ith arrests in three states early yesterday, federal
authorities and the police announced a racketeering indictment
that they said would devastate the DeCavalcante crime family and
break its grip on businesses and labor unions in New York and
New Jersey.
The New Jersey-based DeCavalcante mob, while smaller than the
five New York crime families, helped introduce some of the mob's
earliest stock schemes. And despite its reputation as a
second-class crime family, some members seem to have high
opinions of themselves. Last year, several were overheard on
F.B.I. wiretaps in a related case speculating that they were the
models for the mobsters depicted on the television series "The
Sopranos."
Federal authorities yesterday called the DeCavalcante family
one of the mob's most ruthless and paranoid crime groups, citing
"extreme and hair-trigger violence."
The indictment listed murder, loan sharking, securities fraud
and labor racketeering, charging a dozen men as crime figures,
including the family's reputed boss, Giovanni Riggi. Mr. Riggi,
whose 22-year reign makes him recent history's longest serving
mob chieftain, already is in prison.
Two men whom prosecutors identified as acting bosses on a
three-man ruling panel — men who they said helped Mr. Riggi, 75,
run the family's operations from his prison cell — were among
those charged, as were the family's consigliere — or counselor —
along with two captains and three soldiers.
The family's founder, Sam DeCavalcante, known as Sam the
Plumber, long active in a wide range of legitimate businesses
including the record industry, was an early and active leader in
sophisticated labor racketeering schemes, the authorities say.
In recent years the family forged closer ties with New York
City's mob clans, particularly the Gambino family, which led
some to see the DeCavalcante family as something of a subsidiary
of the Gambinos.
But there is no question among law enforcement officials that
the family has been a leader in the mob's incursion onto Wall
Street. One of the reputed captains charged in the indictment
unsealed yesterday — which focuses on both the family's New
Jersey and New York operations — was Philip Abramo, 55, who runs
a New York crew and was called "one of the mob's best scholars
in securities fraud" by a Federal Bureau of Investigation
official.
Mary Jo White, the United States attorney for the Southern
District of New York, said that the indictment, along with a
case last year that charged a third acting boss and two
captains, left the entire leadership of the family facing
lengthy prison terms if convicted.
"The expectation is that this prosecution will effectively
dismantle the DeCavalcante crime family and essentially
eliminate its criminal grip on business and labor unions in both
New Jersey and New York," she said at a news conference where
she was joined by Barry W. Mawn, who heads the F.B.I.'s New York
office, and the first deputy police commissioner, Joseph P.
Dunne.
Mr. Dunne added, "This investigation effectively wipes out
the C.E.O. and board of directors of the DeCavalcante crime
family."
Mr. Mawn said that the F.B.I. agents and police detectives
who worked on the investigation had been able to penetrate "to
the highest levels of the DeCavalcante family," noting that the
case had been helped by the aide of several cooperating
witnesses.
He suggested that some of the information developed would
lead to charges against members of other mob families who did
business with the DeCavalcantes.
"The fallout will not be limited to this one family," he
said.
Among the five murders in the indictment was the 1989 killing
of Frederick Weiss, a recycling executive and former city editor
of the Staten Island Advance. Prosecutors said the killing had
been committed at the request of John Gotti, the Gambino family
boss, who feared that Mr. Weiss was cooperating with the F.B.I.
in a case focusing on a Gambino-tied waste company. Mr. Riggi,
Mr. Abramo and Frank Scarabino, 44, of Staten Island, an
associate in the family who prosecutors said goes by the name
Franky the Beast, were charged in the slaying.
Mr. Riggi, Mr. Abramo and two other men, the reputed
consigliere, Stephano Vitabile, 64, and Louis Consalvo, 43, a
reputed soldier, also were charged in the 1991 slaying of Mr.
Riggi's daughter-in-law's father. Mr. Vitabile, who was born in
Sicily in the town of Ribera, to which many in the DeCavalcante
family trace their roots, was charged in the 1992 killing of
John D'Amato, a man whom Mr. Gotti had sought to install as the
DeCavalcante boss after Mr. Riggi was sentenced to prison in
1990.
The indictment also charged Mr. Abramo with conspiracy to
commit securities fraud, saying he and Mr. Consalvo sold 8,000
shares of stock in a company called SC&T International.
"The DeCavalcante family plotted — and committed — killings
on the streets of New York," Mr. Mawn said, "while at the same
time attempting to make a killing on Wall Street."
Late yesterday, seven of the defendants were arraigned in
United States District Court in Manhattan before Magistrate
Judge Frank S. Maas, who held six of the men pending bail
hearings next week, according to John M. Hillebrecht, an
assistant United States attorney in the case. In addition to Mr.
Consalvo, Mr. Vitabile and Mr. Scarabino, those defendants were
Girolamo Palermo, 62, a reputed acting boss; Frank D'Amato, 54,
identified as an associate; and Gregory Rago, 41, a reputed
soldier.
The seventh, Charles Majuri, 59, also a reputed acting boss,
was held in $1 million bail and under house arrest with an
electronic monitoring bracelet after Mr. Hillebrecht argued that
he posed a risk to the cooperating witnesses and their
families.
The eighth defendant, Bernard NiCastro, 66, a reputed
associate, was arrested in Florida and was held there pending a
hearing next week. Mr. Riggi is serving a federal prison term
and is scheduled to be released in 2002; Mr. Abramo is being
held without bail in connection with a 1999 federal securities
fraud indictment in Florida. Another defendant, Francesco
Polizzi, 65, a reputed captain, was too ill to be arraigned, and
Anthony Mannarino, 55, a reputed soldier known as Anthony
Marshmallow, is still at large.
Mr. Hillebrecht also said at the hearing that one of the
eight murder conspiracies charged in the indictment had been
planned in an effort to kill a reputed mobster. Crime family
members had concluded, based on information that they had
obtained from a leak in law enforcement, that the intended
victim was cooperating with the authorities. Mr. Hillebrecht
provided no further details.
The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of approximately $20
million, which it says represents the proceeds of the
racketeering crimes, including the homes of the defendants as
substitute assets.
