As far as I know is was a Bonanno saying the Genovese said that. ..Pogo The Clown wrote: ↑Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:10 pm So why would the Genovese tell the Bonannos on two separate occasions that they know they (the Bonannos) had nothing to do with the murder? That is all but admitting that they (the Genovese) were responsible.
Pogo
Al Trucchio
Moderator: Capos
Re: Al Trucchio
Re: Al Trucchio
@new_era as promised
Gambino Crew Parties Like
No Tomorrow; (There Wasn't)
A Gang Land Exclusive
Gambino capo Alphonse Trucchio will soon be hit with as many as 10 years behind bars for drug dealing. He’ll have a lot of time to reflect on the good old days, and to think even harder about those who helped put an end to them.
One moment will be easy to remember, providing the Bureau of Prisons allows him to bring this picture with him into stir. As you can see, it’s from 2009 when Trucchio – a second generation wiseguy – threw a Christmas party for his crew.
That’s Trucchio, five big guys from the left, in the gray suit with his left hand on the shoulder of the smiling mob associate crouching beside the cocktail table filled with what look like choice beverages. The guy on the far left of the snowflake-laden card, the one still waiting for the holiday spirit to strike, is Trucchio’s right-hand-man, soldier Michael (Roc) Roccaforte.
Trucchio had good reason to smile. The young mobster had recently been promoted to capo. This made him the head of the Queens-based moneymaking crew once led by his imprisoned-for-life father, Ronald, a contemporary of late mafia boss John Gotti.
But the widest grin seems to be on the shortest man in the group. He’s standing two over from Roccaforte, the only one toasting the occasion with a drink in his hand. That’s mob associate Howard Santos and he’s got a secret reason to smile: He was wearing a wire for the FBI that day. The secrets he recorded helped launch the Mafia Takedown Day arrest of Trucchio, Roccaforte and 19 others on racketeering and drug trafficking charges.
Another moment for the capo to remember came a few months later, when Trucchio took part in a rare mob summit meeting with the boss of the Philadelphia crime family.
The May 2010 sitdown, Gang Land has learned, took place in an undisclosed New Jersey restaurant. The meeting between leaders of the two crime families included wiseguy John Gambino, a key member of a ruling panel that was running the Gambino family at the time, according to recently filed court papers.
Roccaforte, whose own plea deal calls for the same 121 months maximum as Trucchio, also attended the conference.
At the session, Philly mob boss Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi and his top aides sought help in resolving ongoing issues they had with the Luchese family and with the so-called real Sopranos, the Newark based DeCavalcante clan that has been viewed as subservient to the Gambinos since the heyday of the late Dapper Don.
The reason we can report this is because the conversation was taped by another turncoat wiseguy, Nicholas (Nicky Skins) Stefanelli, the Gambino soldier who began cooperating with the FBI when he and his son were nabbed for drug dealing. Stefanelli’s stint as an informant ended with a bang, as Gang Land reported three months ago: Just days before the feds were to end the undercover aspect of his work and prepare him to testify against mobsters and associates from eight Mafia families in six states, Nicky Skins shot and killed the informer who gave him up to the FBI, and then committed suicide.
But his tapes live on, and the one he recorded on May 19, 2010 should become a Gang Land classic. On it, Gambino, an aging Sicilian-born cousin of family patriarch Carlo Gambino, and Philadelphia capo Joseph (Scoops) Licata, and the then-33-year-old Trucchio are heard commiserating about the inroads the feds have made against them in recent years, and some of the things they should do to avoid their own returns to the big house.
Nicholas Stefanelli“We still got to stay with the old rules,” said Licata, 70. “If you don’t know the families, the grandmothers, the grandfathers, forget it….If you don’t know them a lifetime, or somebody good recommends, there ain’t nothing you can do.”
The 71-year-old Gambino agreed, and stressed the need to be very careful about who gets inducted into the family. “The only way to survive: You need quality, not quantity,” he said.
“Guys made it about money,” chimed in Philly wiseguy Louis (Big Lou) Fazzini, 45. “It’s not about money, it’s about brotherhood,” he said.
“Money clouds people’s judgment,” agreed Trucchio, who allegedly made millions of dollars heading up drug dealing scams over the past decade and has agreed to forfeit $100,000 as part of his plea deal. “That’s what gets people locked up,” he added.
“The green-eyed monster,” noted Licata, according to the papers filed last week by Philadelphia prosecutors in a successful effort to detain the two mobsters as dangers to the community.
“During the meeting,” prosecutors wrote in recently filed court papers, “Licata bragged that he was incarcerated with a former boss of the Gambino family and predicted to members of the Luchese and Genovese families that he would become a rat,” an apparent reference to John (Junior) Gotti. Licata and the former acting Gambino boss, who stymied four federal juries by admitting his wiseguy status but insisting that he had quit the mob, were inmates at Ray Brook federal prison in upstate New York from 1999 to 2003.
Licata also wondered aloud about the fate of John Gambino and the other members of the three-capo panel that was running the family when “the old leaders,” namely Joseph (Jo Jo) Corozzo, his brother Nicholas (Little Nick) Corozzo and Little Nick’s longtime partner-in-crime, Leonard DiMaria were “released from prison.”
No reply by the Gambino contingent is noted in the court papers, but Licata was probably saying nice things about the Corozzos and DiMaria because he knew that Nicky Skins, a Newark resident, was proposed for membership by them and was in a crew that was then headed by an acting capo handpicked by the Corozzo contingent.
