Fwd: SEVERAL CONSTRUCTION TEAMSTERS OFFICERS CAUGHT IN GAMBINO FAMILY ARRESTS
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F.B.I. agents with Domenico Cefalu, an alleged member of the Gambino crime family, in New York on Thursday.
In the largest sweep in recent memory, federal and New York State authorities on Thursday rounded up scores of accused organized crime figures who were indicted on charges including murder, racketeering, construction extortions and the looting of union benefit funds.
Back Story With William K. Rashbaum (More than 80 people — among them the entire Gambino family hierarchy and reputed figures from the Genovese and Bonanno families — are named in two indictments, along with union and construction industry officials.
The charges were announced this morning at a news conference by the United States attorney for Brooklyn, Benton J. Campbell, and officials from nearly a dozen other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
By 2 p.m., 75 people were already in custody, including the Gambino family’s acting underboss, Domenico Cefalu, and consigliere, Joseph Corozzo, the officials said. The acting boss, who prosecutors identified as John D’Amico, known as Jackie the Nose, has not yet been picked up and several officials said he was believed to be on vacation.
“For those whose image of organized crime is that of ‘The Godfather,’ or, more recently of course, ‘The Sopranos,’ today’s indictment serves as a startling reminder that organized crime is not fiction,” said John S. Pistole, the F.B.I. deputy director. In fact, it is real, it is alive, and it is a pervasive threat to the citizens of New York City and New York State.”
The charges, which are being brought in United States District Court in Brooklyn and state Supreme Court in Queens, also include charges of seven murders — three dating back more than a quarter century — along with racketeering, extortion and state gambling charges, officials said.
“This investigation was extraordinary in that it penetrated the inner workings of the Gambino family and simultaneously reached back in time to hold several members of the Gambino family accountable for their prior crimes,” Mr. Campbell said at the news conference on Thursday.
The crimes charged in the federal indictment span three decades and include racketeering conspiracy, murder, extortion, theft of union benefits loan-sharking, securities fraud, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana, money laundering and illegal gambling.
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, who oversees the Organized Crime Task Force, said the case was built in large part with the aid of an informer who won the confidence of Gambino crime family figures and helped record hundreds of hours of mob conversations.
“The message today is clear: organized crime still exists in the city and the state of New York,” Mr. Cuomo said. “We like to think that it’s a vestige of the past. It’s not. It is as unrelenting as weeds that continue to sprout in the cracks of society.
“The second message, which is equally clear,” he added, “is that we will not rest until organized crime is a distant memory in New York.”
The arrests by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and investigators from several other agencies were coordinated with a sweep that netted 23 accused organized crime figures in Palermo, Sicily. Those charges are not directly linked to the New York arrests, but Italian officials who were in New York at the news conference said they were part of a new American-Italian strategy aimed at severing the close cooperative relationship between the Gambino family and the Sicilian mob.
In addition to Mr. D’Amico, Mr. Cefalu and Mr. Corozzo, the 80-count federal indictment charges three Gambino captains and three acting captains, who serve among the family’s midlevel managers, along with 16 dozen soldiers, officials said. A large number of family associates are also being charged.
The construction extortion aspects of the investigation, which began more than three years ago, focused on the trucking industry, which hauls away dirt excavated from major construction projects in and around the city, said Gordon S. Heddell, inspector general of the United States Labor Department. Several union officials were also charged in a scheme to steal union benefits. Mr. Heddell, whose office investigates labor racketeering, said his agents were instrumental in starting the investigation.
“This investigation exposed the alleged grip that the Gambino organized crime family has had over one of the largest construction markets in the United States, from small private projects to large scale public works contracts,” he said. “This involved the trucks that move construction material and debris throughout the entire New York City region — the cement that is poured to build house foundations out in Staten Island, the general contractors who are responsible for building condominiums over in New Jersey and even a proposed Nascar raceway.”
Among those charged were an executive involved in the speedway project, William Kilgannon, and another man involved in the project, Todd Polakoff, who took a $9,000 payoff from a trucking executive, according to court papers.
Also charged was Anthony Delvescovo, a project manager and director of tunnel operations for the Schiavone Construction Company, a heavy construction firm that has worked on major public works projects in the New York area, according to the indictment.
Four trucking company executives, from companies including SRD Contracting, Firehawk Enterprises, Jo-Tap Industries, Andrews Trucking and Dump Masters of NY Inc., were also charged.
The trucking firms were licensed by the New York City’s Business Integrity Commission, an agency that oversees private carting companies and businesses that haul construction debris. The commission, which also had a role in the investigation, was expected to move to revoke the companies’ licenses today.
The charges against Mr. Kilgannon and Mr. Polakoff stem from an aborted plan to build a Nascar track in Staten Island, where site preparation work was done. But the project was never completed because racing officials scuttled the plan in the face of community opposition, officials said.
Also the subject of extortions was the Liberty View Harbor project in Jersey City, the officials said.
