I’m reading Gaspipe again and one of the constant things Carlo says in this book is that Gravano was Casso’s best drug customer. I never spent a lot of time checking into the validity of this and now it has me wondering. I know Gene Gotti and Ruggierio’s brother were huge in the drug business but I never thought of Gravano as a drug dealer. Thoughts?

A big controversy here as Gravano claimed to the Feds when he cooperated he never dealt them. I don't understand why he would have lied, not like the feds would have cared at that point or added to his sentence?

A. The “Hunter” Conspiracy

On July 30, 1991, seven months after Gra-vano was arrested in December, 1990 and ordered detained pending trial, an indictment was filed charging Peter Califano and ten others with conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine. The events upon which the indictment was based and its aftermath are described on pages 10-19 of the government’s memorandum in opposition to this motion (“Gov’t Mem.”) and are here summarized.

On July 21, 1991, the government seized the fishing vessel “Hunter” several miles off the shore of the Fire Island National Park. A search of the vessel revealed more than 4,000 kilograms of cocaine secreted in cargo bins below deck. The cocaine had been transferred to the Hunter earlier in the day from the “Blue Crown I”, a Panamanian cargo vessel. Peter Califano, Hunter’s captain, John Saraeco, a member of his crew, and the captain and crew of the Panamanian vessel were all arrested and indicted. United States v. Peter Califano, et al., CR-917-92 (EHN). Califano pleaded guilty on October 17,1991 before Gravano had first indicated to the government his interest in cooperation. Califano’s plea, pursuant to an agreement with the government (Gov’t Mem. Ex. C), was to a one-count superseding information charging him with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine which carried a mandatory prison sentence of 5-40 years. The various proceedings concerning ■ Califano’s sentence are described in detail in the Gov’t Mem. at pages 11-13 and will not be further restated here beyond noting that he was ultimately sentenced on March 12,1993 to a term of 188 months over the government’s opposition to its leniency. Saracco was permitted to plead to a much lesser offense because of his mental disorder and retardation. He was sentenced to a term of probation which required him to continue with psychiatric care. The third member of Califano’s crew was a DEA informant who never implicated Gravano in that conspiracy. Gov’t Mem. p. 13, fh.ll.

In an affidavit by Gleeson (“Gleeson Aff.”), he swears that at the time the Hunter was seized he and other members of the Gotti prosecution team were continuing with the grand jury investigation of the Gambino Family and also preparing this case for trial; that he learned of the seizure from news reports which related that among those arrested was an associate of the Gambino Family and that Gotti’s son was believed to be involved in the event; that he debriefed Gra-vano extensively between the time he began cooperating with the government and March 1992 when he testified at the Gotti trial, a period of approximately four months; that during that period he • questioned Gravano about a wide variety of crimes, including the cocaine seizure from the Hunter; that Grava-no denied knowledge of or involvement in that event and did not know who was involved in it; that “I believed then, and believe now, that Gravano’s statements on this subject were truthful” and he respectfully *24submits “that we did not elicit perjurious testimony at all; and we certainly never elicited such testimony knowingly.”

Gleeson’s affidavit goes on to declare that he recently learned that late in September 1991 .an informant told DEA agents that he heard a rumor from a third person he refused to identify, that Gravano was primarily responsible for arranging the Hunter cocaine shipment. “I had not previously been aware of this information,” declares Gleeson and “Even if I had, I would not have questioned Gravano differently either in preparing his direct examination or at trial.”

Significant in this regard is the affidavit of Assistant U.S. Attorney James Orenstein (“Orenstein Aff.”), a member of the Gotti trial team, which is annexed as Exhibit G to the Gov’t Mem., which sheds light on how Gleeson recently became informed of the compounded hearsay information imparted to the DEA agents by an informant.

In his affidavit, dated January 29, 1996, Assistant U.S. Attorney Orenstein declares, after this motion for a new trial was filed, he reviewed the “closed files” of the Hunter case which consisted of several large boxes containing thousands of pages of documents. That review yielded merely two documents which “even suggest that Gravano may have had a role in the importation conspiracy. Of these two documents, ... only one was in existence at the time of Gotti’s conviction, and neither was known to any member of the prosecution team in this case until last week.” Orenstein Aff. at 3. The first and only document in existence prior to the Gotti trial was a DEA report dated December 10, 1991 in which a DEA agent records an interview with an informant on September 25, 1991. The informant is stated to have told the agent that he heard a rumor from a source he would not identify that Gravano was “the primary person” who arranged for the Hunter to pick up the cocaine. The informant was not a party to the Hunter conspiracy. He was merely reporting a rumor he heard. The informant also said that he did not know who Gravano was. Oren-stein Aff. at 4.

