Gangland - 10/11/18

[Chucky]

This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Pill-Popping Podiatrist Popped In Prescription Pain Pill Plot

A Brooklyn podiatrist teamed up with a pair of gangsters from rival crime families in a "sophisticated scheme" that illegally distributed at least 270,000 oxycodone pills in Brooklyn and Staten Island for two years, Gang Land has learned. The drug-peddling trio, who are all in their 50s, were also indulging in their own product, a popular pain killer drug that has been linked to thousands of deaths in the U.S. each year.

Cops got wind of the massive scheme in the winter of 2011, sources say, but it took the law about a year and a half to shutter a major piece of the mob-linked scheme and lock up the podiatrist, Enrico Caprioni. And it took four more years for the FBI to arrest the foot and pill doctor's partners — Luchese mobster Anthony Grado and Colombo associate Lawrence (Fat Larry) Tranese.

Based on dozens of state and federal court documents, and interviews with several knowledgeable sources, Gang Land's got the inside story on how the pill pushers were brought to justice following separate investigations by the NYPD, the FBI, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, and state prosecutors in Manhattan and Staten Island.

Caprioni, 52, was arrested by an NYPD undercover cop who was wired up and working for the city's Manhattan-based Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office on April 10, 2013. He was charged with selling 19 prescriptions for 150 oxycodone pills between January 23 and the day of his arrest. They also charged him with selling heroin to the cop in February of 2013.

Remanded without bail, Caprioni copped a plea deal calling for up to three and half years in prison in December of 2013. As part of the deal worked out by his Manhattan lawyer, Daniel Gotlin, and narcotics prosecutor Jeffrey Linehan, Caprioni voluntarily surrendered his medical license that same month. He served 29 months behind bars and was released in September of 2015.

Court records indicate that the Staten Island District Attorney's office, which tapped Caprioni's telephone from April 30, 2012 until February 28, 2013, forwarded info about the illegal activity to the city's drug prosecutors. They conducted a separate undercover probe that did not alert Grado, Tranese, and other mob associates that Caprioni's phones had been tapped.

At the same time, the records indicate, the DA's office forwarded the wiretapped talks to the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office. Since the illegal distribution of oxycodone had essentially ended with Capriani's arrest, that gave the feds more time to bring federal charges, which carry much stiffer prison terms upon conviction.

Grado, 56, and Tranese, 54, were arrested by the FBI last year on federal drug charges for distributing the dangerous semi-synthetic opioid, which is still widely used by residents of the city and surrounding suburbs. The duo is set for sentencing by Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Carol Amon next month.

In their sentencing memo, federal prosecutors say Grado, the government's main target in the case, is a violence-prone Canarsie-based mobster who was tape-recorded leveling several threats against Caprioni while overseeing the distribution of "large quantities" of the killer drug "that has been ravaging communities around the country" in recent years. In asking Amon to impose a prison term "in excess of 15 years," the prosecutors noted that "deaths from prescription opioids," including oxycodone "have more than quintupled since 1999" and "were involved in 42,249 deaths in 2016" nationwide.

Staten Island, where his scheme operated, "has been hit particularly hit by the opioid epidemic," they wrote, noting that in 2016, there were 116 opioid overdose deaths, "a staggering growth of 68 percent."

Prosecutors are seeking a much longer stretch for Grado than Caprioni received, but in their filing, they note that the term they're seeking is a lot less than the 30 years called for by his sentencing guidelines, or the statutory maximum of 20 years he faces according to the plea agreement he signed.

Grado's lawyer, Jeremy Iandolo, blamed Caprioni for his client's predicament. He wrote that eight years in prison was sufficient to punish Grado and deter others. The lawyer wrote that Grado has had a long history with "his drug of choice: pain killers," but was sober when he first met Caprioni, observed that "the doctor was an addict," and tried to help him.

Unfortunately, the lawyer wrote, "Anthony's attempts to intervene were futile and commenced his own demise."

But since his arrest and detention a year ago, Iandolo wrote, "his mind has become clear." His client is "furious and disgusted with his actions and poor choices" he made after he met Caprioni, and has "participated in a rehabilitation program. Grado pledged to "change his path and previous methodology" when he completes whatever sentence he receives.

