigs.
The crime syndicate was interwoven into the Cuban community in the US after families were forced to flee their home country following the disastrous the Bay of Pigs.Source:Supplied

“The casino was inside a hotel, and he’d be sitting in his underwear watching The Godfather movies.

“He practically had the movie memorised and he used to watch it over and over again.

“They’d go to do business with him and he’d be sitting in his underwear, with a shotgun in his lap watching The Godfather with a mound of cocaine on the coffee table in front of him.

“He kind of went off the deep end down there. He ordered more murders, he had an ex-girlfriend murdered, he really lost it. And I think it’s because he saw his whole empire crumbling and with the cocaine and everything he became paranoid.”

Battle was extradited and faced court om New York in the early 2000s, where his whole life was laid out in front of him. By now he was very sick, wheeling a dialysis machine into the court, but fascinated by his own epic tale.

Battle eventually achieved his dream of having a casino when he opened one at the Hotel Crillon in Lima, Peru — but it led to his downfall.
Battle eventually achieved his dream of having a casino when he opened one at the Hotel Crillon in Lima, Peru — but it led to his downfall.Source:Supplied

“He was playing the role of a mob boss, but it was no joke,” says English.

Battle was ruthless, despite believing to his death in 2007 in a noble cause — to take back Cuba.

In the end, his legacy was not about sacrifice to achieve a political goal, but the most lucrative illegal gambling enterprise in US history, and one of the biggest wealth generators outside of alcohol and narcotics. And English says it follows a distinct pattern.

“A century ago it would’ve been Jewish and Italian, now it was new waves of immigrants who were following the same pattern to assimilation of organised crime,” he said. “It dawned on me that this is quite possibly the American story.

“I call it underbelly of the American Dream.

“If you don’t understand the history of organised crime in America, you don’t understand America, because this is all so intrinsic to the American dream.”

The Corporation by TJ English is available for purchases at $19.99 from Pan Macmillan Australia.

[outfit guy]

Also, one hit team of Battle's was directed by a CIA operative. CIA operative was arrested for two contract murders in Manhattan in the 90s but did not give up Battle; so you can see the depth of his connections. Bob Parsons is the man's name I'm referencing. Also, Battle had a father-son team ambushed in the late 90s/early 2000s upon his return from Peru. He forced out Nene Marquez's successor who fled; put Pedro Perez in charge; then in a drive-by, the new leaders of La Compania were almost executed; son brain damage, father survived and swore vengeance on Battle. Before moving to Miami, bolita was controlled by one man; Battle had his lieutenant murdered in a drive-by and took over all of policy in Latin Dade County.

[outfit guy]

In terms of the larger organized Latino criminal groups, one particularly critical to New Jersey is the so-called “Cuban Mafia,” which has conducted diversified criminal operations in our state for decades.

Elements of Cuban organized crime emerged nearly four decades ago amidst the waves of political refugees who fled Cuba to escape Fidel Castro’s repressive revolutionary government. Initially centered in Miami, the Cuban émigré community soon branched out to establish roots in other urban areas, including northern New Jersey. Hudson County, directly across from New York, now is home to the largest domestic concentration of Cubans outside of southern Florida. Culturally close-knit, linguistically insular and highly motivated, the Cuban community has grown to become a major force in the state and local economy. At the same time, however, it has produced one of the most formidable criminal organizations this region has ever seen.

The most powerful component of Cuban organized crime remains an entity known as the José Battle Corporation. Named for its founder and leader, José Miguel Battle-Vargas – a former Havana vice officer who served in Fulgencio Battista’s army and later participated in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion – the Corporation generates millions in illicit profits annually through a variety of criminal enterprises. These include video gambling, bookmaking, loan-sharking, narcotics trafficking, prostitution and cargo theft. Because such activities generate substantial amounts of cash, the Corporation also is involved heavily in money laundering. Moreover, the Cuban mob has demonstrated a clear penchant for violence over the years, lashing out at would-be competitors and cracking down ruthlessly on members and associates suspected of treachery. Battle and his operatives also have displayed a particular talent for corrupting local political and law enforcement officials in furtherance of their criminal activities.

The Cuban mob is similar to elements of traditional organized crime in its strictly defined organizational hierarchy. The Corporation essentially functions in a manner reflected by its name – through a “board of directors” structured according to criminal activity and managed in the fashion of a legitimate business running its various divisions.

