The FBI is still chasing other remaining LCN families around and we're seeing ongoing indictments in other cities. And if the FBI in Detroit doesn't want to do it, there's also local law enforcement. Cases, especially over the long term, reflect the level of activity. And we haven't seen much of either in Detroit in recent years.

I agree, but local LE hasn't done much to crack down on booking either over here. And when they have, it was usually for very large-scale operations. And the case that wasn't so big (under a couple hundred thousand) was a dirty cop in Flat Rock, IIRC, and he was pinched because his superiors heard him talking about it. The idiot was even collecting debts from his police cruiser.

The cities that used to vigorously crackdown on gambling -- Roseville, Warren, and the Shores -- aren't doing so much of it, considering the whole area (which used to be working middle-class) isn't really the same. Meaning, there's a LOT more crime. And with the housing market in the toilet, all those houses became affordable for Detroit trash to come up and buy.

Again, the lack of cases also corresponds to how much money many of these guys are bringing in -- not much at all.

As for yesteryear, below is a list of Detroit LCN cases (both state and federal) between 1990 and 2000. Cases have always been rare, and you'll note that it was mostly the top-earners of the family who repeatedly got arrested during this timeframe:

1991 - Jackie "The Kid" Giac, Antonio Foglia, Allen Hilf, and several others were indicted on multiple RICO violations and were convicted of running an illegal gambling business and interstate travel in aid of racketeering.

1992 - Vito Giac and Jackie "The Kid" Giac were indicted and convicted of multiple counts of felony tax evasion, aiding and abetting, and conspiracy.

Frankie "The Bomb" Bommarito was charged and convicted of felony false pretenses in Macomb County, and was sentenced to six months in MCJ. Apparently, the case originated from an automobile scam.

Carlo Bommarito was arrested on multiple counts of armed robbery and felony firearm violations in Oakland County. He was later acquitted on the vast majority of the charges, and was sentenced to time-served on the firearm conviction.

Jack Lucido and several others were indicted on multiple RICO counts for running an illegal gambling business, money laundering, and aiding and abetting from a bookmaking operation in Oakland County.

1993 - Salvatore "Mops" Tocco, Phillip Zerilli, Sebastian Lucido, Jack Lucido, Dominic "Big Dom" Vivio and several others were indicted and convicted of multiple counts of laundering of monetary instruments, structuring of financial transactions to evade reporting requirements, and conspiracy.

Isodoro "Teddy San Diego" Matranga, and several others, were indicted on several dozen counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, aiding and abetting and conspiracy in southern California.

Frankie "The Bomb" Bommarito and Carlo Bommarito were arrested and convicted on multiple counts of felony arson and MDOP. Frankie was acquitted, but Carlo pled guilty and was sentenced to probation and time-served (he had already served 9 months with a $125,000 bond over his head.)

1994 - Davey "Ace" Aceto was arrested in Roseville on multiple felonies for a bookmaking operation. He was sentenced to probation.

1995 - Nove Tocco and Paul Corrado were indicted on multiple felony firearm violations for detonating homemade bombs in furtherance of their extortionate/shake-down scheme (this case was directly related to the infamous "Gamtax" RICO trial a year later.)

Peter "Petey Boy" Messina, Joe Messina, Thomas Mackey, and several others were arrested in Roseville for conducting an illegal gambling operation and possession of police scanners.

1996 - Carlo Bommarito was indicted and convicted of conspiracy and theft of goods from an interstate shipment (a caterpillar).

The big Gamtax bust involving the entire hierarchy of the Family.

1998 - Peter "Petey Boy" Messina was indicted and convicted of wire fraud and aiding and abetting.

I'd also like to add that in the 1980's, there were even fewer cases, which is even more strange, since they were still actively engaged in labor racketeering and absolutely in touch with other crime families at this point and time.

1984: Anthony "Tony Pal" Palazzolo, Samuel Giordano, and several other non-Italian associates were busted over extorting someone for about $154,000 over a card game.

