The Gambino crime family has a new boss.
As first reported by Jerry Capeci in his Gang Land column, Lorenzo Mannino has now reportedly become the new head of the nation’s best-known mafia family.
Mannino, who has been living in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn since his release from prison in 2004, replaces Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, who was fatally shot outside his home in March 2019.
According to the feds, Mannino has been part of the top administration for several years. He is also a powerful figure in the family’s Sicilian faction.
Mr. Capeci writes that law enforcers say Domenico “Italian Dom” Cefalu is still the boss, but Mannino is the real leader, even if he doesn’t have the official title.
Michael (Mikey Boy) Paradiso, who has spent about 25 years behind bars during a crime spree that’s lasted 55 plus years, is serving as the family’s consigliere, or number three man in the family hierarchy.
Gambino crime family in 2021
Despite decades of declining influence, the Gambino crime family is still raking in millions of dollars, according to the government.
The Gambinos and the other four families — Bonanno, Colombo, Genovese, and Lucchese — is still the “foremost organized criminal threat to American society,” said Richard Frankel who supervises the FBI’s organized crime squad.
“Some people like to talk up the Russians but they can’t come close to the Italian mob. Sure the Russians are powerful in their home country, but what mob isn’t?”
“The Russians do not have the numbers in the US alone to be a dominant criminal force. The Italian mob has been in this country for a very long time.”
There are about 6-7 thousand individuals associated with the five families in New York alone.
In 2016, Selwyn Raab, a former investigative reporter for The New York Times, wrote that the 9/11 attacks had proved an unexpected boom to the mob, as the majority of the FBI’s organized crime agents were reassigned to the war on terror. This reduced scrutiny has allowed Mafia crime families to regroup and revive in recent years.
“They’re still getting reinforcements, they’re shipping more blood over from Sicily and Southern Italy,” Raab told Rolling Stone magazine.
Gone are the days of the celebrity mob boss, flaunting flashy cars and expensive suits; today’s mobsters are keeping a low profile.
“La Cosa Nostra is still very much part of the fabric of New York City,” said a law-enforcement source. “They’re never going to go away.”
