South Florida authorities link serial killer to 3 women’s deaths

Brazilian man accused of crimes died in 2005 plane crash, investigators say

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Broward Sheriff’s Office and City of Miami Police Department announced Tuesday that they have linked a serial killer to the killings of three young women in South Florida decades after the women were killed.

The body of Kimberly Dietz-Livesey was the first to be discovered on June 22, 2000. Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said her body had been placed inside a suitcase that was found along a roadway in Cooper City.

Weeks later, on Aug. 9, 2000, the body of Sia Demas was found stuffed inside a duffel bag along a road in Dania Beach.

Authorities said the serial killer, identified as Roberto Wagner Fernandes, who lived in Miami but was a Brazilian citizen, also killed Jessica Good, whose body was found floating in Biscayne Bay on Aug. 30, 2001.

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Ten members of NYC crime family arrested including 87-year-old boss

Ten members of NYC crime family arrested including 87-year-old boss

Members of a New York City crime family threatened violence, pressured workers and pocketed phony “pension” payments in a two-decade plot to seize control of a city construction union and its lucrative employee health insurance program, prosecutors alleged in an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

Ten members of the Colombo crime family, including 87-year-old boss Andrew “Mush” Russo, were charged in connection with the scheme, which prosecutors said had all the major trappings of Mafia-type shakedowns seen in TV shows like “The Sopranos” and movies.

Prosecutors said crime family members pressured the union to steer health plan business to pals, sought at least $10,000 (£7,200) per month in kickbacks and threatened to kill a union official if he didn’t comply, telling an associate on a recorded telephone call in June: “I’ll put him in the ground right in front of his wife and kids.”

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‘I’ll put him in the ground right in front of his wife and kids’: Mafia crime boss arrested in Charlotte, authorities say

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – A 75-year-old mafia boss was arrested in Charlotte and charged with multiple crimes including racketeering as several other members of the Colombo crime family were arrested in New York and New Jersey Tuesday, authorities said.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Vincent “Vinny Unions” Ricciardo, 75, was arrested and will be arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge David C. Keesler in federal court in Charlotte.

In federal court in Brooklyn, a 19-count indictment was unsealed charging 14 defendants, including 10 alleged members and associates of the Colombo crime family of La Cosa Nostra and a member of the Bonanno organized crime family, with various offenses including labor racketeering involving multiple predicate acts of extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion and extortion, extortionate collection of credit conspiracy, extortionate collection of credit and money laundering conspiracy, prosecutors said.

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