Steve Neavling

FBI Agent Gerard Conrad was just taking a stroll in Forest Park in Queens when he stumbled upon a meeting between top Gambino mobster Bartolomeo (Bobby) Vernace and others involved in the crime family, the New York Daily News reports.

Conrad happened to be supervising 15 agents who were investigating the crime family when he made the discovery on a warm 2006 day: “I saw three made members of the Gambino family and two associates of the family the park,” the agent said.

Conrad called for a camera, and the photos are now a critical piece of evidence in a racketeering trial, the Daily News reported.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard of  Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the former underboss of the Gambino Crime Family, who testified in New York against his boss, the late John Gotti.

So we went on  the Arizona State Corrections website and found a picture of Gravano and a little information which shows him getting released in 2019 for his conviction for selling ecstasy.  He pleaded guilty in 2001 and was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

Gravano, 68, no longer has that nice head of hair he once displayed.  He’s bald.

There have been reports that he was diagnosed with Graves’ disease,a thyroid disorder. It can cause fatigue, weight loss with increased appetite, and hair loss.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• FBI Loses Appeal to Delay Surveillance Case Involving StingRay
• FBI Asked to Investigate Possible Corruption in International Soccer Case
• Civilian Supervisor Held in FBI Bribery Sting at Camp Pendelton
• Former Justice Department Lawyers Pleads Guilty to Sex Crime
• DEA: Mexican Drug Cartels Extend Reach to Upper Midwest

Louis Diaz

Ex-DEA agent Louis (Louie The Actor) Diaz,  testified last week in Brooklyn federal court in the trial of a  Gambino mobster that he did some devilish things himself while working undercover, Gang Land News.

Mob expert Jerry Capeci, editor of Gang Land News, reports that Diaz testified  in the racketeering and murder trial of Bartolomeo Vernace.  Diaz was a DEA agent from 1975 to 1996, and authored a book in 2010 with NY Daily News reporter Neal Hirschfeld: “Dancing With The Devil.” He also has had bit acting parts on TV.

Capeci writes about his testimony:

 Diaz, who grew up with wiseguys and wannabes in Red Hook, Brooklyn, prided  himself on being true to his badge. But once, he testified, he looked the other way when an informer tipped him that an old neighborhood pal was dealing drugs and guns.

Then there was the time when Diaz was posing as a mobconnected drug dealer, helping to make a case against Harlem heroin merchant Leroy (Nicky) Barnes. On the stand, he testified that he not only violated Drug Enforcement Administration regulations by letting an informer keep and carry his own gun; on a day when his stool pigeon forgot his own piece, Louie The Actor graciously provided him one from the DEA’s own arsenal.

To read more go to Gang Land News. (Gang Land is a subscription-based website).

Shoshanna Utchenik

The U.S.  feds met with Italian law enforcement counterparts in Italy last week to make sure everyone was on the same page on organized crime.

The summit gave the FBI and several federal prosecutors from the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office a chance to connect the dots with Italian officials on current investigations and operational matters, reports the NY Daily News.

All five New York crime families maintain ties to the old country, but the Gambinos are the most actively linked. Italian police were essential to the 2008 takedown of 62 Gambino members. They also played an important part in the 2011 roundup of more than 100 mobsters in the U.S., says the Daily News.

The NY Feds took the opportunity while abroad to attend Italian Judge Giovanni Falcone’s anniversary memorial service. Falcone was assassinated 20 years ago by a roadside bomb planted by the mob.

To read more click here.

Shoshanna Utchenik

Racketeering, narcotics trafficking, assault, extortion, murder? Just another day-in-the-life of a Gambino mobster.

Five Gambino wise guys pled guilty this week to a range of nefarious charges, announced Preet Bharara, NY U.S Attorney in Manhattan.

Working as “soldiers” and “associates” of the Gambino crime family, Vincenzo Frogiero, Todd Labarca, John Brancaccio, Christopher Reynolds, and Sean Dunn earned millions for the Gambinos by trafficking hundreds of kilos of cocaine and marijuana, and thousands of ecstasy and vicodin pills through operations based in Queens over the past 30 years.

Labarca also pled guilty to conspiracy to murder fellow gangster Martin Bosshart in a 2002 turf war, after Bosshart made a power grab in the Gambino’s marijuana import operation. Bosshart was found shot point blank in the back of the head for his ambitions.

