http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/10...mepage-featured

Matthew Madonna, an alleged ruling boss of the New York-based Lucchese crime family, was sentenced to five years in state prison for his role in a multi-billion dollar gambling ring, authorities said.

Madonna, of Selden, N.Y., controlled the organized crime family's gambling operations and pleaded guilty in June to racketeering charges. He was sentenced to five years in New Jersey State Prison in Trenton by Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto in Morris County.

Acting Attorney General John Hoffman said in a statement Thursday the charges stemmed from a 2007 investigation by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice dubbed "Operation Heat." The investigation uncovered an "international criminal gambling enterprise" that saw $2.2 billion in wagers shuttled between password-protected websites and a Costa Rican "wire room," authorities said.

They claim Madonna is a member of the "three-man ruling panel" of the Lucchese operation.

MORE: 6 Lucchese crime family members admit to massive gambling ring

"Through our far-reaching investigation into this multi-billion dollar criminal gambling enterprise, we built a racketeering case that extended to the top bosses of the Lucchese crime family in New York," Hoffman said.

The investigation led to charges for 32 people ranging from racketeering and money laundering to weapons possession and tax evasion related to the gambling scheme.

It also uncovered an operation involving a former state corrections officer and a member of the Bloods street gang, who conspired with the Lucchese family to smuggle drugs and pre-paid cell phones into East Jersey State Prison, authorities said.

Another alleged Lucchese underboss, 64-year-old Martin Taccetta, was also sentenced yesterday for his role in the scheme, receiving eight years in state prison. But Taccetta is already in prison, serving a life sentence on a 1993 racketeering conviction, records show.

He pleaded guilty to charges in the Operation Heat scheme on June 17.

Madonna's attorney, John Weichsel, declined to comment on the sentence, though he said his client does not plan to appeal.

Multi-billion?

When will the fucking media and law enforcement finally admit that those numbers are grossly inflated because they're giving you the total amounts wagered and not the actual numbers pocketed by the sports books?

Like nobody wins, not to mention the fact that your average bookmaker ALWAYS averages about 30 percent in uncollected debts. And now it's a panel again and Marty Taccetta is somehow a fucking underboss? A few months ago Capeci and his minions put Amuso back in the driver's seat to tickle the wire for the Feds.

Assholes, all of them. From the media to law enforcement with their inflated numbers. First Vic was back in charge, now it's a panel with a lifer from Jersey as underboss.

Fuck this shit once and for all. The Lucchese powebase is in the fucking Bronx and Westchester, and all roads lead to the guy in Tuckahoe to steer the fucking ship. Enough is enough.

to be fair to capeci he did not write this article he did not say madonna was the underboss

he also said vic was the "offical"boss but said he had little power


agree with the rest though those numbers are inflated

Ain't bad.

With State Time, how much will he serve? Three years?

Here the link:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/10...mepage-featured

Less time, tougher prisons. Tomatoe, tomato.

Yup ... Five flat in jersey... Depending on his status which decides how many days a month you get off ... Considering his jacket probably max maybe medium if he's lucky... Well the article says Trenton state prison, that's usually 20 or better. I left the infirmary there last year. You go to CRAF first and they decide what your status is and where you go. If he gets medium status he'll get five days off a month and eventually could work that down to minimum which will make him eligible for the camps and or halfway house. Just do the math. It all depends on what he gets labled but worst case even if he gets hit by parole which he will.. He can do three or three and half. If he does go to Trenton state which is harsh for a five year sentence he'll be there with marty but I doubt that's where he'll end up unless he's judged by classification by his past and alleged status. No judge decides what prison you go to.

holy shit , cue the amuso is boss and not crea debate , PB u have opened that clam again my friend

Nope, Dom. I won't bite. Why argue when you know you're right?

People are entitled to believe whatever they want. Serenity now!

pretty sure hes gonna be sentenced in ny federal court any day so he'll be transferd to federal prison. probaly be in a medical prison like fort devens up here in mass, easy time. the guy big cheese in boston had a state case for gambling then a fed won for extortion and he did his time in the feds concurrently.

Capeci did say Amuso calls the shots.

I have to agree with PB on this. Pure speculation on my part of course but I think Crea is boss, Matty is his #2, wonder who his consig is!?

This is from 07.

Won't he get released from time served or was he on bail?

Bail

So this guys 80. It's over for him. But how bout these recent articles about Frank loc trying to get the tapes persico saying the FBI new I wasn't the boss in 1979 so I couldn't have a vote in Carmine galante death. That's what I thinking that guy Christy tics out he got a 100 yrs but they let him go that makes me think why not scarfo he didn't get life and is under the old guidelines to. He done with shit I don't know but Mike Vick looks OK tonight.

Yeah, you cant hold Capeci responsible for what a NJ paper says.

And technically the numbers aren't inflated since it was the amount wagered with the operation over the course of the investigation. But I do agree that journalists should clarify the difference between that and the net profit.

For example, you have the $60 million gambling bust back in 2008 that involved 24 members, associates, or people otherwise connected to the Philadelphia family.

First, this $60 million was what the operation handled in wagers over a 20 month period. If you wanted to frame that within a year'since time you're looking at handling $36 million in bets. Net profit I've seen anywhere from 5-10% after payouts, expenses, uncollected debts, etc. So what is that? Somewhere between around $2 million and $3.5 million profit over a year. Now divide that among the two dozen guys involved in the ring with a good chunk going to the higher ups in the family.

