Whitestone wiseguy gets 5 years in prison
CASE INVOLVES BONNANO, GAMBINO GOONS
Posted: Thursday, December 20, 2018 10:30 am
Bonnano crime family soldier Frank “Frankie Boy†Salerno of Whitestone was sentenced to 60 months in prison last week for racketeering conspiracy, authorities said.
“There should be no doubt that putting a stop to the criminal activities of La Cosa Nostra continues to be a priority of this Office and our law enforcement partners,†U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard Donoghue said in a prepared statement.
Salerno, 43, was the last of seven men to be sentenced on a superseding indictment charging Bonnano and Gambino members of the Mafia with racketeering conspiracy, including predicate acts of drug trafficking, loan sharking, gambling and obstruction of justice.
Other Queens men in the group, Alessandro Damelio, 49, of Whitestone and Thomas Anzalone, 44, of Ozone Park, were previously sentenced.
Prosecutors said the racketeering conspiracy in the case took place between January 2014 and December 2017.
Salerno routinely collected payments for gambling-related debts and extortionate loans, often at the direction of one of the other mobsters, John Ambrosio, 74, of Huntington, LI.
One of the wiseguys sentenced, 67-year-old Anthony Saladino of Glen Cove, LI, was heard saying to an undercover agent that he and Salerno are in the Mafia. He did this by pointing to a button on the Whitestone man’s shirt and saying he “has got that thing.â€
Salerno was partly responsible for some of the day-to-day operations ofAmbrosio’s gambling schemes, which included illegal poker games, electronic gaming machines and online sports betting.
The Whitestone man, Damelio, Anzalone, Saladino and Joseph Durso, 26, of Glen Cove, LI also distributed drugs like Xanax, marijuana and cocaine.
Authorities executed a search warrant for the case last December at a Nassau County storage facility, finding a sawed-off shotgun, two AR-15s, a .38-caliber revolver, gambling and loan sharking records, electronic gaming machines, narcotics and drug paraphernalia.
