Gangland news 23rd march

[Hailbritain]

March 23, 2017 This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

Bonanno Capo Flips; Still Gets Maximum Sentence, Eight Years, For Assault

Gang Land Exclusive!Peter LovaglioAfter months of whispers on both sides of the law, it's now official: Two-fisted Bonanno capo Peter (Pug) Lovaglio, a hard-drinking wiseguy with a violent streak that got him in trouble with his mob bosses, has been a secret snitch for a mob busting NYPD detective and for federal prosecutors in Manhattan for several years, Gang Land has learned.

Exactly when he flipped isn't known, but law enforcement sources say Lovaglio was cooperating with the feds in 2015 when he blinded a former NYPD detective in one eye during a vicious barroom assault in a Staten Island sushi bar. Last week, Lovaglio was sentenced to eight years in prison by an angry judge who refused to let the mobster take back his guilty plea.

When Lovaglio pleaded guilty a couple of months ago, Gang Land wrote there were "growing concerns" by Pug's buddies that he had flipped. For good reason. As Gang Land exclusively reported, Lovaglio had told a police officer he was "in the Mafia" when he was charged with driving without a license and weapons possession last year.

Last week, the worst fears of Lovaglio's old pals were confirmed by the gangster himself. During his sentencing by Staten Island Supreme Court Justice William Garnett, he disclosed that he had cooperated with Detective Josh Vanderpool of the Organized Crime Investigation Division (OCID). But Pug had his attorney lay the groundwork.

Patrick ParrottaLawyer Patrick Parrotta told Garnett that he recently learned that Lovaglio had cooperated with Vanderpool and several federal agencies, including the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office and Homeland Security. He asserted that Vanderpool had violated his client's right to an independent counsel by giving him legal advice a year ago: telling him to reject a five year plea deal. As a result, the lawyer argued, the agreement he later worked out with prosecutors that called for up to eight years should be voided.

Once Garnett turned down Lovaglio's request to take back his guilty plea, Parrotta asked the judge to impose the five year prison term he had been originally been offered by the Staten Island District Attorney's Office.

The lawyer argued that five years was a substantial prison term and noted that the Department of Justice had submitted two sealed letters stating that because of Lovaglio's cooperation "guns had been taken off the street" and "he has made the community of Staten Island safer."

But Judge Garnett agreed with the recommendation of assistant district attorneys Natalie Barros and Adam Silberlight, and imposed the eight year sentence they requested, saying it was an "eminently fair" one, given the seriousness of the crime.

"Judge Willaim GarnettIn my judgment," said Garnett, "no additional mitigation is justified for the commission of this violent crime. This was not a property crime, this was not a fraud, this was a vicious physical attack."

The prosecutors told the judge the five-year deal was a take-it-or-leave-it one time offer before Lovaglio was indicted, and before prosecutors knew the victim would be available to testify. They also told Garnett they had spoken to Vanderpool and he denied giving Lovaglio any legal advice, or telling Lovaglio to reject the plea offer.

"Of course detective Vanderpool is going to deny everything we're implying," said Lovaglio. "But there is tape recordings, me and him discussing this. There is not only that, there is police notes from me asking him for help, when I confessed to him three or four days after the incident."

Lovaglio's cooperation was first reported by Staten Island Advance newsman Frank Donnelly on the paper's website last Thursday, a few hours after the 55-year-old wiseguy was sentenced. By then, sources say, the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office had already obtained a court order and had Lovaglio transferred from state prison to federal custody.

Attorney Parrotta told the court that he did not know about Lovaglio's cooperation until "the eve of trial," in mid-January when his client pleaded guilty.

Judge Dora IrizarryHe told Gang Land that about two weeks ago, Lovaglio — whom he no longer represents, the lawyer stressed — told him that Detective Vanderpool had said Lovaglio would be better off staying out of jail and continue to cooperate, and "he wanted to take his plea back."

Pressed for details about his former client's cooperation, Parrotta said he had none. "I was informed," he said slowly, weighing his words carefully, "that Peter Lovaglio was warned by his handlers not to tell his attorney — me — or the Staten Island District Attorney's Office anything about it. They didn't trust me or the DA's office with this information."

Detective Vanderpool was involved in a Violation of Supervised Release (VOSR) charge against Lovaglio four years ago for attending a 2012 Bonanno family Christmas-time gathering of a gaggle of capos in violation of strict post-prison release restrictions for extortion and other charges.

