I have decided to post the whole article this week SC if you want me too I will take it down
December 22, 2016 This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci
FBI Paid For Wiseguy Christmas Party At Pasquale's Rigoletto
Gang Land Exclusive!Pasquale's RigolettoThe Christmas wreaths, lights, and other decorations are up, but the atmosphere at Pasquale's Rigoletto is a far cry from what it was two years ago when the named owner of the popular Italian restaurant in The Bronx threw a gala Yuletide bash there for dozens of wiseguy friends and associates from New York to Florida — with the help of the FBI.
Law enforcement sources say the party was hosted by powerful Genovese capo Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello, and that the FBI picked up the tab.
The gala began at the landmark Arthur Avenue eatery in the Belmont section at about 9PM on December 8, 2014. It ended in the wee hours early on December 9 at a club on East Tremont Avenue in the Throgs Neck section of the borough.
Law enforcement sources say that night was the only time that Parrello and the two other wiseguys the feds describe as ringleaders of the alleged five family racketeering conspiracy — Genovese capo Eugene (Rooster) O'Nofrio and Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino — were all together during the five year-long investigation.
Pasquale ParrelloAt the party, according to one law enforcement source, the trio posed for a picture and actually "joked that the photo was going to get them arrested." Since you don't see it here, we assume you figured out that Gang Land does not have a copy. If and when we do, we'll be sure to pass it along.
The sources say all three mobsters were tape recorded discussing mob business by either John (J.R.) Rubeo, the longtime Parrello underling-turned cooperating witness, or the undercover FBI agent named "Jeff," whom Rubeo brought into the case. Both undercovers mingled with the trio and all the partygoers at the restaurant and at the Vapor Lounge — which opened earlier that year and features "exotic hookah, mixology and music," according to its website.
Eugene O'NofrioAt the party, which also served as a "going away" party for Merlino, who began a four month stint for parole violation in January of 2015, Skinny Joey formally introduced two of his key Philadelphia mobsters, Dominic (Baby Dom) Grande and Michael (Mikey Lance) Lancelotti to Parrello. Sources say Lancellotti, 52, a Merlino contemporary, is Skinny Joey's "main man" in Philadelphia, and that both Mikey Lance and Baby Dom, 35, are suspects in gangland-style slayings.
"It was the first time they (Merlino and Parrello) had seen each other in 22 years," said one law enforcement source. "That's when Joey came to New York to meet Patsy — 22 years ago over some dispute between Philadelphia and the Genoveses. Other than that night, they never laid eyes on each other," the source continued, stating that Rubeo served as "the go-between" in their joint gambling and health care fraud scams.
The source added that while each mobster was always looking for new ways to make money, they "were complete opposites. Joey always weaseled out of gambling debts and paying for things himself. Patsy put his hand in his pocket once in a while."
Joseph MerlinoIn an effort to ensure that Merlino would come to the party, and hopefully implicate himself in criminal conduct, the FBI — through Rubeo, who had many meetings with Skinny Joey during the investigation — paid for Merlino and his wife Debra to fly to New York, and to put them up in a hotel, said one law enforcement source. To pay for the party, the FBI laid out about $5000, according to the source.
It remains to be seen whether any of the conversations are indeed incriminating but sources say that during the party Merlino was true to form when it came to money. After codefendant Agostino (Augie) Camacho, a longtime Rubeo pal, gave Skinny Joey $1500, he told Rubeo he needed more money before he left town. The next day, the sources say, he got a $5000 tribute from the cooperating witness, which like virtually all of the discussions that Rubeo and FBI agent Jeff had during the investigation, were recorded and videotaped.
Michael LancelottiLaw enforcement sources say that Rubeo, and the FBI agent, whom J.R. had introduced into the investigation as "a friend from high school" earlier that year, did not pass up a chance to chat up an attendee. But for the most part, each hung out and did the bidding of his main mob superior at the affair — Rubeo's being Parrello, and Jeff's being O'Nofrio.
Rubeo introduced Jeff into the probe, said one source, when he took the agent with him to meet O'Nofrio, a Connecticut-based capo who ran two crews, one on Mulberry Street, and another in Springfield Massachusetts, at a scheduled meeting to discuss a bookmaking venture.
