Schenectady father, son eyed in Mafia-linked cocaine investigation
Robert Gavin
February 1, 2022
ALBANY — A penthouse apartment. A job at a family-run construction company. A baby on the way.
At 22, Jeffrey Civitello Jr. appeared to be riding high, but his story took a downward turn on Oct. 21 when federal drug investigators raided his home on the top floor of a Schenectady building on Albany Street and seized 75 pounds of marijuana, loaded weapons and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Now, the Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School graduate is facing federal drug and weapon charges in Albany – and is being investigated in a separate cocaine-trafficking case involving a reputed Bonanno crime family associate from New Jersey, according to court papers filed in U.S. District Court.
Attorneys for Civitello, who is being held in the Albany County jail, are hoping to convince U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Stewart to reconsider an earlier order to detain him without bail. They noted in a motion that Civitello has no criminal history and strong family ties in Schenectady, lessening his risk of flight. He has pleaded not guilty.
In court papers opposing Civitello’s release, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett suggested the defendant's family ties did not entirely help his case. The prosecutor described Civitello and his 50-year-old father, Jeffrey Civitello Sr., who owns a construction company located in the same building where the raid took place, as sophisticated drug dealers with numerous criminal associates.
On Oct. 21, when officers with a federal Drug Enforcement Administration task force raided what they called a penthouse, they found a gun in the first-floor office of Focus Construction, a company owned by the senior Civitello, who as a convicted felon is prohibited from possessing firearms. Civitello Sr. has prior federal convictions for cocaine trafficking and money laundering, the prosecutor stated.
Barnett said investigators also found two boxes for Glock handguns, including one purchased in Kentucky by a known gun trafficker.
And the prosecutor said the younger Civitello and his father are being investigated in connection with the DEA’s seizure on April 2 of 9 kilograms of cocaine found in a hidden compartment of Civitello’s blue 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Civitello was not in the Jeep at the time, but had been spotted by investigators two days earlier meeting with the three men charged in that case, including Richard Sinde, 56, a reputed Bonanno crime family associate from Fort Lee, N.J, the prosecutor said.
On March 31, Sinde, Robert Ingrao, 74, of Lodi, N.J., and a third man, Christopher Kelly, 54, of Brooklyn, met in Schenectady with both Civitello and his father to borrow the Jeep. On April 2, when the vehicle was stopped in Greene County, police found the 9 kilos of cocaine in a trap compartment in the trunk, Barnett told the judge at Civitello’s detention hearing in October.
At the hearing, Barnett said Civitello had been using the Jeep every day and was well aware that it had been seized.
"This would have been a good time for the defendant to say, 'You know what? That was a close call. I'm a smart guy. Maybe I should go to college. Maybe I should try something other than drug dealing.' And that was more than six months ago," Barnett told the judge. "And we know now that the defendant did not choose that path."
In court papers, Barnett told the judge that Civitello had also exchanged messages over Snapchat that appeared to be related to the distribution of opioid pills.
Barnett said investigators seized more than $856,000, including $407,545 found in Civitello's apartment, another $319,387 found in the home of a relative alleged to be a co-conspirator and an additional $128,860 in Coinbase cryptocurrency. The prosecutor said the Coinbase figure was nearly all traced to a transfer of $101,440 from Civitello's father to him.
"This transfer reinforces the government’s argument that the defendant is involved in drug trafficking activities with his father," Barnett said. He said it took place at a time when both the father and son were receiving unemployment insurance benefits when each was "dubiously claiming" that they had lost their jobs at the father's construction company.
Barnett said the younger Civitello's 2020 tax return listed his business as "sales" and placed his total income at $66,273. He alleged that Civitello and his family are falsely claiming to work at the family business.
"Of the several dozen character reference letters submitted by the defendant, not a single one is from a co-worker, and no letter appears to reference his supposed construction job," the prosecutor stated.
Civitello is now on his third and fourth attorneys, Syracuse-based attorneys Robert G. Wells and Derek S. Andrews. They sent the judge 25 letters from Civitello's mother, sister, other family members, a former teacher, assistant principal and ex-tenants all attesting to Civitello's good character. That was in addition to a photo of the defendant with his girlfriend announcing that a baby is on the way.
Photos show Civitello working on construction sites and posing with family members. In one photo, a tattoo is visible on Civitello's arm which states: "La Famiglia e tutto." In Italian, it translates to "The Family is Everything."
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