Ten Members And Associates Of The Gambino Crime Family Arrested In Coordinated U.S.-Italian Takedown: Defendants Charged In Brooklyn Federal Court With Racketeering Conspiracy Involving Violent Extortions, Assaults, Arson, And Union-Related Crimes

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York released the below information:

A 16-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging 10 defendants with racketeering conspiracy, extortion, witness retaliation, and union-related crimes committed in an attempt to dominate the New York carting and demolition industries. All ten defendants are in custody and are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr.  In connection with the arrests, federal authorities executed search warrants, one of which resulted in the seizure of multiple firearms from an associate of the Gambino crime Family. 

In a coordinated operation, Italian law enforcement today arrested six organized crime members and associates who are charged with, among other crimes, mafia association and connected criminal offenses. One individual remains at large.

The defendants are Joseph Lanni, also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino,” an alleged captain in the Gambino organized crime family, Diego “Danny” Tantillo, Angelo Gradilone, also known as “Fifi,” and James LaForte, alleged Gambino soldiers, Vito Rappa, alleged U.S.-based Sicilian Mafia member and Gambino associate, Francesco Vicari, also known as “Uncle Ciccio,” alleged U.S.-based Sicilian Mafia associate and Gambino associate, and Salvatore DiLorenzo, Robert Brooke, Kyle Johnson, also known as “Twin,” and Vincent Minsquero, also known as “Vinny Slick,” alleged Gambino associates. 

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, James Smith, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent-in-Charge, Northeast Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Edward A. Caban, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), and Elizabeth Crotty, Commissioner and Chair, New York City Business Integrity Commission (BIC), announced the charges.

“As alleged, for years, the defendants committed violent extortions, assaults, arson, witness retaliation and other crimes in an attempt to dominate the New York carting and demolition industries,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace.  “Today’s arrests reflect the commitment of this Office and our law enforcement partners, both here and abroad, to keep our communities safe by the complete dismantling of organized crime.” 

Mr. Peace expressed his appreciation to the New York Waterfront Commission, the Office’s law enforcement partners in Italy, including the Prosecutor of Palermo, the Polizia di Stato, the Servizio Centrale Operativo, and the Squadra Mobile of Palermo.

“These defendants learned the hard way that the FBI is united with our law enforcement locally and internationally in our efforts to eradicate the insidious organized crime threat.  Those arrested are alleged to have taken part in a racketeering conspiracy in an attempt to control the carting and demolition industries in the city.  The FBI will continue to lead the fight against organized crime and ensure that individuals willing to cross the line face punishment in the criminal justice system” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Smith.

“Today’s arrests should serve as a warning to others who believe they can operate in plain sight with apparent impunity – the NYPD and our law enforcement partners exist to shatter that notion,” stated NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban. “And we will continue to take down members of traditional organized crime wherever they may operate.”

“An important part of the mission of the Office of Inspector General is to investigate allegations of fraud involving labor unions and their affiliated employee benefit plans. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate these types of allegations,” said DOL-OIG Special Agent-in Charge Jonathan Mellone.

“Investigating these matters is at the heart of BIC’s mission to ensure the industries under our regulation do not pose a risk to public safety. These arrests demonstrate that the influence of organized crime will never go unchecked,” stated BIC Commissioner and Chair Elizabeth Crotty.  “BIC thanks the NYPD, FBI, EDNY, and our other agency partners for their collaboration and excellent work on this case.”

As alleged in the government’s court filings and summarized below, members and associates of the Gambino crime family used violent extortions, fraud, theft and embezzlement schemes to infiltrate the carting and demolition industries to enrich themselves and the Gambino crime family, including by laundering criminal proceeds.  For example, in the midst of a financial dispute between Tantillo and the owners of Demolition Company 1, Tantillo and Johnson coordinated a violent hammer assault on the dispatcher for Demolition Company 1, which left the dispatcher bleeding and seriously injured.   

