The Chicago Syndicate
The Mission Impossible Backpack

Monday, July 14, 2025

Top Mobster Nicknames


  1. Al Capone - Scarface
  2. Albert Anastasia - Lord High Executioner and Mad Hatter
  3. Albert Gallo - Kid Blast
  4. Albert Vena - Albie the Falcon
  5. Andrew Russo - Andy Mush
  6. Anthony Accardo - Big Tuna and Joe Batters
  7. Anthony Corallo - Tony Ducks
  8. Anthony Casso - Gaspipe
  9. Anthony Doyle - Twan
  10. Anthony Silvestro - Bugz
  11. Benjamin Siegel - Bugsy
  12. Carmine Persico - The Snake
  13. Charlie Luciano - Lucky
  14. Daniel Capaldo - The Wig and Shrek
  15. Dominick Ricigliano - The Lion
  16. Donald Angelini - The Wizard of Odds
  17. Felix Alderisio - Milwaukee Phil
  18. Frank Cali - Frankie Boy
  19. Frank Nitti - The Enforcer
  20. Frank Schweihs - The German
  21. Jim Colosimo - Big Jim
  22. Joe Watts - Joe the German
  23. John Cerone - Jackie
  24. John D'Amico - Jackie Nose
  25. John DiFronzo - No Nose and Johnny Bananas
  26. John Gotti - The Dapper Don and The Teflon Don
  27. Joseph Aiuppa - Joey Doves
  28. Joseph Andriacchi - Joe The Builder and The Sledgehammer
  29. Joseph Bonanno - Joe Bananas
  30. Joseph Lombardo - Joey The Clown
  31. Joseph Marra - Joe Fish
  32. Louis Daidone - Louie Bagels
  33. Louis Fratto - Cock-Eyed Louie
  34. Luigi Manocchio - Baby Shacks
  35. Michael DiLeonardo - Mikey Scars
  36. Michael Sarno - The Large Guy
  37. Michael Yannotti - Mikey Y.
  38. Paul Castellano - Big Paul
  39. Paul Rica - The Waiter
  40. Paul Schiro - The Indian
  41. Patrick DeFilippo - Patty the Pig and Patty from the Bronx
  42. Philip Giaccone - Phil Lucky
  43. Salvatore Aparo - Sammy Meatballs
  44. Salvatore DeLaurentis - Solly D
  45. Salvatore Gravano - Sammy the Bull
  46. Salvatore Vitale - Good Lookin' Sal
  47. Sam Battaglia - Teets
  48. Sam Giancana - Moony and MoMo
  49. Steve Crea - Stevie Wonder
  50. Vincent Basciano - Vinny Gorgeous
  51. Vincent Gigante - The Chin
  52. Vincent Scura - Vinny Linen


Thursday, July 03, 2025

Rahul Shah Convicted for Role in Bank Fraud and Covid-19 Pay Check Protection Program (PPP) Fraud Schemes #Corruption

A federal jury convicted an Illinois businessman for his role in schemes to fraudulently obtain over $55 million in commercial loans and lines of credit and for submitting fraudulent applications to obtain COVID-19 relief money guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Rahul Shah, 56, of Evanston, the owner and operator of several information technology companies in the Chicago area, fraudulently obtained funds from loans and lines of credit for which he was not eligible from federally insured financial institutions and later defaulted on at least one such line of credit and one such loan. Shah submitted to federally insured financial institutions falsified bank statements that fraudulently inflated deposits, falsified balance sheets that overstated revenues, and fabricated audited financial statements with forged signatures. Shah also engaged in monetary transactions with proceeds from the bank fraud.

Shah also submitted to a federally insured bank an application for a $441,138 loan guaranteed by the SBA that significantly overstated the payroll expenses of a company he controlled. In support of the loan application, he submitted to the lender several fraudulent IRS documents, which falsely represented that the company made payments to multiple individuals who had not received such payments. He also used stolen identities to carry out the fraud, using the names and taxpayer identification numbers of individuals that he knew had not received payments from the company in the PPP loan applications.

In addition, Shah signed and caused to be submitted to the lender what purported to be IRS Forms 941 representing his company’s quarterly payroll expenses for 2019. A comparison between the documents submitted to the lender and the company’s IRS and state tax filings revealed that Shah’s company reported significantly lower payroll expenses to the tax authorities.

