http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/fbi-...ksEnabled=false

FBI and Brooklyn federal prosecutors go for Mafia summit in Italy
Meetings in Rome and Palermo traded intel on crime families operating in the U.S. and Italy

BY JOHN MARZULLI / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, June 1, 2012, 4:00 AM

THE FEDS and Italian law enforcement officials convened a summit in Rome and Palermo last week targeting Mafia families on both sides of the Atlantic, the Daily News has learned.

A U.S. contingent — led by Janice Fedarcyk, the FBI’s assistant director who heads the New York office, and Belle Chen, the head of the office’s organized crime section — held five days of meetings with their counterparts in Italy.

Four agents and three federal prosecutors from the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office also participated.

“Authorities from both countries are mindful that there are business relations between members of organized crime groups in Italy and New York City,” said FBI spokesman James Margolin.

There were discussions about ongoing investigations and “operational” matters at the high-level sitdowns, two other sources told The News.

Margolin declined to comment on the substance of the trip or whether a mob takedown is imminent.

Italian police were part of the historic roundup of more than 100 mobsters in the U.S. in January 2011 and the takedown of 62 members and associates of the Gambino crime family in 2008.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have identified Sicilian-born gangster Domenico (Dom from 18th Ave.) Cefalu as the current boss of the Gambino family. Cefalu lives with his mother in Bensonhurst and holds a job as a salesman for a baking company. His lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Two powerful Gambino capos, Bartolomeo (Baboots) Vernace and Frank Cali, also have roots in Sicily. Cali is related by marriage to members of the Inzerillo crime family in Palermo.

During the visit, the New York feds attended a memorial service marking the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Italian Judge Giovanni Falcone, who was killed by a roadside bomb gangsters planted.

All five New York crime families have ties to the old country to varying degrees, but the Gambinos currently have the strongest.

Thanks for posting Tag. It makes you wonder what the G's (government and gangsters) got cooking.

No doubt. Whatever it is, it's enough to bring them over there for a meeting. Somebody must be talking in Sicily for this to happen.

There is a lot of news recently on Provenzano and Messina-Denaro and the governor (ex) of Agrigento that just got 7 years for mafia affiliation. Something's going on.

Very interesting to say the least. Good share, C. Makes you wonder if there are American Mafiosi ratting on Sicilian Mafiosi and vice versa. Seems like these guys will do anything to save their own bacon.

Edit: From what we know about each group, do you think it is the American guys cooperating with authorities more than the Sicilians? One would think so?

yes italo-americans cooperate more than sicilians in comparison with the numbers considering that sicilian mafia is about 5 times larger

Wont be surprised if there are coordinated raids in the near future on the east coast and in italy...

carmela:

I'll join the chorus: thank you for posting the article that starts this thread.

I want to add that the FBI and Italian law enforcement have been meeting twice a year since the Italian-American Working Group was struck in 1984 -- see http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2006/may/falcone_051706. Please note that the working group was unfortunately named, as the name might suggest that it is a working group of Italian-Americans rather than a joint Italy-USA working group.

As for the FBI's own tributes to Giovanni Falcone on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his murder, see http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/may/falcone_051712/falcone_051712 and http://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/remembe...-assassination.

Nice tribute pages for Falcone .

You're right about that, and I thank you for posting the tributes as well.

I know that Maurizio Di Gati is still flapping his gums even today. He brought a lot of guys down and from what I hear he still won't shut up. He was a barber, had nothing much to do with mafia, his brother was killed by La Stidda, so he sought revenge, was caught, and couldn't do his time. I think it was only like 6 years he had to do, too.

Also, I don't know if you saw I had posted in the "Zips in 5 families" thread about Andrea Amoddeo being acquitted. We were just discussing him.

http://www.grandangoloagrigento.it/?p=31858

I wish you'd come around here more.

why do sicilians work with LCN?what goods does LCN have to offer,the sicilians cant get from other groups "just around the corner"?cant be drus,humans,counterfeit goods ect.even moey laundering is easier in europe.

carmela:

I did see your post about Andrea Amoddeo. Thank you. Makes you wonder whether it's business as usual in Cattolica Eraclea despite the decimation of the Rizzuto clan in Montreal over the last few years.

I've been here on Gangster BB whenever there's been an important event in the Montreal underworld that needs to be posted. I admit to the Montreal Mafia being one of the subjects I post about the most but I also know power probably won't be consolidated in Montreal for a few more years -- that's just the history of Italian organized crime in North America. Therefore, I try not to reach conclusions too hastily and then post them. Years from now, even when there might be a consensus as to just what happened in Montreal, some of the disproved theories will not die. I ask questions more rather than trying to answer them. So, in that vein, I'm going to ask you and others a question in the "Sal Montagna shot and killed!" thread about a passage in the English edition of the Mafia inc. book. I know you haven't read the book and don't intend to but I think you might be able to offer insight anyway.

