Gangland - 8/4/16

[Chucky]

This Week in Gang Land

By Jerry Capeci

Sentencing Diversity Still A Reality In Mob Cases

Longtime Colombo family associate Francis (BF) Guerra is currently serving a heavyweight sentence of 11 years and three months for his 2012 conviction for selling his prescription pain meds. Guerra still has about five years to serve on his prison term; he's not slated to get out until June of 2021.

But last month, the mob associate who dreamed up the pain-meds scheme, and who gave Guerra his doctor contact for Oxycodone pain pills, copped a much sweeter plea deal, one that calls for 6-to-12 months behind bars for the same crime. The deal also covers extortion, auto insurance fraud, and illegal gambling charges at a social club in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn.

Meet Ambrogio (Ambrose) Fabbro, the lucky gangster who is not a cooperating witness, as the sentencing plea deal numbers might lead you to suspect. And he's not even an FBI snitch. No, Ambrose Fabbro, 35, is a stand-up guy whom prosecutors say is "committed to a life of crime" and "loyal" to Guerra and the Colombo crime family.

So why the huge disparity in their respective prison terms?

For starters, unlike Guerra, Fabbro is not a longtime pal of Alphonse and Michael Persico, the sons of the long-imprisoned boss of the Colombo crime family Carmine (Junior) Persico. And unlike BF, Ambrose is not suspected, and was never charged, with two mob murders.

Guerra beat that rap at trial, much to the chagrin of Brooklyn federal prosecutors, who later successfully won sentencing enhancements for his otherwise fairly pedestrian-level drug offenses.

But Fabbro has his own mob history. From mid-2010 until early 2011, he and Guerra, 50, were members of capo Anthony (Big Anthony) Russo's crew. And all three shared in cash from the sale of the Oxycodone pills that Guerra obtained, and which Fabbro distributed to his customers, according to testimony at Guerra's 2012 racketeering and murder trial.

Russo cooperated following his January, 2011 arrest. He testified that Fabbro, who has had chronic back pain following a 2001 motorcycle accident, knew that Guerra had severely injured himself in a similar crash in the 1980s, and could get the same very marketable painkillers that he was being prescribed by his doctor without any trouble.

"He knew Frankie had problems in life after he got in the accident," said Big Anthony. "If he would go to the doctor, the doctor would check him, and he could get a prescription for OxyContin. Once he got the prescription," said Russo, "Ambrose would pay him, like $1700 to $2,000 for the prescription."

Each month, Fabbro also gave him $300, Russo testified, "because Ambrose was with me and that was a tribute."

Based on Russo's testimony, and doctors' and druggists' records, Guerra "and Fabbro were involved in a scheme to distribute prescription pills" for about 18 months, according to a 2013 sentencing memo by prosecutors. Brooklyn Federal Judge Sandra Townes originally gave Guerra 14 years, but later cut it to 135 months.

There are no details in court papers in either case regarding how much money Ambrose made selling Oxycodone in 2010 and 2011. But in his plea agreement Fabbro did "acknowledge that he has acquired money and property" illegally over the years and agreed to forfeit $75,000 as a condition of his plea deal.

The plea agreement also covers Fabbro's involvement in an insurance fraud scheme that took place between May and July of 2010 and was a favor to Big Anthony Russo, according to court papers. It began when Russo asked Ambrose for help in getting out of a $599-a-month lease for a 2009 Nissan Maxima. Ambrose, a licensed tow truck driver whose father owns an auto body shop, allegedly told Russo, who had insured the car, to park it on a Bensonhurst, Brooklyn street, and leave the rest to him.

The next morning, according to a prosecution filing, Russo returned to where he had parked the vehicle. There, "he observed that the vehicle had been totaled and had been pushed onto the sidewalk" and "also found a parking ticket on the vehicle for having it parked on the sidewalk."

The scheme cost the Nissan dealership its $37,000 car, and scammed Geico out of $24,000 in insurance money. Russo, however, was freed up from his $599-a-month car lease.

That otherwise minor league crime was part of a 15-count indictment that charged Fabbro with being part of Colombo family racketeering conspiracy that also included capo Luca DiMatteo, 71, and his nephew Luca (Lukey) DiMatteo, 47, from 2009 until last year.

Lukey copped his own plea deal Tuesday, agreeing to take a recommended prison term between 63-to-78 months on sentencing day. Uncle Luca, as Gang Land reported last week, has also pleaded guilty. His sentencing guidelines call for 57-to-71 months, but Luca, who has cancer and has been detained for 13 months, is expected to push for a "time-served" sentence.

