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18°
Sunday, dec 22
Tag:
Organized Crime
Traffic
State Agency Director ID'd As Driver, 55, Killed By Motorist Running Red Light On Route 130
The driver killed in an early-morning crash Wednesday, July 10 on Route 130 in Hamilton has been identified as the director of the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation (SCI). The agency identified its executive director Chadd W. Lackey as the 55-year-old Voorhees driver who died in the Hamilton crash. Police in their initial report said the crash was caused by a 51-year-old Bordentown woman who allegedly ran a red light at Klockner Road and struck a 2020 Ford Edge SUV heading east around 6 a.m. Lackey's 44-year-old passenger from Hamilton was left critical. “We are deva…
Police & Fire
Reality Bites NJ ‘Real Housewives’ Ex Convicted Of Hiring Mobster To Beat Wife’s New Man
𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: Reality bit the ex-husband of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” cast member Dina Manzo when he was convicted Tuesday of getting a mob soldier to throw her new beau a beating. Restaurateur Thomas Manzo, 59, who lives in the affluent Bergen County suburb of Franklin Lakes, rejected a plea deal from federal prosecutors and took his chances with a jury. That didn’t go so good. Jurors in U.S. District Court in Newark convicted Manzo on June 4 of committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering, along with conspiracy and falsifying documents during a grand jury investigation. Althou…
Police & Fire
Chilean Ring Used NJ Digs To Stash Loot From Home Burglaries In NY, MD, Elsewhere: Feds
Six Chilean nationals who burglarized homes in multiple states were recorded on video stashing a huge safe and other items stolen in the break-ins in a Jersey City apartment building, authorities said. The crew took pearl necklaces, diamond earrings, a distinctive high school “state champions” ring, and other jewelry during the burglary of a Westchester County, NY, residence in late March, an FBI complaint says. The same burglars struck again in Baltimore County, MD, in mid-April, taking luxury timepieces, distinctive cufflinks, and a safe that contained a collection of rare coins, the comp…
Police & Fire
Bloods Leader, Passaic County Man Busted with 28 Lbs Of Coke, 500 Lbs Of Pot At Teterboro: FBI
A high-ranking member of the Bloods with longstanding mob ties and a Passaic County man with a criminal history of his own were seized when they tried to fly to London out of Teterboro Airport with 28 pounds of cocaine and 500 pounds of pot on a private jet, federal authorities said. Leonardo Petrosillo, 45, of West Milford, and Edwin Spears, 49, of Newark brought three companions -- Spears’s girlfriend, an exotic dancer from Maryland and a friend of hers -- as a front for a dozen drug-stuffed bags of luggage, they said. The plane was to fly it all to John Lennon Airport in London, accordin…
Police & Fire
Family Ran Multimillion-Dollar Cathouse At Sayreville Strip Club, New Indictment Alleges
UPDATE: A fierce battle between a Middlesex County family and authorities who've charged them with operating a wildly lucrative whorehouse masquerading as a strip club intensified with a new round of charges. The owners of Club XXXV on Route 35 in Sayreville used “various illegal means to turn their club into a multimillion-dollar racket (that) doubled as a house of prostitution,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said a superseding indictment returned by a grand jury in Trenton alleges. More than $10 million in proceeds from the business “moved through numerous bank accounts c…
Police & Fire
2 Broken Thumbs Down: Gambino Family Hothead Nearly Torches Jersey Shore Restaurant, Feds Say
Life imitated art when a reputed Gambino crime family captain threatened to burn down a Jersey Shore restaurant, then went to a service station across the street and tried to buy and fill a plastic gas can, federal authorities said. In what could’ve been a scene from any number of modern-day mob movies, Joseph Lanni of Staten Island became a walking cliché, the Justice Department said in announcing an organized-crime takedown that stretched all the way to Sicily. Lanni and fellow Staten Islander Vincent “Vinny Slick” Minsquero “became belligerent” after being asked to leave Roxy’s Bar and G…
Police & Fire
Diamond District Operators From NJ, Long Island Busted In $673M Money Laundering Scheme: Feds
Four businessmen from New Jersey and one from Long Island laundered millions of dollars a day in cash through fronts they set up in New York City’s Diamond District, federal authorities charged. Federal agents tied the quintet to $673 million in dirty money laundered through the illicit operations over the past four years, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. In exchange, Raj Vaidya, 26; Rakesh Vaidya, 51; Shrey Vaidya, 23; and Neel Patel, 26, all of Edison; and Youssef Janfar, aka “Joe Rodeo,” 57, of Great Neck, NY collected sizable fees, he said. The three Vaidyas and P…
Police & Fire
Burglar With Hit List Of Asian Homeowners In NJ, NY, PA, DE Gets 50 Months In Federal Prison
