@Chicken713 - my impression was that Gino was not necessarily a confirmed/official informant but due to the fact that he only got like probation or some minuscule sentence like that after being convicted for a SECOND time for drug dealing led people to assume that was an informant as anyone getting a second drug conviction would normally receive some sort of very substantial jail time and definitely not some sort of minor slap on the wrist like what Gino got. Furthermore, apparently Gino's second drug case was sealed and never opened to the public, which basically means 9 times out of 10 that he was a cooperating in the case or was an informant for the govt. Hence why they went after him especially if they thought he had info on past mob hits (I.e. Gongs, etc) on top of him being a rat in the drug case(s) AND anything/anyone else that the govt was trying to get him to rat on (the govt was also apparently trying to get him to discuss the Gongs murder with his cousin and others while wired up or something like that). Bottom line: it's quite obvious why they hit Gino and quite frankly I think it's pretty obvious that for this same reason it was most likely not a rogue hit, but an ordered hit from the top of the hierarchy to protect everyone against potential RICO murder, however, it was clearly poorly executed and begs to ask the question that we've all been debating, which is what in the hell was Nicodemo thinking/doing in terms of actually executing the hit as well as the immediate course of events that occurred post-hit.