Gangland 9/30/2021

[Dr031718]

Aging Wiseguy Moves To The Government's Side Of The Street

Gang Land Exclusive!Dennis DeluciaFederal prosecutors in Brooklyn got some very important help from an aging wiseguy in order to take down the Colombo crime family Admistration, along with three powerful capos and four other mobsters and associates this month in the biggest Mafia roundup in a couple of years, Gang Land has learned.

Colombo capo Dennis (Fat Dennis) Delucia, who is 80 years old, just may be the oldest mobster to ever wear a wire on behalf of the government.

Sources say the geezer gangster is the latest in a long line of Colombo family defectors. Delucia helped the feds charge family boss Andrew (Mush) Russo, underboss Benjamin (The Claw) Castellazzo and consigliere Ralph DeMatteo with shaking down a Queens-based construction workers union official for 20 years.

The sources say Fat Dennis attended two meetings in a Brooklyn restaurant with the family's top mobsters and capo Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico last November. Delucia's name is not mentioned in any court filings, but sources say he was at both sessions that are detailed in a 49-page detention memo the government used to detain 10 mob-linked defendants without bail.

Andrew RussoIt's unclear why Fat Dennis decided to flip, or when he turned on his Cosa Nostra pals. But several reliable sources have told Gang Land that he's a cooperating witness in the case. "Since he was at two high-level meetings and he's not indicted," cracked one source, "it's a pretty safe bet that he was working on the government's side of the street."

Prosecutors James McDonald and Devon Lash were likely referring to the octogenarian wiseguy when they wrote that the "diverse array of investigative tools" they used to obtain the multi-count racketeering conspiracy indictment included "consensual recordings by a confidential witness in which many defendants discuss a variety of criminal activities."

The prosecutors wrote that Persico, Castellazzo, and DeMatteo were at a November 19 restaurant meeting also attended by capos Richard Ferrara and Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo, the architect of an extortion plot that he allegedly began against a leader of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union (UCTIE,) back in 2001.

Russo, the family's new "official boss," oversaw a second meeting at the same restaurant, they wrote. At the confab, the prosecutors wrote, the family leaders "decided that Russo would continue to serve as family Boss" until Persico, a nephew of late boss Carmine (Junior) Persico, completed his supervised release term in 2023 and was capable of taking over the reins — a plan that the feds scotched two weeks ago.

Benjamin CastellazzoAt that session, the prosecutors wrote, the "Colombo administration" also discussed the long-running Vinny Unions extortion plot against the Local 621 union leader that Colombo family consigliere DeMatteo allegedly took over — to the crime family's detriment — in 2019, as we detail below.

During the same session, wrote prosecutors McDonald and Lash, the Colombo family leaders placed capo Ferrara "in charge of supervising the scheme" to also extort "at least $10,000 per month" from Local 621's benefit funds and funnel that cash "up to (the) senior leadership" of the bourghata.

Delucia, who's had no known legal problems since 2016 after he completed three years of post-prison supervised release, is not named in any publicly filed documents in the case.

But sources say he was a participant at both November meetings, which took place at Brennan And Carr, a legendary 83-year-old Sheepshead Bay restaurant that specializes in juicy roast beef sandwiches. The eatery, ironically, has long been a favorite meeting spot of law enforcement officials.

Theodore PersicoAccording to court records, Delucia's sons, David, 56, and Dean, 52, have each been affiliated for nearly two decades with Local 621 of UCTIE — David as an administrator of the union's benefit funds, and Dean as secretary treasurer of the 1179 member union that represents workers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Neither brother responded to telephone or email requests for comment. Gang Land was unable to reach their father, whose former attorney said he hadn't spoken to Fat Dennis in several years.

Delucia spent 27 months behind bars following his January 2011 arrest in the FBI's historic Mafia Takedown Day roundup of 127 gangsters. At his sentencing for racketeering in April, 2013, the 71-year-old Delucia convinced the judge he would not show up again in Brooklyn Federal Court "as a criminal defendant."

That may yet turn out to be true, but it's not very likely. Delucia, who had spent 11 of the prior 19 years behind bars in separate cases for murder conspiracy and labor racketeering convictions, did not "go home and retire" from The Life as he promised Judge Kiyo Matsumoto he would do when he was released from prison just three months later.

Conrad IannielloAs prosecutors predicted, Fat Dennis resumed his role as a Colombo family skipper. But they are now presumably quite happy that he did, given his crucial aid to Uncle Sam.

