Man, 76, gets prison for role in Mafia-linked Schenectady drug ring
Judge imposes punishment on Robert Ingrao, the Lodi, N.J. man stopped on Thruway in SUV carrying 20 pounds of cocaine
Robert Gavin
July 28, 2023
ALBANY — A federal judge sentenced a 76-year-old New Jersey man to three years and one month in prison Friday for transporting 20 pounds of cocaine from Brooklyn to Schenectady, calling it “mindboggling” that the defendant joined a drug ring after previously serving 10 years behind bars for narcotics trafficking.
“It really is inexcusable,” U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino told Robert Ingrao, of Lodi.
Ingrao, a mule in a Mafia-linked drug pipeline moving $600,000 worth of cocaine upstate, was arrested on the Thruway in an SUV being secretly tracked by federal drug investigators. He pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 9 kilograms or more of cocaine.
It was the second federal drug conviction for Ingrao, who was convicted in 1994 of heroin and cocaine trafficking charges in Manhattan. He was sentenced to 10 years in that case. Ingrao, a frail-looking man with grayish hair, appeared in street clothes with his wife in attendance. The judge said it was difficult for her to understand how Ingrao, at his age, could find himself transporting cocaine after previously being imprisoned for it.
“It really is mindboggling to me,” D’Agostino told Ingrao. “That tells me that there is a very significant problem… you did this on your own free will. Those drugs had to get to Schenectady. That was the plan.”
Still, the judge showed leniency to Ingrao, whom she could have sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
On March 31, 2021, Ingrao and two co-conspirators — reputed Bonanno crime family associate Richard Sinde of Fort Lee, N.J., and convicted drug dealer Christopher Kelly of Brooklyn — traveled in separate cars to Schenectady to pick up a third vehicle, a blue Jeep Grand Cherokee, from Jeffrey Civitello Sr. and his son, Jeffrey Civitello Jr.
Ingrao waited at a nearby gas station as Sinde and Kelly met with the Civitellos. Sinde then drove the Jeep to his house in Fort Lee for the night. The next day, April 1, 2021, Sinde drove to meet Kelly in the Breezy Point section of Queens. There, they loaded 9 kilos of cocaine worth a street value of $360,000 into a hidden compartment of the Jeep. It was part of 15 kilos the ring moved overall.
Unbeknown to the men, investigators for a Drug Enforcement Administration task force had placed a GPS device on the car and were tracking its movements. On April 2, Ingrao drove the Jeep north to Schenectady on the Thruway as Sinde and Kelly followed in a separate car. A state trooper stopped Ingrao just after 11:45 a.m. between exits 21 and 21B in Greene County.
“Holy s—t,” Kelly told Sinde, as the two men saw Ingrao pulled over, according to Kelly’s testimony at trial. The trooper discovered the vehicle’s hidden compartment and the kilos of cocaine, each carrying a street value of $40,000. Ingrao was arrested. Kelly and Sinde continued north to Schenectady.
Ingrao, Sinde, Kelly and both Civitellos were charged for their roles in the conspiracy. Kelly, who pleaded guilty, became the prosecution’s key witness against Sinde and the Civitellos in April, when the men were convicted on all charges.
Ingrao did not cooperate with prosecutors.
Lee Kindlon, Ingrao’s attorney, asked the judge in a sentencing recommendation to consider his client’s health issues and a relatively minor role in the cocaine ring. He said Ingrao was not involved in the planning of the conspiracy nor directed any part of it.
“Mr. Ingrao only assisted in this endeavor briefly,” Kindlon stated, adding that Ingrao “never received any meaningful financial compensation to assist the others, and conversely, has paid dearly because of it. Mr. Ingrao had little knowledge of the overall plan other than his immediate participation to bring the narcotics from New York City to Schenectady.”
In a July 6 sentencing recommendation to D’Agostino, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett requested Ingrao be given prison time. Barnett suggested Ingrao could be placed in a facility with a medical center.
“Undoubtedly, prison would have a detrimental effect on the defendant’s health, or even hasten his death, but then again the defendant committed the instant offenses knowing full well both his age and his physical condition, and apparently thought his crimes were worth committing
anyway,” the prosecutor told D’Agostino. “If the defendant’s advanced age and infirmities did not deter him from committing crimes, then they should not deter the court from ordering him to prison.”
On Friday, the judge told Kindlon and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Segovia that while Ingrao has had health issues, he was doing reasonably well.
She will allow Ingrao, who is free on bail, to self-report to prison by 2 p.m. Sept. 5. The other defendants are yet to be sentenced.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/3-years-prison-role-mafia-linked-schenectady-18266226.php
