My Crime Beat Column: FBI And Philadelphia Police Take Down A Violent Drug Trafficking Gang In Kensington

PhillyDaily.com ran my Crime Beat column today on the FBI and Philadelphia Police historic drug raid in Philadelphia's Kensington area. 

You can read the column via the link below or the text below:

FBI and Philadelphia Police take down a violent drug trafficking gang in Kensington - Philly Daily

I know a retired Philadelphia detective who worked the streets of Kensington for a good part of his career.

The detective took me on several “ride-alongs” through Kensington’s open-air drug market and the sad and pathetic drug user’s street scene. Riding shotgun while driving through the neighborhood, I saw the stooped, staggering, and squatting drug addicts who inhabit the sidewalk amidst trash and garbage. I also saw drug dealers openly selling their deadly wares. 

Photos and news stories about Kensington’s open-air drug market and drug-addicted street people have been featured prominently in the press worldwide, giving Philadelphia a black eye, so I was pleased to learn that the FBI and the Philadelphia Police conducted a massive raid on one of the area’s most prolific and violent drug gangs in Kensington. 

The drug gang takedown also made news across the country and the world.

On October 24th, David Metcalf, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, announced a historic indictment against a violent drug trafficking organization operating in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. 

According to Metcalf, the indictment charges 33 alleged members of the Weymouth Street Drug Trafficking Organization with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and dozens of related offenses.

Metcalf appeared at the press conference alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, Wayne Jacobs, the FBI Philadelphia Special Agent in Charge, and Kevin Bethel, the Philadelphia Police Commissioner, as well as other federal and state law enforcement officials.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the indictment alleges that from about January 2016 through October 2025, the Weymouth Street Drug Trafficking Organization distributed fentanyl, heroin, crack cocaine, and cocaine on the 3100 block of Weymouth Street, one of the most prolific drug blocks in the city. The gang functioned as an open-air drug market where illegal narcotics are sold every day and at all hours. 

While that block is the nucleus of the group’s alleged activity, their area of operations has extended to include the corner of F Street and Clementine Street, the corner of E Street and Wishart Street, and 3000 Potter Street.

The indictment further alleges that the Weymouth gang uses violence to enforce its territory, including shootings, murder, and physical assaults. Members of the Weymouth drug trafficking gang retaliate against witnesses that the gang believes provides information to law enforcement and they commit violent acts against members of rival drug trafficking organizations.

As alleged in the indictment, the Weymouth Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) is headed by Jose Antonio Morales Nieves, “Flaco,” 45, of Luquillo, Puerto Rico. He is accused of authorizing other members of the drug gang to sell drugs on his block in exchange for “rent.” 

“Morales Nieves helps protect the members of the DTO through the threat of violent acts, performed either by himself or his associates, against others who have caused the Weymouth DTO harm or attempted to sell controlled substances in the DTO’s territory,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office explained. 

Twenty-four defendants were arrested in coordinated operations. Eight defendants were already in state or federal custody, and one remains at large.

“This indictment is the largest federal case of this century prosecuted by our office and it attacks the very heart of the opioid crisis in the neighborhoods of Kensington,” said U.S. Attorney Metcalf. “We are committed to returning these neighborhoods to their residents and reclaiming them from drug dealers who profit from the misery of others.”

FBI Director Patel said “Today, even more criminals are off the streets because of the diligent work of the FBI and our partners. Over 30 people have been charged for their alleged role in drug trafficking and dozens of other offenses. 

“These individuals were charged with distributing fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine on one of the most prolific drug blocks in Philadelphia. They were members of a violent drug trafficking organization and used violence to enforce their territory and sell drugs that poison our city streets and community. The FBI will continue our work to put an end to drug trafficking and violence in our cities.”

Kevin Bethel, the Philadelphia Police Commissioner, added, “Today’s actions were the culmination of a deliberate, patient, and highly coordinated investigation into a violent criminal enterprise operating on and around Weymouth Street in Kensington, This group pumped fentanyl into a community already hurting, and they used violence to protect their business. Thank you to our state and federal partners who continue to show up in Philadelphia not as visitors but as teammates: FBI Director Patel, U.S. Attorney Metcalf, FBI Philly SAC Jacobs and his team, the DEA, the Attorney General’s Office, and to our own DC Jim Kelly and the men and women of the Philadelphia Police Department's Narcotics Bureau who did the hard work to get us here. 

“This is One Philly in action - exactly the model Mayor Parker has demanded from day one: not turf battles, not silos, but agencies standing shoulder-to-shoulder around a single mission: protecting the people of this city.”

The case is part of PSN Recon, a criminal intelligence program launched this year, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The federal and state law enforcement community work together to identify the most violent and dangerous actors in the city of Philadelphia. 

PSN Recon builds on the original mission of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (“PSN”) initiative, to collaboratively address violence in partnership with state and local enforcement officials. 

I believe utilizing the combined might of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and federal and state prosecutors is the best way to combat violent drug gangs in Philadelphia and across the country. 

Notably absent from the takedown and the press conference was Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who is running for reelection next week.

My Crime Beat Column: The Terrorist In Fact And Fiction

The below Crime Beat column originally appeared in the Orchard Press Online Mystery Magazine: 

The terrorist has long been a staple villain in fiction. From Ian Fleming to Tom Clancy, the terrorist in thrillers has been portrayed as a criminal out to extort money, a religious fanatic doing the work of God (as he sees it in his deluded mind), or a former soldier seeking revenge for some perceived slight.

We’ve seen neo-Nazis, white supremacists, international criminals, misguided youth and of course, the Islamic fanatical terrorist exporting the Mid-East conflict to America. 

In Money, Money, Money, Ed McBain’s Middle Eastern character arrives at an American airport, and he is deeply offended at being profiled as a terrorist - even though he is one. 

