Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Brooklyn Mobsters Threatened Doc to Write Scripts for 230K Oxycodone Pills

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The mobsters admitted capitalizing on the opioid epidemic

NEW YORK — Two mobsters strong-armed a Brooklyn doctor into writing prescriptions for hundreds of thousands of Oxycodone pills by threatening to put a bullet in his head if he stopped, federal prosecutors said.

Anthony Grado, a 54-year-old foot soldier in the Luchese family, was caught on tape telling the doctor that he would feed him “to the f**king lions” if he ever wrote prescriptions without the family’s permission, prosecutors said.

The shakedown came to light as Grado and his accomplice, Lawrence Tranese, 55, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to distribute Oxycodone in Brooklyn federal court.

The men admitted that they enlisted the help of other gangsters to fill the prescriptions and they would then sell them, the US Attorney’s office said. In all, they purloined 230,000 of the highly addictive pills through the scheme.

Grado used a mixture of threats and violence to keep the doctor in line.  At one point, Grado was recorded saying, “I’ll put a bullet right in your head,” if the doctor’s new prescription pads “go in anybody’s hands” but his.

Later, the doctor was stabbed by a Luchese associate on Grado’s orders, prosecutors said.

“Lucchese family member Grado imperiled our community, threatening a doctor to force him to write prescriptions for Oxycodone and then trafficking in the addictive drugs,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue. “Violent threats to a doctor by Mafia defendants, combined with their trafficking of Oxycodone pills, posed an especially serious danger to our community.”

The defendants face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million when sentenced.

 

‘Goodfellas’ Gangster Hit With 8-Year Sentence in Road Rage Arson Case

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Vincent Asaro, a Bonanno capo, was acquitted in 2015 of a role in the famed Lufthansa heist

NEW YORK — A longtime captain in the Bonanno crime family was sentenced to eight years in prison for ordering his henchman –including famed Mobster John Gotti’s grandson — to set fire to the car of a man who had cut him off in traffic.

Vincent Asaro, 82, had been acquitted two years ago of taking part in the legendary Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1978 — a crime made famous in the film “Goodfellas” — but couldn’t escape justice this time.

He was also acquitted in 2015 of the 1969 of Paul Katz, who operated a warehouse used by the mob to store stolen goods and who later was later suspected of having become a government informant.

A made member of the Bonanno family for 40 years, prosecutors alleged that Asaro continued to engage in loan sharking even at his advanced age. In the end, the judge gave Asaro a sentence twice as long as federal guidelines suggested.

“I don’t care what happens to me at this point,” Asaro told the judge in Brooklyn federal court as he was being sent away. ‘What you sentenced me to is a death sentence anyway.’

Asaro was ultimately done in by a chance encounter in 2012 in Queens when another motorist cut him off at a traffic light. Asaro gave chase at high speed but the man got away.

Asaro then contacted an associate with access to law enforcement databases who was able to pinpoint the motorist’s home address using his license plate number. Asaro then dispatched three people — including the Dapper Don’s grandson, John J. Gotti, to torch the man’s car in his driveway.

Asaro pleaded guilty in June 2017. Gotti, 23, was hit with an eight-year sentence in March for running a multi-million dollar Oxycodone ring.

Ambulance of Death Driver Killed Patients for Cash From Mob-Run Funeral Homes

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BIANCAVILLA, Italy — A murderous ambulance driver has been accused of killing patients in order to steer their families to Mafia-run funeral homes in Sicily in return for a kickback, police said.

The 42-year-old driver, Davide Garofalo, is a suspect in three cases where patients he was transporting died, but that up to 50 deaths were under investigation with a dozen deemed “meaningful,” Italian police said.

According to Italian press accounts, Garofalo would inject air bubbles into the victims’ bloodstream, causing them to suffer an embolism. In many of the cases, the patients were terminally ill and were being transported back home from a hospital to die in the Sicilian town of Biancavilla.

The public prosecutor’s office in Catania said Garofalo received 300 euros ($356) for every patient he successfully steered to certain Mob-run funeral homes.

Davide Garofalo

Investigators believe the scheme had been going on since 2012, and the driver was only caught after an informant told authorities.

Mafia Wise Guy Busted in Bizarre Prison Escape Plot

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Christopher Londonio already faces life in prison

NEW YORK — Escape from Alcatraz it wasn’t.

A reputed Mafia henchman was busted plotting an elaborate old-school escape from a federal lockup that involved dental floss, a rope fashioned from bed sheets and enlisting the help of a priest.

Prosecutors say Lucchese family soldier Christopher Londonio, who was in the clink at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting trial on murder and racketeering charges, was done in by a fellow inmate who ratted him out to authorities.

Londonio, 43, and another inmate allegedly hatched a plan in June to solicit the help of a priest to smuggle in a hacksaw blade, while using dental floss as a cutting tool to tamper with a window and stockpiling sheets to make into a rope, prosecutors said.

But jail officials caught wind of the plot before they could escape.

“Someone facing federal charges of murder, extortion, racketeering, and a litany of other crimes may feel a certain desperation to attempt breaking out of jail to avoid justice,” said FBI Assistant Director William Sweeney Jr. “However, the outlandish choice of dental floss, and even allegedly asking a priest to assist in the escape defies comprehension.”

Londonio had previously charged with fellow mobster Terrence Caldwell with the execution murder of longtime Mafia hitman Michael Meldish in the Bronx in 2013.

Londonio faced life in prison on the prior murder and racketeering charges and now faces an additional five years behind bars if convicted of attempted escape.

