2 of 8

Who are we?

We are a Greece originated crime family who moved over to New York City led by Peter Kourakos. In 1975 under the leadership of Spyridon Velentzas the organization rose to prominence controlling a number of illegal gambling operations in the New York City area. The Greek organization operated from the Greek American neighborhood of Astoria, Queens. In the early 1980s, the group grew up to over 30 members and have gained many territory in Queens and Brooklyn by taking over more illegal gambling rackets, dice games and horse-racing parlors. Velentzas maintained a close working relationship with Lucchese crime family’s Consigliere Christopher Furnari. The Lucchese family provided protection to the Greeks, and received a portion of their gambling profits. Some of the criminal activities that the Velentzas Crime Family would do is Racketeering, loansharking, extortion, and of course gambling. On june 1st 1985, Velentzas was found guilty of murder, loan sharking, gambling, and tax fraud charges, while being found not guilty on one murder charge. Velentzas was later found guilty, for the murder of Sarecho Nalo and was sentenced to life in prison.

3 of 8

How we started.

After serving in the Greek Army in both WW2 and the Greek Civil War, Spyros Velentzas immigrated to Chicago to work in his father's deli, but due to a local gang extorting the business, there was a high risk of them having to shut down the deli. Soon after this, Spyros reached out to a side of the family which his father had cut ties with for help. His uncle, from a young age, was always getting into trouble and after serving his time in the Greek Army began to use his knowledge of firearms to build weapons and sell them illegally. When Spyros’ mother was pregnant she cut ties with his uncle to keep Spyros out of trouble. Although he had been warned about his uncle, he called him to take care of the people extorting his father's deli. As Spyros moved back to Greece to assist his uncle in dealing with the gangsters, he was contacted by his father who told him that he wouldn’t be welcomed in the household as long as he kept relations and communication with his uncle. The next time the men showed up a group of gangsters sent by Spyros’ uncle began to beat them up telling them never to come back, and they listened. When Spyros arrived back in Chicago, His dad had figured out Spyros had continued contact with his uncle, and he became furious and kicked Spyros out on the street. Spyros then contacted his uncle, who now lived in New York, in search of work and was put to work doing small errands like driving his uncle around, picking up scrap metal, and collecting some money. But over time Spyros gained greater responsibility in his uncle's business, learning from him how to make weapons such as the guns used in his time in the army. One day Spyros’ uncle came to him sending him to sell weapons to a few crime organizations in Boston and New York City, explaining he would send the guns to him in crates of kosher Israeli meat claiming that the customs agents could not open the crates to keep them holy and as well as paying off people along the way. In 1981, Spyros’ uncle passed away due to old age, and a few years later, Spyros continued business with a few of his uncle's men in order to do business in New York City and ended up growing into a full scale crime organization with more than one source of income by 1985.

4 of 8

What we bring to new york

We own a business that has a bar area with gambing tables to carry on our tradition.We are gonna own this as a legal business and have our criminal side as well controlling large drug trades ,guns and so much more while still staying undetected by the police.We call it hiding in plain sight our motto is “keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer” and we live by that nothing means more to us that our family and we will do anything and everything to keep each other safe.

5 of 8

Did Velentzas have any Rivals?

Yes, Velentzas had one big rival by the name of “Rudaj Organization”. By the late 1980’s Fotios Dimopoulos began leading the Greek crew and controlled the gambling operations in Astoria, Queens for the Lucchese family. In June , the Albanian Rudaj Organization began extorting Fotios Dimopoulos and attacked his associate Antonios Balampanis, an Albanian who spoke Greek in order to take control of gambling rackets in Astoria, Queens. The Rudaj Organization was based in the Bronx and Westchester and supported by the Gambino family. On August 3, 2001, Rudaj Organization members Ljusa Nuculovic and five others attacked Dimopoulos's associate Antonios Balampanis who was running a gambling club known as Soccer Fever. The Rudaj Organization entered the club attacking the Greek associates of the Lucchese family and beating Balampanis with a pistol. After the attacks the Rudaj Organization took control of the Greek dice game barbout. In 2004, the leaders of the Rudaj Organization including Nuculovic were imprisoned on numerous racketeering charges.

1 of 8

2 of 8

3 of 8

4 of 8

5 of 8

6 of 8

7 of 8

8 of 8