McBain’s crime novel, involving money laundering and international terrorism, was published two days before the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  

Ed McBain, aka Evan Hunter, aka Salvator Lombino, said he was on a book promotion tour in Chicago when he heard the news of the attack. He noted the eerie similarity between his novel and the real unfolding events. 

Since 9/11, the stock bad guy terrorist in fiction and action movies has become a very real villain and a very real threat. 

America’s war on terrorism may have begun in earnest following the September 11th attacks, but the terrorist's war against America and the Western democracies can be traced back to the 1960s and the 1970s. 

Plane hijackings, kidnappings, car bombs and other acts of terrorism plagued the capitals of Europe throughout the 1970s and right on into the new century. Europeans have long lived under the gun (and the bomb) of Middle East terrorists, as well as the IRA, organized crime, separatist movements and a variety of left- and right-wing terrorist groups. These groups considered embassies, hotel lobbies, sports arenas, airport lounges and sidewalk cafes free-fire combat zones. 

I lived in Europe for two years in the mid-1970s while serving in the U.S. Navy and I saw how life could be affected by the fear of terrorism. I talked to a good number of Britons, Italians, Germans, Spaniards and other Europeans in train stations, restaurants and bars as I traveled throughout Europe. I recall that nearly all of them expressed a deep fear of terrorism following every news account of a car bombing or assassination in London, Paris or Stockholm. 

Terrorism was not an abstraction to them. It was a very real threat to their well-being. 

I was in Belfast during the Christmas season, and I was saddened to see this war-torn city with British troops in full combat gear on street corners. 

While I was there a bomb was detonated at a store, and several innocents were killed. 

I recall being glad that we didn’t see terrorist attacks on American soil. I also reflected on America’s good fortune to have fought all our modern wars on foreign shores. 

Previous to 9/11, terrorists mostly targeted our military people at overseas posts, from the Marine barracks in Beirut to the USS Cole in Yemen. They also targeted Americans traveling abroad on foreign airlines and cruise ships. 

Of course, since 9/11, that’s all changed now. The terrorists have brought the war home in a big way. 

The terrorists have brought the war to our shores and like the Europeans, we now must live with the threat of terrorism. 

9/11 was perhaps America’s worst disaster, but the acts of heroism and humanity that followed the attack led me to believe that we have the resolve to win the war on terrorism. 

Note: The above FBI.gov photo shows the Statute of Liberty and beyond it the World Trade Center on fire on 9/11.

My Crime Beat Column: A Look Back At A New York Cop's 9/11 After-Action Report

Below is my Crime Beat column on 9/11, which originally appeared in the Orchard Press Online Mystery Magazine:  

I covered the Police-Security Expo in Atlantic City in June and heard Joseph Dunne, who served as the New York City deputy police commissioner during 9/11, speak to the attendees.  

Sponsored by the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police, the theme of the expo was to prepare to act and respond to terrorism. Previous to 9/11, counterterrorism was largely a federal responsibility, but now police officers have become front line soldiers. 

I sat in on a seminar conducted by Joseph Dunne (seen in the below photo), who retired from the NYPD. He gave what we used to call in the military a commander’s "after-action report" on the 9/11 attack. 

Dunne played tapes of some of the 911 emergency calls, one of which had the voice of a young woman on the 110th floor pleading with the operator to tell her what she should do. The woman paused and told the operator that she was pregnant. 

The audience was a tough group of cops and security people, but most of them were touched by the woman’s frantic call for help.

While standing near the towers, Dunne said he thought debris was falling around him, but he discovered that it was people. This, he said, left an indelible image in his mind.

"Consider the state of mind of the people who elected to jump and end their lives," Dunne said. "What awful choices these poor people had." 

Dunne said that the Port Authority and NYPD quickly closed tunnels and bridges and kept the lines open for rescue personnel. This quick action saved countless lives, he said.

Dunne recalled hearing a plane overhead and tensed up, "Don’t worry," someone told him. "It’s one of ours." Before 9/11, a conversation like that took place only on a foreign battlefield.

"The people in the buildings were innocent victims and rescue officers voluntarily rushed in," Dunne said, proud of his officers.

Dunne spoke of one officer who was filling out his retirement papers when the call came in. He left the retirement papers on his desk and rushed out to help. Like 22 other NYPD officers, he lost his life that day.

Dunne rolled out some gruesome stats: 19,000 body parts were signed into the morgue, and they collected 12,622 DNA samples.

"No one signs on to policing to deal with the collection of bodies and body parts," Dunne said sadly. 

By Dunne’s account, 25,000 lives were saved thanks to the NYPD’s rapid and skilled response. 

"As memories of September 11th fade, we have to remain resolved," Dunne advised. "It’s going to happen again."

9/11 was perhaps America’s worst disaster, but the acts of heroism and humanity that followed the attack led me to believe that we have the resolve to win the war on terrorism. 

Note: The above FBI.gov photo shows the Statute of Liberty and beyond it the World Trade Center on fire on 9/11. 

My Crime Beat Column: Cinema Crime Wave: A Look Back At The Great Crime Films

I recently passed by the street in South Philadelphia where the Colonial movie theater used to sit. The old movie house was torn down some years ago and an apartment complex now sits on the site.

I spent many hours of my childhood in the 1950s and 60s in that theater. I saw Dr No and the other Sean Connery-James Bond movies there. I saw John Wayne in The Alamo there. I also saw a good number of crime films there.

In the 1960s and 70s, a block away from the Colonial, was a Cheesesteak sandwich shop that didn’t sell cheesesteaks or anything else. The store was a well-known front for the headquarters of a Cosa Nostra capo named Frank Sindone, who oversaw all loan sharking in Philadelphia and South Jersey.

