By Allan Lengel

Jerry Capeci, the mob expert who runs the website Gang Land News, offers nothing but high praise in an article this week about FBI agent David Sebastiani, who went undercover to bring down some Philly mobsters.

Capeci wrote that Sebastiani, who works out the New York division and is a certified public accountant, spoke last week to “the American Apparel & Footwear Association about brand labels and intellectual property rights. The talk took place at the New York offices of Calvin Klein. To hear Sebastiani talk, you wouldn’t think he knew the difference between a mobster and a Ferragamo shoe salesman – even if one kicked him in the shins.

“If that’s what you thought, you would be wrong.”

Gang Land New reported that Sebastiani went undercover as a cash strapped financial wizard known as “Dino” who became a loanshark victim.

As a result, some Philly mobsters –Anthony  Staino and associate Robert Ranieri — are facing criminal charges.

Gang Land reported “that the gangsters are not the first to be stung by the smooth-talking undercover agent over the last two decades.”

In the Philly case, Gang Land reported that the FBI sting involving the Philly mob caught reputed mobsters Staino and Ranieri in tape-recorded threats disclosed by the feds last month.

Sebastiani, who works in the cybercrime division in the New York office, is done as an undercover with the mob, Capeci writes.

But the appreciation for his undercover acting hasn’t vanished.

Ex-FBI undercover agent Joaquin (Big Jack) Garcia, who worked with Sebastiani in the past, and went undercover with the mob himself (and came a hair’s length away from being a “made guy”), said of Sebastiani:

“Dave was one of those guys who you could always count on in an undercover operation,” Garcia told Gang Land. “He would always do the job. He wouldn’t say anything stupid; he wouldn’t DO anything stupid. The FBI could always count on him, whether it was for a cameo appearance or a regular long-term role.”

To read Gang Land News click here. (It is a pay-to-read website)

William Newell

Is ATF Concerned About Sending ATF “Fast and Furious” Official to Mexico?

Last October in Orlando, at the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the heads of the ATF field offices gathered for a SAC meeting. It was there where it was announced that  William Newell, head of the Phoenix office, would become the ATF’s attache to Mexico.

Newell, an up and comer in the agency, seemed like a good choice. He was fluent in Spanish or as one person said “he spoke Spanish like professor.” And he had experience  dealing with the Mexican cartels.

In fact, he was helping head up a little known program at the time called “Operation Fast and Furious”, which encouraged Arizona gun dealers to sell weapons to “straw purchasers” — all with the hopes of tracing the guns to the Mexican cartel.

It was a bold program and a highly ambitious one.

But months later, it became a very controversial one after  word got out that some weapons were showing up at crime scenes, including in the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.

Congressional inquiries started. An Inspector General probe was launched.  A media frenzy ensued.

Now, eight months after the announcement in Orlando, Newell has been holed up in Washington instead of Mexico supposedly to help the Congressional inquiries into Operation Fast and Furious. His post in Phoenix has already been filled and his assignment as ATF’s Mexican attache has been put on hold.

Word inside ATF, according to one knowledgeable person, is that some in the agency have voiced concerns about sending Newell to Mexico as an attache because the Mexican government, which is fuming over Fast and Furious, might pursue criminal charges and arrest Newell.

Fox News reported Tuesday that  the Mexican government is furious about Fast and Furious and wants to extradite American officials for prosecution.   Sending Newell might make that all too easy for the Mexicans.

Whether Mexico goes that far is unclear.

Nonetheless, sending Newell isn’t likely to sit well in Mexico.

But an ATF official on Friday tried to dispel any notion that Newell won’t be headed south of the border.

“As far as his assignment to Mexico City, it’s still in place but it’s been temporarily postponed so that he can assist with the Congressional inquiries and the OIG (Office of Inspector General) review,” the official told ticklethewire.com.

Newell did not respond to an email asking for comment.

When asked for comment more than a week ago, the Mexican embassy in Washington asked that ticklethewire.com submit questions in writing. There was no response.

On Friday, a spokesman did call back and left a voicemail. But the spokesman could not be reached after that.

The embassy spokesman did not immediately return the call on Tuesday for comment.

WASHINGTON — The unfolding scandal over a gunrunning investigation allegedly botched by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could do what years of criticism of the long-beleaguered agency never quite accomplished — result in its demise.

That, at least, is the view of some former ATF employees and advocates on both sides of the gun control debate who have watched the agency struggle to contain the damage from an operation intended to trace the traffic of illegal guns to Mexico that has reignited the harsh criticism often directed at the ATF in the past.

The agency, which moved from the Treasury Department to the Justice Department in 2003, has been without a permanent director for nearly five years. Nominees offered by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have languished without approval from the Senate after drawing strong opposition from the National Rifle Association, which for years has been the agency’s loudest critic.

Now, with ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson hobbled by the scandal over Operation Fast and Furious and by indications he’s at odds with senior Justice Department officials, many are saying a breakup of the storied agency could just be a matter of time.

“I think something like that is likely to happen,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “Unless they take some action to give it a director, it’s inevitable it’s going to have to get to that stage. It cannot continue the way it’s going now. … Right now, ATF is so weak it’s amazing.”

To read full story click here.

whdh/channel 7

The James “Whitey” Bulger story ain’t going away any time soon.

The latest: A Las Vegas man is livid. The Boston Herald reports that the man claims the FBI ignored his tip in 2008 that he spotted Bulger on the Santa Monica Pier and alerted “America’s Most Wanted.”

“The FBI should at least come out and say that they did get a call three years ago. If they had called me back, they would have struck gold. But you know how they play their games, the feds. I guess this whole hunt for Whitey Bulger was a game,’’ Keith Messina told the Herald. “Now they are saying someone in Iceland found Whitey? Who is that person? I found Whitey three years ago.”

“I didn’t make the call for the reward,” Messina insisted. “I just wanted the guy caught. But now the FBI is lying and saying the reward is going to Iceland. I saw the guy. I did the right thing and called. I left my name and number. I should be at least entitled to something.’’

The Herald reported that Messina, 45, was vacationing with his wife, Tonya, and their three children in June 2008.

Messina had seen America’s Most Wanted, which had featured Bulger.

The Herald reported that Messina was on a “bench near the Third Street Promenade when he spotted an elderly man wearing a hat and sunglasses, no shirt, dark shorts, and reading a book. Messina, a “huge” “America’s Most Wanted” fan, thought of Whitey.”

“His suspicion became stronger when the man, who had a crucifix on a gold chain, began chatting with a passer-by wearing a Boston Celtics [team stats] shirt,” the Herald reported.

“I looked at the guy and thought, ‘That looks like Bulger,’ but then I said to my wife, ‘No way.’ I kept watching him, and I really started thinking it was him but I was positive when I saw him talking to the guy from Boston and asked about Newbury Street — I knew it.”