Former Colombo Street Boss plotted to kill federal officials who sent him to prison
The Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed in the court documents that federal agents “received a tip from a confidential source reporting that DeLeo is actively planning to kill two current and one former federal official.” The federal officials were all involved in DeLeo’s conviction more than a decade ago, according to court documents.
As Target 12 first reported, DeLeo, 82, was arrested on May 15, but federal officials didn’t publicly release details about his arrest until filing the new court documents on Tuesday night. DeLeo’s criminal history dates back decades and the FBI alleged he served in the 1970s as an associate of the Patriarca crime family, which operated out of Providence.
In 2012, DeLeo was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for racketeering, among other crimes. He got out of prison under supervised release in May 2024, and federal agents alleged he’s recently been planning to kill the people who put him away. (The people were not publicly identified.)
The confidential source told agents DeLeo shared with him that an associate of La Cosa Nostra, or the Mafia, had obtained “tools” on his behalf, which federal officials took to mean firearms. DeLeo was also seeking a silencer, according to court documents.
DeLeo was allegedly asking around for personal information about the people he was targeting, “including the home addresses and names of immediate family members,” according to court documents.
Federal agents conducted search warrants on him and his home earlier this month and found “hard copy packets of personal information for multiple people,” including two of the federal officials. The source told agents he asked DeLeo about the information, and the aging mafioso told him “they were his ‘retribution.'”
FBI agent Molly Driscoll wrote in a sworn affidavit that DeLeo initially claimed he collected the officials’ personal information himself, but agents later determined he was lying.
“Specifically, law enforcement obtained text messages between DeLeo and a third party demonstrating that DeLeo asked the third party for information related to the targeted individuals,” Driscoll wrote. Court documents show he was communicating with convicted felons, including people he was indicted with on sweeping racketeering charges in 2009.
Agents also recovered from his home a burglary kit, marijuana, vials of steroids, “and a handwritten note regarding silicone masks,” according to court documents.
The burglary kit contained “tools including a pry-bar, mini crowbar, bolt cutters, and a lock-picking kit,” according to Driscoll.
Federal officials alleged DeLeo has shown a history of resentment toward the people who convicted him. While in prison, DeLeo told a confidential informant in 2014 he was going to “chop off” the head of one of the federal officials who became the target of his most recent kill plot, according to court documents.
Prosecutors also detailed DeLeo’s extensive criminal history over the past six decades, which they said started when he was convicted of multiple armed robberies and other crimes at 16 years old.
“DeLeo’s entire life has been devoted to crime,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam Deitch and Lauren Maynard wrote in a motion for detention filed Tuesday evening.
“His criminal record is riddled with violence spanning the course of decades,” they added. “And just as aging had no impact on his activity in the past, DeLeo’s current advanced age has no bearing on his willingness or ability to continue engaging in criminal activity.”
DeLeo committed crimes in the 1970s, including armed robbery and attempted kidnapping, earning him a sentence of 25 to 40 years. But he ended up escaping custody and went on the run in Ohio, where he committed armed bank robbery and kidnapped a bank manager, according to court documents.
“While still in Ohio, DeLeo committed his most gruesome offense: kidnapping for hire a prominent physician with the intent to castrate him, but instead shooting and killing the victim when he resisted DeLeo’s attempted abduction,” wrote the prosecutors.
DeLeo was released early on a commuted sentence in 1997, and he eventually rose to prominence in the Colombo crime syndicate, one of the five families of New York, according to FBI agents. He ran his own violent gang in the Boston area known as the “DeLeo Crew,” according to prosecutors.
DeLeo eventually became the reputed street boss of the Colombo family before he was indicted in 2009, according to federal agents. The prosecutors are now asking a federal judge to detain DeLeo for violating the terms of his supervised release. No new criminal case had been filed against DeLeo in federal court as of Tuesday.
“DeLeo has spent his life committing violent crimes,” they wrote. “It appears that he intends to spend his sunset years doing the same. The seriousness of the most recent threats, DeLeo’s long and violent criminal record, and his history of attempting to flee from custody all lead to one conclusion: DeLeo must be detained.”
Defense attorneys for DeLeo have asked that he be released from detention because he’s suffering from multiple health problems, including issues they said will require oral surgery.
The attorneys also argued in court documents that he isn’t receiving the medical attention he needs at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls and should be transferred to a federal prison.
DeLeo’s detention hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.
https://www.wpri.com/target-12/mobster-ralph-deleo-plotted-to-kill-federal-officials-who-put-him-away-court-docs-show/
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