Shah was convicted of seven counts of bank fraud, five counts of making false statements to a financial institution, two counts of money laundering, and two counts of aggravated identity theft. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13. Shah faces up to 30 years in prison on each count of bank fraud and false statements to a financial institution, up to 10 years in prison on each count of money laundering, and up to two years in prison for each aggravated identity theft count. A federal district court judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Wednesday, June 04, 2025

Sweeping ICE Operation Shows How Trump's Focus on Illegal Immigration is Reshaping Law Enforcement #OperationAtLarge

In mid-May, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, frustrated over what he saw as numbers of arrests and deportations of unauthorized immigrants that were too low, berated and threatened to fire senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials if they did not begin detaining 3,000 migrants a day, according to two sources who spoke to attendees.

Miller also threatened to fire leaders of field offices posting the bottom 10% of arrest numbers monthly, the two sources said.

Weeks later, ICE is launching the Trump administration’s largest immigration crackdown.

“Operation At Large,” a nationwide, ICE-led plan already underway to ramp up arrests of unauthorized immigrants, includes more than 5,000 personnel from across federal law enforcement agencies and up to 21,000 National Guard troops, according to an operation plan described to NBC News by three sources with knowledge of the personnel allocations who detailed the previously unreported plans.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Polo.  

Drawing those numbers from other law enforcement agencies, though, has been a source of tension among some officials, who feel they have been taken off other core national security missions, according to three additional law enforcement and military officials. Like others interviewed for this article, they requested anonymity in order to share sensitive information.

It is the latest example of how President Donald Trump’s push for mass deportations is reshaping federal law enforcement as officials shift resources toward immigration-related cases — including nonviolent administrative offenses — leaving less time and attention for other types of criminal investigations.

The plan calls for using 3,000 ICE agents, including 1,800 from Homeland Security Investigations, which generally investigates transnational crimes and is not typically involved in arresting noncriminal immigrants; 2,000 Justice Department employees from the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration; and 500 employees from Customs and Border Protection. It also includes 250 IRS agents, some of whom may be used to provide information on the whereabouts of immigrants using tax information, while others would have the authority to make arrests, according to the operation plan.

The Department of Homeland Security has also requested the use of 21,000 National Guard members to provide support in ICE operations, according to two additional sources familiar with the request, though that number has yet to be approved by the Defense Department or by governors who would be deploying their state’s units, multiple sources cautioned.Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, responding to the Miller meeting, said, “Keeping President Trump’s promise to deport illegal aliens is something the Administration takes seriously. We are committed to aggressively and efficiently removing illegal aliens from the United States, and ensuring our law enforcement officers have the resources necessary to do so. The safety of the American people depends upon it.”

Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “Under Secretary Noem, we are delivering on President Trump’s and the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens and make America safe.”

More than a dozen current and former law enforcement sources described other changes inside federal law enforcement driven by the Trump administration’s focus on immigration.

At the FBI, where it was once unusual for special agents to go on immigration-related law enforcement operations, according to multiple current and former law enforcement officials, field offices around the country have been ordered to assign significantly more agents to assist with ICE operations to arrest people on administrative immigration warrants.

Misdemeanor cases for border crossings are regularly appearing in federal court, a rarity in recent years. Justice Department teams focused on other issues are being disbanded, with members being dispersed to teams focused on immigration and other administration priorities. And prosecutors say cases without immigration components have stalled or are moving more slowly, according to documents seen by NBC News and conversations with six current and former prosecutors and a senior FBI official, who described how immigration is now a central part of discussions around whether to pursue cases.

“Immigration status is now question No. 1 in terms of charging decisions,” an assistant U.S. attorney said. “Is this person a documented immigrant? Is this person an undocumented immigrant? Is this person a citizen? Are they somehow deportable? What is their immigration status? And the answer to that question is now largely driving our charging decisions.”

At least one U.S. attorney’s office abandoned a potential federal prosecution of someone who prosecutors felt was dangerous because the case against the person lacked an immigration component, an email obtained by NBC News showed. The office instead left the case to state prosecutors.

Reorganizing federal law enforcement to prioritize immigration could have sweeping long-term effects on the U.S. justice system. The Trump administration set early quotas for immigration arrests and has marshaled resources to go far beyond early statements about focusing only on deporting violent criminals, as well as invoking laws that have not previously been used for immigration enforcement, like the Alien Enemies Act. Prioritizing immigration also means shifting finite resources in ways that de-prioritize other cases. Last month, FBI field offices around the country shifted agents from other beats to immigration enforcement, according to current and former FBI officials and memos obtained by NBC News. A senior FBI official wrote in a memo to bureau managers that the Justice Department “expects a significant increase in the number of agents participating in immigration enforcement operations.”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement that “immigration security is national security,” pointing to the Egyptian national accused of launching an antisemitic attack in Colorado on Sunday. The man entered the United States on a valid visa before he filed for asylum, after which the visa expired. Jackson argued the administration’s moves to prioritize immigration enforcement will not carry an opportunity cost.

