 Last week we we touched on some some big news in New York about stuff that we've been breaking out of the Midwest about stuff that's going on out in New York related to the Bonanno crime family. Both Jimmy and I have been really on top of that and you know it's it's a minute by minute second by second scenario so we'll keep you know the more we learn over the next weeks and months we'll keep you in the loop but right now as in the you know as in the last 48 hours there's been some plea agreements that has that have come up in federal court out of Manhattan connected to the Genovese crime family which is the as we've talked about before the Ivy League the Cadillac part you know the the upper echelon of organized crime in America you know it's always been the Genovese crime family they do things on kind of a more elite level they're the most usually the most lucrative the most secretive the most stable yes you agree and right now they're headed by the guy that's considered the boss of bosses in New York the most powerful Mafia Don in in New York right now allegedly Barney Balomo and some of Barney's guys are going to prison the two couple regimes that were the marquee defendants in the April 22 indictment racketeering indictment against a handful of Genovese mob figures Ralph the undertaker Balamo and Nick Nicky slash Khaleesi were the headline defendants but there were other guys behind them this looks like it was a kind of a global plea where everybody agrees to plead guilty and they're looking at 20 years but you know most likely they'll probably end up doing I'm guessing seven or eight but that's still some some significant time for guys that are in their fifties and sixties Balamos 51 they call him the undertaker because he has for years his own and ran a funeral home in the Bronx and he is very close to Barney Barney meant toward him they were arrested together in a in a 2006 racketeering indictment so you know Ralph Balamo is is 51 and a lot of people in New York within the Genovese orbit including from what I hear Barney look at at Balamo as a guy that is probably a future you know administrator in that in that crime family well in that world in your fifties is young right he's been made I think since his thirties if not before that yeah so let's if we can just talk about this for a moment so that the official charges were racketeering conspiracy but if we go into the the details here it's basically loan sharking distortion and right operating illegal gambling businesses so that they meet sports betting and so let's just talk about something here for a moment I'm I'm not trying to to be team LCN here we're not team Uncle Sam I think I want audiences to understand we're team OG podcast so because sometimes we say things that people say oh you're you're siding with the government or you're siding with these criminals I don't think we're siding with anyone but but our podcast but in this case I you know are we really going to spend resources and taxpayers dollars dollars busting guys for running loan sharking and and sports betting operations it seems to me like there are there should be other priorities federal law enforcement should be working on not not that these are great guys or anything in this family but and my sense is if they're doing this it's because they want to use this as leverage to flip guys they want to flip balsamo so they can get below mo it's not gonna happen right I think a guy like Ralph balsamo who's done I believe two federal prison sentences in the last decade plus so this guy isn't a stranger to the feds he kept his mouth shut no six when he was busted he kept his mouth shut again when he got busted in 16 so you know good luck with that if you're the FBI in New York you know Nikki slash I don't know as much about I know that he is the capo regime that runs the South Florida rackets for the Genovese he's based out of Boca Raton even though he's born and bred in the Bronx and still has members of his crew that that that live in the Bronx and handle his his New York affairs but he's based out of out of Boca so it seems to me like they could be using their research well it better endeavors I think we address this at some point in the last couple years there was a big Colombo crime family bust a couple years ago oh yeah and the three leading defendants were 87 83 78 one of them literally was dementia stricken and then died shortly thereafter and and like you're saying wasn't they weren't being charged with murders or violence they were being charged with basic run-of-the-mill racketeering running sports books juice loans and so forth and it's like how many tens of millions of dollars went into this investigation just to put away guys in their 80s that are going to die soon anyway and aren't killing people yeah and so it seems to me like the the main concern of law enforcement should be public safety and if and if these guys aren't a threat to public safety then I'm not sure what the urgency is now with racketeering like if we're talking about labor racketeering or some kind of like infiltration of a legitimate business where there's extortion then I'm I'm I'm you know I don't think that that's good for that to be happening so if there's a federal investigation in those areas to me that's that's a little different but just for juice loans sports betting running fucking card games and dice games I'm not sure that this is the best use of our taxpayer dollars and editorial well and I think this there's a means there's a method to the madness if you're the government because prosecutors FBI agents want heads on their wall yes that's how they get promotions right so even though Andy Majruso when he was indicted a year or two ago and was 87 and didn't know what day it was and literally you know they have tape recordings from that investigation with the coppers and the soldiers being like we can't bring anything to our boss because our boss doesn't know what state he's