Gangland 12-8-2022

[Dr031718]

Opioid Scripts Have Geezer Genovese Gangsters In Trouble With The Law, And The Mob

Two down on their luck Genovese mobsters who robbed millions of dollars from banks decades ago are in new trouble with the law. Worse, they may also have run afoul of the powerful Mafia clan dubbed the Ivy League of organized crime.

The reason? They were arrested last week as members of a Manhattan-based drug ring that sold "tens of thousands" of opioids and other prescription drugs on the streets of New York — a crime which is still officially a big Cosa Nostra no-no.

The wiseguys, Elio (Chinatown) Albanese, 73, and Carmine (Baby Carmine) Russo, 77, are charged specifically with obtaining a total of 17 prescriptions under their own names for oxycodone from an unidentified Midtown doctor, and filling them in Manhattan pharmacies for distribution to customers in Staten Island by a pair of younger associates.

The septuagenarian mobsters, along with mob associates Louis Ventafredda, 40, and Ivan Iorizzo, 39, and a second Manhattan doctor, Noel Smith, 80, and four others were charged in three indictments obtained by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office with selling prescription drugs to customers in Staten Island and Manhattan over a nine-month period in 2020.

Albanese and Russo were snared in numerous taped talks as they discussed meeting Ventafredda "in the city" to give him prescriptions of oxycodone they picked up in Manhattan, where they live. Ventafredda and Iorizzo would in turn distribute them to customers in Staten Island, where they reside, according to court filings by prosecutors Anne Ternes and Mao Yu Lin.

Sources say that the mobsters' indictment for the decidedly very un-wiseguy like crimes for Genovese members has them in hot water with family boss Liborio (Barney) Bellomo, who is a fan of money making rackets, but who insists that his crews have nothing to do with selling opioids or other prescription drugs. The drugs cited in the charges include Suboxone, which is used by opioid abusers trying to kick the habit; Adderall, an amphetamine-like stimulant, and Klonopin, which is used to treat "panic attacks" like the ones that HBO's Tony Soprano used to have.

The court-ordered wiretaps — which picked up talks from January 9 to September 15 of 2020 — were obtained by the Waterfront Commission and Business Integrity Commission in a joint local, state, and federal investigation by those agencies, the NYPD, the DEA, and New York State Organized Crime Task Force, according to a news release issued by DA Alvin Bragg.

Bragg spokeswoman Kay Nguyen told Gang Land that "the complexity of the investigation coupled with complications related to COVID-19" caused the investigation to stretch out more than two years before indictments were obtained.

The tapes apparently told a tale: On January 9 of 2020, Albanese obtained a prescription for oxycodone. He was then heard telling Ventafredda that "everything will be good for tomorrow" when Chinatown planned to pick up the prescription at a Manhattan pharmacy, according to the indictment of Albanese and Russo.

The following day, as the authorities listened in, Albanese was heard discussing the "logistics" of when and where Chinatown would meet Ventafredda to give him the oxycodone pills. Ventafredda was heard telling Iorizzo, "I'm coming to get you, we're going to the City," the indictment stated.

Over the next eight months, Chinatown and Baby Carmine obtained another 16 prescriptions for oxycodone from the Midtown doctor and the MD's physician's assistant. They then passed the meds on to Ventafredda, as the various investigators listened in and photographed their meetings, according to court filings.

Police sources say an oxycodone pill can cost $25, or more, on the street. And on March 4, 2020, after Russo "picked up" his oxycodone prescription, Ventafredda agreed to pick up the valuable goods from him in Manhattan. Baby Carmine assured Ventafredda, "I'm ready for you, pal."

None of the Manhattan locations where Chinatown and Baby Carmine delivered the oxycodone pills to Ventafredda are mentioned in the court filings. But it's likely that a get together or two took place near the Lower East Side social club on Cherry and Market Streets. That's where the wiseguys hung out in their heyday when they were robbing banks and armored car companies.

In the 1980s and early '90s, the duo made "money hand over fist" as bank robbers by day, while working the night shifts loading and unloading fresh fish at the nearby Fulton Fish Market, according to court records and other sources.

