August 19, 2019 —,The feds in Western Massachusetts are breathing down the neck of reputed Springfield mob crew boss Albert (The Animal) Calvanese. One of the Calvanese’s alleged lieutenants Anthony Scibelli was arrested by the FBI last month for collecting juice loan payments and assaulting a wired-up debtor in front of Calvanese’s headquarters, the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society Club earlier this summer. The club has long been an epicenter of underworld activity in the area. Scibelli, 51, seems to reference Calvanese in one of the conversations his victim recorded. In another, he threatens to beat the victim’s brother-in-law with a walker used by his brother-in-law’s wife. He’s pleaded not guilty to the charges (carrying a maximum of 20 years behind bars) and was released Monday afternoon on bond to await trial from home confinement after six weeks in the federal detention center. Springfield resident mobologist Stephanie Barry has been breaking all the news in the case and it’s likely link to Calvanese. According to court documents, the victim borrowed $5,000 in cash from Scibelli’s boss, called “Albert” in a transcript from the victim’s wire, in around January 2017 and with vig tacked on, he wound up paying back $40,000, mostly from social security checks, over the next two and a half years in installments collected by Scibelli. The victim went to the FBI in May and agreed to wire up. The physical confrontation in front of the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society Club in June was captured for sound and sight, as FBI video cameras were rolling from a parking lot across the street. “I want my motherfucking money, you fucking cocksucker” Scibelli scolded him while slapping him four times in the head and face. “You understand me? I want my money. (You better) have all the fucking money on the first of the month.” Per sources, the FBI and Massachusetts State Police have the 56-year old Calvanese and the social club under constant surveillance. Due to his cagey maneuvering since assuming the reins of the Springfield mafia regime several years ago, Calvanese avoided being indicted in federal and state racketeering cases targeting the city’s mob crew that dropped in the late summer of 2016. Calvanese is a convicted loan shark and Springfield gangland figure who traces his roots back to the final glory days of the mob in Western Massachusetts when Frank (Frankie Sky Ball) Scibelli, his brothers “Baba” and “Turk” and his street boss Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno ruled over the local mafia in the 1990s with regal flair. Anthony Scibelli is a distant relative of the Scibelli brothers. The Springfield mob crew has always been a satellite wing of New York’s powerful Genovese crime family. Bruno took over from the Scibellis in the early 2000s. Like Calvanese, Bruno headquartered out of the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society Club. The larger-than-life mobster, famous for fat cigars, wise cracks to the press and a vast network of political connections was assassinated in November 2003, gunned down in the club’s parking lot as he walked to his SUV following his weekly Sunday card game. Bruno’s protege, Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta, then just in his early 30s, coordinated details of the hit on orders from Genovese crime family boss Arthur (Little Artie) Nigro and replaced Bruno as skipper of the Springfield mob crew. Arillotta pleaded guilty to Bruno’s slaying in 2010 and testified against Nigro in court. Calvanese and Anthony Scibelli worked for Arillotta and before that, Big Al Bruno. Scibelli managed and was suspected of pushing cocaine out of the State Street Tavern in the 2000s. Scibelli was indicted for narcotics trafficking in 2004 however the case was eventually dismissed. The burly, thick-handed Calvanese was convicted of loan sharking in 2006 and did five years of federal prison time. An FBI wire from that case caught Calvanese slamming a debtor’s arm in a car door as punishment for missing scheduled payments.
