Case File · RACKETEERING Cold Case Opened circa 1986 Status REOPENED 1996 C&C A Bronx street gang led by George 'Robin Hood' Calderon, and later by his cousin Angel 'Cuson' Padilla after Calderon's murder, extorted 'rent' from drug dealers around 139th St. and St. Ann's Ave., enforcing it with kidnapping, torture, and contract killings (including a pregnant bystander and her unborn child). NYPD Detective Bobby Addolorato spent years building informants before the case was funneled into the brand-new SDNY Violent Crime Unit, becoming one of its first major prosecutions.
Case File · MURDER Cold Case Opened 12/28/1986 Status REOPENED 2016 Vargas / Almonte-Acosta Drug enforcer 'Cano' shot Jose Luis Vargas in a Bronx alleyway over a $250 debt in 1986, but the case died when the sole eyewitness disappeared. Eleven years later, on December 23, 1997, Cano and his boss Robert orchestrated the execution of two young drug dealers, Aneudis Almonte and Alex Acosta, over a stash-house robbery. NYPD Cold Case detectives Carlos Vasquez and Ian Thomas reopened the Almonte/Acosta murders in 2016, and Cano's old NYPD arresting officer resurfaced just before trial to confirm his decades-old confession to the Vargas killing.
Case File · MURDER Cold Case Opened 01/11/1994 Status REOPENED 2007 Solid Gold I The Solid Gold crew waged a yearlong war of murder around a Bronx drug spot, killing Jimmy Feliz, Livino Ortega and Fernando Garrido, Leonard Overman, and Carmen Diaz between January and December 1994. The case sat dormant for thirteen years until ATF Agent Charlie Mulham and NYPD Detective Mike Clohessey debriefed two newly captured crew members, Ramon Flores and Miguel Padilla, leading to a federal indictment in April 2009.
Case File · MURDER Cold Case Opened 05/09/1997 Status REOPENED 2006 Solid Gold II An offshoot of the Solid Gold crew operating out of a Bronx parking lot murdered Pedro Medina, then kidnapped and executed Jose Suarez and Juan Carmona at the same lot weeks later. Only one shooter, 'Romantico,' was ever convicted in state court, while his accomplices walked free for nearly a decade until a 2006 federal robbery case produced two new cooperators who finally implicated the rest of the crew.
Case File · MURDER Cold Case Opened 06/25/1990 Status REOPENED 2007 El Turbo Contract killer Freddie Gonzalez, a/k/a 'El Turbo,' and his partner Hugo Rodriguez carried out at least four murders in a single 1990 'year of mayhem,' including a married couple, Carmelo and Marisol Gonzalez. El Turbo was a near-mythical figure known to cooperators only by reputation until 2007, when SDNY Investigator John O'Malley tracked down his true identity, leading to a confession on July 25, 2008.
Case File · MURDER Cold Case Opened 07/19/1999 Status REOPENED 2007 Muffler A nameless, ghostlike Brooklyn contract killer known only as 'Muffler' was linked to the 1999 murder of Richard Diaz and the 2000 murder of John Ochoa, but evaded identification for years because no one in the underworld knew his real name. SDNY Investigator Steve Braccini finally unmasked and arrested him on April 16, 2008, closing out one of the unit's longest-running 'bucket list' targets.