For many years, José Battle-Vargas was the hands-on chairman of the board, overseeing the Corporation’s criminal enterprises in the United States and Latin America from his base in southern Florida. Recently, however, Battle’s influence and grip have waned due to advanced age, illness and legal problems. In late 1996, federal agents raided his Miami estate, seizing gambling ledgers, firearms and more than $87,000 in cash. He was convicted in federal court in 1997 of illegal possession of a weapon and sentenced to 18 months in prison. In a separate matter, Battle pled guilty to two counts of fraud in U.S. District Court in Miami based upon charges that he pasted his picture on another individual’s U.S. passport and used it to travel throughout Latin America between 1993 and 1996. He was sentenced to an additional six months in prison and three years supervised release. On March 18, 2004, the U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida unsealed an indictment charging Battle and 24 other high-ranking individuals associated with the Corporation with racketeering and gambling. The terminology employed in this indictment to describe positions within the organization was revealing in its corporate overtones: “chairman”, “vice chairman”, “board of directors” and “bankers.” The indictment charged that the Corporation engaged in extensive illegal gambling enterprises, narcotics trafficking, theft of merchandise from hijacked trucks, and acts of violence and intimidation, including arson, assault and homicide over a period of four decades. The millions of dollars generated by the illicit activities are alleged to have been laundered through various paper companies in South Florida, as well as through the development and operation of a casino/hotel complex in Lima, Peru. In addition to these legal problems Battle is said by his attorneys to be suffering from advanced kidney disease.

Law enforcement officials say that because of the aforementioned factors, overall control of the Corporation’s directorate shifted into the hands of Battle’s family members and trusted associates with supervisory capability, including his son and possible heir apparent, Jose Miguel Battle-Rodriguez, also known as Battle, Jr. Despite this shift in control, however, the future viability of the Corporation remains in doubt as a result of the March 2004 federal indictments, which also snared Battle, Jr. and many other top lieutenants. Battle, Jr., also known as Jose R. Batlle, and within the organization as acting “Padrino”, was arrested at 4:30 a.m. on March 19 aboard a cruise ship in the central Caribbean. U.S. Coast Guard officials, in conjunction with Justice Department authorities, decided to take him into custody on the high seas in order to prevent a possible flight from prosecution once the ship reached its next port call in Costa Rica. Upon apprehension, Battle, Jr. was transferred to the confines of a nearby guided-missile cruiser, which was on routine counter-drug operations in the Caribbean.

Based in Miami, the group’s influence nonetheless extends to the New York/New Jersey region. The “board members” are principals in many of the group’s enterprises and specifically exert some measure of control over gambling, narcotics, money laundering and cargo-theft operations.

A key player is Gumersindo “Rolly” González-Herrera, who fulfills the role of high-level “super banker” for illicit gambling outlets operated by the Cuban mob in New York and New Jersey. In addition to Battle, Jr. and González-Herrera, the Commission has identified more than 40 other key players whose criminal activities impact on New Jersey.

The Corporation’s criminal activities in this region are centered in upper Manhattan, Brooklyn and The Bronx in New York City, and, in New Jersey, in northern Hudson County – primarily in the communities of Union City, West New York and Guttenberg – and parts of Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Monmouth and Morris counties. The group also has established a limited presence in Bridgeton and Vineland in Cumberland County and in Atlantic County.

While the Cuban mob engages in the typical array of organized crime ventures, including drug trafficking, cargo theft, bribery, extortion and official corruption, its primary moneymaking endeavor is illegal gambling. The Corporation essentially controls all video gaming operations across northern New Jersey’s Latino community. Illicit machinery is routinely installed, maintained and overseen by Battle operatives in hundreds of small grocery stores, bars, bodegas, restaurants, delicatessens, laundries, video stores, pizza parlors and other venues. Owners who do not want the machines or do not appreciate the small share of profits they receive face threats, intimidation and the prospect of being driven out of business.

The leading suppliers of video gambling machines controlled by the Cuban mob are José A. “Chicho” Grana and his son, José Grana, Jr., who until 1999 operated a company known as Boardwalk Amusements. Law enforcement officials say machines originating with the Granas have been placed in more than 250 business venues in Hudson County alone. Another supplier known to have associated with members of the Cuban mob is identified as Funhouse Amusements, owned and operated by Miguel “Miguelito” Morales and his son, Miguel Morales, Jr.

The Corporation’s gambling empire, however, extends well beyond video machines. The group also draws substantial revenues from la bolita, the Latino version of an illegal numbers, or “policy,” racket. La bolita is derived from the pari-mutuel handle from one of the major horse racing tracks in the New York metropolitan area. Besides providing the Cuban mob with a steady and substantial profit stream with which to underwrite other criminal ventures, la bolita serves as an effective money laundering tool, along with illicit lottery operations based on the legitimate lotteries of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Tickets from those lotteries are transported north and illegally sold here on the streets at a premium, usually twice the face value of the tickets. Winners here are paid in cash with Corporation “dirty” money. Battle associates, in turn, take the actual winning tickets back to either of the respective Caribbean islands and redeem them for “clean” money.

