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DeSalvo Crime Family
DickLaurent
Richard De Laurentiis (Dick Laurent), boss of the DeSalvo family

Don

Richard De Laurentiis

Founding location

New York City

Years active

1932-present

Territory

Various neighborhoods in New York City (Mainly in Queens and Brooklyn)

Membership

150 made members, 1,100 associates

Ethnicity

Italian, Sicilian and a variety of other ethnicities as associates

Criminal activities

Drug trafficking, Weapon trafficking, Prostitution, Chop Shop, Extortion, Money Laundering, Contract killing, Illegal gambling, Counterfeiting, Armed robbery, Kidnapping, Racketeering, Loan sharking, Fraud, Diamond trafficking and Murder

Allies

Several local Sicilian mafia families, various ethnic organized crime syndicates (mostly in Brooklyn)

Rivals

Rival ethnic organized crime groups (including White Supremacist gangs)

Net profit

2,000,000,000$

The DeSalvo Crime Family is an Italian Mafia family founded by Carlo DeSalvo in 1932. The family's main areas of activity are Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. While having a fairly small amount of made members and official associates, the family's power comes from two of its larger crews in particular. One has been known for succesfully infiltrating the labor unions, while another crew has been forging strong ties with an ample amount of local branches of criminal syndicates. While not the largest family active in New York, they have been long known for being the most vicious and ruthless of the current active families.

History[]

The DeSalvo Crime Family was founded in 1932 by Carlo DeSalvo, a Sicilian immigrant from the province of Palermo. Raised in a poverty stricken neighborhood, DeSalvo quickly formed its own crew and became active in a variety of local crimes. Forging an alliance with other local Italian street gangs, he formed a larger criminal enterprise. After the formation, other criminals acknowledged Carlo DeSalvo as the true leader, thus the name of the DeSalvo Crime Family.

After DeSalvo’s death, the heir of the crime family was Salvatore De Laurentiis. Born to immigrants from the Campania region, the young De Laurentiis was taken under the wing of the ageing DeSalvo and quickly showed promise as a mobster. While DeSalvo’s underboss and right-hand man Anthony Palermo became boss of the family following DeSalvo death, he too was ageing and became ill. Following Palermo's illness, Sal De Laurentiis was quickly seen as the right choice for becoming boss of the family. De Laurentiis opened the family's doors to various types of both blue-collar as well as white-collar crimes, creating a reputation for being fearless, ruthless and extremely violent. 

Following De Laurentiis' imprisonment and ultimate death, his son Richard took over the leadership of the family, dividing it into several crews each with its own special area of interest. The Family has a seat on The Commission which was granted under the rule of Salvatore De Laurentiis.

Current Leadership[]

The current leadership of the DiSalvo Family is the following:

Boss[]

  • Richard De Laurentiis (Dick Laurent)

Underboss[]

  • Marcello Bruno

Consigliere[]

  • Joseph Caruso

Caporegime[]

  • Ricardo Di Stefano
  • Alfred Spagnuolo
  • Albert Palmieri
  • Anthony Scarpa

Crews[]

The family has 4 known crews:

Di Stefano Crew[]

  • Led by Ricardo Di Stefano. Includes 40 made members. Good relationship with Spagnuolo’s crew, certain crews in other American mafia families, local legitimate businessmen and a couple of local Sicilian mafia families. Mostly active in ‘’white-collar’’ crime. Has successfully infiltrated local labor unions.
  • Made members: 40
  • Associates: 300
  • Ethnic make-up: predominantly Italian-American. 
  • Areas of operation: Queens and Manhattan

Boat Crew[]

  • Led by Alfred Spagnuolo. Includes 40 made members. Good relationship with Di Stefano’s crew and certain local Sicilian mafia families. Largely active in ‘’white-collar’’ crime.
  • Made members: 40.
  • Associates: 200.
  • Ethnic make-up: preferably Sicilian and Sicilian-American.
  • Areas of operation: Queens