The second document dated September 23, 1992 (more than five months after the jury verdict in the Gotti case) was a DEA report describing a statement by a different informant who was a participant in the Hunter conspiracy. This informant recounted that yet another participant told him that he arranged for the cocaine importation and that “big people” were involved. Gravano was neither named nor identified as one of the “big people.” Investigative reports showed highly placed members of the Gambino Family were indeed observed meeting with participants in the Hunter conspiracy, but Gra-vano was not among them. Orenstein Aff. at 5. Assistant U.S. Attorney Orenstein’s affidavit then describes the basis for his declaration that no member of the Gotti trial team had knowledge of those reports prior to the return of the jury’s verdict and that no other Eastern District prosecutor had reviewed the reports until months after Gotti’s conviction.

The affidavits submitted on behalf of Gotti pertaining to this aspect of his motion are one by Michael DeSantis dated December 14, 1995, one day prior to the time to file this motion would expire. Although neither witnessed nor notarized it will be regarded as the equivalent of an affidavit pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746. Who is Michael DeSantis? He was a named defendant in three indictments in this court, CR-90-446(S-4)(EHN); CR-92-415(ILG); CR-92-1112(JBW). He pleaded guilty on May 3, 1994 to Counts One and Two of CR-90-446(S-4)(EHN) charging him with racketeering and racketeering conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962(e) and (d) (racketeering acts two, four, six, seven, eight, fifty and fifty-one); Counts Five, Six, Nine, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen and Sixteen, charging him with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to murder in aid of racketeering in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1959(a)(1) and (a)(5); Counts Sixty-Seven and Sixty-Eight charging him with extortion in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951; Counts Sixty-Nine charging him with conspiracy to receive labor payoffs in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and Count Seventy-Two charging him with conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. (Defs Reply Mem. Ex. B). The charges to which he pleaded guilty allege that those crimes were committed by *25him in connection with his membership in the Lucchese Organized Crime Family and his guilty plea is an acknowledgment of that membership. Pursuant to his plea agreement with the government entered into in accordance with Rule 11(e)(1)(C), Fed. R.Crim.P., DeSantis was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for twenty-one years. As part of that agreement, the other two indictments against him were dismissed upon the government’s motion.

It was interesting to note that as part of that agreement, the government agreed not to prosecute DeSantis for his participation with Anthony Casso and others in a 1989-1991 shipment of cocaine. Given the close relationship that existed between the Gambi-no and the Lucchese Organized Crime Families during that period, it defies credulity to believe that were there information linking Gravano to the Hunter conspiracy it would not have been made known to the defendants sooner than on the day preceding the expiration of the time within which to file this motion.

That Gotti was aware of Casso’s (also known as “Gaspipe”) involvement in the importation of narcotics as far back as November 30, 1989 is clearly revealed in Gx 303.1A, Gx 303.1A(T) 114,2 an audio cassette on which the following conversation was intercepted in the apartment above the Ravenite Club to which Gotti, Gravano and Locascio retreated in the belief that they could talk freely there without fear of being overheard:

GOTTI: Ah ... they can pick out one with, ah, “Gaspipe’s” boat got caught in Howard Beach, on Freeport. Ah, fifty thousand (50,000) bales, or fifty thousand (50,000) pounds, fifty thousand (50,-000) tons. Did that happen one time?
GRAVANO: I really don’t know. Ahh ...
GOTTI: I mean, I’m not aware.
GRAVANO: (IA) probably.
GOTTI: Ah, this is what I, I understand. They got one, a tape with that. Ahh ... “see them fuckin’ guys. That was half a ours____” Ah, “What do you man half ours?” “Well, ‘Gaspipe’ called me up this morning; ‘Gas’ called me up this morning. It’s half ours; half theirs; it’s half the guy up the fuckin’ block. Fifty thousand (50,000) pounds, he partners this.”
The extensive litany of violent crimes that could be recited to describe the life of De-Santis and which eloquently bespeak his contempt for the law would also eloquently bespeak his contempt for an oath and counsel discrediting his affidavit.

The second affidavit submitted on behalf of this motion is by Richard A. Rehbock. Judicial notice is taken of the fact that he is the lawyer who represents John Gotti, Jr. His affidavit recounts a meeting he and a private investigator had with Peter Califano, the Hunter captain, in the federal prison in which Califano is currently incarcerated. Rehbock relates that Califano told him that his direct liaison to the cocaine conspiracy was a person named Tommy Carew, a/k/a Tommy Irish and that Carew informed him (Califano) that the cocaine was for Anthony Casso and Salvatore Gravano. Rehbock’s affidavit goes on to state that while his case was pending, Califano learned of Gravano’s cooperation with the government and that the government never sought to learn from him to whom he was to deliver the drugs. It should be added that he never volunteered to relate this information to anyone else until now. Significantly, Califano testified pursuant to subpoena before a grand jury in this district in the summer of 1992 after this trial had ended. He was asked to identify all the participants in the Hunter affair and his response mentioned neither Gravano nor Ca-rew. Gov’t Mem. p. 15. He was sentenced pursuant to a plea agreement to a term of imprisonment more lenient than the sentencing guidelines would otherwise have required. Rehbock concludes by stating that Califano informed him that Tommy Irish is folly familiar with the participation of Casso and Gravano in the Hunter affair and that he, Califano, is available for further discussion of the matter. Given this last report of *26his offer of availability, the absence of a sworn affidavit by Califano himself rather than the hearsay affidavit by Rehboek, is curious.

