Dec. 2010 - How the FBI Crashed an Attempted Colombo Resurgence

[gohnjotti]

December 7, 2010, was supposed to be a sacred date for the Colombo crime family. It was on that Tuesday that New York's smallest crime clan was scheduled to hold a ceremony to induct four new members into its ranks.

The Borgata was in desperate need of new blood. Over the past few decades, they had been thumped by federal prosecutions and were still reeling from an internecine civil war during the early 1990s. In March 2010, septuagenerian Andrew ‘Andy Mush’ Russo was promoted to the position of “street boss,” and prosecutors alleged that his “primary focus was one-dimensional: putting back together the Colombo crime family.” Read Russo’s full biography here. Recruitment was vital to rebuilding the organization, and prosecutors have specifically referred to the impending December ceremony “as part of the Colombo family’s efforts to rebuild its membership.”

Over the course of 2010, the FBI used three main informants on the street to learn exactly who was going to be inducted, and ended up learning when and where the ceremony was going to take place. Acting Capo Anthony Russo was tape-recorded by one of these informers laying out the rules on exactly what the family’s new street boss was looking for in his inductees:
”First, he’s gotta be capable in here,” Anthony said, pointing to his head.
”And he’s gotta be capable to do this,” motioning his hand like a gun.
”They gotta be capable to do time,” referring to incarceration.
”They gotta be capable of everything,” concluded Anthony.

In fact, in a Brooklyn courtroom, Anthony Russo later elaborated on the two types of people that could become members of the Mafia, after Russo cut a deal with the government and agreed to testify;
”There’s earners, there’s tough guys, guys that, you know, break legs and stuff like that.”

The four proposed members each came from different backgrounds, and each had a different skillset to bring to the table. Ilario' Fat Larry' Sessa, 43, was the definition of a “tough guy.” He had both fired and taken bullets for the Borgata and had gained a reputation for being one of the family's most effective debt collectors. Little Angelo Spata, 35, wasn't such a feared figure but was an extraordinary “earner.” With a net worth of $2 million, Spata’s income came through various extortion, gambling, and loansharking rackets. Francis 'BF' Guerra, 44, had a bit of “tough guy” to him and a bit of “earner” as well. He allegedly committed high-profile hits for his close pal, onetime acting boss Allie Persico, and had proved himself time-and-time again to be a "stand-up guy." Throughout Guerra’s career, he had been a top-level drug dealer, dutifully kicking up a cut to his Colombo family higher-ups. While there's scant information about the fourth inductee, a man known only as Phil, some people have suggested that he may be part of the Fusco family, whose members have long been close to imprisoned-for-life boss Carmine ‘Junior' Persico.

I have spent the past few weeks meticulously combing through court records to write biographies on the three known inductees - Guerra, Sessa & Spata. Each biography will feature information gleaned from court documents that have never been released to the public.

The youngest of the proposed inductees may not have garnered much of a "tough guy" image in the Mafia, but by 2010 the 36-year-old had the privilege of being close to influential people in high places. His father-in-law was the family's boss for the past thirty years, Carmine "Junior" Persico, and as such, Spata had special permission to meet the 76-year-old godfather at his prison digs in Butner, North Carolina. Beginning in the 21st century, Spata became one of the go-to guys to pass along messages from Persico to the rest of the family. Even though Junior had been behind bars since 1985, the organization was still under his command.

Spata networked his marital status by becoming a close personal assistant of Carmine Persico's loyal acting boss, the murderous Tommy Gioeli, during the 2000s. Testimony from mob turncoats indicates that Spata organized meetings and made calls for the elusive street boss until a grand-slam indictment from 2008 charged Gioeli with multiple homicides. By this time, Little Angelo was bringing home the bacon by running an illegal gambling club, various Joker-Poker machines, and a loansharking operation. His primary illicit income came from his control over various Italian feasts, one of which was the annual Figli di Santa Rosalia, held in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. The event was a Mafia cash cow, and Spata represented the Colombo family's significant interests as both he and his father had operated booths there for years. Each vendor at the feast was forced to give Little Angelo up to $2500 under-the-table for the right to work, and Spata leveraged his front company, Toy Store Amusements, to hook up dodgy rigged gaming machines.

Like a lot of Brooklynite gangsters, Spata's mob ties didn't begin with the Colombos. His father, Angelo Spata Sr., was with the Gambino family back in the 1980s, according to an exclusive Cosa Nostra News interview with turncoat gangster Michael 'Mikey Scars' DiLeonardo. Exclusive court documents obtained by thecolombomafia.com also allege that Spata Sr. was later proposed for induction into the Colombo family too, before his son. As noted by Cosa Nostra News, the elder Spata's claim to fame was less his organized crime ties, and more so the successful sausage-and-peppers stand he ran at just about "every feast" in New York City.