Another "tremendous money maker" for the Genovese family that the duo ran for decades in the months before the July 4 holiday each year was the distribution of fireworks throught the metropolitan area, former federal prosecutor David Kelley stated at a 1995 bail hearing for Albanese.

"In the weeks leading up to the Fourth of July," according to a New York Times story by William K. Rashbaum that included a picture of Russo and Albanese as they sold fireworks on Mulberry Street in 1993, "the two men could be seen from the windows in the rear of the criminal court building in Lower Manhattan, selling fireworks by the case to people in cars who pulled up on Mulberry below Canal Street."

Unfortunately for Albanese and Russo, as one source put it, "they spent their money as fast as they made it." The men have been hard-pressed for cash since they were hit with bank robbery charges in the mid-1990s and with selling fireworks. All their main their sources of income, including money from two legitimate Fish Market businesses they operated, dried up at virtually the same time.

In June of 1995, just as the annual fireworks business was heating up, prosecutor Kelley got a federal judge to jail Chinatown until July 10 to curtail that cash cow. Albanese and Russo were free on bail awaiting trial, and Kelley cited a July 3, 1993 arrest of Chinatown with 7000 pounds of fireworks in his truck, and a May 1994 collar with 20 boxes of firworkrs on Mulberry Street to convince the judge to keep Albanese behind bars until July 10.

The bubble burst open five months later in December of 1995.

That month, after they copped guilty pleas to bank robberies that had netted them and their cohorts at least $1.5 million, and admitted plotting other armed robberies, including the payroll at a New York Times printing plant in Queens, the city used a law that went into effect three months earlier to oust their companies from the Fulton Fish Market due to their mob ties.

The Mayor Giuliani-sponsored law enabled the city to evict the company owned by Albanese, C&A Fish Lifters Inc., and Russo's Beekman Dock Loading Company, from the Fish Market even though the firms had been operating legally for years.

Russo, Albanese and lawyer Vicnet Licata Albanese was sentenced to 106 months, fined $10,000, and released from prison in November of 2007. Sentenced to 84 months, and fined $5000, Russo was released from prison 22 months earlier, in January of 2006. Until last week, neither gangster had any additional trouble with the law.

In a December 2006 New York Times story, Rashbaum wrote that investigators had described the duo "as brokesters, gangsters eking out a living." He also wrote that "a person who knows (Baby Carmine) says he had been selling plastic bags at the Fulton Fish Market before it moved and was now hoping to open a small business in his Chinatown neighborhood."

Vincent Licata, who represented the Genovese wiseguys and Ventafredda at their arraignment, did not respond to a Gang Land call for comment.

Iorizzo's lawyer, Mario Gallucci, told Gang Land that once he has "an opportunity to review" the many "transcripts affidavits, search warrants and audio records" he received from the DA's office, "I will have a better idea why DA Bragg finds it important to go after Staten Islanders while his own borough is mired in absolute lawlessness."

The Genovese wiseguys and the mob associates each face up to 25 years behind bars if convicted. Smith, who is charged with 30 counts of criminal sale of prescriptions, faces up to 15 years.

Despite all the troubles that Albanese and Russo are facing these days, an old pal of both men told Gang Land yesterday: "Chinatown and Carmine are still beloved members of the Little Italy community."

Ex-Prosecutor, Facing Up To 40 Years In Jail, Scores A Sweet Plea Deal For Up To Six Months

The feds have given a sweet plea deal of up to six months in prison to a Mineola lawyer who had faced up to 40 years for being part of a nationwide drug smuggling ring with two Gambino crime family associates at the same time he was a prosecutor for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, Gang Land has learned.

The attorney, Ramy Joudeh, who was fired from his position as an assistant district attorney in 2016, two months after the feds first implicated him in a ring that distributed more than 1000 pounds of marijuana, pleaded guilty last week to using his cell phone to conduct the business of the drug smuggling ring between 2014 and March of 2016.

Technically, Joudeh, 37, faces up to four years in prison but he has the right to appeal any sentence greater than six months as excessive, according to the plea agreement that was worked out by defense attorney Joseph DiBenedetto and federal prosecutor Benjamin Weintraub and approved by Brooklyn Federal Judge Dora Irizarry.

