Three Distinct Factions Emerging In Suddenly-Uneasy Gambino Mob Ecosystem, Two From Gotti Era

March 31, 2025 — Over the past year or so, the Gambino mob has split into a trio of factions vying for money and status in the Brooklyn-based borgata; one being the ruling Sicilian branch of the crime family from the 18th Avenue “Zip” crew led by boss Domenico (Italian Dom) Cefalu and acting boss Lorenzo Mannino, one being loyal to skipper Nicholas (Little Nicky) Corozzo and still another being loyal to Queens capo Gene Gotti, according to multiple sources with first-hand knowledge of the developing situation in the Gambino borgata.

The shadowy Cefalu, 78, took power in the Gambino mob in the late 2000s, as the Gotti regime faded due to defections and general gangland attrition. Cefalu and Mannino, 66, came up in the Gambino organization during the glitzy and cohesive Gotti Era and until recently, never had any problems from the old-school Gotti camp. Cefalu’s Sicilian faction even named three ex-Gotti lieutenants, Lenny (The Conductor) DiMaria, Michael (Mickey Boy) Paradiso and Louis (Big Louie) Vallario to Gambino syndicate administration posts, as underboss and the crime family’s last two consiglieres, respectively.

However, in the last 15 months, uneasiness has crept into the Gambinos’ leadership-dynamic and tensions subsequently developed between opposing eras of the crime family, per sources on both sides of the law. And “Little Nicky” Corozzo and Gene Gotti want bigger pieces of the proverbial pie even in their old age, these sources. Two separate “LCN insiders” say Cefalu and Mannino are being pressured to step down and cede power to the remnants of the Gotti regime. They arrived as a united front at the wake and funeral for longtime Gambino button man Phil (The Professor) Modica last week, per a Gangland News dispatch. Per GR sourcing, Corozzo and Gotti also attended the wake and funeral and were each holding court in separate parts of the funeral parlor.

Corozzo, 85, vigorously campaigned for a promotion to consigliere to no avail and isn’t happy with Cefalu and Mannino selecting Vallario instead of him and excluding him from certain decision-making scenarios, sources claim. Exclusive GR sources allege Corozzo’s home was vandalized last month and Corozzo is being vocal in his displeasure with things in the Gambino mob right now. Little Nicky and his younger brother and former Gambino mob consigliere Joseph (Jo Jo) Corozzo (d. 2024) held significant day-to-day juice in the borgata during the 1990s and 2000s prior to being sent to the can. Some informants called them the de-facto bosses once John Gotti got put away for life in 1992. Corozzo’s best friend is Lenny DiMaria and DiMaria, 83 and the picture of a level-minded gangland diplomat and politician, is running interference for him with Cefalu and Mannino sources say.

Upon his release from a three-decade prison bid for racketeering and narcotics trafficking in the late 2010s, Gene Gotti, 79, was content with a low-key advisory role to “Italian Dom.” but those circumstances only lasted so long and at the same time Corozzo was lobbying for a bump-up, Gotti was expressing his own desire for more shot-calling authority, sources say. A rumor that circulated around Christmas was that Gotti would be moved into the underboss spot when Lenny DiMaria retires in the near future. Gotti, though, isn’t happy with current arrangements in the Gambino hierarchy either and is making it known. GR sources emphasize Gotti isn’t allied with Corozzo in his stance and he and his followers are a separate entity from Little Nicky despite their history under Gotti’s brothers and nephew’s regime.

Is that from that idiot Scott Bernstein?

All I know is that its fucking great that Gene Gotti is now taking the family back where it belongs. Under his leadership.

John is smiling down from Heaven.

Haha exaggeration is also a profession. But at least we see the Five Families are not dead yet.

Corozzo needs to take care of his house first before asking for administration position. Gotti has been asking for loan sharking, gambling operations, business that belonged to members and associates before they went away to prison and came back out. Not all of it but some of it for fairness. The administration is a little weary of Queens right now, and has made a couple of changes to a couple of Brooklyn regimes not too long ago, supposedly on the advice of Joe Gambino. I wonder where Caesar Gurino and Michael Riccaforte stand in all this.

It's hard to tell a Scott Bernstein story from an April Fools joke. It's like every week is April First for him,

Lol Scott Burnstein strives to be Giacomo Vicari. He wishes he had sources in every family and knows every conversation that took place since the beginning of the Mafia like Giacomo Vicari does. Both are fucking clowns telling jokes

Oh yes, I graduated from clown school back when Usher had the number one song of the year. It's not much, but a ok living. How's your journalism going?

Back to topic. No one is trying to push Lorenzo Mannino out. Rumor for a couple of years now has been Cefalu thinking of stepping down and looking to make sure there is a solid administration in place before he does so.

Lorenzo is a Mannino Cosa Nostra Royalty.

a few thoughts;
i can believe that there still exists gambino members loyal to the gotti family. as to why anyone would is anyones guess. john gotti, junior and peter were utter disasters as leaders of the gambino family, history has only been more un kind to their respective regimes. the gambino family after decades of indictments finally rids itself of the gotti influence and begins to right the ship under cefalu and cali then maninno. as mentioned above maninno is well respected across the board and the pond with allies in sicily.

so why, and i have asked this before would the gambinos feel some misguided loyalty to gene gotti, outside of thank you for not ratting and doing 30 years for the family. also why would gene after such a long sentence feel the need to inset himself back into a life of crime?
broke?
delusional about authority and place in family?

or all of this is entirely made up?

we will see i guess.

