The one-armed mobster accused of masterminding $1.7M Chanel heist | Jesse Weber Live

A one-arm alleged Gambino mobster is accused of orchestrating a nearly $2 million burglary at Chanel's flagship store in Manhattan, pulling off what prosecutors say is one of the biggest retail heists in recent New York City history. Authorities say they claim in July 2024, Thomas Tommy Dono led a crew of 10 thieves, several who disguised themselves as construction workers, and broke in through a stockroom ceiling hatch. They went to work for three hours inside the store. Surveillance footage apparently captured large bags stuffed with merchandise being lowered down a rear fire escape exit, like the handiwork of a gang of bad Santas. And then, prosecutors claim the bags were moved through a nearby building that was under construction and loaded it into a waiting van. They made off with roughly 300 luxury items valued at nearly $1.8 million, and so far none of that merchandise has been recovered. As for Dono, he allegedly supervised the whole operation from a minivan parked outside the store. Apparently almost got away with it, if you believe the allegations. Investigators though, they say they spotted him early because of what they described as unique physical characteristics. In other words, having one arm made him stand out in the video. Now Dono has pleaded not guilty to grand larceny. He was released on $300,000 bond. And meanwhile, investigators say they expect more arrests. I'm joined now by someone who's familiar with Dono. Gene Borello is a former organized crime associate, author of the book, Born in the Life, Gene Borello, the story of an ex-Banano family mafia enforcer. Gene, thanks so much for coming on. Look, he's innocent until proven, unless proven guilty, but I gotta say, first of all, what do we know about him? What do you know about him? What's your relationship to him? I didn't know him personally, but I knew the guy that he worked under, a guy named Big Louie. Big Louie was a big time captain. He was actually on the panel running the family at one time. So I didn't know much about him, but I knew the guy that he worked for. I know that he is a soldier for the Gambino family, but I don't know much about him himself. So again, these are allegations, innocent unless proven guilty. Is this something that sounds like he and a crew would do? I mean, listen, I was a big heist guy myself, so I know 10 people on one score is really bad. You know, I never really heard that. That's a lot of people. Why is it bad? Just like it can get complicated. They might turn. What is it? I've never heard of that. And it has to go. So you have to understand something. If the score is for 1.8 million. So they say, right? Yeah. How much do you think they're getting for that? When they go to sell it under the table? What do you think? Around what? Yeah. I don't know. You tell me. I don't even know where the good. I mean, I'm telling you, because it's like 600,000 at most. You know, you got to sell it under the table. You have a fence already. It's going to take it from you. And they give you a number already. Hey, listen, we're going to give you X, Y and Z per item. So by the way, how does that work? So they sell, they send it to a fence. And then what does the fence do with it? How do they discard it? And it's not all at once. Right. So I'll give you a perfect example. I had a jewelry store in Manhattan before for 2 million and we only got 500,000 in cash. Think about that. So, you know what I mean? It's the same thing. So you might be all this money amount, but you're only going to get a certain percentage of it. You know what I mean? So you're whacking up 5,000, 10 ways. It's not even worth it. Look, at the same time, they did make off with like 300 items. I hear what you're saying about the profit and the turnaround. But at the same time, I mean, in a way, if he's the only one arrested, are you surprised by that? There's been no more arrests that he's the only one that they seem to have found so far. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty weird. I think the whole thing is weird. Being in a store for three hours. I never heard of such a thing in my life. Yeah. I thought that was strange too. I usually think it's a quick grab and go, right? I've never heard of anything like that in my life. That's like almost an inside job. It just doesn't make sense to sit in there for three hours. So okay. So assuming for a moment that the allegations are true and Donald is the mastermind, who does he hire for this? Because if I'm understanding correctly, these are people who are not quite sophisticated in this. I mean, honestly, yeah. When we would do things, it's your own crew. He has to have guys under him. I mean, he's not going to just hire anybody. It's got to be guys that are probably professional thieves usually or, you know, in this business. I can't, I don't understand 11 people or 10 people on a score. I've never heard that in my entire existence. It makes absolutely no sense. Is this one of those cases where they're, again, I go back to how many people were allegedly involved that, you know, some of them are apprehended. They might turn state's witness and end up testifying. Right. Yeah. But you understand it's not even worth it. What they did. You're saying 1.8 million. I understand what you're saying. The number. But that's not what they're going to get. Right. It's not. They make it sound juicy for the papers, but these guys didn't come out. If they came out with 500,000, they got lucky. I'll be honest with you. You know, I did a whole special in Las Vegas recently where I talked about the mafia in Las Vegas. And there's a question, is the mafia dead? Are they still prevalent? When you hear a story like this happening, you know, allegedly two years ago, it seems like they're, they're still around now. They're still, they're still around. It's just the violence got taken away. That's all it is. You know, the, the, the murders and all the real bad stuff is gone now. That doesn't happen anymore. That's gone. Completely gone. No more. No more hits. They're not even allowed to order it. Yeah. What was the rationale? It gets too messy. It creates, it creates cooperators because at the end of the day, when you kill, you're facing a death penalty, a life sentence, you know, usually guys are cooperating over the time. You know, a lot of guys, you know, you don't have the serious defenses. Guys are going to hold down 10 years, eight years, seven years, you know what I mean? So it creates rats. So what kind of businesses are they in, in big cities? All legit now. All legit now? All legit. No, I mean, they're going into businesses. They'll go into, um, trucking companies, concrete companies, you know, everything that they made illegally, they brought into, um, legit, legit businesses now. Interesting. Yeah. When I was doing the Vegas conversation, it was like, they have a hand in all the workers, like the waiters, right? The union staff, things like that. Unions. Yeah. They control the unions. But you gotta understand, they give, they'll give you 10 years for loan shocking. Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. You know what I mean? It's not even worth it no more. Gene, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Thank you for watching. Subscribe below and download our NewsNation app right now on your phone and you will get fact-based, unbiased news for all Americans.