2 Staten Islanders busted in mob-linked Internet gambling ring, officials say

Print Email Paul Liotta | pliotta@siadvance.com By Paul Liotta | pliotta@siadvance.com
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on May 31, 2016 at 6:02 PM, updated May 31, 2016 at 7:23 PM

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Six men, including two Staten Islanders, have been busted for operating an illegal Internet gambling operation, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson.

The operation took more than $13 million in wagers on professional and college sporting events and wired payments to an off-shore account, prosecutors allege.

Charged were Eugene (Boopsie) Castelle, 56, of Topside Lane in Charleston; Vincent Mormile, 54, of Lamont Avenue in Rossville; Anthony Grecco, 62, of Queens; Gaetano (Tommy) Zuccarello, 67, of Brooklyn; Theodore (Teddy) Vasilakis, 40, of Queens, and Ioannis (John) Dinos, 67, of Queens.

According to the Brooklyn district attorney's office, the defendants collected $13.2 million in wagers on bets made at stakestake.com between Sept. 1, 2015, and March 15 of this year. Officials said that Castelle, a reputed soldier in the Lucchese crime family, was the leader of the operation and received payments for his authority and protection from other criminal organizations.

Meanwhile, Grecco handled the day-to-day operation, including making payments to an off-shore account in Costa Rica, according to the indictment.

The four other defendants allegedly handled administrative duties with account holders and collected a percentage of lost wages, prosecutors allege.

The men were arraigned on a 37-count indictment Thursday in Brooklyn Supreme Court in which they were charged with enterprise corruption, first- and second-degree promoting gambling, fourth-degree money laundering and fifth-degree conspiracy.

They each face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the top count against them.

In a separate indictment, Grecco also was accused with running a loansharking operation for allegedly lending money to three individuals at high interest rates. As a result, he was charged with three separate counts of first-degree criminal usury for running a loansharking operation, according to the district attorney's office.

If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison for each of those counts.

Castelle had previously served time in federal prison after a racketeering conviction stemming from a Lucchese loansharking operation in Brooklyn which he helped supervise.

In 1997, he was accused of bribing guards at the Metropolitan Detention Center in an attempt to smuggle pounds of mozzarella, veal, eggplant, sopressata, provolone, olives and pepperoni for incarcerated mobsters. The charges in that case were ultimately dismissed.
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