Tales of the Jersey mob: Body behind diner a missing Mafiosi?

Tales of the Jersey mob: Body behind diner a missing Mafiosi? Wedding Services Search By LARRY McSHANE Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK -- A mob trial, a missing defendant, a decomposing body and a car trunk. Don't cue "The Sopranos" theme for this real-life mob scenario, where a reputed Genovese family capo vanished during his waterfront corruption case only to turn up dead _ perhaps _ behind a New Jersey diner.

The body found Wednesday in a parking lot behind the Huck Finn Diner in Union, N.J., was likely that of Lawrence Ricci, a mob veteran last seen on Oct. 7. Positive identification was pending, but Ricci's lawyer said Thursday that the body was definitely his client.

"There really is no doubt that it's him," said attorney Martin Schmukler. "There's not the slightest doubt. The vehicle was the last vehicle he was seen in. Does anyone think it's somebody other than him?"

The news was particularly disquieting for Schmukler, who won an acquittal for Ricci on federal charges after the mobster's disappearance. Ricci, a well-known presence on the metropolitan-area waterfront, was accused of steering a lucrative union contract to a mob-connected pharmaceutical company.

Speculation about Ricci's disappearance and likely death centered on both the trial and his alleged life of crime. One report suggested he was killed after ignoring a Mafia "request" to cop a plea in the waterfront trial. A law enforcement official also had said the slaying was the result of an unrelated power struggle in Ricci's mob crew.

The answers will eventually come out, said Ronald Goldstock, former head of the New York state Organized Crime Task Force.

National Legal and Policy Center -- Organized Labor Accountability Project

UNION CORRUPTION UPDATE

November 21, 2005 -- Vol. 8, Issue 24

LONGSHOREMEN (ILA)

Union Officials, Mobster Found Not Guilty; Questions Remain

In the end, the jury wasn’t convinced. But that hardly means the prosecution wasn’t convincing. On Tuesday, November 8, a federal jury in Brooklyn, N.Y. acquitted all three defendants of conspiracy and fraud charges related to allegations they steered Longshoremen union benefit funds toward a mobbed-up pharmaceutical company. The fortunate ones are: Harold Daggett, the union’s assistant general organizer; Arthur Coffey, ILA vice president and Miami chieftain; and Lawrence Ricci, a reported Genovese crime family captain. While the verdict was a clear victory for the union, nagging questions remain – like the whereabouts of Ricci.

The leadership of the International Longshoremen’s Association, for now, is out of the woods. Longtime President John Bowers referred to the acquittals as “a wonderful day for the ILA.” By no coincidence, just two days later on November 10, Bowers announced the union would strengthen its Code of Ethics. Among other steps, it would make the nearly two-year-old code permanent and retain retired U.S. District Judge George C. Pratt for the new position of Independent Appellate Officer. It may take a while before skeptics are fully convinced such actions are more than window dressing.

The ILA, which represents roughly 65,000 dock workers and auxiliary employees at dozens of U.S. and Canadian ports along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, plus various inland bodies of water, long has had mob ties. Reporter Malcolm Johnson’s serialized expose on dock corruption for the old New York Sun in the late 40s, the original inspiration for the film On the Waterfront (recently reprinted in book form), indicates how close those ties have been from the start. Not that much has changed, despite the union’s public relations efforts.

Several decades ago a deal between New York’s Gambino and Genovese crime families established the existing regime. With the cooperation of ILA locals, the Gambinos would control the Brooklyn and Staten Island docks; the Genoveses would run the ones in Manhattan and New Jersey. It took a long time to get the goods on the principals, but beginning in the 1980s, under the leadership of the late prosecutor, Gerard McGuire, the feds nailed dozens of mob guys. Even as the Mafia continued to recruit new enforcers, the dominoes continued to fall, most prominently in 2003 in the form of Gambino crime mogul Peter Gotti, who’s more likely than not to live out his years in prison. But prosecutors believed that as long as the people running the international union remain in charge, further ILA partnerships with the criminal underworld would continue. Soon enough, Daggett and Coffey were indicted in July 2004, and suspended from union-related duties. Had they been convicted, they would have faced up to 20 years in prison. Testimony for the prosecution by a convicted Gambino soldier, Primo Cassarino, provided what the government thought was unimpeachable evidence. But somewhere along the line, jurors perceived him as just another mob turncoat trying to win an early release.

ILA officials, flush with victory, understandably claim that corruption in their union ceased to be a factor long ago. Still, the union is facing another piece of music: a civil RICO suit that the Justice Department filed this July to remove Bowers, Coffey, Daggett and Executive Vice President Albert Cernadas from office. Longtime Newark local boss Cernadas already has settled with the government. In September, in the criminal case, he also pleaded guilty to reduced fraud conspiracy charges. During 1997-2001, prosecutors alleged, Cernadas knowingly awarded an ILA benefit contract to a mob-connected company, GPP/VIP. Union officials are confident they will beat the rap this time around, too. Prosecutors counter that aside from the standard of proof in civil cases being “a preponderance of the evidence,” the mob still controls union elections and hiring.