Extortions Related to the Carting and Demolition Industries

Tantillo, Rappa, Vicari and Johnson engaged in a violent extortion conspiracy relating to the demand and receipt of money from John Doe 1, who operated a carting business in the New York City area.  The extortion scheme involved threatening John Doe 1 with a bat, setting fire to the steps to John Doe 1’s residence, attempting to damage John Doe 1’s carting trucks, and violently assaulting an associate of John Doe 1.   In addition, Tantillo and Vicari were captured on judicially-authorized wiretaps discussing threats they made to John Doe 1 and John Doe 1’s father-in-law.  On one call, Rappa stated that Vicari “acted like the ‘Last of the Samurai,” describing how Vicari picked up a knife and directed John Doe 1’s father-in-law to threaten to cut John Doe 1 in half in order to get John Doe 1 to make extortionate payments.  After John Doe 1 ultimately made a payment of $4,000 to Vicari, Vicari and Rappa met and sent Tantillo a photo of Vicari raising a small champagne bottle, as in a toast.

In addition, Tantillo, Brooke and Johnson engaged in two separate violent extortion schemes of Demolition Company 1 and its owners over purported debts owed to Tantillo and a company operated by Tantillo and Brooke.   Brooke violently assaulted one of the owners on a street corner in midtown Manhattan.  In another instance, as mentioned, Tantillo and Johnson coordinated a violent hammer assault on a dispatcher at Demolition Company 1, which left the dispatcher bleeding and seriously injured.  Pictures of the victim dispatcher were then circulated to various people in the carting and demolition industries. 

Frauds and Union-Related Crimes in the Carting and Demolition Industries

The defendants also committed a series of crimes to steal and embezzle from unions and employee benefit plans and rigged bids in the demolition and carting industries.  As part of one such scheme, DiLorenzo provided Rappa with a “no-show” job at DiLorenzo’s demolition company so that Rappa could receive paychecks and union health benefits, among other benefits.  Similarly, Tantillo arranged for Gradilone to receive a “no-show” job at a construction company with which Tantillo was associated, which enabled Gradilone to receive paychecks and union health benefits to which he was not entitled.  Tantillo and Johnson also conspired to secure a “no-show” job for Johnson, so that Johnson could similarly receive union health benefits.

Tantillo also embezzled from employee benefit plans by using laborers from a non-union company, Gane Services, Inc., to perform work for union companies operated by Tantillo, and failing to make contributions for such work as required by collective bargaining agreements.

In addition, Tantillo, DiLorenzo and their co-conspirators conspired to rig bids for lucrative demolition contracts in New York City.  Among other things, Tantillo and DiLorenzo coordinated that their companies exchange bidding information to secure a project on Fifth Avenue. 

Additional Charged Schemes

The defendants also perpetrated a series of other crimes throughout the New York and New Jersey areas from 2017 through 2023.  Their pattern of racketeering activity included additional extortions, retaliating against a federal witness, and money laundering, among other crimes, as detailed in court documents.  For example, in September 2023, Lanni and Minsquero coordinated an assault on proprietors of a restaurant in New Jersey, including physically assaulting a woman at knifepoint.  In addition, LaForte, having previously been convicted of a felony, illegally possessed a firearm in or about May 2023. 

The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.  The defendants variously face maximum sentences between 20 and 180 years’ imprisonment. 

 The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section.  Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew R. Galeotti, Anna L. Karamigios, and Andrew M. Roddin are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Emme Moosher.

The Defendants:

JOSEPH LANNI (also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino”)
Age:  52
Staten Island, New York

DIEGO TANTILLO (also known as “Danny” and “Daniel”)
Age:  48
Freehold, New Jersey

ROBERT BROOKE
Age:  55
New York, New York

SALVATORE DILORENZO
Age:  66
Oceanside, New York

ANGELO GRADILONE (also known as “Fifi”)
Age:  57
Staten Island, New York

KYLE JOHNSON (also known as “Twin”)
Age:  46
Bronx, New York

JAMES LAFORTE (also known as “Jimmy”)
Age:  46
New York, New York

VINCENT MINSQUERO (also known as “Vinny Slick”)
Age:  36
Staten Island, New York

VITO RAPPA (also known as “Vi”)
Age:  46
East Brunswick, New Jersey

FRANCESCO VICARI (also known as “Frank” and “Uncle Ciccio”)
Age:  46
Elmont, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 23-CR-443 

A Look Back At The John Gotti Trials: My Washington Times On Crime Column On 'The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America's Most Notorious Mobster'

 The Washington Times ran my On Crime column that covered John Gleason’s The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America’s Most Notorious Mobster. 

