Jerry Gazzetta person
also: G-U-Z-Z-E-T-T-A, Gazetta, Guzzetto, Rosetta, Guzetta, Grisetta, Gussetta, Gary Gussetta, Gazzetta
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
Torres brothersperson · 11Victor Gillperson · 7Los Angelesplace · 7Laguna Beach Police Departmentorganization · 5Carl Knudsenperson · 4Daniel Blantonperson · 3Floyd "Freeway" Rick Rossperson · 2Pablo Escobarperson · 2Medellin Cartelorganization · 2Blanton Raidevent · 2Freeway Motor Innplace · 1Annie Rossperson · 1Richard Loveperson · 1Big Bear Ski Resortplace · 1Torres Brothersorganization · 1United Statescountry · 1Blanton familyorganization · 1Colombiacountry · 1Riverside County Sheriff's Departmentorganization · 1Los Angeles Timesorganization · 1Ron Listerperson · 1Norwin Menendezperson · 1Tom Gordonperson · 1Project Saharaoperation · 1
Claims (10)
Jerry Gazzetta recruited
Torres brothers host_asserted
“It was arranged that Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for the Torreses to plead guilty to drug charges under false names. They were given suspended sentences, put on probation and turned over to Gazzetta, who was assigned as th…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 15 @ 29:26
Jerry Gazzetta founded
Project Sahara host_asserted
“He had observed the movement of 750,000, 230,000, 130,000, and 150,000, respectively. Guzetta began compiling his debriefing notes into a series of reports. He titled it Project Sahara because he figured the Torreses could help dry up the c…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 15 @ 32:50
Jerry Gazzetta exposed
Victor Gill host_asserted
“And he got off with two years for involuntary manslaughter. So he had every right to hate them. They invited him to join their surveillance of Gil. The trio soon discovered that Gil was buying the money machines for Colombian traffickers wh…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 15 @ 23:16
Jerry Gazzetta exposed
Torres brothers host_asserted
“to get a search warrant for the addresses of the Torres brothers. On August 11, 1986, Guzeta and his federal friends raided them. They hit the jackpot. They found $400,000 in a closet of one of the houses. That was fair change. But Torreses…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 15 @ 26:56
Jerry Gazzetta exposed
Rick and Ollie host_asserted
“Guzetta listened with his mouth open as the brothers rattled off names, dates, delivery sites, and routes of transportation. The two black dealers in South Central, they reported, are generating a conservative figure of $10 million a month.…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 15 @ 33:51
Jerry Gazzetta exposed
Project Sahara host_asserted
“He had observed the movement of 750,000, 230,000, 130,000, and 150,000, respectively. Guzetta began compiling his debriefing notes into a series of reports. He titled it Project Sahara because he figured the Torreses could help dry up the c…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 15 @ 32:50
Jerry Gazzetta exposed
Torres brothers host_asserted
“While they made the rounds, dropping off dope, picking up cash from the customers in South L.A., the reliability of the confidential informants were substantiated. Gio reported to his bosses a few days later. Under the control of Detective …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 15 @ 32:20
Jerry Gazzetta exposed
Daniel Blanton host_asserted
“source. Two of the Colombians they knew only by nicknames. One they knew quite well, Daniel Blanton. The informants related that Daniel Blanton is extremely dangerous because of his access to information who's at a road and further as extre…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 15 @ 34:21
Jerry Gazzetta exposed
Torres brothers host_asserted
“He had observed the movement of 750,000, 230,000, 130,000, and 150,000, respectively. Guzetta began compiling his debriefing notes into a series of reports. He titled it Project Sahara because he figured the Torreses could help dry up the c…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 15 @ 32:50
Jerry Gazzetta investigated
Blanton family guest_asserted
“He filed a lawsuit against the city, which was later settled out of court, and he retired. He remains convinced that he and the majors were targeted for destruction because of their investigation of Blanton. Every policeman who ever got clo…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 21 @ 57:20
Mentions (30)
▶ 21:18
The two agents were on the prowl for money launderers, and a good way to find them was to track the sales of money counting machines. T.O. and Knudsen dropped by Bell Police Department to see if anyone knew anything about this guy buying al…
▶ 21:46
G-U-Z-Z-E-T-T-A, was on duty, and he knew Gil well. He'd arrested him on cocaine charges a few years earlier and was more than happy to help the federal agents bust him again. You can't investigate money laundering without getting into dope…
▶ 22:16
And he was a one man investigation stop that had impressive results. In November of 1985, he'd been the subject of a glowing piece in the L.A. Times for his work in taking down a large Colombian trafficking ring. Some of his fellow officers…
▶ 24:20
Cash seized from traffickers and money launderers began being used to pay officers' salaries for overtime. So, in other words, we don't want to bust people too far up the chain. We just want to get the medium down so we can pay our bills. T…
▶ 24:50
to federal agents. They could find the suspect. Guzetta could help them surveil it, issue the search warrant, and take part of the money. The trio did some very good work together at first, Gio said. We took a lot of dope off the street and…
▶ 25:53
as much as a million dollars in the bank, Guzetta said. The federal agents approached Guzetta and asked him if he wouldn't mind helping because one of the banks was in the city of Vell. Guzetta began talking to the depositors, which was eas…
▶ 26:56