While moviegoers enjoyed crime films in a darkened theater on 11^th Street, the true-life criminals were meeting just down the block on 10^th Street.

Although the vast majority of South Philadelphians were and are honest, hard-working and law-abiding people, such as my parents, South Philly was and is the hub of organized crime in the Philadelphia area. As an aspiring writer, I grew up in South Philly with an interest in both reel and real criminals.

So as a lifelong student of crime, I was certainly drawn towards Crime Wave: A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Great Crime Movies (I.B. Tauris, 288 pp. $22.50). The book, written by film critic Howard Hughes (not to be confused with the eccentric billionaire), offers a companion book to one’s crime film home collection.

As Hughes notes in his preface, the world of crime is full of unpleasant people, yet crime movies hold a special place in cinema audiences’ affections. The movies Hughes chose to cover in the book are those he considers seminal Hollywood films, both in their genre and respective eras.

"Crime Wave includes the classic gangster flicks of the thirties and forties, often detailing bootlegging, robbery and smuggling: The Public Enemy, High Sierra, White Heat," Hughes wrote. "I also trace the development of the post-war film noir style, from The Maltese Falcon and Kiss Me Deadly to the knowing post-modernism of Chinatown and L.A. Confidential."

"There are tough B-movies from the thrifty fifties, such as The Big Combo; tales of gangster revenge (Point Blank and Get Carter) and Quentin Tarantino’s genre-referential Pulp Fiction. There are heist and caper movies, epitomized by The Asphalt Jungle and Ocean’s Eleven. Also discussed are lone, rule-breaking cops (Dirty Harry), buddy cops (Lethal Weapon), global crime (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), blaxpoitation action (Shaft) and even a gangster love story: Bonnie and Clyde."

"And of course there are the four great gangster epics, directed by Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone and Francis Ford Coppola: GoodFellas, Once Upon a Time in America, The Godfather, and The Godfather Part II," Hughes writes in the preface to the book.

And as Hughes tells his readers, in the book’s chapters you’ll come into contact with the crime movie stars like Jimmy Cagney on top of the world, Humphrey Bogart pursuing the black bird, Sterling Hayden prowling the asphalt jungle, Lee Marvin escaping Alcatraz, Clint Eastwood feeling lucky, Michael Caine spilling blood on the Tyne, Joe Pesci getting whacked and Robert De Niro being a wiseguy.

For me, Jimmy Cagney was one of the best cinema gangsters. Although he was a short man, he had great film presence. The baby-faced dancer and former boxer from the Lower East Side of New York was superb in The Public Enemy, Angels With Dirty Faces and The Roaring Twenties. He was a cocky, strutting tough guy. He is unforgettable.

An older, heavier Cagney revisited the gangster film in 1949 with his brilliant performance in White Heat, which Hughes states is Cagney’s greatest film. I’m inclined to agree. "Top of the world, Ma!" The film is a must for all crime film buffs.

Hughes does a good job of explaining the background to the crime films, from their inspirations from other films, novels and true stories to the people behind the scenes of the film’s production. From studio bosses to the directors, writers and money men, we see how the films developed into the classics we love today.

I especially enjoyed his chapter on 1971’s Get Carter. Michael Caine was terrific as a British villain out to avenge his brother’s death. Caine, like Cagney, grew up among real hoods and said that up to Get Carter, British gangsters were portrayed as stupid or funny and he knew some who were neither.

His Jack Carter character in the film is a mean guy with a mission. Those viewers only familiar with Caine in his more recent elderly roles may be surprised at his dark side. Caine is all psychotic killer here.

As Hughes points out, the director, Mike Hodges, references great detective fiction in the film, with Caine reading Raymond Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely on a train and there are two rival gangs, as in Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest, with Carter, like the Continental-Op, trapped between the two.

Mike Hodges also directed Caine in another somewhat lighter crime film the following year. 1972’s Pulp also references detective fiction, but in this film, Caine portrays a writer of pulp crime fiction. I love the film and get a kick out of the jokes at the expense of writers. When Caine is hired to ghost-write the autobiography of a movie star/gangster (sort of a latter-day George Raft), he gets involved in murder and political intrigue on the island of Malta.

I love Caine’s voice-over narration, which does not quite match what viewers see on the screen. (The voice-over talks of his drinking champagne, but Caine is seen clearly drinking beer). This is a device later used to less effect in a Tom Selleck crime comedy.

"The writer's life would be ideal," Caine tells us. "But for the writing."

When Caine points out a relevant fact, he's asked how he knew this.

"I write crap like this every day. It's my job." Caine, the pulp writer, replies drolly.

Hodges and Caine were set to make another film together based on the life on British traitor and spy Kim Philby. According to Hughes, Philby, an upper class twit then living as a defector in the Soviet Union, vetoed the casting of Caine.

Hughes quotes Caine as saying, "It seemed he didn’t like the idea of someone of my class playing him, which I thought was spoken like a true communist."

Hodges would go on to direct Clive Owen in Croupier, another interesting crime film with a writer for a protagonist. Perhaps because Owens wore a tuxedo as a casino croupier in the film, the speculation began that Owens would or should play James Bond. Although I thought Daniel Craig was fine as James Bond in Casino Royale – I think he was widely accepted in large part because the producers made a true thriller rather than a cartoon – I believe Owen would have been far better as he fits Ian Fleming’s physical description of Bond.

Owen is now set portray another of my childhood fictional crime heroes, Philip Marlowe. He is said to star in a series of films based on the tough, wisecracking private detective of the 1940s from the novels by Raymond Chandler. I’m looking forward to seeing the films.

In his chapter on global crime, Hughes chooses the 1969 James Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (OHMSS). Hughes notes that of all the actors to play Bond, George Lazenby is the least remembered and OHMSS is the most overlooked of the Bond films.