living in well you know doesn't know what happened yesterday can't recognize his wife and as I said before he died pretty shortly after that indictment but the prosecutor that made the case and the FBI unit that made that case they took down an LCN Don you know an old school New York mafia boss even though he didn't really end up doing a serious prison time for it and even if he would have lived he wouldn't have that just that's that's a gold star yeah there's still cash shade to that when you're running it up the flag and even in this situation with Nikki slash Nikki slash and Ralph Bassamo not to mention two other alleged soldiers Mike Messina from Connecticut and Johnny Campanella who I'm told is one of younger guy 47 years old allegedly a May guy I hear he's one of Nikki slash's guys in the Bronx you know the guys that made this case you did you took down two coppers right yeah so that the superiors are going to be impressed with that and when they need funding from Washington DC they have to show these numbers yeah and New York City is really the only FBI office that's consistently making LCN cases right Philadelphia that's the only place where there is though right well and in Philadelphia we talked about doesn't exist in Philly or Boston or Detroit I think we talked about this with it with you know in Philadelphia from what I'm hearing in in the FBI office and in their communications with the Justice Department in Washington DC that the people in Washington are actually saying what you're saying basically saying stop bringing these little dinky bullshit RICO's that are only gonna put these guys away for five six seven years it's interesting it's a waste of money time and resources if you're gonna bring a case you better bring murders so someone like Joey Merlino right now I I don't believe he'll face another racketeering case I I believe what I was told that that FBI office in Philadelphia has been told you cannot bring another case like they've brought in a number over the last decade plus that that you aren't charging violence yeah that this is just and that you're gonna hamster on a hamster on a drug trafficking or murder charges what why even bother and then just like what you said about New York this most recent Philly bus that came down in 2020 they thought that they could take a guy like Dom Grande who is Joey Merlino's and Joey Merlino's right hand Stevie Mazzone's protege the guy that is being tapped to be the future of this crime family he's a young guy he's younger than us I think he's 43 and has never done prison time before and his dad was a cooperator that's right I can guarantee you the only point of that bust in addition to being able to say they got Stevie Mazzone they got an underboss like I get a gold star on the resume but they thought they could get Grande who they think is involved in a murder even though they never charged it and they thought that they could jam him and that Grande would give them Merlino and Mazzone because he was looking at seven or eight years in prison and Dom Grande in my opinion is or he just reported a couple weeks ago but like I think he like he ran to the prison gates this is something that's good for his career yeah it gives you some street cred and he's not going to have a tough it's not going to be a tough right I mean it'll be tough that he has to be away from his wife and his newborn kid and I mean that's nobody wants that but it ain't gonna be regular time it's gonna be easy time he'll be out in six or seven years eight years and and he'll come out he might come out as the as the new acting boss he went in a capo yeah so I think and I mean there are finite resources that the federal government has I know it doesn't seem like it they can just keep on borrowing money from China but but you know in some ways there's a finite you know amount of resources so to me I would focus on the more the most violent predatory criminals you know and I don't want it to seem like oh you're just giving the Italians a free pass there's something very sexy for the US government still just like the public romanticizes the mafia I think the government does too and they almost like fetishized over it I think especially on the East Coast yeah here they know right the Midwest guys I don't know about Chicago part of that Detroit they don't the feds here don't care about the Italians okay but isn't part of that regional I mean yeah what's happened in the last 20 plus years with the war on terrorism and the the city of Detroit being the biggest no there's a population of Middle Easterners and in the country yeah when it comes to Chicago we're in a fentanyl crisis and the hub for the cartels is in Chicago so and both Chicago and Detroit in terms of violent crime on the 11 o'clock news every night it's it's in black neighborhoods and affiliated with streak a lot of a lot of bloodshed so that's where the federal resources are and and so I get it like scale like right the Italians aren't aren't is you know the scale is much smaller in Detroit than it used to be and so that point well taken so they're going to divert resources toward counterterrorism narcotics whatever but but that's how it should be as it should be I would say because those are the most urgent might be in terms of public safety public health those are the most urgent issues and keeping it in the East Coast but just for a second jumping away from New York City it used to be for years and years and years whatever city you're in you had three separate law enforcement agencies tracking OC you had the FBI you had whatever police department that that city had and then you had the state police well it doesn't look like cities and states are really making OC case anymore it's just up to the feds but there's an exception to that right now in Rhode Island in Providence you have the Rhode Island state police that have been public going to the media and and also through the court filing system where they're