The Jersey Wars

Chapter 7 - Blowing Up In The World

October 1988

The Newark Star-Ledger reported that on the afternoon of my car bombing, I was on my way to deliver three kilos of cocaine to someone in Elizabeth. It was a complete and total falsehood and I should've sued them for slander. Here, let me explain.

That Saturday morning I was meeting with the crew on Academy Street. Since the massacre in Camden, Ditta and Costanzo was sparing no expense to eradicate all of our business interests as well as just making life difficult in general. It wasn't only me that was under the gun, Rah and E were having the same troubles in Trenton and in Camden respectively.

As I sat listening to my crew air their grievances that Saturday morning, I knew that we had to do something or else everything that we had worked so hard to build would be destroyed. We had local police and politicians on our payroll, but Ditta and Costanzo had access to judges, state troopers, police chiefs, and state officials, and there was no way in Hell that any of us could compete with that kind of influence. There had to be a way to swing the odds in our favor. It was times like this when Lil D was missed more than ever.

"....and everything that I had going on in Morris Plains AND Parsippany was shut down and confiscated!" Mark angrily finished.

"You have friends in the police departments of these cities right?" I asked while already knowing the answer.

"Of course I do J," he responded with a heavy sigh. "One of them told me that the orders to raid me had come down from the police commissioner himself and that their hands are tied on it."

"I know what you mean," Dunna stated in his typical laid back persona. "My police contacts in Wayne and Paterson told me the exact same thing after destroying all of my shit."

"This is coming from Ditta and Costanzo?" Tre asked while wiping the sweat from his forehead with a monogrammed handkerchief. "They have reach like that?"

"Of course they do," I answered. "Ditta is the Boss of All Bosses for the ENTIRE country so it stands to reason that his political and police resources overshadow ours by a colossal amount."

Looking at Ghost and KC I queried, "What's the word on the street?"

Laughing sarcastically Ghost replied, "The word is that we're poison. I'm hearing that the mafia's been going around the city saying not to do any business with us if cats cherish breathing."

"We need to hit one of them motherfuckers," KC said unequivocally. "Or both of 'em. These niggas are playing foul right now."

"There's no possible way for us to even get close enough to Costanzo or Ditta to aim a gun," I said. "They're counting on us trying to get at them in which case they would then be able to touch us. I'm sure that Ditta went to The Commission about it and received the go-ahead."

"Fuck!" Mark exclaimed. "So how are we going to get these bastards off of our backs? We're losing money behind this bullshit."

"They are too I'd imagine," Tre said. "Getting at us means they're not handling their own business."

Growing tired from all of the back and forth I stood up, "All of this is getting us nowhere. We can't allow Ditta and Costanzo to instigate us into taking action against them. They have more resources at their disposal than we do, and the last thing any of us needs is to have to watch our back 24-7. We'll figure out a solution I assure you, but for now just lay low until something presents itself."

Nodding their heads though not especially excited, everyone except Tre and Ghost got up from the table and prepared to leave. Looking at Ghost I told him, "Go and get the truck turned around to the front."