The cash flow associated with these schemes is enormous. In one instance, law enforcement officials calculated that la bolita proceeds routed through a single Cuban mob “safe house” in upper Manhattan totaled more than $1 million per week. Among the Corporation’s principal numbers bosses in New York and New Jersey is Gumersindo “Rolly” González-Herrera. State Police Detective Sergeant Fernando Pineiro testified at the Commission’s public hearing that during February 1, 2000, gambling raid, authorities uncovered $250,000 in secret compartments located throughout González-Herrera’s North Bergen house.

The Cuban mob also has a hand in illegal sports betting, operating telephone- equipped bookmaking parlors known as “wire rooms” predominantly on the New York side of the Hudson. Former partnership arrangements worked out with elements of the traditional La Cosa Nostra, to which the Corporation once referred indebted gamblers for collection and repayment, are no longer necessary because the Cuban mob now collects its own debts. Law enforcement sources have identified at least two “super bankers” (so called because of the size of the gambling enterprise and their ability to cover the action placed) who serve as principal bookmaking bosses for the Corporation in New York and New Jersey.

SCI Special Agent Judith A. Gore testified at the public hearing as to the dominant role Cuban organized crime plays in serving Latino customers of illicit gambling:
Nearly all [Latino] groups place their wagers through Cuban organized crime, which controls its territory exclusively. While Puerto Rican or Dominican [criminals] may participate at the lower end of the hierarchy as runners or the neighborhood bookie, Cuban control dictates how and where their bets will be placed. There is no interference from La Cosa Nostra or traditional organized crime, as the two honor each other's boundaries. Included among [Cuban organized crime’s] nefarious activities are sports wagering, the bolita or lottery, video gambling, extortion and loan-sharking. Its large gambling enterprises allow Cuban organized crime to amass great wealth, … cover large payouts and service the entire state and beyond. Two bolita operations in the metropolitan New York area alone each bring in approximately one million dollars weekly.

Cuban organized crime then uses this profit to further finance its [other] criminal enterprises.

The Cuban [criminal] groups also use threats and intimidation to maintain their stronghold in the Latino community. In some cases, firebombing or arson and even homicide [are] employed to keep operatives in line. In New York, one [Latino] business owner, who no longer wanted his business used as a betting location by the Cuban mob, was firebombed by Cuban organized crime enforcers within a few days of his attempt to withdraw from the operation.

Recent investigations have shown that gambling proceeds are invested in retail businesses, car dealerships, botanical supply stores, large real estate acquisitions, or other illegal ventures such as narcotics trafficking. Attorney trust accounts are also used to funnel the gambling proceeds. Investigations have shown that the wealth and influence of organized crime has a significant impact in attempting, and at times succeeding, to corrupt public officials and law enforcement officers.

Detective Sergeant Pineiro testified that a 1999 investigation by the federal IRS, FBI, Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office and New York City Police Department led to the arrest of leaders and operatives of a Corporation offshoot known as “The Company.” Manuel Alvarez, Sr. of North Bergen and Manuel Alvarez, Jr. of Franklin Lakes in Bergen County ran the operation. The investigation resulted in the seizure of approximately $5.8 million. $982,000 in cash was seized at Alvarez, Sr.’s house and $262,000 was seized at Alvarez, Jr.’s house. Much of the money at Alvarez, Sr.’s residence had been there so long that the rubber bands holding it had dry rotted, according to Pineiro.

Pointing out that gambling violations usually are mere crimes of the third degree, Detective Sergeant Pineiro described the dissatisfying consequences of investigations that can be quite lengthy, expensive and complicated:
Basically, … in a lot of these investigations the individuals will plead guilty and surrender the money. The loss of the currency is nothing more than an operating expense or a temporary loss. The sheer volume that they're able to generate throughout these … communities, between New Jersey, New York, Florida and Connecticut, they make up their losses quite quickly. What would hurt them the most is to be out of commission … and face incarceration.

Special Agent Gore confirmed the frustration resulting from gambling prosecutions:
In the majority of the cases where illegal gambling was the only charge on the state level, the Cuban OC associates pleaded guilty and received probationary sentences, even as repeat offenders. The more successful prosecutions were the federal investigations brought as racketeering cases where the defendants were sentenced to considerable jail time despite negotiating guilty pleas. Whatever the penalties, and despite the successful investigations we’ve noted here, authorities have not been able to lastingly reduce, remove or deter Cuban organized crime gambling operations.