letting everybody know that they have a full court press right now on good-looking Maddie Googler Maddie's crew and all this information is being disseminated through Rhode Island state police files where a good-looking Maddie Googler mentee you know the OG's OG out in Providence 75 years old dates back to old man Patriarca has been a copo since the 80s at one point he was the underboss of the Patriarch is now I've heard that he's he stepped down in the last couple years because of health reasons but his one of his protege's a guy named Dino Gilmetti you know just took a drug case where he has pled not guilty in his is fighting it and is the subject as well as Maddie and then a very prominent business person or a very prominent business family in Rhode Island that are the cannabis the legal cannabis kings of Providence they own the the the most lucratively licensed retail marijuana business is owned by this McGraw family and the wife McGraw is a subject of this Rhode Island state police cocaine investigation that involves Dino Gilmetti and Maddie well most lucrative in that region or national most no sorry most lucrative in Rhode Island okay that he has the biggest or her husband who I just want to be clear was has not been implicated in any criminal activity other than the fact that there are phone calls going in tax going back and forth between the husband and Dino Gilmetti I know he's confusing here because we got Dino Gilmetti and then you have Maddie googly a Maddie but Dino easy for you to say right no it's confused it's confused Dino for you sports fans out there Dino's wife slash baby mama is the widow of Aaron Hernandez Shayana Jenkins Aaron Hernandez the Aaron Hernandez the former NFL player that was a doctor was a murderer that died in prison of a suicide well his baby mama Shayana Jenkins is now with Dino Gilmetti no shit yes and Dino is under indictment right now on a pill case and he is the focus of a another drug investigation into cocaine trafficking and Maddie googly a Maddie the former under boss current Capo in Providence and Elizabeth McGraw are also focuses of that Rhode Island state police investigation can we get shameless self-promotion we had Steve O'Donnell who was an undercover police investigator for Rhode Island state police we have an episode New England Mafia undercover I think that's just an audio episode right now we don't have that oh that was oh no he called it right yeah I'm sorry thank you so you can see that on YouTube um we we got to get him back on and then there's another guy that I've been talking to who was a Steve O'Donnell was a was a state police I've been talking to a former FBI OC in Providence oh right Brendan Doherty and I'm hoping that yeah we'll bring him on as well but I just wanted to throw that out there to be like this is the it's it's an outlier of a situation that you have a state police organization going after OC yeah for sure you don't hear that that that often um especially for for the Italians um maybe to bring up first full circle talk about a Gambino case right now that's that's gonna bring up yeah Danny Fama I think that's how you pronounce his name uh long time New York mob figure uh you know facing another case and uh Gangland News a couple weeks ago reported that uh the recent court filings in that case alleged that Danny Fama has gotten a button uh from the Gambino's has been made he was uh someone that you know came on the scene in the 1980s and was a member of uh Sammy the Bull and John Gotti's uh kind of JV faction I guess you could say you know guys that they were grooming to become mob soldiers and um according to the government Danny Fama was the getaway driver in the last mob hit that John Gotti ordered uh he's been acquitted of those charges so a jury found him not guilty but uh was implicated as the getaway driver in the Eddie the Chink Garofalo murder which was uh ordered by John Gotti a couple months before he was indicted what was that about why did he I think it was a was Gruffalo made guy Gruffalo was a made guy that's what I thought yeah and um I'm not positive about all the circumstances I think he got caught stealing um he there was another uh member of the Gambino's that was also called Eddie Gruffalo who went by uncle Eddie I believe they were cousins um they called uh Eddie the Chink they gave him that nickname because he had slanty eyes it seems to be a uh it's very on pc but yeah that's where the that's where the um the name comes from I had a uh quick digression I had an uncle named Chicky and I always wonder where the nickname Chicky came from and I asked my grandma they're like well he had eyes like an asian and it was it was uh on it wasn't proper to say Chinky so we just started calling him Chicky but there are a number actually of of uh mob members that have had that name um nickname and and do we know why it took so long for him to get his button well yes so the what uh has been alleged over the years in court filings uh was that he didn't want it yeah that's significant I think yeah and that was like a part of why some of his past legal issues he didn't serve as much time as he might have because the government was almost like giving him like a credit for not wanting to become a I mean oh well and I I would assume that's why he didn't I don't know I don't really know much about this person in this case but I'm assuming he didn't want the headache that comes with once you're a made guy uh eventually the feds are going to put you on their bulletin picture you on their bulletin board um so but that's interesting how things have changed because you know for so long if you're part of that underworld to be made is the right that's the ultimate um goal so he's about there's guys who buy their buttons right let alone turn it down so um famas are about to turn 60 or close to he's pushing up on 60 I think he's like 58 the the Garofalo murder took place in Brooklyn in August in 1990 it looks like Gotti