Umberto Gallo ran a private mob social club as a base and was partners with his older brother in the shylock rackets. It is organized under a variety of crews that engage in various . The DeCavalcante crime family, also known as the North Jersey Mafia, is an Italian-American Mafia organized crime family that operates mainly in northern New Jersey, particularly in Elizabeth, Newark, West New York, and various other North Jersey cities and the surrounding areas in North Jersey. Complaint The high turnover of mafia leadership that gave rise to the DeCavalcante family in the 1960s played a key part in its precipitous decline four decades later. And authentic it was, almost as if the FBI had just kept recording after DeCavalcantes death in 1997 and on through Amaris death and into the present day. The current boss is Charles Majuri. Name it. 2023 Toronto Sun, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. John Capozzi, 34, of Union, New Jersey; Mario Galli, 23, of Toms River, New Jersey; and Nicholas Degidio, 37, of Union, New Jersey, were also charged with cocaine distribution. Gregory "Georgie" Rago (born 1959) is a New Jersey mobster and "soldier" in the DeCavalcante crime family. The downfall of the DeCavalcante family was precipitated in 1998, when an associate named Ralph Guarino became an FBI informant, in an effort to avoid a long prison sentence in connection with taking part with two others in a heist of $1.6 million from the World Trade Center. Law enforcement authorities seized 3,200 pounds of cocaine valued at $77 million at Port Newark in late February, though they havent yet named who they suspect of importing the drugs. The popular Sopranos television series may helped make New Jerseys connections to the Mafia and organized crime a popular discussion topic at dinner tables across America. Badami kept controlling the crew up to the 1950s, but he was murdered in 1955 in what appears to have been another power struggle between the two factions. [21][22] Associates Rosario Pali and Nicholas DeGidio were convicted on April 4, 2017, after pleading guilty to distributing more than 500 grams of cocaine. Under his guidance, the DeCavalcante Family added dozens of made men to their ranks, and, Unfortunately for Sam the Plumber, his rise to power coincided with another development: more aggressive and sophisticated law enforcement efforts to take down organized crime. He also ran Roulette Records and golfed on occasion with Sammy Davis, Jr. Vastola then landed in prison and John DAmato became acting boss until the girlfriend he shared with another mobster revealed that he was bisexual. By 1964, with the death of Delmore, his nephew Simone (Sam the Plumber) DeCavalcante would be selected as the new boss of this Family. Today, the DeCavalcante Crime family is a shadow of its former self. Andrew Ford: @AndrewFordNews; 732-643-4281; aford3@gannettnj.com. Over the years, the DeCavalcante family earned a reputation for incompetence. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Please try again. It operates on the opposite side of the Hudson River from the Five Families of New York. Now in the year 2012 DeCavalcante are a strong Organized Loyal Mafia Family With over 7 Bases and 4 wars won. Guarraci is 54. For the next several years, every single word spoken by Sam and his Mafia associates was recorded for posterity by the agents. Sam The Plumber, who pulled fighting factions together and made the Jersey family rich, often made that complaint. Several customers became alarmed and exited the restaurant, without paying their bills. Virgil Alessi was a very active DeCavalcante mobster who started his mob career as a phone-man for Jiggs Forlano. Formed in 1953 to combat corruption, in recent years the Waterfront Commission has fought against New Jersey withdrawing from the commission, which operates under a joint arrangement between New Jersey and New York. [19] Longtime acting boss Francesco Guarraci died of cancer in 2016. They dont recognize more than five families, a law-enforcement expert notes. Through deep-dive biographies and snapshots of mobsters to in-depth stories about mafia regimes and crews, youll uncover an underworld you might never have known existed maybe even in your own hometown! Delmore kept running the organization until he became ill in the early 1960s. When the transcripts were unsealed in court, it became apparent that the affair with secretary was just one of many liaisons. One of them decided to cooperate and a dozen more were grabbed. Comello's attorney told theNetwork the incident is related to hate online, "including right-wing conspiracy websites and public comments made by politicians,Robert Gottlieb said. Still, they boast around 40 made men and around 50 associates and have maintained strong alliances with the Gambinos, Philly and the Patriarca crime family in New England. Colellas role was to speak on behalf of Charles Stango to ensure the killing would be approved by other ranking members. As part of the plan, their crew would establish a legal club as a front for the prostitution business in order to avoid law enforcement scrutiny. He declined to commenton a rumored romantic motive, except to saywere investigating everything thats been reported.". Today, the DeCavalcante Crime family is a shadow of its former self. He might not have been the most sophisticated mafioso to ever walk the streets of Brooklyn, but Rudy Farone was certainly one of Cosa Nostras most dedicated. was gunned down in Staten Island earlier this month. Unlike New York's infamous Five Families, the Chicago mob consists of only one family, often referred to as the "Outfit.". Tried, convicted, and sentenced to five years in federal prison, and after serving two years in jail, DeCavalcante gained parole and immediately migrated to Miami, Florida and into semi-retirement. Stefano "Steve" Badami became the boss of the Elizabeth-Newark family. James Gandolfinis parents came emigrated from Italy to New Jersey. Guarraci is said by the FBI to have been inducted by Riggi in place of the hitman who screwed up with the license plates and otherwise would have been next to be made. The plate number was written down by a witness who saw the hitman tossing the guns in a stream. There are also significant fines in Gallis near future.