I remember reading an interview with a group of former black drug dealers from new york, one of them told a story about a small group of jamaican traffickers who had come to new jersey. He said they didn't last long because they had know connections to the local community or any established groups within the prison system or on the street so that when they got busted the rest either got shot or run out of town. This is probably the reasons that sicilians will work with the lcn because they know the criminal landscape better. If a sicilian mobster comes to the usa looking to set up a cocaine deal he's gonna need help and support. If he goes by himself he could get fucked with, robbed or killed and no ones gonna be able to do anything about.

i read some where the italians send there money to the usa and canada. they have family that buy up realestate with there dirty money and start legit companies, thats a good idea. cause they'll lock you up for just being around the mafia over there. in new york i think the american mob made inroutes with the dominican coke lords in washington heights and other areas. there alot of italian mafia guys down in south america but all the domincans come to ny or the northeast. i read 50 percent of coke is shiped to america threw the island ports d.r. haiti jamica ect. i think someone hit the nail on the head with this leaked press release to the paper about a symbolic raid. in boston the feds did a mob round up on st patys day in 89 or 90 the mob guys had the last laugh after all the senate hearings.

I would say so. There are Rizzuto family members there (by the name of Rizzuto) as well as Caruana's and Cun trera's. I think they are all carrying on with what they do, regardless of Montreal.

Do any of you see any chance of Vito ever seeing rhe streets again?

Soo you think it is business as usualbin Canada regardless of Vito beibg in jail. Are there many other his top associates in jail?

No, I think it's business as usual in Cattolica Eraclea, Agrigento, despite ANYTHING going on in Canada. They're not waiting around for Vito to get out. They don't need him. They're doing their own thing as they always were.

carmela:

I have always been curious as to how dependent the Cattolica Eraclea cosca has or had been on the Rizzuto clan in Montreal; how subservient to the clan, if subservient at all. I understand what you are conveying with what you've written above. But consider another interpretation.

In the 1993 book Deadly silence: Canadian Mafia murders, written by Antonio Nicaso and Peter Edwards, is the following footnote:

*A confidential 1992 Italian police report lists Niccolò [sic] Rizzuto as capo of the Manno crime family of Cattolica Eraclea. The group's legitimate activities are said to involve farming and its crimes include illegal selling of archaeological objects.
-----------

As you very well know, since the publication of this book, others have gone on to dub the crime group the Famiglia Manno-Rizzuto, although I'm fairly certain this is not an official moniker used by law enforcement.

You may recall one of my posts on the RealDeal detailing the crypts for Nino Manno and Giuseppa Cammalleri (Nick Rizzuto Sr.'s parents-in-law) in the Montreal mausoleum where these two individuals are entombed. I'm curious how the two ended up in Montreal, whether they each died there or in Cattolica Eraclea. And of course I wonder whether Nino Manno wielded power over the cosca, from Montreal, up to his death in 1980.

A question for you and others: Assuming that the capomafia of a Sicilian-based cosca could run it from outside Sicily, do you think the official capocosca of Cattolica Eraclea would have taken orders from Vito, Nick Sr., or even Gerlando Sciascia?

It gets so confusing. In my opinion, I don't think the Cattolica Eraclea cosca was subservient to the Rizzuto clan in Montreal. Being neighbors in Agrigento, the Rizzuto and Caruana-Cun trera's were closest allies with one another. A lot had to do with so many of their families marrying into each others families. I know you know all that though from your own research.

I say they are carrying on with business today, regardless of what is happening in Montreal, because they are all over the construction and trucking industry down there. Caruana and Cun trera's are huge there and thriving. But they have moved all thru Agrigento. I've mentioned before there are a lot of C-C's in Porto Empedocle now, too.

In Italy, they are referred to as the Manno-Rizzuto clan. That's all I know on that. Antonio Manno was the capomafia of Cattolica Eraclea. I don't think Nick was ever capo of that town. And as far as legitimate goes, the farming things they were involved in, were not legit...not completely anyway. If by farming, you are including those wind farms? Those are all controlled by mafia.

I am clueless about how Nick's mother and father-in-law ended up in Montreal. That, i could probably get back to you on, though.

no cattolica cosca answers to the mandamento and the agrigento province
the rizzutos answered to the bonannos in the past i really dont know who asnwers today if they are totally independent or not
the caruanas should still answers to agrigento or the regional commission if still exists