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  • Chicago Outfit ‘Video Poker King’ Arrested for Burglarizing Wealthy Restaurateur

    Posted on: October 20, 2025, 07:23h. 

    Last updated on: October 20, 2025, 07:23h.

    • Outfit-connected burglary suspects include Casey Szaflarski and Paul Koroluk
    • Kane County charges follow 2012 federal conviction for illegal gambling
    • Prosecutors say burglary crew stole cash and jewelry from restaurateur

    A man once pegged as the Chicago Outfit’s video gambling “kingpin” has landed himself back in court, this time for allegedly burglarizing the home of a notable restaurateur with the help of the son of a former state senator, The Chicago Sun Times reports.

    Szaflarski, Chicago Outfit, Paul Koroluk, Louis Capuzi, West Dundee burglary
    Reputed Mob associate Casey Szaflarski, pictured after his most recent arrest, is accused of burglarizing the home of a millionaire restaurateur in Chicago’s far north suburbs. (Image: Kane County Sheriff’s Office)

    Back in 2012, federal prosecutors said Casey Szaflarski ran video poker operations for Mob boss Michael “Fat Mike” Sarno.

    Sarno was sentenced to 25 years in prison for racketeering and extortion – and for ordering the pipe bombing of the headquarters of a rival to his video-poker machine empire.

    Szaflarski, now 67, served around three years in federal prison for his role in the racket and was released in 2015.

    Unnamed Victim

    According to court records that have only now come to light, Szaflarski was indicted May 28 in Kane County, Ill. on felony charges related to a break-in on or around March 18 at a residential property in unincorporated West Dundee, a far north Chicago suburb.

    The unnamed victim is a “Chicago area restaurateur whose establishments are pulling in millions of dollars through video gambling,” but the victim’s lawyer said he did not believe the case had anything to do with gaming machines, according to the Sun-Times.

    Charging documents allege the crew took “currency and/or jewelry” valued between $10,000 and $100,000.

    Indicted along with Szaflarski are Louis Capuzi Jr, son of the late Republican state representative Louis F. Capuzi, and Paul Koroluk.

    LK Street Crew

    Koroluk was identified by state prosecutors in 2014 as co-leading the Panozzo-Koroluk (LK) Street Crew, part of a Grand Avenue Outfit crew run by Outfit boss Albert “Little Guy” Vena.

    Investigators began focusing on the crew in October 2013 after uncovering evidence that Koroluk’s partner, Robert Panozzo Sr., had allegedly plotted to have a witness in a home-invasion and kidnapping case murdered to keep them from testifying at trial, according to a Chicago Tribune story at the time. Capuzi was identified as a member of the same crew in the story.

    Koroluk, who has an extensive and publicly documented criminal history, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2014 for felony racketeering. That’s after he pleaded guilty to being part of a group that posed as police officers to rob drug cartel stash houses. It’s not clear when he was released.

    Amy Johnson of the Kane County Sheriff’s Office, which is handling the case, says it is still pending and “being worked on.”

    Philip Conneller

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  • Jimmy Hoffa riddle continues 49 years later; FBI file connects Teamsters boss to Chicago mob

    Jimmy Hoffa riddle continues 49 years later; FBI file connects Teamsters boss to Chicago mob

    CHICAGO (WLS) — It was 49 years ago this week that the former Teamsters union leader, Jimmy Hoffa, vanished without a trace, and the Hoffa riddle is a befitting title for the anniversary week of his disappearance.

    ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

    James R. Hoffa’s middle name was Riddle, and the case remains that for the FBI and it’s one of America’s most enduring crime questions: What Happened to Jimmy Hoffa?

    Hoffa was last seen July 30, 1975 outside a swanky restaurant near Detroit for a lunch date with two known gangsters that never happened.

    Hoffa’s last call was made from a pay phone to his wife to say he’d been stiffed.

    The Scoop That Never Was: 40 years ago Jimmy Hoffa probably disappeared before my eyes!

    For years authorities followed leads in fields on horse farms; under a backyard swimming pool; beneath a home garage; at a New Jersey dump-site and in the concrete of an NFL stadium, but nothing came of the searches.

    Mobologists continue to zero in on Hoffa’s ties to the Chicago Outfit that had infested the Teamsters Union Central State’s Pension Fund worth millions, which helped bankroll early Las Vegas.

    “The growth of Las Vegas in the 1950s and 60s in particular, was fueled largely by the Teamsters Pension Fund, and by Jimmy Hoffa, I mean, I felt was a huge figure in Las Vegas at that time. It was funded in the mid 60s, almost entirely by Teamsters money. And so Jimmy Hoffa was treated like royalty,” explained Geoff Schumacher, Vice President of Exhibits and Programs at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

    READ MORE: Jimmy Hoffa: FBI knows the backstory

    It was a different story after Hoffa did prison time for fraud and jury tampering and then tried to muscle back into the union.

    The official FBI “Hoffex” file concludes that he “was killed because of his attempts to re-enter Teamster Union politics.”

    The FBI has focused on New Jersey hoodlum Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano and Detroit mafia chief Anthony “Tony Jack” Giacalone, both of whom Hoffa was to meet at that restaurant 49 years ago this week.

    Authorities have indicated it was a likelihood that Chicago outfit bosses signed off on the gangland hit.

    “It could very well be that the outfit endorsed it, promoted, wanted it to happen, but wanted to keep its fingers off, too, right because they would be immediately suspect. So as soon as you you know, and it was a outfit at that time was one of the most investigated organized crime groups in America, right, said Schumacher, “The fact that they perhaps were not Chicago hit-man that maybe it was a combination of New Jersey and you know, and Detroit figures made it a little harder to solve the case.”

    RELATED: New tip in search for Jimmy Hoffa’s body leads police to Roseville, Michigan

    Schumacher tells the I-Team that Jimmy Hoffa tried to big-foot Chicago mob bosses and that Hoffa’s replacement Frank Fitzsimmons was always more of a patsy for the Outfit. He suggests that may also have been a motivation for the mob to eliminate Hoffa.

    Most investigators to this day believe Hoffa’s body has never been found because it was quickly dissolved in a chemical vat at a Detroit factory.

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    Chuck Goudie

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