10 FEATURES ORGANISED CRIME 11 February 7th was a long day for police in New prison he shared a cell with Nicholas Corozzo, a Journal, he was in Oregon working on an office York City. It began with the cracking open of a senior Gambino figure once marked out for building project for Haskell when the FBI 175-page indictment charging 62 people leadership of the organisation. They became telephoned him. The newspaper reports that he associated with the Gambino organised crime close and when released from prison, Vollaro then turned himself into authorities. In June, family and others with racketeering, extortion, started making payments to Corozzo. Vollaro’s Kilgannon pleaded guilty to one count of murder and other federal offences. company, Andrews Trucking, became one of the extortion conspiracy. In August Todd Polakoff Starting in the early morning, 400 federal, state city’s leading construction haulage firms. Vollaro followed suit. Both were due to be sentenced as and local police fanned out through the city and and the Gambinos soon came to dominate the iCON was going to press in October. THE END began banging on doors in what has been called construction business in Staten Island, one of A project manager and director of tunnel the biggest Mafia crackdown in New York in 30 New York’s boroughs. operations for the Schiavone Construction years. According to the New York Times, he became Company, which is involved in major civil By the time the day-long harvest of criminals a ‘mole’ after he was arrested again in 2004 for engineering contracts for the city, was also OF MOB RULE? had finished, the grip of ‘La Cosa Nostra’ on the possessing a large quantity of cocaine, and after charged but the charges were dropped in August A massive crackdown on gangsters in New York has revealed the extent of the construction industry in the New York City region that began recording conversations with Gambino for lack of evidence. Mafia’s penetration into the construction industry there. Rod Sweet reports had, authorities hoped, been loosened. bosses. It is believed these recordings prompted Not content with skimming millions off For years members of the Gambino family and the FBI to expand the focus of the investigation legitimate businesses through threats and others such as the Genovese and Bonanno from narcotics to the Gambinos’ other interests, extortion, the Gambino crime family preyed on families had been using fear and the threat of such as construction racketeering and even back workers as well. According to the indictment, violence to extort money from trucking in time to murders committed as early as 1976. senior Gambino figures stole directly from union companies hauling debris from the region’s benefit funds, and defrauded workers of rightful construction sites, cement companies supplying PREYING ON MAJOR PROJECTS wages by under-reporting hours worked under those sites, and other contractors working on The scope of the Gambinos’ reach is exemplified union labour contracts. Two union-employed projects ranging from single homes to blocks of by their infiltration of a major construction project, officials were also arrested. condominiums and even, on one occasion, a a new racetrack which the National Association of proposed auto-racing track. Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) wanted to build STRIKING AT THE HEAD “This investigation exposed the alleged grip on Staten Island. The controversial project To arrest 62 people at once was considered that the Gambino organised-crime family has had required 3.8 million cubic yards of fill to elevate remarkable and unprecedented, and some raised over one of the largest construction markets in the track bed, which would have cost the questions about the effectiveness of bringing this the United States,” said Gordon S. Heddell, developer, International Speedway Corp. (ISC), a number of people to trial at once. By mid-August inspector general of the United States Labor NASCAR sister company, around US$20 million. 60 of the defendants had pleaded guilty, with Department, which took part in the investigation. The Gambinos arranged for trucking firms they many taking deals that will put them behind bars Heddell said the sweep, known as Operation controlled to work at the sight and would only for three years or less. Old Bridge, represented was a milestone toward allegedly have collected a dollar per yard of fill But others praised the police tactic. “In my eradicating a ‘far-reaching and insidious placed. The project was eventually called off due view, this is groundbreaking,” James Walden, a conspiracy’ involving construction companies to local opposition but had it gone ahead the former federal prosecutor who won major owned, controlled or influenced by the Gambinos. criminals could have collected US$3.8 million convictions against the Bonanno crime family, “Many of these