Tapes detail Natale's wish to control Camden construction deals

By FRANK KUMMERand CLINT RILEY
Courier-Post staff
CAMDEN

A buoyant Ralph Natale called a business associate and laid out a plan to mine riches from the poverty of Camden.

"You gotta read there what's happening around you - acres of diamonds," Natale said, referring to a newspaper story on millions in tax dollars poised to pour into a federal empowerment zone in the city.

The diminutive but deadly mob boss borrowed the phrase, " acres of diamonds," from a turn-of-the-century Philadelphia preacher, who exhorted people to seek a spiritually richer life in their own backyards.

Natale, 69, was looking for something more material.

His remarks, secretly taped on Sept. 13, 1996, reflected his brash scheme to take advantage of one of the poorest cities in the nation by allegedly paying off its mayor.

The tape was one of 28 presented to jurors this week in the federal corruption trial of Mayor Milton Milan.

Prosecutors allege Milan took part in numerous schemes to sell his office, pocketing up to $100,000 in cash and gifts in return for his influence in obtaining city contracts or jobs.

The mob is just one component in a 19-count indictment against the mayor. Prosecutors say Milan took up to $30,000 in payments from Natale or his associates between March 1996 and June 1998.

Milan has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney, Carlos A. Martir, has said he plans to show another interpretation of the taped conversations.

Martir also contends that Milan cut off all communications with Natale's intermediary, Daniel Daidone, when he learned of possible mob connections. Daidone has not been charged with any crimes.

Martir is to begin cross-examining Natale on Monday.

The secretly recorded conversations give a glimpse into Natale's goal of controlling millions in government construction contracts.

Eighteen of the tapes presented this week were made by federal agents tapping Natale's home phone at his apartment in Pennsauken. Seven came from a tap of Daidone's cell phone. Three were made at Garden State Park in conversations between Natale and former mob captain Ronald Previte, who is now cooperating with authorities.

When the tapes were made, Natale was the boss of the the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia. However, he now is a cooperating federal witness.

The tapes in the Milan case - federal investigators compiled more than 2,200 - begin in February 1996 and show the evolution of mob plans forming while Milan was city council president.

Natale had arranged for Caesar A. Ortiz, who grew up in the same South Philadelphia neighborhood as the mobster, to front Trans-Aero Inc., an electrical contracting firm. Natale hoped to use Ortiz's Puerto Rican heritage to land government contracts intended for minority firms.

Natale testified he placed Daidone in the company to work with Ortiz. Daidone, the mob boss said, was to pay off Milan - in cash - to grease the wheels of the city's bureaucracy.

Natale and Daidone talked regularly over the phone - and often about Milan, the tapes show.

"Anything else from over the city?" Natale asks Daidone in one early tape.

"We'll still keep workin' on our friends from over there - your friend from over there," Daidone responds.

Natale, an admitted killer, arsonist and extortionist, told jurors this week that he was referring to Milan.

In their conversations, Natale and Daidone appear careful never to mention Milan by name, only referring to him obliquely with terms such as "our guy."

Ortiz, not a mobster, slips several times. In a conversation from March 1996, Daidone and Ortiz agree to discuss business with Milan at his City Hall office.

"What's his office number, do you know?" Daidone asks Ortiz.

"No," Ortiz replies. "All I know is that he's Councilman Milan."

It is the first of several mentions of Milan by name in the tapes. But the tapes don't make clear if Milan - a contractor at the time - knew he was dealing with the mob and its associates, or if he thought he was simply helping fellow contractors with the bid process.

In court, Natale said Milan knew full well whom he was dealing with.

The tapes make it clear that mob plans quickly unraveled. Natale became frustrated with Ortiz's inability to land contracts, some of which had the potential to gross from $ 500,000 to $1 million.

In fact, it appears the mob never landed any work in Camden. In a May 1996 conversation, Natale tells Daidone that Ortiz has not worked out.

"I gotta start facing reality," the mob boss says. "This guy ain't gonna do nothing."

Natale also began to suspect his phone was tapped.

"You hear that on the phone?" Natale asks Daidone when he hears a noise during the same conversation, which focused on a possible $900,000 contract from the Latin American Economic Development Association in Camden.

"Yeah, yeah," Daidone responds. "Amazing, isn't it."

"OK, they're listening," Natale says. "I don't know what they're listening for. I have people trying to make a living."

In May 1997, Natale is jubilant when Milan is elected mayor.

Milan "will do anything in the world for me," Natale tells Previte in hushed tones in a May 1997 conversation recorded at the Cherry Hill racetrack.

Natale further said that Milan invited him to his inaugural ball.

Natale didn't attend any inaugural events, saying he couldn't be seen with Milan. Instead, the mobster testified, he put $3,000 in an envelope and sent it to the new mayor.

"I always took care of him," said Natale, who admitted on the witness stand that the money came from loansharking, extortion and drug sales.

"He was going to be the golden goose who laid the golden eggs."