Even after all these years, the late John Gotti remains the public’s poster boy for Cosa Nostra crime bosses. Known as “The Dapper Don,” the well-dressed, publicity-seeking, boss of the Gambino crime family in New York, was often in the news, even though Cosa Nostra was a secret criminal society.

 

Like Al Capone before him, Gotti was flashy and flippant around reporters and the public, and he was feared by other mobsters due to his murder of the previous Gambino boss, Paul Castellano, and other brutal and violent acts.

 

Gotti was also called “The Teflon Don,” as he was acquitted in a federal trial, and many believed the Feds couldn’t touch him.

 

That Teflon image would change in 1992 when Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gleeson became Gotti’s chief prosecutor. A former federal prosecutor, federal judge, and today a practicing defense attorney, Judge Gleeson was the lead counsel in the successful racketeering-murder trials of both John Gotti and Vic Orena, the bosses of the Gambino and Colombo crime families.

 

Judge Gleeson offers a look back at the Gotti trials in his book, “The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America’s Notorious Mobster.”  

“The Gotti Wars” recounts the story of Gotti’s rise in Cosa Nostra and his eventual downfall. John Gleeson prosecuted Gotti’s two federal racketeering prosecutions. In the first trial, Gotti was acquitted. Five years later, he was in charge of the second racketeering trial. He had the FBI’s secret recordings of Gotti’s conversations with “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, Gotti’s underboss, and consigliere Frank Locascio. All three were indicted and Gravano “flipped” and agreed to testify against Gotti.

 

I reached out to Judge Gleeson (seen in the bottom photo) and asked him why he wrote this book after all these years?

 

“I wrote much of the book, including most of the events surrounding the Interlude and Second Trial parts, within 3 or 4 years of the verdict in the second case. But then life got in the way: two kids had come along, and I had to learn the job of being a judge, and I was teaching substantive courses at NYU’s law school for both semesters for more than 20 years,” Judge Gleeson replied “I also decided I needed to write the book not solely from memory but like a historian would, so I got the US Attorney’s office files and the trial transcripts from both cases. Rooting it all in those records, and writing about the first trial, was a painstaking process. Then in 2016 I started yet another new phase—private practice.  So it wasn’t a matter of waiting all this time to write a book.  I knew when they were happening these events should be memorialized.  It just took me a long time to get the book over the finish line.”

 

You can read the rest of the column via the below link or below:

BOOK REVIEW: 'The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America's Most Notorious Mobster' - Washington Times

Gambino Crime Family Associate Gennaro Bruno Pleads Guilty To 2002 Murder Of Martin Bosshart

The U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, released the below information:

Earlier today, Gennaro “Jerry” Bruno, an associate of the Gambino organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra (the “Gambino crime family”) pleaded guilty at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, NY, to racketeering and admitted to murdering Martin Bosshart on January 2, 2002 and conspiring to prevent testimony in a grand jury investigation into the Bosshart murder.  Today’s plea took place before United States District Judge William F. Kuntz, II, who accepted Bruno’s plea.  Pursuant to Bruno’s plea agreement with the government, Bruno will be sentenced to 21 years in prison.  Sentencing is scheduled for May 6, 2016.