"And yet in its depiction of Bond’s battle with corruption, extortion and organized crime on a global scale, OHMSS has aged much better than its contemporaries and remains one of the most elaborate and exciting crime thrillers of the sixties," Hughes writes.

The film is one of my favorites and I wish that Connery had started in it, as I would have loved to seen him with Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas as Blofeld. But I always thought Lazenby did a fine job, all things considered. 

He was not an actor, and he was following Connery in the role. Had he stayed with the series, he would have become a better actor and I’ve no doubt he would have made the role his own. (And we would not have had to endure Roger Moore’s lighthearted and lightweight portrayal of Bond).

"Bond is a crime-busting secret agent on a grand scale – a very distant relative of the G-man heroes of old," Hughes writes.

Lazenby looked like Bond, and he was very good in the fight scenes. But it was the director, as Hughes rightfully points out, that made OHMSS one of the best film adaptations of the Fleming novels. Peter Hunt, who served as the editor of the previous Bond films, was faithful to the novel and truly captured the feel and flavor of the Fleming/Bond world.

In OHMSS, we find Bond chasing Blofeld, the head of the international criminal organization SPECTRE, when he comes across a woman intent on killing herself. Bond saves her and discovers that her father is Marc Ange Draco, the head of the Union Corse, one of the biggest crime syndicates in Europe. He is pleased with Bond and tries to bribe him into marrying his daughter Tracy (Diana Rigg).

Bond of course refuses, stating that he doesn’t need the money and he has a bachelor’s taste for freedom. Just see more of her, Draco pleads, explaining that she has been self-destructive, but he senses something in her changed when she meets Bond.

Bond asks if he knows the whereabouts of Blofeld, who is a competitor of sorts to Draco. Draco claims not to know and says that if he did, "I would not tell Her Majesty’s Secret Service," he sneers. "But I might tell my future son-in-law."

OHMSS is a dark film, Hughes writes, beginning with an attempted suicide and ending with a wedding-day murder. Although From Russia With Love is my favorite Bond film and novel, OHMSS is one of the better films in the series and if Connery had been in it, it may very well have been the best.

"It’s all right," Bond tells the passing police officer as he sits in his car, cradling his bride who had just been shot and killed by Blofeld.

"There’s no hurry you see… we have all the time in the world."

Hughes offers a chapter on another of my favorite films, 1967’s Point Blank. Like Caine’s Carter, Lee Marvin’s Walker is one bad guy. He’s out for revenge and to get his money while systematically bringing down a crime syndicate in John Boorman’s classic film. Marvin, a Marine veteran of the WWII war in the Pacific, was the perfect hard-looking antihero.

Hughes also offers a chapter on 1971’s Dirty Harry, one of my favorite Don Siegel crime films. As Hughes rightly notes, this was the most influential cop movie of the 1970s. It captured the mood of the country as many Americans believed that criminals had more rights than crime victims and that the police were hampered by liberal laws. Clint Eastwood was excellent as Dirty Harry, the cop they gave all of the dirty jobs to. Unfortunately, I didn’t care for any of the sequels.

Hughes also writes about Siegel’s other great crime films, such as 1968’s Coogan’s Bluff, which also starred Eastwood.

I also liked 1968’s Madigan with Richard Widmark and Harry Guardino, a good character actor who also appeared in Dirty Harry. (I was told that Guardino was our second cousin on my mother’s side).

There are also interesting and informative chapters on other great films and on films that I’m not so keen on, such as Pulp Fiction and Ocean’s Eleven.

Tarantino, it seems to me, is all style and pop culture references, and not much else. And the less said about Ocean’s Eleven and the sequels the better. For that matter, I didn’t particularly care for Frank Sinatra’s original film either.

Hughes also writes chapters on The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and what I consider the best crime film ever made, 1990’s GoodFellas. I’ve written about these great films before, and I will again in another column. Unlike Hughes, I would not lump Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America with these great films. I would add Scorsese’s Casino.

So if you are a crime film aficionado, Howard Hughes’s Crime Wave, with its photos, listings of movie credits and informative background material, should be a part of your library. 

                                                                  
Note: The above column originally appeared in The Orchard Press Online Mystery Magazine in 2007.

My Crime Beat Column: A Look Back At Crime In The Military

The below Crime Beat column originally appeared in the Orchard Press Online Mystery Magazine in 2004.

As one might expect, considering military discipline and an institutional sense of order, crime is less prevalent in the U.S. military than in most major American cities.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) is the criminal system of justice applicable to all members of the U.S. military on active duty worldwide. When you raise your hand and volunteer to serve in uniform in defense of the country, you voluntarily relinquish some of your rights and civil liberties.

"Military justice is to justice what military music is to music," Groucho Marx once quipped.

Yet for all that, a small group of military people commit theft, rape, murder and other crimes one associates more with the civilian sector.

A four-person commission led by former Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger released their report on the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse case. The report lays the blame squarely on the individual soldiers that committed "acts of brutality and purposeless sadism."

The soldiers were not acting on approved orders or policies, the report said. Schlesinger added that it was a kind of "Animal House" on the night shift. The report also stated that there was also a serious lack of leadership.

"Commanders are responsible for all their units do or fail to do, and they should be held accountable for their action or inaction," the report concluded.

The Army’s CID investigation continues, and I think we’ll see more court marshals of soldiers and some resignations up the chain of command.

As a writer, I’ve been following other military crime stories as well.

A senior chief petty officer deeply in dept as a result of two bad marriages, embezzled $56,000 from the Chief’s Mess (meal) fund aboard the amphibious assault ship Bataan. In another case, an award-winning Navy female first class petty officer was arrested for participating in a drug ring that manufactured and distributed methamphetamine in Hawaii.

Also, there is the case of a senior Defense Department contracting officer and three others who were indicted for corruption in what federal prosecutors say was a scam to award $11 million in contracts to a firm they secretly held financial interests in.

