Encoded Lips Sink ‘Mikey Cigars'
During his 11 years as one of America's most wanted mob fugitives, a Genovese capo, Michael "Mikey Cigars" Coppola, kept close tabs on his business while enjoying life on the lam as a well-heeled gangster with homes in Manhattan and San Francisco.
It wasn't quite business as usual, but through numerous coded conversations with a son and other trusted aides, Coppola is alleged to have overseen his crime family's lucrative New Jersey waterfront rackets right up to the time that he was nabbed last month on the Upper West Side.
Those discussions, which led to Coppola's arrest and are the focal point of a federal grand jury probe into labor racketeering on the New Jersey docks, also provide a glimpse into the Genovese family's domination of a longshoremen's union for more than 30 years.
Sources say the conversations are significant evidence that will be used in a huge civil racketeering suit that seeks to oust the mob and dozens of allegedly corrupt leaders of the International Longshoremen's Association from ports that range from Staten Island to Miami after a run of more than 50 years.
Nowadays, Mikey Cigars, who first disappeared when he learned he was a suspect in a 1977 murder, is detained without bail. He is also a suspect in the 2005 murder of mobster Lawrence Ricci, an underling who was killed while on trial for labor racketeering on the docks, as well as in the 30-year-old slaying of mobster John "Johnny Cokes" Lardiere.
But right up to the end of his luxurious life on the run — the feds seized thousands of dollars in cash at his homes — Coppola was calling the shots for top officials of a 1,000-member ILA local that has long been controlled by the Genovese family, according to transcripts of recent conversations picked up by an FBI wiretap and obtained by Gang Land.
Just three days before his arrest, Coppola had a long, cryptic discussion with Eddie Aulisi, the son of ILA Local 1235's president, Vincent Aulisi, during which Mikey Cigars sent along instructions regarding alleged extortion payments and other union-related matters, according to the transcript.
During the discussion on March 6, Eddie Aulisi relayed a message from his father that payments (referred to as "the months" and "the Christmases") had "almost doubled" since Vincent Aulisi had replaced Albert Cernadas as president. Coppola instructed the younger Aulisi to tell his father to keep Cernadas in the dark about them, the tape revealed.
"We don't want him to be aware of that. We don't want him to be aware of anything," said Coppola, according to the transcript.
Mikey Cigars also rejected out of hand a request from Cernadas — who was forced to resign last year after he pleaded guilty to labor racketeering — for his daughter to receive a salaried union post. In a decidedly businesslike and unsympathetic response to the job request, Coppola stated that it was time for Cernadas "to move on and turn the page. We don't want no part of that kid," he told Eddie Aulisi, according to the transcript.
Providing a quick history lesson about the crime family's longtime sway over Local 1235, Coppola then revealed that Cernadas had taken the same stance with regard to his predecessor. When the previous president of the local, Vincent "Kong" Colucci, was forced to resign in 1980 after he was convicted of labor racketeering, Cernadas had rejected a request to keep Colucci's wife on the union payroll.
Coppola had backed that move as well. "What does he have, a short memory?" Coppola cracked. "He was the first one to bitch about it when Kong wanted to do it. Tell him to remember what happened to these guys," he said, according to the transcript.
In addition to giving Coppola reports about several extortion victims — one "went bad" and was looking to settle for less — Eddie Aulisi kept Mikey Cigars abreast of the FBI investigation into Ricci's murder, reporting that an associate identified only as "Horse" had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, the transcript states.
A week earlier, on February 27, Coppola and a son, Louis Rizzo Jr., who are targets of the probe, implicated themselves in Ricci's murder when they discussed the whereabouts of the gun used to kill him, according to an excerpt of the conversation that is filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
After both men voiced fears that another son, Vincent "Sonny" Coppola, might disclose the location of the murder weapon, Rizzo, who has a different surname than his father, declared that he would deal with the problem. "I'll take it, I'll take it," he said, according to the excerpt.
Thus far, Michael Coppola, his wife, Linda, and their son, Louis Rizzo, are charged only with conspiring to defraud the U.S. by possessing the false identification allegedly used by Michael and Linda Coppola between 2004 and March 9, the date that Mikey Cigars was arrested.
Assistant U.S. attorneys John Buretta and Taryn Merkl have stated that they expect to file racketeering charges in the coming months against both father and son, who are detained without bail.
From his union office in Newark, Vincent Aulisi told Gang Land he knew "nothing at all" about the conversations between Coppola and his son, and stated that "it's a big lie" that he is a pawn of Coppola. The feds "can say anything they want, that doesn't make it true," the elder Aulisi said. "Nobody tells me what to do with this local."
Vincent Aulisi initially denied meeting Cernadas, who as part of his plea agreement has been prohibited from engaging in any union activity, but then stated that they may have met "at a party for a pensioner or something. I have no jurisdiction over that."
As for Cernadas, the FBI is investigating whether he violated terms of his sentence by seeking a union position for his daughter and by throwing himself an ILA retirement party last month. The affair, says an assistant U.S. attorney, Paul Weinstein, was discussed by Coppola and attended by at least one Genovese associate, namely Vincent Aulisi.
Meanwhile, New Jersey authorities have taken DNA swabs from Mikey Cigars and are in the process of analyzing them to see if they match the DNA of hair samples retrieved near the body of Johnny Cokes Lardiere back in 1977.
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Coppola's discussions contain many indecipherable words and phrases, including this remark from Eddie Aulisi that seemed to make sense to Mikey Cigars: "They found out that, I guess, our two plus two equals seven, don't equal four."
Here are some Coppola code words in italics, followed by their meaning, according to the FBI: "Bull" — Albert Cernadas; "Vet" — Vincent Aulisi; "shingle" — lawyer; "clean" — extort; "Big Tom" — the FBI; "boiler" — gun; "Kong" — Vincent Colucci. (Colucci's moniker is derived from his initials, "V.C.," which were shorthand for the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War era during which Colucci was in power.)
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A retired NYPD detective, Thomas Dades, who played a major role in an investigation that led to the pending murder indictment against an ex-FBI agent, R. Lindley DeVecchio, has quietly resigned from the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.
A top mob investigator, Mr. Dades was exonerated of any wrongdoing by a Staten Island grand jury last month in a bizarre case in which a neighbor died of internal injuries hours after he was part of an unruly mob that assaulted Mr. Dades at his home in December, an incident Gang Land wrote about on March 22.
Mr. Dades, who helped jumpstart a joint state-federal probe that led to the convictions of Mafia cops Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa after joining the DA's office in 2004, is the second key player on the prosecution team to leave the office before Mr. DeVecchio's trial. Last month, a former assistant district attorney in the office, Noel Downey, resigned to take a position with the National Association of Securities Dealers.
Asked about his unexpected departure yesterday, some four months before Mr. DeVecchio's trial is slated to begin, Mr. Dades, who runs a boxing club in conjunction with the Police Athletic League, said simply, "After 23 years, it's time for me to go."
This column and other news of organized crime will be available today at ganglandnews.com.