1986: Nove Tocco and several others were federally indicted and convicted for distributing cocaine.

1987: Vito Giac, Jackie "The Kid" Giac, Michael Polizzi, and others were busted over the Fresh Farms Produce extortionate scheme / booking operation.

I'm sure there were other smaller, county-prosecuted busts like the ones mentioned in the 1990's. But I couldn't find anything other than the federal cases above, although I believe there was a (small) MSP-prosecuted bookmaking bust involving Specs and Versaci (recently passed) around the time Tony Pal was busted. Even in the 1970's, you had few federal indictments: Tony Z getting nearly a decade (in 1972, IIRC) for the Frontier Casino, Tony Giac getting convicted for tax evasion in 1976, and then getting convicted for extortion in 1979. And he was the public enemy in those days for obvious reasons. Also, Jack Tocco and a couple of others were indicted in a (minor) bankruptcy fraud case, but it was thrown out.

The giant 1996 indictment has a drop-off in overt acts between about 1982 and 1991, which is when Nove Tocco and Paul Corrado started their half-assed extortionate scheme. I've said it before on the other forum, if it wasn't for them, odds are very strong that Jack Tocco never would have seen a conviction in his life. And he has been the official boss of the Detroit family for nearly 35 years.

Remember, 1996 was the first and only time the FBI proved in front of a jury that a crime family even existed in the area. And that was only possible because of Nove Tocco (who eventually ratted) and Paul Corrado, quite possibly the biggest idiots to ever get made in that Family.

The Detroit FBI had an agenda to pursue in the 1990's -- they had been trying to get Tocco convicted for decades, and they finally hit the jackpot with those two mentioned above. They had a squad devoted to attacking the family, and produced very few, minor cases, which often resulted in sentences of 2-3 years or less. And, in the 1980's, they WERE still a powerful small family. The feds had NO excuses to bring so few (and minor) cases forward.

As for their membership numbers, I found what I was looking for: the U.S. Senate hearings on LCN in 1984 showed Detroit down to 23 members. This was bumped back up to ~30 in 1996 (after a number of deaths of the members who made up that 1984 total, so at least 10 men were made during those 10-12 years). I said it on the other forum, if 1995 was the last ceremony, Detroit would be down to about 18-20 made members. But that'd be assuming there hasn't been a ceremony in nearly 20 years, which is very difficult to believe. The FBI even asserted upon Tocco's release in 2003 (or maybe 2004) that Tocco continued to head the Family. It's a tradition, everyone knows this. Jackie's an old-school, albeit very greedy person, and has waited many years for the top spot. I just can't see him allowing the tradition to fall apart. He wants his tribute money, to say the least.

MacombGuy, great info! You and I seem to share the same views on the topic.

What is your username on the other site (if you're referring to the Real Deal)?

Thanks! Not on the RD, unfortunately. But I post occasionally on the BH forum.

Ahhh gotcha. What site is the BH forum on? Don't think I've heard of it before.

Oh, and check your PM's.

local law enforcement is scrapping up dead bodies off the pavement

each fbi locale has their own mandates

I can guarantee you that Detroit's fbi agenda ain't mobwatching

they have blacks, Asians, and arabs to watch in metro detroit

Hi guys. Newbie here. Nice site and nice post.

My two cents:

1. Define powerful?

Is it better to have 20 made guys and clear $200 Million, or have 200 made guys and clear 200 million, after incarcerations, trials, hits and general ass aches associated with 150 of your 200 guys having their head up their asses, ie, doing stupid shite and screwing each other over?

2. Detroit is very low profile.

3. FBI is balls deep in terrorism cases. They still hit LCN hard in NYC because NYC LCN is high profile and can get more out of control than other places. IMO. So, LCN is not even on the radar outside of NYC and CHI. Heck, OC is barely on the radar.

4. Detroit LCN is very educated. They know what they are doing and don't waste time, energy, resources screwing each other over. The benefit of being smaller is plenty to go around. Less jealousy.