Weintraub declined to discuss the plea deal for Joudeh, who is free on bail, and has gotten permission to work as an attorney by Irizarry while he's been under indictment. He is scheduled to be sentenced in May.

In a statement, attorney DiBenedetto noted that his client's guidelines were low because the government agreed that Joudeh was a "minimal participant" in the drug scheme, and that his conduct "was limited in time and scope" and "occurred a long time ago, over six years ago, and for a very brief period during a very difficult time in my client's life."

"Most importantly," DiBenedetto continued, "My client accepts full responsibility for his actions and over the last six years has established himself as a productive member of society."

Joudeh allegedly implicated himself in the drug scheme on March 2, 2016 while "en route to provide a sample of marijuana to a potential customer," according to an August 14, 2019 arrest complaint by FBI agent Paul Harris. Joudeh was stopped by a DEA agent who "smelled a strong odor" of marijuana "emanating" from a "black plastic bag" that the agent had seen Joudeh carrying when he left his home, Harris wrote.

Joudeh told the DEA agents who stopped him "that he had found the bag." He insisted he did not know it contained marijuana "and planned to throw it away," according to the complaint. He was released without being charged with a crime after he informed the DEA agents that he was an ADA, and they confirmed that, wrote Harris, a member of the FBI's Gambino squad.

In taped calls later that same day, Joudeh detailed his near arrest to the customer he was on his way to meet and detailed his harrowing experience, noting that he was "in hand cuffs at one point" before he was released, Harris wrote. The agent noted that Joudeh's account about finding the bag "was not truthful" and that there was "probable cause to believe" that Joudeh was a "participant in the drug conspiracy."

Gambino associates Russell Carlucci, 49, and Richard Gambale, 48, were cited in the complaint by agent Harris as members of the drug conspiracy. Like Joudeh, they were subsequently indicted on drug trafficking charges carrying up to 40 years in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of five years if convicted.

Carlucci who served a dozen years for the 1995 execution murder of Joseph Scarpa, the son of Gregory Scarpa, the Colombo wiseguy who doubled as a top echelon FBI informer for decades, pleaded guilty to the same count of using his cell phone to facilitate the scheme as Joudeh. But Carlucci was not a "minimal" player in the drug conspiracy and his sentencing guidelines are 37-to-46 months.

Neither was Gambale, who sources say was the genesis of Joudeh's involvement in the case. Gambale also pleaded guilty to using his phone in the drug deals but he is assured of a four year sentence since his guidelines are 57-to-63 months.

Gambale has a past record of violence. In January of 2016, he stabbed a Bonanno associate 22 times in a $50,000 dispute related to the drug scheme. But he earned a plea deal to weapons charges after he claimed self-defense and a video showed that the victim, Anthony Perretti, had assaulted Gambale with a metal fence post.

Sources say Perretti assaulted Gambale after he refused to return $50,000 that he had given the Gambino associate. The money had been seized by the DEA when they arrested Gambale on drug charges in August of 2015. Sources say Gambale won a mob sitdown from Bonanno wiseguy Peter Lovaglio, who ruled that since Perretti was a partner in the drug deal, and that the lost cash seized by the feds was just a cost of doing business when you're a gangster.

According to the complaint, the DEA seized about $80,000 from Gambale but decided not to arrest him since that would have disclosed their investigation.

The sources say that $20,000 of the cash that the DEA seized was a loan that Joudeh had given Gambale and that the ex-prosecutor's motives in getting involved in the case was to try and recoup the $20,000 he had loaned Gambale. That never happened, the sources say.

Joudeh may yet have the last laugh: If the crime that Joudeh pleaded guilty to is not considered a felony under New York State law, he may still hold onto his license to practice law, and not need permission from a federal judge to do so.

Loanshark Stymies Feds Over Alleged Retaliatory Threats Against Witnesses

Gambino family loanshark Chris Bantis is still behind bars, and likely to be facing another three or more years there thanks to his guilty plea to loansharking charges last month. But things could have been much worse: after a week-long trial where he stood accused of retaliating against several witnesses against him, federal prosecutors came up empty in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Bantis had been charged last year with threatening and harming the sister and nephew of two brothers who had fingered him for loansharking back in 2013 and 2014 at a Brooklyn store she operated in the Fort Hamilton section of Brooklyn. But on the eve of trial, the government shifted gears and alleged that his actions at and around the sister's store from 2018 to last year, had actually harmed brothers George and James Harrison, not their sister and nephew.

