The WNY "Niagara Falls" MOB

[Bringthetruth]

http://niagarafallsreporter.com/cover1.29.08.html

Called "The Big Barbecue" by the gangsters who attended, Apalachin was unusual in that it was a special meeting held to address just one order of business -- the drug trade. Several of the New York City bosses -- including Carmine Galante and Joe Bonanno -- had taken an interest in the lucrative new business. Bonanno and his cousin Magaddino had set up a network to import heroin and smuggle it into the United States by way of Montreal and Niagara Falls, Canada, while Galante enlisted the aid of Tampa kingpin Santos Trafficante to bring drugs in from Cuba.

They were making a ton of money, a fact that had not gone unnoticed by men such as Nick Civella and Joe Filardo of Kansas City, who wanted in on the action. Also feeling aggrieved was the Rochester Mafia faction, for decades jealous rivals of the Buffalo boys, who Magaddino had cut out completely. They were represented at Apalachin by the Valenti brothers, Costenze and Frank, a vicious psychopath with a record that included arrests for everything from forgery and counterfeiting to forcible rape and murder

[Bringthetruth]

LOCAL 91, BRIDGE COMMISSION TEAM UP TO ANNIHILATE SUCCESSFUL LEWISTON BUSINESS
By Mike Hudson
A Colorado businessman charged this week he was shaken down by indicted Local 91 union thug Mark Congi and henchman Joel Cicero, husband of ousted Local 91 Secretary Cheryl Cicero and son-in-law of indicted union boss Michael "Butch" Quarcini.

Cicero is a Mario Cuomo-appointed member of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission who -- Albany sources told the Reporter this week -- won't be around for long. Builder Joe Aragon used the word "extortion" to describe the way he was treated, and said Cicero used his position on the Bridge Commission to force the hiring of Local 91 members on a recent construction project here.

Congi and Quarcini face multiple charges of conspiracy and extortion and are looking at 20 years in prison, while Cicero has yet to be charged.

Aragon, who has built 47 Pizza Hut-Taco Bell restaurants around the country with his company, ProServe Corp., tried building one on the New York side of the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge last spring.

That's when the trouble began. Joel Cicero, he said, turned the project into a nightmare.

"These guys (Cicero and Congi) took me and a friend into a room," Aragon said. "They told me I was going to have to hire some guys. I thought I was in a James Cagney movie."

Bridge Commissioner Cicero is also an official in Laborers Local 91, a union identified by federal prosecutors earlier this year as a "criminal enterprise." His father-in-law and many of his friends are under indictment, and his wife was recently kicked out of her $89,000-a-year post as the Local's secretary.

"I went down to the union hall and Cicero was sitting in this big chair like a judge or something," Aragon said. "Mark Congi told me, 'We never forget and you'll never get away from us.'"

Aragon says Cicero and Congi "put the arm" on him, in an attempt to get him to hire Local 91 workers. Undeterred, Aragon proceeded with his construction. Violent pickets began. Despite the fact he had put one of the Laborers on the job, the thugs wanted more and wouldn't let up.

"I had one girl who worked for me hit by a car, incidents of vandalism and threats," Aragon said. "I've never seen anything like it."

The Bridge Commission was no help, he added.

"Joel Cicero was the Bridge Commission," he said. "He told me I'd better play ball, or else."

The Reporter immediately put Aragon in touch with William Hochul, the U.S. Attorney on the Local 91 case.

"I'll testify anytime, any place," Aragon said. "I spent a million dollars to build this thing and this is the only place in the country where I had to go out of business. I believe Cicero and Congi were directly responsible."

Since its opening, the Pizza Hut-Taco Bell at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge has been plagued by bad business. It closed last month, and 25 full-time employees were laid off. According to Aragon, the threats of Mark Congi have been delivered.

"If we put the word out, you won't have a truck stop here," Aragon said Congi told him. Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks by terrorists who aren't members of Local 91, virtually all of the traffic across the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge has been truckers. And, as Congi forewarned, they haven't been stopping.

