A lot has changed in American business since the advent of the internet, but some who specialize in ill-gotten gains don’t seem to care about what’s trendy.
Members of crime families operating from Massachusetts to Florida continue to resort to violence and threats of violence, a newly unsealed federal indictment suggests.
People who make the mistake of borrowing money from mobsters pay for it dearly, according to details in the indictment made public Thursday. Other citizens are gouged financially, prosecutors allege, simply by trying to do business in a place underworld figures consider their turf.
Last week, in one of their periodic crackdowns on organized crime, federal prosecutors rounded up 46 alleged members of the Genovese, Luchese, Bonanno and Gambino crime families, including five men who live in Hampden County and constitute what’s known as the “Springfield Crew” associated with the Genovese organization.
The nicknames in the indictments can make this seem a sort of farce – “Sammy Shark” is one of the men charged, “Johnny Cal” another. But what they stand accused of is anything but funny. It took two years for investigators to make this latest case – and it is time and taxpayer money well spent.
One of the men arrested last week, Francesco “Sammy Shark” Depergola, a 60-year-old Springfield resident, served two years in prison for pressuring a pizza shop owner over a gambling debt in 2006. Depergola happens to have been the only witness, other than the man who pulled the trigger, to the 2003 murder that changed the shape of organized crime in western Massachusetts – the killing of Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno at the Mount Carmel Social Club.
The federal investigation into Bruno’s murder hobbled organized crime activities in Springfield for years, as prosecutors picked apart its middle-level leadership. One of those to fall was Depergola, one of the men nabbed last week, who in 2006 pleaded guilty to loan-sharking. He now stands accused of conspiracy and interfering with commerce by threats and violence.
The indictment paints a picture of an underworld where greedy men still threaten to bust up their victims’ kneecaps. It’s a place where legitimate business owners are threatened with physical violence unless they agree to pay large sums of money to crime families.
That’s called extortion – and it figures prominently in the latest case that prosecutors are making against the mob in western Massachusetts.
In a statement last week, U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz detailed a particularly harrowing allegation against two of the men arrested, Ralph A. Santaniello and Giovanni Calabrese. Ortiz said the two men, both from Longmeadow, had made a list of businesses to extort.
One target, identified as “Victim 1” in the indictment, had apparently been operating normally for years after having been forced to pay extortion to Bruno. That person might have thought the rough treatment was over. But 10 years after Bruno’s murder, in 2013, Victim 1 received a visit at home from Santaniello and Calabrese, prosecutors say, and was told to pony up the kickbacks once again.
Not only that, the business owner was told he’d have to make up for all the years after Bruno’s killing when he didn’t pay.
Here’s how house calls work in La Cosa Nostra, based on the indictment’s details: Calabrese and Santaniello told the business owner to pay or they would cut off his head and bury his body in his backyard. Santaniello punched the guy in the face.
The two demanded $20,000 within days, then $2,000 a month.
Victim 1 paid $5,000, the indictment says, and was threatened anew for coming up short. Calabrese had come back with another of the men arrested last week, Richard Valentini of East Longmeadow. Soon they returned again, prosecutors allege, taking $500 from their mark.
Fearing surveillance, Santaniello at one point ripped open the business owner’s shirt and demanded to know if he was being recorded. Santaniello is said to be the leader of the Springfield Crew; his father, Amedeo, was a top Bruno lieutenant. Prosecutors say this shakedown went on for the next two months – and evidence of it was slowly collected to become part of the latest federal move against organized crime.
The arrests come two years before the advent of casino gambling in Springfield. Given that some of the defendants stand accused of preying on people with gambling debts, this seems timely. All defendants were held over the weekend pending trial. If prosecutors can make their case stick, these arrests will change the nature of business in Hampden County – for the better.