to get a search warrant for the addresses of the Torres brothers. On August 11, 1986, Guzeta and his federal friends raided them. They hit the jackpot. They found $400,000 in a closet of one of the houses. That was fair change. But Torreses…
▶ 27:26
hidden in nondescript rental houses around the city. The raid didn't produce any cocaine. Guzetta said that the brothers disclaimed ownership of the $400,000, handing it over to the feds, which satisfied the two, Gio and Knudsen. They seize…
▶ 27:56
because all they really had on them was a currency violation. Even if they were convicted, they'd pull three years at the most and be out in a year and a half. But Guzzetto wasn't willing just to let the brothers loose. If he couldn't put t…
▶ 28:28
who were close relatives of the Medellin cartel boss, Pablo Escobar. In his 1996 interview, Norwin Menendez confirmed the relationship between the women and Escobar. Guzeta said Torreses were informed that no charges would be filed against …
▶ 28:55
and then deported as undesirable aliens and never allowed back into the United States. To the rest of the world, it would seem like the brothers had sacrificed their women to save themselves. That would have been their Latin culture. Even w…
▶ 29:26
It was arranged that Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for the Torreses to plead guilty to drug charges under false names. They were given suspended sentences, put on probation and turned over to Gazzetta, who was assigned as th…
▶ 29:54
that if anyone found out that they were informants, including their girlfriends, they would be killed. During a debriefing in August of 1986, the Torreses told Rosetta that they were convinced their girlfriends had already hired assassins. …
▶ 30:20
The informants advised if they were found dead in some other location, that it was their girlfriends that had contracted their killing. That's crazy. That the method which would probably be used was lethal injection of drugs to show up as a…
▶ 31:52
extravagant claims but this took the cake he said no one he had questioned claimed to have 500 million dollars laying around these guys were right off the streets they had absolutely no credibility as far as i was concerned guzetta said to …
▶ 32:20
While they made the rounds, dropping off dope, picking up cash from the customers in South L.A., the reliability of the confidential informants were substantiated. Gio reported to his bosses a few days later. Under the control of Detective …
▶ 32:50
He had observed the movement of 750,000, 230,000, 130,000, and 150,000, respectively. Guzetta began compiling his debriefing notes into a series of reports. He titled it Project Sahara because he figured the Torreses could help dry up the c…
▶ 47:37
The dealers, Jamie Ramos, one day in early September 1986, they told Bell narcotics detective Jerry Guzetta that Ramos and another man was going to be making a pickup from two dealers that day at an abandoned apartment house in South Centra…
▶ 49:36
Plotted their next move, Jerry Guzetta asked the Torres brothers to show him around South Central. He wanted to know more about this black dealer by the name of Rick. They drove Guzetta to a vacant two-story apartment building and told Guze…
▶ 50:05
They pointed out a multi-story apartment building they said served as one of his distribution centers. Even during the middle of the week, there were a lot of activity. Young men lounging around on the curb, hanging in doorways. But the Tor…
▶ 50:37
Swinging by another place, the brothers pointed out a newly constructed motel named Freeway Motor Inn. Rick had bought the land for a million dollars, and they told Gussetta that he had built the hotel there and that Rick's mother, Annie, w…
▶ 54:51
When they went to the house, he started working his way down a list of other men that Torres brothers had provided him. It was not promising, but it was full of Colombians. The information was much harder on one particular guy, Daniello Bla…
▶ 1:01:31
Then Gordon noticed that Menendez had been under investigation in Costa Rica as well. So again, this system is being used to protect the drug traffickers. When Jerry Gazzetta brought the case in the door, he'd been insisting that he'd uncov…
▶ 15:17
The government was bringing drugs into the country and shipping weapons back out, Bartlett said. He also said that he was informed that Ronald Lister had done jobs for the federal government and we weren't so sure he hadn't done hit jobs fo…
▶ 17:43
answered the door. Deputy Dan Garner of Majors 2 showed her the search warrant. The raid team shouldered her aside and spanned the house, emptying drawers and closets. Blanton and their 10-year-old daughter watched the agents rummage around…
▶ 31:46
Throughout the afternoon, the deputies compared notes and concluded that they had been had. Someone burned us. After the search warrants had been served, the word among the investigators was the operation had been compromised. It appeared t…
▶ 32:18
Federal agents had burned the investigation, pointing out that previous raids they had conducted on the basis of Torres Brother information always produced large amounts of cocaine and money. The only difference between this raid and those …
▶ 56:24
Bell PD detective Jerry Gazzetta, the narcotics officer who originally began the investigation, was accused of stealing cocaine but never charged. In 1988, IRS agent Carl Knudsen, who'd had a falling out with Gazzetta over his handling of t…
▶ 56:53
The L.A. County Sheriff's Department was called in to investigate, but couldn't find any evidence that Gazzetta had anything to do with it. Indeed, it was discovered that the Bell Police had given one of the keys of the locker to a convicte…
▶ 57:20
He filed a lawsuit against the city, which was later settled out of court, and he retired. He remains convinced that he and the majors were targeted for destruction because of their investigation of Blanton. Every policeman who ever got clo…