If they’re smart, all three should thank the mob gods they were in prison while Nicky Skins was wearing his wire, and look to retire. Nick will be 80 when he gets out in 2020. Jo Jo, 70, is unlikely to get out for another five years, assuming he agrees to a plea deal to his still pending racketeering case. Lenny, 71, just got out and has three years of supervised release ahead.
Sources say Gambino capo Daniel Marino was slated to attend the confab, but couldn’t when he was hit with racketeering and murder charges a month earlier and detained without bail. Like the Corozzo group, Marino, 71, should be looking to get a retirement package when he is released in 2014.
Gambino Crew Parties Like
No Tomorrow; (There Wasn't)
A Gang Land Exclusive
Gambino capo Alphonse Trucchio will soon be hit with as many as 10 years behind bars for drug dealing. He’ll have a lot of time to reflect on the good old days, and to think even harder about those who helped put an end to them.
One moment will be easy to remember, providing the Bureau of Prisons allows him to bring this picture with him into stir. As you can see, it’s from 2009 when Trucchio – a second generation wiseguy – threw a Christmas party for his crew.
That’s Trucchio, five big guys from the left, in the gray suit with his left hand on the shoulder of the smiling mob associate crouching beside the cocktail table filled with what look like choice beverages. The guy on the far left of the snowflake-laden card, the one still waiting for the holiday spirit to strike, is Trucchio’s right-hand-man, soldier Michael (Roc) Roccaforte.
Trucchio had good reason to smile. The young mobster had recently been promoted to capo. This made him the head of the Queens-based moneymaking crew once led by his imprisoned-for-life father, Ronald, a contemporary of late mafia boss John Gotti.
But the widest grin seems to be on the shortest man in the group. He’s standing two over from Roccaforte, the only one toasting the occasion with a drink in his hand. That’s mob associate Howard Santos and he’s got a secret reason to smile: He was wearing a wire for the FBI that day. The secrets he recorded helped launch the Mafia Takedown Day arrest of Trucchio, Roccaforte and 19 others on racketeering and drug trafficking charges.
Another moment for the capo to remember came a few months later, when Trucchio took part in a rare mob summit meeting with the boss of the Philadelphia crime family.
The May 2010 sitdown, Gang Land has learned, took place in an undisclosed New Jersey restaurant. The meeting between leaders of the two crime families included wiseguy John Gambino, a key member of a ruling panel that was running the Gambino family at the time, according to recently filed court papers.
Roccaforte, whose own plea deal calls for the same 121 months maximum as Trucchio, also attended the conference.
At the session, Philly mob boss Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi and his top aides sought help in resolving ongoing issues they had with the Luchese family and with the so-called real Sopranos, the Newark based DeCavalcante clan that has been viewed as subservient to the Gambinos since the heyday of the late Dapper Don.
The reason we can report this is because the conversation was taped by another turncoat wiseguy, Nicholas (Nicky Skins) Stefanelli, the Gambino soldier who began cooperating with the FBI when he and his son were nabbed for drug dealing. Stefanelli’s stint as an informant ended with a bang, as Gang Land reported three months ago: Just days before the feds were to end the undercover aspect of his work and prepare him to testify against mobsters and associates from eight Mafia families in six states, Nicky Skins shot and killed the informer who gave him up to the FBI, and then committed suicide.
But his tapes live on, and the one he recorded on May 19, 2010 should become a Gang Land classic. On it, Gambino, an aging Sicilian-born cousin of family patriarch Carlo Gambino, and Philadelphia capo Joseph (Scoops) Licata, and the then-33-year-old Trucchio are heard commiserating about the inroads the feds have made against them in recent years, and some of the things they should do to avoid their own returns to the big house.
Nicholas Stefanelli“We still got to stay with the old rules,” said Licata, 70. “If you don’t know the families, the grandmothers, the grandfathers, forget it….If you don’t know them a lifetime, or somebody good recommends, there ain’t nothing you can do.”
The 71-year-old Gambino agreed, and stressed the need to be very careful about who gets inducted into the family. “The only way to survive: You need quality, not quantity,” he said.
“Guys made it about money,” chimed in Philly wiseguy Louis (Big Lou) Fazzini, 45. “It’s not about money, it’s about brotherhood,” he said.
“Money clouds people’s judgment,” agreed Trucchio, who allegedly made millions of dollars heading up drug dealing scams over the past decade and has agreed to forfeit $100,000 as part of his plea deal. “That’s what gets people locked up,” he added.
“The green-eyed monster,” noted Licata, according to the papers filed last week by Philadelphia prosecutors in a successful effort to detain the two mobsters as dangers to the community.
“During the meeting,” prosecutors wrote in recently filed court papers, “Licata bragged that he was incarcerated with a former boss of the Gambino family and predicted to members of the Luchese and Genovese families that he would become a rat,” an apparent reference to John (Junior) Gotti. Licata and the former acting Gambino boss, who stymied four federal juries by admitting his wiseguy status but insisting that he had quit the mob, were inmates at Ray Brook federal prison in upstate New York from 1999 to 2003.
Licata also wondered aloud about the fate of John Gambino and the other members of the three-capo panel that was running the family when “the old leaders,” namely Joseph (Jo Jo) Corozzo, his brother Nicholas (Little Nick) Corozzo and Little Nick’s longtime partner-in-crime, Leonard DiMaria were “released from prison.”
No reply by the Gambino contingent is noted in the court papers, but Licata was probably saying nice things about the Corozzos and DiMaria because he knew that Nicky Skins, a Newark resident, was proposed for membership by them and was in a crew that was then headed by an acting capo handpicked by the Corozzo contingent.
