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inanna

(3,547 posts) Thu Dec 11, 2014, 07:49 AM Dec 2014

US police arrest alleged New York mafia boss

Source: The Guardian

US police, acting at the request of an Italian court, have arrested a New York City man authorities identify as a member of the Gambino mob family for extortion, Italian officials said on Thursday.

A court in the southern Italian city of Potenza ordered the arrest of Francesco Palmeri, 61, and seven others for trying to extort €1m (£800,000) from an Italian businessman, according to the arrest warrant seen by Reuters.

Italian mafia groups such as the Sicilian Cosa Nostra or the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta have traditionally worked actively with their American cousins, but arrests have slowed since the heyday of trans-Atlantic mob cooperation in the 1980s.

<snip>

US enforcement collaborated with the SCO in the sting. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York issued an arrest warrant to allow Italy to seek his extradition, an Italian official said. He confirmed on Thursday the arrest had taken place overnight.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/11/us-police-arrest-alleged-new-york-mafia-boss-palmieri

11 replies

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US police arrest alleged New York mafia boss (Original Post) inanna Dec 2014 OP

Is this part of the larger Italian sweep you also posted? (nt) Recursion Dec 2014 #1

I think each one falls into it's own little bucket JustAnotherGen Dec 2014 #2

The reportage said "at the request of the Italian government", so it's hard to imagine it's not Recursion Dec 2014 #4

it's all connected JustAnotherGen Dec 2014 #5

Definitely. Particularly interested in what happens in Argentina today (nt) Recursion Dec 2014 #6

I think it is connected inanna Dec 2014 #8

I saved this to my laptop bookmarks JustAnotherGen Dec 2014 #3

If an Italian investigation can take down a head of one of the Five Families Recursion Dec 2014 #7

Truthfully? We haven't JustAnotherGen Dec 2014 #10

Ah, I missed the Mancuso connection. That makes more sense Recursion Dec 2014 #11

Thanks for the link inanna Dec 2014 #9

Recursion

(56,582 posts)

1. Is this part of the larger Italian sweep you also posted? (nt)

Reply to inanna (Original post)

Thu Dec 11, 2014, 08:19 AM

Dec 2014

JustAnotherGen

(31,932 posts)

2. I think each one falls into it's own little bucket

Reply to Recursion (Reply #1)

Thu Dec 11, 2014, 09:50 AM

Dec 2014

Not sure if OP posted the big take down in Umbria today - but yeah - there's that too . . .

Recursion

(56,582 posts)

4. The reportage said "at the request of the Italian government", so it's hard to imagine it's not

Reply to JustAnotherGen (Reply #2)

Thu Dec 11, 2014, 10:13 AM

Dec 2014

Interesting...

JustAnotherGen

(31,932 posts)

5. it's all connected

Reply to Recursion (Reply #4)

Thu Dec 11, 2014, 10:21 AM

Dec 2014

Shit is hitting the fan because of the Mayor of Rome. And kudos to him - he's still riding his bike here, there, and everywhere - and is refusing police protection.

Do you remember a few years back - around Christmas 2009 / January 2010 there were riots in Southern Italy? My now husband/then boyfriend was over with his family for Christmas so it's kind of stuck with me.

Long story short - Camorra (another org crime) fired rubber bullets into a group of migrant workers huddled and quiet and minding their own business and all hell broke loose. If you look at the colusion between Cosa and Ndrangheta in Rome (trading territories and giving Cosa a money stream from undocumented workers and migrants in Calabria) - it all pulls together now.

I'm off looking for stories in Argentina and Venezuela because Ndrangheta is extremely strong in those countries too.

They just always dodge bullets and get away with shit because they are always standing behind another organization. They play these games and give up profits in order to stay off the radar. Looks like its falling apart now.

Recursion

(56,582 posts)

6. Definitely. Particularly interested in what happens in Argentina today (nt)

Reply to JustAnotherGen (Reply #5)

Thu Dec 11, 2014, 10:28 AM

Dec 2014

inanna

(3,547 posts)

8. I think it is connected

Reply to Recursion (Reply #1)

Thu Dec 11, 2014, 10:39 AM

Dec 2014

Here's more from the International Business Times:

An alleged high-ranked mobster with the American branch of the Sicilian Mafia was arrested in New York City in a joint operation Italian police and the FBI, for an extortion related to a 30-year-old debt.

