Carlo Gambino, 67, reputed to be the Mafia’s “Boss of All Bosses.”
John Gotti
The Gambino crime family has come home.
The gang of wiseguys that spawned John Gotti has returned to Brooklyn, the place where family boss Carlo Gambino gave his name to one of the world’s deadliest criminal enterprises.
The last time Brooklyn held such a distinction was when Gambino’s brother-in-law, Paul Castellano, headed the family. That ended in 1985, when Gotti’s henchmen gunned down “Big Paul” and his bodyguard outside Manhattan’s Sparks Steak House.
That moved the seat of power to Queens and a little social club called the Bergin Hunt & Fish Club, where overweight mobsters in velour sweatsuits strolled Ozone Park streets on walk-talks as FBI agents clicked away on surveillance cameras.
These days, the FBI says those secret chitchats are more likely to take place in the heart of Bensonhurst, along an 18th Ave. that looks a lot different than the one where mob snitch Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano plotted some of his 19 rubouts.
Asian eateries rival Italian salumerias and greasy pizza places. Tali’s — the bar where mob associate Mike DeBatt was killed on orders from Gravano in 1987 — is a Vietnamese restaurant.
The boss’ job has been handed over to a three-man panel that includes Gotti acolyte Daniel Marino, a veteran wiseguy who earned his bones making money, not murder, FBI agents say.
Marino, with the help of longtime gangsters Giovanni (John) Gambino and Bartolomeo (Bobby) Vernace, oversees a slimmed-down criminal gang of 200 made men and 300 associates that fills its coffers with cash from drugs, extortion and loansharking, the FBI
While the feds have choked off most of the Gambinos’ influence in the city’s major labor unions, they refuse to concede a surefire moneymaker that’s been their golden goose for decades.
Over the last year, the FBI has turned up so-called “wildcat unions” made up of wiseguys whose Mafia ties have gotten them permanently banned from organized labor.
Of course they’re always looking for new ventures.
Take energy-drink maker, American Blast Ltd. Manhattan federal prosecutors say longtime Gambino associate Joe Watts used the Manhattan company to launder the proceeds from Gambino criminal schemes. His daughter, Robyn Russo, is the CEO and Marino’s son, Dan Marino Jr., is the president.
“It’s certainly not the end of them,” says Gerald Conrad, a veteran agent who heads the FBI’s Gambino squad from Queens offices not far from Gotti’s old base in Howard Beach. “They’re still making wiseguys.”
thanks Thomas Zambito