If they’re smart, all three should thank the mob gods they were in prison while Nicky Skins was wearing his wire, and look to retire. Nick will be 80 when he gets out in 2020. Jo Jo, 70, is unlikely to get out for another five years, assuming he agrees to a plea deal to his still pending racketeering case. Lenny, 71, just got out and has three years of supervised release ahead.
Sources say Gambino capo Daniel Marino was slated to attend the confab, but couldn’t when he was hit with racketeering and murder charges a month earlier and detained without bail. Like the Corozzo group, Marino, 71, should be looking to get a retirement package when he is released in 2014.
Salude!
Re: Al Trucchio
Wise-Cracking Gambino Gangster: I'm Not Happy With The Job My Lawyer Is Doing
Gang Land Exclusive!Gennaro BrunoMob associate Gennaro (Jerry) Bruno recently got what seems like positive information for him about the 2002 murder that he was charged with 16 months ago, according to a letter that federal prosecutors gave his attorney. It's a so-called Brady Letter that contains potentially exculpatory material. It states that latent fingerprints found at the crime scene do not match his fingerprints.
It's unclear exactly where the latent fingerprints were found, but according to an NYPD analysis of "prints of value" that was completed on November 13, 2007, they don't match Bruno's. Now, all Bruno has to do is get an investigator to look into that, and check out a dozen other possible suspects in the murder. And while he's at it, he might also get an audio expert to examine a crucial tape recording that he believes was "altered." Any one of those findings might improve his chances of beating the case. That is, if he ever gets to trial.
Bruno faces life behind bars if convicted, so his situation is no joke. But the imprisoned gangster is the one who has been cracking wise and complaining about the case in hand-written letters he's sent to the judge. The gist of the Gambino associate's gripes is that court-appointed attorney Thomas Nooter is doing a lousy job defending him against racketeering and murder charges.
Thomas Nooter"I will never want this court to think I am trying to go pro se," he told Brooklyn Federal Court Judge William Kuntz in one missive about Nooter, who has been his lawyer since April. "I know better. Having said that," he wrote, "I would rather have a fool for a client than be a fool without counsel." In the same letter, Bruno stated that if a leading case on the ineffective assistance of counsel he cited "were a plague or a sickness of some sort, I would have all the symptoms."
Last month, hours after attending a status conference before Kuntz, Bruno, 43, wrote that his rights under the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments were "officially eviscerated" that day. He stated he learned about his scheduled court appearance when he was escorted to the judge's courtroom by deputy U.S. Marshals from the Metropolitan Detention Center right before the session began.
"Two minutes prior to entering your courtroom is when I was once again told (by Nooter) it would be in my best interest to waive my speedy trial rights," wrote Bruno, noting that he has "been told this" by several defense lawyers, including Nooter, "since I came to Brooklyn" in October 2014, following his arrest in Las Vegas where he had relocated a year earlier.
Todd LaBarca"The real 'status' of the case Your Honor," wrote Bruno, "is nothing has changed for me. No private investigator has gone out and tried to interview anyone" mentioned as a possible suspect in the Brady Letter his lawyers received back in November of 2014 that named 10 others as murder suspects in the slaying of Martin Bosshart.
"More important, no tape expert has been given to me to listen to the very popular tape that was made by the cooperator," wrote Bruno, who claimed that the tape recording made by turncoat Howard Santos has been altered. "I can hear it and I have an untrained ear," wrote Bruno. "If your honor has the time, please listen to the tape. I've been asking for a tape expert for over a year."
According to a transcript of the conversation filed in the case, the recording caught Gambino associate Todd LaBarca telling Santos that Bruno shot and killed Bosshart in January of 2002. LaBarca was convicted of murder conspiracy in Bosshart's killing by Manhattan federal prosecutors in a 2011 indictment, one in which Bruno was not charged.
In October, Kuntz ruled that the government could play the November 3, 2009 tape recording, which is the key evidence against Bruno, at trial.
Howard SantosOn the tape, after LaBarca whispered the name "Jerry," Santos got LaBarca to state that Bruno — and not John Alite or Peter (Bud) Zuccaro, who are among those who've also been credited with the rubout — had been the gunman, according to excerpts filed by prosecutors in the case:
SANTOS: The suspects who killed Marty was Peter Zuccaro and Johnny Alite.
LABARCA: Yeah.
SANTOS: But, obviously, it was neither one of them.
LABARCA: That's, yeah.
SANTOS: The story I heard he (Bosshart) was taking a piss?
LABARCA: Yeah.
SANTOS: And Jerry just —
LABARCA: Yeah.
SANTOS: Boop. Right behind him?
LABARCA: Bup. Yeah.
The trial had been slated for next month. But earlier this month, it was put off at least until July 25, in order to permit an appeal of a Kuntz pre-trial ruling that the current case does not involve the same racketeering enterprise for which Bruno was behind bars from 2003 until 2013, and it is not barred by double jeopardy laws.
Martin BosshartBruno sent Kuntz a follow up letter last month asking that it be an addendum to court papers filed by Nooter, but the judge sealed it as defense strategy material that neither the government nor the public had a right to see.
After Bruno noted in his first letter last month that a government motion to have a second tape recording admitted into evidence "went unchallenged by my counsel," the jailed gangster derisively stated: "Of course, the government, when I say my counsel is not effective, they say that he is doing a great job. The Jets would love the Patriots if during the game all the cornerbacks stayed off the field."
Last year, when Bruno first complained that his lawyer had done a lousy job for him — spending a total of 90 minutes with him during the first 60 days as assigned counsel — prosecutors Kristin Mace and Nadia Shihata disagreed. "There is no indication that the assistance being provided by Mr. Nooter is ineffective," they wrote. They also asked Kuntz to seal the letter, which he did.
