An associate of the Gambino crime family was arrested Tuesday in Las Vegas and will be brought back to New York to face racketeering charges that include the 2002 murder of a partner in crime, Martin Bosshart, in Howard Beach.
Gennaro “Jerry” Bruno, 41, was the triggerman who executed Bosshart off 155th Avenue near Lahn Street on the night of Jan. 2, 2002, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which announced the arrest.
Bruno was allegedly working with other mobsters including Bosshart — who had an extensive criminal record and had been released from prison just a few weeks before he was killed — to import large quantities of marijuana from Canada into the New York area. Bosshart, 30 at the time, wanted to cut one of their co-conspirators out of the business, according to the government, and was murdered to prevent that from happening.
One co-conspirator, Todd LaBarca, pleaded guilty in April 2012 to racketeering charges that included the murder of Bosshart. Some published reports say Bosshart was a suspect in other murders when he was killed.
Bruno, whose name is also spelled as Gerry in some references, allegedly has a long criminal history and was a member of the Ozone Park Boys, a Gambino crew also known as the Liberty Posse and the Young Guns. The group allegedly was responsible for a wide range of crimes dating back to the mid-1980s, including car theft and chop-shop operations, drug trafficking, extortion, robbery and gambling.
“As alleged, Gennaro Bruno started his criminal career at a young age as a member of a street gang where he earned his criminal credentials,” the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, Loretta Lynch, said in a prepared statement in announcing his indictment and arrest. “He then graduated to become an associate in the Gambino crime family, where he proved himself to be both an earner for the family and capable of murder. The arrests and charges announced today are a testament to the tireless pursuit of justice by law enforcement.
“We will not rest until violent criminals who use their mafia ties to obstruct justice and evade the law are brought to justice.”
The announcement added that Lynch “extended her grateful appreciation to the FBI for its extraordinary work in bringing this defendant to account for the charged crimes.”
According to the government, Bruno was imprisoned from 1997 to 2000, and when he was released was promoted to the rank of associate in the Gambino mob. He, LaBarca, Bosshart and others were moving major amounts of marijuana when Bosshart decided to cut one of the other gangsters out of the operation. Bruno, LaBarca and others not named in Tuesday’s announcement then agreed to kill him. They lured Bosshart to the spot where he was slain, which the government described as “an isolated location,” and Bruno allegedly shot him point-blank in the back of the head.
After that, the prosecutors say, Bruno evaded justice for years, conspiring with other Gambino associates to obstruct a grand jury proceeding on the Bosshart murder “while continuing to participate in the core money-making activities of the Gambino crime family, including drug trafficking and extortion.”
“Bruno was as ruthless as he was calculating,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos said in the announcement, “and after a long run of evading justice, Bruno’s gig is up.”
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