5. Just because not alot of prosecutions does not mean lack of activity. Just not a focus of FBI outside of NYC and CHI.

6. Leagalized gambling in Windsor may steal some gambling opps, but creates a ton more shylock opps. More gambling equals more broke players trying to get even.

7. Somebody is selling dope wholesale to the street dealers, or at a min, financing the dope wholesalers.

I think Detroit is small in numbers, but could be the most profiable, per member, than any other family. They may have they best business model going.

Just my 2 cents. Enjoyed your posts. Peace, out.

Several factors can go into that. Size. Wealth. Diversity of operations. Geographic scope. Stability. Longetivity. Etc.



Except Detroit isn't making anywhere near the money the NY families are.

And, for all this talk about the NY guys being stupid and what not, the crazy Colombos (because of their size alone) will be around long after Detroit is just a memory.



Easy to do when you're on your last legs.



The terrorism excuse has already been tried. And failed. Even the FBI's NY mob squads have been continually reduced since 9/11. But we still see plenty of mob cases.

But even if you want to make NY the exception, we've still seen plenty of cases in New England, Philadelphia, and Chicago as well. So, this claim that Detroit is just different doesn't hold water.



The "Detroit is smarter" argument has also been tried. And failed. There's really no evidence for that.



That's exactly what it means. Especially over the long term. It's not a coincidence that most mob cases are found in NY and none in Dallas.



Yeah, the Mexican DTO's.



What are you basing this on?

I do not think Detroit LCN is missing out on the Detroit drug trade, at a high level.

Might not be LCN in Dallas, I have no idea, but in Detroit they are happy to not in the spotlight.

Just like saying LCN is dead in cleveland. Total BS. The FBI has an ongoing goverment corruption case going on that sent politicians and judges to jail, within the last 2 years. Lots of construction graft on goverment jobs.....trust me, if they cranked up LCN invetigation in Detroit to the same priority of NYC, the indictemnts would increase. which would not mean that the crime is new to the area.

You can think whatever you want but there's zero proof that Detroit has little to any involvement in the drug trade. When was the last time there was any kind of mob-related drug bust there, much less a significant one? Somebody mentioned Vito Parisi being busted for marijuana earlier this year but that's one guy and he was an associate of turncoat Nove Tocco. So we can't assume it really was even mob connected. What's left of the Detroit mob is primarily bookies and loansharks in the city's east suburbs. From what I can tell by looking at the available evidence, they want nothing to do with the city's drug trade, which is run by Mexican DTO's and black street gangs.



I'm sure any mobster is happy to not be in the spotlight but there's a reason why the ones left in Detroit are not a big priority for law enforcement.



The DiMora case hardly shows there is still a formally structured, viable mob family in Cleveland. The mob connections in the case were scarce and peripheral at best. The number of actual made guys in Cleveland is below 10 at this point and the FBI hasn't included Cleveland among the remaining families it still recognizes in years.




They would never crank up Detroit investigations to that level because there is no need to. The reason there aren't many mob busts there now is precisely because there isn't much left of the mob in Detroit, relatively speaking.

Your about to be made to look like the uninformed , law enforcement fanboy that you are
If only that juvenile probation officer job payed you more, then you could have access to pacer
Listen next time I fuck sheilisa, I tell her to give u a raise
Anyways, theres been about a dozen indictments since 06 and certainly more discernable activity than the decalvacantes
Since the 1990s there have been about half a dozen indictments involving drugs,
The issue for you is the media doesn't report these things
But the Feds are still indicting them and they're are still doing what they do, which is gambling and loans and drugs and extorting strip clubs
Are they as strong as ny or chicago, no
But seeing what I've seen I would now put them above nj, ne and philly

2006

Jackie Giacalone, Peter Tocco, David Aceto, Dominic Corrado, and numerous Detroit associates were indicted on multiple RICO violations for running an illegal gambling business, extortion, and money laundering. Henry Allen Hilf and "Cousin Paulie" Corrado were also named in the indictment, but not charged.