"If I had counsel that would work on the investigative issues as hard as he thinks I should waive my rights," Bruno declared, "then maybe your honor would look differently at this case."
Kristin MaceBruno also complained about being held without bail, stating that neither Nooter, nor any of his prior attorneys ever informed the Court about information he gave them that would have helped establish that he is not a danger to the community. A 2002 extortion victim still runs the same business and has not been hassled since Bruno pleaded guilty in 2003, he wrote. And in 2013, before he moved to Vegas, he lived in the same neighborhood as Alite and a second potential witness against him, Anthino Russo, and he never had even a cross word with them, or family members he ran into.
"One last thought, Your Honor," wrote Bruno. "The SDNY (Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office) indicted Martha Stewart once upon a time. Yet, with a tape that the Eastern District swears by, that the SDNY used as well, they did not indict me. Maybe my next lawyer will look into that?" We're pretty sure we know what point Bruno's trying to make about Martha Stewart, but he'd better be careful. Stewart, who thought she was smarter than her lawyers as well, was convicted.
Nooter declined to comment about the letters Bruno sent the court last month. Despite their disagreements, he told Gang Land, his client "has not asked for new counsel."
Gang Land Exclusive!Gennaro BrunoMob associate Gennaro (Jerry) Bruno recently got what seems like positive information for him about the 2002 murder that he was charged with 16 months ago, according to a letter that federal prosecutors gave his attorney. It's a so-called Brady Letter that contains potentially exculpatory material. It states that latent fingerprints found at the crime scene do not match his fingerprints.
It's unclear exactly where the latent fingerprints were found, but according to an NYPD analysis of "prints of value" that was completed on November 13, 2007, they don't match Bruno's. Now, all Bruno has to do is get an investigator to look into that, and check out a dozen other possible suspects in the murder. And while he's at it, he might also get an audio expert to examine a crucial tape recording that he believes was "altered." Any one of those findings might improve his chances of beating the case. That is, if he ever gets to trial.
Bruno faces life behind bars if convicted, so his situation is no joke. But the imprisoned gangster is the one who has been cracking wise and complaining about the case in hand-written letters he's sent to the judge. The gist of the Gambino associate's gripes is that court-appointed attorney Thomas Nooter is doing a lousy job defending him against racketeering and murder charges.
Thomas Nooter"I will never want this court to think I am trying to go pro se," he told Brooklyn Federal Court Judge William Kuntz in one missive about Nooter, who has been his lawyer since April. "I know better. Having said that," he wrote, "I would rather have a fool for a client than be a fool without counsel." In the same letter, Bruno stated that if a leading case on the ineffective assistance of counsel he cited "were a plague or a sickness of some sort, I would have all the symptoms."
Last month, hours after attending a status conference before Kuntz, Bruno, 43, wrote that his rights under the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments were "officially eviscerated" that day. He stated he learned about his scheduled court appearance when he was escorted to the judge's courtroom by deputy U.S. Marshals from the Metropolitan Detention Center right before the session began.
"Two minutes prior to entering your courtroom is when I was once again told (by Nooter) it would be in my best interest to waive my speedy trial rights," wrote Bruno, noting that he has "been told this" by several defense lawyers, including Nooter, "since I came to Brooklyn" in October 2014, following his arrest in Las Vegas where he had relocated a year earlier.
Todd LaBarca"The real 'status' of the case Your Honor," wrote Bruno, "is nothing has changed for me. No private investigator has gone out and tried to interview anyone" mentioned as a possible suspect in the Brady Letter his lawyers received back in November of 2014 that named 10 others as murder suspects in the slaying of Martin Bosshart.
"More important, no tape expert has been given to me to listen to the very popular tape that was made by the cooperator," wrote Bruno, who claimed that the tape recording made by turncoat Howard Santos has been altered. "I can hear it and I have an untrained ear," wrote Bruno. "If your honor has the time, please listen to the tape. I've been asking for a tape expert for over a year."
According to a transcript of the conversation filed in the case, the recording caught Gambino associate Todd LaBarca telling Santos that Bruno shot and killed Bosshart in January of 2002. LaBarca was convicted of murder conspiracy in Bosshart's killing by Manhattan federal prosecutors in a 2011 indictment, one in which Bruno was not charged.
In October, Kuntz ruled that the government could play the November 3, 2009 tape recording, which is the key evidence against Bruno, at trial.
Howard SantosOn the tape, after LaBarca whispered the name "Jerry," Santos got LaBarca to state that Bruno — and not John Alite or Peter (Bud) Zuccaro, who are among those who've also been credited with the rubout — had been the gunman, according to excerpts filed by prosecutors in the case:
SANTOS: The suspects who killed Marty was Peter Zuccaro and Johnny Alite.
LABARCA: Yeah.
SANTOS: But, obviously, it was neither one of them.
LABARCA: That's, yeah.
SANTOS: The story I heard he (Bosshart) was taking a piss?
LABARCA: Yeah.
SANTOS: And Jerry just —
LABARCA: Yeah.
SANTOS: Boop. Right behind him?
LABARCA: Bup. Yeah.
The trial had been slated for next month. But earlier this month, it was put off at least until July 25, in order to permit an appeal of a Kuntz pre-trial ruling that the current case does not involve the same racketeering enterprise for which Bruno was behind bars from 2003 until 2013, and it is not barred by double jeopardy laws.
Martin BosshartBruno sent Kuntz a follow up letter last month asking that it be an addendum to court papers filed by Nooter, but the judge sealed it as defense strategy material that neither the government nor the public had a right to see.
