According to the feds, 83-year old Peter Limone was the official boss of the New England Mafia also known as the Patriarca crime family until his death last month.

The veteran wiseguy is believed to have taken over as boss sometime in 2009 after the retirement of his predecessor Luigi Manocchio. It is unclear however just how involved Limone had been within the Cosa Nostra family the last couple of years and some mafia experts believed he was at least semi-retired and perhaps acting more in an advisory capacity. When Limone took the reins it signaled a shift in the crime families power base from Providence to Boston. That trend is likely to continue if acting boss Carmen “The Cheeseman” Dinunzio is officially named as the families new boss.

“Carmen DiNunzio“

Carmen who most likely got his nickname at least in part because of his fresh cheese shop in Boston’s North End has steadily made his way through the ranks of the organization. Shortly after Limone took over as the boss in 2009 he was arrested on racketeering charges and promoted Carmen’s brother Anthony DiNunzio to the acting boss. Carmen moved up the ladder along with his brother moving up from captain to become the family, new underboss. But later that year he pleads guilty to corruption charges and was sentenced to six years in prison. His brother Anthony’s run was also cut short when he plead guilty to racketeering and extortion charges in 2012 and was also sent to prison for a six-year stretch.

According to reports when Carmen was released from prison in 2015 he took back control of the families Boston faction and became the new acting boss of the Patriarca family. The Cheeseman is believed to be in control of the families day to day operations and is the most likely candidate to officially take control. But a case can certainly be made for longtime Rhode Island mobster Matthew Guglielmetti to also become the new boss of the family. Guglielmetti a second-generation mobster with a solid reputation on the streets is believed to currently hold the rank of underboss and controls the Providence faction of the mafia in New England. He was released from prison back in 2014 after doing an 11 year stretch on drug charges.

Guglielmetti has been a key player in various aspects of the crime family for some time and certainly has the mob pedigree that makes him worthy of the top spot. But it seems unlikely that Guglielmetti would make a push to become boss if it meant causing any turbulence in the already beleaguered crime family. With the Boston faction becoming the power within the organization it seems that Carmen DiNunzio has the easier path to the top spot and with the family currently trying to stabilize and rebuild itself it certainly doesn’t need any new tensions arising. But with Limone now gone there is a vacancy atop the organized crime family and someone is sure to fill that void in an official capacity sooner rather than later.