State trooper turned mob enforcer cuts sweetheart deal to avoid jail
A retired state trooper busted for allegedly working as a mob enforcer while on the job has cut a sweetheart deal with prosecutors that will keep him out of jail — and wipe his record clean, The Post has learned.
Mario Velez, 46, agreed to the deal that requires him to do nothing more than stay out of trouble for three months. Velez of Peekskill was set to go to trial June 16 with three reputed mobbed-up associates also accused of making threats of force and fear to extort a trash hauler into turning over his business to them in 2011.
But under last-minute “deferred prosecution agreements” offered with the feds, they’ll avoid jail and future prosecution simply by remaining “law-abiding” citizens, agreeing to restricted local travel and following other terms over the three-month period.
“We feel this was the right and just thing for the government to do, based on his background,” Velez’s lawyer, John Meringolo, told The Post. “He’s a good citizen, a good trooper and a good father.”
Velez was mum about the deal — and his arrest.
“I took a beating, and I just want to get back on my feet,” he said.
Also arrested in 2013 were Pasquale P. Cartalemi Jr., 51, and his son, Pasquale L. Cartalemi 28, both of Cortlandt, at their company AAA Carting in Peekskill.
The trio had faced up to 40 years behind bars on extortion charges.
Another associate who caught a break, Andrew McGuire, 30, of Hawthorne, had faced up to 20 years on an extortion conspiracy charge.
The US Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
The suspects allegedly shook down and took control of Capital Waste Services in Hawthorne. McGuire is currently listed as the CEO of the carting business, according to state records. They all claim they’re innocent.
Sources said Velez retired under fire as a state trooper in 2012 after the FBI notified his bosses that he was a target of a probe that found rival Mafia families had banded together to circumvent official efforts to clean up the trash business. The state police had been looking separately into Velez’s actions at the same time that the feds were investigating,
An indictment said the suspects used strong-arm tactics to shake down the owners of legitimate companies and secretly assume ownership of their operations.
In January 2013, 32 people were indicted as a result of the probe, including Velez and his crew and alleged ringleader Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco, 78. Franco was sentenced to a year in jail last month after copping a plea to a separate shakedown scheme.
http://nypost.com/2014/06/23/ex-cop-cuts-deal-with-feds-after-alleged-mafia-involvement/
Mario Velez, 46, agreed to the deal that requires him to do nothing more than stay out of trouble for three months. Velez of Peekskill was set to go to trial June 16 with three reputed mobbed-up associates also accused of making threats of force and fear to extort a trash hauler into turning over his business to them in 2011.
But under last-minute “deferred prosecution agreements” offered with the feds, they’ll avoid jail and future prosecution simply by remaining “law-abiding” citizens, agreeing to restricted local travel and following other terms over the three-month period.
“We feel this was the right and just thing for the government to do, based on his background,” Velez’s lawyer, John Meringolo, told The Post. “He’s a good citizen, a good trooper and a good father.”
Velez was mum about the deal — and his arrest.
“I took a beating, and I just want to get back on my feet,” he said.
Also arrested in 2013 were Pasquale P. Cartalemi Jr., 51, and his son, Pasquale L. Cartalemi 28, both of Cortlandt, at their company AAA Carting in Peekskill.
The trio had faced up to 40 years behind bars on extortion charges.
Another associate who caught a break, Andrew McGuire, 30, of Hawthorne, had faced up to 20 years on an extortion conspiracy charge.
The US Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
The suspects allegedly shook down and took control of Capital Waste Services in Hawthorne. McGuire is currently listed as the CEO of the carting business, according to state records. They all claim they’re innocent.
Sources said Velez retired under fire as a state trooper in 2012 after the FBI notified his bosses that he was a target of a probe that found rival Mafia families had banded together to circumvent official efforts to clean up the trash business. The state police had been looking separately into Velez’s actions at the same time that the feds were investigating,
An indictment said the suspects used strong-arm tactics to shake down the owners of legitimate companies and secretly assume ownership of their operations.
In January 2013, 32 people were indicted as a result of the probe, including Velez and his crew and alleged ringleader Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco, 78. Franco was sentenced to a year in jail last month after copping a plea to a separate shakedown scheme.
http://nypost.com/2014/06/23/ex-cop-cuts-deal-with-feds-after-alleged-mafia-involvement/
I wrote about the carting industry using Police officers as enforces ,and used Mario Valdez and the Bronxville PD Chief as examples, My inlaws and the super of a palmer Ave Yonkers coop let them both into the laundry room ,while I was there ,He still has GUNS
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