The latest, from Jerry Capeci over at gangland.com
What an abysmal failure this case has crumbled into....

Wiseguy Lawyers Say FBI Informer In Garbage Case Is A Bigger Crook Than Their Client, Anthony Bazzini
The FBI's paid informer in the once highly-touted "Papa Smurf" waste carting case against geezer gangster Carmine Franco and 28 others committed crimes that a legitimate wiseguy wouldn't stoop to. So say lawyers for Gambino mobster Anthony Bazzini, who is slated to be sentenced next week for his conviction in the racketeering case. Originally billed as a major blow at the mob, the three year-long probe of the waste hauling industry in New York and New Jersey has since fizzled down to a handful of relatively minor convictions.

Adding insult to injury, defense lawyers are now claiming the government's informant — already exposed as a child sex predator — was double dealing the feds while he was wearing a wire for the FBI and is clearly the biggest crook of the bunch.

Bazzini's attorneys, Raymond Perini and Michael Castronovo, say their client and a friend were conned into losing $20,000 in what they thought was a "legitimate" joint venture. At the same time, the lawyers assert, undercover operative Charles Hughes was provoking them to commit crimes while stealing money himself and keeping his illicit proceeds a secret from his FBI handlers.

In addition to stealing $3100 in carting fees, Bazzini's mouthpieces claim, Hughes helped steal three garbage Dumpsters worth about $20,000 each from Galaxy of Long Island, a company that Bazzini's friend owned. The theft included two roll-off containers that Hughes has since admitted swiping, according to court papers filed with Manhattan Federal Judge P. Kevin Castel.

Defense lawyers made the allegations against Hughes in court papers seeking home confinement for Bazzini. The 54-year-old wiseguy copped a super sweet deal on the eve of his racketeering trial in January with sentencing guidelines of 12 to18 months, a much lower recommended prison term than the original plea offer of 37-to-46 months.

Carmine FrancoIn the filing, lawyers say that the owner of a construction company, and a customer, both told defense investigators that they paid an unidentified Hughes confederate for the Dumpsters that Galaxy of Long Island supplied at the building site. Galaxy, Bazzini's attorneys allege, never received any part of the $3100.

"The dispute over this $3100 and the theft of two roll-off containers from the Hoboken, New Jersey job site (is what) led to Mr. Bazzini's criminal conduct in this case," the lawyers wrote about their client's actions in two phone calls he made in December of 2011.

In the calls, the lawyers wrote, Bazzini was heard "making implied threats of bodily harm" to Hughes if he didn't release the stolen containers to Galaxy. Employees of the company had tracked the stolen waste bins to a yard owned by a Garden State company named Galaxy of New Jersey. The defense memo claims the New Jersey firm has links to Hughes but is not connected to the company owned by Bazzini's pal.

"Bazzini was particularly angry" when he learned that "repairs had been made by Galaxy of New Jersey to one of the Galaxy of Long Island's roll-off containers," the lawyers wrote. The similarity in names was a clear indication that the New Jersey outfit intended "to repaint them and retain them for their own use," they stated.

Without denying their client's guilt, the lawyers asked Castel for leniency. Bazzini, they maintain, had good reason to be "angry with (Hughes's) pattern of deceptive conduct and lies, which hurt his friends at a time of economic vulnerability." The mobster was also "upset" because he himself had dragged them into a "phony business opportunity" with Hughes.

"It would be hard to argue that anyone would not feel the same, given the circumstances," wrote Perini and Castronovo.

In addition, the lawyers assert that "exceptional misconduct and provocative behavior" by Hughes against Bazzini was another mitigating factor that Castel could use to impose a lenient sentence for his client.

Judge P. Kevn CastelIn a conversation about his dispute with Bazzini about the roll-off containers that Hughes mistakenly taped with FBI agent Jon Jennings, the lawyers wrote that Hughes was heard telling the agent: "But then this is good, because maybe I'll get threatened."

In the same conversation, the informer was heard "actually counting up how many defendants he had to his credit" to help him obtain a lenient sentence for soliciting sex with a girl he believed to be 15 years old" by increasing his numbers in a so-called "5K-1 cooperation letter. It is implicit that he expected to add Bazzini to that number, and he did," wrote Perini and Castronovo.

"While Bazzini's conduct is not commendable behavior, it is not out of the range of normal human behavior to react angrily" when an employee of the government "stole payments for goods and services, caused equipment to be stolen, and harmed the friends' company at a particularly hard time for them," the lawyers wrote.