And then there is the crime of espionage. The FBI is conducting an investigation of a Pentagon official who may have leaked intelligence on Iran to Israel, much like the case of Jonathan Pollard, a Navy employee who spied for the Israelis some years ago and is currently incarcerated in federal prison.

The breaking news, as I write this, is the FBI probe may be broader than the Iran leak. The FBI is said to also be looking into whether Pentagon officials leaked classified information to an Iraqi exile group, who in turn may have passed it on to Iran.

Less known, but perhaps a more serious and dangerous case of espionage, involves a terrorist’s confiscated computer. Investigators are looking into the e-mail exchanges between a suspected terrorist arrested in London and a U.S. sailor stationed aboard a ship attached to a carrier battle group that was on patrol in the Strait of Hormuz.

Was this a case of espionage? Did the sailor give information to the terrorists that would aid them in an act of terrorism against Navy ships? I’ll be following this case closely.

My life-long interest in the military stems from my late father, Edward M. Davis (seen in the above photo in the center of his WWII UDT 5 team), a tough old Navy chief who served as one of the first members of the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) in WWII. The UDT frogmen were the forerunners of today’s Navy SEALs. 

My father ran our house like a Navy command, and he instilled in his children a sense of duty, honor and respect for the military.

In a sense, my beginnings in both journalism and government began at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. As a teenager in the mid-1960s, I sold Philadelphia newspapers at the Navy Yard, which lay at the foot of South Philadelphia. Riding in the open back of the newspaper truck, I would pass the fleet of moored ships in the Delaware River and dream of one day joining the Navy, seeing the world and becoming a writer.

I enlisted in the Navy at 17 and served on the aircraft carrier the USS Kitty Hawk (CVA 63) during the Vietnam War. The Kitty Hawk performed combat sorties off the coast of North Vietnam in 1970-1971. The aircraft carrier also paid port-of-calls to Hong Kong, Sasebo, Japan and Subic Bay and Olongapo in the Philippines.

I later spent another two years on a Navy tugboat, the USS Saugus (YTB 780) at the nuclear submarine base, called Site One, in Holy Loch, Scotland. 

After leaving the Navy, I did security work as a Defense Department civilian employee for many years. As the administrative officer of a Defense Department command in Philadelphia, I oversaw security programs and was assigned as an investigating officer concerned with security violations, assorted crimes and waste, fraud and abuse claims.

As a writer, I’ve gone on to cover a good number of stories about the military.

In my long association with the military, I’ve come to know many dedicated and honest men and women who sacrifice personal comforts and freedom to defend our country. I’ve also come across a few self-serving and stupid officers, a few lazy and idiotic managers, and a few crooked soldiers, sailors and civilians.

The Defense Department is the largest company in the world. The Defense Department employs 1.4 million active-duty military members, 1.2 million National Guard and military reserve members, and 654,000 civilians, the vast majority of whom are honorably serving the country.

I think it’s a crime that a few greedy and stupid individuals are besmirching the military at a time when soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are in the forefront of the American-led war on terrorism.

Note: You can read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on the multi-million-dollar bribery and procurement fraud case at the Philadelphia “Quartermaster” via the link below:

Paul Davis On Crime: A Look Back At The Multi-Million Dollar Defense Contract Fraud and Bribery Case At The Philadelphia Quartermaster

You can also my Counterterrorism magazine Q&A with Craig Whitlock, the author of Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked, and Seduced The U.S. Navy via the link below:       

Paul Davis On Crime: My Counterterrorism Magazine Q&A With Craig Whitlock, The Author Of “Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked and Seduced the U.S. Navy” 

Russia's Man Of War: My Crime Beat Column On Viktor Bout, AKA, 'The Death Merchant'

I doubt that former President Biden read “Trump: The Art of the Deal.” If he had, I suspect that he would not have authorized the swap of Russian international arms dealer Viktor Bout for Brittany Griner, an American woman professional basketball player who was sentenced to a Russian prison for nine years for possession of vape cartridges that contained hashish oil.

Back in April 2012, then-DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart announced that Viktor Bout was sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiring to sell millions of dollars’ worth of weapons, including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles and over 20,000 AK-47s to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the “FARC”), a designated foreign terrorist organization based in Colombia. Bout had been arrested in Thailand after a DEA-led sting operation caught him negotiating a deal with a DEA asset posing as a FARC representative. He had been convicted on November 2, 2011 of all four counts for which he was charged.

According to Ms. Leonhart, Bout understood that the weapons would be used to kill Americans in Colombia.

“The crimes Viktor Bout committed represent the worst-case scenario for modern law enforcement--the merger of criminal international narcotics cartels with their terrorism enablers,” Ms. Leonhart said. “But his sentencing today also reflects the best of modern international law enforcement-- sophisticated, determined, and coordinated. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of criminal investigators and prosecutors in the United States, Thailand, Romania, Curacao and elsewhere, the ‘Merchant of Death’ has finally been held to account in a court of law for his years of profiteering from death and misery around the world.” 

Cathy Scott-Clark, a British journalist and author, offers an in-depth look at the Russian arms dealer in “Russia’s Man of War: The Extraordinary Viktor Bout.” Traveling to Russia, she secured a series of interviews with Bout, his wife and daughter and some of his associates.

“Bout insisted that during the early days, when he flew weapons to dictators and murderous rebel armies all over Africa, he was simply a businessman helping post-colonial proto-communist liberation movements defend themselves in government-to-government deals,” Ms. Scott-Clark writes in the book. “The West was often arming the other side of right-wing regimes and authoritarian rulers. Amid the decay that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the atomization of its client states rose warlords and new political fronts. Bout, who flew carriers into these new conflicts, claimed he was not responsible for what warlords and presidents did with the weapons, and he denied profiting from blood diamonds or arming child soldiers. He was simply a logistician, not the buyer, the seller, or the wielder of arms. His specialty was identifying “sweet spot” opportunities to make money with his air fleet, and he had fully intended to continue until someone stopped him.