UPDATE: A member of a second-story crew who targeted Asian and Asian-American homeowners in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware for burglaries was sentenced to a plea-bargained four years and two months in federal prison, authorities said. Randi Barr, 42, of Union County, NJ, was part of a group that worked from a hit list of dozens of homes based on “stereotype and opportunity,” federal authorities said. Local, state and federal law enforcement authorities who teamed up to smash the ring found notes in the defendants’ cars that had the home addresses of individuals of Asian des…
Police & Fire
Colombian Nationals Nabbed After NJ Home Break-In Nets Jewelry, Furs, Cash, More
Three Colombian nationals remain in federal custody and a fourth has already been deported after the government said they stole jewelry, a Rolex, an antique rifle, furs and cash in a home burglary in Union County. The quartet also took a stamp collection, luxury bags and more after breaking into the Cranford home shortly before 5 p.m. last Nov. 30, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. They then loaded the valuables into a red Honda Accord that they'd driven there, an FBI complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark says. Sellinger, who put the total value of the loss at more than …
News
Major
Nj-b
ased Fentanyl Ring Smashed: 20+ Pounds, 9,000 Doses Seized, Eight Men Out
More than 20 pounds of fentanyl and an additional 9,000 doses of the deadly drug were seized with the arrests of eight members of a major trafficking ring that operated on both sides of the Hudson River, authorities said. Those charged in the federally-led offensive range in age from 37 to 60. They come from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania but operated primarily in and around Union County, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. The multi-pronged, eight-month operation relied on all levels of law enforcement, from federal agents to local police who watched and document…
News
Mastermind Of 84 Brazen Burglaries In Nine NJ Counties, Rockland Gets Plea-Bargained 14 Years
UPDATE: A Teaneck ex-con was sentenced to 14 years in state prison for leading a band of brazen burglars who authorities said committed no fewer than 84 broad-daylight home break-ins throughout New Jersey and Rockland County. Keith Perry, 39, took a deal from prosecutors rather than risk the consequences of a trial, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said on Tuesday, March 14. Perry was among several people arrested in April 2021 for dozens of burglaries committed over the previous six months in nine New Jersey counties — Morris, Bergen, Essex, Somerset, Hunterdon, Union, Passai…
News
NJ Couple Charged With Running Five-Finger Discount Ring
A Passaic County couple ran a retail theft ring that paid thieves to shoplift specific items from a list that they provided, authorities charged. Ali Soto, 42, and Vickiana Colon, 36, both of North Haledon, were both charged with being leaders of an organized theft operation, among other offenses. The arrests were made on Dec. 14, 2022 but weren’t announced until Wednesday, Jan. 4, in a joint release issued by Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes, West Milford Township Police Chief James Devore and North Haledon Police Chief Todd Darby. They didn’t say why. Wednesday's release…
Police & Fire
Paterson Gangsters Acted As Middlemen In Gun Trafficking Ring That Brought Firearms To NJ: AG
Nine members of a Paterson gun trafficking ring were among 15 people indicted on various charges for their roles in bringing more than 120 firearms from South Carolina to New Jersey, state officials announced. The investigation dismantled the criminal enterprise, took 12 guns off the street — including an assault rifle – and led to charges against the alleged leader of the trafficking ring, Travis Thomas, 41, of South Carolina, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said. Five of his gun suppliers in South Carolina, and nine “middlemen” who allegedly helped broker the sale of guns in…
News
Fugitive Dubbed 'Real-Life Tony Soprano' Couldn't Hide From The Law, Even In Death
He was considered one of the last of the old-time mobsters, a "real-life Tony Soprano" listed as one of New Jersey's most wanted fugitives. Even six feet under, though, Tony Mota couldn't evade his pursuers. After eluding capture for nearly 25 years for a gruesome murder committed in Hudson County, Anthony Mota was found buried in the country where he was born, the Dominican Republic. Mota had been collecting debts for high-level Colombian drug dealers in New York City when he and a group of accomplices abducted a Queens man on Dec. 13, 1997, authorities said. The victim, 38-year-old …
News
NJ Ring That Dealt Fentanyl, Crack Smashed By Federal, County, Local Crime-Fighting Team
