From gangland & Jerry Capeci

More shameful, embarrassing news for the feds and a first look at the FBI's star pedophile, Charlie Hughes


Wiseguy Uses Government Info To Slam FBI Informer In Mob Waste Hauling Case
Charles Hughes
The embarrassing list of low crimes and misdemeanors continues to mushroom in the not-so-great Papa Smurf garbage case. Problem is, the offending perp isn't Carmine Franco or any of the 29 wiseguys and mob associates indicted for labor racketeering. Instead, it's the FBI's own undercover operative in the three year probe into the mob's involvement in the waste hauling industry. That's him pictured at the right, Charles Hughes.

Hughes, 44, agreed to cooperate with the feds after he was arrested in 2008 on charges of soliciting sex with a girl he believed to be 15 years old. He pleaded guilty to unspecified charges in 2009, and was slated to testify at trial in January. He was spared that embarrassing appearance, however, when the two remaining defendants pleaded guilty.

The original sex charges against him remain sealed. All that's known for sure is that they carried a mandatory minimum of ten years behind bars. What's also known is that usually when the government gets its hands on such sex offenders it tries to get the maximum penalty. Just this week, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced a similar sex-solicitation arrest of another defendant and asked citizens for any other info they may have about the suspect. But Bharara, as well as the FBI, have declined repeated requests to explain why the charges against Hughes are still sealed, or to release any other info about Hughes, including whether he is behind bars, or free on bail.

New details did emerge this past week regarding alleged double dealing by Hughes during his undercover work, and the FBI's failure to keep tabs on him. They were cited in court papers filed by Raymond Perini, an attorney for Gambino mobster Anthony Bazzini. Bazzini, who pleaded guilty to threatening Hughes in two phone calls, is set for sentencing next week.

Federal prosecutors, who said last month that Hughes had funneled payments from 18 of 20 New Jersey customers to Galaxy of Long Island, a carting company linked to Bazzini, now concede that Hughes supplied only three customers, wrote Perini, asserting that his information comes from tape recordings, FBI documents or other records he received from the government.

Perini stated that Hughes now admits using a cohort who ended up being indicted in the case, Stephen Moscatello, to collect payments from two customers in Old Tappan, New Jersey — a total of $3100, according to Perini — and not passing the money on to Galaxy, after receiving it from Moscatello.

Hughes claims he didn't keep the cash, though. He says he passed it on to a second codefendant, Luchese associate Charles (Charlie Tuna) Giustra, "who must have stolen it and not passed it on to Bazzini," wrote Perini. The lawyer questioned why Hughes never brought that up in any of "the dozens" of taped talks he had later on with Giustra or with Bazzini's alleged partner-in-crime, Scott Fappiano — and why he never mentioned it to the FBI.

The lawyer never raised the real-world, real-life reason why Hughes's current account makes no sense: Even in 2014, when mob protocol is not what it used to be, there's no way that mob associate Giustra would ever steal money from Bazzini, a "made man," unless he first whacked the only other person who was involved in the deal, namely Hughes.

Gang Land could not reach Giustra, but Moscatello, 53, confirmed that he worked for Hughes, that he did service the customer in Old Tappan whom Hughes supplied, and that he did collect the fees and turn them over to Hughes.

"I did pick up the money — Charley told me to — but I don't think it was $3100," said Moscatello. "I think the customer paid me by check, but whatever it was, I know I gave it to Charley. I don't know what he did with it."

Moscatello, who was the first defendant whom Hughes tape-recorded in 2009, pleaded guilty to transporting stolen garbage containers across state lines. Probation officials recommended a no jail term, and prosecutors stated that "the plan to steal and transport containers was not" his idea. He was sentenced to 45 days behind bars.

Information the government gave Perini also indicates that prosecutors misspoke when they stated in court papers that Hughes moved two Galaxy of Long Island bins from a firehouse in Hoboken to a safe storage lot in New Jersey under the supervision of the FBI, according to the lawyer.

In fact, Perini wrote, the FBI learned that the bins were stolen on November 28, 2011 when a third defendant, Jonathan Greene, called Hughes and told him so in a tape-recorded conversation in which Greene gave Hughes "directions to the remote yard where the roll-offs were stored."

Two days later, two FBI agents "went to the location and photographed the roll-offs and noted in an official report that they were two roll off containers stolen from a construction site in Hoboken," wrote Perini.

The FBI declined to comment about the "stolen" garbage containers.

Prosecutors say they will respond to Perini's most recent filing before Bazzini is sentenced on Tuesday.