In 2008, three years before he was hit with the Mafia Takedown Day racketeering charges, Delucia came to the aid of his son Dean during a long, losing battle he had with Genovese capo Conrad Ianniello when Dean Delucia tried to organize the workers of a Long Island chocolate factory that Ianniello controlled.

Delucia had been a partner, and a convicted codefendant, of Genovese underboss Venero (Benny Eggs) Mangano in a 1980s bid-rigging scheme installing windows in city housing projects, but it didn't help Fat Dennis. He was bested by Ianniello, who sent 300-pound enforcer Ryan (Baldy) Ellis to the Local 621 office to threaten Dean Delucia — and his wife — if he persisted in trying to organize chocolate factory workers in June of 2008.

Fat Dennis was unable to use his well-honed gangster prowess to help Local 621 win its fight with the powerful Genovese crime family. But a decade later, he was able to help the feds put an end to the Colombo clan's 20-year-long shake down of Local 621 president Andrew Talamo and put all his alleged antagonists behind bars.

Ryan EllisTomorrow though, lawyers for Vinny Unions Ricciardo are planning to seek a release on bail for the 75-year-old mobster, who has had numerous heart attacks since his first one at the age of 38, on the grounds that he is likely to die if he is not released from the Metropolitan Detention Center sooner rather than later.

Prosecutors McDonald and Lash, who wrote two weeks ago that Ricciardo exploded in anger and threatened to kill Talamo "right in front of his fucking house" and vowed he wasn't "afraid to go to jail" and "would fucking shoot him right in front of his wife and kids" say conditions at the MDC may not be perfect, but that's where Vinny Unions deserves to be.

It remains to be seen whether Judge Matsumoto was right to tell Delucia, back on April 9, 2013: "I do have faith that you will not appear again in this courthouse or any other courthouse as a criminal defendant." Or if Fat Dennis decided to turn on the Colombos because he was up to his old tricks and got caught, and decided that was the best way to avoid going back to prison.

Ex-U.S. Marshal: Keeping Mike Spataro In Prison For 17 Years For A Crime He Didn't Commit Is An Outrage

Jacquelyn KasulisMemo to Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis; From Michael Pizzi, U.S. Marshal, EDNY, retired.

Perhaps you can be a Lucky Seven for Michael (Mikey Spat) Spataro. You are the seventh U.S. Attorney to lead the Eastern District since attorney Philip Smallman and I proved to your office that the longtime Colombo family associate is innocent of the crime for which he has now spent 17 years in prison.

Spataro's new attorney has now filed another letter to the court. But the case lingers on the desk of Judge LaShann Dearcy Hall for 15 months — just as it lingered on the desk of Judge Sterling Johnson for 15 years before that. It seems pretty clear that you are the only person who can right the wrong that happened when Spataro was convicted in 2006 for a July 2001 shooting.

More than 10 years after Spataro's arrest, we obtained documentary proof from an insurance company that proved (just as Mike Spataro was screaming since the start of his case), that an adjuster was present at his body shop with him at the same time that the government claims Spataro was driving the convicted shooter to a meeting with another accomplice.

Michael PizziThinking we were doing the right thing by showing this evidence to the federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, we presented this newly discovered document to your office. We thought that the federal prosecutors in the building where I worked for decades would also do the right thing. But our efforts fell on deaf ears.

To dispel any doubts, we later had a court-qualified Questionable Document Examiner Expert review the hand written invoice that was given to the adjuster. This expert confirmed that the invoice was legit. He also verified that Spataro's hand writing was on it. He gave us a sworn affidavit. This also shows that at the time Spataro was alleged to be in a car with the convicted shooter, Vincent (Chickie) DeMartino, he was back at his shop.

And that's not all. We later found evidence that at 9:15 AM on the day of the shooting, DeMartino was in a bank that is about halfway between Spataro's body shop in Bay Ridge, and where DeMartino's car was located in Bensonhurst. In other words, more evidence that Spataro couldn't have done what the government, and the jury, said he did.

Michael SpataroAs you may know, DeMartino is still serving 25 years; his accomplice, Giovanni (John the Barber) Floridia, who became a government cooperator, is walking around free as a bird. The victim who was shot, and wounded, did not die. He too, is alive and well and walking around free as a bird.

But Mike Spataro is behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. Why? Because the FBI believed back in 2004, that since Spataro was friends with both DeMartino, and William Cutolo, the then-missing and presumed dead gangster, that he would flip, and become a government cooperator. That didn't happen.

But now, even though the whole world knows that Spataro had nothing to do with the death of Wild Bill Cutolo, since another government cooperator actually killed Cutolo, Mike Spataro is still locked up.

