South Florida is 'open territory' for organized crime
Published: 2010-07-11 19:29:05By: Peter Franceschina and Jon Burstein | Los Angeles Times | March 27, 2010
Ever since Al Capone bought a mansion on Miami's Palm Island in 1928, South Florida has been a destination for organized-crime figures who want to relax and do a little business.
The rackets have evolved over the years -- loan-sharking, extortion and gambling have largely given way to stock scams, money-laundering and white-collar fraud.
And the gangsters of yore have been joined by rivals from Russia, Israel and South America. But the culture of greed and violence has remained constant.
Mobsters generally prefer to keep a low profile here, but La Cosa Nostra -- the Sicilian Mafia, whose name means "our thing" -- is once more in the headlines, this time connected with Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein.
Upon his return from Morocco in November, Rothstein reportedly went to work for the FBI, even as agents were dismantling his $1.2-billion investment fraud.
Roberto Settineri, whom authorities believe is a Sicilian mobster and whom Rothstein is credited with bringing down this month, appears to have the same short fuse and propensity for violence that has marked mob behavior for a century.
According to a Miami Beach police report in January, as Settineri lunched at Soprano Cafe -- where else? -- he got into a heated argument with a security guard, stood up, and pulled back his leather jacket to reveal a black semiautomatic pistol.
"I will put this gun in your . . . mouth now. I know where you live. I'll go to your . . . house and kill you and your family," Settineri told the guard, according to his arrest report.
The resulting aggravated-assault charge is the least of Settineri's concerns.
Federal prosecutors say Settineri, 41, was a key intermediary between a crime family in Sicily and the Gambino crime family in New York City.
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