Rubeo "took Rooster on the side," the source said, and told him: "I got this good kid here, he's a good friend of mine. He steals cigarettes, but he ain't with anybody. I wanna put him with you."
Dominic GrandeO'Nofrio sought assurance. "J.R., this kid gonna give me problems?" he asked, according to the source.
Rubeo insisted Jeff was trustworthy, the source said, and O'Nofrio replied, "Fine, he's on record with me. Lemme talk to this kid."
It was a tricky move, since according to mob protocol, Rubeo should have put Jeff on record with Parrello, not O'Nofrio, but the FBI wanted to widen its probe to include more Genovese gangsters, and succeeded in its ploy.
The agent was never proposed, but according to a court filing, he became a "trusted associate" who "captured hundreds of hours of inculpatory conversations involving O'Nofrio and others" during the investigation. Jeff often drove Rooster to regular Thursday meetings at a South Ozone Park restaurant and tape recorded dinner meetings with wiseguys with three crime families, said one law enforcement source.
John RubeoLaw enforcement sources say that Skinny Joey wasn't the only gangster in the huge 46-defendant case who pestered Rubeo for money at the party.
Mob associate Bradford Wedra, who is charged only with cigarette buttlegging, also put the arm on him for dough. As Gang Land disclosed in August, Wedra, 61, is one of four defendants linked by tape recorded talks to a murder plot against an Albanian gangster who allegedly killed Pasquale Parrello Jr. But the longtime Parrello crew member doesn't have the juice that Merlino has.
When he told J.R. he was broke, and could use an infusion of cash, according to one source, "Rubeo told him to wait until after he had paid the bill," and never got back to him.
Bradford WedraSources say the other still living gangsters tied to the alleged murder conspiracy with Wedra and Parrello, Anthony (Anthony Boy) Zinzi, and Israel (Buddy) Torres, also attended the gala affair. Ronald (Ronnie The Beast) Mastrovincenzo, the fifth member and prime mover in the alleged plot against Viktor Mirdita, who was acquitted in 1995 of Parrello Jr.'s murder, died last year.
Judge Richard Sullivan, who has scheduled the next status conference in the case for January 5, granted requests by numerous defendants, including Wedra and Merlino, to relax bail restrictions so they can celebrate Christmas and the holiday season with relatives.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rebold was a bit of a scrooge with Skinny Joe. But Judge Sullivan okayed Merlino's request to extend his curfew from 7PM to 10PM from December 17 through January 10 so he and his wife could enjoy "meals, entertainment and holiday gatherings" with their two daughters on college break. Rebold wanted the extended hours to begin tomorrow and end on New Year's Day.
Judge From The Dark Side Plays Santa Claus
Jack ManninoMob turncoat Jack Mannino got an early Christmas gift last week when a judge who sounds like Darth Vader and who sometimes imposes prison terms as though he was from the Dark Side gave him "time served" for the Christmas season armed robbery of a Brooklyn bank five years ago.
Brooklyn Federal Judge William [BadWord] also ordered the recidivist bank robber, who testified against his accomplice in the December 29, 2011, $5,658 robbery of a Capital One branch in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, to serve five years of post-prison supervised release. The judge also ordered Mannino to forfeit the amount of loot he and his cohort got away with.
It's unclear whether [BadWord], whose basso profundo voice sounds very much like the evil Star Wars character, referred to himself as Father Vader, as he often does, or if he used some of the other theatrical modes he has used in the past while he was imposing sentence against Mannino.
William [BadWord] reasons that make no sense to Gang Land, the proceeding — unlike the sentencing in the same courthouse of one of the most notorious cooperating witnesses in American history, Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano, and many others, including turncoat Mafia boss Joe Massino and his underboss, Salvatore Vitale — was sealed. (It's a story for another day, but in recent years, Gang Land has noticed more and more cases in which the government, contrary to justice department guidelines, and judges, contrary to provisions of the First Amendment and judicial precedents, seal documents and proceedings on dubious if not bogus legal grounds.)