They can and do make some good money but it's obviously a much different situation than what the average person who sees that $60 million figure must think.

$3.5 millions profit per year is pretty good. I assume the majority of that is going to the guys running the operation. Chop up 1.75 million between let's say 5 made guys up and down the ladder it still averages out to $350,000 per year per person. Add in other smaller books and the Philly guys are getting paid off of gambling. Nothing close to $60 million, but still.

If Amuso was official boss then would a three man panel not be running things for him on the street?

That's the impression I had.

Aren't panels usually put in place when there isn't a guy on the street who can definitively call the shots?

Could be a panel, or it could be an acting boss. Doesn't have to be a panel

That's not the case in this situation. It was when Stevie went away, which further proves that Amuso is lucky to be in control of his bladder today, never mind a crime family.

Stevie has been de facto boss since pre-prison, when Joey Dee hand picked his two "partners." And neither of them were remotely fond of Vic.

Correct.

PB, i agree with everything you say but I have a question about the panel maybe you could answer, When Joey D picked his two partners to run the family was in on Vics authority or Stevies or did Joey just take the leadership role and did it on his own

Stevie was voted in by the skippers about a year before he went in. It was really a token gesture because he basically started acting like the boss a few years earlier. I mean, the fucking remnants of the old Prince Street crew were already deferring to him, along with what was left of the M&M crew in Jersey. That's when I realized it. It was confirmed for me shortly thereafter.

Anyway, he left the decision to Joey Dee, who has a knack for mob politics. He couldn't have made better two better choices. Except that he left out Joey Gee. But he had to because Joey had just come home and had a Federal babysitter up in White Plains.

You can't really split gambling proceeds down the middle to try and figure out what they make as it's pretty much an entrepreneurial type business with the earnings all over the place from very high to very low .

The agents generally handle the day to day in terms of handeling the $ between the bettor and the book and will usually get somewhere between 25-40% of his packages losses with the higher % going to the ones that hustle and have the bigger volumes . My strong guess is that expense is already included in the 5% net profit type operation

That net profit , some goes to the middle mngt , soldiers , higher level assoc etc. and whatever is left goes to the bank , the guy or guys that finance the whole thing with their $.

Instead of being the bank and having their own book , even Capos will just manage their package and put it thru another fams book , less headaches and can still bring in a lot of $ minus the usually small amount they give to their collectors / enforcers , these guys sometimes get more if it's a notorious " hard " collection which every package and / or book has , lol .

Generally it's a lucrative set up but even big books get jammed up some weeks and sometimes for multiple weeks . It usually then , when shit starts to happen and a smart enforcer can usually finagle more $ on the hard collections . For the middle mngt guys , the soldiers , my guess is they are bringing in $100k+ ( middle income in this area ) and obviously some of the higher up middle mngt make more , probably closer to 200-300k+ or so but that's just a guess , good $ and I'm sure it's a lot more fun then my job lol but that is a 7 day a week job and usually pretty stressful unless you started off with a great Monday night football.

Im in the minority but i still feel Costa Rica and the Internet were booms for this business and CN

I know a bunch of agents as I'm always curious who the bank is , I obviously have my hunches but thats it

I also feel bad for the lower tier agents that are part of a connected book . These are usually blue collar guys , newer union workers that do this on the side and maybe manage a small package of 15+ bettors or so. These are regular good guys but boy oh boy does the govt try and fuck up their life , and heaven forbid some higher ups meet at a particular restaurant and maybe used the phone a few times , well it's getting raided and I'm talking with all the computers being taken out , I've seen it with my own eyes and it's just pathetic of the govt . I get you have to arrest the soldiers and capos but really , put a kids mug on times magazine for something where maybe the kid was getting $4-500 a week , they do it for just a lil extra $, especially the new guys in the union that don't have good per hour rates yet , freaking tragedy and still pisses me off .

Anyway that Perna book has always been huge , back in day it was Catalina and lasted forever . Only the WS had a bigger book and I think one of their big sites was the infamous bet eagle , lol , oh the memories and I'm almost positive we have 5-10 posters here that did their bets from these sites . These books were so big that I even think the philly north jerz crew just handled huge packages by thru these books and is probably the way to go as you aren't putting up your $ and since you aren't the bank , might be off the fed investigation radar , these were the smart guys .

I also always wondered what book the gambinos had in NJ . I know they were strong in Bloomfield and had some of those titty bars around there and even had a small casino at one point I believe, plus their drug business but I never heard anything about their betting site , they might not of had one , but rather just ran big packages thru the other 2 fams book but I'm not sure

You shouldn't be. Anyone who pays attention to illegal bookmaking can see that.

Amuso is a Brooklyn guy. None of the alleged ruling panel or administration guys are from Brooklyn. All of his old Brooklyn guys were shelved. Would a real boss allow that to happen? If anything he is boss in name only. A real boss in prison is Carmine Persico. He has his son, brother, cousins etc run the family. That shows he has control. Gotti had his son and brother running the family.

Peter Gotti is (now) a boss in name only. While I don't think Amuso has ironclad control of the family, in addition to having the official boss title, I don't think he's as powerless as many just seem to assume.

In a lot of ways this becomes an academic question. It seems like, for some, the boss is whoever is running things on the street at a given time, title or no title. They would possibly be ones to argue Galante really was the boss while Rastelli was in prison despite not having the title.

I doubt most guys work long hours everyday. That's too much work for a criminal. 2 or 3 made/connected guys can easily oversee a book if they know what they're doing.

Fucking hell.