After Bruno noted in his first letter last month that a government motion to have a second tape recording admitted into evidence "went unchallenged by my counsel," the jailed gangster derisively stated: "Of course, the government, when I say my counsel is not effective, they say that he is doing a great job. The Jets would love the Patriots if during the game all the cornerbacks stayed off the field."
Last year, when Bruno first complained that his lawyer had done a lousy job for him — spending a total of 90 minutes with him during the first 60 days as assigned counsel — prosecutors Kristin Mace and Nadia Shihata disagreed. "There is no indication that the assistance being provided by Mr. Nooter is ineffective," they wrote. They also asked Kuntz to seal the letter, which he did.
"If I had counsel that would work on the investigative issues as hard as he thinks I should waive my rights," Bruno declared, "then maybe your honor would look differently at this case."
Kristin MaceBruno also complained about being held without bail, stating that neither Nooter, nor any of his prior attorneys ever informed the Court about information he gave them that would have helped establish that he is not a danger to the community. A 2002 extortion victim still runs the same business and has not been hassled since Bruno pleaded guilty in 2003, he wrote. And in 2013, before he moved to Vegas, he lived in the same neighborhood as Alite and a second potential witness against him, Anthino Russo, and he never had even a cross word with them, or family members he ran into.
"One last thought, Your Honor," wrote Bruno. "The SDNY (Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office) indicted Martha Stewart once upon a time. Yet, with a tape that the Eastern District swears by, that the SDNY used as well, they did not indict me. Maybe my next lawyer will look into that?" We're pretty sure we know what point Bruno's trying to make about Martha Stewart, but he'd better be careful. Stewart, who thought she was smarter than her lawyers as well, was convicted.
Nooter declined to comment about the letters Bruno sent the court last month. Despite their disagreements, he told Gang Land, his client "has not asked for new counsel."
Salude!
Re: Al Trucchio
Capo Looks To Stop The Trend; Wants Out Of Jail On Bail
Alphonse TrucchioDespite a serious blunder during the FBI investigation that led to the arrests of 21 Gambinos on racketeering and drug trafficking charges, federal prosecutors have been pretty successful at keeping defendants they deem to be dangerous criminals behind bars while they await trial.
Prosecutors have been able to convince Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman that three mobsters – Anthony Moscatiello, Michael Roccaforte and Vincenzo Frogiero, and two mob associates – are dangers to the community and should be detained without bail as they await trial.
Next week, assistant U.S. attorneys Elie Honig, John Zach and Daniel Chung will try to maintain their perfect record and keep Gambino capo Alphonse Trucchio behind bars. They’ve labeled him as a dangerous career criminal who deserves no better than the violent drug-dealing underlings who allegedly “operate under his supervision and authority.”
In court papers, defense attorney Seth Ginsberg charges that prosecutors have used “sleight of hand” and misleading excerpts from tape recorded conversations that turncoat informer Howard Santos had with his client and other defendants to wrongly paint Trucchio as a vicious drug dealer.
Ginsberg says that Santos – despite numerous opportunities – never raised the issue of drug trafficking with his client. Why was that? “Obviously because he knew that Trucchio was not involved in drug trafficking, and that raising the topic would have created exculpatory, rather than inculpatory evidence,” wrote Ginsberg.
And during the few times that Santos brought up others who were involved in drug dealing, “Trucchio unequivocally stated that he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with them,” states Ginsberg , citing two specific conversations that the lawyer claims does not implicate his client in drug trafficking, but absolves him of it.
The undercover aspect of the Gambino investigation ended abruptly early last year after Trucchio spotted Santos chatting with G-Man Robert Herbster. The pair kind of stuck out: They were seated in Santos’s red BMW on Queens Blvd., a couple of blocks from the FBI’s Queens office.
Last month, Moscatiello lawyer Joseph DiBenedetto and Gang Land sources linked Santos to a deadly 2009 push-in robbery that occurred during the same time frame that Santos was wearing a wire for the FBI. During that same time period – June 17, 2009 until January 11, 2010 – he tape-recorded Trucchio and 19 codefendants.
Howard SantosYesterday, the Queens District Attorney’s office filed a 22-count indictment charging two Santos acquaintances, Vincent Mineo and Francis LaCorte, with murder and other charges for planning the robbery of pizzeria owner Romeo Antoniello at his residence, as well as two other home invasions in Queens.
At his arraignment in Queens Supreme Court, Mineo pleaded not guilty to numerous robbery and burglary counts, and the murder of Antoniello’s son Gerardo, who was killed when he came to his dad’s aid. Judge Richard Buchter ordered him held on $2.5 million bail.
LaCorte has not yet been apprehended, according to a spokeswoman for Queens DA Richard Brown. The DA’s office declined to provide any further details about the new charges.
LaCorte, one of 127 mob-connected defendants arrested by the FBI on Mafia Takedown Day, is free on bail as he awaits trial in Manhattan Federal Court for commercial burglaries of electronic equipment worth more than $1 million. Those charges are based on information that Santos gave the feds.
Alphonse TrucchioDespite a serious blunder during the FBI investigation that led to the arrests of 21 Gambinos on racketeering and drug trafficking charges, federal prosecutors have been pretty successful at keeping defendants they deem to be dangerous criminals behind bars while they await trial.
Prosecutors have been able to convince Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman that three mobsters – Anthony Moscatiello, Michael Roccaforte and Vincenzo Frogiero, and two mob associates – are dangers to the community and should be detained without bail as they await trial.
Next week, assistant U.S. attorneys Elie Honig, John Zach and Daniel Chung will try to maintain their perfect record and keep Gambino capo Alphonse Trucchio behind bars. They’ve labeled him as a dangerous career criminal who deserves no better than the violent drug-dealing underlings who allegedly “operate under his supervision and authority.”
