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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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3-28-00 7 charged with illegal gambling say it's just fun.
By DAN HERBECK Its members say the Donato Social Club is nothing more than a friendly place where elderly and
The FBI and U.S. attorney's office call the club something else: a front for a "casino-style gambling business."
Charged with conspiracy to run an illegal gambling business are: John "Johnny Catz" Catanzaro, 57, of Norwalk Avenue; Donald Panepinto, 58, of Brighton Road, Town of Tonawanda; Frank "Babe" Mambrino, 64, and his son, Carmen Mambrino, 30, both of Lovering Avenue; Joseph "Peppers" DiGioia, 76, of Claremont Avenue; Annuncio "Rod" Cannizzaro, 66, of Cottage Street; and Robert Chimera, 63, of Linden Avenue. Prosecutors also have filed court papers seeking forfeiture of the building, a former children's clothing store located near Grant and Lafayette avenues. "The indictment charges the defendants with running poker, ziganette (an Italian card game) and dice games, both on the premises at 188 Grant St. . . . and at stags run at various locations in the area, from March to early September of 1999," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony M. Bruce. According to law enforcement officials, the amount of money gambled in the club was in the thousands of dollars, and some of the figures involved with the club have ties to organized crime. Catanzaro is a former Laborers Local 210 official who served prison time after his 1990 conviction in a no-show job scheme. In December, the U.S. Justice Department called him a "made member" in Buffalo's Mafia family. Despite the criminal charges, the social club and its members have some supporters among business people and residents of the Grant Street area. Some of the supporters claim the FBI is trying to turn a harmless series of dice and poker games into something out of "The Godfather" or "Good Fellas." "We have some serious crime problems in this neighborhood - including drugs, panhandlers and prostitution. But there's nothing that goes on in that club that spills out into the neighborhood," said Dwayne Robinson, president of a neighborhood block club known as the Ferguson Street United Residents Group. "From everything I can see, they're just some older gentlemen who like to play cards." Three neighborhood business people made similar comments on Monday. "To me, that social club is an asset to the community, not a problem," said James Lorigo, who runs the Meating Place, a butcher's shop across the street from the social club. "They took over the property and completely renovated it. They keep up the property. At night, the lights are on. These men, they keep an eye on things in the community. We have gangs roaming the streets around here at night - that's what the authorities should be cracking down on." Similar comments came from Ronald Charlton, who is renovating a medical building in the neighborhood, and Nick LaFornara, who runs a barber shop two doors away from the social club. "I see prostitution and drug dealers openly operating in this neighborhood, and you're telling me they're hustling these old guys for playing cards? What about the casino across the river, making millions?" Charlton said. "They're harmless, in my eyes. I'm 55, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone in the place who wasn't older than me." All seven suspects pleaded innocent in the case before U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio. The government case is blown way out of proportion, according to defense lawyers Joel L. Daniels and John P. Pieri, who represents Carmen and Frank Mambrino. Carmen Mambrino owns the social club building. Nobody was making big money on the gambling, said Pieri, who has known several of the suspects since he was a youngster growing up on the West Side. "The government has told us they have 300 hours of audio and videotapes. It's very boring information about people doing nothing," Pieri said. "From what I understand, if there were a few hundred bucks on the table for the whole night, that would be a lot. A small part of that was put aside to pay for rent and food at the social club. "The government's perception of "Good Fellas' is something the government tries to enhance. I think you have too many FBI agents sitting around with nothing to do. They send them to go out and bust up a $2 card game." Not true, according to Bruce and Paul M. Moskal, spokesman for the Buffalo FBI office. While declining to discuss specifics about the case, Moskal said illegal gambling operations have caused many problems in Western New York, going back decades. "Much of the illegal gambling that goes on in Western New York does tie in to organized crime," Moskal said. "Illegal gambling, over the years, has cost society hundreds of millions of dollars. We're not trying to say every person who gambles is a criminal. At first blush, an operation like this might seem harmless, but we've seen operations like this lead to loansharking, extortion, gambling addictions. We've seen families ruined." Lorigo said some of the men associated with the social club told him that FBI agents are targeting the club in an effort to secure information about bigger organized crime operations in Buffalo. "I can tell you exactly what happened," Lorigo said. "The FBI went to these guys and said, "We want you to snitch on some other people.' I think they're disturbing the wrong people." Moskal declined to comment on Lorigo's remarks. "The law is the law," Moskal said. "Congress makes the laws. Our job is enforcement."
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