Posted By: IvyLeague
Gang Land News excerpt - 10/07/11 09:15 AM
Feds: Enforcer For Jailed Mob Capo Shook Down Strip Clubs
A reputed mob enforcer with close ties to a jailed-for-life Gambino capo has been hit with racketeering and extortion charges in a pre-cursor to a bigger case involving the systematic shakedowns of strip joints in Queens by two crime families, Gang Land has learned.
Officials are tight-lipped about the ongoing investigation. But the opening salvo was the arrest two weeks ago of mob associate Robert (Cousin Bobby) Napolitano. Napolitano, 51, was charged with extorting untold thousands of dollars from the owner of one strip club from 2005 until this year. The shakedowns were allegedly on behalf of capo Ronald (Ronnie One Arm) Trucchio, who is serving life following convictions in Florida for murder and racketeering.
Napolitano, who has allegedly assaulted his extortion and loansharking victims over the years and threatened “to kill family members,” was added as a defendant in the racketeering case against Trucchio’s son Alphonse and other crew members who were arrested in January on Mafia Takedown Day.
Despite arguments by assistant U.S. attorney John Zach that Napolitano was a violent thug, U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas ordered that the 6-foot-six Napolitano, who has no prior convictions, be released on $2 million bail secured by four financially responsible co-signors and $500,000 in cash.
A few days later, Zach, and co-prosecutors Elie Honig and Daniel Chung charged that Cousin Bobby had violated the conditions of his bail and asked that Naolitano’s bail be revoked. The prosecutors alleged that a confidential informant had told the FBI that Cousin Bobby had purchased “pre-paid cellphones” and summoned two convicted drug dealers to his home “to learn the identities of any persons who have cooperated against him.”
This produced a bit of an embarrassment for the prosecutors and the FBI’s Gambino squad in court on Monday, when Napolitano’s lawyer, Corey Winograd, made mincemeat of their arguments. Not only did his client adamantly deny buying or talking on any cell phones, the lawyer offered to put Napolitano, his wife, and two others on the witness stand to refute the charges that were lodged by an unidentified confidential informant.
In addition, said Winograd, the drug conviction of one frequent visitor to his home, Jason Provenzano, was a “youthful transgression” in 1992 when Provenzano was just 21. Besides, the attorney argued, the feds had interviewed and approved Provenzano, the president of Nutricap Labs, which had $16 million in sales last year and a projected $35 million in sales this year, as a “financially responsible person” to so-sign Napolitano’s $2 million bond.
Provenzano was “not a criminal cohort,” but a “dear friend for over 25 years” who had visited Napolitano several times since his arrest, said Winograd, bringing good cheer along with “many Blu-ray movies” for his client to watch.
It made no sense, the lawyer argued, for the government to approve Provenzano as a co-signor for Napolitano’s bail and then seek to revoke his bail because Provenzano stopped by to cheer him up.
At the end of the day, Judge Maas agreed, and again allowed Cousin Bobby to return home to his wife and four kids to await trial. But he’s far from home free. The government has two cooperating witnesses and an alleged victim or two ready to point a finger at Napolitano, and many tape-recorded conversations he had with Ronnie One Arm that prosecutors say link him to the charged crimes.
And on Mafia Takedown Day, when they arrested his current co-defendants, FBI agents searched his home and recovered $206,000 as well as records that prosecutors say tie Napolitano to racketeering charges going back to 1990.
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Also, this little bit...
"I hope she gets crabs."
- Colombo consigliere Richard "Richie Nerves" Fusco about assistant U.S. attorney Elizabeth Geddes
A reputed mob enforcer with close ties to a jailed-for-life Gambino capo has been hit with racketeering and extortion charges in a pre-cursor to a bigger case involving the systematic shakedowns of strip joints in Queens by two crime families, Gang Land has learned.
Officials are tight-lipped about the ongoing investigation. But the opening salvo was the arrest two weeks ago of mob associate Robert (Cousin Bobby) Napolitano. Napolitano, 51, was charged with extorting untold thousands of dollars from the owner of one strip club from 2005 until this year. The shakedowns were allegedly on behalf of capo Ronald (Ronnie One Arm) Trucchio, who is serving life following convictions in Florida for murder and racketeering.
Napolitano, who has allegedly assaulted his extortion and loansharking victims over the years and threatened “to kill family members,” was added as a defendant in the racketeering case against Trucchio’s son Alphonse and other crew members who were arrested in January on Mafia Takedown Day.
Despite arguments by assistant U.S. attorney John Zach that Napolitano was a violent thug, U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas ordered that the 6-foot-six Napolitano, who has no prior convictions, be released on $2 million bail secured by four financially responsible co-signors and $500,000 in cash.
A few days later, Zach, and co-prosecutors Elie Honig and Daniel Chung charged that Cousin Bobby had violated the conditions of his bail and asked that Naolitano’s bail be revoked. The prosecutors alleged that a confidential informant had told the FBI that Cousin Bobby had purchased “pre-paid cellphones” and summoned two convicted drug dealers to his home “to learn the identities of any persons who have cooperated against him.”
This produced a bit of an embarrassment for the prosecutors and the FBI’s Gambino squad in court on Monday, when Napolitano’s lawyer, Corey Winograd, made mincemeat of their arguments. Not only did his client adamantly deny buying or talking on any cell phones, the lawyer offered to put Napolitano, his wife, and two others on the witness stand to refute the charges that were lodged by an unidentified confidential informant.
In addition, said Winograd, the drug conviction of one frequent visitor to his home, Jason Provenzano, was a “youthful transgression” in 1992 when Provenzano was just 21. Besides, the attorney argued, the feds had interviewed and approved Provenzano, the president of Nutricap Labs, which had $16 million in sales last year and a projected $35 million in sales this year, as a “financially responsible person” to so-sign Napolitano’s $2 million bond.
Provenzano was “not a criminal cohort,” but a “dear friend for over 25 years” who had visited Napolitano several times since his arrest, said Winograd, bringing good cheer along with “many Blu-ray movies” for his client to watch.
It made no sense, the lawyer argued, for the government to approve Provenzano as a co-signor for Napolitano’s bail and then seek to revoke his bail because Provenzano stopped by to cheer him up.
At the end of the day, Judge Maas agreed, and again allowed Cousin Bobby to return home to his wife and four kids to await trial. But he’s far from home free. The government has two cooperating witnesses and an alleged victim or two ready to point a finger at Napolitano, and many tape-recorded conversations he had with Ronnie One Arm that prosecutors say link him to the charged crimes.
And on Mafia Takedown Day, when they arrested his current co-defendants, FBI agents searched his home and recovered $206,000 as well as records that prosecutors say tie Napolitano to racketeering charges going back to 1990.
--------------------------
Also, this little bit...
"I hope she gets crabs."
- Colombo consigliere Richard "Richie Nerves" Fusco about assistant U.S. attorney Elizabeth Geddes