The seven murders include five that prosecutors are charging were committed by one Gambino soldier, Charles Carneglia, between 1976 and 1990, officials said. The first was the slaying of Albert Gelb, a highly decorated court officer who arrested Mr. Carneglia in a Queens diner after noticing he was carrying a pistol. Mr. Gelb was shot four days before he was to testify against Mr. Carneglia in that case.
The last was the killing of an armored car guard, Jose Delgado Rivera, who was shot in the back during a robbery, the officials said.
In addition to the F.B.I., the Labor Department and the Organized Crime Task Force, a number of other agencies were involved in the investigation, including the Waterfront Commission, the New York Police Department and the office of the Staten Island district attorney, Daniel J. Donovan. The case was based in large part on the hundreds of hours of secretly recorded conversations made by the informant, a construction executive.
In the state case, brought by the office of the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, 26 people were charged with gambling, loan-sharking and promoting prostitution, officials said. Twenty of the people had been arrested by about 10 a.m., officials said.
The leadership of the family — Mr. D’Amico, Mr. Cefalu and Mr. Corozzo — were all charged in federal court with racketeering conspiracy and extortion and, if convicted, face up to 20 years in prison on multiple counts.
Anahad O’Connor contributed reporting.
Feds bust 62 reputed Gambino mobsters
- BY JOSEPH MALLIA and ANTHONY M.
DESTEFANO | joseph...@newsday.com
and anthony....@newsday.com
- 1:40 PM EST, February 7, 2008
The top leadership of the Gambino crime family was being
rounded up by FBI agents Thursday in New York City, New Jersey and Italy, with a
focus on seven unsolved murders, and construction and labor union racketeering,
officials said.
The case is built in part on conversations secretly
recorded by a confidential informant during a three-year infiltration of the
Gambino family.
Among the 62 suspects named in an 80-count indictment is
Jack D'Amico, who is considered the "street boss" of the family, sources said.
Also targeted for arrest were family consigliere Joseph Corozzo and underboss
Domenico Cefalu, the sources said. Six captains and 15 soldiers are also under
arrest or are being sought, including Nicholas Corozzo
The main thrust of the investigation is centered on
racketeering and extortion in construction industry trucking, in particular
involving the South Street ferry terminal in Manhattan, sources
said.
"The indictment charges racketeering conspiracy, extortion, theft
of union benefits, mail fraud, false statements, loan-sharking, embezzlement of
union funds, money laundering and illegal gambling," according to a statement
released by Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell.
Gambino family
members also face robbery, securities fraud and cocaine distribution
charges.
The suspects are also accused of extorting construction
companies at in New Jersey, Staten Island and other areas of the metro
area.
Five of the seven unsolved murders are said to be linked to Charles
Carneglia, a longtime associate of the late Gambino boss John Gotti. Of these,
one of the murders is the 1976 slaying of court officer Albert Gelb of Brooklyn
State Supreme Court; another is that of Louis DiBono, a former Gambino family
member who fell afoul of Gotti when he didn't show up for a meeting.
John
Gotti Jr. is not among those targeted for arrest, the sources said.
The
defendants are:
Joseph Agate, 60, Vincent Amarante, 60, Jerome Brancato,
76, Thomas Cacciopoli, 58, Frank Cali, 42, Nicholas Calvo, 52, Charles
Carneglia, 61, Joseph Casiere, 72, Mario Cassarino, 42, Domenico Cefalu, 61,
Joseph Chirico, 63, Joseph Corozzo, 66, Nicholas Corozzo, 67, Gino Cracolici,
56, John D'Amico, 73, Sarah Dauria, 33, Vincent Decongilio, Anthony Delvescovo,
51, Leonard Dimaria, 66, Vincent Donnis, 38, Vincent Dragonetti, 43, Robert
Epifania, 60, Cody Farrell, 29, Russell Ferrisi, 41, Louis Filippelli, 41,
Ronald Flam, 35, Joseph Gaggi, 45, Abid Ghani, 42, Anthony Giammarino, 56,
Richard G. Gotti, 40, Vincent Gotti, 55, Ernest Grillo, 51, Christopher Howard,
Steven Iaria, 43, Eddie James, 49, John Kasgorgis, William Kilgannon, 49,
Michael King, 41, Anthony Licata, 39, Louis Mosca, 62, Lance Moskowitz, 54,
Anthony O'Donnell, 43, James Outerie, 54, Vincent Pacelli, 64, John Pisano, 49,
Todd Polakoff, 30, Guilio Pomponio, 45, Richard Ranieri, 51, John Regis, 27,
Jerry Romano, 49, Angelo Ruggiero Jr., 35, Steven Sabella, 41, Anthony Scibelli,
57, Augustus Sclafani, 67, Joseph Scopo, 31, William Scotto, 40, Edward Sobol,
41, Joseph Spinnato, 42, Michael Urciuoli, 46, Frank Vassallo, 38, Tara Vega, 35
and Arthur Zagari, 60.
Pervaiz Shallwani contributed to this story.
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