While awaiting sentencing for the VOSR, Lovaglio violated his bail conditions. He got drunk at Curves, a topless joint, and crashed into a parked car on his way home and was arrested for drunken driving. Brooklyn Federal Judge Dora Irizarry sent him back to prison for two more years, which ended in March of 2015.

Vanderpool did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Neither did the assistant U.S. attorney whom sources told Gang Land is overseeing Lovaglio's cooperation, Margaret Garnett, who is no relation to the Staten Island jurist. Sources say Pug has a "shadow" counsel who represents his interests with the feds, but he could not be reached.

Michael McMahonLaw enforcement sources told Gang Land that before Lovaglio's sentencing, Garnett and other members of the U.S. Attorney's office met with DA Michael McMahon, and told him that the mobster had been working with the feds, and asked prosecutors to go along with the office's original five year offer, but McMahon refused.

"This was a vicious, senseless assault, and Lovaglio deserves to spend every day of that eight year sentence behind bars," said a source in the DA's office who has seen a videotape of Pug's unprovoked assault with a water glass against Bonafede (Fred) Forte, the owner of the Takayama Sushi Lounge back on November 1, of 2015.

In court, assistant district attorney Barros said that Lovaglio called the owner over and "smashed him in the face" with a glass in a "completely unprovoked, vicious" attack. The prosecutor said the attack came after Forte had broken up a fight between a Lovaglio pal and another patron and had given Lovaglio a drink on the house.

As a result of the assault, Forte lost the sight in his left eye, and has no feeling on that side of his face. Forte said the injury was also forced him to sell his restaurant. He asked Judge Garnett to impose the maximum sentence on Pug Lovaglio.

"Before this injury," said Forte, "I was an individual who was healthy and enjoyed life. This has been difficult not only for myself, but for my family. Please do not allow this man to walk the street to have the opportunity or the potential to do this to anyone else."

He won't, at least for the next eight or so years.

Court Documents Say Mob Turncoat Stole $500,000 From Bookies He Taped For Feds

John RubeoWhile Genovese family associate John (J.R.) Rubeo was tape-recording scores of wiseguys committing crimes for federal prosecutors in Manhattan, state prosecutors in Rockland County obtained evidence that he stole $500,000 from an offshore mob gambling operation that is part of the racketeering indictment of 46 mob-connected defendants, Gang Land has learned.

As Gang Land reported last week, the FBI began an internal investigation last month to determine whether three veteran FBI agents failed to properly supervise Rubeo during the five years he wore a wire and worked as an undercover operative against gangsters with links to five mob families.

It's not known whether Rubeo, who began taping conversations for the feds in 2011, turned any part of the $500,000 into the FBI. But several defense lawyers in the case, who spoke only when granted anonymity, said they have not received any "discovery info" from prosecutors about the missing money. The FBI and U.S. Attorney's office declined to comment about the matter.

Richard LaCavaThe Rockland County District Attorney's office got the information in 2013 from wiretaps it later used to charge three senior citizen bookmakers with illegal gambling charges. Those charges were resolved with no-jail plea deals early last year, before the trio of geezer bookies were hit with racketeering conspiracy charges in the blockbuster Mafia takedown in August.

In a September 17, 2013 telephone conversation, bookmaker Richard Lacava told a colleague that Rubeo had apparently collected "a large sum of money that never reached its ultimate destination," according to an affidavit obtained by Gang Land.

The affidavit goes on to say that "Rubeo was responsible for collecting large sums of money for the offshore gambling enterprise, and that he had taken $500,000 from the operation." The cash belonged to the two other geezer bookies, John (Tugboat) Tognino, 74, and Pasquale (Patsy) Capolongo, 68, according to the affidavit. But the theft, Rubeo insisted, was committed by others.

John TogninoLacava, 68, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and forfeited $42,000; Tognino pleaded guilty to misdemeanor gambling charges, received three years probation, and forfeited $69,000; Capolongo also got three years probation for his guilty plea to felony charges. That's all according to a spokesman for the Rockland DA's office.

The DA's office declined to discuss whether Rubeo was also working undercover for the state prosecutors or when they learned that he was a cooperating witness for the feds.

Defense lawyers have mixed views on whether Rubeo was also working as an informer for the DA's office. But all those who spoke to Gang Land believe that, by last year, the DA's office knew that Rubeo was a cooperating witness for the feds and agreed to give sweet no-jail plea deals to the three geezer bookies so they would not have to disclose any "helpful discovery info" about their investigation to the defense.