In the government memo, prosecutors Mathew Miller and Matthew Jacobs counter that after hooking up with Caprioni in the winter of 2011, Grado acted like the mobster he's been for decades. He confiscated the doctor's prescription pads, "rented and renovated an office" in the Mill Basin section of Brooklyn for Caprioni, and told him in a taped conversation he would "feed (him) to the fucking lions" if he dared to write any scripts without Grado's permission, the prosecutors wrote.

The gangster also threatened Caprioni with a gun, and warned him not to let a batch of new prescription pads "go into anybody's hands" other than his, or else, "I'll put a bullet right in your head," Grado told him in a taped conversation, the prosecutors wrote.

The wiseguy never carried out that threat, but prosecutors allege that after Grado "learned that the doctor had tried to hide newly ordered prescription pads from" him, an unidentified relative of the mobster "stabbed the doctor" while Grado confronted Caprioni about the prescription pads in the Mill Basin office that the mobster had set up for him.

And when the wiseguy got into a "dispute" with Fat Larry Tranese over "control over the doctor's prescription pads," Grado called "for a 'sit down' where more senior members of the Luchese and Colombo families resolved the dispute in his favor," Miller and Jacobs wrote.

The prosecutors aren't the only lawyers who have told Judge Amon that Grado is an inducted Luchese mobster and was the major player in the mob-linked scheme. In a court filing, Tranese's lawyer, Arthur Aidala, also asserts that his client was a "minor player." The frequent Fox TV legal analyst fingered Grado as the chief culprit, alleging that he had "total control" over the oxycodone distribution scheme.

In arguing for a "much lesser sentence" than the 78-to-97 months called for in Fat Larry's plea agreement, Aidala wrote that Tranese had no organized crime ties, and had gotten involved in the illegal "overreaching scheme" overseen by Grado only after he used Caprioni to treat him for "extreme pain in his feet" and had introduced the doctor to the mobster.

"Unlike Larry," who had no convictions until this case, "Grado is a known soldier in the Luchese crime family who has seven misdemeanor convictions, one felony state court conviction as well as a conviction in federal court," wrote Aidala.

Once Tranese introduced his podiatrist friend, who had undergone a messy divorce and rented an apartment in his client's home, to Grado, their "relationship turned toxic and Grado and (Caprioni) began doing drugs, attending late night parties, gambling, and eventually selling drugs," the lawyer wrote.

And in the same conversation that Grado threatened to shoot Caprioni in the head, the mobster also threatened to "put a bullet in the head of Larry," wrote Aidala, citing discovery material that had been compiled by the Staten Island DA's office during its investigation that had been turned over to the defense.

While Tranese knows "hundreds of people" from his Bensonhurst, Brooklyn neighborhood who are involved with the mob, Aidala wrote that his client had resisted "endless" chances to go that way and had "never engaged in those activities."

The lawyer conceded that Tranese was a lifelong pal of Colombo mobster Emanuel (Manny) Favuzza, whose families see each other on weekends and have "vacationed together." But "Larry's association with him never crossed into" any "bookmaking and other illegal activity" with his friend Manny, Aidala wrote.

Prosecutors claim, however, that Favuzza was the Colombo wiseguy who "sat down" with the Lucheses over the prescription pad dispute that Fat Larry was having with Grado when Tranzese "called upon his close friend, a member of the Colombo family to resolve a dispute related to the conspiracy. He is an associate of organized crime."

And even if he wasn't, the prosecutors wrote, Fat Larry was a full-fledged member of the scheme deserving of a prison term between six and half and eight years, pointing to a taped talk that Fat Larry had with Carpioni on June 16, 2012 when one of Tranese's customers was unable to get his prescription filled at his drug store and asked the doctor for one in Mill Basin.

"My friend went for that fucking wine, and they sold out," said Tranese, using code for the oxy prescription that seemed to go over the foot doctor's head. "Is there any other place he can get that wine? You said something about Mill Basin?"
"Yeah," said Caprioni, stating it was "on the corner" of 58th Street and Avenue T, before making perfectly clear, to Fat Larry's chagrin, what kind of store his "friend" was looking for.

