June 15, 2023 • 41 mins
AJ and Jimmy’s world is thrown into chaos as the FBI arrive in town and start to raid businesses. In the calm after the storm, the Trashers’ second season is off to a flying start, but it turns out the past is not completely in their rear view mirror.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Novel. The Majestic Lake George is nestled among the mountains
of upstate New York in the heat of the summer.
The cool water is perfect for swimming, kayaking, and boating.
(00:32):
If relaxing is what you're after, kick back on one
of the lakeside features, read a book some bathe Get
Away from it All. It's July nineteenth, two thousand and five,
and the Galantes are on a much needed vacation. Running
a trash hauling empire that employs hundreds of people and
(00:54):
a bad boy professional hockey team is exhausting. The Trashers
have finished up their first and Okay, they didn't win
the Colonial Cup this time, but they certainly left their
mark on the league and their rivals. The next season
kicks off in October. The battle for victory is going
to be tough, so it's important to catch a break now.
(01:19):
A brief moment of quiet, Jimmy's phone rings. It's one
of his employees. Something's going on down at the yard.
A line of vehicles rolls into the AWD parking lot. Nope,
(01:44):
not garbage trucks, but a sleek entourage of smart black cars.
Dozens of people step out and swarm the yard, some
addressed in civilian clothes, others have letters in blue their
dark jackets FB I. They're here for one purpose. This
(02:09):
is a raid.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We were looking for records like contracts, physical paper records
and things like that.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Leading today's search is Special Agent Jeff Waterman.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I'm currently the acting Assistant Special Agent in charge of
the New Haven Division of the FBI.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Jeff had only been with the FBI for two years
in July two thousand and five, but he'd climbed the
ladder fast.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I was the go in, newer guy, get stuff done guy.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
He'd recently been made a case agent on a team
looking into a special kind of crime.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
We called it Locosa nostra Italian organized crime.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Behind the scenes, hundreds of agents have been processing paperwork
to get the undercover investigation to this point. And now,
on this hot Tuesday in Danbury, Jeff is coordinating dozens
of officers at the AWD headquarters as they rummaged through
filing cabinets, computer hard drives, and piles of receipts, shoving
(03:09):
it all into big cardboard boxes.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
We were there many, many hours. There were multiple buildings,
very large premises. The search itself took all day and
through the night and into the next day, with large
moving trucks filled with records.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
As the sun cracks over the horizon, Jeff and his
team are done. Heads turn and curtains twitch to catch
a glimpse of the FBI car snaking through Danbury. They're
headed back to the Connecticut FBI headquarters in New Haven,
and in their wake, a trail of whispered questions begins
(03:50):
to ripple through the city. What the how does happened
to the Galantes? I think there were rumblings in the
beginning of a raid that morning in the downtown offices
of the Danbury News Times, crime reporter Karen Ally has
her head down. There are a lot of criminal things
going on that I was covering.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Murders, rapes, assaults, all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
By the time Karen breaks away from Danbury's more gruesome
under belly, stories of an FBI raid down at Jimmy's
yard have hit the newsroom.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
We just thought it was rumor really in the beginning,
but we didn't really know.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
After a little journalistic corroboration, the rumor is confirmed. Okay,
we have a story, and this is a big story
because the FBI raiding a big businessman like him. It's
going to be a big deal. Karen and her colleagues
gather in the newsroom. What's the plan? How are they
going to get the scoop? Danbury is going to want
to know what the FBI were looking for down at
(04:48):
the Galante trash yard. Also in the office that day
is young journalist Eugene Driscoll. He's been asked to help
out with the story. He gives Awd a call and
tells Jimmy he's after a comment for the paper. Jimmy
invites him down to the yard.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
You walk in there, the hopefully stinks a garbage.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Eugene walks past piles of trash, cooking up a stench
in the hot summer sun. He heads into the office building.
Like many before him, he goes up to the second
floor Jimmy's office.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
It seemed inappropriately dark.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Behind an enormous desk sat in the gloom is Jimmy Galante,
back early from his vacation. Eugene notices they're not alone.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
You know, It's like, why is our guy standing behind
me at some part of the room in his office
for no reason?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
It's all a bit weird, Eugene prepares himself. Journalists aren't
often welcome at crisis moments like this.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
You think you'd go in there and he'd be angry
and try to like give you one hundred yards stared, But.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
He wasn't like that. He was more which just sort
of not jovial, but he was almost like a prankster.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Jimmy's smile doesn't exactly put Eugene at ease.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
He liked screwing with me a little, clearly, but it
felt to me like it was that thing, like, you know,
he's trying to set the mood, set the tone dark room,
you know, sort of unpredictable, keep me off my game.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Eugene isn't here for games. He needs a comment for
an article. What were the FBI looking for at the yard?
Speaker 6 (06:27):
And then he answered no questions. I asked him again
and again and there was nothing.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
After hitting his head against a wall of skillful evasion,
Eugene ends the interview. Jimmy clearly isn't going to give him.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Anything, and it was all right, all right, thanks for
your time, I'll see you later.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Eugene returns to the newsroom with more questions than answers.
He knows that the FBI are looking into Jimmy Galante,
But what are they really after? And if Jimmy's in trouble,
why haven't they arrested him already. Jimmy gave a convincing
impression of a man in control, smiling, pranking, dodging Eugene's questions.
(07:08):
But maybe it's all an act. The people of Danbury
will have to wait a little longer for the truth
about Jimmy Galante, but not that much longer. I'm Claire
Crofton from the teams at Novel and iHeartRadio. This is
the fighty pucks Game six. Welcome to trash Town.
Speaker 7 (07:44):
So everybody that's in this building has to be escorted
at all times, right, Nobody can go in this building,
not even in a stairway to the bathroom.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So I'm in New Haven, going through the security gates
of the Connecticut FBI headquarters, a huge cube of a
building laced with barbed wire.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, very young, glamorous place.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I'm taken into a third floor conference room to meet
Special Agent Jeff Waterman. This sound is quite good in there,
isn't It's okay?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Oh yeah, I mean, as long as you're not planning
to hit me with that thing. I mean, that would
be worse for you than me.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
But that's true. I've been escorted past bomb suits, security guards,
metal detectors, and walls of medals. I'm not allowed to
bring my laptop or phone into the building, and I'm
told there's a blanket ban on bluetooth, so I have
to leave my headphones at security in case I accidentally
connect to the FBI's top secret party laylist or something.
(08:38):
So yeah, I get the idea the FBI have the
upper hand here. Luckily, I'm not looking for confrontation, just
information on Jimmy Galante and the raid on his trash
yard back in the summer of two thousand and five.
But when I ask Jeff to tell me about the
FBI's relationship with Jimmy, he says, to understand all this,
we need to go further back in time to when
(09:00):
Jimmy moved to Danbury in the seventies and started his
own business AWD. Over the next couple of decades, the
business grew bigger and bigger. So far, so good, But
in nineteen ninety two, the FBI were alerted to a
nasty incident involving the trash industry in Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
The most glaring example in our case of historical violence
was the kidnapping of a garbage truck driver, where they
bound and gaged them at gunpoint and burned the truck
on fire to send a message to a large multinational
trasheln company.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
The smoldering truck was found behind a shopping center in Danburry,
and the FBI had to ask themselves who might be
responsible for something like this? Who's been trying to build
a trash empire in the city. There's at least one
likely suspect, Jimmy Gallante. But in the business of law enforcement,
(09:58):
a likely suspect is an enough to get a conviction.
The FBI needed evidence, and evidence was hard to come by.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It was not proven at the time.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
No one was charged, but suspicion was beginning to swirl.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That incident certainly was a very important event by way
of Galante and his associates putting themselves on radar of
law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Jimmy's name is flagged again in the late nineties. This
time it's with the Irs. His tax returns don't look right,
and after a bit of investigation, Jimmy's charged with tax fraud.
