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New England mob has lower profile, still thrives

December 10, 2006

The New England mob is much smaller and has a lower profile than it did during it heyday in the 1980s, but it’s still making money at traditional criminal pursuits such as extortion, drug trafficking and bookmaking, authorities said.

Several decades of federal prosecutions have weakened the Mafia, and the number of “made men” who have taken a formal oath and pledged their souls to the Mafia is about half of what it was in the Boston area in the early 1980s, Detective Lt. Stephen P. Johnson of the State Police told The Boston Globe.

Johnson, who oversees organized crime investigations as head of the Special Service Section, said the Boston faction has about 20 to 25 active soldiers who report to several capos.

But State Police in Rhode Island and Massachusetts said the New England Mafia continues to thrive, with illegal gambling – particularly sports betting – the lifeblood of the organization.

“It is the only traditional organized crime group left in town, with the exception of Asian gangs who primarily stay within their neighborhoods,” Johnson said. “What they’ve tried to do is keep a low profile while maintaining their traditional activities, which would include extortion, drug trafficking, bookmaking, loansharking, and even pornography.”

The New England Mafia operates in Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts up to Worcester. The western part of the state is allegedly controlled by New York families.

Since the 1930s, leadership of the New England Mafia has shifted between Boston and Providence. It reverted to Rhode Island in 1995 when the reputed current godfather, Luigi “Baby Shanks” Manocchio, took over.

Manocchio, 79, has been described as a low-key boss who united warring factions after Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme’s violent reign, the Globe reported.

Manocchio works out of a coin-operated laundry on Federal Hill in Providence and lives in an apartment upstairs.

Major Steven O’Donnell of the Rhode Island State Police, a longtime organized crime investigator, said wiretap and informant information has identified Peter J. Limone, 72, as the mob’s consigliere, who traditionally moderates internal disputes.

Limone was exonerated of a 1965 gangland murder after spending 33 years in prison and is suing the government for more than $100 million in an ongoing trial at federal court in Boston.

Last week, alleged underboss Carmen “The Big Cheese” DiNunzio, 49, owner of a cheese shop in Boston’s North End, was arrested on charges of extortion and running an illegal sports-betting operation. He allegedly oversees all the mob’s activities in the Boston area.

His lawyer, Anthony Cardinale, denied DiNunzio is an underboss, describing him as “a low-key, well-liked neighborhood guy who happens to be Italian.”

O’Donnell said mobsters in the Providence area have remained about the same in number, but they’re not grooming their children to take over anymore. Johnson said it’s the same in Boston, where he said there’s no mob headquarters in the North End, though gangsters fraternize there.

“The bad guys live in suburban towns now,” said Johnson.

Johnson said authorities must keep pressure on the mob, even though its numbers are dwindling.

“The key is to not let it grow, to keep pruning away at it, so it doesn’t get a chance to take off again,” he said

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