“The U.S. government saw things differently. The CIA, FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Departments of the Treasury and Justice blamed Bout for hundreds of thousands of deaths—for arming rampaging militias, who raped and tortured—even though the United States was by far the world’s most prolific arms supplier. By 2023, Washington would be exporting $238 billion in arms a year, including almost unimaginable sums to Israel. In almost all locations where Bout had ventured, the United States had been arming the other side, often using proxies and cut-outs to transship weapons invisibly. Sometimes, they would be competing to assist the same side, and to claim the same assets in payment, mining concessions, or precious stones.”

Ms. Scott-Clark notes that by the time Bout was 30, he was a multimillionaire and was known throughout the world as the “merchant of death.”

“He was a KGB officer, agent, or asset, doing the Kremlin’s bidding and endangering the West, said the White House. He was a terrorist facilitator and fire-lighting numerous conflicts raging across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond, said U.N. weapons inspectors. He was an amoral master criminal and the world’s most prolific arms trafficker, according to the U.S. State Department, Interpol, the CIA, and MI6. At first, he enjoyed the notoriety, but later it cost him his fortune and his liberty. The more Bout protested his innocence, the more the West denounced him. After 9/11, the U.S. National Security Council described him as the second-most dangerous man in the world after Osama bin Laden. In 2005, Nicholas Cage portrayed Bout in the Hollywood blockbuster Lord of War.”

Ms. Scott-Clark strikes me as biased against the U.S., but to her credit, she offers a counterbalance to her interviews with Bout with extensive interviews with DEA special agents and other U.S. officials who took Bout down. 

Russia’s Man of War: The Extraordinary Viktor Bout

Cathy Scott-Clark 

Hurst, $34.99, 360pp

My Crime Beat Column: My Q&A With The Late Ralph Natale, The Former Boss Of The Philadelphia Cosa Nostra Organized Crime Family

Back in 2017, I reviewed Last Don Standing: The Secret Life of Mob Boss Ralph Natale and interviewed Ralph Natale for the Washington Times. 

I expanded my interview with Ralph Natale in my online Crime Beat column.

You can read the column below:

On March 27^th my review of Last Don Standing: The Secret Life of Mob Boss Ralph Natale appeared in the Washington Times. 

The book was written by Dan Pearson, the executive producer of the Discovery Channel’s I Married a Mobster, and Larry McShane, a crime reporter and author of The Chin: The Life and Crimes of Mafia Boss Vincent Gigante. The book covers the life of Ralph Natale, the boss of the Philadelphia-South Jersey Cosa Nostra organized crime family in the 1990s, and the first mob boss to become a government witness.               

As I wrote in the review, I grew up in South Philly, not far from where Natale was raised a generation earlier. I contacted him and we talked about his life and the book. I noted that he didn’t appear to be particularly remorseful or repentant in the book. I asked him if had any regrets about his past criminal life? 

“I have regrets about one thing, I broke my marriage vows,” Natale replied. “That’s the only thing I regret in my life. When I was 12 years old, I was a hoodlum. I was a born killer, that’s what I did and why I rose to the top so easily. But I never touched an innocent man or a woman or a child. I just clipped the guys who were supposed to get clipped. And they went. It was a simple thing for me.” 

Below is my interview with Ralph Natale: 

Davis: Why did you write the book? 

Natale: It was very simple. When I “went away,” the second time, I did 13 years. I told my friends to make sure every month that my wife has enough until I come home. Oh, yeah, yeah, they said. When I asked her every month, she said no, I said OK, maybe something happened. Then I said, OK, how about these punks? 

Davis: That made you bitter? 

Natale: When I first came home from the first bit - I did 16 on that because I didn’t want to be a witness - they were living in their mother’s homes and they were driving other people’s cars. Forty-five months later when they arrested me for a parole violation, they were now driving Mercedes, BMW’s and they bought their own homes. Forty-five months! Before that they didn’t know how to get out of their own way. This is all a matter of fact. Everybody in South Philly knows and everybody in the mob knows. And now when I go away and this thing happens, I said I want to see those punks. I got indicted for helping my son-in-law and his drug business, I leant him some money, and this and whatever. He got arrested with everybody else and my name came up. So I got indicted on this. Now this was the third time around. I was facing life. I would have gladly done it, gladly, because I did 16 when I really was in trouble. But they didn’t come up with a dime. And that’s why I wrote every word, and every part of it. You have to believe it because they never denied it. They couldn’t deny anything. 

Davis: Did you have any difficulty testifying against your former criminal associates in court? 

Natale: I saw them in the courtroom when I think did eleven or twelve days on the stand. In fact even the marshal said, we never seen nothing like it, you ripped the lawyers up. We never saw a man answer like you. I was telling the truth. It’s easy to tell the truth. The FBI agents when they arrested me in Florida, they said we’ll get you on the big one, I said you guys are crazy. It all came out later in the trial when I was a witness. That’s the reasons why I did this. Throughout the mob, every mob leader at that time could not believe it, but then they said we know why Ralphy did it, because these bastards kept everything for themselves and didn’t give me a dime. 

Davis: Can you briefly describe what it was like to be the boss of the Philadelphia-South Jersey Cosa Nostra family? 

Natale: Well, first of all, I always loved the guy who ran it, Angelo Bruno. When I went to work under “Skinny Razor,” John DiTullio, I saw what it was like to be admired and respected by “men,” and to tell men what to do and they would do it. I loved the ways, the world, everything was in place. I like things in order. I don’t like any disorder. When it gets disordered you see what happens in the world, in politics, in everything. It was like being dead and then all at once I became alive when I became a boss. I loved every moment of it. There is nothing like it in this world. I once saw a movie, a great sports movie, The Hoosiers. Did you see it?       

