Joseph F. Gagliano a known member of the New Orleans mafia has been sentenced to two years in prison on weapons charges. Believed to be one of few remaining made members of the New Orleans mob he is the son of former New Orleans mafia underboss Frank “Fat Frank” Gagliano. The mafia in New Orleans also known as the Marcello family after its one time powerful boss Carlo Mercello is believed by many including law enforcement to be defunct.
“Joseph Gagliano“
Joseph was part of a racketeering case back in the 1990’s along with his father and former New Orleans mob boss Anthony Carollo. Working along with the Gambino crime family in New York they skimmed millions of dollars from a video poker company named Worldwide Gaming. According to the feds that case was the nail in the coffin for the Big Easy based crime family.
Fat Frank passed away in 2006 and Carollo in 2007 and it seems any remaining crime figures from the family including the younger Gagliano fell out of the criminal limelight. Until this latest case involving Joseph and Dominick Gullo who were pulled over for driving a fan that contained what prosecutors claimed were make shift gun ports and were in possession of a sniper rifle. There was a sawed off chair facing a sliding glass window which prosecutors hinted was a setup for some nefarious purpose.
Defense attorney Pat Fanning claimed that the van was being set up by the two men for a new snowball business they were getting into. Prosecutors never offered an exact theory as to what they thought the van was to be used for but they believed the pair had been plotting something much different then snowball sales. The van had stolen plates and neither of the defendants offered up the snowball business theory when pulled over by Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s deputies.
Gagliano having been convicted in two previous racketeering cases ended up being charged with transporting a firearm as a felon and aiding in the possession of an unregistered firearm. Both men plead guilty and Gullo who had no previous criminal record received a five month sentence for possession of an unregistered firearm. The current status of the New Orleans mafia is often disputed as some believe the family remains small but active in some capacity while others point to lack of any formal hierarchy in place or recent known activity as clear indicators the mob family no longer exists.
Some bookmaking and loan sharking business is def still being done down in New Orleans and may still be some wiseguys scattered about but wouldn’t imagine anything very “organized” is going on day to day and in any official mob capacity. The Marcello family seems to be pretty much defunct although may be some activity tied to other cities and families as i mentioned with the “scattered wiseguys”. The city is still a location where cash can be made with some of the old school mob rackets.
I’ve always been interested in the life down in New Orleans. I’m young so I wasn’t around for Marcello but I know the history. Never heard much from my generation. Good to see this site covers C.N. From all over the country as well as the world.
Ever since the heat the family took from the JFK assassination investigation they were never the same. Then once Marcello past there was just no leading figure left with his skill set to keep the family together and maintaining at least as a functioning body. Carollo was said to have possibly made some new guys back in 90’s etc but his time at top was fairly short lived and after their illegal gambling arrest you hardly ever hear of any indictments or even cases on any possible remaining mob members in the city. If they are still there and operating in any kind of “organized” sense they are in massive stealth mode.
the casino gambling bust in 90s did them they went to jo jo corezzo in the gambinios for help as they were lacking man power if they had not all been busted who knows they could of survived and be here now as a family
yearh your right there its like this in alot of places pittsburgh, bufflo, cleveland, LA( though the gambinios have a crew out there now) st louis and other areas like new orleans whats left now is a few old men running gambling operarions. even KC you could argue(though i always disagree on this one) that there is no structured hiearchy left why i would disagree is the 2010 indicments that was a major ring and involved a couple of those capos and cant see john scrimtentio or peter simone retireing they are life long criminals as is willie the rats kid who is a capo and was responsible for a alot of murders in the 80s or the civella kids and grandsons these guys wont leave
I think KC and Cleveland may have a bit more of a gathering left of wiseguys still operating then say New Orleans and Buffalo etc. I still think there is some activity in all of those area’s and prob will be as long as there is money to be made. But like most i don’t think its all that “organized” anymore except for maybe spots like LA like you mentioned with crews from the NY families operating there.
true places like Mikaukee have lost most of its mob members the only guys left are outfit guys now who run gambling rings. Gambinios have the most guys in LA they opereate loansharking, p**n, drugs and other rackets but they dont have many made guys out there the old milanio family either retired or merged into the gambinos some of the guys there Tommaso “Tommy” Gambino has strong gambino links he is the first cousin of frank cali the underboss. Joe isgro another connected guy under indicment for loansharking at the moment. the police call them a threat but to be honest they are small scale. Most of the guys like i said before are unmade there will be one guy who will be a made guy and he will represnt LA he will kick up to a capo (possibly frank cali though he is underboss now). Moving away from the east coast is becoming more popluar with wiseguys because of the heat they receive look at charles stagno a capo in the decavancte family running operations from Nevada. All five familys have guys in Las Vegas for there online gambling rings and possibly through unions silent partnerships in some business (unconfirmed) but its nothing like it used to be most guys are there for pleasure or for online gambling
pittsburgh is dead as is rochester and the trafficante family has five guys left running a gambling operation its mainly the new york familys. Cleveland died in the 90s but a surge of guys left out in the late 90s and 2000s led to them resetting up gambling rings but they hardly seem like a organized family
Kc mob could possibly still follow its hieachy Vinnie Civella has a “crew” and so does “will cammasinio jr who is linked to loads of deaths in the 80s he is 65 and feared he was one of the last of the links to the glory days john scirtonio the boss is smart been around forever as has peter simone those to our smart. the younger generation are vinnie civella, the sanons kids (civellas grand kids) james DiCapo, Micheal Simone, Nicholas Civella 63 (this guy is dumb got caught in 2011 with a gun and meth)gerlando cammasnio (grandson of willie cammansio sr and wilie jr kid)
This is off topic, but who had the sign “Three can keep a secret, if two are dead”? Marcello or Traficanti? Just wondering, since that’s the truth
It was Marcello , he had it hanging in his office.
Didn’t the van happen like 7 years ago? The guys in New Orleans are very different from the guys in Zoo York. They got out of the coke raquet a while ago I heard I don’t even think they sell drugs anymore. Some of them seem to be better than your average lawyer. Never cared much for Frank’s cause this server got me to order a bunch of food “on him” and it turned out to be on me, could of seen that coming. Thought he was a Gagliano, claimed strong connections. Probably just an isolated jerk. They can cook though.