Tino Fiumara

Wikify|date=October 2007 tone|date=October 2007

Tino "T" Fiumara (born 11 August 1941), also known as "The Greek", is a major figure of the Genovese crime family in New Jersey.

He came up in the New Jersey faction of the Genovese crime family in the 1960s. By the mid early 1970s the Fiumara crew was starting to represent many of the Genovese interests in New Jersey, mainly on the waterfront concerning union and labor rackets, but he was also involved in gambling, loansharking, extortion and narcotics rackets which his crew shared with Lucchese crime family caporegime Anthony "Tumac" Accetturo. One of Fiumara's biggest rivals within the waterfront rackets was a fellow Genovese crime family member, John "Johnny D." DiGilio, a mafia power in the Hudson County area such as the Bayonne waterfront. Over the years Fiumara has aligned himself with fellow New Jersey mobster and Genovese crime family member Lawrence "Larry Fab" Dentico.

In 1979 Fiumara was convicted of labor racketeering and federal extortion in Newark and Manhattan and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He continued to hold power within the New Jersey mafia from prison as he carried influence over his crew and the various criminal interests they controlled for the Genovese crime family. Various Fiumara crew member such as Genovese soldier Michael "Mikey Cigars" Coppola assisted Fiumara in running the day to day operations in New Jersey while Fiumara gave orders through messengers and underlings which would frequently visit him in prison. Fiumara was released from prison in 1994 and quickly assumed a position atop of the New Jersey mafia, this time his position of power was more secure for a number of reasons including the fact that former New Jersey mafia power and Genovese crime family Consigliere, Louis "Bobby" Manna who had been recognized as the Genovese crime family's head in the Garden State, had been imprisoned in 1989 for his part in planning the murder of Gambino crime family Boss John Gotti in 1986. One year prior to Bobby Manna's imprisonment Fiumara's old rival John DiGilio disappeared and was presumed dead, this clearly gave Fiumara greater underworld power and influence within the New Jersey rackets as two of his main rivals had been eliminated in some manner. Another event that gave Fiumara his secure position atop the New Jersey underworld was that around the same time Fiumara had been released from prison in 1994 his former associate and New Jersey mafia power Tony Accetturo had became a government informant against his crime family bosses and was no longer a top power within the New Jersey mafia.

By the mid 1990s Tino Fiumara was recognized as a "mafia powerhouse" in New Jersey and he enjoyed his status all through the later part of the decade until he was arrested in April of 1999 and convicted in 2000 for violating his parole. Law enforcement was able to prove through various investigative techniques such as stakeouts and wiretaps that Fiumara had hidden inside the automobile trunks of underlings and traveled to New York to meet with superiors and associates in the Genovese crime family. Fiumara was also caught communicating with one of his top underlings, Mike Coppola, who became a wanted criminal in 1996. Coppola is a close Fiumara associate and underling who was convicted along with Fiumara in 1979 and sentenced to 5 years and released in 1983. Fiumara had relied on Copppola to run the crew and operations while he was imprisoned, the two close friends and allies continued their association as low key as possible due to Fiumara's parole restrictions, but in 1996 Coppola found himself implicated in a 1977 New Jersey area murder for which he had long been suspected; he took off and fled to avoid law enforcement and a possible conviction. Fiumara and Coppola continued to communicate throughout the later part of the 1990s as Coppola still played an active role in the New Jersey rackets and the leadership of the Fiumara crew as his reputation, abilities and close association with Fiumara afforded him the opportunity to continue making money while on the lam and acting as Fiumara's muscle on the streets for the more than 4 years Fiumara was jailed once again.

As a known associate and supporter of longtime Genovese crime family boss Vincent Gigante, known as "The Chin", Fiumara has played an important role within the Genovese crime family's New Jersey faction for more than 30 years. For basically 15 years Fiumara has been recognized as the head of the New Jersey rackets for the Genovese crime family and in the last several years he has been seen as a possible successor to Gigante who died in late 2005 while still in prison. Past incarceration and parole restrictions have prevented Fiumara from playing a larger and more direct role within the Genovese crime family "administration", but with his release from prison in 2005, and his relocation to Long Island, New York Fiumara presently finds himself on the streets and free while awaiting the end of his supervised release. By moving away form his base of operations in the Garden State and keeping a lower profile while operating from the shadows, the intelligent Fiumara will certainly be more effective in overseeing his own criminal interests and those of the Genovese crime family. By using only a handful of trusted underlings to administer his orders and by keeping away from the center of New Jersey mafia activity it has been speculated that "The Greek" will at some point in the future become the Genovese crime family Boss. Fiumara who finds himself at an age that is considered by traditional mafia standards as suitable, may very well be in a position to take over America's #1 crime family, especially with Fiumara's alleged top rival, Librio "Barney" Bellomo still in prison. The Genovese crime family, which is recognized by law enforcement as the "Rolls Royce of American Organized Crime", has over its long history always looked to the older, more experienced and low key crime family members to lead the organization, this has directly contributed to the group's continued success within America's underworld while so many other crime families and organizations are taking big hits from law enforcement and rival crime groups. Fiumara in his mid 60's is a highly respected, experienced and capable mafia boss who may or may not want the responsibility of being Boss as the most recent acting boss Danny "The Lion" Leo was imprisoned in November of 2006.

Further reading

*Block, Alan A. "East Side-West Side: Organizing Crime in New York, 1930-1950". New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1983. ISBN 0-87855-931-0
*Raab, Selwyn. "Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires". New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8

External links

* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column123.htm This Week in Gang Land: Tino Fiumara Back In Jail] by Jerry Capeci
* [http://www.nj.com/sopranos/ledger/index.ssf?/sopranos/stories/mafiosi_20020410sl.html The Star-Ledger: Jersey mob soon to get infusion of old blood - Lawmen are wary as jail terms end] by Robert Rudolph and Guy Sterling