Mike Katranis was arrested and convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. St. Clair Shores police department discovered an unregistered gun in possession while conducting an investigation into illegal gambling in 2005.

Gerard DeMichele was arrested on misdemeanor charges in Sterling Heights for holding a poker game.

2007
David “Ace” Aceto was arrested and convicted of felony larceny in Macomb County.

Pasquale “Pat” and Henry Paniccia (Bommarito/Corrado associates) were arrested on multiple felonies for running an illegal gambling operation in Roseville, which included sports-betting and slot machines.

2008
Anthony Cimini, Jr. was arrested and convicted of multiple counts of uttering and publishing in Macomb County, and served several months in MCJ.

2009
Mitchel Karam, a Detroit associate, was indicted along with several others for wire fraud, bribery, mail fraud, and conspiracy as a result of a point-shaving scheme in Toledo, Ohio.

Joseph “Joe White” Giacalone was convicted of felony false pretenses in Genesee County stemming from a massive $1.2M scam involving government loans.

Daniel and Doug Hogan were arrested by Canadian police for running an illegal gambling operation in Windsor, Ontario.
2010

Mitchel Karam, a Detroit associate, was indicted on several counts of bank fraud, wire fraud, and frauds and swindles after defrauding the Macomb Community Bank for many houndreds of thousands of dollars from about 2003 through about 2009.

2011
Giesuppe “Joe the Hood” D’Anna and Girolamo “Mimo” D’Anna were arrested in Shelby Twp. on charges of assault with intent to commit murder, extortion, and witness intimidation. Charges were dramatically reduced and they were sentenced to probation, in addition to a couple of months in MCJ.

2013
Giesuppe “Joe the Hood” D’Anna and Girolamo “Mimo” D’Anna were indicted on multiple counts of extortion. The indictment also alledged that the brothers had actively engaged in extortionate activity in Sicily, and were under investigation by the Italian government in early-2000's.

Vito Parisi, a long-time associate and Frank Bommarito's brother-in-law, was arrested and convicted of manufacturing and delivering marijuana in Macomb County, and was sentenced to probation.

Luciano Gianino, Thomas Mackey, and others were arrested in Clinton Twp. on multiple gambling violations stemming from a bookmaking operation.

--------------------------------

It should be noted that this is merely a partial list of Detroit-related cases since 2006. I do not have access to some things, and the one true search engine for dropped cases / misdemeanors in Michigan costs a fortune. Even more than FOIA requests.

I've already made my points loud and clear on multiple forums. And there's really no reason for one to keep saying the same things, over and over again.

As for the most recent case (a few weeks ago), I'm still waiting to get better details once their case gets bound over to Circuit Court.

If Detroit is on their last leg, then so is the DeCavalcante family. No doubt about it.

Hi Johnny,

LCN in Cleveland is finished, has been for years as far as structure and family is concerned...Sure, there may be some independents still making book, but with only Joe Iacabacci and RJ Papalardo on the street and neither one of them were ever a force with Cleveland...I have done extensive research for Pittsburgh/Youngstown/Cleveland, my area of expertise and while government corruption may still be going on in Cleveland, LCN activity is NOT.

It's hard to conceive that Detroit had more made guys that Chicago...Don't believe it, need to see proof by FBI.

Ivy,

There are two made guys in Cleveland...Joe "Loose" Iacabacci and RJ Papalardo...This has been confirmed by SA Bob Hawk...There has NEVER been a making ceremony after Lonardo flipped and Licavoli went to prison...Wherever you got less than 10 made guys, that's ridiculous. I've been researching this for almost 15 years...EVERY LE official, AG, FBI, IRS has confirmed this.

Another fantastic list Macomb.

Don't forget the possible Detroit LCN connected murders in that time frame.