Like Grandfather, Like Grandson: 3rd Generation Gotti Sent to Prison

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John J. Gotti has opted to join the family business of going to jail

NEW YORK — The famed Gotti crime clan is keeping up the family tradition with the Teflon Don’s grandson, John J. Gotti, getting hit with an 8-year sentence for dealing Oxycodone.

The Queens District Attorney’s office said Gotti was caught on tape claiming to regularly move $100,000 worth of the illicit pharmaceuticals a month and that he took in up to $1.6 million a year.

Gotti is now the third generation of his family to be sent to the big house, following his grandfather, one-time Gambino family crime boss John Gotti, who died behind bars, and his uncle John “Junior” Gotti.

Investigators were able to unwind the 23-year-old Gotti’s criminal enterprise through undercover drug buys, round-the-clock surveillance and the use of phone taps and a listening device that had been installed in Gotti’s Infiniti G35 sedan.

Through the surveillance, cops were able to listen in on Gotti bragging about selling 4,200 pills of oxy a month at prices ranging from $21 to $30 a pill. He also blurted out that he kept detailed records of his business and $200,000 in cash at a pal’s house to avoid it being discovered by cops.

‘Teflon Don’ John Gotti died in prison

Last year, undercover cops purchased $46,000 worth of pills from Gotti in 11 undercover deals.

The enterprise came tumbling down in June, when cops stopped Gotti in Howard Beach for driving with excessively tinted windows. When officers discovered Gotti was driving with a suspended license, they searched his car hey found 200 oxy pills, steroids, Xanax, methadone, marijuana and a pile of cash.

 

John ‘Junior’ Gotti had four racketeering cases end in mistrial but served about five years for loansharking and extortion

That led investigators to execute search warrants on Gotti’s home and the home of the pal he had discussed on the tape where they found hundreds of pills, more than $250,000 in cash and the ledger book.

Following his arrest, Gotti told the New York Daily News that he was heavily addicted to painkillers and had to go into rehab in jail as he awaited trial.

Gotti pleaded guilty in February and was ordered to forfeit the approximately $260,000 in drug proceeds seized by cops. Eight other people charged in the case are awaiting trial.

 

‘Hitman’ Convicted in 1989 Gangland Slaying Dies on California Death Row

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James David Majors had been convicted of killing three in California but had been accused of killing several more in Arizona

SAN QUENTIN, California — He beat them to the punch.

A death row inmate in California has died, but not at the hands of the state.

James David Majors, 69, who had been on death row since 1991,  was pronounced dead Thursday morning at a hospital near San Quentin State Prison, the California Department of Correction announced.

The cause of death was being investigated.

Majors was sentenced to die by a Sacramento County jury for the gangland drug slayings of Thomas Probst, Jeanine Copeland and Patrick Mungavin in Fair oaks in 1989

Authorities had charged Majors and his accomplice, Robert Reese, of traveling to California from Arizona to buy a pound of methamphetamine from the three victims. Once inside the home, the men shot and killed the victims and stole cash, drugs and jewelry from a safe.

The victims were later discovered by Copeland’s 8-year-old son.

A month after the killings, Reese was found shot to death in Arizona. A Phoenix restaurant owner and crime syndicate member, Giuseppe “Joe” Calo, pleaded guilty in 1992 to the murders of Reese and six others. He told authorities that Majors had been the hitman in all seven killings, at the orders of local drug dealers, although he was never charged.

Corrections officials say that of the 888 people sentenced to die in California since the death penalty was reinstated there in 1978, 71 have died of natural causes. Another 25 have committed suicide and eight died of other causes. The cause of death in two cases, including Majors’, remains pending.

In total, California has executed 13 condemned inmates since 1978, while two other were executed in other states.

Genovese Sports Book, Loansharking and Bootleg Cigarette Syndicate Busted

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13 alleged mobsters were rounded up in early morning raids

NEW YORK — A gang of 13 grizzled gangsters associated with the Genovese crime family were busted for running an intricate ring of illegal sports gambling, loan-sharking and cigarette bootlegging, law enforcement officials said.

The sting, dubbed “Operation Shark Bait,” zeroed in on an illegal offshore sports bookkeeping operation that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says netted the crime family millions in illicit gambling proceeds.

“Despite these Genovese members continued attempts to evade detection, our investigation revealed millions in offshore sports betting, lucrative loan sharking, and tax evasion,” said New York Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill.

The alleged ringleader, long-time mobster Salvatore “Sallie” DeMeo, 76, is a “made member” of the Genovese syndicate and has a rap sheet that dates back to 1984, including busts for a New Jersey bank robbery and a 1996 New York armored car heist back.

Sal DeMeo in a 1984 booking photo

All 13 crime family associates were busted in early morning raids, Schneiderman said.

“No matter how complex or clever the scheme, we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to take down traditional organized crime,” he said.

At the heart of the charges was 4Spades.org, an illegal sports gambling operation run through a wire room in Costa Rica that handled wagers on various college and professional sports.

In addition, six defendants were charged with loansharking and shaking down victims with exorbitant weekly loan rates “which effectively created a high cost debt trap upon any individual who received such a loan,” Schneiderman said. Those charges by themselves carry a maximum penalty of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison.

Two defendants were also charged with bootlegging more than 30,000 cigarettes for which state and city excise taxes had not been paid.

In 2001, DeMeo went on the lam after 45 Genovese members were named in a sweeping mob indictment. He eventually surrendered, and was released from prison in 2006.

In 1996, he was charged with stealing $400,00 from a bank in Manalpan, N.J. and then ripped off an armored car in New York the following year.

DeMeo featured in an “America’s Most Wanted” segment in 1999 which led to his arrest.