How the FBI Dismantled America's Real Sopranos
Two decades of undercover operations took down the DeCavalcante crime family—the New Jersey mob that inspired HBO's iconic series
The DeCavalcante crime family, also known as the North Jersey Mafia, was an Italian American organized crime outfit with deep roots in New Jersey and New York. For decades, the family operated with relative impunity, engaging in murders, drug trafficking, extortion, and racketeering. But starting in 1998, a series of FBI investigations would systematically dismantle the organization's leadership and shatter one of organized crime's most sacred traditions.
The first major breakthrough came with a $1.6 million robbery at the World Trade Center. In 1998, associate Ralph "Ralphie" Guarino, working with WTC employee Salvatore Calciano and gunmen Richard Gillette, Melvin Folk, and Mike Reed, executed the heist at the Bank of America branch on the 1 World Trade Center. Arrested and facing a lengthy prison sentence, Guarino made a fateful decision: he would cooperate with the FBI.
For the next decade, Guarino worked as an informant, wearing a listening device to record incriminating conversations with family members. His intelligence proved invaluable. In 1998 alone, the documented the of associate Joseph Masella on orders from Vincent Palermo, providing crucial of the family's violent operations.