The change did not help the feds, and may have confused many of the jurors. The verdict sheet contained 20 different spots that the jurors could check to find Bantis guilty. But after three days of deliberation, they declared themselves hopelessly deadlocked last month, and Judge Eric Vitaliano declared a mistrial.

The sheet listed three different reasons why jurors could find Bantis guilty of six separate charges of witness retaliation against either George or James Harrison: a) by threatening bodily injury to their sister, b) by threatening bodily injury to their nephew, or c) by threatening property damage to their sister.

In addition, they could have convicted him if they found that in and around the sister's store, Bantis "took action that was harmful" to George Harrison as retaliation for testifying against him, or that he "took harmful action that was harmful" to James Harrison as retaliation for having testified against him.

According to a court filing by prosecutors Lindsey Oken and Tara McGrath, the jurors were evenly split, with six voting to convict and six voting to acquit, so the verdict sheet had no checks on it.

Despite the fact that six jurors believed Bantis was innocent, the prosecutors wrote there was no reason for the judge to order a directed verdict of acquittal for Bantis.

Noting that "six jurors voted to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," they argued that if Vitaliano acquitted Bantis the Court would "have to find that half of the jury was irrational as a matter of law."

Despite that, the government has not yet indicated whether it plans to try Bantis again, or move to sentence him for his guilty plea to loansharking on the eve of trial, for which his sentencing guidelines are in the three-to-four year range

[Dr031718]

[Shellackhead]

Thanks for posting

[Chopper]

Good column this week, thanks for posting.

[Little_Al1991]

Thanks for posting

[moneyman]

I think the Cherry and Market Street club must be the same club as Petey "Red" Dichiara's club.

[furiofromnaples]

I doubt that the mob still have "no deal in drugs" diktat and however what they risk? I dont think that the Genovese will kill them.

[Dapper_Don]

thanks for posting

[DonPeppino386]

Thanks for posting! Interesting read this week. Risky for guys that age to be pushing pills.

[Tonyd621]

At least they are not killing people laced with that pressed Chinese dog shit

[Cheech]

I doubt that the mob still have "no deal in drugs" diktat and however what they risk? I dont think that the Genovese will kill them.

good point!

[Pmac2]

They'll get a few years probation. It probably would get them put on the shelf I would guess. But then again it's there own prescriptions. They were running a fraud and the young guys pushed the pills. You wonder how the fuck the waterfront police got into the investigation or even start it. Weird

[Cheech]

They'll get a few years probation. It probably would get them put on the shelf I would guess. But then again it's there own prescriptions. They were running a fraud and the young guys pushed the pills. You wonder how the fuck the waterfront police got into the investigation or even start it. Weird

Waterfront Commission and Business Integrity Commission in a joint local, state, and federal investigation by those agencies, the NYPD, the DEA, and New York State Organized Crime Task Force


seems like a lot of resources for two old guys selling their prescription. which by the way goes on all over the place.

what I don't get is what's the incentive for the Dr's?

[TommyNoto]

They'll get a few years probation. It probably would get them put on the shelf I would guess. But then again it's there own prescriptions. They were running a fraud and the young guys pushed the pills. You wonder how the fuck the waterfront police got into the investigation or even start it. Weird

Waterfront Commission and Business Integrity Commission in a joint local, state, and federal investigation by those agencies, the NYPD, the DEA, and New York State Organized Crime Task Force


seems like a lot of resources for two old guys selling their prescription. which by the way goes on all over the place.

what I don't get is what's the incentive for the Dr's?

Unbelievable when you think about it given inner city murder up ticks & crypto Ponzi schemes. Today’s mob barely breaks the law outside taxes. Obviously you still need to monitor them but I think it’s time for another major major reduction in LE resources .

this investigation probably ran 10+ deep, multiple $ millions in cost, massive wire taps for a few grandpa’s selling their prescription (very common for old folks ) that end up on probation.

[Ivan]

Weird seeing a dago named "Ivan" instead of just "Giovanni" or "John."

Thanks for posting up. These guys still sell fireworks?