Speaking of the Manninos. In July 2021 Calogero Mannino, 42, took his own life in Torretta, a stronghold of the "escaped" and always linked to the New York gangs. Mannino was a son of Giovanni Angelo Mannino, 69, and nephew of Ignazio Antonino Mannino, 64, who were arrested in the Crystal Palace anti-mafia operation in Torretta , a town in the province of Palermo. The reasons for the act are unknown.

April 3, 2025 — From the end of the pandemic lockdowns forward, Gambino mob power Gene Gotti, slowly, but surely gobbled up territory, politicked with all the right people throughout the Big Apple and successfully wrangled back control of the Gambinos’ entire Queens faction for the Gotti mafia brand, per exclusive GR sources. Gotti, 79, leads one of three developing factions within the Gambino mob right now, along with the ruling Sicilian faction of the borgata and longtime Brooklyn skipper Nicholas (Little Nicky) Corozzo, a former Gotti camp loyalist. He got out of a three-decade bid in the feds for drug trafficking and racketeering in 2018 and playing it lowkey for a few years, steadily eased his way back into the mix in the Gambino crime family, according to sources in Queens and Brooklyn. “Little Nicky” did 11 years on a separate case and got out in 2019.

These Queens and Brooklyn sources claim Gotti commands his Queens troops by way of Gambino captains and Gotti stalwarts Thomas (Tommy Sneakers) Cacciopoli, Thomas (Monk) Sassano and Mike (The Rock) Roccaforte, using a Brooklyn restaurant and catering hall owned by a reputed mob associate with no criminal record, but an LCN lineage, as a nerve center for his activities and relaying messages and orders to the street. Roccaforte, 48, is allegedly “Monk” Sassano’s acting capo. The 78-year old Sassano is semi-retired these days, spending much of the year in Florida. “Tommy Sneakers,” 75, did a three piece in the can for extorting trucking companies making deliveries to NASCAR events in Staten Island and besides Queens, maintains turf in Manhattan, Westchester County and New Jersey.

The heavily-celebrated and well-chronicled Gotti Era of the Gambino crime family in the 1980s, 90s and 2000s captivated the masses and became embedded in American pop-culture and gangland lore simultaneously. Gene Gotti went to prison in 1989, four years after his older brother John, orchestrated the assassination of Gambino mob don Paul Castellano and seized power for himself and the Queens faction of the crime family. His nephew, John (Junior) Gotti and his other brother Pete (Petey One Eye) Gotti, ran the Gambino organization in the years following the elder John Gotti’s conviction at a murder and racketeering trial in 1992, while he was away at college as a guest of Uncle Sam.

The Sicilians grabbed the reins from the Gotti regime in a peaceful transfer of authority in the late 2000s. Gotti Era initiates Domenico (Italian Dom) Cefalu and Lorenzo Mannino are boss and acting boss, respectively, and leaders of the Gambinos’ Sicilian faction. “Junior” Gotti is retired. Petey One-Eye died of COVID-19 in the joint in 2021. After a dozen years of smooth waters and free sailing in the boss’s seat, Cefalu is alleged to have encountered some pushback from old Gotti Era guys, like Gene Gotti and Little Nicky Corozzo.

Although satiated at first with being used as a sounding board for decisions by Cefalu and Mannino, as Gotti got better acclimated to the modern-day mob landscape, he began pressing for more say-so in Gambino affairs, allege sources. According to the same sources, Corozzo, 85, feverishly campaigned for the borgata’s consigliere position in 2023 and part of 2024 until he was ultimately passed over for another ex-Gotti guy, Louis (Big Louie) Vallario in a snub Corozzo took very personally. Sources claim Gotti has expressed an interest in the underboss spot in the administration when Little Nicky’s best friend, 83-year old Lenny (The Conductor) DiMaria, retires. Known for his connections and diplomacy, DiMaria is the man who is refereeing the internal dispute, keeping everyone calm and open-minded, and negotiations to resolve differences ongoing, per sources with first-hand knowledge of the precarious situation.

GR sources say, at first, Cefalu and Mannino’s plan to fend off potential pockets of resistance from the Gotti camp by naming less-confrontational, more diplomatic Gotti Era figures like DiMaria and Vallario to administrative posts looked to be sound thinking and most of all working, however, now the desired effect seems to be waning. Two separate sources claim Cefalu, 78, and Mannino, 66, were asked to step down and that they refused and the issue hasn’t been brought up again. Corozzo’s house was vandalized in February, per sources, in an incident that is not yet been confirmed to be related to the current tensions within the Gambinos.

Who are the sources?

In my opinion without concrete sources, just speculation to create conversation.

...tutti fantasia

It's hard to believe, very hard to believe, that Cefalu and Mannino were asked to step-down