construction companies through the scheme. told the Associated Press. “They essentially took allegedly paid a ‘mob tax’ in return for Two construction managers at the NASCAR out the entire organisation in one fell swoop.” ‘protection’ and permission to operate,” he said. site were also involved in extortion. They were He said it also had the potential to reap a new “Through their alleged control of these project manager Todd Polakoff, 30, and William crop of cooperators, as Joseph Vollaro had been. companies, the Gambino organised crime family Kilgannon, 49-year-old construction director, both Once considered among the most powerful caused the theft of Teamsters union dues, and of working for the ISC subsidiary designing and criminal organisations in the world, the Gambino health and pension funds, directly impacting the building the racetrack. organisation is believed now to be staggering welfare and future of many workers.” Polakoff and Kilgannon were specifically from the blows struck against its leadership. indicted for extorting $9,000 in early 2006 from However, even while police were celebrating THE MOLE an unnamed person working at the site with victory in one battle against the Mafia, they The arrests were the climax of a three-year threats of force and violence. admitted that the war was far from won. On the investigation that relied on hundreds of hours of Both Kilgannon and Polakoff left the ISC day Operation Old Bridge swung into action, FBI secret recordings made by an informant, Joseph subsidiary in December that year for other Deputy Director Pistole stated: “Today’s arrests In ‘Operation Old Bridge’, Vollaro, a trucking firm owner closely linked with employment. Kilgannon went on to become a will be a major setback for the Gambino crime 400 police officers arrested 60 the top echelon of the Gambino organisation. senior project manager for a leading design-build family, but it is a fallacy to suggest that La Cosa suspected mobsters in one day He was imprisoned in the mid-90s on drug firm, Haskell, headquartered in Jacksonville, Nostra is no longer a threat to public safety. REUTERS dealing and loansharking charges and while in Florida. According to the Jacksonville Business organised crime in New York is not dead.” iCON JOSEPH ‘JO JO’ sentenced to 46 months in prison. John D’Amico was allegedly a the top was interrupted in 1996 JOSEPH VOLLARO payments to Corozzo. Vollaro’s FBI investigate the Gambinos. It is THE COROZZO, Corozzo was represented by his son, veteran operator in the criminal when he was imprisoned for eight ‘THE INFORMANT’ company, Andrews Trucking, assumed he has entered a Witness PRINCIPALS SENIOR Joseph, Jr. a high-profile defence underworld. In May he pleaded years for racketeering and (B. 1966) became one of the city’s leading Protection Program. (B. c. 1943) lawyer. guilty to extorting a cement loansharking. During the 7th The man who secretly construction truckers. It received a Some of the senior The reputed ‘consigliere’ in the company out of $100,000, and on February sting he was tipped off by made hundreds of hours of lucrative hauling contract for the FRANK CALI Gambino figures involved Gambino family, under the leadership JOHN ‘JACKIE THE August 18th he was sentenced to his daughter (whose husband had recordings of conversations with NASCAR speedway planned for (B. 1965) in extorting New York of his brother and alleged boss, NOSE’ D’AMICO two years in prison. just been arrested) and he fled. senior Gambino figures. He was Staten Island. Vollaro and the Reputed ‘capo’ of the construction firms Nicholas ‘Little Nick’ Corozzo. In (B. 1937) Lasting only four months on the run imprisoned in the mid-90s on drug Gambinos soon came to dominate Gambinos and their liaison to the June this year he pleaded guilty to a Believed to share the NICHOLAS ‘LITTLE he turned himself in to police at the dealing and loansharking charges. the construction business in Staten Sicilian crime families, he was racketeering conspiracy charge running of the Gambino crime family NICK’ COROZZO end of May. He pleaded guilty to While in prison, he shared a cell with Island. At one point, Vollaro owned charged with extortion in connection involving the extortion of a Staten with Nicholas Corozzo, and a close (B. 1940) enterprise corruption in July. Nicholas Corozzo. They became three 40-foot yachts. In 2004, he with the Staten Island NASCAR race Island cement company run by the associate of the former boss, John A senior figure in the Further charges, including murder, close and when released from was arrested with two kilograms of track and sentenced to two years in ‘mole’, Joseph Vollaro. He was Gotti (who died in prison in 2002), Gambino crime family, whose rise to are pending. prison, Vollaro started making cocaine. Later he agreed to help the prison. www.iconreview.org 04 QUARTER 2008 04 QUARTER 2008 www.iconreview.org.