The prosecutor alleged numerous drug rackets, but says online gambling was the main source of revenue for the gang.
New York Police Department officers made hundreds of recordings of members of the Bonanno crime family during their years of surveillance. Excerpts from these recordings were played this week in the Manhattan Supreme Court. Innocuous-seeming terms were used to describe their criminal activities, which included an illegal gambling ring.
The four members of the Bonnano crime family on trial this week were Anthony “Skinny” Santoro, Nicholas Santora, Vito Badamo, and Ernest Aiello. The four men are charged with gambling, extortion, loansharking, drug dealing, and enterprise corruption.
Used Coded Language to Evade Notice
Movies and television shows about mobsters seem full of cliches, but it appears that some of those cliches exist because they’re real. Organized crime members have been detected speaking in a code or lingo, hoping to evade notice by the unsuspecting or avoid being deciphered by any feds listening to them.
That appears to have been the case in the Bonnano illegal gambling ring.
To evade detection, the criminals developed an elaborate thieves cant. Phrases like “chicken cutlets,” “pretty girl,” “pretty waitress,” “Captain Crunch,” and “office” were used to describe certain types of illegal activities. For instance, “office” was used to describe the illegal online gambling ring.
NYPD Detective Angelo Barone testified this week at the trial, explaining the code being used and discussing his long surveillance of the mobsters. In referernce to a secret location the men would meet at, Det. Barone said the men would say things like “Let’s meet where the pretty waitress is” or “[meet] where the good chicken cutlets are.”
Judge Makes Light of the Code
Judge Mark Dwyer quipped, “Did you develop any good dining tips?”
“Yes,” replied Detective Barone said to assorted laughter through the courtroom.
The mobsters did not appear to be as amused as the rest of the people sitting in court, because they had to hear tapes from recorded conversations they had back in March 2011. Those recordings are likely to be men years in prison for each of the men.
“Office” Meant an Online Gaming Website
Santoro used the term “office” several times, which the detective was a “wire room” or website for Internet gambling. State prosecutors allege the wire room was located in Costa Rica.
Prosecutors have portrayed the men running the operation as classic mobsters. One of the defendants, 73-year old Nicholas Santora, is thought to have been part of the inspiration for the fictional character “Donnie Brasco”, played by Johnny Depp. Michael Alber, who serves as lawyer for the wheelchair-bound alleged Nicholas Santora, has portrayed Santora and his alleged accomplices as small-time players.
One Witness Killed 7 People
Adam Konta, the lawyer for the key defendant, Anthony “Skinny” Santoro, has taken the same tack. Konta claimed that the investigators in the case simply used scraps from an old case in which no one was prosecuted to bring the case against his client.
Back on February 10, Adam Konta claimed that the witnesses in the case were the real criminals. He said, “One of their witnesses killed seven people — that’s more than on a season of ‘Game of Thrones.’”
Konta said, “Mr. Santoro did not make anyone ‘sleep with the fishes.’”
Online Gambling the Main Crime
Prosecutor David Stewart believes the alleged mobster’s lawyers are overplaying their hand. He said that the men are no Hollywood mafiosos, but real criminals committing real crimes that have harmed people.
Stewart laid out a series of criminal enterprises the men organized, including the illegal sale of Viagra and Cialis on the black market. But he said the online gambling operation was the real money maker, and the key part of their criminal empire.
David Stewart told the judge and the jury, “The real money maker for them, their bread and butter, was the online gambling operation.“