The Laborers put the screw in with the Teamsters to stay away from the restaurant, Aragon said.

All told, 25 Niagara County restaurant employees are out of work, a successful businessman from Colorado lost a million dollars and now characterizes his time in Niagara Falls as something out of a gangster movie. Because that was the power of Laborers Local 91 here and because the fix was in from a Bridge Commissioner who ought to be indicted.

It's the kind of creepy stuff that happens here and nowhere else -- not in Cleveland or Erie or New York City. Not in 2002.

By the beginning of next year, the chump-change Joel Cicero will no longer be a member of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission.

The Reporter has a promise from Albany.

And Mark Congi will no longer be able to bully people trying to do business here.

We have a promise on that from law enforcement.

Denver entrepreneur Joe Aragon said he was shaken down by Local 91 and the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission, and he isn't happy about it. He used the word "extortion," and it cost him a million dollars.

He is taking his story to federal authorities and, with any luck at all, even more than the 14 members of the Laborers "goon squad" currently under indictment will be called to answer for their sins.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where were the "LOCAL COPS" when all these assaults were going on, did they just look the other way.

October 15 2002

Where they bought off too. Can't wait to hear Harlem World aka uptown wiggle the cops out of this one.

[Bringthetruth]

LOCAL 91, BRIDGE COMMISSION TEAM UP TO ANNIHILATE SUCCESSFUL LEWISTON BUSINESS
By Mike Hudson
A Colorado businessman charged this week he was shaken down by indicted Local 91 union thug Mark Congi and henchman Joel Cicero, husband of ousted Local 91 Secretary Cheryl Cicero and son-in-law of indicted union boss Michael "Butch" Quarcini.

Cicero is a Mario Cuomo-appointed member of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission who -- Albany sources told the Reporter this week -- won't be around for long. Builder Joe Aragon used the word "extortion" to describe the way he was treated, and said Cicero used his position on the Bridge Commission to force the hiring of Local 91 members on a recent construction project here.

Congi and Quarcini face multiple charges of conspiracy and extortion and are looking at 20 years in prison, while Cicero has yet to be charged.

Aragon, who has built 47 Pizza Hut-Taco Bell restaurants around the country with his company, ProServe Corp., tried building one on the New York side of the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge last spring.

That's when the trouble began. Joel Cicero, he said, turned the project into a nightmare.

"These guys (Cicero and Congi) took me and a friend into a room," Aragon said. "They told me I was going to have to hire some guys. I thought I was in a James Cagney movie."

Bridge Commissioner Cicero is also an official in Laborers Local 91, a union identified by federal prosecutors earlier this year as a "criminal enterprise." His father-in-law and many of his friends are under indictment, and his wife was recently kicked out of her $89,000-a-year post as the Local's secretary.

"I went down to the union hall and Cicero was sitting in this big chair like a judge or something," Aragon said. "Mark Congi told me, 'We never forget and you'll never get away from us.'"

Aragon says Cicero and Congi "put the arm" on him, in an attempt to get him to hire Local 91 workers. Undeterred, Aragon proceeded with his construction. Violent pickets began. Despite the fact he had put one of the Laborers on the job, the thugs wanted more and wouldn't let up.

"I had one girl who worked for me hit by a car, incidents of vandalism and threats," Aragon said. "I've never seen anything like it."

The Bridge Commission was no help, he added.

"Joel Cicero was the Bridge Commission," he said. "He told me I'd better play ball, or else."

The Reporter immediately put Aragon in touch with William Hochul, the U.S. Attorney on the Local 91 case.

"I'll testify anytime, any place," Aragon said. "I spent a million dollars to build this thing and this is the only place in the country where I had to go out of business. I believe Cicero and Congi were directly responsible."

Since its opening, the Pizza Hut-Taco Bell at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge has been plagued by bad business. It closed last month, and 25 full-time employees were laid off. According to Aragon, the threats of Mark Congi have been delivered.