Gary Lupiloff- 2010. Conman associated with Detroit LCN figures

David Widlak-2010. Bank Executive found shot execution style. Former Macomb County prosecutor Carl Marlinga states it is connected to Organized Crime.

Richard Loury-2006. Pitt Boss of the Greektown Casino, the only Detroit Casino with alleged LCN ties. Killed with the same MO as Gerry Bianchette in 2002. Shotgunned in the chest, then closeup headshot. Nothing taken from the victim.

Bullshit! *cough*

I'd place Detroit at #9, right above the DeCavalcante family.

Macomb nice research...glad someone finally burned the LE fanboy with his own fire.

I'm skeptical of claims that "Detorit is dead" and I think it's more active these days than most people think. But to say that it's running a number of associates on the street in numbers comparable to the Outfit or in numbers right behind in ranking to the smallest NYC family is ridiculous.

But just to play devil's advocate on McComb's post: most of these names are Irish or Arab; some reports from Detroit say that black gangs control drugs on the street and that Arab OC from Dearborn are rising stars in drug wholesaling and white collar.

McComb; are these non-Italian guys you're citing confirmed Partnership associates or just guys getting busted for OC-like activity who could associates?

I don't think lack of busts is evidence for non-existence, the FBI is not a monolith an different FBI offices have different priorities. The priorities of the Detroit Special Agent in Charge might not going to be the same as the SAC in Boston or NYC. You also have to factor in to the resources that an office has to play with those priorities. Detroit has a large Arab population (terrorism surveillance), a big drug problem (street gangs), an international border (smuggling/customs bribing), and a bankrupt police force (little local police cooperation) for that FBI office to deal with, any one of those issues could take presidence over a local LCN family thought by many to be near extinction for that FBI office.

As for the non-Italians, Katrinas is the son of "Pete The Greek" Katrinas, and their ties to LCN go back many, many decades. He is close with Jackie Giacalone, who is the current AB.

Mitchell Karam's ties to the family also goes back many decades, namely with the Lucidos, but also with the Giacalones.

Thomas Mackey is very close with Peter Tocco (capo).

Off the top of my head, I forgot who the Hogans (Windsor) are directly affiliated with.

Detroit is a dream.

Racial composition and economic allocation of wealth point to little to no basis for any large Italian OC basis.

There is relatively a small Italian ethnic component. And more importantly a smaller poor Italian ethnic component.

The odd bookie a family does not make.

If Philly, Chicago and NE are struggling to support the next generation of Italian OC, what chance does anyone honestly think DETROIT has? Seriously.
Even the boys in NY were heard bitching about the lack of new blood.

DETROIT IS A DREAM.

Let it go.

Sonny, you don't know what you're talking about. They don't need a large Italian population since most of the people involved are all related.

Genius, the Detroit LCN does 90% of its business OUTSIDE of Detroit proper, in the suburbs where there is "economic allocation of wealth", and a predominantly white operating area. There's approximately 5 million the in Metro Area, 250,000 of those have Italian ancestry. Did you honestly think they only operated in Detroit? That's laughable. Only 700,000 welfare dependent laggards are left in the city, why would the mob stay there, when they can follow the money to the suburbs who has judges who likes to give out light sentences?

You're also forgetting the often mentioned, but mostly misunderstood importance of the blood connections the family has. Same 3 founding families still rule today, the Tocco's, Giacalone's and Corrado's, with the Zerilli clan now MIA. That doesn't exist in Philly, or in NE, or even NY, at least not to the extent it exists in METRO Detroit.

My mom used to call me a genuis too.
If two people say it...

Crime is a socio-economic issue. White kids in the burbs can play at LCN, but aint doing time.

Detroit LCN is top heavy at best. A bunch of geriatrics playing consigliere', couple of their older kids playing soldier.
But a sustainable familglia this, dont make.

Last legs at best.

Sonny 'Genuis' Blackensteiner.

Are you basing your stance on anything concrete, or do you think you sound smart when you condescend?