The government’s memorandum at 18-19 notes that Rehbock’s affidavit recounting Califano’s statement that he was arrested on July 23, 1991 is wrong., He was arrested, in fact, on July 21, 1991. The government advises that Tommy Carew is also cooperating with the government. A critical reading of the Rehboek submission and the DeSantis submission and of every other submission in support of this motion reveals what can at best be described as only a veiled and muted inference that the government was aware of Gravano’s alleged involvement in the Hunter affair. That inference is sought to be implanted from the fact that Gravano, having been debriefed about all of his criminal activity, certainly must have been debriefed about the Hunter affair and therefore the government had knowledge of it. The affidavits of Gleeson and Orenstein, however, stand unre-futed. The government had no information when Gotti was tried that Gravano had any involvement in the Hunter affair and any information that he did, submitted in support of this motion, is hearsay from sources of questionable credibility.3

Annexed as Exhibit H to Materials in Support of John Gotti’s Motion for a New Trial is the sworn testimony of Salvatore Gravano elicited from him by counsel for Vincent Gi-gante at a hearing before Judge Nickerson on March 5, 1996 in which he denied any involvement in the Hunter affair. That denial would have foreclosed any attempt to prove his involvement by extrinsic evidence. Fed.R.Evid. 608(b).

It never came up at Gotti's trial; I know that much. On direct he was only asked if the family approved drug dealing while he was in the administration, which he demurred (they technically *didn't*, y'know, but it's not like they ever investigated anybody either, and if a capo or two came up short in their weekly payments, that was a personal problem they needed to resolve). And since it wasn't raised in direct examination, the defense couldn't bring it up in cross examination. The closest they could get was trying to intimate that Gravano was on drugs himself at the time of his testimony (who knows?).

Gotti and Locascio both tried to raise the drug thing on appeals, and basically got laughed out of the circuit courts. The real world, unlike the Mafia world, tends not to care so much when a multiple murder turned Federal witness might have sold heroin too. Also, until he fucked it all up by still being what he was all along, Gravano was a huge propaganda piece for the Feds. It was a way of both striking fear into the bosses (causing more potential crimes, which could be recorded in the planning process and entered into evidence in a Federal courtroom), and letting underlings, even guys who might have been involved in as many as nineteen murders, know that the federal government would treat them fairly.

Weather you like Trump or not, one huge thing he exposed was how corrupt the FBI was and still is....

I think it was the feds who put the hit count at 19 because 19 looks better in print then 20...

I don't believe for a second that Gotti was at the scene of the Castelanno hit..But they needed Gravano's testimony to that because they didn't have the proof...For all we know, they fed him that story to tell !!

100% even though I do believe Gotti was at the scene of the Castellano hit and it was him that ordered it. It wasn’t another family cause the Gambinos would have went to war and Gotti Sr is the guy who became the boss BUT they also never talked about Alan Kaiser the 16 yr old kid Gravano murdered....
I also believe he whitewashed his involvement in the murders from the standpoint of I believe he murdered DB for Local 282 and Bobby Sasso and murdered Louie Milito for Gem Steel. I also believe at one point he either planned on taking out Gotti Sr or murdering Gottis people if Gotti went to prison so he could take over which is one reason I believe he was pushing Joe Francolino to succeed Jimmy Brown. I also believe he knowingly took drug money from Joey Dangelo, Fama and Fappiano...as far as Drugs with Gas and direct drug dealing when he was a capo and later the Consigliere and Underboss, I’m not sure but I wouldn’t put it past him atleast when he was a soldier but I do think once he got high up enough and was able to have people murdered and take theyre money AND receive drug money tributes from the Famas,Fappianos etc he didn’t need the direct drug money but again who knows. With Gravano anything is possible....

It’s plausible, but tough to decide when it’s one rat’s word vs. another rat’s word.

I know there’s a big stigma against drug dealers, but surely after you’ve confessed to 19 murders, including your business partners, best friend, brother-in-law and a 16 year old, a few kilos isn’t going to make a difference. Plus they’ve made deals with plenty of drug dealing rats before.

I remember coming across that comment posted earlier by Gotti about Gaspipe’s boat in The Gotti Tapes and raising an eyebrow. But looking over it again now, it seems to be part of a conversation about the Angelo Ruggiero/Gene Gotti tapes, and John Gotti is quoting what he believes is on the tapes.

sammy was smoking crack for years a lot of people dont know it because it wasnt public but he was smoking a ton of shit around the time he rsatted he was whacked out of his mind and detained so he could detox

Gravano never had a problem with drug dealing the first thing he did when he came out was setting up the major ecstasy drug ring with those Israelis.