We kept digging, wondering why the FBI did not get Spataro's cell phone records, as they do routinely in order to prove where someone was located at the time of a crime. They check cell tower records kept by the phone companies. Those records should have proved that Spataro was with DeMartino at the time when the FBI said he was. But what we found out is another incredible story.

Judge LaShann Dearcy HallWe learned that sometime in August of 2001, the FBI did receive Spataro's cell phone records, but that the records were on the desk of an FBI agent working the case on September 11, 2001, that infamous date when planes hit the World Trade Center. This FBI agent responded to the scene.

As a result, we heard that the FBI lost the telephone records that the agent left on his desk. Those lost records had to prove Spataro was NOT with DeMartino at the time the government claimed he was. How come the FBI didn't get another copy? Why didn't your office demand another copy? This was Brady material.

Whatever the FBI Agent did at 9/11 was OK, but while doing that he either deliberately or unintentionally took another man's freedom for most of his adult life away by not providing the defense with the exculpatory material.

There were thousands of people who responded to the World Trade Center, including my own son who has 36 years with NYC DOT and who is now on the potential casualty list. Using the 9/11 tragedy for the FBI agent's dereliction of duty for not securing potential evidence is a shameful act.

Judge Sterling JohnsonIf you believe that an FBI Agent leaves evidence on his desk when he leaves his office, there is a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you. Everyone in federal law-enforcement knows how to secure potential evidence. Do you think that if the cell tower records had Spataro with DeMartino at any time that morning that the FBI would have obtained another copy of the record?

This is a story that should be of interest to every American. Mike Spataro did not give Chickie DeMartino a ride on the morning of the shooting, one that actually took place in the afternoon.

Spataro did not answer his phone calls from DeMartino that afternoon, but Spataro is serving 25 years because the government made a case the he had given a friend a ride and later got several unanswered calls from him, because he was a messenger in the plot. Huh? A messenger who doesn't answer the phone?

I've only scratched the surface, U.S. Attorney Kasulis, but Gang Land agreed to give me 800 words, and now I'm over 900, so I have to stop. But I'm available if you want to be a Lucky Seven for Mike Spataro. He could use a break. More importantly, he deserves one. He's innocent.

Charges For The Colombo Top Three Are The Same; But Not The Evidence

Ralph DeMatteoThe trio of wiseguys atop the Colombo crime family are now all behind bars, charged with being part of a violent 20-year-long racketeering conspiracy. But court filings in the case indicate that the feds have a lot more evidence against consigliere Ralph DeMatteo than they do against the boss and underboss of the beleaguered bourghata.

DeMatteo, who enjoyed a few days of fun in sunny Florida before joining his jailed-without-bail cohorts in the Metropolitan Detention Center, was overheard espousing violence and discussing the family's alleged extortion of a Queens-based union leader in taped talks that the feds picked up during their two-year-long investigation.

In a telephone conversation with an unidentified woman last December the consigliere boasted about his willingness to threaten the use of violence when it was needed, according to prosecutors James McDonald and Devon Lash. But while the feds tapped DeMatteo's phone, they had no eavesdropping devices on the phones of boss Andrew (Mush) Russo, and underboss Benjamin (The Claw) Castellazzo.

Ralph DeMatteo At The PoolDuring the taped talk, prosecutors state, DeMatteo recounted that in one confrontation, his victim told him: "I don't know what you're doing but you're scaring the shit out of me."

After the woman laughed aloud, the prosecutors wrote, DeMatteo told her: "I said, 'That's what I do for a living, I get people like you and I scare them.'"

Based on wiretapped talks and "other evidence," the prosecutors wrote, the government learned that "consigliere DiMatteo oversaw" the family's attempt last fall to extort the benefit funds of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union by "speaking and meeting regularly with Vincent Ricciardo about the crime."

"DiMatteo played an active, direct role in interfacing with (capo) Ricciardo," the prosecutors wrote. "The wiretap interceptions also showed the command (DeMatteo) had over lower-ranking crime family members, including summoning them immediately to meetings at Russo's home or to report to 'Brooklyn,' a reference to meet at a garage in Gravesend."

In November, after Vinny Unions managed to confront and threaten Andrew Talamo, the fearful president of Local 621 who had been ducking Ricciardo, the capo contacted DeMatteo. He reported that Talamo "finally came to his senses and met me," and told DeMatteo he would meet him the following day to detail his meeting, the prosecutors wrote.

In January, apparently under orders from above, DeMatteo called Vinny Unions, who was in his North Carolina home and not planning to return to New York until "the middle of March," to stress the importance of moving "more quickly" to receive extortion payments from 621's benefit funds, the prosecutors wrote.