EC: It's called Mill Basin Pharmacy.
LT: Mill Basin Liquor Store?
EC: Pharmacy.
LT: Liquor Store.
EC: Yeah.

Top Luchese Gangster Gets Judge To Answer An 18-Month-Old Gang Land Question

A Federal judge in White Plains has resolved a couple of minor mysteries involving the prosecution of Luchese gangsters charged with the 2013 murder of former Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish.

And Gang Land can easily answer another.

But first, the judge:In a memo, Judge Cathy Seibel finally explained what Gang Land called a "mysterious judge switch" from fellow White Plains Federal Judge Nelson Roman to her last year in the case against Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea and an assortment of other Luchese gangsters.

"Judge Roman had a personal reason for reassigning the case, and I volunteered to take it because I like to be able to help out a colleague" Judge Seibel wrote last week in response to a motion by Crea that seeks her recusal from presiding over the Murder case that now has five defendants, including the longtime Luchese underboss.

"My calendar was under reasonably good control, and I find it satisfying to work on a well-lawyered criminal case, and suspected (correctly) that this would be one," Seibel wrote regarding a motion that Crea's lawyer Robert Franklin filed last month in which he asked the judge to bow out of the case, which is set for trial in March.

The judge's explanation about the transfer of the case, which at the time had only two defendants, Luchese soldier Christopher Londonio and mob associate Terrence Caldwell, is an attempt to put "to rest" whether the previously unexplained reassignment was the result of a judge "shopping" move by prosecutors in the case — one of several issues raised by Franklin.

"The parties (the U.S. Attorney's office and the defense lawyers) were not involved, and in my experience reassignments frequently occur without the parties being informed as to why or how," the judge wrote in a four-page interim ruling in the still pending recusal motion.

To end a second issue raised by Franklin, the judge attached two pages of previously undisclosed ex parte emails that began in July when Seibel asked prosecutors to check whether there was "any overlap at all" between the Crea case and one she worked on briefly involving Luchese wiseguy Anthony (Bowat) Baratta in 1991, before leaving the office's organized crime unit.

In the first email, Seibel told prosecutors she recalled "basically nothing" about it but if any defendant in the current case "was a subject or target of the investigation I was on, I would at least have to disclose, if not recuse" and asked them essentially to "figure out" if there was any "connection between that old case and this one."

After prosecutors replied that they found "FBI intelligence and surveillance reports" mentioning "criminal activity" by Crea but "no indications" that he was a target or subject of the investigation of Baratta, Seibel decided there was no reason to recuse herself but asked the defense whether it agreed.

Franklin did not. Noting that Crea and Baratta were pictured side by side and identified as "acting consigliere" and "acting underboss" in a government exhibit in a 1991 case, the lawyer argued that she should recuse herself because "a reasonable person" might believe that she would remember that and question whether the judge could remain impartial during the trial.

None of that convinced prosecutors that the judge should recuse herself. But in her ruling last week, Seibel kept the overall recusal issue alive for at least a few more weeks, in response to another filing by Franklin, who noted that in 1991 former acting Luchese boss Alfonso (Little Al) D'Arco had alleged "criminal activity" by Baratta and Crea in interviews with the FBI.

The judge ordered prosecutors to determine whether any "FBI 302s memorializing Al D'Arco's proffers about Crea's involvement in the charged enterprise" that are in the 49 boxes of the Baratta case file were dated prior to June, 1991, when Seibel left the office's organized crime unit.

There's no mystery about that. As Tom Robbins and yours truly reported in Mob Boss: The Life of Little Al D'Arco, The Man Who Brought Down the Mafia, Little Al didn't begin talking to the FBI until he spoke to G-man Robert Marston on a Saturday night in late September of 1991.

"I think maybe you are someone I can talk to," D'Arco told the agent, the beginning of priceless conversations about Mafia activity and lore that has continued for decades.

Ask Andy: Great Escapes; Mafia Style

Houdini, the world famous magician, was able to shed handcuffs, get out of sealed containers full of water, and straitjackets while dangling high above the street by developing and fine tuning his skills to become an amazing escape artist. There have been quite a few death defying escapes by wiseguys over the years, which were essentially the result of dumb luck.

When Ken Eto, who oversaw the Chicago Outfit's gambling operations was convicted by the feds, his capo, Vincent Solano, feared Eto might roll over despite the gambler's assurance he wouldn't.