In court papers, defense attorney Seth Ginsberg charges that prosecutors have used “sleight of hand” and misleading excerpts from tape recorded conversations that turncoat informer Howard Santos had with his client and other defendants to wrongly paint Trucchio as a vicious drug dealer.
Ginsberg says that Santos – despite numerous opportunities – never raised the issue of drug trafficking with his client. Why was that? “Obviously because he knew that Trucchio was not involved in drug trafficking, and that raising the topic would have created exculpatory, rather than inculpatory evidence,” wrote Ginsberg.
And during the few times that Santos brought up others who were involved in drug dealing, “Trucchio unequivocally stated that he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with them,” states Ginsberg , citing two specific conversations that the lawyer claims does not implicate his client in drug trafficking, but absolves him of it.
The undercover aspect of the Gambino investigation ended abruptly early last year after Trucchio spotted Santos chatting with G-Man Robert Herbster. The pair kind of stuck out: They were seated in Santos’s red BMW on Queens Blvd., a couple of blocks from the FBI’s Queens office.
Last month, Moscatiello lawyer Joseph DiBenedetto and Gang Land sources linked Santos to a deadly 2009 push-in robbery that occurred during the same time frame that Santos was wearing a wire for the FBI. During that same time period – June 17, 2009 until January 11, 2010 – he tape-recorded Trucchio and 19 codefendants.
Howard SantosYesterday, the Queens District Attorney’s office filed a 22-count indictment charging two Santos acquaintances, Vincent Mineo and Francis LaCorte, with murder and other charges for planning the robbery of pizzeria owner Romeo Antoniello at his residence, as well as two other home invasions in Queens.
At his arraignment in Queens Supreme Court, Mineo pleaded not guilty to numerous robbery and burglary counts, and the murder of Antoniello’s son Gerardo, who was killed when he came to his dad’s aid. Judge Richard Buchter ordered him held on $2.5 million bail.
LaCorte has not yet been apprehended, according to a spokeswoman for Queens DA Richard Brown. The DA’s office declined to provide any further details about the new charges.
LaCorte, one of 127 mob-connected defendants arrested by the FBI on Mafia Takedown Day, is free on bail as he awaits trial in Manhattan Federal Court for commercial burglaries of electronic equipment worth more than $1 million. Those charges are based on information that Santos gave the feds.
Salude!
Re: Al Trucchio
Sources: FBI Snitch Was In Deadly Home Invasion Gang
A Gang Land Exclusive
Howard SantosA prized mob informant whose undercover work led to the bust of 21 Gambino crime family defendants in this year’s massive Mafia takedown was part of a deadly home invasion gang at the same time he was working for the feds, sources tell Gang Land.
Howard Santos, a veteran hoodlum who spent six months wearing a wire for the FBI against his mob pals, took part in a botched push-in robbery in which the son of a popular Queens pizzeria owner was gunned down, according to sources.
Court records from the federal case against a host of Mafia big shots caught on tape by Santos show that the brutal September 9, 2009 slaying of Gerardo Antoniello, 29, occurred during a three-day lull in recordings made by the informant. The next day, September 10, the undercover gangster was back at his secret law enforcement task, snaring four defendants on tape.
Santos is also alleged to have taken part in another home invasion where an 84-year-old man later died from injuries sustained in the robbery, according to court papers filed last week by a defense attorney seeking to win bail for his client, wiseguy Anthony Moscatiello. Santos, wrote lawyer Joseph DiBenedetto, would often “type up his own search warrants” and pose as a police officer or federal agent “to gain entrance” to his victims’ homes.
The Antoniello murder is not cited by DiBenedetto, and Santos has never been charged in connection with the killing. Both the FBI and Santos’s attorney declined all comment. But sources familiar with the case tell Gang Land that Santos served as the “inside man” on the fatal Queens robbery, fingering Romeo Antoniello, owner of Romeo’s Pizza, as the pie man who would arrive home at 10 P.M. in Ozone Park with the day’s cash receipts.
According to police accounts, a duo of armed robbers jumped the elder Antoniello and pistol-whipped him to the ground on his front stoop. Gerardo, whose brother is an NYPD detective, rushed to his father’s aid and was shot in the head. He died the following morning at Jamaica Hospital.
After shooting Gerardo in the head, the robbers fled empty-handed – leaving behind a knapsack and packing tape. Three months later, police charged Rashad Cowan, 31, of the Bronx, and Jason Burrell, 38, of Brooklyn, with murder. Neither defendant is believed to have been the triggerman, however. According to an arrest complaint by Detective William Loschiavo, one of two suspects who are still at large fired the fatal shot as Burrell – the wheelman – and Cowan waited for their cohorts in a getaway car.
Lawyers for the defendants, Edward Schulman and Ken Montgomery, declined to comment when queried by Gang Land, as did the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Sources tell Gang Land that members of the robbery team, which police say included a woman, knew Santos by the street nickname, “Jay.” The sources add that Santos was involved in numerous home invasion robberies over the years, including several during the months that he wore a wire for the FBI – from June 17, 2009 to January 11, 2010. Santos was wired up for his secret undercover mission after he was charged as part of a ring that stole $1 million in electronic equipment in burglaries of 20 major outlets in New York and New Jersey, including Circuit City and Best Buy.
Alphonse TrucchioRecords in the federal case show that a day after the slaying, Santos caught four gangsters talking about their crimes, including Todd LaBarca, the lone defendant facing murder charges in the federal case. LaBarca is accused of the 2002 slaying of a family drug dealer who tried to cut a higher-ranked gangster out of his fair share of the spoils, according to prosecutors in the case.