And that's when Jimmy buys his young son a load
of pizza and breaks the bad news. He's off to
the slammer for a year. When he's released in two thousand,
(10:47):
Jimmy seems like a reformed man, focused on channeling his
profits into good causes around Danbury new playgrounds, new hospital wings.
But in two thousand and three, the FBI are back
sniffing around Jimmy's business again, and this time was more serious.
It all starts with a scrap of writing.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
It was a note on a piece of paper from
one of Galante's employees to an employee of one of
Galante's rivals, a large multinational company, which said, no bid Shelton.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
It may sound like naughty school kids passing a sneaky note.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
But the note was intended to be an offer to
engage in collusion to essentially fix a contract or a
bid for a contract with the City of Shelton.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Contract fixing sounds a little dry, a little low stakes
for a major FBI investigation. What about the flaming trucks
and kidnappings. But trust me, this was a big deal
because everybody needs their trash collected, right, whether you're a
business a school, a hospital, or a family. And if
(11:58):
everyone plays by the rule book, rash companies compete with
each other to pick up your trash. It's the free market,
the centerpiece of the American Catalyst dream and waste disposal
in America is a huge free market today. It's worth
over two hundred billion dollars every year. But this free
market is suddenly not so free if companies are secretly
(12:20):
talking and colluding, like, for example, agreeing on when to
compete with each other and how much to charge. The
no bid Shelton note suggested that Jimmy's company was involved
in that kind of collusion.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Essentially, it was an offer on Galante's part to not
place a bid on trash hauling for the city of Shelton,
so that the other company would be in a better
position and much more likely to win that bid.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
A generous offer, but a very illegal one, which made
the FBI ask what was in this for Jimmy. There's
no such thing as a free lunch, especially among hard
knows trash hauling businessmen, and the FBI suspected that Jimmy's
company was instigating a bit of market rigging, inviting others
(13:09):
to carve up territory so that he could control and
dominate the industry. But as we all know from school,
passing secret notes is a risky business. The company who
received the note passed it straight onto the teacher, well
law enforcement. In this case, this propelled Jimmy Galante's name
back onto the FBI's radar. Who knows whether the company
(13:32):
who received the note genuinely wanted to clean up the
trash industry or if they were simply trying to remove
their biggest competition from the market. Whatever their motivation, one
thing's for sure, Jeff and his team were back on
Jimmy's case.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
He was at the center, the main figure in this case.
The case of the way trash hauling was conducted in
western Connecticut and eastern New York.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
The FBI believed Umi Galante was the main player controlling
the dan Braid trash market, but they also suspected he
was part of a much wider conspiracy and they were
going to need more than one scribbled note if they
were going to uncover it.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
We had certainly a lot to learn. We had to
figure out the breadth and depth of the criminal activity.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
The FBI started talking to all their sources on the
ground trying to gather information about Jimmy's company, working out
how they handled business. Sure enough, the allegations came rolling in.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Much of it was from victims who were trashal in customers,
and a lot of it was from people cooperated with us,
some confidentially. And what we learned, especially from the customers
as well, is that Gallante and others, primarily his company,
they would engage in acts of threatening, intimidation and all
(14:53):
kinds of dirty tactics.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But the FBI basically had a note and some hearsay,
so still not enough evidence if they really want to
bring this case home, and.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
So you need to find ways to capture the evidence real.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Time, the FBI hatched a plan to try and catch
Jimmy red handed.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
We had the prime opportunity to insert an undercover into
the victim company in order to act upon that offer.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
The offer Jimmy's company we're making not to compete with
the rival company when it came to contracts in the
city of Shelton. Planting an agent directly into Jimmy's business
without raising suspicion was going to be too risky. So
the FBI decided to embed their guy into the company
who received the no bid Shelton note. The undercover agent
(15:43):
could then take Jimmy's company up on that not so
free lunch and work out exactly what was on the menu.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
That note about Shelton created the foothold that the undercover
could then act on.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Over the course of many conversations, the undercover agent and
builds a relationship with Jimmy's associates as he pretends to
collude in a contract fixing conspiracy. The FBI are so
confident in their con they take it one step further.
The undercover agent pretends to lose his job, hoping that
Jimmy's company might decide to hire him, and as far
(16:19):
fetched as the plan sounds, it works. By the summer
of two thousand and four, the undercover agent lands a
job at Jimmy's yard. Now that he's inside the lions Den,
he's able to gather evidence that Jimmy's head of sales
is using his phone to engage in criminal conversations with
other companies.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
That, among other pieces of evidence, formed the basis of
the FBI to be able to ultimately seek a wiretap
of his cell phone.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Hello are you there?
Speaker 8 (16:53):
Yep, Jimmy Big Daddy says, what did you want me
to do? Everybody wants a fuck? Put their two cents
its yeah, keep your mouth shut.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
A few months before the Trash Is played their first game,
a judge authorizes the FBI to place a listening device
on Jimmy's phone and the phones of nine of his associates.
The investigation is building momentum.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
The numbers of people that were involved. It grew over time,
so we had upwards of four or five full time
or nearly full time case agents. And that doesn't account
for the people in our monitoring room, and so you
had many more people listening monitoring the calls.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
When a court authorizes the wires app there are a
few conditions. One, if you're listening, you've got to be recording. Two,
if you're recording, you've got to be listening. And three
you shouldn't record or listen to anything that doesn't sound
like it might be criminal. So how do the I
know whether Jimmy's employees are discussing crimes? Well, let's just
(18:04):
say it took a bit of figuring out.
Speaker 8 (18:06):
So what's that I haven't heard from you? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Busy?
Speaker 8 (18:10):
Busy hundred things? Cocaine. How's our secretary giving her a
big two inch or what? No way, that's bad, But
you're in the face when you see it. For me,
that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna clear your car
as you a promoter, I'm getting a new one. You
got a new honey coming in?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (18:28):
When I mean?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Is that just plain or disgusting sexist banter or a
coded criminal conversation?
Speaker 5 (18:36):
People can be crafty, they can use code.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
They can be generally law enforcement conscious and not say
too much. Meet me here, Hey, I'll see you at
that place. You know that those kinds of statements make
it extremely difficult.
Speaker 9 (18:50):
Hello, are you there?
Speaker 8 (18:50):
Okay, You're going to mel Kisco to see the carpenters, right,
because Galleadi needs cabinets.
Speaker 9 (18:56):
In his house.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Could carpenters be code for some things? Sinslas?
Speaker 4 (19:01):
You believe that?
Speaker 6 (19:02):
Hard to know how many cabinets?
Speaker 9 (19:04):
Oh, No, I'm gonna I'm supposed to do the job.
The same is what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And i'd have to ask some conversations definitely do seem
to be about dodgy dealings.
Speaker 9 (19:14):
So you're taking that fucking stop for me? A wife?
Speaker 8 (19:17):
Oh, that's right. We did that ship with wage Management
a few years ago. Hey, if you get the city
of shelting bitch, No, I didn't even bid it. Who
got No. I just wanted if you got a copy
of it. And it's doing until at the end of
the fucking mondo beginning the next mondo. I just wonder
if you.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Fuck no and some are just playing nasty, why.
Speaker 9 (19:38):
Don't you do everybody a favor and take it right
up to the manorand hotel and pull that compact around it.
Otherwise you're going to be in for a world world
of her I'm getting ready to do on a plane
and fly home because I was about to lose my
mother fucking mind right now. Now I'm gonna fucking snap.
Here is where I am. Okay, I told you Jimmy
(20:00):
fucking expects to buy a company with a certain amount
of fucking dollars. Okay, Now, do not fuck Jimmy, because
that's what you're doing. And at the end of the day,
I ended to turn into one mother fucking lunatic. I'm
about to fucking snap in an airport and it's not
gonna work. I will fucking take you another fucking eyes
(20:21):
out if you want to fuck around, Okay, let's tell
you what motherfucker you want to fuck with me?
