When word got out that a Gambino gangster had been shot dead outside his New York City home, Mayor Bill de Blasio reacted with surprise. “We thought those days were over,” he said as police began investigating the fatal shooting of Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali. “I guess old habits die hard.” But longtime mob watchers say the Mafia hasn’t gone away — it’s just operating with a lower profile. “The mob is alive and well,” William Gale, the FBI’s assistant agent in charge who heads the Organized Crime Task Force in New York City, told NBC New York. “They still conduct the same bread and butter money-making activities that they always have, such as illegal gambling, which turns into loan sharking, which turns into extortion.” The difference now, Gale said, is that mob families like the Gambinos are no longer led by headline-grabbing chiefs like John Gotti, aka the "Dapper Don," whose public persona attracted the attention of law enforcement. Also, the mob is not rubbing people out like they used to, Gale said. “We haven’t seen the same level of violence in a while because violence attracts attention,” Gale said. “I think they’ve learned that the attention is not good for business.” In fact, said Gale, the fatal shooting of Cali on Wednesday is the first killing of a high-ranking mobster since the 1985 rub out of then-Gambino crime family head Paul Castellano outside a Manhattan steak house that was presided over by Gotti. John Gotti, right, arrives at court in New York on Feb. 9, 1990. David Cantor / AP file That doesn’t mean the mobsters have turned over a new leaf. Just this month, an alleged Gambino crime family associate named Anthony Pandrella was charged with fatally shooting an elderly Brooklyn man in the head and then robbing him, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Also this month, a career criminal named Napoleon “Nappy” Andrade who had recently been released from federal prison was shot and killed outside a halfway house in Rhode Island. Among other things, Andrade had done time for robbing a 78-year-old associate of the Gambino crime family. Cali, 53, was an underboss in the Gambino crime family, two sources have told NBC News. Investigators suspect Cali may have been lured to his death by a gunman who deliberately backed into the gangster’s parked Cadillac SUV with a pickup truck. Surveillance video shows Cali emerging from his home in the Staten Island borough and shaking hands with the pickup truck driver, a source familiar with the investigation told NBC News. Then the license plate on the truck falls off, and the driver can be seen picking it up and tossing in the back. He then suddenly pulls a gun and starts shooting. Cali was hit by six of the 12 shots, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea. Investigators have not arrested a suspect and Shea wouldn’t comment on a possible motive. But he said Cali's past as a Gambino family underboss is a “focal point of the investigation.” Translated: Cali’s rubout could be the result of a mob dispute. The Mafia in New York City is still dominated by five families — Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese. And their tentacles extend well beyond the city's borders. “All five families still operate under a hierarchical structure,” Gale said. “We see their influence not just in the New York area but nationally and internationally.” Yet the Five Families are not as powerful as they used to be, experts said. Their leadership was crippled by a spate of convictions and defections in the 1980s and 1990s, and they have faced increased competition from rival Albanian and Russian crime organizations and Latin-American drug cartels. “They’re around but they’re a shadow of their old self,” said Ronald Goldstock, who led the New York State Organized Crime Task Force for 13 years and later served as the head of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. “People still kill people, but in terms of the industries they controlled, the unions they controlled, they’re infinitesimally smaller.” Frank Cali, presumed Mafia member suspected of drug trafficking in Sicily and arrested in the operation codenamed "Old Bridge" on Feb. 7, 2008. Polizia Italiana / AFP - Getty Images file While there have been reports that the Gambinos have been importing muscle from Sicily because American-raised recruits aren’t up to the job, Gale said the structures of these criminal organizations are still intact and they have plenty of wannabe gangsters to choose from. “We see young people joining the ranks of the Mafia,“ Gale said. “When we convict someone there is always somebody ready to take their place. There is a younger generation that is eager to fill those spots.