1998 in organized crime

See also: 1997 in organized crime, other events of 1998, 1999 in organized crime and the list of 'years in Organized Crime'.

Events

• January 22 - Gambino crime family acting boss John Gotti, Jr., and 39 other associates, including former MLB Cy Young winner Denny McLain and radio personality John "Goumba Johnny" Sialiano, were indicted on federal racketeering charges, which included conspiracy to commit murder, and extortion of the infamous Manhattan strip club Scores. Testifying against Gotti would be former underlings Dominic Borghese, Joseph Fusaro, Michael Sergio, and Willie Marshall, and former Lucchese soldier Frank "Spaghetti Man" Gioia, Jr.
• February 10 - FBI agents raided the Chicago District Council of Laborers placing the union under the trusteeship of Robert Bloch who would be given control of the union’s $16 million in operating funds and $1.5 billion pension account. The government removed made Outfit soldiers Frank Caruso, Sr., his son Frank, Jr. and Bruno, the president and business manager of the union, from union affairs. John Matassa, Jr., vice-president of the District Council was also listed as a made member of the Chicago Outfit, and Joseph Lombardo, Jr., the union’s secretary-treasurer, is the son of Outfit boss Joseph "the Clown" Lombardo.
• March 19 - Philadelphia crime family soldier Anthony Turra was shot to death outside his home on his way to federal court, where he faced charges including the attempted murder of underboss Joseph Merlino.
• April 13 - Pittsburgh family soldier Dominic Strollo pleaded guilty to helping his brother Lenine Strollo, a captain in the Pittsburgh family, hide money skimmed from several Indian Casinos, as well as hiding their interests in the Ramada Inn in Youngstown, Ohio and the Holiday Beach Hotel in Puerto Rico, and another hotel in San Diego, California.
• April 28 - Lucchese crime family acting boss Joseph DeFede and 11 others were indicted on federal extortion and racketeering charges involving the family’s joint control of the Garment District in Manhattan with the Gambino and Genovese families. Defede would plead guilty to the extortion charges in 1998.
• May 24 - Sicilian drug kingpin Pasquale Cuntrera is arrested on Spain’s Costa del Sol, just five days after officials in Rome admitted that he had been released from prison on a technicality. Cuntrera would be brought back to Italy to serve a 21-year prison sentence.
• June 2 - Joseph Russo, a former top leader of the New England Patriarca crime family dies in a federal prison. Russo had been a power in the family after Raymond L.S. Patriarca died and created instability by making his son Raymond, Jr. the new boss. Russo sat down with John Gotti and other New York bosses in order to avoid a shooting war with the Rhode Island mob boss.
• June 12 - Philadelphia crime family boss Ralph Natale Natale is arrested outside his home for a parole violation and was sent back to prison to serve 11-years of an unfinished sentence.
• September 1 - Lucchese crime family soldier Nicholas "Fat Nicky" DiCostanza was indicted for heading a violent Staten Island gang known as "the Port Richmond Crew", which engaged in drug dealing, extortion, loan sharking, arson, witness tampering, and murder, including those of George Van Name and Michael Alba.
• October 23 - Colombo crime family soldier Gregory Scarpa, Jr. was convicted of six counts of racketeering, loansharking, extortion and tax fraud, including four murder conspiracies, but was acquitted of committing five murders. Scarpa’s case received notoriety because his father was a longtime caporegime who had secretly cooperated with the government for nearly 30 years, and because Scarpa, Jr. had spied on World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and provided information to the FBI on his cellmate.

Births

Deaths

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