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,600],'aboutthemafia_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_3',198,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-aboutthemafia_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0'); Many agencies were involved in this case including the FBIs Organized Crime Task Force, the Ocean County Prosecutors, Senior Counsel V. Grady OMalley of the Organized Crime and Gang Unit in Newark. [23][24][25] Luigi Oliveri was charged with the possession of contraband cigarettes. Giacomo Jake Amari became the acting boss and thumbed his nose at the five families by recruiting new members in New York and operating a social club in Little Italy. "LaCosa Nostra" (Italian for "our thing") doesn't enjoy the same power it hadin decades past. DeCavalcante would have loved to be considered their equal. Since then, several other top mobsters agreed to become government witnesses in exchange for being given lenient or no sentences at all. Anthony Comello was arrested in Brick andcharged in the fatal shooting. He doubled the number of made men within his family during the 60s. He retired to a high-rise condo in Florida when he was released and largely stayed out of Mafia business, although the FBI believed that he was still advising the family into the early 1990s. The FBI was able to pressure several lower ranking DeCavalcante associates into becoming informants after catching them committing serious crimes; these informants helped the Justice Department to gather substantial evidence against the family, and led to scores of long-term Federal convictions. The Genovese family controls the New Jersey side, according to Arsenault. [18] With the decline of the DeCavalcante family, New York's Five Families have taken over many of the rackets in northern New Jersey. Mob Fireside Chat BGs Official YouTube Channel, The DeCavalcante Crime Family of New Jersey, Nicolas (Nicky Dell) Delmore An Early DeCavalcante Family Boss, Simone Rizzo DeCavalcante The Count Of New Jersey, John (John the Eagle) Riggi DeCalvacante Family Acting Boss, Francesco (Big Frank) Majuri The Underboss, Joseph (Joe Buff) La Selva Nutmeg Mafioso, Antonio (Tony the Fox) Caruso The Hidden Fox, Carmelo (Melio) Cocchiaro DeCavalcante Family Soldier, Frank (Big Frankie) Cocchiaro DeCavalcante Caporegime, Rudolph (Rudy) Farone This Tootsie Dont Roll, Pietro (Pete) Galletta This Zip Liked To Sleep, Umberto (Vadoo) Gallo The Longshore Loaner, Joseph Guerriero Pippy of Connecticut, Joe Lolordo Machine-Gun Killer and DeCavalcante Capo, Joseph (The Old Man) Miranda The Mob Turtle. I have some questions regarding the Decavalcante Crime Family upon which the Sopranos are partly based: 1) When would you say the peak of this family was, and . Main Office: But despite Jersey playing little brother to the Big Apple, the DeCavalcante crime family's tentacles have a stranglehold on unions and construction in the New York area. We have enabled email notificationsyou will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. TRENTON - An associate of the DeCavalcante crime family Monday pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with the intent to . The Sopranos are fictional, the DeCavalcante crime family is not. And they were now finding themselves overshadowed by a TV show about a New Jersey crime family modeled after the DeCavalcante family. Jan 21st, 2020. The bug also recorded the then-52-year-old DeCavalcante being robustly intimate with the secretary. The FBI surveilled DeCavalcante and several of his associates, built an effective case against him, and in 1969 he was convicted on a variety of racketeering charges. Facebook Dressed in cargo shorts and a T-shirt and. At the height of his power, DeCavalcante's crime family was reported to oversee illicit activities worth over $20 million a year. Most of its leaders are either dead or incarcerated, and other criminal networks have wrestled control of the remaining rackets that once provided serious revenue for the family. Riggis hope to put the DeCavalcante family back on the map with the killing was dashed when it became known that when stealing license plates to put on a getaway car, one of the hit squad had inadvertently chosen the plates of a vehicle belonging to the wife of a well-known mobster. But there is a sixth family just across the Hudson River who are equally greedy and bloodthirsty. Vastolas successor, John DAmato, was reputed to be more loyal to the Gambinos than his own New Jersey associates. [13] Riggi continued to run the family from his jail cell, but he appointed Giacomo "Jake" Amari as his new acting boss. The people in New Jersey who are really worth admiring are people such as the actual family that gave us the actor who summoned their example of hard, honest work as he so brilliantly played the fictional gangster Tony Soprano. US law enforcement even put Giovanni Riggi on trial, who was hoping to be released in 2003, and he was sentenced to 10 additional years in prison. And Tony Soprano was not a Michael Corleone. Have a question about Government Services? ignored and then continued working, the indictment notes. He wore a listening device and recorded conversations that mobsters would have about criminal business. DeCavalcante Mafia family mobsters hit with drug charges Mafia author shares dark stories behind Garden State Gangland: The Rise of the Mob in New Jersey New Jersey Mafia capo gets 10 years for plans to whack rival DeCavalcante family capo admits planning mob rival's murder Two Decavalcante family mobsters admit distributing cocaine Charged With Murder Plot, Cocaine Distribution and Prostitution Business. Chronicles of Events and Biographies Related to the American Mafia. The USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey learned the state remains a hunting ground for mobsters tied to Philadelphia and New York City. No, its not the Sopranos. He owned Kenilworth Heating and Air Conditioning in Kenilworth, New Jersey as a legal front and source of taxable income, for which he gained the nickname "Sam the Plumber". The Decavalcantes are considered by some to be the "Sixth Family".[4][5]. Sam and his Mafia associates was recorded for posterity by the agents to ensure the killing would be by... 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