On February 10, 1983, as Eto drove himself to a meeting with two mob associates, one of them, John Gattuso, an active deputy sheriff, pumped three bullets into the back of Eto's head. Gattuso and his cohort assumed Eto was a goner, and fled without making sure he was dead. That was the first of two very bad mistakes they made.

Eto called 911, was rushed to the hospital, and quickly negotiated a deal with the feds, who put him into the Witness Security Program. Gattuso and his accomplice were quickly arrested, and made their second boner, rejecting Federal protection, and go out on bail. Their bodies were found in the trunk of a car on July 14, 1983. This time the Chicago hitmen didn't make a mistake. They were never caught.

Eto testified in numerous trials, helped convict about 15 Outfit gangsters. He died in 2004.

On October 31, 1984, Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., whose imprisoned father, Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo, was using him as a messenger in an effort to maintain control of the Philadelphia crime family, was shot eight times by a masked gunman as he dined at Dante and Luigi's in South Philadelphia. But young Scarfo survived when none of his vital organs were touched. Within a short period of time, he was released from the hospital and went into hiding.

Mob turncoats Tommy (Horsehead) Scafidi and former boss Ralph Natale both fingered Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, who'd been nursing a grudge against the Scarfos ever since Little Nicky had demoted his father and uncle despite decades of close friendship, as the shooter. Merlino has never been charged with the shooting, and has denied any involvement in it.

To protect him from further violence by his Philadelphia enemies, Little Nicky used a friendship with Mafia boss Vittorio (Vic) Amuso to get his son inducted into the Luchese family.

No one tried to whack Scarfo Jr. over the next three decades, and he was doing pretty well for himself until the bottom fell out of a $12 million fraud he engineered over a Texas mortgage lending company. He was indicted and convicted and sentenced to 30 years in 2015. He is scheduled for release in December of 2037 unless he is able to pull a Houdini act of his own.

On June 17, 1976, Faust Novino, who had killed the son of a veteran Buffalo mobster, was lured to a darkened building by a gangster who supposedly was interested in obtaining burglary tools from him.

Once he got inside, Novino started noticing shadows. He turned, spotted a big man approaching him with something in his hand, pulled out his .45 and blasted a shot into the attacker. Sensing problems from behind him, Novino quickly turned and fired a shot in that direction. Then he turned once again and fired another round into the initial attacker, who collapsed on the floor.

At this point, Novino noticed two other shadowy figures and ran towards the back door. He encountered another hit man, and when he placed his gun into the man's chest, there was a misfire. The hit man missed Novino and he escaped out the rear without a scratch on him.

This miraculous escape wouldn't have created too much interest but once the FBI learned that some senior members of the Buffalo family took part in the botched rubout, they sought out Novino and tried to flip him. But they had no success in getting him to cooperate — for 16 years.

In 1992, when Novino was busted for drug dealing, the FBI got him to finally make a deal. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of the mafia son, and also admitted to dealing in cocaine. He named four members of the hit team who tried to kill him but was unable to identify the fifth suspect, a mobster named Vincent (Jimmy) Sicurella, whose identity the FBI had learned, and who had been a major target of theirs for years.

But the statute of limitations had passed and there was no way to charge anyone with the crime. But prosecutors questioned Sicurella about the shooting before a grand jury. He denied any involvement, was indicted for perjury, convicted, and sentenced to 51 months. The FBI had obtained other evidence tying him to the shooting, and for good measure, the feds had Novino testify about the 1976 attempt on his life, without naming Sicurella.

About 10 years after Nicky Scarfo Jr. survived a rubout attempt, an up and coming Philadelphia gangster, John Veasey, also survived a hit in the city of brotherly love, this one ordered by then boss John Stanfa.

It happened on January 14, 1994, when Veasey was lured to a second story apartment, where Vincent (Al Pajamas) Pagano fired three shots into his head and another in his back. Instead of going down, Veasey stood up, fought his way out of the apartment, and escaped.

Not surprisingly, Veasey rolled over on his former mob pals, testified against Pagano and others who were convicted of attempted murder and other crimes. In 2012, Veasey was the focal point of an intriguing book about his life by Ralph Cipriano and Dave Schratwieser, The Hit Man: A True Story of Murder, Redemption and the Melrose Diner.