"Middle of March? We're gonna wait a month and a half?" said DeMatteo.
"Well things are going slow, but they, they, they," stuttered Ricciardo. "I'm not all the way in there yet," he said, adding, "It's going slow, but we're, we're partly in there."
"That's no good buddy," said DeMatteo. "You're gonna have to take a trip in," he ordered, "to say hello."
"Alright," was Ricciardo's dutiful reply.

Vincent RiiciardoIt's unclear when Vinny Unions returned to New York, but by April, the duo at the top of the heap were not happy with the work that Ricciardo and DeMatteo were doing to extort $10,000 a month from Local 621's benefit funds.

"The Colombo family placed underboss Castellazzo in charge of the matter," the prosecutors wrote, stating that on April 13, Vinny Unions was tape recorded telling someone (we can only guess who) that "Benji" was "in charge" of that project. On April 20 and April 28, investigators saw The Claw meeting with Vinny Unions "to receive reports about the scheme," according to the filing.

Prosecutors had a hard time making much sense of another discussion that DeMatteo had with Russo last fall. But they alleged in their filing that it links Russo to the extortion plot. During the call, the prosecutors wrote that the consigliere told his boss in English that he was "probably going to take a ride with" Vinny Unions. After "Russo responded in Italian," DeMatteo replied he "didn't know," the prosecutors wrote. The Italian words were not included in the filing.

Gang Land expects that lawyers for the Colombo Administration trio will soon be filing motions seeking their release on bail while they await trial on a variety of grounds, including the unhealthy accommodations at the MDC and the paucity of evidence the feds have linking them to any real crimes.

It's been nearly 20 years since the 66-year-old DeMatteo, who was sentenced to 18 months for his last federal conviction, conspiring to commit money laundering in 2001, has had to spend any time behind bars. Not so for Russo, 87, and Castellazzo, 83. Russo's last stretch ended in 2013; Castellazzo's in 2015. Both were arrested on Mafia Takedown Day in 2011, and copped plea deals to racketeering charges.

[Chopper]

‘He was bested by Ianniello, who sent 300-pound enforcer Ryan (Baldy) Ellis to the Local 621 office to threaten Dean Delucia — and his wife — if he persisted in trying to organize chocolate factory workers in June of 2008.‘

I always liked that story

[TSNYC]

Not sure I’ve ever read this correct, but allegation was they planned to divert to $10k/month from the benefits fund? Never actually saw that money. I’m just taken aback at how many capos and admin had to get involved in this fairly low level shakedown.

[thegunners]

Russo will die in jail now. Castellazzo and DiMatteo could as well.

[dack2001]

Good Gangland this week. Wonder where Delucia is holed up....

[johnny_scootch]

These fat fucks we’re definitely sitting in the back room of Brennan and Carr eating Gargiulo Burgers.

[desertdog]

Good job DeLucia....
Nice to see the old guys coming forward and doing the right thing.
They realize they've wasted their lives and hurt a lot of people. If this continues we might eventually be rid of these parasites...

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for posting.

[OcSleeper]

Not sure I’ve ever read this correct, but allegation was they planned to divert to $10k/month from the benefits fund? Never actually saw that money. I’m just taken aback at how many capos and admin had to get involved in this fairly low level shakedown.

That was on top of anything else they were getting from the union and only for the administration when they took over the operation in 2019.

[AntComello]

Good job DeLucia....
Nice to see the old guys coming forward and doing the right thing.
They realize they've wasted their lives and hurt a lot of people. If this continues we might eventually be rid of these parasites...

Hate to break it to ya but these guys ain’t goin no where and I highly doubt that Delucia flipped because he wanted to do the right thing. Prob had more to do with doing saving his own ass

[Dave65827]

Good job DeLucia....
Nice to see the old guys coming forward and doing the right thing.
They realize they've wasted their lives and hurt a lot of people. If this continues we might eventually be rid of these parasites...

These guys are scumbags but you don’t have to do your tough guy act

[Tonyd621]

Good job DeLucia....
Nice to see the old guys coming forward and doing the right thing.
They realize they've wasted their lives and hurt a lot of people. If this continues we might eventually be rid of these parasites...

This guy again, providing his ever growing knowledge into OC.

[Tonyd621]

Hey, desertdog were you this stupid before you came on here?

[TallGuy19]

How long before he starts doing YouTube videos?

[TwoPiece]

These fat fucks we’re definitely sitting in the back room of Brennan and Carr eating Gargiulo Burgers.

i had to google what that was.. definitely getting one next time i'm in brooklyn.