The Pantheon Project: Mafiosi Return For Pizza The Pie
“WOULD you like Heroin or Marijuana with that Margherita pizza, sir?”
New Yorkers are used to reading about people with names like Michael “Mikey Scars” DiLeonardo, Dominick “Fat Dom” Pizzonia and John “Junior” Gotti.
Mobsters still control much of the criminal underworld of New York. And getting whacked is still a hazard of the job.
But according to the New York Post, mob stories could become more frequent in the coming years as the Sicilian Mafia makes a comeback in the city.
American and Italian law enforcement officials are so worried about a resurgence in Sicilian mob activity that they have stationed FBI agents in Rome and Italian cops at FBI headquarters in Washington in an operation dubbed “The Pantheon Project”.
Much of the focus of their latest worry is the release of the “Pizza Connection” Mafiosi, Rosario, John and Joseph Gambino.
The Gambino brothers were the Sicilain mob’s New York chieftains until about 20 years ago when they were arrested and sentenced to over a decade each for selling heroin through a chain of pizza stores.
The three are all now free, though Joseph has been extradited to Siciliy.
The Feds fear they could soon be up to their old tricks, this time selling weed instead of heroin because the jail sentences are less severe.
“Do you think they have been rehabilitated by prison?” the New York Post quotes a federal official. “Narcotics is something they understand, they have the network and, as importantly, they have the respect.”
While the Feds crack down on the Gambinos, other mob figures are finding that the cops are busting their balls even into a ripe old age.
John “Sonny” Franzese, was sentenced to 50 years for a 1967 bank robbery. Since being released in 1978 he has been sent back to prison five times for violating his parole by meeting with known mobsters.
Now 89 years old, Franzese was busted last week for eating a donut with members of the Colombo crime family. In 2000 he was busted for having a coffee with three Colombo mobsters in a Long Island Starbucks. And in 1996 he was arrested for eating a bowl of spinach soup with known mobsters at a New York restaurant.
It seems that whether they are Sicilian or Italian-American, as long as food is involved, crime is never far away.
Posted: 14th, May 2007 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