[Adam]

Alliterative article titles rank right at the bottom of professional journalism. Just my two cents.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Alliterative article titles rank right at the bottom of professional journalism. Just my two cents.

+1.

Speaking of ‘journalism’, the biggest mob hit in a decade occurs and instead we get a fucking ‘ask andy’.
Talk about priorities.

Gangland’news’. I do love ironical terms.

Thanks for posting Chuck.

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

Some new faces from article 1.
Thought some might want to see them.

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

[PaddyWhack]

Wasn’t Anthony Grado connected to Carmine Carini who was found wrapped in tarps and cinder blocks?

[SonnyBlackstein]

Thanks SP

[Hailbritain]

Cheers for posting . Been looking for a photo of favuzza for a while

[Ivan]

we get a fucking ‘ask andy’.

Andy got the date of Scarfo Jr.'s shooting wrong (it was 1989, not 1984) and the shooter in the failed Veasey hit (it was Martines, not Pagano) wrong in the same column.

[SonnyBlackstein]

we get a fucking ‘ask andy’.

Andy got the date of Scarfo Jr.'s shooting wrong (it was 1989, not 1984) and the shooter in the failed Veasey hit (it was Martines, not Pagano) wrong in the same column.

Fucking salt in the wound!

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

we get a fucking ‘ask andy’.

Andy got the date of Scarfo Jr.'s shooting wrong (it was 1989, not 1984) and the shooter in the failed Veasey hit (it was Martines, not Pagano) wrong in the same column.

IIRC, there were three men besides Veasey in the room when they shot him, at least two.
They went upstairs under the auspices to 'show him how to do bookmaking'. Veasey said when he walked
in the room he saw plastic sheeting up and knew something was wrong. Martines had the gun, Veasey
fought his way out of the room.

[Ivan]

IIRC, there were three men besides Veasey in the room when they shot him, at least two.
They went upstairs under the auspices to 'show him how to do bookmaking'. Veasey said when he walked
in the room he saw plastic sheeting up and knew something was wrong. Martines had the gun, Veasey
fought his way out of the room.

It was just Martines and Pagano with Veasey. Martines had the gun, and Pagano had a knife.

If memory serves it was an apartment above Anthony "Tony Meats" Ferrante's butcher shop, but don't hold me to that.

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

IIRC, there were three men besides Veasey in the room when they shot him, at least two.
They went upstairs under the auspices to 'show him how to do bookmaking'. Veasey said when he walked
in the room he saw plastic sheeting up and knew something was wrong. Martines had the gun, Veasey
fought his way out of the room.

It was just Martines and Pagano with Veasey. Martines had the gun, and Pagano had a knife.

If memory serves it was an apartment above Anthony "Tony Meats" Ferrante's butcher shop, but don't hold me to that.

That's it. I remember Veasey talking
about avoiding the knife also.

[gohnjotti]

Some background on Emanuele Favuzza in case anyone was wondering:
Was involved in loansharking in the 1990s with associate Giuseppe ‘Pooch’ DeStefano, who also worked with fellow Colombo members Danny Capaldo, Larry Sessa, Anthony Russo, etc.
Was inducted on Feb. 1, 2009.
His home was slated to be used for an induction ceremony on Dec. 7, 2010, until the ceremony was cancelled due to law enforcement pressure.
Indicted in Jan. 2011 with charges including racketeering, loansharking, and gun possession. Was released from prison in 2016.

[savior]

Some background on Emanuele Favuzza in case anyone was wondering:
Was involved in loansharking in the 1990s with associate Giuseppe ‘Pooch’ DeStefano, who also worked with fellow Colombo members Danny Capaldo, Larry Sessa, Anthony Russo, etc.
Was inducted on Feb. 1, 2009.
His home was slated to be used for an induction ceremony on Dec. 7, 2010, until the ceremony was cancelled due to law enforcement pressure.
Indicted in Jan. 2011 with charges including racketeering, loansharking, and gun possession. Was released from prison in 2016.

I think that his son is also involved...

https://www.silive.com/news/2013/12/pil ... ath_a.html