The 5 will face similar fates in their July sentencing as a couple dozen other Gambino members and associates snared by the FBI recently as part of a nationwide takedown of organized crime.

According to Bharara, “The laundry list of illegal conduct to which LaBarca and these four other defendants pled serves as a reminder of the scourge that is organized crime and that our efforts to root it out will continue unabated.”

To read more click here.

By Danny Fenster

Was the late Godfather John Gotti a draft dodger? Well, kinda, sorta.

His status with the military is included in 1,580 pages of FBI files on Gotti from 1964 to 1995, archived on a CD-ROM by the website paperlessarchives.com.

Gotti was the boss of the Gambino crime family, nicknamed the “Dapper Don” because of his lavish lifestyle and manner of dress.

The files point out that Gotti was drafted in 1963 in Brooklyn, but did not appear for induction. The  FBI searched for Gotti for two years, eventually making contact on November 10, 1965, when the future crime boss appeared at the Kings County Court House for a hearing related to a grand larceny auto. Gotti told authorities he was unaware of the draft status. He reported to the selective service board the next day, but was never inducted into the armed forces due to his criminal record, the files show.

Also in the files are reports of an internal FBI administrative investigation in 1992 in which at least 140 agents were interviewed and provided sworn statements regarding leaks about John Gotti to the New York Daily News.

“I did not provide this information to anyone not entitled to receive it, including the Daily News,” one agent said, “with the possible exception of my wife. I do not recall discussing this with my wife, but I may have.”

Another investigation focused on leaks to a New York news television program, where reporter John Miller broke the story of a juror being bribed–$60,000 from Gotti himself and another $15,000 from a Gambino associate–which ultimately led to Gotti’s acquittal in the case. Miller was known to have wide net of connections in New York law enforcement and later went on to become the chief spokesman for the FBI in 2005 to 2009.

To read more click here.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST:

• DEA: Indoor Pot Operations Rare in Utah (Standard-Examiner) 
• DEA Agent Loses Appeal Over Accidental Shooting Video (Business Insurance)
• Federal Retirees Complain of Retirement Plan (NextGov)
• Pentagon Cedes Control of Defense Cyber Pilot to DHS (NextGov)
• Reputed Gun Runner Now on the Run Himself (Houston Chronicle)
• FBI: Former Programmer Stole Code from Federal Reserve Bank (North Country Gazette)
• CAIR Asks FBI to Aid Probe of Fire at Ohio Muslims’ Home (Sacramento Bee)
• Infamous Diamond Thief Pleads Guilty in Chicago (Patch)

By Allan Lengel

This is a goof almost too good to be true.

Mob expert Jerry Capeci of Gang Land News reports that the feds — more specifically, federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security — were a little embarrassed a few weeks ago when they tried arresting Gambino crime family  capo Alphonse Trucchio.

The feds phoned Trucchio and told him to step outside his South Ozone Park, Queens home so they could arrest him on racketeering charges, according to Gang Land News.

Problem was, when Trucchio stepped outside, no one was there, Gang Land reported. Inside, shortly after, the phone rang again.

“If you don’t come outside now, we’re going to break the door down,” warned an agitated agent, Gang Land reported.

“Where are you? I just went outside and there was no one there,” said Trucchio, according to Gang Land.

The agents said they were outside his Howard Beach home.

“I don’t live there anymore,” replied the gangster, according to Gang Land. “I’ve been living here for 10 years…I’m on house arrest on an electronic monitor – and you don’t know where I am?!”

Gang Land reported that he then gave the agents the right address.

Some fed mobster file lost in a New York cab nearly 20 years ago– with an estimated pre-sale worth of $10,000 to $15,000 — are going up for auction at Bonhams New York, the Associated Press reports.

The U.S. government file in a three-ring binder — stamped “Mafia” and “United States Treasury Department Bureau of Narcotics” — includes mug shots, mug shots, criminal associates and favorite hangouts of over 800 Mafia members during the 1950s and early 1960s, AP reported.

AP reported that mobsters Carlo “Don Carlo” Gambino, Meyer Lansky and Salvatore “Lucky Luciano” Lucania each had their own entries.

The file was compiled sometime between 1957 and 1962, AP reported.

AP reported that 50 copies of the file were likely printed, and the one on auction is the only one still in existence.