The plea was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Diego Rodriguez, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI).  For their outstanding investigative work and assistance in this case, Mr. Capers extended his grateful appreciation to the FBI, the New York City Police Department, the Queens County District Attorney, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

According to court filings and facts presented during the plea proceeding, Bruno became an associate in the Corozzo Faction of the Gambino crime family by approximately 2000, after proving himself over a number of years as a member of a violent gang called the “Young Guns.”  Over the next 14 years, Bruno engaged in numerous crimes with and on behalf of a faction of the Gambino crime family aligned with Joseph “JoJo” Corozzo, a powerful Gambino member who had risen to become the consigliere of the family.  Bruno and other Gambino crime family members and associates moved large quantities of high-potency marijuana from Canada into the New York City area.  In 2001, Bruno’s criminal associate Martin Bosshart began making efforts to exclude one of Bruno’s coconspirators from the marijuana importation operation.  In an effort to prevent Bosshart from doing so, Bruno plotted with other Gambino crime family members and associates to murder Bosshart.  On the night of January 2, 2002, Bruno lured Bosshart to an isolated location in Queens, NY.  There, Bruno shot Bosshart in the back of the head at point-blank range, killing him immediately.  The body of Martin Bosshart, who was 30 years old at the time, was recovered at the scene.

Thereafter, Bruno evaded justice for years and conspired with other Gambino associates to obstruct an official grand jury investigation into the Bosshart murder, all the while continuing to participate in the core money-making activities of the Gambino crime family, including drug trafficking and extortion.  As part of the alleged pattern of racketeering, Bruno, among other things, used his position in the Gambino crime family to extract extortionate payments from the owner of a waste carting company in Queens, NY.  Bruno was arrested in Las Vegas on October 28, 2014, and removed to the Eastern District of New York to face the charges against him.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys M. Kristin Mace, Nadia Shihata, and Mathew Miller.

The Defendant:

GENNARO BRUNO, a/k/a “Jerry”
Age: 43
Las Vegas, Nevada

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 14-CR-556 (WFK)

Mahattan U.S. Attorney And FBI Assistant Director Announce Charges Against Gambino Organized Crime Family Associate For Alleged Participation In 1990 Murder of Suspected Informant

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information on April 5th:

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and George Venizelos, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging Daniel Fama, an alleged associate of the Gambino organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra (the “Gambino organized crime family”), with the 1990 murder of a suspected informant, Eddie Garofalo. Fama was taken into custody yesterday and was presented and arraigned in Manhattan federal court this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox. U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr. has been assigned to this case.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, “More than two decades since Daniel Fama allegedly killed a suspected government informant, he has finally been arrested. Any attack against someone working with, or suspected of working with, law enforcement will be strongly answered, and no matter how long it takes, we will bring alleged criminals to justice.”

FBI Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos said, “The charges announced today allege once again that mob families are willing to commit murder to enforce the oath of Omerta. A person suspected of cooperation was gunned down at his doorstep to silence him. The charges also demonstrate the resolve of agents and prosecutors to fulfill their oath to enforce the law and see justice done.”

According to the allegations in the Indictment unsealed today in Manhattan federal court and other court documents:

The Gambino organized crime family is a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in numerous acts of violence, including murder. The head of the family is known as the “Boss,” and he is typically assisted by an “Underboss.” At all times relevant to the charges in the Indictment, John Gotti, Sr. was the Boss and Salvatore Gravano, a/k/a “Sammy the Bull,” was the Underboss of the Gambino organized crime family.

The Gambino organized crime family operates through groups of individuals known as “crews” and “regimes.” Each crew consists of “made” members, sometimes known as “soldiers,” “wiseguys,” “friends of ours,” and “good fellows.” Soldiers are aided in their criminal endeavors by other trusted individuals, known as “associates,” who sometimes are referred to as “connected” or identified as “with” a soldier. Associates participate in the various activities of the crew and its members.

In 1990, Gravano ordered sssociate Fama and others to murder Eddie Garofalo for, among other things, purportedly cooperating with a law enforcement investigation into the Gambino organized crime family. On August 8, 1990, Fama and others shot and killed the Garofalo in front of his Brooklyn, New York home.

* * *

Fama, 48, of Staten Island, New York, is charged with killing a person with the intent to prevent that person from communicating to a law enforcement officer information related to the commission of a federal offense. The charge carries a mandatory term of life in prison.

Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the FBI.

The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Harris Fischman and Jason Masimore are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.