Palmieri Crew[]

  • Led by Albert Palmieri. Includes 20 made members. Good relationship with the Hill crew and the ‘’Kielbasa mob’’ (a local Polish-American gang). Active in ‘’blue-collar’’ as well as ‘’white-collar’’ crime.
  • Made members: 20.
  • Associates: 150.
  • Ethnic make-up: Italian, Sicilian, Irish (associate), Polish (associate).
  • Areas of operation: Manhattan

Arizona Bay Crew[]

  • Led by Anthony Scarpa. Includes 20 made members and 200 associates. Close relationship and brotherhood with a multitude of branches from other (ethnic) organized crime groups. Largely active in ‘’blue-collar’’ crime.
  • Made members: 20
  • Associates: 200 
  • Ethnic make-up: Italian, Sicilian (made men), a variety of other ethnic associates and allies.
  • Areas of operation: Brooklyn

Activities[]

The family is active in a varied amount of organized criminal activities. Which criminal activities are perpetrated depends from crew to crew. The highest amount of criminal activity comes from the two most powerful family crews: the Di Stefano Crew and the Arizona Bay Crew".

The "Di Stefano Crew" is the most businesslike and -along with the "Boat Crew"- the most stereotypical American Mafia crew within the DeSalvo family. They prefer "white-collar" criminal activities and have succesfully infiltrated local politics and unions. Their main activities are extortion, hijacking, corruption, stock market fraud, money laundering, bookmaking and fencing. The "Di Stefano Crew" is currently the largest money-generating crew in the family.

The "Arizona Bay Crew"  -named after the social club members and their allies frequent- is the youngest (members range from 30 to 40 years old), most brutal and thuggish crew within the DeSalvo Crime Family and possibly within the entire American Mafia. The crew has little made men among its ranks, but has become extremely feared and powerful due to the almost brotherly alliance with a multitude of equally vicious crews from other, including non-Italian organized crime groups. They focus on "blue-collar" crimes such as drug trafficking, weapon trafficking, prostitution, racketeering, car theft, contract killing, armed robbery, kidnapping, burglary, counterfeiting, illegal gambling, VAT scams and murder. Crew members along with their allies have been implicated in the running of brothels, meth labs, marijuana plantations, crack and gambling houses, chop shops and occassional black markets (where counterfeited goods, illegal cigarettes, weapons and narcotics are sold). While the most notorious, the are second to the "Di Stefano Crew" in money-making.

Armory[]

Melee

  • Machete
  • Butterfly Knife
  • Meat Cleaver
  • Bowie Knife
  • Clawhammer
  • Sledgehammer
  • Baseball Bat
  • Brass Knuckles
  • Chainsaw
  • Switchblade
  • Kukri Blade
  • Katana

Pistols


  • Magnum .44
  • Desert Eagle .50
  • Colt .45
  • Glock G17
  • CZ 75

Submachine guns


  • UZI
  • UMP-45
  • Mac-10
  • Mac-11

Shotguns

  • Spas-12
  • Remington 870
  • Ithaca 37

Machine guns

  • AK47
  • M2 Browning
  • Thompson
  • Steyr AUG
  • M60
  • Snipers
  • M24
  • SR25
  • AWM
  • Cheytac .408

Explosives

  • Grenade
  • Molotov Cocktail
  • Semtex

Trivia[]

  • Largely disliked by other crime families due to their violent ways of doing business.
  • The internal working of the family is effectively split in two parts: the DiStefano-Spagnuolo-Palmieri alliance on one side, Scarpa's crew on the other side. DiStefano's, Spagnuolo's and Palmieri's crews, although violent, prefer to participate in less obvious crimes. Anthony Scarpa's Arizona Bay Crew, although loyal to the DiSalvo family, on the other hand is feared and slightly distrusted for its brutal involvement in the narcotics trade, pornography and murder and mayhem. 
  • The youngest of the New York based organized crime families (started after the 1930's)
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