"If we put the word out, you won't have a truck stop here," Aragon said Congi told him. Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks by terrorists who aren't members of Local 91, virtually all of the traffic across the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge has been truckers. And, as Congi forewarned, they haven't been stopping.

The Laborers put the screw in with the Teamsters to stay away from the restaurant, Aragon said.

All told, 25 Niagara County restaurant employees are out of work, a successful businessman from Colorado lost a million dollars and now characterizes his time in Niagara Falls as something out of a gangster movie. Because that was the power of Laborers Local 91 here and because the fix was in from a Bridge Commissioner who ought to be indicted.

It's the kind of creepy stuff that happens here and nowhere else -- not in Cleveland or Erie or New York City. Not in 2002.

By the beginning of next year, the chump-change Joel Cicero will no longer be a member of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission.

The Reporter has a promise from Albany.

And Mark Congi will no longer be able to bully people trying to do business here.

We have a promise on that from law enforcement.

Denver entrepreneur Joe Aragon said he was shaken down by Local 91 and the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission, and he isn't happy about it. He used the word "extortion," and it cost him a million dollars.

He is taking his story to federal authorities and, with any luck at all, even more than the 14 members of the Laborers "goon squad" currently under indictment will be called to answer for their sins.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where were the "LOCAL COPS" when all these assaults were going on, did they just look the other way.

October 15 2002

Where they bought off too. Can't wait to hear Harlem World aka uptown wiggle the cops out of this one.

where are the cops on this site ???? Explain where the local cops were on this one all those yrs.

[Harlem World]

where are the cops on this site ???? Explain where the local cops were on this one all those yrs.

They were out robbing drug dealers!! DUH!!

[bigpoppapuff]

butch quarcini was an old client of mine....i thought he was a good guy....and knew of his...errr.....background....no matter...

[Harlem World]

LOCAL 91, BRIDGE COMMISSION TEAM UP TO ANNIHILATE SUCCESSFUL LEWISTON BUSINESS
By Mike Hudson
A Colorado businessman charged this week he was shaken down by indicted Local 91 union thug Mark Congi and henchman Joel Cicero, husband of ousted Local 91 Secretary Cheryl Cicero and son-in-law of indicted union boss Michael "Butch" Quarcini.

Cicero is a Mario Cuomo-appointed member of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission who -- Albany sources told the Reporter this week -- won't be around for long. Builder Joe Aragon used the word "extortion" to describe the way he was treated, and said Cicero used his position on the Bridge Commission to force the hiring of Local 91 members on a recent construction project here.

Congi and Quarcini face multiple charges of conspiracy and extortion and are looking at 20 years in prison, while Cicero has yet to be charged.

Aragon, who has built 47 Pizza Hut-Taco Bell restaurants around the country with his company, ProServe Corp., tried building one on the New York side of the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge last spring.

That's when the trouble began. Joel Cicero, he said, turned the project into a nightmare.

"These guys (Cicero and Congi) took me and a friend into a room," Aragon said. "They told me I was going to have to hire some guys. I thought I was in a James Cagney movie."

Bridge Commissioner Cicero is also an official in Laborers Local 91, a union identified by federal prosecutors earlier this year as a "criminal enterprise." His father-in-law and many of his friends are under indictment, and his wife was recently kicked out of her $89,000-a-year post as the Local's secretary.

"I went down to the union hall and Cicero was sitting in this big chair like a judge or something," Aragon said. "Mark Congi told me, 'We never forget and you'll never get away from us.'"

Aragon says Cicero and Congi "put the arm" on him, in an attempt to get him to hire Local 91 workers. Undeterred, Aragon proceeded with his construction. Violent pickets began. Despite the fact he had put one of the Laborers on the job, the thugs wanted more and wouldn't let up.

"I had one girl who worked for me hit by a car, incidents of vandalism and threats," Aragon said. "I've never seen anything like it."

The Bridge Commission was no help, he added.

"Joel Cicero was the Bridge Commission," he said. "He told me I'd better play ball, or else."