Then there’s the inconvenient matter of Lawrence Ricci, the third defendant acquitted in the criminal case. Reportedly an acting capo of the Genovese family, Ricci, 60, “vanished” about a month and a half ago, on the eve of his scheduled October 7 court testimony. The smart money says that Ricci has two chances of turning up alive – slim and none. It is highly unlikely he decided on a lark to go AWOL. For one thing, he already had given testimony beginning on September 20; during this time he was free on $500,000 bail. Obviously, if it was Ricci’s intent to avoid self-incrimination on the witness stand, he would have made himself scarce before, not after, the trial began. Second, he faced a maximum five-year sentence, not exactly worth a flight from prosecution. Third, even with the prospect of a long sentence, Ricci was not about to leave those close to him in the lurch. “I cannot believe he would voluntarily put his family through this kind of agony,” said his attorney, Martin L. Schmukler. And fourth, having been exonerated, it makes no sense whatsoever for him to remain a bail-jumper. Bottom line: Someone up the Genovese or Gambino food chain probably had this guy silenced for good in order to keep certain people out of prison – if not Daggett and Coffey themselves, then certain mobsters with whom they were friendly. The jury verdict notwithstanding, this is one crime story that’s far from a conclusion. (New York Times, 11/9; New York Daily News, 11/9; PR Newswire US, 11/10).

>>> International Longshoremen’s Association

Smuggling

A Senate Committee of Canada continued its hearings into National Security and Defence during the first quarter of this year. Addressing the committee in January was

Chief Superintendent Ian Atkins, the RCMP’s head of criminal operations in Nova Scotia, who reported that the RCMP ran checks on 500 members of the International Longshoremen's Association working on the Halifax ports and found 187 – or 37 per cent – had criminal records, including convictions for drugs, assault and impaired driving.

The RCMP polices only a small portion of the Halifax port facilities, but it initiated the background checks here in 2000 after discovering problems in Montreal, where the numbers are similar.

Atkins said there is no link between the union and organized crime, but admitted he is worried those with criminal backgrounds could be “enticed” to participate in waterfront crime.

However, the head of the International Longshoremen's Association, representing port checkers, gearmen, stevedores and watchmen, has accused the RCMP of sensationalizing. Gerald Murphy, president of Local 269 of the union, said he wonders if that might show many convictions happened long ago and involved offences like impaired driving, assault and domestic disputes that have nothing to do with the port.

Atkins said security at the port needs to be as rigid as security at Halifax International Airport. Since Sept. 11, what goes through the port has come under scrutiny as police and others, like the committee, come to grips with potential terrorist threats.

Canada's marine ports have been a major conduit for drug smuggling, the illegal export and import of stolen automobiles, and the theft of containers and their cargo. U.S. and Canadian officials also fear Halifax and other ports could end up as staging grounds for nuclear or biological attacks. .

A multi-agency investigation of port crime now underway suggests the criminal networks may be linked to ports in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. The Hells Angels, in particular have been identified as pervasive at Vancouver's ports.

The hearings in Halifax were one of the last of the Senate committee, which issued its Report on National Security and Defence in late February. Among its wide-ranging recommendations was that a full-blown public inquiry into the security of the country's seaports be conducted.

Organized crime has its claws in the ports, the committee warned, threatening the Canadian economy and North American security. Senator Colin Kenny, chairman of the Senate committee said criminal groups in and around ports could become tools of terrorists.

The Senate report warned that organized crime groups are “generally active” in Canada's port system and can make entire shipping containers disappear. An “extraordinarily high percentage of port employees have criminal records,” the report said, adding that criminals gravitate to ports because of opportunities to pilfer goods.

The accusations of a possible organized crime presence on Canada’s seaports were met with derision from port corporation officials. Crime is not rampant in the Port of Montreal, according to its head, Dominic Taddeo. He said while there is criminal activity at the port, it is not as bad as Senator Colin Kenny says.

Kevin Waite, president of the International Longshoremen's Association, said he was astounded by the senate report. His union represents 125 checkers who figure out whether containers leave by train or truck when a ship is unloaded. Waite said the report contains many errors, and appears to be just an attack on port workers.

Sources: “RCMP say more than one-third of Halifax port employees have criminal records.” Canadian Press Newswire. January 23 2002; Peter McLaughlin. “Port urged to run tighter ship: Mounties fear breaches of security at port after checks show 37 per cent of Halifax longshoremen have criminal records.” The Halifax Daily News. January 24 2002; John Ward. “A Senate committee says the military should get more money and people and recommends a full-blown public inquiry into the security of the country's seaports.” Canadian Press Newswire. March 1 2002; George Kalogerakis. “Port crime contained, boss says: Senate reports on security lapses are greatly exaggerated: CEO.” Montreal Gazette. March 7 2002.

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