October 6, 2016 This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci
Accused Mob Bookie: FBI Snitch Took My Car; I Want It Back
Gang Land Exclusive!Agostino CamachoThere's a not-so-small stink being made about this summer's big roundup of 46 mob-linked defendants. The arrests of top mobsters from New York and Philadelphia were hailed by federal officials as a major setback for the mob. But they have also produced embarrassment for law enforcement officials due to a bone-headed investigative move that allowed the key cooperating witness to tool around town in a car that belonged to one of the defendants.
Sources say the automobile in question was given to mob turncoat John (J.R.) Rubeo by Genovese associate Agostino (Augie) Camacho as partial satisfaction of a long-running debt he owed Rubeo. The car remained in Camacho's name, however, and since Rubeo was technically in the employ of Uncle Sam, if he had an accident and mowed down some poor pedestrian, the government could have been liable for resulting damages, according to numerous current and former law enforcement officials.
Making matters worse, sources say, the mob turncoat was allowed to keep the car even after the indictment came down, and he used it to motor out to his secret new home somewhere in America. There, according to one law enforcement source, the problem grew even bigger when Rubeo was pulled over by cops for driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle.
John RubeoCamacho, it seems, had promptly cancelled the insurance and registration as soon as he realized that his old pal JR was the likely informant in the case.
What's more, the car remains stuck out there as the feds try to puzzle out how to bring it back to New York.
The sources say that the screw-up has caused considerable angst for Rubeo, and his federal law enforcement partners. They add that finger-pointing by agents and prosecutors at each other on the subject of blame about the matter, which has not been publicly filed, is indicative of strong, longstanding disagreements between agents and prosecutors involved in the case.
Several law enforcement sources say that despite a unified announcement of the bombshell case by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and former New York FBI Boss Diego Rodriguez two months ago, prosecutors and agents — and their respective superiors — had major differences on how the investigation should have been handled. Prosecutors wanted the FBI to end the investigation more than a year earlier while agents argued that prosecutors had enough evidence to charge a dozen or more suspects with significant crimes, sources say.
Pasquale ParrelloThese sources concede that "there are always disagreements" between agents and prosecutors about the number of defendants and specific charges after long, complicated investigations but they insist that these disagreements were more intense than usual. "There was loud yelling and screaming you wouldn't believe," said one source.
Law enforcement sources say that Camacho, 40, the "rightful" owner of the car, had canceled its insurance and the registration soon after he was released on a $200,000 bond following his arraignment in Manhattan Federal Court. Seems that once Camacho saw that Rubeo "wasn't in the bullpen" along with him and dozens of others who were arrested on August 4, he quickly surmised that his old pal J.R. had done them in.
As Gang Land has reported previously, Rubeo, also 40 and also from Yonkers, began wearing a wire for the feds in 2011 after the DEA busted him on heavyweight drug charges. During the five year long probe, he tape recorded hundreds of talks with scores of mobsters and associates from five crime families, including Camacho, and his mob superior, Genovese capo Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello.
Camacho is charged with health care fraud, the sale of bootleg cigarettes and three separate gambling ventures. The codefendants in the specific charges against him include Parrello, Genovese capo Eugene (Rooster) O'Nofrio, and Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino — the three alleged leaders of what the feds have dubbed the "East Coast LCN Enterprise."
Abigal Kurland, Lauren Abinanti, Amanda KramerTwo months later, sources say Camacho's immediate concern is his car. He wants it back.
Camacho's court-appointed attorney, Winston Lee, declined to discuss the matter with Gang Land. But sources say several weeks ago the lawyer informed prosecutors that his client wanted the car returned to him. Sources told Gang Land earlier this week that the feds still hadn't returned the car to Lee.
One major issue for the feds, said one law enforcement source, is the need to hire a car transporter to return the car, which apparently can't be driven legally back to New York, without jeopardizing Rubeo's security where he currently resides. Until recently, this law enforcement source said, the car was hidden away in a garage controlled by Rubeo.
Gang Land was unable to get any official comment about Rubeo's use of Camacho's car, which sources say began months before the indictment was filed. FBI agents and prosecutors contacted by Gang Land either declined to comment or didn't return numerous requests for comment.
Spokesmen for both agencies also declined to say whether the feds would return the car to Camacho, or seek to keep it under the forfeiture section of the indictment. That section states that prosecutors will seek appropriate but unspecified forfeiture from defendants who are convicted of the main racketeering charge.