Speaker 8 (20:27):
You go? Hell?
Speaker 9 (20:28):
Do you want to see what kind of fucking how
much balls I got? Yeah? Joe, let me tell you something.
Speaker 8 (20:33):
What the fuck are you talking to?
Speaker 9 (20:35):
Trust me, I will fucking destroy you.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
Who the fuck are you talking to?
Speaker 9 (20:40):
I believe it's fucking cocksucker dude. Now it's on, Joe.
I'll be back there in fucking a few hours. Goodbye.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So yeah, you get the idea. Some of these calls
are definitely dodgy. Others, though, sound decidedly less criminal.
Speaker 8 (21:01):
Where's Uncle Jeremy? Uh, I'm down at the ice drinking?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (21:05):
You love that ship? Good hard fucking core bro.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
So the agents have to hone their sense for which
conversations will lead to case crack and clues and when
the call is strictly personal, and they legally have to
stop listening.
Speaker 8 (21:20):
What hockey fucking stupid? A stupid talker? I don't know
what you're in the hockey, dude, you fucked do here.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Hockey fans out there might think that trash talking their
beloved sports should be criminal, but sadly, for the FBI,
it's not time to disconnect this call.
Speaker 8 (21:39):
Thanks, thanks everybody.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
But as time passes, the FBI do feel like their
investigation is getting closer. They're beginning to see how hockey
fits in with all of this.
Speaker 9 (21:55):
I love, I love, Yeah, I need you to do
me a favor today.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
You.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
In this case, the crimes associated generated money that could
then be used for other things like purchasing a hockey
team for trashure.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
This team is officially branded Bad Boys, and Jimmy got people.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Calling on and so we developed an understanding as a
further criminal acts that were associated with the operation.
Speaker 9 (22:21):
Of the team.
Speaker 8 (22:22):
Well, we don't want the UHL to look fucking stopid.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
The trashers are about to face off against a fearsome
new opposition, the law that's coming up after the break
(22:48):
back in two thousand and five, when Jimmy Galante's business
was growing, he was constantly adding new names to his
trash empire's payroll, and after unwittingly hiring that undercover FBI agent,
he makes another unusual hire.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
My nickname was Diamond Dave.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Diamond Dave is a beast. He's covered in battle scars
and he looks like his nose has been broken. A
few times. In fact, Diamond Dave looks more like a
hockey enforcer, and that's no coincidence. He got his nickname
out on the ice.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
After fights, I would do the diamond cutter, which is
you make a diamond symbol with your fingers after you
win the fight, or sometimes I do it after I
score a goal or something.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
He stole this classy move from wrestling, and in two
thousand and five, when he was Trash as captain, it
became his signature victory celebration. Yep, this little dance number
sounds theatrical and quite ridiculous, but when you imagine Diamond Dave,
this tank of a man, spattered with the blood of
his rival, breaking invisible diamonds on his knee in front
(23:55):
of a roaring crowd, it's scary and Jimmy certainly approved.
Speaker 7 (24:03):
You'd always look up at Jimmy and give him a winker,
a thumbs up, or whatever you'd have to do with
her to get his approval.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
In fact, he made full use of Dave's terrifying on
ice persona. When Dave was suspended for playing too rough,
Jimmy would still ask him to attend game nights.
Speaker 7 (24:20):
He actually brought me just to sit behind the bench
of the opposing team to intimidate them.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
This bad boy bravado added to the drama of the
Trash's games. Fine, it was within the rules, but those
kind of antics outside the arena, well, that would be
a totally different story, a story the FBI are now
intent on looking into, because you see, Diamond, Dave and
(24:46):
Jimmy had an arrangement before Dave joined the Trashs. He'd
had a rich hockey career. He'd played everywhere from Canada
to Russia, but at thirty two, he'd hung up his skates.
That wasn't Jimmy and a handsome paycheck lured him back
onto the ice. As thrilling as it must have been
for Dave to get back to the sport he loved,
(25:09):
his post hockey future was also at the forefront of
his mind.
Speaker 7 (25:15):
They told Jimmy that I wanted a career as well,
so I signed a two year deal as a hockey
player and as a salesmant for the trash company.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
As the FBI look deeper into Jimmy, they start to
wonder what are tough hockey players like Diamond Dave McIsaac
doing on the payroll of Jimmy's trash company. They're probably
not just regular sales guys, right.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
They would go to customers who try to cancel the
contracts and bring employees of the company who were bigger
men who looked me, who looked the part, I'll say,
and many customers were intimidated into continuing their business relationship.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Dave is happy to admit his job at the yard
was unorthodox.
Speaker 7 (26:02):
You know, if someone was laid on a payment, I'd
go and knock on their door and say, hey, just
checking on when you're going to make a payment.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
But Dave says he left his brutal persona on the ice.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
Jimmy would say, oh, this guy's my collector, like making
it sound like it was a mafia thing where I'd
break bones or something. That wasn't the case. It was
just I'd go politely and knock on doors and say
you're one of delinquent on your payments. When can we
expect it?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Dave maintains he was the perfect gentleman when he worked
for the garbage company. If anyone felt threatened by his physique,
well that wasn't his problem. And Dave says that alongside
being captain of the Trashes and collecting debt for AWD
and sometimes intimidating rival players. He and his teammates had
other responsibilities too.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
Would have to make school appearances and hospital visits and
sign autographs in town for the community. And it worked
out great because in the community got more involved with
us and we gave back to them. So whether we
went for Earth Day to pick up trash with the community,
or we went to a school to read to children,
or we went to a hospital to visit some sick people,
(27:15):
it just built up our reputation throughout the community is
not only are these guys tough on the ice, but
they're you know, nice off the ice.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Jimmy had his team sign additional work contracts that paid
them for community work in Danbury. It all sounds quite nice,
to be honest. The players are earning a good living
and the people of Danbury get to watch their favorite
hockey team give back to their city win win, right. Well,
the FBI don't see it that way.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Galante did a variety of things to pay the players
more money.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Special agent Jeff Waterman says the extra contracts given to
the Trashes were foul play. Remember the NHL lock out.
How the league got suspended when they tried to introduce
a salary cap to keep the teams even stopping the
Richard teams from buying up all the best players. Well,
the UHL already had a salary cap, and it was
a hell of a lot lower than what the NHL
(28:13):
were proposing. These minor league pay restrictions made it tough
for the Glantes to recruit the players they wanted.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
So the investigation uncovered that Galante paid some of the
players more money, sometimes with cash and other times they
were being paid as both players on the hockey team
overtly legitimately, and then as employees or the relatives as
employees of the trash lawn companies in a no show status.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
They got wage.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Checks salaries as being employees at the trash companies and
never showed.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Up to work, so they didn't actually work there.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Some of the players I spoke to, some of them
seemed to say that they did actually work there sometimes,
like the younger players. I don't know if that came
up in your investigation.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah, I don't recall any evidence or information supporting the
idea that any of the players actually, you know, worked
at any of the Trash hall in companies, and there
would be quite surprising to me if any claimed that
they did. You know, it certainly within the realm of
anything's possible, but there was no evidence quite the contrary.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Speaking to Dave, it's clear that not all the extra
contracts given to the Trashes were no show, but the
FBI did gather evidence that a few were, and according
to Jeff, at the end of the day, all the
Trash's contracts effectively amounted to money laundering.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
You know, the ill gotten keynes from the business funneled
you know, into the hockey team.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
To be clear, Jeff isn't saying that he thinks Jimmy
set up the hockey team solely to clean dirty money.