With regard to narcotics trafficking, elements of Cuban organized crime serve both as wholesale transporters and retail middlemen for various segments of the Colombian drug cartels. During José Battle, Sr.’s federal sentencing hearing in February 1998, two convicted drug traffickers linked Battle to the Colombia-based Medellin cartel. They testified that Battle paid them $500,000 in 1989 in exchange for transporting a large amount of Colombian cocaine into South Florida via the Bahamas. Associates of the Cuban mob are also known to “broker” shares of cocaine, heroin and marijuana for retail sale at the street level in New York and New Jersey. Moreover, a substantial network of Cuban trucking operators based in New York and northern New Jersey provide transportation services to the Colombian cartels. Although these truckers are not part of the Corporation per se, they interact with Cuban organized crime as the occasion demands. The Cuban-owned trucks regularly haul varying amounts of cocaine, marijuana and heroin – disguised as part of a legitimate cargo load usually consisting of agricultural produce – from pick-up points in the western and southwestern U.S. to destinations in the New York metropolitan area. When the Colombians take possession of these shipments, the truckers or transportation coordinators receive a fee, either cash – typically about $500 to $1,000 per kilo – or a small share of the drug haul.

In a concerted bid to evade law enforcement, Cuban mobsters have redoubled their efforts in recent years to acquire legitimate business interests that can serve as fronts for criminal activity. The array of businesses controlled by the Corporation in northern New Jersey now includes cargo and trucking companies, travel agencies, jewelry stores, nightclubs, video rental outlets, a clothing store chain, a large grocery franchise, medical clinics, medical transportation companies, real estate and title office and insurance brokerages. The Cuban mob also controls a number of personnel in key positions in several New Jersey banks, an aspect which, along with an elaborate network of affiliated business accounts, helps to facilitate the Corporation’s money-laundering enterprises.

Given that the Corporation spends most of its time on, and draws most of its ill- gotten gains from, activities as relatively innocuous as sports betting and numbers running, it is easy to minimize the danger posed by the Cuban mob to the public welfare. That would be a mistake. Illegal gambling to the extreme extent as engaged in by the Corporation is a huge engine helping to drive the underground economy. As a result of this group’s actions, tens of millions of dollars change hands every year beyond the reach of state and federal taxation. Moreover, the business of hiding these tainted millions has served to nurture an international money-laundering industry. Worse, the business of spending those millions has served to bankroll a host of other criminal endeavors, not the least of which is drug trafficking.

With so much money at their disposal, Cuban mobsters also have succeeded in corrupting law enforcement and subverting the system of public accountability. In one instance, they managed to transform the top ranks of West New York’s municipal police force into a racketeering enterprise throughout the 1990s. In the same community, they proved capable of undermining the state/local regulatory apparatus for proper licensure of bars, taverns and other establishments that dispense alcoholic beverages.

In January 1998, federal prosecutors unsealed a 69-count racketeering indictment charging that for nearly a decade between 1989 and 1997, members and associates of the Corporation had bought the services of nine police officers, including the former Chief, Alexander V. Oriente, in the City of West New York. The defendants were charged, among other things, with participating in a bribery and kickback scheme in which more than $600,000 was paid to police officers to protect prostitution, illegal gambling and after-hours liquor sales.

The bribe-paying businesses made payments directly to corrupt officers or through a designated bagman. Additionally, police officers extorted six dollars per towed car from the town’s towing operator. Federal criminal complaints also were issued against seven more defendants, three of whom were connected with the after-hours liquor sales. Several of the counts in the indictment stemmed from extortion and bribery schemes involving illegal licensing of establishments and after-hours sales at protected businesses. Corrupt police, including former Chief Oriente, protected the liquor schemes by accepting bribes and kickbacks totaling more than $95,000 in weekly cash payments of $100 to $800. For example, one owner of an unlicensed bar said he paid police officers an average of $250 a night to keep the bar open and to extend its closing time. In exchange for kickbacks, the corrupt officers also gave the protected gambling, liquor, and prostitution enterprises advance warning of raids or other legitimate attempts to uphold the law. The officers also threatened and punished competitors of the bribe-paying businesses.

Federal authorities called the West New York investigation the worst case of police corruption in the history of New Jersey. All told, the case produced 32 convictions of which 14 were police officers, 13 from the West New York Police Department and one from Union City. There were four acquittals and five resignations of police officers not charged in the indictment.

