To some, Vincent Ricci was a nondescript middle-aged guy from Medford struggling to keep his dress shop alive.

Yesterday, prosecutors charged that Ricci, 47, had a dark side: They described him as a heavily armed drug kingpin, responsible for flooding Middlesex County with huge amounts of cocaine.

Since 1994, police say, Ricci has imported 30 kilos of cocaine from Florida, channeling an estimated $7.5 million worth of the drug to users from Boston and the suburbs.

In a raid on Ricci's Medford home Thursday night, police said they seized 20 firearms, including a pistol in Ricci's pocket and several assault weapons. Police also confiscated an estimated $100,000 in cash.

Ricci and Christopher Brunco, 25, of Revere, who was described by authorities as one of Ricci's top lieutenants, pleaded not guilty in Somerville District Court to charges of cocaine trafficking and conspiracy to traffic. …

BOSTON -- At a time when the FBI is under intense scrutiny for its handling of notorious informants James J. "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, along comes Vincent Ricci.
Alleged gangsters Bulger and Flemmi figure prominently in ongoing federal hearings exploring the relationship between informants and the Boston bureau of the FBI. Defense attorneys want the judge to dismiss RICO charges against Flemmi and two co-defendants, citing government misconduct.
Ricci, an accused drug trafficker from Medford who had claimed he also was given immunity by the FBI in return for information, admits he is no angel.
But in an apparent attempt to tear off the "informant" label, Ricci has changed his tune in newspaper interviews, saying he's no snitch.
"I was never an informant," Ricci said in a joint interview over the weekend with the Boston Herald and The Boston Globe. Ricci said he was "denying everything" amid concerns for his family.
Meanwhile, Ricci's lawyer, Paul J. Haley, refused to comment Saturday on whether his client was an informant. Ricci faces cocaine and trafficking charges in connection with a drug ring that allegedly supplied the mob.
The Herald reported in Friday's editions that Ricci, 50, had revealed in U.S. District Court records that his FBI handlers had tipped him off about an impending state police raid.
Ricci had his bags packed for Las Vegas when state police assigned to the Middlesex district attorney's office raided his home three years ago. They seized guns, cash and a kilo of cocaine.
The case is scheduled for a status conference in Middlesex Superior Court today.
"Whether or not Mr. Ricci had a relationship with the FBI is frankly irrelevant to our case against him," Brian Heffron, spokesman for Middlesex County District Attorney Thomas Reilly, told the Herald.
Ricci, free on bail, said he is concerned about the safety of his wife and daughters. He claims that he can't work due to the enormous pressure placed on him and his family by law enforcement officers.
"I'm no angel, you know," said Ricci, who said he was raised in Brooklyn, New York. Ricci, who also claims that he once had a tryout with the New York Yankees, apparently was no Joe DiMaggio either.
"I mean, I'm not ready for the priesthood, but a lot of the things they're saying about me aren't true."

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — An FBI agent who worked with informant Vincent Ricci testified they met for several years after Ricci was arrested.
But Special Agent Robert Callen said he ended the informant relationship with Ricci immediately after his 1995 arrest on state cocaine trafficking charges, even though he did not put it in writing until more than a year later.
``When an informant is arrested, he is no longer operational,'' Callen said in Middlesex Superior Court. ``I informed him of that a week or two after his arrest. My mistake, I didn't close Mr. Ricci out until a year later.''
However, Callen said he got information from Ricci on the location of an intended victim of a murder plot, and met with Ricci ``about six times'' in the years following Ricci's arrest.
Ricci, 51, of Medford, was arrested in 1995 after state police raided his home and found a kilogram of cocaine, more than a dozen guns and nearly $100,000 in cash. He claims the FBI set him up in the drug business.
Judge Hiller Zobel denied a motion by Ricci's attorney, Paul Haley, to dismiss the charges, saying the FBI agents clearly did not give Ricci permission to commit crimes, the Boston Herald reported.
Last week, Special Agent James DeStefano confirmed Ricci worked as an informant from late 1992 until December 1996, but said the agency never asked Ricci to sell cocaine, and turned Ricci down when he suggested it.

You wonder were he is today. Sounds like a rosetti case. The bean feds made shit loads of power moves. Egg on the face. This guy who I believe FBI currupt ass connely still has american rights some judge said let him out and now he's in Limbo. But he's not like this luchese tacetta no connely free. It he's fucked up some how. He should do life for all the people he framed. Sick. Could you imagine knowing someone's in jail and you framed them your a psychopath.