“Enforcing our immigration laws and removing illegal aliens is one big way President Trump is ‘Making America Safe Again.’ But the president can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Jackson continued. “We’re holding all criminals accountable, whether they’re illegal aliens or American citizens. That’s why nationwide murder rates have plummeted, fugitives from the FBI’s most wanted list have been captured, and police officers are empowered to do their jobs, unlike under the Biden Administration’s soft-on-crime regime.”

(Falling murder rates predate the second Trump administration, with rates rising during and immediately after the Covid pandemic before dropping in each of 2022, 2023 and the first half of 2024, according to FBI data.)


Still, federal law enforcement officials who spoke to NBC News said the increased focus on cases with an immigration angle is pulling resources from other law enforcement priorities. “There is such a priority on making immigration arrests that it takes longer to get answers on anything else. Something that used to be resolved in a matter of days now takes weeks,” a law enforcement official said.

The shift in resources affects not only the type of cases taken but also the type of personnel involved in immigration raids. The FBI is almost always the agency leading the charge in joint investigations, but it has traditionally avoided getting involved in enforcement operations that involve only immigration enforcement, current and former officials confirmed.

Those operations, which are led by ICE, involve noncriminal administrative removal warrants for immigration offenses, not the type of criminal warrants the FBI typically serves, three officials said.

Since Trump took office, the FBI has routinely joined ICE operations. Some FBI employees have received guidance to minimize the actions they take during immigration-related raids and, particularly, to avoid entering into homes when they join ICE operations, four current and former law enforcement officials said.

The Trump administration is also deliberating over creating a task force led by a senior leader from the Department of Homeland Security and a senior leader from the Justice Department, according to an undated draft implementation guide reviewed by NBC News and a person familiar with the deliberations. It is unclear whether that version is the most current draft under consideration.

The Homeland Security Task Force would work in the FBI and ICE field offices across the country to “identify and target for prosecution transnational criminal organizations engaged in diverse criminal schemes,” the draft said. It continues: “In addition to the prosecution of the above criminal violations, the mission of the HSTF is further to facilitate the removal of criminal aliens from the United States.”

The draft plan raises questions about which additional federal resources could be pulled in solely to focus on immigration. It says the new task force would work with the National Counterterrorism Center, the U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon to “assist with targeting and investigations.”

Meanwhile, it is unclear whether or when the shifting resources and reorganization will result in the Trump administration’s hitting its desired deportation numbers, like the 3,000-person daily quota Miller demanded in the mid-May meeting. ICE no longer posts comprehensive daily arrest statistics, but on social media, it has posted details of at least 350 arrests since May 26.

Thanks to Julia Ainsley

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Polo.

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Over 2,400 Secret JFK Records Discovered by FBI, After President Trump Declassification Order #JFK

In the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s order to declassify all remaining documents tied to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the FBI has uncovered 2,400 records related to the murder that have been largely kept secret over the past few decades.

JFK Motorcade in Dallas on 11/22/63


“In 2020, the FBI opened the Central Records Complex and began a multi-year effort to first ship and then electronically inventory and store closed case files from FBI field offices across the country,” a statement from the FBI to the Daily Beast read. “The resulting, more comprehensive records inventory, coupled with the technologic advances in automating the FBI’s record keeping processes, allows us to more quickly search and locate records.”

The JFK Assassination: Conspiracies and Coverups.

“The FBI conducted a new records search pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order issued on January 23, 2025, regarding the declassification of the assassination files of JFK, RFK, and MLK. The search resulted in approximately 2,400 newly inventoried and digitized records that were previously unrecognized as related to the JFK assassination case file,” the statement continued.

“The FBI has made the appropriate notifications of the newly discovered documents and is working to transfer them to the National Archives and Records Administration for inclusion in the ongoing declassification process.”

The discovery of the records, which are contained within 14,000 pages of documents, was first reported by Axios Monday. The outlet claimed that the records were never received by an initial board that was tasked with reviewing and disclosing them, and that the White House was made aware of their existence on Friday.

“This is huge. It shows the FBI is taking this seriously,” Jefferson Morley, the vice president of the largest online record source for Kennedy’s death in America, told Axios. “The FBI is finally saying, ‘Let’s respond to the president’s order,’ instead of keeping the secrecy going.”