Davis: Yes, good film, with Gene Hackman. 

Natale: OK. When the woman in the movie was talking about her brother she said around here if a guy plays basketball, he’s treated like a God. Hackman said, listen, he told her, anybody, if he’s treated like a God for 15 seconds, then that’s well worth anything in the world. That’s true.     

Davis: That’s the way you felt when you were the boss? 

Natale: Yeah, that’s the way I felt. To be a part of La Cosa Nostra, when things meant something, you had to at least make a kill on your own. In my time, I committed, I think I pled to eight of them when I had to plea. I love my peace, I love my family, I love whatever I do, but if it comes time, I’m still mobster Natale. That’s all I know. The reason I speak so plainly is because I want you to understand what men like me are like. We don’t look any different. I don’t act like a mobster, I never did.          

Davis: I’m half-Italian, I grew up and live in South Philly and I’ve covered organized crime for a good number of years. I know the Cosa Nostra culture. 

Natale: The culture is this, if you can’t do it and then go home to sleep, then you shouldn’t do anything. I was brought up at 6^th and Wharton in South Philly. I was born and raised in that area. My mother family comes from there. My father’s family died early in their lives when they came from the other side. They got caught up in that flu epidemic. I was still see the same stores, the same houses and the same people. And I love every one of them with my heart. 

Davis: How were things different from when you were the boss and, say, from when Angelo Bruno was the boss in the 1960’s and 1970’s?    

Natale: Well, when Ang was the boss, money was around. Gambling, and this and that, but when I became boss, we had to go out and make our money. There was a lot of punks around. It was tough. Two weeks after I came home I called one big meeting. I said I want everybody to go get these guys taking all the action and tell them to meet us. When we were through with this meeting at a banquet hall we all became partners with the guys that were there. That’s what I did. We started to make money. 

Davis: Did you meet any resistance from other ethnic gangs, like the Russians or biker gangs? 

Natale: Everybody else knew that I was home and they knew what kind of man I was on the street before and when I was in prison. Once I called them in and had something to say, they all knew I kept my word. And they had to keep their word. I wasn’t Superman. You could put two in my head. But so far, I’m OK. I’m here. 

Davis: How different is today’s mob, as I guess you’re watching it from afar, and from your day and era? 

Natale: They don’t keep the rules. The watch too many movies. They watch The Godfather, they watch Casino. I was with those people, I knew those people. It was a joke. And these guys want to walk and talk like that. It was not like it was when we were young. We had men on the street. The few men that are left are the men that did time with Scarfo. They all did their time like men and they all came home like men. I didn’t know them because I was much older than them and I was away, but I admired men who did their time and came home. They are the only men who are left in South Philadelphia. 

Davis: Scarfo recently died in prison. What did you think of him and how he ran the crime family? 

Natale: He destroyed it. Nicky Scarfo was a man who had a hole inside him. He had no soul, no heart. You know, he didn’t have one true friend? Not one. I knew him very well. Many years ago when we were working in Atlantic City I wanted to kill Nicky Scarfo. It came out. I asked Angelo Bruno. No, Ang said, his uncles are my friends, and he’s this, he’s that. I said he’s going to give us trouble. But Ang said, with half a smile, don’t do this. It can’t be done. He put all those guys, all men, in prison. 

Davis: There is some question of who is the South Philly and South Jersey boss today. Do you know who it is? 

Natale: There is no boss! There is no more mob there. They are not recognized anywhere in the country because of what they did and who they were. They don’t even know how to walk on Passyunk Avenue. The men who came home can and I wish them all well. It’s not like before. 

Davis: Can you describe your homecoming when you became the boss? 

Natale: When I came home the first thing I did was walk from Jefferson Hospital, where I arranged to have a hernia operation later, to South Philly. I wanted to see South Philly again. When I went down Ninth Street at the Italian Market, all the guys working behind the stands came and we hugged and kissed. They already had the word because the news media had me as the new boss. It was so warming for me. And then we stopped at the Villa de Roma and we had a little drink – it was in the afternoon – and then we went home. That’s what South Philly was to me. I lived my life pretty good in South Philadelphia. Walk up and down every street and find out how I treated my friends and other people that I barely knew, and then you’ll know what kind of man I was. Then you’ll understand me. 

Davis: How difficult was it to become a government witness after a lifetime in Cosa Nostra? 

Natale: It wasn’t difficult for me. I’m not going to cry like other people. I wanted to get those punks. When my wife and family had nothing and I gave those punks everything? It was so easy. Done and done. 

Davis: If you look back in crime history, Cosa Nostra took pains to support the families of guys who went away to prison. This was key, along with a threat of death, that there is no record of any Cosa Nostra member becoming a government witnesses prior to Joe Valachi, and not many afterwards until much later, when greed, along with the RICO statute, changed all of that. 

Natale: It was like that. When I was away at Lewisburg I got subpoenaed to appear before a Senate Investigation Committee On Organized Crime. This was in 1982 and I had the first three years of a 23-year sentence. When they took me there they told me if you give us the right answers you’ll have your sentence reduced and you’ll be home within three months from today. I said you got the wrong guy. There were just three guys there. There was Nicky Scarfo, who had just become the boss, and the old man from Chicago, Anthony "Joe Batters,” Accardo. and me. I was the only one in prison and I was in jeopardy of getting another sentence for perjury, for this, for that. I did what I had to do. It was on C-Span and I still got the clip. I didn’t say a word about anybody. I could have put in prison half of New York, half of Chicago and all of Philadelphia. And you know who went to jail? Me. And that’s the truth. That I’m proud of. 