He's saying Jimmy pa for the hockey team with the
money he earned through his business, a business Jeff and
his team had reason to believe was up to no good.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
The laws exist to prevent people from using ill gotten
games from specified unlawful activities in a way that ALLARGI
to use them legitimately if you will.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
I know what you're thinking. These crimes relating to the
Trashes will seem a bit technical. Paying players more than
you should. Okay, it gave the team an unfair advantage,
but it doesn't seem like the worst crime in the
world to me. That's not it. Though.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
There was a visiting team coming into Danbury. In Galante
instructed one of his subordinates to make contact with an associate,
and we learned that it was a police officer.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
In this conversation, Galante's associate and this police officer are
chatting about the rival hockey team due to play in Danbury.
They get talking about how the police officer might help
the trashes out.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
The police officer offered, if you get this bus to
come through my town, I'll write a warrant for whatever
you want. You know, this police officer was offering to
fabricate criminal offense against some members of this team.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
That's not just dirty play, it's a civil rights violation.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Yeah, when you take those kinds of lengths, you know,
I don't need to read his mind to know that
he wanted to win the hockey game.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
At costs like that.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
So in the summer of two thousand and five, as
the Galantes kicked back on the Lake George Beaches, the
FBI felt the time was right to take things up
a gear, so they're wiretups. Undercover surveillance and network of
informants had given them some information. They now needed physical evidence,
(31:54):
and they raided Jimmy's business, alerting the whole of Danbury
to their interest in thees. But it turns out Jimmy
wasn't the only person on the FBI's radar. Law enforcement
has started to get a whiff of just how dirty
Danbury's trash industry really was. That's coming up after the break.
(32:32):
When the FBI stormed into Danbury in the summer of
two thousand and five, they weren't just raiding Jimmy's yard.
Across the city, a number of homes and trash hauling
businesses were turned inside out in tandem, forty search warrants,
hundreds of agents. One of the yards getting the FBI
(32:52):
once over is Novella Sanitation, a much smaller business than
Jimmy's AWD, but a family dynasty to.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
My grandfather was in the trash business. My grandmother was
in the trash business. My father was in the trash business.
My mother was in the trash business. My uncle was
in the trash business. My cousins were in the trash business.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
This is AJ No, not that one. AJ Novella. Unlike
AJ Galante, he knew his destiny was not in the
garbage business. He went to college and skilled up in
a totally different profession.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Today, I'm a lawyer. I'm not involved in the trash
industry in any respect.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
AJ Novella was just a child when Jimmy Galante arrived
in Danbury in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
When I was a boy, I would often go on
the Novella's sanitation trucks.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
He telpout in the family business after school and on
the weekends, and these.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Trucks had to dump at Jimmy Galante's transfer station.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
A transfer station is a crucial part of the waste
disposal industry. It's where haullers bring the trash so that
it can get transferred to landfill sites out of town
or burnt on site. And by the time AJ Novella
remembers working with his dad, Jimmy Galante owns the biggest
transfer station in town, AWD.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Jimmy Galante. The White Street facility dwarfed any other facility
that a local haller maintained. Tall dumping facilities, huge bay doors,
piles of trash from Florida Ceiner and the trucks would
dump into that pile.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
AJ Novella alleges it was Jimmy who choked his family's
business out of the transfer station, but other sources suggest
that Novella's annotation was blocked because they hadn't paid their tab.
It's a chicken and egg question here. Were the Novellas
unable to pay their bills because Jimmy brought their business
to its knees, or was the business already struggling. Either way,
(35:12):
for Aj Novella's family business, being blocked from dumping their
trash was a total disaster.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
It became a crisis and a role couldn't be met on.
Employees started to leave and the collapse happened pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Novella's Annotation became an unviable business and was sold to
Jimmy Galante in May two thousand and five, but there
was a handover period where the Novellas had to work
under Jimmy for a few months.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Anyone who sold to Jimmy the owner had to work
for Jimmy for x amount of time, whether that's ego
or for transition of accounts purposes, or they all had.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
To go work for Jimmy, which was how aj novellas
as his family found themselves mixed up in the FBI
rate that swept through Danbury.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
I remember getting a call one night from my mother
in the middle of the night, and that was not
a normal time to get a call from my parents,
so I picked up with worry. My mother said, the
FBI rated our building. They're here right now. They trip
the alarm. I told her, don't talk to them, let
them do their thing. It was terrifying in a sense,
(36:25):
and hear and feel the fear and worry in her
voice and desperation asking me what should I do.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Being a savvy lawyer, A. J. Novella advises his parents
to let the FBI continue their raid and not to
say anything without an attorney present. In the weeks after
the raid, the family are left waiting for that dreaded
knock on the door, but nothing comes, no arrests, and
(36:57):
as for Jimmy, after the raid, like Awd's back to
business as normal. When reporter Eugene Driscoll meets him in
his office just days after the raid, he doesn't even
seem shaken. He hasn't been taken in for questioning he
hasn't been locked up. As the dust settles, all is
(37:18):
eerily serene.
Speaker 10 (37:20):
When they raided, everyone kind of knew there was an
investigation going on, but you know, it made news for
a day and then it kind of got kind of
swept under the rug in a way.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
But aj Galante could see dark clouds on the horizon.
Speaker 10 (37:37):
It kind of pens the needles, you know, waiting when's
this going to happen? And kind of knew what was coming,
but it's just waiting, right, It's like Christmas Eve, you
know Christmas is coming. It's just can't sleep because you're like,
when's it going to get here? Already?
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Before the room is spread out of Dunbrie, Jimmy doesnt
urgent damage control. He picks up the phone to Nighted
Hockey League Commissioner Richard Burcell.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
He called me and said, look, I don't know what
they're looking for, but they're not going to find anything.
But I just wanted you to know, you know, just
in case you hear anything like, all right, no problem for.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
A man who loves rules and has dedicated his life
to making people in the UHL abide by them. Commissioner
Brouscelle is surprisingly chill about an FBI rate on an
owner in his league. Surely there's no bigger red flag
for rule breaking than that. But when Jimmy calls, Burscell's
a little distracted.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
We're so busy preparing for the next season. I mean,
you have no idea the hours that it takes to
put a schedule together.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
As the Trash second season approaches, there isn't enough time
in the day for the commissioner to worry about one
of his owner's personal affairs.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
It wasn't a big enough red flag for me to
push the issue further.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Were you worried that things were maybe getting out of hands?
Speaker 8 (38:54):
No?
Speaker 4 (38:54):
I think if there was any worry it was is
he evading taxes again? Is that why they got him
once before? Are they trying to see if he's paying
his taxes again?
Speaker 1 (39:05):
And as for the Trashes players themselves, no doubt seeing
your team owner get raided by the FBI would have
raised a few eyebrows. But as the green leaves of
sum are begin to deepen into the reds and golds
of a beautiful Connecticut full the team have more pressing
matters on their minds. Their second season is nearly here.
(39:26):
They have a Colonial Cup to win and Brad Wring
Not Wingfield is determined to get back to the rink.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
The man was the size of the Empire State Building.
You knew something was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
He has plans to paint the ice red.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Winger told us he's going to injure that guy bad.
He wanted to break every bone in his body.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Wing Not wants revenge.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
I was going to try kill you.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
That's coming up next time on the Fighty Put. The
Fighting Fucks is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more
from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The series is hosted
(40:21):
by me Claire Crofton and produced by me Joe Wheeler
and Amalia Sortland. The executive producer is David Waters. Story
editing from Max O'Brien, Mitherlee Raws and Austin Mitchell. Our
field producer is Babette Thomas. Our fat checker is Darnia Suleiman.
(40:42):
Our hockey sensitivity reader is Nikhil Desai. Production management from
Scharie Houston and Charlotte Wolfe. Sound design, mixing and scoring
by Nicholas Alexander. Additional engineering by Daniel Kempson. Music supervision
by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters. Original music composed by
(41:04):
Eric Phillips. Willard Foxton is Creative Director of Development. Special
thanks to Sean Glynn, Katrina Novelle, David Vassiman, Sean ty
Tone and Beth Anne Macaluso novel
Novel. The Majestic Lake George is nestled among the mountains
of upstate New York in the heat of the summer.
