RAT IN A TRAP

Mark Rossetti: New England Mob boss who played from both sides of the deck

Mob Capo Mark Rossetti gets 12 years and is further revealed as an upper eschelon player in New England Cosa Nostra whose "controversial relationship with the FBI" one suspects may see him either freed or dead inside twelve.  The case also saw Rossetti associate Joseph Giallanella recieve two years for loan sharking and related charges. No doubt these guys are serious players who we will one day read about.
Ever vigilant Friends of Ours blog compiles a pretty good dossier on Rossetti and the FBI

More from the Boston Herald

Here's a Fox 25 podcast on Rossetti the rat


From Hollywood Goodfella


Here's some conversation on the topic from the ever colourful Gangster BB forum


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SURPRISE, ITS THE MOB WIVES

Mummy what has Daddy got in his violin case?

Mob families are grabbing hot air time like nobody's business these days. I guess everyone likes to hear what it was like when the FBI came through the windows to grab daddy (or more likely when he broke the news that he was a rat and was putting his family into witness protection). Earlier this month Ricki Lake wheeled out the kids of famed mobsters for a strikingly original take on mob family values. "He may have been a cold-blooded psycho killer but  I was always Daddy's little princess" or "We ate pizza and chopped up the bodies together". On this episode she digs deep to find the little known quartet of Karen Gravano (Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, Ramona Rizzo (Benjamin "Lefty" "Two Guns" Rizzo), Linda Scarpo (Gregory "the Killing Machine" Scarpo), and Michael Franzese (John "Sonny" Franzese).

HIT MAN

Former Philly Torpedo and Government witness talks God, bullets, and boy scouts with CBS 60 Minutes

John Veasey, a former hitman for the Philly Mafia who turned rat on his boss John Stanfa was put under the spotlight on 60 Minutes on March 17. Like many before him he claimed that finding God had put him on a new path. He even claims that he was leading a boy scout troop while still acting as a mob assassin. Whether you believe him or not its a fascinating interview and has seen the international press run with the story. Here is the UK's Daily Mail coverage which is quite comprehensive with a bunch of pics.

Read a transcript and watch excerpts including web extras on the CBS website here or watch the whole episode of 60 Minutes here

Veasey was the subject of an e-book The Hit Man a True Story of the Mob, Redemption and the Melrose Diner by Ralph Cipriano and Dave Schratwieser. Buy it here
Here is a review by Philly crime expert George Anastasia

Veasey has been interviewed on TV before:
"Mobster Confessions" on the Discovery Channel

INSIDE THE GANGSTER CODE

Ex-Gambino hood fronts TV prison gang doc

A must watch new TV series on Discovery. Lou Ferrante is inside the gangster code. Former Gambino crime family member Lou Ferrante served his time, read some books, became a born again Jew, and has now wised-up that the real money is in being a media mobster, writing books, advising on movie scripts etc. If he's making less that he was on the streets at least the only people trying to take it away from him are the IRS. He stars in a new documentary series investigating prison gangs around the world. This, of course, is the bollocks. First episode and he's hanging with some heavily inked bad muthafuckers who run their own jail in El Salvador where life comes cheap. Ever the stand up guy at one point Lou gets really outraged when they film a snitch who is getting let off 23 murders. Ultimately he seems to get their respect (everyone likes a Gambino) and comes across as a real dude and not some fake-ass actor like Danny Dyer. Watch it now, watch it here and here.

Or on You Tube

MOB BOSS SHOT IN DARING COPTER CAPER

Greek crime boss shot in failed helicopter prison escape attempt

This sounds more like a movie than the movie itself. Over 500 rounds were fired as associates tried to spring crime boss Panagiotis Vlastos from Trikala jail using a helicopter and a rope-ladder. It was the fourth escape attempt for Vlastos who was shot in the legs and is recovering in prison hospital. No-one was heard to shout "cut!" or complain about the lighting. 

Inevitably the escape attempt got a lot of press coverage. Read reports here (with a picture of the copter closing in) and here and for a profile of Vlastos from the useful Greek Criminal Profiles blog here

Daily Mail and Independent were among others that covered the story.