The contents of the newly uncovered records remain secret and were not even seen by the three sources who first notified Axios of their discovery.

Trump repeatedly promised that he would declassify JFK’s assassination records throughout his 2024 campaign trail, and subsequently saw that promise through during his first week in office.

“Providing Americans the truth after six decades of secrecy,” the president’s Jan. 23 executive order, which also vowed to declassify documents pertaining to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, read.

JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.

JFK was shot and killed in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The investigation at the time concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine turned communist activist, killed Kennedy and acted on his own.

The case has long been a magnet for conspiracy theories, however.

The National Archives and Records Administration has claimed that 97% of the estimated 5 million pages tied to JFK’s assassination have been made public.

The 1992 JFK Records Act saw that all documents were supposed to be handed over to the JFK Assassination Records Review Board and then to the National Archives to ultimately be made completely public by 2017.

On the advice of the CIA, Trump blocked the full disclosure during his first term, something he’s since expressed regret over, while former President Joe Biden only green-lit a limited release of records.

Those in favor of keeping the JFK documents secret have argued that they risk exposing secret intelligence gathering systems used by officials.

Thanks to Yasmeen Hamadeh.

The Final Witness: A Kennedy Secret Service Agent Breaks His Silence After Sixty Years.

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Colombian Narco Trafficker, Aldemar Soto-Charry aka "El Ingeniero", Sentenced for Conspiring to Import Thousands of Kilos of Cocaine into the U.S. #FARC

Aldemar Soto-Charry, 64, a highly ranked member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 78 months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute thousands of kilos of cocaine for importation into the United States. The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. for the District of Columbia, DEA Special Agent in Charge Eugene L. Crouch of the DEA Andean Division, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Veltri of the FBI’s Miami Field Office.

Soto-Charry, aka “El Ingeniero” (“the Engineer”), pleaded guilty on October 11, 2024, to conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine for importation into the United States and aiding and abetting in the same. As part of the plea agreement, Soto-Charry acknowledged he was accountable for engaging in a conspiracy on behalf of the FARC to transport over 1,000 kilos of cocaine on a regular basis to a Mexican cartel, ultimately knowing that the cocaine would be transported into the United States.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta ordered Soto-Charry to serve four years of supervised release.

According to court documents, in 2018 the DEA commenced a targeted operation against large-scale drug traffickers in Colombia, including those connected to the FARC. In July 2018, the DEA learned that Soto-Charry had claimed that FARC leadership was exploring opportunities to launder proceeds of drug sales, including through the purchase of real estate in Panama. The DEA enlisted confidential sources (CS) to meet with Soto-Charry and his co-conspirators.

In October 2018, Soto-Charry was introduced to the CSs, one who posed as an individual with business connections in Panama and the other as a facilitator for large-scale drug transactions with the Mexican Gulf Cartel, which sought thousands of kilograms of cocaine for exportation abroad, including the United States. Soto-Charry detailed the FARC’s illicit business ventures, including laundering $10 million of cocaine proceeds through the construction of a medical clinic in Panama. Soto-Charry said he could organize drug deals using cocaine that was being processed at FARC-controlled cocaine laboratories in the jungles of Colombia. During a later meeting, Soto-Charry said the FARC could provide up to 2,000 kilograms of cocaine every few weeks.

Between October 3, 2018, and July 25, 2019, the CSs regularly met with Soto-Charry and his co-conspirators to discuss the details of a potential deal for significant quantities of cocaine. During the meetings, Soto-Charry discussed FARC-related drug trafficking activities, cocaine pricing, cocaine purity, drug trafficking routes out of Colombia, and other logistical matters related to large-scale cocaine sales. As part of these discussions, Soto-Charry’s co-conspirators ultimately helped deliver a five-kilogram sample of cocaine and discussed how to transport it to the United States.

Soto-Charry was arrested in Colombia on August 8, 2019, at the request of the United States, and extradited to the United States on August 8, 2024. In his plea agreement, he accepted responsibility for conspiring to distribute 1,000 kilograms or more of cocaine. He has been in custody since the date of his arrest in Colombia.

His co-defendant Mauricio Mazabel-Soto was sentenced to 73 months in prison. Co-defendant Alfredo Molina-Cutiva received a sentence of 70 months in prison.

FARC and Al Qaeda: Convergence between terrorism and drug trafficking: Elements of convergence between terrorism and drug trafficking in a globalized world.

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