THE CHERRY HILL GAMBINOS - OPERATION IRON TOWER

They came to America in the early 60's. They were native Sicilians of great reputation form Palermo. They came to be known as the Cherry Hill Gambino's, John, Rosario and Guisepe, three men with extreme importance to both the Mafia in America and more so back home in Sicily. Their business was narcotics, pure and simple as they set out to become the Sicilians narcotics coordination experts in the U.S. They are responsible for bringing tons of narcotics into the U.S and were the first Sicilians to deal in narcotics in the U.S for the Sicilian Mafia directly.

When Rosario Gambino and his brothers came from Sicily in the mid-1960s, they were already "men of honour," made members of the Sicilian Mafia. Rosario entered the U.S. illegally in 1962 but in 1966 was granted permanent resident status. Rosario, his older brother, John, and his younger brother, Giuseppe, settled first in Delran, N.J. Later they bought homes in Cherry Hill where they lived in the same development as reputed Philadelphia mobster Raymond "Long John" Martorano.

In 1966, the Gambino brothers ran The Cafe Valentino on 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. At that time, new waves of Sicilian immigrants were settling in Brooklyn. Not far from the Gambinos, another Sicilian immigrant, Salvatore Catalano, opened the Cafe Viale. (Catalano eventually took control of the Bonanno crime family,) The Gambino brothers and Catalano were friends and often visited one another.

When Tommaso Buscetta, a Sicilian Mafia boss from Palermo, needed to hide his ex-wife and daughter in America, Rosario Gambino took the women in. A few years later, Buscetta fled a violent mob war in Sicily and settled in Brooklyn, where he often hung out with the Gambino brothers as well as Carlo Gambino.

In 1972, Rosario and his two brothers formed `Father and Son Pizza` they also ran pizza shops in Philadelphia and Camden, and, with a cousin, pizzerias as far south as Dover, Del. In 1978, Rosario Gambino used his wife's maiden name to lease a property at Second and Walnut streets in Old City, which he planned to turn it into a restaurant/nightclub. Rosario's little brother, Joe, ran Valentino's Supper Club in Cherry Hill.

The "Cherry Hill" Gambino's were close friends with Philly Cosa Nostra boss, Angelo Bruno. Police discovered that Angelo Bruno often met with New York Gambino underboss, Paul Castellano, at Valentino's Supper Club. (Castellano eventually became boss of the Gambino crime family and ran it for 10 years until John Gotti had him assassinated December 1985.)

In 1979 Rosario Gambino played a pivotal role in the Michele Sindona story. Sindona, an international banker and money launderer, was the banker for the Vatican, the governing Christian Democratic party of Italy and the Mafia in Sicily. At the height of his power Sindona owned six banks in four countries, an international hotel chain, a food company, 500 corporations and one of the largest international currency brokerage firms in the world. But when Sindona bought the 18th largest bank in America, Franklin National Bank of New York, he stole so much money that the bank soon crashed.

Billions of dollars were lost as Sindona's European banks collapsed the following week. Sindona was indicted in the U.S. and in Italy, and he disappeared in August 1979. His friends claimed that Sindona had been kidnapped, but Sindona flew to Sicily to meet with his "clients." John Gambino, Rosario's brother, accompanied Sindona on his trip. Sindona eventually returned to the United States in October. When Sindona landed at JFK Airport, Rosario Gambino met him.

At the same time, DEA agents intercepted five kilos of heroin, packed in talcum powder, on their way to the Gambino brothers. The next shipment came from Sicily inside a truckload of lemons, which was driven to Milan. There, the 91 pounds of heroin were packed inside a cargo container filled with Italian pop music albums and shipped off to New York.

When the shipment reached the U.S., the police moved in on the Gambino's. In March 1980, Rosario and his brother Giuseppe were arrested in their restaurant, Valentino's, for alleged participation in an international heroin smuggling operation after cops in Milan, Italy, confiscated 91 pounds of heroin destined for the U.S. They were eventually acquitted of those charges - but more than 60 members of the Mafia in Italy were convicted in the case. In December 1984, the youngest of three Gambino brothers fell. Rosario Gambino and three others were convicted on drug related charges. Rosario Gambino was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

In 1988 operation Iron Tower had already been well underway, an operation that was designed to bring an end to the Gambino heroin enterprise by nailing the 2 remaining brothers, John and Guiseppe. The operation was a great success showing just how well an international operation can work. The team work was quite superb, Italian and American law enforcement had synchronized their movements for months, and on December 1st 1988 Italian and American law enforcement picked up a total of 208 traffickers, 133 were arrested in various regions in Italy and 75 were picked up in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, Florida and Brooklyn.

This time it was Guiseppe's turn to fall; the FBI had successfully bugged the Café Giardino, which was the Cherry Hill Gambino's main hang out. The FBI had gathered enough evidence to put him away for 35 years. But the real big catch John the eldest of the 3 brothers would be acquitted on the grounds of not enough evidence. However this was the only blemish on what was another excellent FBI operation that ran smoothly. The FBI believed with this latest success, that by now they had ended the Sicilian's heroin networks, but just as the FBI were closing them down new routes were already being set up. But this investigation was further proof that the native Sicilian Mafiosi were settling all over the U.S and their influence seemed to be growing.

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