“ But they’re not exactly the cream of the criminal crop, said David Shapiro, a former FBI agent who now teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “People don’t go into the mob because they’re the Isaac Newtons or Albert Einsteins of the criminal class,” Shapiro said. Still, Shapiro said it does not surprise him that Cali might look for recruits in the old country because omertà — the fabled Mafia code of silence — isn’t what it used to be. “The loyalties are thin,” he said. “You know the gig economy? Well, we’ve got a gig Mafia now.” “There was always the assumption that there was command and control in the mob families, like our American corporations,” he added. “But I don’t think that applies as much anymore. Today the business units are more fluid. The cells are smaller. There is not that loyalty to the boss and the underboss that there used to be. If you cannot support a crew, you will not have a crew.”<doc-sep>The construction worker charged in the murder of Gambino godfather Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali seemed unhinged leading up to the brazen hit, friends told The Post on Tuesday. Anthony Comello — who showed up for his first court appearance Monday with “MAGA forever” and references to the conservative QAnon movement scrawled on his hand — managed the Instagram account “realamericasvoice_” which is filled with anti-Democrat and pro-President Trump posts, said the pals, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He had a secret Instagram. He used to post crazy things about politics and Trump and Democrats,” a source said. The account kicked off in October with a post about Christine Blasey Ford, the sex-harassment accuser of US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “Horrible how they can try to ruin a man and his family name and it was all fake just to win. I hope you Dems never get power,’’ raged the writer. Another post was of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence from Jan. 20 with the caption, “This has been the greatest and amazing two years in this great country (THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) for god, for country, for family @realdonaldtrump @vp you rocked the world. We the people are blessed for your SELFLESS PATH FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. THANK YOU.” The 24-year-old suspect also used the social media platform in his bizarre bid to boot Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo out of office. “He was on Instagram live in front of the mayor’s house a few weeks ago demanding de Blasio comes outside because he was under citizen’s arrest,” a source said. “He was reaching out to people to sign a petition to get the governor and mayor out of office.” The source said Comello had been messaging him lately to sign the petition. “I thought he was whacked out so I didn’t call him,” the person said. “In high school, he was a good kid. He hung out with the wrong crowd and did pills and smoked weed and got into fights, but now it’s like he’s someone else. It’s strange.” Police sources said Comello showed up outside City Hall a few months ago in an attempt to make a citizen’s arrest of the mayor. Investigators believe Comello may have whacked Cali because the Mafia kingpin barred Comello from dating Cali’s niece. It’s unclear whether Comello knew whom he was dealing with, one of his friends said. “I’m not sure if he knew who Cali was but I know that it was over a girl, and if you ask me, he wasn’t all in the head,” said the person. “And it’s sad, because of who he killed, it’s a matter of time before he’s found dead in jail.” Comello is expected to be extradited to New York to face charges following his court appearance in New Jersey. His lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, didn’t return messages.<doc-sep>This image was removed due to legal reasons. We still don’t have a motive to put with Anthony Comello— the suspect in the shocking murder of Gambino crime family boss Francesco “Frank” Cali, who was arrested last Saturday in New Jersey— but a fter his appearance in court today, it seems safe to say that he’ s a Trump fan. Comello was photographed in court with phrases written on his hands that included “United We Stand MAGA” and “MAGA Forever.” Advertisement Police say the killing is not believed to be mob-related. Three NYPD detectives independently described Comello as “nuts” after his arrest on Saturday, according to The Daily Beast. After looking at the scribblings on his hand, some reporters believe they know something about Comello’s brand of crazy : s o me of the phrases point to a belief in the QAnon conspiracy theory. It seems that Comello may have drew a QAnon-associated symbol on his hand, along with the MAGA messages, according to Daily Beast reporter Will Sommer, who has covered the QAnon theory extensively. The QAnon theory alleges the existence of a massive conspiracy to abuse and murder children, among other nefarious deeds, perpetrated by Hollywood and Democratic elites. Proponents of the theory believe that President Trump is secretly working with special counsel Robert Mueller