Pasquale Capolongo"It's disgusting and deceitful what they did here," said one defense attorney. "They all were induced to take no jail deals in the state cases; then the feds indicted them on RICO charges and plan to use those pleas as predicate acts in the racketeering case."

Meanwhile, Manhattan Federal Court Judge Richard Sullivan is weighing two issues related to the FBI's internal investigation into whether three agents, including a squad supervisor, failed to properly supervise Rubeo, who deleted a year's worth of texts and phone messages between him and defendants from his cell phone last August.

Sullivan is considering what, if anything, to do about the disclosure of sealed material about the FBI internal probe that was disclosed by the New York Post on March 12. He also told prosecutors to respond to a request Gang Land made last week to unseal the letter, under provisions of the common law and First Amendment that stress openness in federal criminal proceedings.

Bonanno Capo Vinny Asaro And John Gotti Grandson Nabbed In Road-Rage Arson

Vincent AsaroTwo years ago, 82-year-old Bonanno capo Vincent Asaro beat the rap on one of the cleverest mob crimes ever pulled — the $6 million dollar Lufthansa Airlines heist. Yesterday, the feds charged him with what has to rank among the dumbest: torching the car of a motorist who had dared to cut him off at a traffic light in Howard Beach.

Making the crime even higher on the roster of dumbo mob shenanigans, Asaro's partner in crime was a 23-year-old wannabe who happens to be the namesake grandson of the late Dapper Don and former Gambino family boss John Gotti.

Asaro, John J. Gotti and a third defendant, Matthew (Fat Matt) Rullan, 26, are charged with arson and arson conspiracy for setting fire to the car of a Broad Channel motorist who had the audacity back in 2012 to "switch lanes in front of Asaro"as he pulled up to the traffic light.

It is young Gotti's first encounter with federal prosecutors, but it'll be a rematch of sorts for Asaro and the defense attorney who engineered his stunning acquittal, Elizabeth Macedonio. They'll be facing off against essentially the same prosecution team they beat in 2015.

John J. GottiThe first round, yesterday's arraignment has to be scored a W for the government. Asaro, who spent some 22 months behind bars before he walked out of court a free man, agreed to be held without bail while Macedonio tries to come up with a bail package that will pass muster with Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Alynne Ross, the same judge who detained him the last time.

In court papers, prosecutors Nicole Argentieri, Lindsay Gerdes and Keith Edelman have cited the octogenarian wiseguy's long criminal history, as well as the specifics of the arson charges to argue that Asaro is a danger to the community and should be detained while he awaits trial.

The arson conspiracy began on April 1, 2012 when Asaro became "enraged at another motorist" who pulled in front of him. The geezer mobster allegedly chased the other driver "at a high rate of speed" before giving up the chase. But Asaro later obtained the address of the offending driver from a mob associate, according to the prosecutors.

Two days later, the prosecutors wrote, Asaro drove a Bonanno associate, who is cooperating with the government, to Broad Channel and pointed out the car he wanted torched. The associate recruited Gotti and Rullan to do the work, and the following day, with Gotti at the wheel of his own Jaguar, the three of them drove to Broad Channel, with a container of gasoline .

Matthew RullanThe feds say the associate doused the car with gasoline, and Rullan set it ablaze. But the trio was interrupted by a passing police officer, who saw the crime take place. Prosecutors wrote that's when young Gotti saved the day, up until yesterday.

"Gotti led the officer on a high-speed chase through Broad Channel and Howard Beach until the officer abandoned the chase because the defendants were driving so recklessly," the prosecutors wrote.

If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison and a mandatory minimum of five years behind bars.

Gotti is currently serving an eight year state prison stretch for drug dealing.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Anyone know much about: Richard Lacava, John (Tugboat) Tognino, 74, and Pasquale (Patsy) Capolongo, 68?

Made? Which family (assume Westside)? Crew? etc etc.

How the fuck is it a "Gang Land Exclusive!" When..... "Lovaglio's cooperation was first reported by Staten Island Advance newsman Frank Donnelly on the paper's website last Thursday"?

Thanks for the post HB.

[willychichi]

The Feds played dirty with the oldtimers.

Thanks for posting

[Cheech]

not made. west side associates

[SonnyBlackstein]

not made. west side associates

Cheers mate