2005/06/15 Council Agenda Packet

App. B / Adult Businesses tions to retail and wholesale outlets throughout the United States and Canada.... He has a working rela- tionship with DeCavalcante's representative Robert DiBemardo and has met with Vito Giacalone and Joseph Zerilli of the LCN Detroit. He has to cater to both to operate in Michigan. U.S. Justice Dep't, Organized Crime Involvement in Pornog- raphy, reprinted in the Attorney General's Comm'n on Por- nography (hereinafter "Pornography Commission"), 2 Final Report at 1229-30 (1986). Organized crime has the potential to infiltrate Minne- sota's pornography industry. Evidence on a national level highlights the vulnerability of sexually oriented businesses to criminal control. A number of sources have reported that there is a connection between organized crime and the por- nography industry. The Pornography Commission reported that the Washing- ton, D.C., Motropolitan Police Department "determined that traditional organized crime was substantially involved in and did essentially control much of the major pornography distribution in the United States during the years 1977 and 1978." 2 Final Report at 1044-46. The Washington, D.C., study "further concluded that the combination of the targe amounts of money involved, the incredibly low priority ob- scenity enforcement had within police departments and prosecutors' offices in an area where manpower intensive investigations were essential for success, and the imposition of minimal fines and no jail time upon random convictions resulted in a low risk and high profit endeavor for organized crime figures who became involved in pornography." Id. at 1046. The FBI concluded in 1978: Information obtained ... points out the vast control of the multi-million dollar pornography business in the United States by a few individuals with direct connec- tions with what is commonly known as the organized crime establishment in the United States, specifically, 394 Minnesota Attorney General's Report / App. B La Cosa Nostra.... Information received from sources of this bureau indicates that pornography is (a major) income maker for La Cosa Nostra in the United States behind'gambling and narcotics. Although La Cosa Nos- tra does not physically oversee the day -today workings. of the majority of pornography business in the United States, It is apparent that they have'agreements" with those involved in the pornography business in allowing these people to operate independently by paying off members of organized crime for the privilege of being allowed to operate in certain geographical areas. Id. at 1046 (quoting Federal Bureau of Investigation Report Regarding the Extent of Organized Crime Development in Pornography 6 (1978)). A brief survey of 69 FBI field offices conducted in 1985 found that about three-quarters of those offices could not verify that traditional organized crime families were in- volved in the manufacture or distribution of pornography, Several offices did, however, report some involvement by members and associates of organized crime. Id. at 1046-47, Stanley Ronquest, Jr., a supervisory FBI special agent for traditional organized crime at FBI headquarters in Wash- ington, D.C., was interviewed by Attorney General staff. Ronquest stated that LCN has not been directly involved in the pornography Industry in the last ten years. However, a former FBI agent told the Pornography Commission: In my opinion, based upon twenty-three years of expe- rience in pornography and obscenity investigations and study, it is practically impossible to be in the retail end of pornography industry (today) without dealing in some fashion with organized crime either the mafia or some other facet of non-mafia never -the -less [sic) highly or- ganized crime. Id. at 1047-48. Thomas Bohling of the Chicago Police Department Organ- ized Crime Division, Vice Control Section, told the Pornog- raphy Commission that "it is the belief of state, federal and local law enforcement that the pornography . Istry is 195