Fabbro's attorney, James Froccaro, worked out a deal with prosecutors Mathew Miller and Allon Lifshitz which permitted his client to plead guilty to running a Joker Poker scheme to satisfy all the charges against him in the indictment. Fabbro also agreed to make a $5,000 payment toward his forfeiture bill before he is sentenced, and not appeal a prison term of 18 months or less.

While the agreement spells out the appropriate sentencing guidelines, it does not preclude Fabbro from seeking a lesser term. And Gang Land has no doubt that Froccaro will argue for a non-prison term for Fabbro, whose conviction is his first, and who has not been implicated in any violent activity — except for the destruction of Russo's rented Nissan Maxima five years ago.

His sentencing is scheduled for the last week in October, which is a good thing for Fabbro.

The Colombo associate is slated to be married next month. So, even if he does end up with a prison term, he'll have plenty of time to enjoy a nice honeymoon with his bride before he is sentenced by Brooklyn Federal Judge I. Leo Glasser.

Meanwhile, BF Guerra's codefendant in his racketeering and murder case, Michael Persico will be in court next week for a special sentencing hearing regarding the appropriate prison term that Persico should receive for a controversial plea deal that he copped back in 2012 on the eve of his murder and racketeering trial.

Chief Judge Dora Irizarry will hear testimony from Big Anthony Russo and an FBI agent to help her decide whether or not to give Persico a prison term within the 37-to-48 months that is recommended by the sentencing guidelines in his plea agreement. Persico, who pleaded guilty to loansharking charges, faces a maximum of five years.


Bridge Over Troubled Waters Brings Brooklyn Bank Burglars To Manhattan Federal Court

The alleged bank robbers live in Brooklyn. They allegedly stole $5 million from banks in Brooklyn and Queens. In pulling off their spectacular heists, they never set foot in Manhattan or the Bronx. So how, several legally savvy Gang Land readers have asked, were the trio charged with the crimes in Manhattan Federal Court?

The answer? It's the water under the bridge.

Neither Brooklyn nor Staten Island are within the jurisdiction of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office, but the waters between them are Manhattan's jurisdiction. That's why the feds were able to lodge bank burglary charges against mob associates Michael Mazzara, Anthony Mascuzzio and Charles Kerrigan in Manhattan Federal Court.

No, none of the defendants — or any of their unidentified co-conspirators for that matter — took a boat ride to Brooklyn before allegedly burglarizing one of the banks. But one unidentified co-conspirator, identified only as CC-1, did cross the Verrazano Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn on his way to rob the Maspeth Federal Saving Bank in Queens on May 21, according to the arrest complaint.

And then, on May 22, the same co-conspirator drove back over the span on his return to Staten Island with a portion of the $4.6 million in cash and other valuables that the burglary crew got from the bank vault and the safe deposit boxes they emptied during the weekend heist.

The two Verrazano crossings are identified as "overt acts" in the bank burglary conspiracy detailed in the 15-page complaint filed by FBI agent Bradford Price, a veteran G-man with the NYPD-FBI task force. The complaint pegged Mazzara as a likely bank heist artist as far back as November of 2014, when the FBI placed a "pole camera" across the street from his home — in Brooklyn.

This raises another question: Why did the task force opt to take its high-profile case to Manhattan prosecutors — who had to come up with the inventive illegal bridge crossing theory — rather than just hand it to the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn where the crimes actually occurred?

Here, things get murkier than the waters in New York Harbor.

Spokespersons for the U.S. Attorneys in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) and the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn) ducked the question.

But Gang Land legal sources say an informer cited in the complaint may well have evolved from an SDNY case, and prosecutors — who can be overly protective of their informers, and their cases — may have pushed to keep the case with them.

The decision might also stem from a close working relationship among heads of law enforcement agencies, like the one between Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and New York FBI boss Diego Rodriguez. Or between Bharara and outgoing NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, whom Bharara praised Tuesday as "a great leader of the finest police in the world," as a "personal friend" and as "a great law enforcement partner to my office."

Bharara spokesman Nicholas Biase declined to say why the complaint was filed in Manhattan, but he confirmed that the location of the Verrazano Bridge gave the SDNY its jurisdiction. He cited section 112 of the U.S. code about New York's four federal districts: "The Southern District comprises the counties of Bronx, Dutchess, New York, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, and Westchester, and concurrently with the Eastern District, the waters within the Eastern District."