and and Gravano thought the Garofalo was going to cooperate um and he he was um tried and jury found him not guilty uh you know he was implicated by Sammy the bull so Sammy the bull when he flipped gave information on all the murders that he was involved are they going to bring him back for this no no the the that case is already he was acquitted like eight years he was acquitted in 2014 they can't this is an this is another case that it isn't related to any violence I see but Gravano was prepared to testify against fama back then I'm not sure if he did but uh you know fama was a guy that uh you know he spent 17 years behind bars he's realized that he can keep or the mob knows that he can keep his mouth shut he's always been known as someone that was capable reliable uh an earner um so it's it's it's it's interesting to learn according to the government he changed his opinion on whether or not he should get a button and at some point probably in the last five years has been inducted into the Gambino crime family by italian dom safulu maybe before frankie boy uh callie died who knows or maybe it was lorenzo menino who's the reputed uh boss now took over for frankie boy well some interesting updates on the east coast and we'll we'll keep on talking about these things um can i throw one more thing yeah yeah sure uh i know we're all over the all over the place in this episode but uh we talked about barney and i want to be kind of open with what we were talking about last week and so let's end with it uh with what's going on the bananos this factional dispute between the boss of the bananas mickey knows mancuso and the camarano brothers uh joe c camarano was mickey knows his former acting boss uh unsuccessfully tried to oust mancuso from his post when a mancuso was in prison mancuso came out of prison put joe camarano and a number of people close to jim joe camarano on the shelf and this past summer told camarano that he couldn't go to his five and lost funeral uh melee broke out at the funeral and according to what we're hearing mancuso has hit teams out searching for joe camarano's brother dino um one thing that i've reported recently was is that this is something that is upsetting other crime families and it's not just mancuso's top advisors in the bananos specifically viddy vinny tv battle of many who i heard is his most trusted advisor and someone that he he leans on and was named quote-unquote conciliary for life uh that battle of mentee is one of the people that is counseling him to just to knock it off that uh bruno indelicado uh recently released soldier capo goes back all the way to the 70s same type of advice but it's not just coming from the bananos i've heard that specifically barney bolomo is sending word that this is disturbing him and and he worries what the collateral damage is going to be from mickey mancuso's you know crusade for vengeance like and i don't think it's we always talk about this i mean i know i don't think it's a moral or ethical thing even though i do believe that there's a lot of people they like everybody likes the camarano so that works in their favor sure but so it's part of it if this wasn't something that had the potential to get other mob bosses ensnared in their mind when bodies start dropping you know full court press is going to be on for all the mob families uh i don't know if they would care but because they view this as something that can blow back on them they care a great deal yeah if if they're busting guys for juice loans and gambling can you imagine if body start dropping so i think i agree with you that's my understanding is that it's a public relations and barney had and barney although he is you know been a suspect in in gangling homicides in his career um including his his best friend uh but you know 60 barney 66 right now and i heard that when barney came out of prison in in the 2000s he put an edict on the street and no more hits yeah keep it low key yeah so uh you know barney is revered you know he is someone that uh every mobster in new york looks up to has respect for uh he is a ghost we've talked about it before you know there's like maybe two or three photos of two or three recent photos of this guy that have made it online one of them from like a google image search with him walking out of a pizza place with his son but yeah just is incredibly insulated and um isn't happy about what's going on with the banana so i reported that i also reported that lorenzo manino is another person that has been the gambino boss who's been reaching out and that both manino and uh bolomo know the camarino family personally bolomo knew from what i heard new joe c's dad really well joe joe saunders and i've heard manino actually knows joe c really well yeah they're they're my understanding is they're well liked and uh for a long time yeah you know um and the grimaldi family too yes well well respected and they're part of that interconnected interconnected so well we'll keep on updating people uh just want to remind everyone please follow us on social media if you don't please spread the word uh please follow us on youtube and um we hope to bring you more content we hope to eventually have merch and um it's a it's a you know we're we're working as fast and furious as we can but as i've said before not to beat this dead horse but the three of us all have day jobs and so it's it's not as easy to to to put as much uh resources into this as we'd like but we we do our best so we appreciate you for following us and liking us like subscribe share please yeah spread the word and i'll have my og hat back on next week yeah walked out of the house without it people want to know where they can get it well hopefully but i'm you know on a serious note hopefully by the spring we will have a uh kind of a gear store for for people to purchase og branded merchandise yeah that would be fun so thanks for listening we'll see you next week i'm jimmy b stop nursing we're out