Eleven accused members of a drug ring that authorities said openly peddled crack and potentially fatal fentanyl in a Newark neighborhood were charged federally on Wednesday. The ring's "primary supplier," Frazier Burton, 46, was caught with 100 bricks of heroin and fentanyl when tactical officers arrested him Wednesday morning, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. At 50 bags per brick, that's 5,000 individual packages -- all of which Honig said carried the neighborhood drug network's particular stamps. The case took several months for an ad hoc team of local, county and federal inve…
News
NJ, PA Trio Trafficked Dozens Of 'Ghost Guns,' Indictment Charges
Two Philadelphia men and one from Camden trafficked no fewer than two dozen untraceable “ghost guns” from Pennsylvania into New Jersey, a grand jury indictment alleges. Even more guns, as well as parts, large-capacity magazine and ammo, were seized during the investigation, Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said Tuesday. According to the indictment returned in Trenton, Eduardo T. Lazo Jr., 26, of Camden, organized the operation and sold the illegal guns in Camden. Juan Enrique Fernandez, 29, and Ericknell Rivera-Mercado, 31, both of Philadelphia, are accused of bringing th…
News
Attention Centers On Accused Mastermind Of 84 Brazen Burglaries In Nine NJ Counties, Rockland
A Teaneck ex-con accused of leading a band of brazen burglars who committed no fewer than 84 broad-daylight break-ins throughout New Jersey and Rockland County could find two of them testifying against him if he goes to trial. Porsche Brown, 29, of Lodi, and Kay Brown, 23, of Paterson (no relation) took guilty pleas rather than take their chances with a jury. The likelihood that either or both could testify against him in exchange for leniency at sentencing could determine the course that Keith Perry, 38, takes in his defense. A grand jury this week indicted Perry on a host of charges, inc…
News
Indictment: Latin Kingpin,10 Gang Members In NJ Prison ‘Hit Squad’ Targeted State Investigators
UPDATE: Members of a state prison “hit squad” who were already charged with beating a fellow inmate also attacked others while targeting investigators who got wise to them, an indictment returned by a New Jersey grand jury alleges. State prosecutors earlier this year charged Frank “Lafay” Blake, 33, of Hillside and eight inmates with an assault at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, as well as with plans to carry out another at Northern State Prison in Newark. An indictment returned in Trenton this week adds new assault charges against Blake -- the reputed leader of the Elizabeth chapter of…
News
Killer
Heroin
: 15 Members, Associates Of Violent 42-50 Paterson Drug Gang Indicted
Fifteen reputed members and associates of a violent gang that put 50,000 doses of lethal heroin and over two pounds of crack a week on the streets of Paterson were indicted by a state grand jury on Wednesday. The leaders, members and associates of the 42-50 subset of the Crips were slinging heroin connected to eight overdose deaths and 14 nonfatal ODs at open-air drug markets where shootings were common, state Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said. The indictment returned Wednesday in Trenton names 15 defendants, including reputed ringleader Marvin Goodman, 30, who was wounded in a drive-by…
News
Feds Charge Reputed Jersey City Gang Member With Gunning Down Rival
Federal authorities have charged a reputed gang member from Jersey City with murder in the shooting death of a rival during a running feud between allied crews. Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachael A. Honig announced Tuesday that her office has taken over the prosecution of Phillip Wiggins Jr. of Newark for the March 31, 2020 slaying of Damone “Munch” Smith. Wiggins, 24, who investigators say belongs to the Wilkinson Avenue gang, shot Smith in the chest near the corner of Rose and Cator avenues. Smith, 25, was brought by private vehicle to Jersey City Medical Center, where he …
News
Mobster Admits Beating Husband Of ‘Real Housewives Of NJ’ Cast Member
A Lucchese crime family soldier told a federal judge Wednesday that he threw the current husband of former “Real Housewives of New Jersey” cast member Dina Manzo a beating in exchange for an extravagant gift from her well-known ex. John Perna, 43, of Cedar Grove admitted that Dina Manzo’s ex-husband, Thomas Manzo, 55, of Franklin Lakes, hired him in 2015 to assault David Cantin, who was dating Dina Manzo at the time. Perna pleaded guilty to committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity in a federal indictment that also names Thomas Manzo, who co-owns the Brownstone Restaurant …
News
Reputed Mob Boss, Trash-Hauling Giant Carmine 'Papa Smurf' Franco Of Ramsey Dies
Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco, a reputed Genovese Crime Family boss who became a leader and innovator in the trash hauling industry in New Jersey, Rockland and Westchester, died Monday following complications from COVID-19. Franco, 85, who’d recently lived in the Bears Cove townhouse development in Ramsey, made his name in the waste industry over a five-decade career. He designed and built the country’s first materials recovery facility and New Jersey’s first transfer station, among other projects, and led the charge that produced a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the Rockland town of Clark…