Meanwhile, the three arrested defendants are all currently in their home district, the Eastern District of New York, but only one of them, Kerrigan, 40, is happy about that.

He was released on $150,000 bail. Mazzara, 44, and Mascuzzio, 36, are at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, as their attorneys work to come up with suitable bond packages to obtain their release on bail.


By Andy Petepiece

Ask Andy: A Gambino Capo DID Plan To Murder A Woman Cousin For Her Money

An old-timer we know says that an old guy he knows insists that years ago he saw a 60 Minutes report that a Gambino capo had plotted to kill a woman relative for money, and the old-timer asks whether that's true. The short answer — to both questions — is yes. Here's the long version.

The wiseguy was Joe Paterno, a New Jersey-based capo for Carlo Gambino who moved to Florida in the 1970s to avoid testifying at a Garden State crime commission hearing.

The plot began in 1985, when Paterno heard from his cousin, Rose Fernandez, that she and her son had discovered nearly $800,000 in a Swiss account, approximately $125,000 in a Miami safety deposit box, and 8-10 gold bars hidden in their garage after her husband died. Since he had worked for a company that handled gold in their manufacturing process, she deduced that her hubby must have secretly, over a long period of time, brought gold home. Fearing both the police and the tax people, Rose turned to her gangster Cousin Joe, who would be much more knowledgeable about how to handle things.

Good old Joe suggested that Rose turn over the loot to him for safe keeping. That seemed like a good idea so Rose and her son complied. They soon began to have second thoughts though, and started bugging Paterno for the return of at least some of the proceeds. Joe and his wife Dotti initially stalled or dribbled out small amounts, but when Rose persisted, they began to plan another strategy.

Rose and her son Stephen were extremely lucky. Not because of the money hoard, but because the good guys in Florida were investigating Paterno and had bugged him and some of his associates. To the surprise of the cops, they overheard plans for murdering two people in New Jersey. That caught their attention.

Fortunately, the bad guys were more like Keystone Cops than mob hitmen. They had three hitmen in New Jersey without a gun. Finally, Paterno rounded up a .22 pistol and a silencer, and sent one of his men by plane to deliver it to New Jersey. To make sure everything was in order, Paterno got on a payphone and called his men who were also using a payphone. Unfortunately for the lot of them, the good guys had the phone tapped. They overheard Paterno give the go ahead for the hit.

Paterno and a cohort were arrested in Miami Beach, while four others were taken into custody in New Jersey. Rose and her son Stephen had dodged a bullet.

A few months later, in April of 1985, Paterno's wife Dotti was also arrested. Cops had found statements in her diary that strongly suggested that she was in the know about the planned hits.

In September 1987, Joe Paterno pled guilty to conspiracy to kill Rose and her son, and agreed to pay a fine of $150,000. Suffering with cancer, Paterno was allowed to go home. He died in March of 1988. Dotti also took a plea. She admitted to grand theft and was ordered to pay costs and $50,000 restitution. The five lesser mutts also pled out.

All told, Rose and her son got about $142,000 of the loot back. But after paying taxes on the money they had given to good old Joe for safekeeping, they ended up with very little — except for their lives.

[bronx]

good story about paterno never heard that one

[Rocco]

yep goo Paterno story. I remember reading about this in the Star Ledger when it all went down. Back when there was crew from all 5 families in the Newark area.

[Pogo The Clown]

Thanks for posting the column Chucky.


Pogo

[HairyKnuckles]

From a Mafia researching perspective, Paterno is definitely an interesting guy. His father may very well have been an early member of the Newark Family we know so little about. He was in the news in the 1970s/1980s but there´s not much out there to be found on him. He fled NJ and settled in Florida already in 1974 to avoid a subpoena from the NJ State Crime Commission. And was ordered to testify before it in 1979 when he was served the subpoena. I can understand his fears, both Jerry Catena and Angelo Bruno had been imprisoned (in the case of Catena five years) when they were given immunity but still didn´t want to testify. Paterno resolved the problem by again fleeing to Florida. Paul Castellano then took away his NJ based crew and gave it to Tony Carminati. But while stationed in Florida, Paterno was later given Florida based guys previously under Zappi (and before him, under Silesi).

Thanks Chucky for posting this week´s Gangland!

[bronx]

thanks HAIRY