FAMILY BUSINESS

12-year-old daughter of Bulgarian Mob boss grabbed off street

The Bulgarians prove again that when it comes to crime, they're the daddies. In the latest mob war gambit all rules are torn up as the twelve year old daughter of recently imprisoned mob boss Evelin "Brendo" Banev (above) was kidnapped in Sofia on her way to school. Banev was just sentenced to seven and a half years in prison by a Sofia court and is now awaiting trial in Italy on charges of major cocaine importation. 

BBC news report

Wikipedia

Who is Banev?

Top Bulgarian criminal Evelin Banev aka Brendo, whose daughter was abducted by masked gunmen early on Tuesday, was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison last month.

He was charged with heading an organized crime gang and money laundering.

His accomplices, Monika Dobrinova, Desislava Dishlieva and Simo Karaychev, received a 3-year suspended sentence with a five-year probation period.

Banev and the others are charged with launding over EUR 2 M using a personal account belonging to Konstantin Dishliev, owner of a firm called Private Finance Union, who was killed in 2005.

Dobrinova is Brendo's ex wife, while Dishlieva is Dishliev's widow.

Banev has been known as Bulgaria's "cocaine king." He was born on October 9 1964 in the Black Sea city of Burgas.

Banev was arrested on May 16 2012 in the Black Sea town of Sozopol in an international special police operation codenamed Cocaine Kings, along with 15 other Bulgarians, 12 Italians, one Slovenian, one Romanian, and one Georgian.

In the aftermath of Banev's 2012 arrest, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, stated that Banev had an Interpol arrest warrant in Switzerland on charges of trafficking 10 tons of cocaine from South America to Europe and of money laundering.

EL CHAPO DEATH RUMOURS

Did Public Enemy Number 1 eat hot lead in jungle shootout?

Just after being named as Public Enemy Number One by the city of Chicago, Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was reported to have been gunned down in a shoot-out with police in Guatamala. It sounded all too likely. Two days later, however, and doubts started to emerge. Was it really Guzman who ate hot lead? Was Public Enemy Number 1 still at large and on the lam?

Here is the story as it unfolded. Initial reports said El Chapo was el meurto

The Daily Mail reports the doubts. The Inquisitr pitches in here and the Washington Post here

All in all the whole thing made great copy and kept the psychotic drug kingpin in the news

"EL CHAPO" ES NUMERO UNO

JOAQUIN "EL CHAPO" GUZMAN IS CHICAGO'S PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 1

Vicious drug kingpin Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera lives somewhere in the mountains of western Mexico surrounded by a private army funded by a fortune estimated at over a billion dollars. In Mexico he is already a mythic figure. Now he has rocketed to the top of the criminal elite after being named as Chicago's Public Enemy Number 1, a title that has remained empty since Al Capone in 1930. The decision of the Chicago Crime Commission to make El Chapo numero uno has ensured that his is a trending name on the internet. In reality Guzman has rarely been far from the news since his escape from Federal Prison ten years ago. Since then he has become one of the world's most powerful drug traffickers, an elusive figure based in the remote Sinaloa mountains where he has a robin hood reputation for giving aid to the peasant farmers. Last year Forbes Magazine named him as one of the world's most powerful people. An anti-hero who is fast becoming an icon in popular culture. Only last year rapper Gucci Manne paid tribute to El Chapo. 

 El Chapo remains elusive however. Even photographs believed to be of him are now questioned.

Don't call him Chapo to his face though. It means 'dwarf'. You know what they say "little man big temper". Lets see how long it is before the DEA take him out in a hail of bullets. They have been trying for long enough, and hey, he's undoubtedly working for them anyway. We all know who the real kingpins are. Read more here: Wikipedia  Huffington Post

Some video reportage about Guzman

Here is a BBC documentary about the Mexico drug wars. Crazy place!

GOTTI TRIGGER TAKES A DIVE

Gambino associate John Burke gets life for 1991 gundown 

Is there something in the roids that makes your head grow fat like a watermelon. I think we can rule out size of brain matter. 