Gang Land received no reports of "Ho, ho, ho, and to all a good night" spiraling out of [BadWord]'s sixth-floor courtroom last Thursday, but last month the judge broke new ground in his use of histrionics as he gave Mannino's codefendant, Gary Fama, 13 and a half years, the maximum term called for by the sentencing guidelines. Fama's original sentence had been more than 20 years greater than the recommended maximum — 35 years — and was reversed as overly harsh by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Gary FamaDuring Fama's sentencing, [BadWord] invoked the Sheriff Bullard character in the 1972 film classic, Deliverance, the Academy Award winning actor Denzel Washington, as well as the evil Darth Vader as he advised the oft-arrested mob associate to behave himself in the future.
"Don't ever do nothin' like this again. Don't come back up here again," [BadWord] told Fama, uttering the same words that the Aintry County Sheriff (played by writer James Dickey who wrote the book on which the film was based) used to warn the Jon Voight character Ed Gantry near the end of the movie.
After [BadWord] justified his original harsh term as "appropriate at the time" because Fama had not voiced remorse at his first sentencing, and meted out the lesser but still pretty stiff prison term, [BadWord] strongly advised Fama to remember him the next time he was tempted to rob a bank.
"If not my Denzel Washington face, or my (Darth) Vader voice in the back of your head saying, 'It's just not worth it,'" [BadWord] told Fama in his booming basso profundo voice.
In addition to Mannino, the government also used a passerby who fingered Fama as a suspect he saw who looked like the Seinfeld character George Costanza — "little to no hair, stocky, wearing glasses" — to convict him at trial. Fama, 51, currently resides at a federal prison in Fairton, NJ. He is slated for release in January of 2024.
Despite his "time served" sentence, Mannino, 48, is still at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons. Most likely, whatever federal agency that is going to relocate him far away from his old haunts in Bensonhurst, is still finalizing its plans.
All I Want For Christmas Is A 30-Year Prison Term
Mark ReiterIn the abstract, wanting a prison term of 30 years is not something to write Santa Claus about, but everything in life is relative. So when you're 69 years old, and are serving two life sentences, and you have been behind bars for nearly 29 years, a gift-wrapped 30-year prison term from St. Nick is exactly what Mark Reiter wants for Christmas.
But even if he's got a hook with Santa it's a long shot. It means a federal judge would have to throw out two life sentences for the drug dealer — a John Gotti-pal no less — who was found guilty of heroin trafficking and two murders. That's a very tall order, even if you were sentenced illegally, as Reiter's noted appeals lawyer has pointed out in excruciating detail in two separate filings with Manhattan Federal Judge Vernon Broderick.
Reiter doesn't have much going for him besides the cogent legal arguments put forth by attorney Harlan Protass. And even if he wins the legal battle, he could still end up losing his fight for freedom. But hope springs eternal, and as Gang Land has reported previously, Protass has twice before gotten life sentences reversed and 30-year-prison terms for convicted drug dealers.
Harlan ProtassIn 2013, the attorney won the reversal of a life sentence for Myles Coker, a co-defendant of Bonanno wiseguy Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano in the notorious Blue Thunder case who was convicted of heroin trafficking in 1994. Last year, Protass got a similar decision for a second codefendant in that case, Ralph Rivera, who is slated for release next year.
In the government's opposition, prosecutor Timothy Capozzi's main argument seems to be that it's much too late in the game for Reiter to contest the sentence he got in 1988. But Capozzi tacitly concedes that the sentence may be illegal when he argued that Reiter is still a very bad guy and should die behind bars, just as the late judge Richard Owen intended when he sentenced him. To make sure Reiter never saw free air again, Owen sentenced him to two life sentences, asserts Capozzi, and the other one hasn't been challenged.
Protass is unfazed. Reiter's sentence was "plainly illegal" on one drug count, he argues, since it required a finding by Owen that the "offense involved more than 100 grams of heroin," and there was no such finding. As a result, Protass asserts, Reiter is entitled to be resentenced for the entire case. And today, the attorney wrote, Reiter is a loving grandfather of five, would never return to crime, and that 30 years is a "fair, just and reasonable sentence."
In the end, based on the filings by both sides, whether Reiter lives out his life as a free man or behind bars, lies firmly within the discretion of Judge Broderick, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan who was appointed to the bench in 2013.
Gang Land wishes all our readers, whether or not you celebrate Christmas or believe in Santa Claus, a very Merry Christmas.