The cool water is perfect for swimming, kayaking, and boating.
(00:32):
If relaxing is what you're after, kick back on one
of the lakeside features, read a book some bathe Get
Away from it All. It's July nineteenth, two thousand and five,
and the Galantes are on a much needed vacation. Running
a trash hauling empire that employs hundreds of people and
(00:54):
a bad boy professional hockey team is exhausting. The Trashers
have finished up their first and Okay, they didn't win
the Colonial Cup this time, but they certainly left their
mark on the league and their rivals. The next season
kicks off in October. The battle for victory is going
to be tough, so it's important to catch a break now.
(01:19):
A brief moment of quiet, Jimmy's phone rings. It's one
of his employees. Something's going on down at the yard.
A line of vehicles rolls into the AWD parking lot. Nope,
(01:44):
not garbage trucks, but a sleek entourage of smart black cars.
Dozens of people step out and swarm the yard, some
addressed in civilian clothes, others have letters in blue their
dark jackets FB I. They're here for one purpose. This
(02:09):
is a raid.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We were looking for records like contracts, physical paper records
and things like that.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Leading today's search is Special Agent Jeff Waterman.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I'm currently the acting Assistant Special Agent in charge of
the New Haven Division of the FBI.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Jeff had only been with the FBI for two years
in July two thousand and five, but he'd climbed the
ladder fast.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I was the go in, newer guy, get stuff done guy.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
He'd recently been made a case agent on a team
looking into a special kind of crime.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
We called it Locosa nostra Italian organized crime.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Behind the scenes, hundreds of agents have been processing paperwork
to get the undercover investigation to this point. And now,
on this hot Tuesday in Danbury, Jeff is coordinating dozens
of officers at the AWD headquarters as they rummaged through
filing cabinets, computer hard drives, and piles of receipts, shoving
(03:09):
it all into big cardboard boxes.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
We were there many, many hours. There were multiple buildings,
very large premises. The search itself took all day and
through the night and into the next day, with large
moving trucks filled with records.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
As the sun cracks over the horizon, Jeff and his
team are done. Heads turn and curtains twitch to catch
a glimpse of the FBI car snaking through Danbury. They're
headed back to the Connecticut FBI headquarters in New Haven,
and in their wake, a trail of whispered questions begins
(03:50):
to ripple through the city. What the how does happened
to the Galantes? I think there were rumblings in the
beginning of a raid that morning in the downtown offices
of the Danbury News Times, crime reporter Karen Ally has
her head down. There are a lot of criminal things
going on that I was covering.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Murders, rapes, assaults, all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
By the time Karen breaks away from Danbury's more gruesome
under belly, stories of an FBI raid down at Jimmy's
yard have hit the newsroom.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
We just thought it was rumor really in the beginning,
but we didn't really know.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
After a little journalistic corroboration, the rumor is confirmed. Okay,
we have a story, and this is a big story
because the FBI raiding a big businessman like him. It's
going to be a big deal. Karen and her colleagues
gather in the newsroom. What's the plan? How are they
going to get the scoop? Danbury is going to want
to know what the FBI were looking for down at
(04:48):
the Galante trash yard. Also in the office that day
is young journalist Eugene Driscoll. He's been asked to help
out with the story. He gives Awd a call and
tells Jimmy he's after a comment for the paper. Jimmy
invites him down to the yard.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
You walk in there, the hopefully stinks a garbage.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Eugene walks past piles of trash, cooking up a stench
in the hot summer sun. He heads into the office building.
Like many before him, he goes up to the second
floor Jimmy's office.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
It seemed inappropriately dark.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Behind an enormous desk sat in the gloom is Jimmy Galante,
back early from his vacation. Eugene notices they're not alone.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
You know, It's like, why is our guy standing behind
me at some part of the room in his office
for no reason?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
It's all a bit weird, Eugene prepares himself. Journalists aren't
often welcome at crisis moments like this.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
You think you'd go in there and he'd be angry
and try to like give you one hundred yards stared, But.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
He wasn't like that. He was more which just sort
of not jovial, but he was almost like a prankster.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Jimmy's smile doesn't exactly put Eugene at ease.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
He liked screwing with me a little, clearly, but it
felt to me like it was that thing, like, you know,
he's trying to set the mood, set the tone dark room,
you know, sort of unpredictable, keep me off my game.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Eugene isn't here for games. He needs a comment for
an article. What were the FBI looking for at the yard?
Speaker 6 (06:27):
And then he answered no questions. I asked him again
and again and there was nothing.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
After hitting his head against a wall of skillful evasion,
Eugene ends the interview. Jimmy clearly isn't going to give him.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Anything, and it was all right, all right, thanks for
your time, I'll see you later.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Eugene returns to the newsroom with more questions than answers.
He knows that the FBI are looking into Jimmy Galante,
But what are they really after? And if Jimmy's in trouble,
why haven't they arrested him already. Jimmy gave a convincing
impression of a man in control, smiling, pranking, dodging Eugene's questions.
(07:08):
But maybe it's all an act. The people of Danbury
will have to wait a little longer for the truth
about Jimmy Galante, but not that much longer. I'm Claire
Crofton from the teams at Novel and iHeartRadio. This is
the fighty pucks Game six. Welcome to trash Town.
Speaker 7 (07:44):
So everybody that's in this building has to be escorted
at all times, right, Nobody can go in this building,
not even in a stairway to the bathroom.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So I'm in New Haven, going through the security gates
of the Connecticut FBI headquarters, a huge cube of a
building laced with barbed wire.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, very young, glamorous place.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I'm taken into a third floor conference room to meet
Special Agent Jeff Waterman. This sound is quite good in there,
isn't It's okay?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Oh yeah, I mean, as long as you're not planning
to hit me with that thing. I mean, that would
be worse for you than me.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
But that's true. I've been escorted past bomb suits, security guards,
metal detectors, and walls of medals. I'm not allowed to
bring my laptop or phone into the building, and I'm
told there's a blanket ban on bluetooth, so I have
to leave my headphones at security in case I accidentally
connect to the FBI's top secret party laylist or something.
(08:38):
So yeah, I get the idea the FBI have the
upper hand here. Luckily, I'm not looking for confrontation, just
information on Jimmy Galante and the raid on his trash
yard back in the summer of two thousand and five.
But when I ask Jeff to tell me about the
FBI's relationship with Jimmy, he says, to understand all this,
we need to go further back in time to when
(09:00):
Jimmy moved to Danbury in the seventies and started his
own business AWD. Over the next couple of decades, the
business grew bigger and bigger. So far, so good, But
in nineteen ninety two, the FBI were alerted to a
nasty incident involving the trash industry in Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
The most glaring example in our case of historical violence
was the kidnapping of a garbage truck driver, where they
bound and gaged them at gunpoint and burned the truck
on fire to send a message to a large multinational
trasheln company.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
The smoldering truck was found behind a shopping center in Danburry,
and the FBI had to ask themselves who might be
responsible for something like this? Who's been trying to build
a trash empire in the city. There's at least one
likely suspect, Jimmy Gallante. But in the business of law enforcement,
(09:58):
a likely suspect is an enough to get a conviction.
The FBI needed evidence, and evidence was hard to come by.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It was not proven at the time.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
No one was charged, but suspicion was beginning to swirl.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That incident certainly was a very important event by way
of Galante and his associates putting themselves on radar of
law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Jimmy's name is flagged again in the late nineties. This
time it's with the Irs. His tax returns don't look right,
and after a bit of investigation, Jimmy's charged with tax fraud.
