The main suspect in the murder of a Federal drug agent last February was killed in a blaze of bullets fired from a blue van on a Brooklyn street Friday night in what law-enforcement officials said appeared to be an execution by local organized-crime groups.

The death of the suspect, Constabile (Gus) Farace, 29 years old, ended one of the country's most intense manhunts. Mr. Farace was suspected of having killed Everett E. Hatcher, a 46-year-old Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, who was shot to death eight months ago on a desolate road in Rossville, S.I.

Law-enforcement officials said the agent had been engaged in an undercover investigation involving negotiations to purchase cocaine from Mr. Farace. It was the first death of a Federal drug agent in the line of duty in New York since 1972, and it brought one of the largest Federal rewards ever posted - $250,000 - and provoked calls by President Bush for a mandatory Federal death penalty in cases in which law-enforcement officers are killed.

In the shooting Friday night, a companion of Mr. Farace, Joseph Sclafani, 24, was critically wounded. The gunmen fled in the van, the police said. Companion Fired Twice
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Mr. Farace was killed shortly after 11 P.M. in front of 1814 81st Street in the Bensonhurst section. Officers from the 62d Precinct, who arrived minutes after the gunfire stopped, found a man, whom they identified early yesterday as Mr. Farace, near death in the passenger seat of a 1982 gray Pontiac. He had gunshot wounds to the head, neck, back and leg.

Officials said Mr. Farace, who was seated nearer to the van, had not had time to reach for the .38-caliber handgun he carried in a waistband.

Officials of the drug agency said Mr. Sclafani, whom they described as a Staten Island bar owner and ''long-time associate'' of Mr. Farace, fired two shots from his own .38-caliber pistol in an attempt to ward off the assailants. Mr. Sclafani was found on the ground near the car. He was wounded in the chest, back and arm.

Before losing consciousness, officials said, he told the police, ''I was only trying to help my friend.'' Appearance Was Altered

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Residents of the narrow one-way street of two-story houses and low-rise apartment buildings where the killing took place told the police that the burst of gunfire, at least 16 shots in all, had sounded like fireworks.
The police said they did not immediately recognize Mr. Farace, because when last seen he had short-cropped brown hair. When his body was found, Mr. Farace had curly hair and a long beard, both dyed red, they said. He was identified about 4:30 A.M. yesterday after fingerprint checks were performed in the Staten Island Medical Examiner's office.

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Mary Cooper, a spokeswoman for the drug agency, said: ''It is ironic that Gus Farace died in the exact manner as Everett Hatcher - sitting in a car, shot through an open window by an assassin in a van. The only difference is he was on the passenger side while Hatcher was on the driver's side.''

Mr. Farace was pronounced dead on arrival at Coney Island Hospital, where Mr. Sclafini remains in critical condition.

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An assistant United States attorney in the Eastern District of New York, Jerry Ross, who headed the investigation into Mr. Hatcher's murder, said there were no immediate suspects in Mr. Farace's death. ''We are still investigating it, but everything would tend to suggest this was a mob hit,'' he said. #30 to 40 People on Case Following Mr. Hatcher's murder, Mr. Farace, who was on parole after serving seven years for a first-degree manslaughter conviction, was placed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of 10 most wanted fugitives.

The special agent in charge of the New York office of the drug agency, Robert M. Stutman, made the pursuit of Mr. Hatcher's killer his staff's top priority. Officials said a team of 30 to 40 people, including agents from the drug agency, the F.B.I., the New York City Police Department and the United States Marshal's Service have worked ''full time, seven days a week,'' to find Mr. Farace.

For months, acting on the belief that Mr. Farace had never left Brooklyn and Staten Island, agents used electronic surveillance, canvassed entire neighborhoods and arrested friends and family members in their efforts to flush the suspect out of hiding.

Last month, Mr. Farace's wife and brother-in-law were arrested on charges that they had been part of a drug ring operated by Mr. Farace. Agents said the organization had brought large amounts of marijuana from Texas to New York since 1987. In May, a Staten Island woman, Margaret Scarpa, was arrested for arranging temporary haven for Mr. Farace in a neighbor's home. Pressure on the Mob
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But law-enforcement officials said the most successful tactic seemed to have been pressure placed on local organized-crime families - particularly the Bonnano and Colombo groups - to ''deliver'' Mr. Farace to the authorities.

A police official said of Mr. Farace's death, ''It certainly appears that the mob decided to offer him up.''

''There has never been as intense an effort to put pressure on organized crime, and we have had information that they were indeed feeling it,'' said Mr. Ross, the Federal prosecutor.

At the time of his death in February, Mr. Hatcher, a 17-year veteran of the drug agency, had radioed members of a surveillance team backing him up that he was driving to meet his target, Mr. Farace, at a Staten Island diner.

The five agents who were tracking the undercover operation lost radio contact with Mr. Hatcher, whom they later found dead in his car with four gunshot wounds, including one to his head.


A March 1986 raid on DiBernardo's office seized alleged "child pornography and financial records." As "a result of the Postal Inspectors seizures [a federal prosecutor] is attempting to indict DiBernardo on child pornography violations" according to an FBI memo dated May 20, 1986.
Thousands of pages of FBI Files that document his involvement in Child Porn
https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/star-distributors-ltd-46454/
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/0...s-Miporn-investigation-of/7758361252800/
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1526052/united-states-v-dibernardo/