It's not a good morning for the Bonanno family.
FBI and DEA agents have busted several high-ranking members including Vincent "Vinny TV" Badalamenti and Anthony "TG" Graziano who allegedly serve on the family's ruling administration as boss and consigliere, respectively, as reported by Mitchel Maddux for the New York Post. Others arrested include reputed capo Nicholas "Nicky Mouth" Santoro and reputed soldiers Vito Balsamo and Anthony Calabrese, and alleged Gambino associate James LaForte.
The charges were based in part on the dirt dished to the feds by Hector "Junior" Pagan. Junior is the former husband of Mob Wives reality star Renee Graziano who, in turn, is the daughter of TG Graziano.
A sealed indictment against the six defendants in Brooklyn federal court variously lays out "a host of extortion charges, including a shakedown over the pizza recipe used at Brooklyn's famed L & B Spumoni Gardens, along with loansharking and marijuana charges" as reported by John Marzulli for the Daily News. Badalamente, the reputed boss, is "charged with shaking down several restaurants and bars in Manhattan and Brooklyn and also allegedly 'took over' a bar on Coney Island Avenue after its owner failed to pay back a debt" as reported by Mitchel Maddux for the New York Post.
Some of the defendants are well-known to law enforcement. The 68-year-old Santoro previously served fifteen years in prison on a racketeering conviction after legendary undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone a/k/a Donnie Brasco infiltrated the Bonnano family as reported by WABC.
Indeed, in announcing today's charges the FBI in its press release explained that mobsters by definition are recidivists: "for example . . . Santora allegedly participated in his charged crimes following his prior conviction and incarceration, and while released on supervised release, and Graziano allegedly committed his charged crimes within weeks of being released to a federal halfway house."
It's funny because 5 of the 6 defendants live on Staten Island as reported by Frank Donnelly for The Staten Island Advance.
UPDATE: After learning yesterday that her father was charged anew in an indictment against the Bonanno crime family Renee Graziano apparently "had a panic attack, collapsed, and had trouble breathing . . . and was rushed via ambulance to the hospital" as reported by Jethro Nededog for The Hollywood Reporter. Such a delicate flower.
The feds are just chasing a bunch of old Italians. When will they stop going after old broken-down Italian mobsters and finally do a Russian or a Chinese mob bust? This is getting old. And what about street gangs? I would rather walk among quiet mobsters than the loud mouth, below-the-waist pants and backwards baseball cap wearing street gang animals running around today.
Posted by: Clinton Fussell | 01/27/2012 at 11:48 AM
Haha Renee just accept that your father will be doing a lot of time in the pokey, unless he decides to turn rat like all the other rat mobsters out there. Which he probably will, and then he will come up with some lame excuse that he turned informant for his stupid daughter's sake when he really just wanted to save his own skin. I can see it coming. It never fails. Renee I never watched your pathetic TV show, but your show brought more heat on your father. Didn't you learn from John Gotti that publicizing Mob life will only piss the feds off and make them go after Mob guys even harder? I don't care that you had a panic attack, and hopefully for the world's sake the next time you will have a fatal heart attack.
Posted by: Clinton Fussell | 01/28/2012 at 11:15 AM