George Barone, a decades-long waterfront enforcer for the Genovese crime family who admitted to about twenty hits, died last Tuesday at the age of 86 as reported by John Marzulli and Larry McShane for the Daily News.
In 2001 Barone coughed up the family's secrets for Team America after growing tired of the betrayals he had suffered from the so-called men of honor. The Genovese first squeezed Barone out of the waterfront rackets while he dutifully served a seven-year stretch in prison from 1983 to 1990, and in 2001 then-boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante ordered his death. There was only so much indignity Barone could endure, and enough had become enough.
Barone testified about decades-long extortion against Local 1235 of the International Longshoremen's Association during the July 2009 racketeering trial of reputed capo Michael "Mikey Cigars" Coppola which resulted in the latter's conviction.
The feds apparently aren't done with their investigation into suspected Genovese-driven corruption on the New Jersey docks.
Last month the feds indicted Albert Cernadas Sr., a former vice president of the ILA and president of Local 1235 in Newark, NJ, for allegedly "shaking down his union members under threats of violence, in what was described as a long-running racketeering operation tied to the Genovese organized crime family" as reported by Ted Sherman for The Star-Ledger. Earlier in the same month the feds indicted Robert Ruiz, a Local 1235 delegate, on extortion charges after he allegedly solicited cash donations from union members intended as tribute payments to the Genovese boys.
And now "sources say a federal grand jury in Newark is investigating the family's links to sister Local 1478 -- whose longtime leader Nunzio LaGrasso was hit with corruption charges in March" as reported by Jerry Capeci for The Huffington Post: "The grand jury is also probing the murder of Genovese mobster Lawrence Ricci, who was killed while he was on trial for labor racketeering in 2005."
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