News
Feds: New Mob Regime Ran Sports Bets, Extorted Victims, Sold Drugs From Philly To Jersey Shore
The mob didn't disappear from Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore after former leaders Joseph Ligambi and Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino were sent to prison, federal authorities revealed Monday. Over the past five years, in fact, new leadership of the Philly and Atlantic City La Cosa Nostra beefed up the ranks, commanding illegal sports gambling, extorting victims through loansharking, selling cocaine, heroin and opioids -- even conspiring to kidnap a drug dealer who sold them bad dope, they said. Fifteen reputed mobsters and associates of the organized crime family were charged in a …
News
Feds: Second Reputed Mob Associate Admits Role In Jersey Shore Drug Operation
A Toms River man on Thursday became the second reputed associate of the DeCavalcante crime family to take a plea deal from the government in connection with a Jersey Shore drug bust. Detectives from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office discovered several ounces of coke during a warranted search of the home of Jason Vella, 39, in September 2019, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. Also arrested in the takedown was Mario Galli III, 28, also of Toms River, who was sentenced in July to more than six plea-bargained years in federal prison for a pound of cocaine and a 9mm FEG Model PGK-9HP gun lo…
Police & Fire
Killer
Heroin
: Paterson Mills Raided, Gang Members Busted, 21,000 Heroin Folds, $110G Seized
A dozen members of a violent gang that put 50,000 doses of lethal heroin and over two pounds of crack a week on the streets of Paterson were arrested by city and state authorities in a major takedown, authorities said Thursday. The leaders, members and associates of the "42-50" subset were slinging heroin connected to eight overdose deaths and 14 nonfatal ODs at open-air drug markets where shootings were common before last week’s roundup, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said. Among them was accused ringleader Marvin Goodman, 29, who was wounded in a drive-by shooting at the corner o…
Police & Fire
Reputed Toms River Mob Associate Gets 6+ Years In Fed Pen For Pound Of Coke, Loaded Gun
A reputed Jersey Shore associate of the DeCavalcante crime family who was caught with cocaine and a loaded handgun is headed to federal prison for more than six plea-bargained years following his sentencing Thursday. Mario Galli III, 28, of Toms River, admitted in U.S. District Court in Trenton in March that he had the gun and drugs when detectives from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office searched his and another home last September. Detectives seized nearly a pound of the drug and a 9mm FEG Model PGK-9HP gun loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition during the raids, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpeni…
Police & Fire
Toms River Mob Associate Admits Having Nearly Pound Of Coke, Loaded Gun
A Jersey Shore associate of the DeCavalcante crime family who was caught with cocaine and a loaded handgun is headed to federal prison for at least five years -- and likely much more, authorities said. Mario Galli III, 28, of Toms River, took a guilty plea Monday, admitting in U.S. District Court in Trenton that he had the gun and drugs when detectives from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office searched his and another home last September. Detectives seized nearly a pound of the drug and a 9mm FEG Model PGK-9HP gun loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition during last fall’s raids, U.S. Attorney C…
News
Is Hoffa Buried Beneath The Pulaski Skyway? Expert Says It's Likely
An author who spent decades researching the case of missing labor leader Jimmy Hoffa said new evidence he's uncovered strongly suggests he was buried in a former Jersey City landfill. "[T]here should be a concerted effort to persuade the law-enforcement community to get a search warrant and perform an excavation at the former PJP Landfill, aka 'Brother Moscato’s Dump,' in Jersey City, New Jersey," the author, Dan Moldea, wrote on his Facebook page. Pinning down the location of the former Teamsters president's remains has been a macabre parlor game in North Jersey ever since his …
Events
Sopranos Fans, You Can Appear In Prequel 'Many Saints Of Newark'
The producers of the upcoming Sopranos prequel film "The Many Saints of Newark" are looking for male and female extras "of all ages" this week in Newark. Anyone interested in working as an extra on the film can attend a casting call Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. at Express Newark, 54 Halsey St., 2nd floor, the city's film and television office announced. The movie's producers are casting for a scene set in 1967, when Tony Soprano -- the show's main character who was played by the late James Gandolfini -- was in grade school and learning the ropes of organized crime from his father.&…
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