New Gangland Article.

Secret 'Confidential Witness' Helped Feds Snare Colombo Family Leaders

Andrew RussoFederal prosecutors in Brooklyn seem to have gotten some very important help from a Colombo wiseguy in order to take down the crime family's Administration, along with three powerful capos and four other mobsters and associates in the biggest Mafia roundup in several years.

But despite persistent rumors and reports from several usually reliable sources who tabbed an elderly wiseguy as the defector, the identity of the "confidential witness" who made tape recordings for prosecutors James McDonald in which many defendants "discuss a variety of criminal activities" remains a well-guarded secret.

In fact, sources say that on several occasions since the racketeering conspiracy indictment was filed two weeks ago, an aging Bronx-based wisgeuy whom many underworld sources have suspected and fingered as the likely culprit has told his associates not to believe everything they read if he was identified as a turncoat.

"His words should be heeded," one very reliable source said yesterday.

Whoever the turncoat is, he had to be plugged in pretty well since he helped the feds charge Colombo 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.

Benjamin CastellazzoThe blockbuster indictment, which the feds announced on September 14, also charges capos Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico, Richard Ferrara, and Vincent (Vinny Unions) Ricciardo with shaking down Andrew Talamo, the president of Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union (UCTIE,) since 2001.

Within days, a very well plugged in wiseguy — the one who has been telling folks not to believe what they read — surfaced as the most likely turncoat when prosecutors disclosed many details about two restaurant meetings that he attended along with mobsters who were charged with taking part in the extortion scheme.

Both 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.

In their detention memo, prosecutors wrote that Persico, Castellazzo, and DeMatteo were at a November 19 restaurant meeting with capos Ferrara and Ricciardo.

Russo, the family's new "official boss," oversaw a second meeting at the same restaurant, they wrote. At the second confab, 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 was scotched by the indictment.

At 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 in 2019.

Theodore PersicoDuring 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.

In addition to tape-recordings by the "confidential witness," the prosecutors also used information they gleaned from "thousands of hours" of tape recordings they obtained from wiretaps of the phones of five Colombo family mobsters, consigliere DeMatteo, the three capos and soldier Michael Uvino between August of last year and March of 2021.

Tomorrow, 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.