And that's when Jimmy buys his young son a load
of pizza and breaks the bad news. He's off to
the slammer for a year. When he's released in two thousand,
(10:47):
Jimmy seems like a reformed man, focused on channeling his
profits into good causes around Danbury new playgrounds, new hospital wings.
But in two thousand and three, the FBI are back
sniffing around Jimmy's business again, and this time was more serious.
It all starts with a scrap of writing.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
It was a note on a piece of paper from
one of Galante's employees to an employee of one of
Galante's rivals, a large multinational company, which said, no bid Shelton.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
It may sound like naughty school kids passing a sneaky note.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
But the note was intended to be an offer to
engage in collusion to essentially fix a contract or a
bid for a contract with the City of Shelton.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Contract fixing sounds a little dry, a little low stakes
for a major FBI investigation. What about the flaming trucks
and kidnappings. But trust me, this was a big deal
because everybody needs their trash collected, right, whether you're a
business a school, a hospital, or a family. And if
(11:58):
everyone plays by the rule book, rash companies compete with
each other to pick up your trash. It's the free market,
the centerpiece of the American Catalyst dream and waste disposal
in America is a huge free market today. It's worth
over two hundred billion dollars every year. But this free
market is suddenly not so free if companies are secretly
(12:20):
talking and colluding, like, for example, agreeing on when to
compete with each other and how much to charge. The
no bid Shelton note suggested that Jimmy's company was involved
in that kind of collusion.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Essentially, it was an offer on Galante's part to not
place a bid on trash hauling for the city of Shelton,
so that the other company would be in a better
position and much more likely to win that bid.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
A generous offer, but a very illegal one, which made
the FBI ask what was in this for Jimmy. There's
no such thing as a free lunch, especially among hard
knows trash hauling businessmen, and the FBI suspected that Jimmy's
company was instigating a bit of market rigging, inviting others
(13:09):
to carve up territory so that he could control and
dominate the industry. But as we all know from school,
passing secret notes is a risky business. The company who
received the note passed it straight onto the teacher, well
law enforcement. In this case, this propelled Jimmy Galante's name
back onto the FBI's radar. Who knows whether the company
(13:32):
who received the note genuinely wanted to clean up the
trash industry or if they were simply trying to remove
their biggest competition from the market. Whatever their motivation, one
thing's for sure, Jeff and his team were back on
Jimmy's case.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
He was at the center, the main figure in this case.
The case of the way trash hauling was conducted in
western Connecticut and eastern New York.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
The FBI believed Umi Galante was the main player controlling
the dan Braid trash market, but they also suspected he
was part of a much wider conspiracy and they were
going to need more than one scribbled note if they
were going to uncover it.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
We had certainly a lot to learn. We had to
figure out the breadth and depth of the criminal activity.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
The FBI started talking to all their sources on the
ground trying to gather information about Jimmy's company, working out
how they handled business. Sure enough, the allegations came rolling in.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Much of it was from victims who were trashal in customers,
and a lot of it was from people cooperated with us,
some confidentially. And what we learned, especially from the customers
as well, is that Gallante and others, primarily his company,
they would engage in acts of threatening, intimidation and all
(14:53):
kinds of dirty tactics.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But the FBI basically had a note and some hearsay,
so still not enough evidence if they really want to
bring this case home, and.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
So you need to find ways to capture the evidence real.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Time, the FBI hatched a plan to try and catch
Jimmy red handed.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
We had the prime opportunity to insert an undercover into
the victim company in order to act upon that offer.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
The offer Jimmy's company we're making not to compete with
the rival company when it came to contracts in the
city of Shelton. Planting an agent directly into Jimmy's business
without raising suspicion was going to be too risky. So
the FBI decided to embed their guy into the company
who received the no bid Shelton note. The undercover agent
(15:43):
could then take Jimmy's company up on that not so
free lunch and work out exactly what was on the menu.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
That note about Shelton created the foothold that the undercover
could then act on.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Over the course of many conversations, the undercover agent and
builds a relationship with Jimmy's associates as he pretends to
collude in a contract fixing conspiracy. The FBI are so
confident in their con they take it one step further.
The undercover agent pretends to lose his job, hoping that
Jimmy's company might decide to hire him, and as far
(16:19):
fetched as the plan sounds, it works. By the summer
of two thousand and four, the undercover agent lands a
job at Jimmy's yard. Now that he's inside the lions Den,
he's able to gather evidence that Jimmy's head of sales
is using his phone to engage in criminal conversations with
other companies.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
That, among other pieces of evidence, formed the basis of
the FBI to be able to ultimately seek a wiretap
of his cell phone.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Hello are you there?
Speaker 8 (16:53):
Yep, Jimmy Big Daddy says, what did you want me
to do? Everybody wants a fuck? Put their two cents
its yeah, keep your mouth shut.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
A few months before the Trash Is played their first game,
a judge authorizes the FBI to place a listening device
on Jimmy's phone and the phones of nine of his associates.
The investigation is building momentum.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
The numbers of people that were involved. It grew over time,
so we had upwards of four or five full time
or nearly full time case agents. And that doesn't account
for the people in our monitoring room, and so you
had many more people listening monitoring the calls.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
When a court authorizes the wires app there are a
few conditions. One, if you're listening, you've got to be recording. Two,
if you're recording, you've got to be listening. And three
you shouldn't record or listen to anything that doesn't sound
like it might be criminal. So how do the I
know whether Jimmy's employees are discussing crimes? Well, let's just
(18:04):
say it took a bit of figuring out.
Speaker 8 (18:06):
So what's that I haven't heard from you? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Busy?
Speaker 8 (18:10):
Busy hundred things? Cocaine. How's our secretary giving her a
big two inch or what? No way, that's bad, But
you're in the face when you see it. For me,
that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna clear your car
as you a promoter, I'm getting a new one. You
got a new honey coming in?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (18:28):
When I mean?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Is that just plain or disgusting sexist banter or a
coded criminal conversation?
Speaker 5 (18:36):
People can be crafty, they can use code.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
They can be generally law enforcement conscious and not say
too much. Meet me here, Hey, I'll see you at
that place. You know that those kinds of statements make
it extremely difficult.
Speaker 9 (18:50):
Hello, are you there?
Speaker 8 (18:50):
Okay, You're going to mel Kisco to see the carpenters, right,
because Galleadi needs cabinets.
Speaker 9 (18:56):
In his house.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Could carpenters be code for some things? Sinslas?
Speaker 4 (19:01):
You believe that?
Speaker 6 (19:02):
Hard to know how many cabinets?
Speaker 9 (19:04):
Oh, No, I'm gonna I'm supposed to do the job.
The same is what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And i'd have to ask some conversations definitely do seem
to be about dodgy dealings.
Speaker 9 (19:14):
So you're taking that fucking stop for me? A wife?
Speaker 8 (19:17):
Oh, that's right. We did that ship with wage Management
a few years ago. Hey, if you get the city
of shelting bitch, No, I didn't even bid it. Who
got No. I just wanted if you got a copy
of it. And it's doing until at the end of
the fucking mondo beginning the next mondo. I just wonder
if you.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Fuck no and some are just playing nasty, why.
Speaker 9 (19:38):
Don't you do everybody a favor and take it right
up to the manorand hotel and pull that compact around it.
Otherwise you're going to be in for a world world
of her I'm getting ready to do on a plane
and fly home because I was about to lose my
mother fucking mind right now. Now I'm gonna fucking snap.
Here is where I am. Okay, I told you Jimmy
(20:00):
fucking expects to buy a company with a certain amount
of fucking dollars. Okay, Now, do not fuck Jimmy, because
that's what you're doing. And at the end of the day,
I ended to turn into one mother fucking lunatic. I'm
about to fucking snap in an airport and it's not
gonna work. I will fucking take you another fucking eyes
(20:21):
out if you want to fuck around, Okay, let's tell
you what motherfucker you want to fuck with me?
