Bunch of Genovese mobsters cop plea deals for racketeering and extortion
James Bernardone in March, 2013
A parade of Genovese wiseguys and associates — including an elderly captain and a burly union leader — pleaded guilty to a range of classic mob crimes Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court.
Genovese captain Conrad Ianniello, soldiers Salvester Zarzana and James Bernardone and two others copped to a slew of mafia misdeeds in front of Judge Nicholas Garaufis.
The crime quintet was among 11 Genovese hoods who were swept up in an April 2012 bust and charged with everything from shaking down vendors at the annual San Gennaro festival in Little Italy to extorting contractors on major construction projects to union wrangling.
In addition to his San Gennaro activities, the elderly Ianniello was also charged with running illegal gambling enterprises and union fixing. He copped to gambling and extortion raps.
Bernardone serves as the Secretary Treasurer of Local 124 of the International Union of Journeymen and Allied Trades and Zarzana formerly headed the Local 926 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.
“I along with others, conspired to steal property through the threat of economic harm,” Bernardone said meekly in a scripted statement to the court.
Bernardone was smacked with racketeering raps related to his shakedowns of contractors performing work throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens from 2006 to 2009 including the construction of a Hampton Inn on Ditmars Boulevard.
The Bronx resident is out on $750,000 bond but nearly had it revoked in June after he attended a mobster-laden wake that was attended by more than two-dozen known hoods who were paying respects to a neighborhood fixture in March.
A pair of other Genovese associates, Paul Gasparrini and Ryan Ellis, also copped pleas Wednesday.
The gangsters will all remain out on bail until their March 14 sentencing.
http://nypost.com/2013/11/27/mobsters-plead-guilty-to-racketeering-extortion/
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