I respond there's little activity left in Detroit proper, now you say it's wannabe crackers in the burbs? Pick one stance.

And those who are active, made guys, aren't wannabe young punks, they're second or third generation of those mentioned founding families.

It's like a close-minded Kindergarten around here.

I agree about no guys getting made in Cleveland since Lonardo went to prison. My point was unmade, but still heavilly connected contractors still know the govt contract game. Bribes for inside info on bids....inspections, etc...

Nice points Tony Pro.

Good ol' Louie. As delusional as ever.

A dozen indictments since 2006? The devil is in the details. Many of them, including the ones Macomb guy posted, are penny ante stuff. Which we still see in places like Rochester and Pittsburgh. Really significant mob cases in Detroit are few and far between these days.



Certainly not more discernible activity. The Detroit mob hasn't had anything remotely close to the big DeCavalcante bust in the late 1990's/early 2000's since forever. Now that said, I'm inclined to believe that the DeCavalcantes are not far behind Detroit when it comes to being defunct.



How about we keep it to 2000 and on so we aren't talking about ancient history here. And I'm certainly not aware of the Detroit mob being involved in anywhere near that many drug cases over that time. And I doubt you have any info to show otherwise.



This is why I can't take you seriously, Louie. You talk out of your ass. If you look at the mob cases in Detroit, and compare them to those in New England or Philadelphia over the same time period, there's no comparison. Either of those families are far more active than Detroit. Not to mention significantly larger. That is, unless you want to believe certain bogus and inflated charts floating around (which I know you do).

Anyway, as far as Detroit goes, gambling and loans? Yes. Drugs? There's virtually zero evidence of that. And extorting strip clubs? We've seen plenty of evidence of that in recent cases in New England (and of course New York). But where are examples of that in Detroit?



As I said above, I agree that both are. Detroit certainly is and New Jersey doesn't appear to be far behind.



That's a good point. Chicago has 25-30 made members. Are we really to believe Detroit has twice that many? Especially when they were put at 30 members at most in 1996 and again in 2001? If Chicago has lost nearly half it's membership since that time, are we supposed to believe Detroit has somehow managed to not only remain at that level but actually increase in size? Anyone who believes that is engaged in wishful thinking.



While it wouldn't necessarily surprise me if Cleveland only had two members left, I've seen 8 living guys said to be made -

1. William "Billy" DeNova/71
2. William "Billy D" Dileno/75
3. Joseph "Joe Loose" Iacobacci/62
4. John Iorillo/68
5. Ronald Lucarelli Jr/53
6. John Oliverio/59
7. Russell Papalardo/70
8. Anthony Velotta/70



Dream on, Fraudo.

First, it seems you only give a hoot about research when it says what you like. Second, I was already aware of about a third of those cases he listed. As for the rest, which I will have to check on as far as possible, the devil is in the details, as I told Louie above. Do we see evidence of a large, diversified, highly active family in those cases? Not by the standards I'm going by. They'd be dead last of the remaining LCN families in the U.S.



It depends on how you define "dead." I've never said Detroit was "dead." Dallas is dead. San Francisco is dead. But there's a difference between being dead and no longer being a formally structured, viable family. And I'm not necessarily even saying Detroit isn't that. I've repeatedly said people are free to go either way on Detroit because official opinions differ. But what people aren't free to do is say that Detroit is bigger or stronger than it really is. Especially when there's little evidence of their claims.

As for FBI investigative priorities in Detroit, yes, you have terrorism, street gangs, etc. But those explanations only go so far. You have these same problems in other cities where we still see far more mob cases. And over the long run, we should be seeing more cases in Detroit if the mob there was still as potent as some claim. But we don't. Of course, that's when people then turn to the "Detroit is just smarter" argument.



A rather good way to describe Detroit. Of course, as we've seen, there are people who want to hold onto a dream of something more. I wonder what these folks will say in another decade when we've still seen little in the way of mob cases out of Detroit?