Angela Joyce "Big Ang" Raiola (June 30, 1960 – February 18, 2016) was an American

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

personality. She was the niece of Salvatore "Sally Dogs" Lombardi (1941–2009), a

caporegime A ''caporegime'' or ''capodecina'', usually shortened to ''capo'' or informally referred to as "captain", "skipper" or "lieutenant", is a leadership position in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia). A ''capo'' is a "made m ...

("capo") and drug dealer in the

Genovese crime family The Genovese crime family (), also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian Americans, Italian American American Mafia, Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and Ne ...

. Raiola dated gangsters and lived an opulent lifestyle. Raiola starred in the

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

reality television series ''

Mob Wives ''Mob Wives'' is an American reality television series that premiered on VH1 on April 17, 2011. The show focuses on the lives of several women residing in the New York City borough of Staten Island, whose family members and husbands have been ar ...

'' from its second to sixth and final season in 2016. She was featured in her own spin-off series '' Big Ang'' in 2012 and ''

Miami Monkey ''Miami Monkey'' is an American reality television series that premiered on VH1 on September 8, 2013. Developed as the third spin-off of '' Mob Wives'', the series chronicled Angela "Big Ang" Raiola as she opened up a second location of her Stat ...

'' in 2013. At age 55, Raiola died from complications of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

and

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

on February 18, 2016.

Life and career

2001 arrest

In May 2001, Raiola was one of fifteen defendants indicted—and later convicted—for their roles in a narcotics operation, which distributed

crack cocaine Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be Smoking, smoked. Crack offers a short, intense Euphoria (emotion), high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Sub ...

, powdered

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

, and

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. Federal agents described Raiola as an associate of the drug ring's leader, who was sentenced to nearly thirteen years in prison. She was provided cocaine for "street level distribution," according to an affidavit sworn by a

DEA The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domes ...

agent and an

NYPD The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

detective. Raiola sold the drug from Brooklyn bars where she worked. The case against Raiola and her codefendants was built with the aid of wiretapped conversations, the work of an undercover NYPD detective posing as a drug trafficker, and a confidential

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a "snitch", "rat", "canary", "stool pigeon", "stoolie", "tout" or "grass", among other terms) is a person who provides privileged information, or (usually damaging) information inten ...

(CI) who made cocaine buys at the direction of federal agents. Some targets of the federal investigation were low-level associates of the

Colombo crime family The Colombo crime family (, ) is an Italian American Mafia crime family and the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was during ...

. Raiola was indicted in May 2001 on six felony counts. Along with a conspiracy-to-distribute charge, she was hit with five counts related to separate cocaine sales she made to the CI. At the time of her arrest, Raiola's handbag contained fourteen small plastic bags containing cocaine. In March 2003, nearly two years after her arrest, Raiola—who was free on $100,000 bond—pleaded guilty to the indictment's top count. In October 2003, she was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to spend four months under home confinement. Nine months later, in July 2004, a federal judge issued an order modifying Raiola's probation conditions. She was directed by Judge

Sterling Johnson Jr. Sterling Johnson Jr. (May 14, 1934 – October 10, 2022) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Before his appointment to the bench in 1991, Johnson was an attorney for 25 ye ...

to enroll in "an outpatient and/or inpatient drug treatment or detoxification program." Court records do not indicate what prompted this order. Of the fifteen defendants indicted in the drug case, nine were sentenced to probation. The other six received prison terms ranging from 33 to 151 months.

The Drunken Monkey

In 2007, Raiola opened a

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

bar, The Drunken Monkey, with her cousin SallyAnn Lombardi who held the license, but the bar was forced to shut down in 2015 due to Raiola's past as a convicted felon.

Reality television

In 2011, Raiola was filmed in what would become her break into reality television, ''Mob Wives''. She made her debut as a regular cast member in the show's second season, which premiered January 1, 2012. Raiola would remain as a series regular for the remaining duration of the show's run, and while she filmed one reunion episode on February 13, she was on set for only two hours due to her illness.

Personal life and death

Raiola was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. She had two children, Raquel and Anthony (AJ) Donofrio. She married Neil Murphy in 2009. She died at the age of 55 on February 18, 2016, due to complications from lung cancer. At the time of her death, she lived in Ward Hill, New York.https://www.silive.com/entertainment/2017/02/big_angs_colorful_dream_home_s.html

Filmography

Bibliography

* ''Bigger Is Better: Real Life Wisdom from the No-Drama Mama''; (2012)

References

External links

*
Angela Raiola
on Find A Grave {{DEFAULTSORT:Raiola Angela 1960 births 2016 deaths Mass media people from Brooklyn 21st-century American actresses Actresses from Brooklyn American people of Italian descent Businesspeople from New York City Genovese crime family American people convicted of drug offenses Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state) Participants in American reality television series Television personalities from New York City American women television personalities