Speaker 8 (20:27):
You go? Hell?
Speaker 9 (20:28):
Do you want to see what kind of fucking how
much balls I got? Yeah? Joe, let me tell you something.
Speaker 8 (20:33):
What the fuck are you talking to?
Speaker 9 (20:35):
Trust me, I will fucking destroy you.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
Who the fuck are you talking to?
Speaker 9 (20:40):
I believe it's fucking cocksucker dude. Now it's on, Joe.
I'll be back there in fucking a few hours. Goodbye.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So yeah, you get the idea. Some of these calls
are definitely dodgy. Others, though, sound decidedly less criminal.
Speaker 8 (21:01):
Where's Uncle Jeremy? Uh, I'm down at the ice drinking?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (21:05):
You love that ship? Good hard fucking core bro.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
So the agents have to hone their sense for which
conversations will lead to case crack and clues and when
the call is strictly personal, and they legally have to
stop listening.
Speaker 8 (21:20):
What hockey fucking stupid? A stupid talker? I don't know
what you're in the hockey, dude, you fucked do here.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Hockey fans out there might think that trash talking their
beloved sports should be criminal, but sadly, for the FBI,
it's not time to disconnect this call.
Speaker 8 (21:39):
Thanks, thanks everybody.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
But as time passes, the FBI do feel like their
investigation is getting closer. They're beginning to see how hockey
fits in with all of this.
Speaker 9 (21:55):
I love, I love, Yeah, I need you to do
me a favor today.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
You.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
In this case, the crimes associated generated money that could
then be used for other things like purchasing a hockey
team for trashure.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
This team is officially branded Bad Boys, and Jimmy got people.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Calling on and so we developed an understanding as a
further criminal acts that were associated with the operation.
Speaker 9 (22:21):
Of the team.
Speaker 8 (22:22):
Well, we don't want the UHL to look fucking stopid.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
The trashers are about to face off against a fearsome
new opposition, the law that's coming up after the break
(22:48):
back in two thousand and five, when Jimmy Galante's business
was growing, he was constantly adding new names to his
trash empire's payroll, and after unwittingly hiring that undercover FBI agent,
he makes another unusual hire.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
My nickname was Diamond Dave.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Diamond Dave is a beast. He's covered in battle scars
and he looks like his nose has been broken. A
few times. In fact, Diamond Dave looks more like a
hockey enforcer, and that's no coincidence. He got his nickname
out on the ice.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
After fights, I would do the diamond cutter, which is
you make a diamond symbol with your fingers after you
win the fight, or sometimes I do it after I
score a goal or something.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
He stole this classy move from wrestling, and in two
thousand and five, when he was Trash as captain, it
became his signature victory celebration. Yep, this little dance number
sounds theatrical and quite ridiculous, but when you imagine Diamond Dave,
this tank of a man, spattered with the blood of
his rival, breaking invisible diamonds on his knee in front
(23:55):
of a roaring crowd, it's scary and Jimmy certainly approved.
Speaker 7 (24:03):
You'd always look up at Jimmy and give him a winker,
a thumbs up, or whatever you'd have to do with
her to get his approval.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
In fact, he made full use of Dave's terrifying on
ice persona. When Dave was suspended for playing too rough,
Jimmy would still ask him to attend game nights.
Speaker 7 (24:20):
He actually brought me just to sit behind the bench
of the opposing team to intimidate them.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
This bad boy bravado added to the drama of the
Trash's games. Fine, it was within the rules, but those
kind of antics outside the arena, well, that would be
a totally different story, a story the FBI are now
intent on looking into, because you see, Diamond, Dave and
(24:46):
Jimmy had an arrangement before Dave joined the Trashs. He'd
had a rich hockey career. He'd played everywhere from Canada
to Russia, but at thirty two, he'd hung up his skates.
That wasn't Jimmy and a handsome paycheck lured him back
onto the ice. As thrilling as it must have been
for Dave to get back to the sport he loved,
(25:09):
his post hockey future was also at the forefront of
his mind.
Speaker 7 (25:15):
They told Jimmy that I wanted a career as well,
so I signed a two year deal as a hockey
player and as a salesmant for the trash company.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
As the FBI look deeper into Jimmy, they start to
wonder what are tough hockey players like Diamond Dave McIsaac
doing on the payroll of Jimmy's trash company. They're probably
not just regular sales guys, right.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
They would go to customers who try to cancel the
contracts and bring employees of the company who were bigger
men who looked me, who looked the part, I'll say,
and many customers were intimidated into continuing their business relationship.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Dave is happy to admit his job at the yard
was unorthodox.
Speaker 7 (26:02):
You know, if someone was laid on a payment, I'd
go and knock on their door and say, hey, just
checking on when you're going to make a payment.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
But Dave says he left his brutal persona on the ice.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
Jimmy would say, oh, this guy's my collector, like making
it sound like it was a mafia thing where I'd
break bones or something. That wasn't the case. It was
just I'd go politely and knock on doors and say
you're one of delinquent on your payments. When can we
expect it?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Dave maintains he was the perfect gentleman when he worked
for the garbage company. If anyone felt threatened by his physique,
well that wasn't his problem. And Dave says that alongside
being captain of the Trashes and collecting debt for AWD
and sometimes intimidating rival players. He and his teammates had
other responsibilities too.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
Would have to make school appearances and hospital visits and
sign autographs in town for the community. And it worked
out great because in the community got more involved with
us and we gave back to them. So whether we
went for Earth Day to pick up trash with the community,
or we went to a school to read to children,
or we went to a hospital to visit some sick people,
(27:15):
it just built up our reputation throughout the community is
not only are these guys tough on the ice, but
they're you know, nice off the ice.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Jimmy had his team sign additional work contracts that paid
them for community work in Danbury. It all sounds quite nice,
to be honest. The players are earning a good living
and the people of Danbury get to watch their favorite
hockey team give back to their city win win, right. Well,
the FBI don't see it that way.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Galante did a variety of things to pay the players
more money.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Special agent Jeff Waterman says the extra contracts given to
the Trashes were foul play. Remember the NHL lock out.
How the league got suspended when they tried to introduce
a salary cap to keep the teams even stopping the
Richard teams from buying up all the best players. Well,
the UHL already had a salary cap, and it was
a hell of a lot lower than what the NHL
(28:13):
were proposing. These minor league pay restrictions made it tough
for the Glantes to recruit the players they wanted.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
So the investigation uncovered that Galante paid some of the
players more money, sometimes with cash and other times they
were being paid as both players on the hockey team
overtly legitimately, and then as employees or the relatives as
employees of the trash lawn companies in a no show status.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
They got wage.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Checks salaries as being employees at the trash companies and
never showed.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Up to work, so they didn't actually work there.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Some of the players I spoke to, some of them
seemed to say that they did actually work there sometimes,
like the younger players. I don't know if that came
up in your investigation.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah, I don't recall any evidence or information supporting the
idea that any of the players actually, you know, worked
at any of the Trash hall in companies, and there
would be quite surprising to me if any claimed that
they did. You know, it certainly within the realm of
anything's possible, but there was no evidence quite the contrary.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Speaking to Dave, it's clear that not all the extra
contracts given to the Trashes were no show, but the
FBI did gather evidence that a few were, and according
to Jeff, at the end of the day, all the
Trash's contracts effectively amounted to money laundering.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
You know, the ill gotten keynes from the business funneled
you know, into the hockey team.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
To be clear, Jeff isn't saying that he thinks Jimmy
set up the hockey team solely to clean dirty money.
