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General News: Village Resident Leads Anti-Gang Effort
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| James Gagliano with press reports of Operation Black Crown, which brought down some gangs in Newburgh. |
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| Signs of another gang, known as La EME, or the Mexican mafia, on a Newburgh Street. |
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| James Gagliano still coaches basketball, now at the Armory in Newburgh. |
March 20, 2011
James Gagliano works for the FBI. He also lives in the village of Cornwall-on-Hudson, where he lived quietly for years, raising two children, while assigned to the crime-fighting squad in New York City where he helped bring down the Gambino crime family and puts it head, John Gotti, in prison.
Three years ago, he was assigned to work in Goshen, where he is the Supervisory Senior Resident Agent of the Hudson Valley Gang Task Force. Once in Orange County, his personal and professional worlds collided when a Newburgh teen he had coached in basketball during his off-hours became a victim of a gang-related murder.
Gagliano was already heading up the FBI’s anti-gang squad when 16-year-old Jeffrey Zachary was killed in May 2008. “His death was an impetus for me to do something effective if I was going to be at this desk,” Gagliano said, recalling how he coached Zachary in basketball in St. Mary’s gym.
Gagliano Forms Anti-gang Task Force
Gagliano began talking to law enforcement agencies throughout Orange, Dutchess and Sullivan to see how they could combine forces to build a federal case against the gangs. From sheriff deputies and local police departments to the state police and Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agency, resources were brought together to launch an investigation. Detectives from the city of Newburgh police department played an important role. They knew the streets and they knew who was involved in criminal activity.
“When you have street savvy cops, state police who are very meticulous and know the streets and then bring in the federal government piece with more resources, it made perfect sense,” Gagliano said.
Former Cornwall police officer, now a city of Newburgh Detective, Steven Bunt had worked with the New York State police in an investigation that led to more than 120 arrests for drug activity in 2007-8. Gagliano brought him into the task force and began to put his vast knowledge to work to create a picture of the gang system that would eventually lead to more serious federal charges of racketeering, conspiracy and murder. Using surveillance, informants and cooperating witnesses, the task force began to put together a wide-ranging case against suspected members of the Bloods and Latin King gangs.
Unraveling A Network of Criminal Enterprises
In May 2010, 60 people were brought up on drug trafficking charges. Gagliano said that one of the task force’s objective was to get them to cooperate and provide eyewitness evidence that would lead to more serious murder and racketeering charges.
In February 2011, 31 suspected members of the Latin Kings were charged with more serious counts of murder, attempted murder and racketeering, as well as the distribution and sale of narcotics.
With the top leadership of the Latin Kings and Bloods dismantled for now, Gagliano said the task force has no intention of letting up the pressure on other gangs, like the Mexican Mafia, also know as La EME, and lower-level members who aspire to fill the spots left empty by gang leaders now in prison.
Tough Sentences, Vigilance Could End Gang Culture
Gagliano believes that only through “eternal vigilance” on the part of law enforcement will the gang culture disappear. He also sees the social issues that contribute to gang activity. He has worked with hundreds of young people as a basketball coach in Newburgh. The young kids are innocent, he said, but their lives can go bad when they are faced with drugs and violence on the street and want be part of it..
“I hope that this causes someone who looks at the lifestyle as glamorous to pause, “ Gagliano said. “Once people realize that these are huge cases with long sentences, this will hopefully change the culture.”
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