Davis: What do you think of Ron Previte, the man who wore an FBI wire, recorded you and testified against you? 

Natale: Anybody who testifies against me was what he was. I have no ill feeling about anything or anybody. I look at him, and say, well, you know, he did what had he had to do to save his ass. That’s what kind of name he’s got and that’s it. I ain’t got time for hate. I intend to live to be a hundred, but if I die tomorrow, I don’t have any hate in my body for anybody that did anything against me. 

Davis: Are you concerned about your personal safety? Is there an open contract on you? 

Natale: Who’s going to come after me (laughs)? I’m still a man. I was always known as a dangerous, dangerous man. That’s all I can tell you. 

Davis: There is that interesting story of “Harry the Hunchback” Riccobene, an elderly man, who took a couple of bullets but still managed to take the gun away from the hit man who was a young guy. Did you know him? 

Natale: Let me tell you a story about Harry Riccobene. You’re the first guy I’m going to tell it to, a South Philly guy. When I was home and I was the boss, I was down at 8^th and Tasker, at Frankie’s bar and I had to see him about something. I ran into a couple of my old school chums from Bartlett Junior High and one of them came over and said can I speak to you? Yeah, what is it? He said he gets a call every week from a man who praises you and loves you. He said if I ever ran into you I should arrange for you to come to my home and talk on the phone to him. What’s his name, I asked? Harry Riccobene. Little Harry? I love him. You make the arrangements and we’ll get it done. I did go over the week after. That was a real man. You know what he told me? He was glad I got it. He said I deserved it more than anybody. I said thanks Harry. He said he was fine - he had a ton of money. You remember I love you, ever since I was a boy, I said, and he said he loved me too. He died at 93-years-old, I think. 

Davis: He was a tough old guy. 

Natale: Harry Riccobene was a notorious killer. He used to drive Skinny Razor around and they were the men that I knew and they watched me grow up. I loved and respected them with all my heart. 

Davis: You write about Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa in you book. Are you aware that Martin Scorsese is making a film about Frank Sheeran, the former Teamster and hit man who claimed to have murdered Hoffa as well as “Crazy Joe” Gallo in New York? 

Natale: Let me tell you about Frank Sheeran. He’s nothing but a drunk and he imagines things. He begged for me to see him when I was home and I did. I went over to South Philly and I met him there. He was half-drunk and that was it. He said he killed Jimmy Hoffa. I know who killed Hoffa. I have a picture in the book with me and a few of the guys from Lewisburg and one of the guys in the photos was one of the three guys who killed Hoffa. His name was Tommy Andretta. His brother was with him and there was the other guy they killed in New York, Salvatore Briguglio. This was a hit squad from “Tony Pro” Provenzano, who was my dear friend. He was a capo. I get a little angry. You know how guys claim to killed Jimmy Hoffa? I think 15. 

Davis: And he’s buried here, there and everywhere. 

Natale: I just gave you the three guys. It will come out. 

Davis: Why do you believe he was he murdered? 

Natale: Because he wanted to come back and take over the union. I got a whole chapter in there. He asked me to help him and it explains it in the book. He was killed because he made the first major mistake in his life. If a man is a gambler, a drinker, a womanizer, he’s got other things to do when he’s retired, you know. Hoffa had only thing – the union. He loved it. He was a rich man but he wanted that union back. I met Hoffa and told him if Ang wants me to help you, fine but if not, I can’t serve two masters. Sorry. That was the last time I saw Jimmy Hoffa and then he was dead. 

Davis: In your book you debunk the idea that Cosa Nostra was against drugs. You write that everybody sold drugs. But why did some bosses like Paul Castellano in New York prohibit them in such a strong way? 

Natale: Listen to me. Let me break that fable. Every mob in New York, Chicago, Philly, always has a man who sells drugs. Everybody handles drugs. There was Joe Bonnano, who in the beginning said no drugs, no drugs, meanwhile he became the biggest rat in the world. You get the bosses’ money, and that’s it. 

Davis: After Bonanno was exiled from New York to Arizona he was suspected of running a major heroin operation from Mexico. 

Natale: Listen to me. There is no crime that cannot be done if you belong to the mob. 

Davis: You spent a good many years in prison and your descriptions of prison life in the book seem almost nostalgic. Was prison life for you like the scenes from the movie Goodfellas? Did you live fairly well inside? 

Natale: That’s another thing they overdid. It’s all bullshit. You go to prison and you got time to do. You do it and it’s hard. Some guys can do it and some guys can’t. I did almost 30 years in prison. So I know what prison is about. 

Davis: Are there plans to make a film from your book? 

Natale: We’re ready to make one. Dan Pearson will be leaving in a couple of weeks to go to Hollywood and sit down and talk turkey with some real big people. You’ll hear about it in two or three weeks. We’re going to make a beautiful movie. 

Davis: Are they going to shoot the film in South Philly? I hope they don’t film it in Pittsburgh or Scranton like they did the film 10^th and Wolf. I grew up near 10^th and Wolf. 

Natale: It is going to be filmed in South Philly and Jersey. 

Davis: Who was the most impressive man you came across? 

Natale: I would have to say that the most impressive man I ever been around was John DiTullio, Skinny Razor. He was the most feared man in the United States, you know. He was number one. And I give you the Chicago guy, Anthony Accardo. When I met him, I thought I was meeting God. 

Davis: What is your life like now? 

Natale: I love my family. I enjoy my wife and all my children. I had five children and they had ten children and now we have 12 great-grandchildren. Can you image that? They are all beautiful and smart and entertaining. They are great looking people.   

Davis: Thanks for talking to me. 

Note: You can read my Washington Times review of Last Don Standing via the below link: 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/27/book-review-last-don-standing-the-secret-life-of-m/