Francesco Palmeri, 61, who Italian authorities say is an affiliate of the infamous Gambino family, was among eight alleged Mafiosi held in dawn raids in New York and several Italian cities.

Also known as "Ciccio the American", Palmeri sent threatening letters and personally travelled to Italy to intimidate a local businessman into paying €1m (£800,000) that the mob claimed he owned since the 1980s, prosecutors in the southern town of Potenza said.

In a story mirroring the underworld cliché that mafia don't forget, Lorenzo Marsilio told Italian authorities he asked for a loan to an acquaintance some 30 years ago, for his then-struggling company, Sudelettra.

Link: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/new-york-mafia-gambino-family-affiliate-held-over-1m-extortion-30-year-old-debt-1479143

JustAnotherGen

(31,932 posts)

3. I saved this to my laptop bookmarks

Reply to inanna (Original post)

Thu Dec 11, 2014, 09:53 AM

Dec 2014

Husband emailed this one to me around thanksgiving. . .

A lot of Americans no Cosa - they've no idea how insidious Ndrangheta is. It's THIS big - which is why that connection to NYC as well as the Mayor of Rome and the take down in Umbria are all part of a much bigger net. Although on the surface - it looks like they are all their own thing.

http://qz.com/299038/if-the-calabrian-mafia-were-a-company-it-would-be-the-fifth-largest-in-italy/#

This week, Italian police arrested 40 people accused of being part of the ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabria-based mafia, after they were caught on video being initiated into the organization. The arrests were in the northern cities of Milan, Como, and Lecco, which shocked those who think organized crime is predominantly a southern Italian problem.

Although less known than Cosa Nostra (the Sicilian-based mafia) and the Napoli-based Camorra, the ‘Ndrangheta is enormous—and enormously profitable. According to a report by Demoskopika (link in Italian), a research institute, the ‘Ndrangheta generates annual revenue of €53 billion ($66.4 billion) and can call on the services of some 60,000 people to do its dirty work across 30 countries.

The bulk of the organization’s income comes from drug trafficking and illegal waste disposal, but it also dabbles in extortion, gambling, gun-running, prostitution, counterfeiting, and much else besides. And as the recent arrests show, the ‘Ndrangheta is active in the economic heart of Italy, not just the impoverished south—Demoskopika notes that the organization is all too often seamlessly integrated into the country’s business landscape, with its agents and sympathizers practically indistinguishable from those who aren’t involved.

Putting the ‘Ndrangheta’s size into context is eye-opening. By revenue, it would be the fifth largest company in Italy—twice as large as the country’s biggest bank, UniCredit:

Recursion

(56,582 posts)

7. If an Italian investigation can take down a head of one of the Five Families

Reply to JustAnotherGen (Reply #3)

Thu Dec 11, 2014, 10:29 AM

Dec 2014

Then it looks like we've been doing things backwards for 70 years or so...

JustAnotherGen

(31,932 posts)

10. Truthfully? We haven't

Reply to Recursion (Reply #7)

Thu Dec 11, 2014, 12:13 PM

Dec 2014

But key in those stories - the guy recently nabbed in Argentina?

Ndrangheta is physically genetically 'family'. A lot of intermarriage to keep those blood ties. Mancuso (guy in Argentina) killed physical/blood family and someone turned - in his physical blood family.

That's huge.

You get one person to talk and one mayor up north who just threw all of the shit out there and they get these guys that high up.

Recursion

(56,582 posts)

11. Ah, I missed the Mancuso connection. That makes more sense

Reply to JustAnotherGen (Reply #10)

Thu Dec 11, 2014, 12:15 PM

Dec 2014

Thanks!

inanna

(3,547 posts)

9. Thanks for the link

Reply to JustAnotherGen (Reply #3)

Thu Dec 11, 2014, 10:40 AM

Dec 2014

I'm following this with interest.

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