Santos’s undercover work was cut short, as Gang Land disclosed last year, when capo Alphonse Trucchio spotted Santos and G-Man Robert Herbster sitting in the gangster’s red BMW on Queens Blvd. near the FBI’s Queens office. Before it ended, however, Santos made 700 hours of tape recordings, snaring 20 of the 21 defendants, including Trucchio and a powerful member of the family’s ruling panel, Bartolomeo (Bobby Glasses) Vernace, and four other mobsters on tape.
In court papers, defense attorney DiBenedetto has sought to paint Santos as a degenerate lacking credibility, using Santos’s own tape-recorded words as evidence. The attorney cited a boast by Santos that he set up a hidden video camera in his Howard Beach apartment to capture him and his then-girlfriend, later wife and mother of their child having sex.
In their reply, Manhattan federal prosecutors Daniel Chung, John Zach and Elie Honig slammed DiBenedetto’s claim that Santos had a role in the death of an 84-year-old man as inaccurate. The “hysterical attacks on Santos” regarding his alleged sexual exploits, they wrote, were “a transparent ploy to generate cheap tabloid headlines” that were irrelevant to the issue at hand: whether his client was a danger to the community and should be granted bail.
Bartolomeo Vernace“The fact of the matter is, Santos, like Moscatiello, has been part of the mob for many years, and has committed numerous violent crimes and drug crimes,” the prosecutors wrote. The informer’s crimes began, they said, when he was under the wing of accused Gambino consigliere Joseph (JoJo) Corozzo, the lead defendant in the racketeering indictment, and continued later after he was under Trucchio.
Asked whether they were aware of allegations that Santos had been involved in the robbery attempt of pizzeria owner Romeo Antoniello that ended in his son’s death, prosecutors declined to comment. Frank Handelman, an attorney for Santos, did not respond to requests for comment.
A Gang Land Exclusive
Howard SantosA prized mob informant whose undercover work led to the bust of 21 Gambino crime family defendants in this year’s massive Mafia takedown was part of a deadly home invasion gang at the same time he was working for the feds, sources tell Gang Land.
Howard Santos, a veteran hoodlum who spent six months wearing a wire for the FBI against his mob pals, took part in a botched push-in robbery in which the son of a popular Queens pizzeria owner was gunned down, according to sources.
Court records from the federal case against a host of Mafia big shots caught on tape by Santos show that the brutal September 9, 2009 slaying of Gerardo Antoniello, 29, occurred during a three-day lull in recordings made by the informant. The next day, September 10, the undercover gangster was back at his secret law enforcement task, snaring four defendants on tape.
Santos is also alleged to have taken part in another home invasion where an 84-year-old man later died from injuries sustained in the robbery, according to court papers filed last week by a defense attorney seeking to win bail for his client, wiseguy Anthony Moscatiello. Santos, wrote lawyer Joseph DiBenedetto, would often “type up his own search warrants” and pose as a police officer or federal agent “to gain entrance” to his victims’ homes.
The Antoniello murder is not cited by DiBenedetto, and Santos has never been charged in connection with the killing. Both the FBI and Santos’s attorney declined all comment. But sources familiar with the case tell Gang Land that Santos served as the “inside man” on the fatal Queens robbery, fingering Romeo Antoniello, owner of Romeo’s Pizza, as the pie man who would arrive home at 10 P.M. in Ozone Park with the day’s cash receipts.
According to police accounts, a duo of armed robbers jumped the elder Antoniello and pistol-whipped him to the ground on his front stoop. Gerardo, whose brother is an NYPD detective, rushed to his father’s aid and was shot in the head. He died the following morning at Jamaica Hospital.
After shooting Gerardo in the head, the robbers fled empty-handed – leaving behind a knapsack and packing tape. Three months later, police charged Rashad Cowan, 31, of the Bronx, and Jason Burrell, 38, of Brooklyn, with murder. Neither defendant is believed to have been the triggerman, however. According to an arrest complaint by Detective William Loschiavo, one of two suspects who are still at large fired the fatal shot as Burrell – the wheelman – and Cowan waited for their cohorts in a getaway car.
Lawyers for the defendants, Edward Schulman and Ken Montgomery, declined to comment when queried by Gang Land, as did the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Sources tell Gang Land that members of the robbery team, which police say included a woman, knew Santos by the street nickname, “Jay.” The sources add that Santos was involved in numerous home invasion robberies over the years, including several during the months that he wore a wire for the FBI – from June 17, 2009 to January 11, 2010. Santos was wired up for his secret undercover mission after he was charged as part of a ring that stole $1 million in electronic equipment in burglaries of 20 major outlets in New York and New Jersey, including Circuit City and Best Buy.
Alphonse TrucchioRecords in the federal case show that a day after the slaying, Santos caught four gangsters talking about their crimes, including Todd LaBarca, the lone defendant facing murder charges in the federal case. LaBarca is accused of the 2002 slaying of a family drug dealer who tried to cut a higher-ranked gangster out of his fair share of the spoils, according to prosecutors in the case.
Santos’s undercover work was cut short, as Gang Land disclosed last year, when capo Alphonse Trucchio spotted Santos and G-Man Robert Herbster sitting in the gangster’s red BMW on Queens Blvd. near the FBI’s Queens office. Before it ended, however, Santos made 700 hours of tape recordings, snaring 20 of the 21 defendants, including Trucchio and a powerful member of the family’s ruling panel, Bartolomeo (Bobby Glasses) Vernace, and four other mobsters on tape.