Richard G. Rivera, a former West New York Police Officer who blew the whistle to the FBI about police corruption in that city, testified at the Commission’s public hearing. He pointed out that many police officers in West New York were not corrupt. However, corrupt officers tested new officers to determine whether they would tolerate or assist the corrupt schemes. Mr. Rivera described the dilemma faced by the young officers:
It was a slippery slope. What had happened was Chief Oriente had his own crew of hoodlums that were operating within the Police Department and protecting illegal operations within the town, and also exploring other enterprises on their own. And … officers come in with a good intention. They want to do right. They want to abide by the law. They want to make some changes in their community. Only when they’re exposed to this type of environment do tough choices have to be made, whether you want to go along and play the game, or do you want to go against the grain. And I know several officers personally. I had my best friend who was my partner who went to prison for a year. And he wasn’t corrupt when we went to the academy for six months. But later on, that’s what happened. So the majority of the officers are hard-working, diligent individuals that are trying to do the right thing, but they’re held back by that very small group of rogue cops.

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[outfit guy]

`Cuban Mafia' Tale Comes To End With Leaders' Convictions
July 27, 2006|By Akilah Johnson Staff Writer
The story of the "Cuban Mafia" has all the elements of a cinema thriller: an aging kingpin transfers the power of his criminal empire to his son and a loyal follower, only to watch his dynasty fall when federal agents arrest him and his soldiers and seize millions of dollars in assets.

But this tale of a 40-year-old crime syndicate built on illegal gambling and numbers running that turned into a murderous outfit with a penchant for arson is real, and a hit man and two leading members were found guilty of racketeering conspiracy, including murder, gambling, arson and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Wednesday.

Jose Miguel Battle Jr., 53 -- son of the so-called godfather, or padrino -- and Manuel Marquez, 61, were top-tier members of "the Corporation" or "Cuban Mafia," acting as its head when the padrino was out of the country or in jail, federal prosecutors said. Julio Acuna, 66, was a hit man who enforced the Corporation's rules, prosecutors said.

A Miami jury convicted them Friday and they are scheduled to be sentenced in September. Acuna faces life in prison; Marquez and Battle Jr. face up to 20 years behind bars.

On Tuesday, the jury ordered the three men and 22 others associated with the criminal enterprise to forfeit $1.4 billion, of which more than $20 million has already been seized, prosecutors said.

"Justice has been done in this case," U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta said Wednesday in a news release.

The Corporation started in 1964, several years after Jose Miguel Battle Sr. -- the padrino -- left Cuba. Authorities have likened the Bay of Pigs veteran to Al Capone, saying he fought criminal competitors with contract killings and firebombings.

Battle Jr., Marquez and Acuna were born in Cuba, eventually coming to the United States and settling in the New York/New Jersey area before moving to Miami in the 1980s, prosecutors said.




The organization, made up of lieutenants, soldiers, bosses, bankers and enforcers, was crippled in March 2004 when agents froze millions in assets and arrested nearly two dozen Corporation members, including the padrino, who raised fruit trees on his $1.5 million south Miami-Dade estate.

Battle Sr., 76, who suffers from kidney and liver failure, diabetes and cardiac problems, pleaded guilty during his racketeering trial in May.

The Corporation operated globally, conducting illegal activities in South Florida, the New York/New Jersey area, the Caribbean, Europe and Central and South America, according to court documents.

From the start, the documents say the Corporation ran various gambling outfits. Then in 1970, the organization got into the drug game, moving marijuana and cocaine into the United States until about 1992, officials say.

The Corporation started laundering its money through puppet companies or sham businesses in 1988, according to court documents. One such venture, authorities say, was the Crillon, a casino and hotel complex in Lima, Peru.

"The Corporation preserved and protected its power, territory, operations and profits through the use of violence and destruction," the federal indictment said.

Battle Jr., Marquez and Acuna were found guilty of eight murders and seven arsons that resulted in deaths. One murder -- the death of Ernesto Torres -- occurred in Opa-Locka during the 1970s, prosecutors said. The man who killed Torres turned on the Corporation and was gunned down, prosecutors said. In another murder outside Florida, a hit man took out a Corporation rival in a hospital by dressing up as a nurse. The arsons took place in New York, including one that killed a 3-year-old.

[YOtoLI]

I didn’t get that from the book. I read the Italians set the rules and allowed them to have their bolita, while the Italians had the numbers. They were very small compared to the mafia. They had they piece and worked with them. They were in business to make money and didn’t want a war.


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