Bonannos Reboot as Mob Squad Gets Halved
The NY Daily News is reporting that the Bonanno crime family has picked Michael “The Nose” Mancuso as its "official boss," noting that "Mancuso, 59, would be the first top banana to hold that title since longtime boss Joseph Massino, who turned rat shortly after he was convicted in 2005 of racketeering and multiple murders."
“Mancuso’s the boss and he’s running the family from jail,” a key law enforcement source told The News.
Capeci has noted that there are fewer agents watching mobsters and putting cases together than there were two years ago, following the roundup of more than 120 goodfellas on what has become to be known as "Mafia Takedown Day."
The FBI had one squad assigned to each New York crime family back in the days that they were systematically dismantling organized crime, piece by piece. At present, however, the FBI has on the streets only two New York City-based squads to keep an eye on the 700 or so members -- and estimated 7,000 associates -- of the Five Families, as Capeci noted.
The number of mob-fighting FBI agents has fallen by more than 50% since 2008, in fact.
“It’s devastating,” one veteran organized crime prosecutor told Capeci. “When you had five squads doing five families, it was hard, covering all the different crews in the different neighborhoods all over the city; now you want to have two squads covering five families? The cutbacks are just devastating.”
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"The Nose" Mancuso is behind bars.
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We have spoken to a few sources who have had not very pleasant things to say about the reporter who wrote the pro-Mancuso piece, which seems as if it were dashed off in an attempt to catch up with reporter Jerry Capeci, who last week reported that while Mancuso may take the big seat when he gets out of the can in five years, for now the main Bonanno on the street, and boss of the borgata, is Thomas DeFiore.
The News basically writes the same story as Capeci did last week, only inverting the emphasis: "It doesn’t matter that Mancuso has five years left to serve in federal prison for a murder conviction...
“Mancuso’s the boss and he’s running the family from jail,” a key law enforcement source told The News.
"A new underboss, Thomas DeFiore, of Long Island, has also been tapped to run the family on the street, but he may be little more than a figurehead. The power squarely lies with Mancuso and his Bronx-based underlings, sources said."
What is the difference between what Capeci wrote and the News author wrote? About five days -- the length of time it took the News to catch up to Capeci.
What is of greater interest to this blogger is the fact that, according to the Daily News, "at least 10 Bonanno mobsters have gotten their button — becoming made men — in the past 18 months, sources said, as the family is trying to replenish its ranks depleted by convictions. The Bonanno family has about 100 wise guys and hundreds of criminal associates, a source added."
The Bonannos are building up -- just as the Feds are making their ill-conceived cutbacks in terms of their focus on La Cosa Nostra in New York City.
As Tickle the Wire points out, "the FBI is dedicating less and less resources to battle the New York mob these days."Capeci has noted that there are fewer agents watching mobsters and putting cases together than there were two years ago, following the roundup of more than 120 goodfellas on what has become to be known as "Mafia Takedown Day."
The FBI had one squad assigned to each New York crime family back in the days that they were systematically dismantling organized crime, piece by piece. At present, however, the FBI has on the streets only two New York City-based squads to keep an eye on the 700 or so members -- and estimated 7,000 associates -- of the Five Families, as Capeci noted.
The number of mob-fighting FBI agents has fallen by more than 50% since 2008, in fact.
“It’s devastating,” one veteran organized crime prosecutor told Capeci. “When you had five squads doing five families, it was hard, covering all the different crews in the different neighborhoods all over the city; now you want to have two squads covering five families? The cutbacks are just devastating.”