In court papers, defense attorney DiBenedetto has sought to paint Santos as a degenerate lacking credibility, using Santos’s own tape-recorded words as evidence. The attorney cited a boast by Santos that he set up a hidden video camera in his Howard Beach apartment to capture him and his then-girlfriend, later wife and mother of their child having sex.
In their reply, Manhattan federal prosecutors Daniel Chung, John Zach and Elie Honig slammed DiBenedetto’s claim that Santos had a role in the death of an 84-year-old man as inaccurate. The “hysterical attacks on Santos” regarding his alleged sexual exploits, they wrote, were “a transparent ploy to generate cheap tabloid headlines” that were irrelevant to the issue at hand: whether his client was a danger to the community and should be granted bail.
Bartolomeo Vernace“The fact of the matter is, Santos, like Moscatiello, has been part of the mob for many years, and has committed numerous violent crimes and drug crimes,” the prosecutors wrote. The informer’s crimes began, they said, when he was under the wing of accused Gambino consigliere Joseph (JoJo) Corozzo, the lead defendant in the racketeering indictment, and continued later after he was under Trucchio.
Asked whether they were aware of allegations that Santos had been involved in the robbery attempt of pizzeria owner Romeo Antoniello that ended in his son’s death, prosecutors declined to comment. Frank Handelman, an attorney for Santos, did not respond to requests for comment.
Salude!
-
joeycigars
- Sergeant Of Arms
- Posts: 539
- Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:56 am
Re: Al Trucchio
The only other hit that really rivals Father son hit of Nicky Cirillos in my memory is the Joseph "Chickie" Ciancaglini might have oked his sons hit , I still cant wrap my head around that eitherRocco wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:55 amAs far as I know is was a Bonanno saying the Genovese said that. ..Pogo The Clown wrote: ↑Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:10 pm So why would the Genovese tell the Bonannos on two separate occasions that they know they (the Bonannos) had nothing to do with the murder? That is all but admitting that they (the Genovese) were responsible.
Pogo
Re: Al Trucchio
Great stuff Cheech. Looks like the Trucchio crew was into some really blue collar stuff considering the time.
I really wish Hootie wasn’t a drug addict and could go into the crew more coherently. Looks like they had more going than the Philly guys selling heroin at 70 yrs old
I really wish Hootie wasn’t a drug addict and could go into the crew more coherently. Looks like they had more going than the Philly guys selling heroin at 70 yrs old
Re: Al Trucchio
youre welcome
another thing about Trucchio. if you go back to the Philly dinner he knows exactly whats going on down there.
@B. if I recall he had 302s on some philly guys, right? and he asked how Beeps was doing. IIRC
another thing about Trucchio. if you go back to the Philly dinner he knows exactly whats going on down there.
@B. if I recall he had 302s on some philly guys, right? and he asked how Beeps was doing. IIRC
Salude!
-
SonnyBlackstein
- Filthy Few
- Posts: 7563
- Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2014 2:21 am
Re: Al Trucchio
Trucchio has been on the streets since Feb last year.
Don't give me your f***ing Manson lamps.
Re: Al Trucchio
viewtopic.php?p=138523#p138523
In the Stefanelli transcripts Trucchio mentions wanting to be re-introduced to Eric Esposito because he was recently made. Trucchio and other Gambino members went to Esposito's wedding in 2007; Esposito married a Corozzo daughter.
Trucchio is the one who first brings up "Beeps" Centorino, asking how he's doing. Trucchio is also the one who first brings up Centorino being broke, which Licata confirms. Licata jokes about running a "benefit" for him and talks about how Nick Stefanelli has known Centorino a lot of years and brought him a lot of "scores". Stefanelli claims, "I made him rich!"
In the Stefanelli transcripts Trucchio mentions wanting to be re-introduced to Eric Esposito because he was recently made. Trucchio and other Gambino members went to Esposito's wedding in 2007; Esposito married a Corozzo daughter.
Trucchio is the one who first brings up "Beeps" Centorino, asking how he's doing. Trucchio is also the one who first brings up Centorino being broke, which Licata confirms. Licata jokes about running a "benefit" for him and talks about how Nick Stefanelli has known Centorino a lot of years and brought him a lot of "scores". Stefanelli claims, "I made him rich!"
Re: Al Trucchio
Sounds like Beeps had money..He just didn't want to kick up anymore..wanted to retire perhaps. He was up there in age. He passed away.
Re: Al Trucchio
Ya someone recently posted a picture of that broke guy beeps house its like something those chicks on real housewives would live in. He died recently I think probably with a million under the mattress
-
Pogo The Clown
- Men Of Mayhem
- Posts: 14146
- Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2014 7:02 am
Re: Al Trucchio
He was selling cakes out of the trunk of his car during his old age so how much money could he have actually had by then!
Pogo
Pogo
It's a new morning in America... fresh, vital. The old cynicism is gone. We have faith in our leaders. We're optimistic as to what becomes of it all. It really boils down to our ability to accept. We don't need pessimism. There are no limits.
-
Amershire_Ed
- Full Patched
- Posts: 1030
- Joined: Sun Jul 21, 2019 4:20 pm
Re: Al Trucchio
Yeah seriously if Hootie wasn’t such an addict and mess he would be able to provide some valuable insight about the crew and their on-goings. But his addiction and behavior have essentially made him an uncredible source, even if he does know a shit ton of info on all the players involved.Dave65827 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:43 am Great stuff Cheech. Looks like the Trucchio crew was into some really blue collar stuff considering the time.
I really wish Hootie wasn’t a drug addict and could go into the crew more coherently. Looks like they had more going than the Philly guys selling heroin at 70 yrs old