Domenico Cefalu

Domenico "Italian Dom" Cefalu, (pronounced "che-fah-LOO") also known as Greaseball and Dom from 18th Avenue (born 1947) is the boss of the Gambino crime family and leader of the organization's Sicilian faction.^[1][2]

Cefalu was born in Sicily in 1947. After moving to the United States, Cefalu got involved in organized crime and started smuggling heroin for the Gambino crime family. In 1982, he was convicted of heroin smuggling and served six years in prison. In 1991, Gambino boss John Gotti inducted Cefalu as a made man, or full member, into the Gambino family. Cefalu was a member of the Sicilian "Zip" crew headed by captain Pasquale Conte and based in Queens and Brooklyn.^[3]

In 1992, a New York grand jury summoned Cefalu to testify in an investigation of Conte. After answering a few questions, Cefalu refused to testify. The judge sentenced Cefalu to 18 months in jail for civil contempt. On February 23, 1993, Cefalu was summoned to testify in Conte's trial, but again refused. On February 6, 1994, Cefalu was released from jail. However on February 6, 1994, Cefalu was indicted on criminal contempt for refusing to testify at Conte's trial.^[4] In 1996, convicted of criminal contempt, the court sentenced Cefalu to 33 months in prison.^[5]

In 2005, Cefalu was named family underboss by street boss and former ally of John Gotti, Jackie D'Amico.^[6] One of his main responsibilities was over seeing the Sicilian faction of the Gambino family.

On February 7, 2008, Cefalu was indicted on multiple charges of racketeering conspiracy and extortion as part of the Operation Old Bridge investigation of the Gambino family. The extortion charges came from the trucking industry, which hauls away dirt excavated from construction projects.^[7] Cefalu accepted a plea agreement from the prosecution in exchange for a guilty plea that could have resulted in his spending up to three years in prison.^[8] Cefalu was sentenced to 33 months in prison. On November 3, 2009, Cefalu was released from federal prison.^[9] Cefalu currently resides in Brooklyn and lives with his mother. His legitimate employment is as a salesmen for a bakery.

In July 2011, Cefalu became the official boss of the Gambino crime family. His ascension was seen as a return to the old-fashion way of running a Mafia family.^[1] He replaced Peter Gotti, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002 while a series of acting bosses and ruling panels was used to run the family. This also marked the end of the John Gotti era of the Gambino family.^[1] Gotti had been in charge of the Gambino family since 1986 and when imprisoned used several close criminal associates and blood relatives to run the Gambino family before and after his death. Cefalu is the first person since Gotti went to prison to lead the family who was not a Gotti ally.

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