The Reporter immediately put Aragon in touch with William Hochul, the U.S. Attorney on the Local 91 case.

"I'll testify anytime, any place," Aragon said. "I spent a million dollars to build this thing and this is the only place in the country where I had to go out of business. I believe Cicero and Congi were directly responsible."

Since its opening, the Pizza Hut-Taco Bell at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge has been plagued by bad business. It closed last month, and 25 full-time employees were laid off. According to Aragon, the threats of Mark Congi have been delivered.

"If we put the word out, you won't have a truck stop here," Aragon said Congi told him. Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks by terrorists who aren't members of Local 91, virtually all of the traffic across the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge has been truckers. And, as Congi forewarned, they haven't been stopping.

The Laborers put the screw in with the Teamsters to stay away from the restaurant, Aragon said.

All told, 25 Niagara County restaurant employees are out of work, a successful businessman from Colorado lost a million dollars and now characterizes his time in Niagara Falls as something out of a gangster movie. Because that was the power of Laborers Local 91 here and because the fix was in from a Bridge Commissioner who ought to be indicted.

It's the kind of creepy stuff that happens here and nowhere else -- not in Cleveland or Erie or New York City. Not in 2002.

By the beginning of next year, the chump-change Joel Cicero will no longer be a member of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission.

The Reporter has a promise from Albany.

And Mark Congi will no longer be able to bully people trying to do business here.

We have a promise on that from law enforcement.
Denver entrepreneur Joe Aragon said he was shaken down by Local 91 and the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission, and he isn't happy about it. He used the word "extortion," and it cost him a million dollars.

He is taking his story to federal authorities and, with any luck at all, even more than the 14 members of the Laborers "goon squad" currently under indictment will be called to answer for their sins.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where were the "LOCAL COPS" when all these assaults were going on, did they just look the other way.

October 15 2002

Where they bought off too. Can't wait to hear Harlem World aka uptown wiggle the cops out of this one.

I don't work In Niagara Falls, jackass, and my name is Harlem World. Get it right. You can find the answers to your questions in your own article, just take of your rascist glasses and read it, BTT. Besides, the article is 5 1/2 years old, what the hell does it have to do with anything?
You're still not capable of independant thought on any of these issues. You are unable to make up any kind of argument to defend articles that you've posted. You still haven't explained why you have repeatedly plagiarized your way on SUWNY. You're a chump

[Harlem World]

I don't work In Niagara Falls, jackass, and my name is Harlem World. Get it right. You can find the answers to your questions in your own article, just take of your rascist glasses and read it, BTT. Besides, the article is 5 1/2 years old, what the hell does it have to do with anything?
You're still not capable of independant thought on any of these issues. You are unable to make up any kind of argument to defend articles that you've posted. You still haven't explained why you have repeatedly plagiarized your way on SUWNY. You're a chump

You should take off your racist contacts, too, after you've taken of your rascist glasses! That's why it's in big print.

PS-you're still a chump.

observe the correct spelling of racist next to my previous incorrect spelling of racist, as an homage to BTT, who wouldn't have caught it anyway.

[Harlem World]

Hey BTT, this is what the cops did about it.

http://www.ipsn.org/indictments/quar...ss_release.htm

PRESS RELEASE

May 17, 2002



RE: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. MARK CONGI, et al.

United States Attorney Michael A. Battle announced today the unsealing of a 7‑count Indictment charging 14 members of Laborers Local 91, based in Niagara Falls, New York, with engaging in a violent scheme to extort both local and out-of-town businesses of their right to hire and retain workers of their choice at construction projects in Niagara County. The Indictment specifically accuses the defendants, including several high-ranking officers of Local 91, with conspiracy to commit racketeering in violation of Title 18, United States Codes, Section 1962(d), five counts of extortion in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951, and destruction of a motor vehicle engaged in commerce, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 33. Charged in the Indictment were:

MARK CONGI, age 41

DOMINICK DELLACCIO, age 56

SALVATORE BERTINO, age 50

MICHAEL “BUTCH” QUARCINI, age 71

ALBERT CELESTE, age 60

ANDREW SHOMERS, age 39

SALVATORE SPATORICO, age 55

ANDREW TOMASCIK, JR., age 36

PAUL BELLRENG, age 48

BRIAN PERRY, age 41

ANTHONY CERRONE, age 37

MARK LOSTRACCO, age 32

STEVEN MARKLE, age 41

JAMES McKEOWN, age 45

All of the charged offenses are punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of twenty years, a fine of $250,000, or both. Additionally, the defendants will be ordered to forfeit any interest maintained or acquired in Local 91, including their management positions within the union, should they be convicted of the racketeering charge. It should be noted that the fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime ... is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. (Disciplinary Rule 7-107(B)(6)).

[Harlem World]

Here's some more for ya BTT. Fine job by the police , the feds, and the courts.

From a Buffalo News article posted by Dr. Funky!!!

http://www.speakupwny.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11228

Quarcini was charged but died in 2003 before he could go on trial.

FBI agents and federal prosecutors called him one of the most powerful figures in Niagara County.

Mark Congi received one of the toughest sentences for leading what Assistant U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. called a vicious group of union henchmen responsible for death threats, beatings, large scale vandalism and a firebombing.

In accepting his sentence, Congi admitted 17 incidents of violence and extortion.

[Harlem World]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can't wait to hear Harlem World aka uptown wiggle the cops out of this one.

BTT, I've replied. Does the information that I have posted answer your questions?

I sure did wiggle the cops out of this one. Indictments, guilty pleas, prison time. Fine job by the cops!

By the way, if your wondering where the local cops were, RICO cases and mafia cases are handled by the Feds, not the city police, just as this case was.

The information you were looking for was in your own article, and other articles from the same paper.

Hate to break it to ya, but you've been schooled, again.

[bigpoppapuff]

troofy....where you at??.....


truth!!...come out and answer.....



"crickets".....

[Bringthetruth]

BTT, I've replied. Does the information that I have posted answer your questions?

I sure did wiggle the cops out of this one. Indictments, guilty pleas, prison time. Fine job by the cops!

By the way, if your wondering where the local cops were, RICO cases and mafia cases are handled by the Feds, not the city police, just as this case was.

The information you were looking for was in your own article, and other articles from the same paper.

Hate to break it to ya, but you've been schooled, again.

You are a complete idiot, really you are.

This crap has been going on for 30 yrs and the local cops did squat , this tells me the COPS were told to look the other way.

The local cops didn't make these arrest, The feds had to come in.

If somebody throws a bomb in a window or puts a baseball bat to your vehicle , the LOCAL COPS DEAL WITH IT NOT THE FEDS DIM WIT!

[Stevenco]

Enough name calling or I'll close this thread.

[Bringthetruth]

Enough name calling or I'll close this thread.

Ive never seen harlem world threaten with a thread being closed, now I call him a name and all hell breaks loose.

Go back and look how many times he and others have called me names.

[Harlem World]

You are a complete idiot, really you are.

Nice comeback, BTT. Really shows maturity and knowledge

This crap has been going on for 30 yrs and the local cops did squat , this tells me the COPS were told to look the other way.

I bet there were cops on the take in Niagara Falls for years, but those days are over, thank God. Obviously, if you have read your own article, the Mob stranglehold on Niagara Falls has been dealt with appropriately by the Feds.

The local cops didn't make these arrest, The feds had to come in.

That's what I said, it's a federal issue. Local cops will assist in investigations, if needed, but the Feds do the investigation, make the arrests, and follow through with the prosecutions

If somebody throws a bomb in a window or puts a baseball bat to your vehicle , the LOCAL COPS DEAL WITH IT NOT THE FEDS DIM WIT!

The local cops will deal with a baseball bat, if it's not a dead end, but not prosecution for a bomb..

That's the best response you can come up with, BTT?

I'm sorry BTT, but you're still not making a convincing argument that you know what you're talking about. You may have lived through much, but that doesn't mean you've learned anything.