The amount and nature of Camacho's debt to Rubeo could not be determined by Gang Land but one law enforcement source said, "Camacho owed him some money and gave him his car as partial payment."
Pasquale Capolongo"Money was always going back and forth between those two guys," said a second law enforcement source. "Sometimes it was hard to figure out what it was all about."
According to court papers in the case, Camacho, who allegedly ran a "Casino-Style Gambling Club" for Parrello at a Yonkers social club, was frequently in debt to gangster-codefendants.
In 2014, Camacho owed $300,000 to a West Palm Beach, Florida-based loanshark-bookmaker, Pasquale (Pat C) Capolongo, and was the focal point of an alleged plot by the bookie to whack Rubeo because he had vouched for Camacho, according to assertions by a Florida federal prosecutor at a bail hearing for Capolongo.
Last year, according to a detention memo filed by New York prosecutors Amanda Kramer, Abigail Kurlan, Jessica Lonergan, Jonathan Rebold, and Lauren Abinanti, Camacho was threatened with death by Luchese family associate Harold Thomas, a Bronx-based loanshark.
In September 2015, the prosecutors wrote, Thomas confronted Camacho and said: "The next time you don't pay me on time you'll never hear another fucking sound. I'll put you right in the ground. Right here, right now. It don't matter to me. I don't give a fuck. If you don't have my money the first of the month you will never hear another sound I give you word on that. In about a minute I'm going to go over to the car and take the fucking pistol and I'm going to kill you."
Judge Unmoved By $1.4M In Duffle Bag; OK's Bail For Suspect In $5M Bank Heists
Anthony MascuzzioTry as they might, the feds are having a very difficult time convincing Manhattan Federal Judges to detain indicted mob-linked defendants charged with major crimes on the grounds that they are dangers to the community or a threat to run away rather than face the music at trial.
In a stunning setback yesterday, federal prosecutors lost their third try to keep Gambino associate Anthony Mascuzzio in a federal lockup as he awaits trial for taking part in spectacular bank heists early this year that netted thieves $5 million in proceeds during two weekend-long bank burglaries — even though the government seized $1.4 million from him on the day of his arrest.
And Mascuzzio won his freedom even though yesterday's efforts to detain him were for charges that require a much lower threshold of proof than bank burglary. The Probation Department charged him with violating post prison supervised release restrictions (VOSR) that required him to keep his nose clean when he got out of prison last year for a 2011 conviction for several big ticket burglaries.
Michael MazzaraHis court victory comes two weeks after the accused 44-year-old mastermind behind the bank heists, Michael Mazzara, a reputed associate of the Colombo and Bonanno crime families, walked out of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on a $2 million bond that was approved by Federal Judge Laura Swain.
In court papers, prosecutors Benet Kearney and David Denton wrote that the very detailed arrest complaint that linked Mascuzzio to the thefts of cash and other valuables in April and May were "clear and convincing evidence" that Mascuzzio should be detained for VOSR.
"When Probation officers conducted searches of the defendant's home, vehicle, and person, they recovered approximately $1,464,650 in cash, $1,447,350 of which was in a duffle bag in the defendant's children's room," the prosecutors wrote, asking Judge William Pauley to detain him while he awaits a full hearing on the VOSR, which carries a maximum of two years behind bars.
The prosecutors noted that Mascuzzio owed $1,132,616 in restitution for his 2011 conviction, and that he had "paid less than $2300" towards that at the time of his arrest. They also cited many alleged lies he told his probation officer during his 16 months of supervised release before his arrest as reasons why Mascuzzio should be detained.
Judge Laura SwainMascuzzio's lawyer, James Kousouros, countered that Magistrate Judge Henry Pitman had set bail on much more serious charges, and that Federal Judge Valerie Caproni had rejected the government's appeal of that ruling, and argued that there was no legal reason to remand him on the less serious VOSR charges.
The $1.5 million bond, co-signed by six family members who posted $1.1 million in property as security, Kousouros wrote, was enough to assure the court that Mascuzzio was "not likely to flee or pose a danger to the safety of any other person or the community."
At yesterday's proceeding, Judge Pauley upped the bond to $2.25 million but left all the other provisions intact.
Mascuzzio, 36, is expected to be released in the coming days, after Kousouros submits the new court papers required by Pauley's ruling.
Last edited by gangstereport; 10/06/16 04:05 PM.