to indict these criminals. And they believe that a government insider named Q is dropping hints and coded messages about the conspiracy on 4Chan. Advertisement If it’s proven that Comello is a QAnon devotee , this would be the second murder potentially associated with the wacko theory . In January, a QAnon believer is suspected to have murdered his brother with a s word because he believed his brother to be a lizard. And last year, an armed man in an ad hoc armored vehicle reportedly blocked a road near the Hoover Dam as a statement about the conspiracy. When asked about the writing , Comello’s lawyer Robert Gottlieb denied seeing anything written on Comello’s hand. Advertisement Comello is accused of shooting Cali ten times outside the crime boss’ house in Staten Island, where Comello also lives. The 24-year-old apparently backed his car into Cali’s vehicle to lure the him outside. Advertisement There is some speculation that Comello’s murder relates to a personal relationship with Cali, who allegedly prevented Comello from dating his niece. In any case, after angering a powerful crime family, Comello is now in danger. “Because of serious threats, he has been placed in protective custody, where he will remain while this case in pending,” Gottlieb, said in a statement. Advertisement “Mr. Comello’s family and friends simply cannot believe what they had been told,” Gottlieb added. “There i s something very wrong here and we will get to the truth of what happened as soon as possible.”<doc-sep>
The Mafia has not been spared from the gigificaton that has reshaped the larger economy. That was one of the takeaways from expert analysis following Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali’s murder in Staten Island, New York this week. Cali, an underboss in the Gambino crime family, was shot at least six times outside his home on Wednesday (March 13), in an incident that may be related to a mob power struggle. If the shooting was an official “rub out,” it would be the first killing of a high-ranking Mafia leader since the 1985 shooting of Paul Castellano, then head of the Gambino family, outside Sparks Steak House in Manhattan. But the relatively few headlines about New York’s “five families” since then should not be taken as a sign of the mob’s erasure, William Gale, as assistant agent for the FBI who directs the Organized Crime Task Force in New York, explained to NBC News this week. “The mob is alive and well,” he said, explaining that their “bread-and-butter money-making activities” remain centered around illegal gambling, “which turns into loan sharking, which turns into extortion.” What’s changed, apparently, is the mob’s structure and recruiting methods. Cali, for instance, was said to be recruiting many of his foot soldiers from Sicily, which is part of a “broader trend” according to an anonymous investigator who spoke to the New York Times (paywall). For 21st-century Mafia managers, old-country recruits “have what they believe are the old values, because the American-born kids don’t have the right stuff anymore,” that official said. The problem in the US may be a lack of loyalty and dearth of talent in a diminished Mafia (paywall), David Shapiro, a distinguished lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former FBI agent, who also spoke to NBC News, suggested. “There was always the assumption that there was command and control in the mob families, like our American corporations,” he said. “But I don’t think that applies as much anymore. Today the business units are more fluid. The cells are smaller. There is not that loyalty to the boss and the underboss that there used to be.” “You know the gig economy?” he also said. “Well, we’ve got a gig Mafia now.” Christian Cipollini, a crime historian, author, and blogger, shared a similar view with Vice in 2015 when describing a disrupted industry. “The American Mafia had based a lot of its progress on the assistance of politicians, the supply of contraband, and rackets across the board,” he said. “As time went on, there were fewer people taking payoffs, younger and more savvy organizations excelled in the drug trade, and many of the rackets the Mafia dominated—well, they just don’t exist anymore.” A string of mob convictions and defections in the ’80s and ’90s also left New York’s five families weakened, just as other criminal organizations, including the Russian mafia, were rising, Gale also said. But it’s not only in the US where the Mafia is shape-shifting and attracting freelancers. A 2015 study of organized crime in the EU described “conglomerations of career criminals who temporarily join with others to commit crimes until they are completed and then reform with others to commit new crimes,” writes the Independent. That report called on law enforcement agencies to rethink their approach to shutting down the now “adaptable” mob networks, which were no longer about hierarchy and tradition.