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Aging Wiseguy Moves To The Government's Side Of The Street

Gang Land Exclusive!Dennis DeluciaFederal prosecutors in Brooklyn got some very important help from an aging wiseguy in order to take down the Colombo crime family Admistration, along with three powerful capos and four other mobsters and associates this month in the biggest Mafia roundup in a couple of years, Gang Land has learned.

Colombo capo Dennis (Fat Dennis) Delucia, who is 80 years old, just may be the oldest mobster to ever wear a wire on behalf of the government.

Sources say the geezer gangster is the latest in a long line of Colombo family defectors. Delucia helped the feds charge family boss Andrew (Mush) Russo, underboss Benjamin (The Claw) Castellazzo and consigliere Ralph DeMatteo with shaking down a Queens-based construction workers union official for 20 years.

The sources say Fat Dennis attended two meetings in a Brooklyn restaurant with the family's top mobsters and capo Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico last November. Delucia's name is not mentioned in any court filings, but sources say he was at both sessions that are detailed in a 49-page detention memo the government used to detain 10 mob-linked defendants without bail.

Andrew RussoIt's unclear why Fat Dennis decided to flip, or when he turned on his Cosa Nostra pals. But several reliable sources have told Gang Land that he's a cooperating witness in the case. "Since he was at two high-level meetings and he's not indicted," cracked one source, "it's a pretty safe bet that he was working on the government's side of the street."

Prosecutors James McDonald and Devon Lash were likely referring to the octogenarian wiseguy when they wrote that the "diverse array of investigative tools" they used to obtain the multi-count racketeering conspiracy indictment included "consensual recordings by a confidential witness in which many defendants discuss a variety of criminal activities."

The prosecutors wrote that Persico, Castellazzo, and DeMatteo were at a November 19 restaurant meeting also attended by capos Richard Ferrara and Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo, the architect of an extortion plot that he allegedly began against a leader of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union (UCTIE,) back in 2001.

Russo, the family's new "official boss," oversaw a second meeting at the same restaurant, they wrote. At the confab, the prosecutors wrote, the family leaders "decided that Russo would continue to serve as family Boss" until Persico, a nephew of late boss Carmine (Junior) Persico, completed his supervised release term in 2023 and was capable of taking over the reins — a plan that the feds scotched two weeks ago.

Benjamin CastellazzoAt that session, the prosecutors wrote, the "Colombo administration" also discussed the long-running Vinny Unions extortion plot against the Local 621 union leader that Colombo family consigliere DeMatteo allegedly took over — to the crime family's detriment — in 2019, as we detail below.

During the same session, wrote prosecutors McDonald and Lash, the Colombo family leaders placed capo Ferrara "in charge of supervising the scheme" to also extort "at least $10,000 per month" from Local 621's benefit funds and funnel that cash "up to (the) senior leadership" of the bourghata.

Delucia, who's had no known legal problems since 2016 after he completed three years of post-prison supervised release, is not named in any publicly filed documents in the case.

But sources say he was a participant at both November meetings, which took place at Brennan And Carr, a legendary 83-year-old Sheepshead Bay restaurant that specializes in juicy roast beef sandwiches. The eatery, ironically, has long been a favorite meeting spot of law enforcement officials.

Theodore PersicoAccording to court records, Delucia's sons, David, 56, and Dean, 52, have each been affiliated for nearly two decades with Local 621 of UCTIE — David as an administrator of the union's benefit funds, and Dean as secretary treasurer of the 1179 member union that represents workers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Neither brother responded to telephone or email requests for comment. Gang Land was unable to reach their father, whose former attorney said he hadn't spoken to Fat Dennis in several years.

Delucia spent 27 months behind bars following his January 2011 arrest in the FBI's historic Mafia Takedown Day roundup of 127 gangsters. At his sentencing for racketeering in April, 2013, the 71-year-old Delucia convinced the judge he would not show up again in Brooklyn Federal Court "as a criminal defendant."

That may yet turn out to be true, but it's not very likely. Delucia, who had spent 11 of the prior 19 years behind bars in separate cases for murder conspiracy and labor racketeering convictions, did not "go home and retire" from The Life as he promised Judge Kiyo Matsumoto he would do when he was released from prison just three months later.

Conrad IannielloAs prosecutors predicted, Fat Dennis resumed his role as a Colombo family skipper. But they are now presumably quite happy that he did, given his crucial aid to Uncle Sam.

In 2008, three years before he was hit with the Mafia Takedown Day racketeering charges, Delucia came to the aid of his son Dean during a long, losing battle he had with Genovese capo Conrad Ianniello when Dean Delucia tried to organize the workers of a Long Island chocolate factory that Ianniello controlled.

Delucia had been a partner, and a convicted codefendant, of Genovese underboss Venero (Benny Eggs) Mangano in a 1980s bid-rigging scheme installing windows in city housing projects, but it didn't help Fat Dennis. He was bested by Ianniello, who sent 300-pound enforcer Ryan (Baldy) Ellis to the Local 621 office to threaten Dean Delucia — and his wife — if he persisted in trying to organize chocolate factory workers in June of 2008.

Fat Dennis was unable to use his well-honed gangster prowess to help Local 621 win its fight with the powerful Genovese crime family. But a decade later, he was able to help the feds put an end to the Colombo clan's 20-year-long shake down of Local 621 president Andrew Talamo and put all his alleged antagonists behind bars.

Ryan EllisTomorrow though, lawyers for Vinny Unions Ricciardo are planning to seek a release on bail for the 75-year-old mobster, who has had numerous heart attacks since his first one at the age of 38, on the grounds that he is likely to die if he is not released from the Metropolitan Detention Center sooner rather than later.

Prosecutors McDonald and Lash, who wrote two weeks ago that Ricciardo exploded in anger and threatened to kill Talamo "right in front of his fucking house" and vowed he wasn't "afraid to go to jail" and "would fucking shoot him right in front of his wife and kids" say conditions at the MDC may not be perfect, but that's where Vinny Unions deserves to be.

It remains to be seen whether Judge Matsumoto was right to tell Delucia, back on April 9, 2013: "I do have faith that you will not appear again in this courthouse or any other courthouse as a criminal defendant." Or if Fat Dennis decided to turn on the Colombos because he was up to his old tricks and got caught, and decided that was the best way to avoid going back to prison