Reputed Miami Mafia Boss Pleads Guilty

Reputed Miami Mafia Boss Pleads Guilty

By Associated Press
May 6, 2006, 6:00 PM EDT


MIAMI -- The 76-year-old reputed godfather of an organized crime family has pleaded guilty during his federal racketeering trial because of declining health, his lawyer said.

Jose Miguel Battle Sr. is awaiting sentencing for serving as the boss of "The Corporation," a crime ring that authorities said operated in New York, Florida and Latin America over four decades.

But Battle suffers from kidney and liver failure, diabetes and cardiac problems, his lawyer said.

"He's just very sick," said attorney Jack Blumenfeld. "This way, he can die at home rather than in jail."

Battle faces 20 years to life in prison for racketeering conspiracy if he lives long enough to be sentenced. He was set to be released from a federal detention center on a $1 million bond.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-brf-organized-crime,0,7510701.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Wikipedia:

Jose Miguel Battle Sr. (born 1930) is the nominal leader and founder of "the Corporation," which is otherwise known as "the Cuban Mafia."

Background and Expansion
A former policeman in Batista's Cuba, Jose Miguel Battle Sr. assisted the CIA in the early 1960s in training Cuban exiles and was involved in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1962. He was captured and spent nearly two years in a Cuban prison. After that, he settled in Union City, New Jersey, and began establishing a presence as the leader of a gang of Cuban-American criminals involved in everything from loansharking and gambling to drug trafficking and murder. He allegedly established good working relationships with the Italian Mafia in the New York City area, but at other times the Corporation is known to have had violent turf wars with various Italian mafia families. He made the bulk of his wealth from an illegal lottery racket known as bolita (little ball), which was popular among expatriate Cubans and Puerto Ricans. It is estimated that his network was making up to $45 million a year in the 1970s from bolita in New Jersey, New York and Florida. Battles' reputation was such that he was known among the Cuban American community as El Padrino, or the Godfather.<1> Battle was convicted in 1977 and sentenced to 30 years in prison in connection with the death of Ernestico Torres, an alleged hit man for Battle's organization. An appeals court overturned the conviction, but Battle later pleaded guilty to murder conspiracy in exchange for a sentence of time served - two years.

By the 1980s Battle had built up an empire of crime and began investing heavily in legitimate businesses throughout the New York area. In the late 1980s, President Ronald Reagan's Select Committee on Organized Crime investigated the Corporation and estimated its membership, direct or loosely associated, at 2,500 members. Soon afterwards, Battle relocated to Miami, Florida, where there was a large population of Cuban immigrants and began to operate his East Coast empire from the Little Havana area of the city. In 1987 Battle was listed as one of Dade County's wealthiest men with a net worth of $175 million.<2>
(snip/...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Miguel_Battle

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alleged kingpin of 'Cuban mafia' nabbed
Saturday, March 20, 2004
MIAMI, USA (UPI): Police in Miami have arrested the alleged kingpin of the "Cuban mafia" and two dozen associates on charges of running a numbers operation for 40 years.

Arrested was Jose Miguel Battle Sr., 74, and 24 associates, The Miami Herald reported Friday.

Battle was arrested Thursday in the produce section of his neighborhood supermarket.
(snip)

Federal prosecutors said the organization, known as "the corporation," has made $1.5 billion since it began in 1964.
(snip/...)

http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2004/03/20/kingpin.htm

Does that mean this week's bolita will be called off?

Maybe you can just lose yourself in DANCE, instead!



BABALU!

On edit: adding Andy Kaufman.

DEAL: BATTLE TO DIE AT HOME
Guilty plea to free him on $1M bail
Friday, May 05, 2006
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jose Miguel Battle Sr., the "Godfather of the Cuban Mafia" who founded a vast criminal empire out of North Hudson, has pleaded guilty to federal charges in a deal designed to allow him to die at his Florida home, officials said yesterday.
(snip)

As part of the plea deal, prosecutors have agreed to dismiss charges against Battle's former girlfriend and her stepfather, and to forgo seizing a residence where Battle's wife lives, press reports said. However, numerous other properties owned by Battle will be seized.

"Battle was a well known figure in Cuban-American organized crime in New Jersey, New York City and Dade County" in Florida, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday.

"He certainly had various connections both in the underworld and apparently with legitimate business. He was known to have extraordinary financial resources based on his criminal activities," DeFazio said, adding Battle moved from Union City to Florida "a generation ago."
(snip/)

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1146820358201000.xml&coll=3

:-)

I was going to say that's not an italian name.Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Nothing like having CIA protection!