Ex-con Linked to Teamsters Boss Nabbed for Drugs
Boston Herald | 11/10/01 | Jack Sullivan
Posted on 11/10/2001, 8:11:21 PM by Mark

Ex-con linked to Teamsters boss nabbed for drugs

by Jack Sullivan

Saturday, November 10, 2001

A career criminal with close ties to embattled Teamster president George W. Cashman was nabbed on drug charges yesterday and sources said the arrest could signal a major break in the racketeering probe against the beleaguered union boss.

In addition, sources said Frank Rossi, 60, who was just released from a New Jersey halfway house last month, was fingered in a 1997 Charlestown slaying that could hold some clues to the nine-year-old unsolved murder of Logan baggage handler Susan Taraskiewicz.

``This guy has a (lot) of answers about a (lot) of things,'' said one source.

The slightly built and balding Rossi, dressed in a checkered, untucked button-down shirt, jeans and sneakers, was arraigned in U.S. District Court on one count of distributing cocaine after a wired informant tape recorded at least two purchases from him since the beginning of the month.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles B. Swartwood III held Rossi without bail until Wednesday pending a probable cause hearing as well as a hearing on his dangerousness and risk of flight.

Rossi was arrested in Woburn following the investigation by a team of agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the federal Office of Labor Racketeering, as well by police in Everett, where Rossi had been living.

Investigators also executed a search warrant for an apartment on High Street in Chelsea from where Rossi allegedly sold cocaine.

But while Rossi is being held on drug charges, it is his connections to Cashman that has piqued investigators' interest. DEA officials could not be reached and a spokesman for the labor racketeering office declined comment.

Rossi has worked as a member of Local 25's movie crew, many of whose members are being eyed for shaking down filmmakers, intimidating and threatening other set workers and padding overtime and expense sheets.

``He's a member of that gang who get out of jail and get on the movie crew,'' said one source.

Sources said Rossi is an enforcer for Cashman both on and off sets. Rossi last worked on the set of ``Cider House Rules,'' filmed in western Massachusetts, but union officials were forced to remove him after he allegedly severely beat his wife during the filming.

Rossi also once worked as a salesman for Boston Sportswear, which used to supply T-shirts, polo shirts and other Local 25 emblazoned clothing to the Charlestown-based union. Teamsters sources said union members were forced to buy the items, especially if they worked on the movie crews.

``You worked in the movies, you had to buy them,'' said one Local 25 member. ``And they weren't cheap. You had to have so many sets and we always had to pay cash.''

Sources said Rossi was also named by former mob member-turned-government witness Robert Luisi as one of the triggermen in the murder of Anthony DiPrizio, whose frozen and bloodied corpse was found in a Charlestown snowbank clad only in his underwear.

``That was a `message' hit,'' said one source.

Luisi, who pleaded guilty to racketeering charges last year that included paying $7,500 for DiPrizio to be killed, told investigators Rossi was one of the men he hired to do the execution, according to sources.

Investigators asked Luisi if DiPrizio's killing had any connection to the murder of Taraskiewicz, a Northwest Airlines baggage handling superintendent who was found stuffed in her trunk on Sept. 13, 1992, sources close to Luisi confirmed.

Those sources said he knew nothing of the connection but investigators ``aren't ruling (Rossi) out yet.''

DiPrizio, 39, was once busted in Las Vegas on fraud and conspiracy charges after he and others ran up $420,000 in cash advances on credit cards stolen from Logan mail bags. Investigators believe Taraskiewicz may have been killed because she stumbled upon a similar scam. At least one man suspected in Taraskiewicz's murder, Joseph Nuzzo, was convicted of stealing credit cards.

Rossi has a lengthy rap sheet dating back to 1968. According to the complaint by DEA Special Agent Joseph W. Desmond and Stephen B. Mitchell of the racketeering office unsealed yesterday, Rossi has been convicted of bank robbery here and in California, extortion, drugs and at least two escapes from custody.

In 1993, Rossi was one of 25 people rounded up in the infamous Charlestown ``Code of Silence'' case that broke open the neighborhood's tight clamp on unsolved murders and other crimes.

One source said Rossi's diminutive appearance belies a ``vicious'' streak that has been employed to send messages.

``You wouldn't want to meet this guy in a dark alley when he has a gun in his hand,'' said one source.