Read Spata's full biography here.

[slimshady_007]

Nice job as always

[maxiestern11]

Very enjoyable Gohn

[Pogo The Clown]

[don-shunter]

Haha it's been a long time since that made an appearance

[Rat]

Gohn, I'm sorry if this has already been asked/derails the thread but why the special interest in the Colombo's? What interests you in particular about them the most. Also great website.

[gohnjotti]

Gohn, I'm sorry if this has already been asked/derails the thread but why the special interest in the Colombo's? What interests you in particular about them the most. Also great website.

I’m the type of guy who hops from interest to interest. I was really interested in the Bonannos for a while, and I think I was reading up about the Bronx Bonannos which led me onto the Bronx Genoveses which led me onto the Brooklyn Genoveses which somehow led me onto the Brooklyn Colombos and I kind of just settled down there. Who knows, next week I might be fully invested in the Luccheses some shit .

[gohnjotti]

Also, I just want to note how interesting it is to me that prosecutors state multiple times in court papers that the Colombos were attempting to “rebuild” or “revitalise” or whatever, implying that the family was at a serious low at some point and was trying to come back. That came as news to me when I first read it. I don’t believe the FBI has ever explicitly referred to an attempted Mafia rebuild before but correct me if I’m wrong.

[MichaelGiovanni]

Gohn, I'm sorry if this has already been asked/derails the thread but why the special interest in the Colombo's? What interests you in particular about them the most. Also great website.

I’m the type of guy who hops from interest to interest. I was really interested in the Bonannos for a while, and I think I was reading up about the Bronx Bonannos which led me onto the Bronx Genoveses which led me onto the Brooklyn Genoveses which somehow led me onto the Brooklyn Colombos and I kind of just settled down there. Who knows, next week I might be fully invested in the Luccheses some shit .

I would love to read some of your write ups of the Genovese

[bert]

Also, I just want to note how interesting it is to me that prosecutors state multiple times in court papers that the Colombos were attempting to “rebuild” or “revitalise” or whatever, implying that the family was at a serious low at some point and was trying to come back. That came as news to me when I first read it. I don’t believe the FBI has ever explicitly referred to an attempted Mafia rebuild before but correct me if I’m wrong.

Over the years they have had reporters and newsmen do stories where they say the Mafia is down and almost out, or trying to regroup. In the early days of Nicholas Pilleggi's writings he was doing those types of stories, but he would follow it up with a story a few months later of how they were coming back. He wasn't the only one. There was one story line that popped up in the 1970's about how the families were all falling apart, and that Carlo Gambino was going to combine all the families into one under him, I think it ran in the New York Times. It's like a television series, the characters are riding high, then the plot turns and they are in trouble, then they come back. It's a way they keep the public interested.

[Stroccos]

Also, I just want to note how interesting it is to me that prosecutors state multiple times in court papers that the Colombos were attempting to “rebuild” or “revitalise” or whatever, implying that the family was at a serious low at some point and was trying to come back. That came as news to me when I first read it. I don’t believe the FBI has ever explicitly referred to an attempted Mafia rebuild before but correct me if I’m wrong.

They said the same thing about the Cleveland mob in the 95 bank fraud case of Joey Loose. one quote "who FBI agents say has tried to reorganize the Cleveland mob family, pleaded guilty Friday to a federal conspiracy charge expected to send him back to prison for at least two years."

[gohnjotti]

Part Two is up. This part covers the career of Ilario ‘Fat Larry’ Sessa, a 450 pound mob associate who made his bones during the early 1990s as an active underling of Greg Scarpa in the Third Colombo War. Sessa served eleven years in prison for his crimes and immediately hopped back into the world of organized crime in the mid-to-late 2000s, working as muscle for various bigwig Colombos, including capo Dennis DeLucia, acting capo Anthony Russo, and soldier DIno Saracino.

I should note: For each of the four inductees in "How the FBI Crashed an Attempted Colombo Resurgence", I will only be covering their careers up until December 2010. I will cover their careers after Dec. 2010 in a follow-up feature article, in order to highlight the rise of the four inductees and the relative success they all had in the Colombo family, and then their fall from grace, arrests, incarcerations, etc. Kind of a "rise and fall" type of theme.

[Cheech]

Good stuff gohn

[gohnjotti]

I forgot to put the goddamn link in there: it’s thecolombomafia.com/ilario-sessa

[newera_212]

love the new site. just made my way through the Spata article. great stuff. its hilarious how much those guys were talking about him.

how old is the Persico daughter that Spata married?