John Marzulli in the New York Daily News tells us about the latest Gambino trigger man to pull life after his co-conspirator turns canary. Have you heard this somewhere before? Umerta is as old fashioned as a handle-bar mustache.

Here is his good pal John Alite who turned state's evidence against John Gotti Jnr three years ago. Better hide that neck tat under a good wig in Witness Protection buddy. More from the News here

WILL WHITEY WALK?

Bulger squirms ... but who will have the last laugh?

Who would bet against Boston mob legend Whitey Bulger pulling off one last coup in his crazy charmed  life? I know he's one bad Irish SoB but I can't help hoping that he has the last laugh

LATEST FROM PHILLY

Massive mob trial reaches messy end

Some great scenes in the Philly court. Mob wives in full flow. "Do you have a mother? Or were you found in the gutter?" Manny Ligambi asks the prosecutor. Her son George Borgesi kept it to the point "Fuckin' punk!" he yelled at the Assistant US Attorney. Read it all here fresh from Philly News and here for a summary of the split verdict in this major mob trial. 

You want the word on the street. Who better than Philly's finest on the mob beat George Anastasia 

Here is some recent news video from Fox Philly

Philadelphia News, Weather and Sports from WTXF FOX 29
Some back story collated on Friends of Ours blog here

Some salacious gossip about Georgie boy from that world wide web

THE ART OF FURIOUS SCAMMING

Mobster’s son pleads guilty to fraud, 39 out of 88 counts

Anthony Boscarino's tremendous efforts to scam as many people in as many ways as possible, mainly through sports betting and casino deception and fake investment plans. The Boscarinos are mafia to the core, father Angelo had an appointment with an icepick in Chicago in 1967 after the bosses thought he was singing to the feds. Son Anthony is mostly about internet scamming so you have to hand it to this guy for being a 21st century crim, and he was also extremely persistent. Read the full story reported in the Arizona Republic here   Read some back story and here from the Chicago Sun Times, a good crime rag, and they picked it up in Vegas too. Here is some internet forum with discussion between people who got scammed, an interesting read.

Grandpa Hassan bites the dust

After a good meal Grandpa Hassan bites the dust

Russian mobster gunned down outside Moscow restaurant, turf war fears

Aslan Usoyan better known as Grandpa Hassan, 75, was shot by a sniper in Moscow as he left his favorite restaurant. His fortune came from control of Sochi site of next year's Winter Olympics and a bottomless pot of rubles in construction work and unions.

Here is the Guardian's article on it: http://gu.com/p/3dh9y

Informed coverage from some specialist websites like Russian Criminal Tattoo blog and a couple of posts from In Moscow's Shadows blog and here

Watch an English news report here

here is one that he survived from two years ago

Joe "the Boss" Massino testifies against Vinny Gorgeous

Joe "the Boss" Massino testifies against Vinny Gorgeous 

He sings like a canary!

This is not very visual but someone has just posted the whole of Joe Massino's April 2011 testimony against Vincent  "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano. Its in four parts. Long but interesting.
Here is some of the background to the case from the ever dependable George Anastasia

Here is part four of the Massino testimony - go to You Tube to find the other three parts.

And in case you want to know more about the first sitting boss to turn rat! 

Bulgarian mobster Zlatko the Beret eats lead!

Bulgarian mobster Zlatko the Beret eats lead!

Gunned down outside the central courts!

Who tried to whack the Beret outside the central court house in Sofia? As we all know Bulgaria breeds some of Europe's finest gangsters. Zlatomir Ivanov otherwise known as Zlatko The Beret is straight out of central casting. Trained as a wrestler. He used to work for the government special forces (thus the beret). A finer pedigree would be hard to find. He is of course a businessman who owns half of Sofia.The implications of this attempted hit are fairly clear. Mob wars are on the cards. Business as usual in Bulgaria.
Here is some news footage of Ivanov just after being shot four times. He must have crawled into the courthouse.

Read more about the Beret here from Emma Reynolds in the Daily Mail 

Some coverage in the Bulgarian press here and here