He's saying Jimmy pa for the hockey team with the
money he earned through his business, a business Jeff and
his team had reason to believe was up to no good.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
The laws exist to prevent people from using ill gotten
games from specified unlawful activities in a way that ALLARGI
to use them legitimately if you will.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
I know what you're thinking. These crimes relating to the
Trashes will seem a bit technical. Paying players more than
you should. Okay, it gave the team an unfair advantage,
but it doesn't seem like the worst crime in the
world to me. That's not it. Though.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
There was a visiting team coming into Danbury. In Galante
instructed one of his subordinates to make contact with an associate,
and we learned that it was a police officer.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
In this conversation, Galante's associate and this police officer are
chatting about the rival hockey team due to play in Danbury.
They get talking about how the police officer might help
the trashes out.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
The police officer offered, if you get this bus to
come through my town, I'll write a warrant for whatever
you want. You know, this police officer was offering to
fabricate criminal offense against some members of this team.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
That's not just dirty play, it's a civil rights violation.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Yeah, when you take those kinds of lengths, you know,
I don't need to read his mind to know that
he wanted to win the hockey game.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
At costs like that.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
So in the summer of two thousand and five, as
the Galantes kicked back on the Lake George Beaches, the
FBI felt the time was right to take things up
a gear, so they're wiretups. Undercover surveillance and network of
informants had given them some information. They now needed physical evidence,
(31:54):
and they raided Jimmy's business, alerting the whole of Danbury
to their interest in thees. But it turns out Jimmy
wasn't the only person on the FBI's radar. Law enforcement
has started to get a whiff of just how dirty
Danbury's trash industry really was. That's coming up after the break.
(32:32):
When the FBI stormed into Danbury in the summer of
two thousand and five, they weren't just raiding Jimmy's yard.
Across the city, a number of homes and trash hauling
businesses were turned inside out in tandem, forty search warrants,
hundreds of agents. One of the yards getting the FBI
(32:52):
once over is Novella Sanitation, a much smaller business than
Jimmy's AWD, but a family dynasty to.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
My grandfather was in the trash business. My grandmother was
in the trash business. My father was in the trash business.
My mother was in the trash business. My uncle was
in the trash business. My cousins were in the trash business.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
This is AJ No, not that one. AJ Novella. Unlike
AJ Galante, he knew his destiny was not in the
garbage business. He went to college and skilled up in
a totally different profession.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Today, I'm a lawyer. I'm not involved in the trash
industry in any respect.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
AJ Novella was just a child when Jimmy Galante arrived
in Danbury in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
When I was a boy, I would often go on
the Novella's sanitation trucks.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
He telpout in the family business after school and on
the weekends, and these.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Trucks had to dump at Jimmy Galante's transfer station.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
A transfer station is a crucial part of the waste
disposal industry. It's where haullers bring the trash so that
it can get transferred to landfill sites out of town
or burnt on site. And by the time AJ Novella
remembers working with his dad, Jimmy Galante owns the biggest
transfer station in town, AWD.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Jimmy Galante. The White Street facility dwarfed any other facility
that a local haller maintained. Tall dumping facilities, huge bay doors,
piles of trash from Florida Ceiner and the trucks would
dump into that pile.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
AJ Novella alleges it was Jimmy who choked his family's
business out of the transfer station, but other sources suggest
that Novella's annotation was blocked because they hadn't paid their tab.
It's a chicken and egg question here. Were the Novellas
unable to pay their bills because Jimmy brought their business
to its knees, or was the business already struggling. Either way,
(35:12):
for Aj Novella's family business, being blocked from dumping their
trash was a total disaster.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
It became a crisis and a role couldn't be met on.
Employees started to leave and the collapse happened pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Novella's Annotation became an unviable business and was sold to
Jimmy Galante in May two thousand and five, but there
was a handover period where the Novellas had to work
under Jimmy for a few months.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Anyone who sold to Jimmy the owner had to work
for Jimmy for x amount of time, whether that's ego
or for transition of accounts purposes, or they all had.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
To go work for Jimmy, which was how aj novellas
as his family found themselves mixed up in the FBI
rate that swept through Danbury.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
I remember getting a call one night from my mother
in the middle of the night, and that was not
a normal time to get a call from my parents,
so I picked up with worry. My mother said, the
FBI rated our building. They're here right now. They trip
the alarm. I told her, don't talk to them, let
them do their thing. It was terrifying in a sense,
(36:25):
and hear and feel the fear and worry in her
voice and desperation asking me what should I do.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Being a savvy lawyer, A. J. Novella advises his parents
to let the FBI continue their raid and not to
say anything without an attorney present. In the weeks after
the raid, the family are left waiting for that dreaded
knock on the door, but nothing comes, no arrests, and
(36:57):
as for Jimmy, after the raid, like Awd's back to
business as normal. When reporter Eugene Driscoll meets him in
his office just days after the raid, he doesn't even
seem shaken. He hasn't been taken in for questioning he
hasn't been locked up. As the dust settles, all is
(37:18):
eerily serene.
Speaker 10 (37:20):
When they raided, everyone kind of knew there was an
investigation going on, but you know, it made news for
a day and then it kind of got kind of
swept under the rug in a way.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
But aj Galante could see dark clouds on the horizon.
Speaker 10 (37:37):
It kind of pens the needles, you know, waiting when's
this going to happen? And kind of knew what was coming,
but it's just waiting, right, It's like Christmas Eve, you
know Christmas is coming. It's just can't sleep because you're like,
when's it going to get here? Already?
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Before the room is spread out of Dunbrie, Jimmy doesnt
urgent damage control. He picks up the phone to Nighted
Hockey League Commissioner Richard Burcell.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
He called me and said, look, I don't know what
they're looking for, but they're not going to find anything.
But I just wanted you to know, you know, just
in case you hear anything like, all right, no problem for.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
A man who loves rules and has dedicated his life
to making people in the UHL abide by them. Commissioner
Brouscelle is surprisingly chill about an FBI rate on an
owner in his league. Surely there's no bigger red flag
for rule breaking than that. But when Jimmy calls, Burscell's
a little distracted.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
We're so busy preparing for the next season. I mean,
you have no idea the hours that it takes to
put a schedule together.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
As the Trash second season approaches, there isn't enough time
in the day for the commissioner to worry about one
of his owner's personal affairs.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
It wasn't a big enough red flag for me to
push the issue further.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Were you worried that things were maybe getting out of hands?
Speaker 8 (38:54):
No?
Speaker 4 (38:54):
I think if there was any worry it was is
he evading taxes again? Is that why they got him
once before? Are they trying to see if he's paying
his taxes again?
Speaker 1 (39:05):
And as for the Trashes players themselves, no doubt seeing
your team owner get raided by the FBI would have
raised a few eyebrows. But as the green leaves of
sum are begin to deepen into the reds and golds
of a beautiful Connecticut full the team have more pressing
matters on their minds. Their second season is nearly here.
(39:26):
They have a Colonial Cup to win and Brad Wring
Not Wingfield is determined to get back to the rink.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
The man was the size of the Empire State Building.
You knew something was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
He has plans to paint the ice red.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Winger told us he's going to injure that guy bad.
He wanted to break every bone in his body.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Wing Not wants revenge.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
I was going to try kill you.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
That's coming up next time on the Fighty Put. The
Fighting Fucks is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more
from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The series is hosted
(40:21):
by me Claire Crofton and produced by me Joe Wheeler
and Amalia Sortland. The executive producer is David Waters. Story
editing from Max O'Brien, Mitherlee Raws and Austin Mitchell. Our
field producer is Babette Thomas. Our fat checker is Darnia Suleiman.
(40:42):
Our hockey sensitivity reader is Nikhil Desai. Production management from
Scharie Houston and Charlotte Wolfe. Sound design, mixing and scoring
by Nicholas Alexander. Additional engineering by Daniel Kempson. Music supervision
by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters. Original music composed by
(41:04):
Eric Phillips. Willard Foxton is Creative Director of Development. Special
thanks to Sean Glynn, Katrina Novelle, David Vassiman, Sean ty
Tone and Beth Anne Macaluso novel
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